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From Common Core State Standards

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The average person will hear the word literacy and think of the first definition.

As a future English teacher it is fairly easy for me to stay in that rut. In English we read and write, that’s it right? Well not really. Even looking at the Common Core State Standards, the basic subcategories are Reading, Writing, and Speaking and Listening. Learning how to effectively speak and listen involves a whole new set of skills to master. This is where that second definition of literacy comes in. If we are teaching our students how to speak and listen, wouldn’t that be helping them to become competent or knowledgeable in a specified area?

Cue the opening of a can of worms. There are different skills (and standards) involved for different types of reading, there are standards for reading literature and reading informational texts, but we could break that down even more; reading poetry is different from prose; reading Shakespeare is different from The Fault in Our Stars; reading a textbook is different from reading a newspaper article. There are so many different literacies within just reading, and we already know that there are more literacies outside of reading and writing, but how many? In English class we also watch plays and movies and listen to music. Effectively watching and listening to those also takes a different set of skills in order to become competent, so those are all literacies as well. Classes other than English teach skills as well, but they aren’t always simply reading and writing.

Within the fine arts you can learn how to create visual art (which can also be broken down, like reading was, into painting, sculpting, drawing, etc.) or you can create aural art which typically involves singing or playing an instrument, each of which involves different skills and knowledge (held together by the common literacy of reading, but this time it is sheet music, not words). These involve a physical or performative aspect of literacy.

A physical education class might teach students how to run, how to swim, or how to play sports such as soccer. Each of these still involves different competencies and knowledge. Can the runner cycle their legs correctly showing correct form for that activity? Can the swimmer show the correct form for each of the various strokes (each of which could be considered a literacy on its own because someone could be great at freestyle but not be able to swim butterfly). Can the soccer players work together (a form of emotional literacy)? Can they dribble and pass correctly?

Literacies are not always applied only within the classroom. Take driving for an example. Driving a car takes a certain set of skills and knowledge (what does a red light mean?) while flying a plane or driving a train takes a different set of skills and knowledge.

I provided images to show what various literacies look like. As you look at these images, think of literacies that are not included that you use in your daily life.