EXACT COLLEGES OFASIA

Suclayin, Arayat, Pampanga

COLLEGE OF EDUCATION
BACHELOR OF TECHNICAL VOCATIONAL TEACHER EDUCATION (BTVTED
Second Year
Course Module in Building and Enhancing New Literacies Across the Curriculum

I. NAME OF THE PROGRAM Bachelor of Vocational Technical Teacher Education

II. COURSE DESCRIPTIVE Building and Enhancing New Literacies Across the Curriculum
TITLE
III. COURSE DESCRIPTION This course covers the outcomes required to facilitate the
development of competency standard for particular work
processes, work roles and work-related vocational outcomes.

It also deals with the knowledge and skills required to undertake

training need analysis to identify the training needs of individuals
or organizations. It will also cover the competency in developing
and evaluating the training curriculum design which includes
establishing training requirements, identifying the learner and
finalizing the training program.
IV. MODULE TITLE/NUMBER #1 - Introduction to 21st Century Literacies: Traditional or
Conventional Literacy; Expanded Views of Literacy; Literacy in
the 21st Century
V. INCLUSIVE Tuesday, August 17/24, 2021
WEEK/DAY/DATE
VI. SOURCES Building and enhancing New Literacies across the Curriculum,
Elen Joy P. Alata and Eigen John T. Ignacio, pp. 1 – 11, 2019
 EXACT COLLEGES OF ASIA
Suclayin, Arayat, Pampanga
Tel. No. 0925-870-1013
E-mail address: exact.colleges@yahoo.com
____________________________________________________________________________________________

BACHELOR OF TECHNICAL VOCATIONAL TEACHER EDUCATION

Course Module in Introduction to 21st Century Literacies: Traditional or Conventional Literacy;
Expanded Views of Literacy; Literacy in the 21st Century

COURSE CODE GE

COURSE TITLE Introduction to 21st Century Literacies

UNITS 3
MODULE 1 Introduction to 21st Century Literacies: Traditional or
Conventional Literacy;
Expanded Views of Literacy; Literacy in the 21st Century

INTRODUCTION

What is Literacy?

Literacy is defined as the state of being able to read and write; competence of knowledge in a specified area.
People with good literacy skills are able to function in society. Not only can they read, write and speak
competently but they are capable of doing basic math and using the technology required to manage in daily life.
Differentiate traditional literacy from conventional literacy.

Traditional Literacy is the integration of listening, speaking, reading, writing and critical thinking. It
includes a cultural knowledge which enable a speaker, writer or reader to recognize and use language appropriate
to different social situations.

For an advanced technological society, the goal is an active literacy which allows people to use language
to enhance their capacity to think, create and question, in order to participate effectively in society.

Conventional Literacy refers to reading and writing that follow the form, content, and use of standard
conventions (Koppenhaver, 2000), It is built on discoveries and understanding made during the emergent literacy
phase of development.

Activity 1: Share and Describe the following pictures: Traditional Literacy (1 – 4); Conventional Literacy (5-6)

(1) (2)
Traditional Literacy

(3) (4)
Conventional Literacy (5 – 6)

(5)
(6)
 Sub-categories of Conventional Concept of Literacy according to Miller (1973)

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” form the word basa in
Filipino, even without understanding what it means.

2. Comprehension Literacy 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 is the ability to read (i.e decode and comprehend) written materials
needed to perform everyday vocational tasks. This is the equivalent of reading the text “Ang bata ay
nagbabasa,” and being able to understand that basa here refers to reading and not to 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
a. There would be nothing to read
b. Without meaning, and
c. The text is reduced to series of incomprehensible doodles (i.e. pictures)

The act of reading implies a level of understanding (Miller, 1973). Simply knowing how to say a word (or a series
of words). It 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 illiteracy
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

Roberts (1995), notes that in the past fifty (50) years, hundreds of definitions of literacy have been
advanced by scholars, adult literacy workers, and programme planners, even with the United Nations Educational
Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO, 2006) acknowledging that literacy as a concept has proven to be
complex and dynamic. It is continually defined and interpreted in multiple ways.

UNESCO (2004) 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 their 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 the
definition more akin to “knowing about something and what to do with it.”

Literacy according to Mkandawire (2018), 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 and Cheelo (2017), which acknowledged that—as
we have just pointed out—modern views appear to equate literacy with knowledge.

The shift in the definition of literacy from reading and writing to knowledge is especially important as we
explore the new literacies of the 21st century that seem far-removed from the contexts upon which conventional
literacy is based.
 When viewed from the perspective of conventional/traditional literacy, the concept of new literacies is a
bit of a misnomer (inaccurate), as even these new literacies of the 21st century make generous use of being able to
read and write, rather than supplant (replace) them as skills necessary for survival. When viewed from the
perspective of literacy as knowledge, the new literacies begin to make sense as they are skills and bodies of
knowledge that are necessary for survival and productivity in the information age.

In the same vein of reasoning, the new literacies are not new per se---as the sense that they never existed
before. Rather, we consider them to be new because the contexts in which old skills and knowledge are being
employed are new, both in nature and scope. The ability to translate textual information into images is not a new
skill, but it is the ability to do so in a way that is concise, complete and clear that is certainly new, given that it will
be ninety (90%) percent of the population will be informed on the issue. Similarly, being able to verify the truth-
value and veracity of a document is not a new skill-but being able to do so when there are a hundred similar
documents available to you online.

Case in point: Throughout history, humans have communicated on levels apart from the spoken and written word,
for example, visually using the long-distance communication system of smoke signals used by the ancient Chinese,
the ancient Greeks, and the indigenous people of North America.

In the Victorian era, there was such a thing as the “Language of Flowers,” where, the kid, color, and
arrangement of the bouquet of flowers were used to communicate messages that could not otherwise be spoken
aloud in Victorian society (Greenaway, 1884). For example, a bouquet of
Oak leaves interpreting strength, purple roses (sorrow), white lilies (resurrection), and pale-yellow tulips and
rosemary (memory or remembrance) would together communicate a message of sympathy, usually over the death
of a loved one.

Successfully interpreting these visual languages required a kind of visual literacy to understand the
message being presented and to manage the information encoded therein skills.
 The difference is that now we are not analyzing smoke signals or bouquets, but rather sounds, texts, and
images from a hundred different sources at a nearby non-stop rate to the point where accuracy, validity, and
reliability of the messages we interpret from the basis for some very important personal and collective decision-
making.

Another difference involves the question of necessity: One did not need to be literate in the language of
flowers to live a fruitful and fulfilled life in Victorian-era England, but not media or digitally literate in the 21st
century makes one vulnerable o manipulation by those who are, and sch manipulation can easily cost an individual
time, money, property, and even life.

New literacies arose from the increasing availability of communication technologies that were once
unavailable to the average individual. Technologies like blogging and vlogging, social networking, and even text-
messaging change and expand both the extent and the form of our communication---blending text, sound and
images in ways unforeseen and unprecedented (Richardson, 2014). Never before have the opinions of a twelve-
(12) – year old child in an unheard-of town in an unheard-of country been available for everyone on earth to read
and hear, and while adults might scoff (insolent doubt) at a child’s opinions, that child might have more than a
thousand online subscribers who certainly think his or her opinions are important, maybe even more so than the
opinions of adults.

Simply put, three (3) things have been critical in the rise of the new literacies:

1. Increased Reach – we are communicating with more people, from more diverse cultures, across vaster
distances than ever before.
2. Increased Means of Communication – we are communicating in more ways and at faster speeds than ever
before.
3. Increased Breadth of Content – we are communicating about more things than ever before.
 How do we work together with people of different cultures who might have vastly different perspectives
on communication, work ethics, values, religious beliefs, and world news?

What do we do when some of these might be mutually exclusive to our own? In an age where information
is power----where knowing more and knowing first can spell the difference between success and failure –how do
we leverage both and current emergent technologies so that our endeavors are both productive and profitable?
How do we navigate and manage the veritable minefield of information that was once considered taboo
(forbidden) and private and is now online for all the world to see and judge, whether we like it or not?

Enhance:

One of the ways students can be trained in the new literacies is to engage them in digital storytelling,
wherein the students take part in the traditional process of storytelling, but with some digital enhancements. They
can choose a topic, conduct research, write a script, develop a story, and through the use of multimedia, create
something that can be played online or on a computer.

Digital Storytelling can be broken down into following six (6) steps:

1. Writing – write about a particular story from your life. The story must have a central theme.
2. Developing a Script – develop a script that identifies the important points of your story.
3. Creating a Storyboard – create a storyboard that visually organizes the flow of the story. Assign a
particular image to portion of the script.
4. Locating Multimedia – use search engines to locate photos and videos. Photos and videos from one’s
personal collection may also be used.
5. Creating the Digital Story – record the voice over for your movie. Create the movie using the software that
is available to you.
6. Sharing and Up-loading – share your story in class and upload your work online.
Reflect

Wrap Up

 Traditional Literacy is the ability to read and write.

 The traditional or conventional concept of literacy can be divided into sub-categories:
1. Basic Literacy, which is the ability to recognize letters and words;
2. Comprehension Literacy, which is the ability to understand the meaning of what is being read; and
3. Functional/Practical, which is the ability to read written materials needed to perform everyday vocational
tasks.
 Modern Literacy equate it with knowledge.
 New literacies have risen due to increased means of communication, and increased breadth of content. These
new literacies are globalization and multicultural literacy, social and financial literacy, media and
cyber/digital literacy, eco-literacy, artistic, creative literacy and critical literacy.

Evaluate

Read the questions and instructions carefully, write your answers in the space provided, 20 points.

1. Compare and contrast the traditional concept of literacy to the modern view of literacy.
2. Describe the changes in the 21st century that have led to the rise of new literacies.