AY 2021-2022

Ed. 110 – Building and Enhancing New Literacies Across the Curriculum

Indicative Content
Introduction to 21st Century Literacies
Explore
Lesson 1 Traditional or Conventional Literacy
Module 1 Lesson 2 Expanded Views of Literacy
Lesson 3 Literacy in the 21st Century
Enhance
Reflect
Evaluate
References

LEARNING OUTCOMES
On completion of this lesson, one should be able to develop a clear and
practical understanding of the following:
1. definitions of conventional literacy: and
2. describe expanded views of literacy in the 21st century.

Explore
Literacy is defined by dictionaries as the state of being able to read and write
(Literacy, Literate, n.d.). Although it is the ultimate thesis of this chapter 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 21st 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" stem from the word "literate," which first appeared in the
15th century and is in turn derived the Latin word litteratus, meaning "(a person)
marked with letters"-that is, "distinguished or identified by meaning letters" - and it
carried with it the idea that such a person was cultured and educate. 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 sub-
categories
1. Basic Literacy - It is the ability to correspond visual shapes to spoken sounds
in order to decode written materials and translate shapes them into oral language.
Simply put, it is the ability to recognize letters and words. This would be akin to

Gemma F. Agustin
 AY 2021-2022
Ed. 110 – Building and Enhancing New Literacies Across the Curriculum

recognizing that the sequence of letter “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 - If 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 notice 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 a
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.
As the rest of this module will argue, this synchronicity between decoding
textual symbols and being able to extract and understand their meaning is necessary
part of being literate, even as the new contexts of the 21st change the nature of what
the "text" is, and what it means to "read 'write."

Expanded Views of Literacy

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 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 on a definition more akin to "knowing about something and
what to do with it."
In this vein, Mkandawire (2018) more succinctly posits that literacy is "a form
of knowledge, competence, and skills in a parficular 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.

Gemma F. Agustin
 AY 2021-2022
Ed. 110 – Building and Enhancing New Literacies Across the Curriculum

This 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, as even these new literacies of the
21st century make generous use of being able to read and write, rather than supplant
them as skills necessary for survival. However, when viewed from the perspective of
literacy as knowledge, the new literacies begin to make sense as they are the "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 in 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 in scope. The ability to translate textual information into images is not a
new skill, but it is the ability to do so in way that it is concise, complete, and clear that
is certainly new, given that there will be ninety 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 skill - but being able to do so when there are a hundred similar
document available to you online is.
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 peoples of North America.
In the Victorian era, there was such a thing as the "Language of Flowers,"
where the kind, color, and arrangement of a 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 (representing strength).
purple roses (sorrow), white lilies (resurrection), and pale yellow tulips and rosemary
(memory or remembrance) would altogether 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 which, as following chapters will further reveal, are coming
into use again in the 21st century literacies. 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 nearly non-stop rate to the point where accuracy,
validity, and reliability of the messages we interpret form 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 to be not media or digitally literate in the 21st century makes one
vulnerable to manipulation by those who are, and such manipulation can easily cost
an individual time, money, property, and even life.
These so-called "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,

Gemma F. Agustin
 AY 2021-2022
Ed. 110 – Building and Enhancing New Literacies Across the Curriculum

2014). Never before have the opinions of a twelve 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 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 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 views? 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
current and emergent technologies so that our endeavours are both productive and
profitable? Moreover, how do we navigate and manage the veritable minefield of
information that was once considered taboo and private and is now online, for all the
world to see and judge whether we like it or not?
Answering such complex questions requires new sets of skills and knowledge
– ones that our school system have never had to teach before. With these changes in
with whom, now, and why we communicate, new literacies are required not only to
make sense of the changes, but also to use these technologies and paradigms in
meaningful and productive ways- something required not only of students, but of
teachers as well.,
To better address the need for teachers to be literate in these new literacies,
this module discusses and explores them in the ensuing chapters, namely:
Globalization and Multicultural Literacy discusses how our increasing ability
to communicate with almost anyone, anywhere, in real time requires new skills and
attitudes in interacting with people with cultures, perspectives, worldviews, and
priorities different from our own, particularly with the end-view of not only peace and
understanding, but also mutual benefit and productivity.
The module on Social and Financial Literacy meanwhile explores the need for
the ability to navigate our own social networks-of both the online and off- line
variety-to not only communicate clearly, but also to leverage resources which we
ourselves might not possess. At the same time, the chapter addresses the notorious
problem of short-sightedness in Filipino culture regarding personal finances and how
this must be addressed at an increasingly earlier age to help mitigate the ever-
widening gap between the rich and the poor.
Media and Cyber/Digital Literacy explores the emerging need to locale,
verify, and ultimately manage online information, especially in an age where
information is power and where having the right (and wrong) information and the
ability to communicate it with others and use it to address real-world problems easily
spell the difference between both personal and career success and failure.
Eco-literacy, Arts, and Creativity Literacy explores the emerging natural
demand for knowing how to effectively and sustainably manage natural resources
that our increased industrialization and demands for productivity are so rapidly eating

Gemma F. Agustin
 AY 2021-2022
Ed. 110 – Building and Enhancing New Literacies Across the Curriculum

up. The module also explores how this increase in productivity also brings with an
increased demand for arts and aesthetics and the need to develop ways of effectively
communicating through the creative arts in industries dominated by objective data.
Finally, Critical Literacy addresses the increasing need to discern the
underlying (and often tacit) messages behind the new "texts" of the 21 st century,
particularly in an ever-increasingly multicultural society where ideas, cultures, and
ideologies vie with one another for power and dominance in the minds of the masses.

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 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 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 portions 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 Uploading - 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 Literacy, which is the ability to read written materials needed to
perform everyday vocational tasks.

* Modern views of literacy equate it with knowledge.

* New literacies have risen due to increased reach, increased means communication,
and increased breadth of content. These new literacies means more globalization and
multicultural literacy, social and financial literacies are globalization media and
cyber/di literacy, eco -literacy, arts, and creativity literacy and critical literacy.

Gemma F. Agustin
 AY 2021-2022
Ed. 110 – Building and Enhancing New Literacies Across the Curriculum

Gemma F. Agustin
 AY 2021-2022
Ed. 110 – Building and Enhancing New Literacies Across the Curriculum

INDIVIDUAL/and/or TEAM WRITTEN OUTPUT

Significant Points to Remember:
A. Individual:
1. Be guided with the attached rubrics. This will be the basis in rating your answers.
2. You are expected to follow the stated questions or tasks required.
3. Answers are found in the lecture notes, however other sources of information can be
considered as long as references was reflected in the answer sheets.
4. All written outputs either individual or team will be submitted at the CoEd building
and to be placed in a box intended for our course Ed.110 .

B. Written output by team/dyad/triad.

1. A plus factor of 5 points will be added to the total scores if the team showed
collaboration, cooperation and active involvement in accomplishing the group output.
2. As a team, each member will be given the opportunity to be a leader. Therefore,
member number 1 will be the leader of the first task and others will follow.
3. Assign tasks of topics for each member.
4. Document your interactions/ conversations through messenger group chat. It must
be reflected as evidences.

Questions to Ponder (Personal/ Individual written output)

On your own, read the questions and instructions carefully. Write/type your answer on a
long size bond paper and submit it or place it in a box provided at the CapSU CoEd Building.

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

2. How deep is your level of comprehension?
3. As a pre-service teacher, what kind of written materials should you able to read and
understand?
4. Which of the new literacies are you knowledgeable in? Which of the new literacies
do you lack knowledge in?
5. Although reading education in the Philippines aims to develop Functional/ Practical
literacy in learners, what level of literacy is being developed when classroom
practices focus more on memorization rather than on understanding and
application?

Evaluate (Team written output)

As a team, read the questions and instructions carefully. Write/type your answer on a
long size bond paper and submit it or place it in a box provided at the CapSU CoEd Building.

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.

Gemma F. Agustin
 AY 2021-2022
Ed. 110 – Building and Enhancing New Literacies Across the Curriculum

3. With a partner or triad, brainstorm and answer this question: What teaching
strategies and forms of assessment could you use to help develop functional
literacy?

Gemma F. Agustin