What is literacy? Does it need to be redefined? We know what it means to be literate—don't we? Understanding and defining literacy have been complicated by the growing number of texts, ranging from CD-ROM encyclopedias to inter-active videos to Web sites. As our information-technology opportunities expand, and as we read more and more information from new and different types of texts, we find it increasingly difficult to define what literacy or being literate means.
Although this expanded notion of text is not inherently bad, it can be problematic when students are expected to know how to interact with and learn from new types of texts without receiving appropriate support. We could say that "literacies are legion" (Lemke, 1998, p. 283), a statement further illustrated by the 38 types of literacy (see fig.1). But rather than dissect and parse every new literacy (with a "literacy of the week" mentality), we might better consider three broad categories: (1) traditional text-based, or alphabetic, literacy, (2) representational literacy, and (3) tool literacy (Tyner, 1998).
Figure 1. Representative Types of Literacy
academic literacy
adult literacy
advanced literacy
autonomous literacy
basic literacy
biliteracy
community literacy
computer literacy
conventional literacy
craft literacy
critical literacy
cultural literacy
cultured literacy
economic literacy
emancipatory literacy
emergent literacy
family literacy
functional literacy
high literacy
ideological literacy
intergenerational literacy
marginal literacy
media literacy
minimal literacy
polyglot literacy
pragmatic literacy
prison literacy
protoliteracy
quantitative literacy
reading literacy
real-world literacy
restricted literacy
scribal literacy
survival literacy
television literacy
vernacular literacy
visual literacy
workplace literacy
Adapted from: Harris, T. L., & Hodges, R. E. (Eds.). (1995). The literacy dictionary: The vocabulary of reading and writing. Newark, DE: International Reading Association.
Text-Based, or Alphabetic, Literacy
The first category contains two well-known literacies—narrative and expository—as well as document literacy. Both narrative and expository literacies are prose formats that we characterize as "learning to read" and "reading to learn," respectively. Document literacy, however, is a relative newcomer. It is the ability to interpret and use information from different kinds of nonprose formats, such as forms, charts, graphs, maps, and other visual displays, in which information is not arranged in sentence or paragraph form. Document literacy is also "reading to do" because it entails the interpretation and application of information for a specific purpose. For example, a person reading bar graphs, pie charts, or other statistical representations to follow sports or business trends would be considered document literate. Likewise, anyone who can assemble a computer hutch from complicated procedural diagrams and directions or prepare his or her own tax forms also exhibits document literacy.
Of the three types of literacy in this category, the ability to read narrative text has received the most attention. We focus more on students' performance on standardized tests or on their ability to make sense of stories and literature than on their success with informational, or expository, text (reading to learn).
Expository text includes a variety of documents (charts, graphs, maps, and other visual displays) that require different literacy skills, such as the ability to locate, cycle, and interpret information (Kirsch, Jungeblut, & Campbell, 1992). We do not often teach reading-to-learn and reading-to-do skills related to expository documents beyond the intermediate grades—if at all. Consequently, students perform less satisfactorily on these assessments and applications, as classroom teachers and such tests as the National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP) can confirm.
The good news is that many resources can help teachers better equip students with skills and strategies for learning from expository tests and documents (see Vacca & Vacca, 1999; Mosenthal & Kirsch, 1989–1991, 1992–1993; Rafferty, in press). Nonetheless, educators need to support such literacy for learning development, which is not often an integral part of teacher preparation or professional development. This teacher commitment can come from a deeper understanding of the relationships between traditional texts and their literacy demands and the explosion of images and information from an expanding array of technology.
Representational Literacy
- Who created this message and why?
- What techniques are used to attract my attention?
- What lifestyles, values, and points of view are represented?
- How might different people understand this message differently?
- What is omitted from this message?
Interpreting media and other visual images involves creating personal meaning from symbols. Whether those symbols involve alphabetic characters, icons, photographs, or other visual images, or television, radio, magazine, or newspaper messages, is not as important as the role of the learner as an active, constructive, and critical consumer of ideas and information. Nowhere is this more important than on the Internet, where readers cannot readily discern misinformation and disinformation from fact.
In 1991, the American Library Association (ALA) defined information literacy as "the ability to find, evaluate, and use information effectively" (p. 152). Since that time, the ALA has established nine information literacy standards that range from having the ability to locate, evaluate, and use information accurately to being an independent and socially responsible learner (ALA, 1998).
A careful examination of these standards reveals much overlap with media education, visual literacy, and the critical reading and thinking associated with traditional text-based literacy. In other words, teachers can do much to support literacy for learning regardless of the medium—print, visual, video, audio, or electronic. For example, we can modify Thoman's five critical-thinking questions and use them with other types of text as indicators of a student's literacy. We can ask whether the student can (1) determine accuracy, relevance, and comprehensiveness; (2) distinguish among fact, point of view, and opinion; (3) identify inaccurate and misleading information; or (4) select information appropriate to the problem or question at hand (ALA, 1998, pp. 14–15).
Tool Literacy
Vast and ever-increasing quantities of information, images, graphics, video, and audio are available with new software, hardware, and Internet connections. Students and teachers can read, interpret, evaluate, critique, and use information by employing already-familiar techniques. However, knowing how to use computers, networks, and other technologies requires both specialized equipment and knowledge. In other words, technology in general and computers in particular have enormous potential as teaching and learning tools, but they also require users to learn declarative (the what), procedural (the how), and conditional (the when, where, why, and under what circumstances) knowledge. Herein lies the rub—and the promise of literacy for learning in the information age.
Teachers can capitalize on students' natural proclivity and talent for technology by using different kinds of media and technologies in the classroom. Students learn the habits and skills necessary for proficiency with learning tools that capture their attention—and these skills can also support the ongoing development of more traditional critical reading and literacy skills. But teachers need to connect these abilities deliberately and thoughtfully to get positive results.
Developing a Literacy-for-Learning Vision
1. Have your entire school district—not just a building, grade level, or subject area—define what literacy for learning in the information age means. There is no quick fix and no substitute for cross-grade and cross-subject area exploration, discussion, and consensus. It is important to explore traditional text literacy as well as representational and tool literacies and to look for commonalities and, wherever possible, to combine and reduce redundancies.
For example, as a foundation for a future accreditation visit, teacher-leaders in the Trailblazer School District spent an entire year deliberating and finalizing their action plan. Their strategies included electing a steering committee with broad representation. The committee developed a faculty survey to determine what the literacy demands were in various grade levels and subject areas, how well students performed with different types of texts, and what kinds of ongoing literacy-development support all teachers can provide. By involving teachers from all grade levels and subject areas, the district sent a crucial message: Literacy for learning is everyone's responsibility.
2. After a district reaches a consensus definition of literacy, focus discussions on the competencies that support the definition. An early draft of the Trailblazer School District's vision stated, Trailblazer School District believes that we must equip our students with the ability to locate and use information from a variety of sources.
After rereading articles about the important role of metacognition in literacy and learning, committee members revised the definition. It now acknowledges the learner's active role in the learning process: Trailblazer School District believes that the future belongs to those who learn to learn. It is vital that we equip our students with the knowledge, skills, abilities, and dispositions to access, determine the worth of, and effectively use and create information from a variety of sources and in a variety of formats.
3. Discuss and determine which skills and competencies are developmentally appropriate for early childhood, middle childhood, early adolescence, and young adulthood. Districts need to articulate the call for continual development. One steering committee representative from Pioneer Elementary School noted that involving students in the process would also be helpful. She volunteered to adapt the Metacomprehension Strategy Index (Schmitt, 1990) to measure students' familiarity with various expository texts and to document literacy strategies. "If we can help middle school teachers know what our students already know about how to read expository texts and documents," she said, "then they will be in a better position to continue students' development." She explained: If teachers are confident that students know how to use headings and subheadings as outlines for notetaking, or that key guide words often identify the organization of the material, teachers can work on more sophisticated strategies like concept mapping or creating various charts or graphs to summarize information.
4. Devise developmentally sequenced learning experiences that will help students develop into literate learners as they progress through the K–12 school system. A reading/language arts and social studies teacher from Explorer Middle School recalled seeing practical suggestions for developing document literacy in two resources from a graduate class at a local university. One, in the Journal of Reading (Mosenthal & Kirsch, 1989–1991, 1992–93), was a series of columns that explored document literacy strategies, such as interpreting maps, charts, graphs, lists, and procedural schematics. The other was a book chapter in which students surveyed their peers' music interests and created computer charts and graphs to display the results (Rafferty, in press). The teacher agreed to draft a developmental progression of learning experiences appropriate for intermediate, middle school, and high school students.
5. Pilot the learning experiences at different grade levels and involve teachers in collaborative action research projects to gather data on the effectiveness of the activities. Include the long-range impact on standardized reading tests. Data indicate that learning experiences require modification to best serve students' needs (see Sagor, 1992; Calhoun, 1994). Classroom research can help inform decision making regarding various curriculum, instruction, and assessment issues.
Literacy for All
All kinds of literacies—learning to read; reading to learn and to do; and viewing, listening, locating, and gaining access to information to be entertained and informed—have much in common. We know a great deal about how to help students acquire basic literacy skills, and we have learned much about how to foster students' proficiency with a wide array of texts for a variety of purposes.
Whether we call it literacy for learning or learning how to learn, whether it involves traditional texts involving alphabetic literacy or nontraditional formats involving representational or tool literacies, the bottom line is that teachers can do much to help students acquire the skills necessary not only to survive, but also to thrive in the next millennium.
