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What is Literacy?. What does it mean to educators? What does it mean in the world? Who is literate?. What is literacy?.
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What is Literacy? What does it mean to educators? What does it mean in the world? Who is literate?
What is literacy? • "ability to identify, understand, interpret, create, communicate, compute and use printed and written materials associated with varying contexts. Literacy involves a continuum of learning in enabling individuals to achieve their goals, to develop their knowledge and potential, and to participate fully in their community and wider society.“ • United Nations Educational, Scientific & Cultural Organization • UNESCO
What is literacy? • "The ability to read and write and use numeracy, to handle information, to express ideas and opinions, to make decisions and solve problems, as family members, workers, citizens and lifelong learners.“ • Curriculum Framework for Adult Literacy in Scotland
What is Literacy? • Literacy has always been a collection of cultural and communicative practices shared among members of particular groups. As society and technology change, so does literacy. Because technology has increased the intensity and complexity of literate environments, the twenty-first century demands that a literate person possess a wide range of abilities and competencies, many literacies. These literacies—from reading online newspapers to participating in virtual classrooms—are multiple, dynamic, and malleable. As in the past, they are inextricably linked with particular histories, life possibilities and social trajectories of individuals and groups. Twenty-first century readers and writers need to • Develop proficiency with the tools of technology • Build relationships with others to pose and solve problems collaboratively and cross-culturally • Design and share information for global communities to meet a variety of purposes • Manage, analyze and synthesize multiple streams of simultaneous information • Create, critique, analyze, and evaluate multi-media texts • Attend to the ethical responsibilities required by these complex environments • National Council Teachers of English, 2008
Landscape of information access • Books • Blogs • News outlets (newspapers, periodicals) • Instant messaging (IM) • Forums • Tweets • Advertising • Personal (tee shirts, bumper stickers)
Types of literacy • Media literacy • Statistical literacy • Cultural literacy • Functional literacy • Adult literacy • Numeric literacy • Textual literacy
Who is literate? • Anyone who can read and write their name. • Anyone who can read and write. • Anyone who can read at the grade level that corresponds to their age. • Anyone who went to college • Anyone who understands James Joyce…Jane Austen…eecummings…Stieg Larssen • Lit majors • Anyone who reads the New York Times
In school settings… • Literacy is often viewed as the processes connected to effective reading, followed by the processes connected to effective writing. • Literacy is sometimes connected to the general understanding of LANGUAGE ARTS
The skills of reading • The National Reading Panel Report identifies five basic skillsets required for efficient reading: • Phonemic awareness • Phonics • Fluency • Vocabulary • Comprehension
Where do these components fit? Phonemes Juncture Medial sounds Morphemes Supresegmentals Endings Syllables Inference Vowels Fragments Speed Consonants Graphemes Accuracy Comprehension Segment Resonance Language Pitch Digraphs Exposition Stress Diphthongs Narration Tone Blends Translation Text Context Vernacular
Please read this message • We peqin our qribeq a faziliarblace, a poqy like yours enzzine. • Iqconquains a hunqraqpyqrillion calls qheq work qoqaqhyspyqasign. • Enqwiqhin each one of qhese zany calls, each one hes QNA. • The QNA coqe is axecqlyqhesaze, a zess-broquceqrasuze. • So qhecoqe in each call is iqanqical, a razarkaple pug veliqclaiz. • Qhiszeansqheqqhe calls are nearly alike, pug noqaxecqlyqhesaze. • Qake, for insqence, qhe call of qheinqasqines; qheqqhey’reviqal is cysqainly blain. • Now qhinkapoupqhe way you woulqqhink if qhose call wyseqhe calls in your prain.
And now… • We begin our trip in a familiar place, a body like yours and mine. • It contains a hundred trillion cells that work together by design. • And within each one of these many cells, each one has DNA. The DNA code is exactly the same, a mass-produced resume. So the code in each cell is identical, a remarkable but valid claim. • This means that the cells are nearly alike, but not exactly the same. • Take, for instance, the cells of the intestines; that they’re vital is certainly plain. • Now think about the way you would think if those cells were in your brain.
Developing writing skill • IMITATION • Preschool to 1st grade • Pretend writing • Letters can be arranged to form words • Organization of letters and shapes in a line • Print letters and numbers • Relatively crude motor skills
Developing writing skill • GRAPHIC PRESENTATION • 1st and 2nd grades • Adept at manuscript production and reproduction • Preoccupied with visual appearance of their writing • Self consciousness about attractiveness of their writing • Improved sequencing of letters and numbers • Liberal use of invented spelling
Developing writing skill • PROGRESSIVE INCORPORATION • Late 2nd to 4th grades • Incorporation of capitalization, punctuation • Seldom plans about what they will write about • Uses writing to relate experiences rather than to solve problems • Starts using cursive • Begins revision of work
Developing writing skill • AUTOMATIZATION • 4th to 7th grade • Automatic application of grammar, spelling, punctuation • Regularly reviews own work • Writes at a level equivalent to their own speech • Begins using outlines and multiple drafts • Can assess the effectiveness of their own writing
Developing writing skill • ELABORATION 7TH TO 9TH GRADE improved ability to use writing for expressing a viewpoint uses writing to think, problem solve and remember synthesizes ideas from a variety of sources writes at a level that exceeds their own speech uses transitional language – “finally”, “for example
Developing writing skill • PERSONALIZATION/DIVERSIFICATION • 9TH grade and beyond • Adjusts writing style to subject matter • Creativity increases • More complex and lengthy sentences • More sophisticated vocabulary • Individual writing style emerges
Neurodevelopmental functions of writing • Graphomotor – use of muscles and finger control; grip and maneuvering • Attention – mental energy; focus; self-monitoring • Language – recognition (visual/auditory); syntax; semantics; comprehension • Memory – rate relates to retrieval of vocabulary, spelling, prior knowledge • Higher Order Cognition – critical and creative thinking; drawing conclusions; integration of ideas
Neurodevelopmental functions of reading • Psychomotor – physical interaction with text sources – pages, covers, lines of text • Attention – decoding processes (phonic, structural, total) and discrimination among graphemes and morphemes • Language – usage, idioms, syntax, semantics, pragmatics • Memory – prior knowledge, structures, correlations, application strategies • Higher Order Cognition – inferences, innovation, critical thought, POV, argument
What is Balanced Literacy? • It is the structure of learning activities and that provides adequate and evenly distributed opportunity for individuals to use reading, writing, speaking and listening to demonstrate what they know, want to know and think they know.
Disorders of literacy Reading and Writing Levels of achievement Using curriculum and standards
Disabilities requiring IEPssource: National Association of Special Education Teachers, 2007
Specific learning disabilities • A crowded term • Confusion of definition – IDEA and Joint Commission • Overlap and extension through content instruction • Reading and writing prominent due to their influence in the instructional and assessment processes • Range of disorder, scope of disorder, and training of teacher are important
READING • Visual cortex– initial recognition of symbol – starts the route to language areas of the brain – word recognition emerges from symbol recognition and heads reader toward fluency • Auditory cortex – recognition and discrimination of words by their sounds • Broca’s area – allows us to sound out words as we recognize them • Temporal lobe – guides retrieval of memories to assist with comprehension • Hippocampus – attaches personal memories to relate reader to text, especially fiction
READING • Sound and symbol recognition systems must integrate in the temporal lobe • Once the process is mastered, the brain moves on to meaning as its main task • Increased fund of words and discrete meaning is seen in fMRI of adult brains – both temporal and frontal systems are working
READING AND THE BILINGUAL STUDENT • The brain treats second languages differently than initial languages • Languages learned in infancy have wider associations and the brain shows greater activity (fMRI studies) when one reads in the “mother” langauge
READING DISORDERS • Dyslexia • problems processing a culture's visual notation of speech • Average to above average cognitive ability • Spatial memory and spatial reasoning may be above average when compared to other reading impaired children • Vocabulary and oral comprehension may be above average when compared to other reading impaired children
READING DISORDERS • Sites of function • Broca’s area – activated in both oral and silent reading • Wernicke’s area (superior temporal gyrus)– perception and processing from text to apply meaning • Research indicates that is difficult to separate the functions of these two areas
READING DISORDERS • Hyperlexia • Acute ability to recognize and process text • Impaired ability to recognize and process spoken language • Average to above average cognitive ability • 5-10% of children on the autism spectrum are characterized as “hyperlexic”
LANGUAGE DISORDERS • Linguistic processing deficits • Problem areas may include production in semantics, grammar, spelling, morphology, oral skills • Distinct from speech disorders, generally related to articulation
WRITING • With introduction and practice children learn the alphabet as an initial skill of literacy • Graphic representation of letter • Naming the letter • Sound/symbol correlation • Syllabic naming and connection • Extension to word constructs • Phrases…sentences…paragraphs…larger text structures leading to comprehension of messages
WRITING DISORDERS • Writing, like reading, requires fluency for productive usage • Children often have difficulty with the visual representations as they enter the reading and writing process • With guided practice, they learn to focus on discrete elements or features of symbols for efficient and accurate recognition and reproduction
WRITING DISORDERS • We generally experience the world in three dimensions • The world of text is two dimensional – yields some initial confusion for children – b, d, p, q, g • Literacy requires automaticity in recognizing and decoding symbols and then attaching sound and meaning to them • Individuals with disorders of reading and writing are struggling to elicit smooth production
WRITING DISORDERS • Dysgraphia • Not due to intellectual impairments • Usually some level of writing skill is present • Not necessarily related to reading ability • In children, considered a learning disability • In adults, may be related to trauma • DSM-IV: “…writing skills (that) ...are substantially below those expected given the person's ...age, measured intelligence, and age-appropriate education."
WRITING DISORDERS Dyslexic dysgraphia • Spontaneous production poor • Copied work better • Spelling poor • Not necessarily dyslexic in reading, but often appears with that condition • Finger tapping normal Motor dysgraphia • Characterized by illegibility, especially for longer samples • Inconsistent letter shape and size • Spelling not impaired • Finger tapping slow Spatial dysgraphia • Illegible spontaneous and copied work • Spelling not impaired • Finger tapping normal
WRITING DISORDERS • Motor difficulties may even cause pain in writing, which reduces student’s inclination to write – keyboarding can be substituted • Frustration with the process (demand for speed and accuracy of production) can lead to stress and stress-related conditions
WRITING DISORDERS • Dysorthographia (pure Alexia) • Cognitive disability displayed as difficulty using the spelling skills of the language • Difficulty recognizing, reproducing and using the orthographic structure of the language • Often called “peripheral dyslexia” • Caussed by cerebral lesions impacting the corpus callosum and the visual cortex • Visual information is processed, but cannot be transmitted to the language centers (Broca and Wernicke)
The Literate BrainCastro-Caldas, A (2004). The Literate Brain Targeting Regions of Interest for the Study of the Illiterate Brain , International Journal of Psychology • In a study of both literate and illiterate adults it appeared that illiterate individuals, when asked to repeat nonsense words, turned them into real words, while the literate individuals could repeat the nonsense words with no difficulty. • This indicated that once one knows the alphabetic principle, there is a “recipe” for making up words. When one does not know the principle, nonsense words are thought of as unknown words. • The study revealed that illiterate individuals activated the frontal lobes more and the literate individuals activated the temporal lobe. • This indicated that the illiterate individuals used more general problems solving for nonsense word recognition and the literate individuals used the language centers for the task.
In the Classroom • We know that not all students with disorders that impact literacy are not clearly identified. • What are the techniques or strategies that are best practices for expanding instruction in the curriculum to reflect the teacher’s knowledge of the neurological processes needed for learning?
Literacy/NumeracyTBQ#1 From what has been presented in the power point, and from your reading of the first part of the text, what do you think is the primary neurological function that must develop in the individual to make the transition from merely processing the alphabetic principle to actually comprehending a message from text?
