Course Packet for Building and Enhancing New Literacies Across The Curriculum

Course Information

Course Code : Prof Ed 10

Course Title : Building and Enhancing New Literacies Across The Curriculum
Credit/No. of Units : 3
Duration : A/Y 2020-2021
Instructor : Julietha Ardales
Consultation Time : Fri, 1:00-4:00

Course Description
The contemporary age is characterized by knowledge and information production,
industrialization, and increasing cultural and global integration. For individual and professionals to thrive
in the global community, they need to possess new skills, competencies, and dispositions as emerging
technologies, industries, and relations have become more complex and intricate.

In response to the needs and demands of the 21 st century learners and context, The Philippine
Professional Standards for Teachers (PPST) was formulated. It stipulates the expectations of teachers’
increasing levels of knowledge, practice, and professional engagement. At the same time, the standards
allow for teachers growing understanding, applied with increasing sophistication across a broader and
more complex range of teaching/learning situations (DO 42, 2017). The standards characterize 21 st
century teachers as lifelong learners and functional and multi-literate individuals.

In consonance with the PPST, the outcomes-based curriculum for pre-service teacher education
put premium on the development of the pedagogical content knowledge and 21 st century skills and
competencies of future teachers (CHED memo no. 74 and 75 s. 2017). In fact, one of the professional
education courses in both elementary and secondary education is Building and Enhancing New Literacies
Across the Curriculum.

This course introduces the concepts of new literacies in the 21 st century as an evolving social
phenomenon and shared cultural practices across learning areas. The 21 st century literacies shall include
(a) globalization and multi-cultural literacy, (b) social literacy, (c) media literacy, (d) financial literacy, (e)
cyber/digital literacy, (f) eco-literacy, (g) arts and creativity literacy, and (h) critical literacy.

Module 1: Introduction to 21st Century Literacies

Objectives:

At the end of this module, student are able to develop a clear and practical understanding of the
following

1. Definitions of conventional literacy; and

2. Expanded views of literacy in the 21 st century
What does being literate means?

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Explore

Literacy is defined by dictionaries as the state of being able to read and write. Although is it the
ultimate thesis of this module that such a traditional definition no longer suffices in the information age,
a thorough understanding of literacy and its past nuances will give us a solid foundation in exploring and
discussing the “new” literacies of the 21 st century and why possessing them is now mandatory for both
teachers and students in all levels of education.

This module explores several definitions of literacy and what being literate means in the
multiplicity of contexts in the 21st century, with the goal of raising awareness in readers who might be
presently unaware of the evolving perspectives on literacy and giving teachers the opportunity to pause
and reflect on their own literacies even as they attempt to teach the new literacies to their students.

Traditional or Conventional Literacy

The word literacy come from the word “literate”, which first appeared in the 15 th century and is
in turn derived from litteratus, meaning “(a person) marked with letters” – that is, “distinguished or
identified by letters”- and it carried with it the idea that such a person was cultured and educated. Since
the subjects of the time (e.g., grammar, logic, arithmetic, geometry, etc.) all had written texts (which
were composed of letters) that had to be studied, the ability to read and write was therefore of prime
importance leading to the strong association of being “literate” with the ability to read and write

Miller(1973) divides this conventional concept of literacy into three subcategories

1. Basic Literacy – is the ability to correspond visual shapes to spoken sounds in order to decode
written materials and translate them into oral language. Simply put, it is the ability to recognize
letters and words. This would be akin to recognizing that the sequence of letters “b-a-s-a” forms
the word basa in Filipino, even without understanding what it means.
2. Comprehension Literacy – It is the ability to understand the meaning of what is being read. To
capitalize on the example above, this would be like knowing that basa can mean either “to read”
or “to be wet”.
 3. Functional or Practical Literacy – it is the ability to read (i.e., decode and comprehend) written
materials needed to perform everyday vocational tasks. This is the equivalent to reading the text
“Ang bata ay nagbabasa”, and being able to understand that basa here refers to reading and not
being wet.

Based on this conventional view of literacy, we noticed two things for reading (and therefore
literacy) to exist: (1) a text (consisting of symbols and grammar) to be read; and (2) a meaning or
message being communicated by the text for the reader to extract. Without a text, there would be
nothing to read; without meaning, the text is reduced to series of incomprehensible doodles.

It should therefore be noted that even in Miller’s definition of literacy, the act of reading implies
a level of understanding. Simply knowing how to say a word (or series of words) is not the same as being
able to understand what it means. Without understanding of the meaning of the words, reading has not
taken place. Based on this, Schlechty (2001) defines the concept of functional literacy as the state of
being able to read, but not well enough to manage daily living and employment tasks that require
reading skills beyond a basic level.

Expanded views of Literacy

Despite the popularity of American films in the Philippines, many Filipinos cannot follow the
actor’s dialogue, and thus resort to guessing the overall story based on the actions onscreen.

Despite the ubiquity of the traditional view of literacy, Roberts (1995) notes that “in the past
fifty years, hundreds of definitions of ‘literacy’ have been advanced by scholars, adult literacy workers,
and programme planners”, with even the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural
Organization (UNESCO 2006) acknowledging that literacy as a concept has proven to be complex and
dynamic, it being continually defined and interpreted in multiple ways.

In 2004, UNESCO formally defined literacy as “the ability to identify, understand, interpret,
create, communicate, and compute, using printed and written materials associated with varying
contexts. Literacy involves a continuum of learning in enabling individuals to achieve their goals, to
develop that knowledge and potential, and to participate fully in their community and wider society.

Note that “reading” does not appear in UNESCO’s definition of literacy. Instead, literacy has
taken on a definition more akin to “knowing about something and what to do with it”.

In this vein, Mkandawire (2018) more succinctly posts that literacy is “a form of knowledge,
competence, and skills in a particular field or area”, being supported by UNESCO (2006), Barton (2007),
and Mkandawire, Simooya-Mudenda, & Cheelo (2017), which acknowledged that- as we have just
pointed out- modern views appear to equate literacy with knowledge.

This shift in the definition of literacy from “reading and writing” to “knowledge” is especially
important as we explore the “new” literacies of the 21 st century that seem far-removed from the
contexts upon which conventional literacy is based.
Questions to Ponder

Read the questions carefully, write your answers on a yellow paper.

1. Given the traditional/conventional concept of literacy, how literate are you?

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2. How deep is your level of comprehension?

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Evaluate

Compare AND contrast the traditional concept of literacy to the modern view of literacy

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