Building and Enhancing New Literacies Across the Curriculum| 0

Chapter 1: INTRODUCTION TO 21ST CENTURY LITERACIES

Time Table: 3 hours

Topic Learning Outcomes:

a. Define conventional literacy;
b. Expand views of literacy in the 21st Century; and
c. Explain the traditional concept of literacy to the modern view of literacy.

Enabling Activity
What occurs in your mind when you hear the word “literacy”? Write the words or
concepts that you can associate with literacy. Show them in the form of schematic diagram which
is shown below.

LITERACY
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Deepen!

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, thorough understanding of literacy and its past nuances will
give us 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.

Traditional or Conventional Literacy

The word ‘’literacy’’ stem from the ‘’literate’’, which first appeared in the 15 th century and is
in turn derived from the Latin word ‘’ 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 sub- categories:

1. Basic Literacy - It 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 of
 Building and Enhancing New Literacies Across the Curriculum| 2

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.

As the rest of this chapter will argue, this synchronicity between decoding textual symbols and
being able to extract and understand their meaning is a necessary part of being literate, even as
the new contexts of the 21st century change the nature of what the "text" is, and what it means to
"read" and "write."

Expanded Views of Literacy

Despite the popularity of American films in the Philippines, many Filipinos cannot follow the
actors' 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 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, by UNESCO competence, (2017), (2006), which Barton and skills (2007), in a
particular and Mkandawire, field or area," Simooya-being just supported Mudenda, out-modern &
Cheelo views appear to acknowledged equate literacy that-as with knowledge.

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

Literacy in the 21st Century

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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 seas 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 a way that
is concise, complete, and clear that is certainly new, given that it will be how 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 new skill-but being able to do so when there are a hundred similar
documents 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, 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,
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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 worldviews? 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 endeavors 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 systems have never had to teach before. With these changes in with whom, how, and why
we communicate, new literacies are required not only to make sense of the changes, but also to
use these new technologies and paradigms in meaningful and productive ways-something Ob
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 book
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 chapter on Social and Financial Literacies 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 Literacies explore the emerging need to locate, 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
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real-world problems easily spell the difference between both personal and career success and
failure.

Ecoliteracy and Artistic and Creative Literacy explore the emerging demands for knowing how
to effectively and sustainable manage the natural resources that our increased industrialization and
demands for productivity are so rapidly eating up. The chapter also explores how this increase in
productivity also brings with it 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 21st 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.

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.

Main Task

Instructions: Read the questions and instructions carefully. Write your answers without copying
statements from the internet.

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

2. Considering you are a pre-service teacher, what kind of written materials should you be able to
read and understand? Are you reading these materials? How well can you understand them?
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Reinforcement Activity

Instructions: Read the questions and instructions carefully. Write your answers without copying
statements from the internet.

1. Compare and Contrast the traditional concept of literacy to the modern view of literacy.

Traditional Concept of Literacy Modern View of Literacy

Chapter II: GLOBALIZATION AND CULTURAL AND MULTICULTURAL

LITERACIES

Time Table: 3 hours

Topic Learning Outcomes:

a. Define Globalization and its implications on both the national and individual level;
b. Discuss Cultural and multicultural literacy in the Philippines; and
c. Share one’s personal level of cultural and multicultural literacy.

Enabling Activity

Read the question carefully. Share your answer with your peers.

What makes a person Filipino? If a person has Filipino Parents but is born in another
country, is he/she still a Filipino? What about if a person with foreign parents is born and raised in
the Philippines, is he/she Filipino? Explain your reasoning.

Deepen!

Globalization is the process of interaction and integration between people, business entities,
governments, and cultures from other nations, driven by international trade and investment and
supported by information technology (Levin Institute, 2017).

To better illustrate this, consider two people from different countries, for example, the
Philippines and South Korea. Let us say they meet in college and become good friends, so that the
Korean comes to be treated like a member of the Filipino's family. After some time, the Korean
returns to her own country, but something has changed-she notices an aspect of her culture that
she finds herself wishing to be more Filipino. She knows very well that she cannot change Korean
culture as a whole, so she decides to just change herself. She does not change everything, of
 Building and Enhancing New Literacies Across the Curriculum| 7

course-just a little thing here and there; she is still obviously Korean, but she just does a few things
differently from those who have never been to the Philippines.

Now suppose a little more time passes and the Korean is very happy with the changes she
has made to her life that makes it just a little more Filipino. Let us say some of her colleagues
notice how she does some things differently and they become curious, so she tells them about her
experiences in the Philippines and how that in some ways, she wishes to do things the way the
Filipinos do. Her colleagues decide to give it a try, and they find that they like this different way of
doing things, too.

Now let us say that when we look at the person from the Philippines, something similar has
taken place: the Filipino, while still being Filipino through and through, has made a few changes in
her life as a result of her experience of Korean culture through her friend during their years in
college. Some of her friends have also noticed it and have made similar little changes in their own
lives.

Because our exposure to the concept of globalization has largely been through an
economic lens, it is tempting to limit globalization as something that concerns economists and
businessmen. But globalization and its effects go beyond import or export and Foreign Direct
Investment (FDI). Notice that in our illustration, the friends of the two people in question were
affected by their interaction, even if they themselves had never been to Korea or had not met a
Filipino. Now scale this up to the point where it is not just two people from two different nations
interacting, but millions of people, from nearly two hundred different countries, where we are no
longer integrating just languages or mannerisms or food recipes, but everything from styles of
clothing, forms of entertainment, education, technology, manufacturing, ways of doing business,
ideas, and whole worldviews. This is globalization as we know it today.

Globalization as a phenomenon is not new. Nations and cultures have been interacting
and integrating with one another for millennia. Consider how ancient Greek culture was so
widespread across the Mediterranean that even the Egyptians could speak their language, and
how Rome was so inspired by Greek culture that they adopted it wholesale. Consider how so much
of the Chinese, Arab, and Indian cultures have become part of our own; these interactions and
subsequent integrations did not happen recently, but even during centuries before there was even
a political entity known as the Philippines.

What is different now, however, is the speed at which globalization is happening, its overall
scope, and its effects on the lives of ordinary people. Not only are we interacting with, learning
from, and integrating knowledge gleaned from other cultures and nations at an unprecedented rate,
there is now also a sense that no matter where one lives or how limited is one's face-to-face
interaction with members of another nation or culture and how limited one's time is spent online,
globalization and its effects are inescapable Even remote villages will be exposed to the latest
KPOP hit, if they have access to a radio. If they produce rice, they will also feel the effects of more
affordable rice imports from Thailand and Vietnam. If they have access to a kerosene stove, they
will feel the effects of the fluctuations in oil prices originating from Arab nations. All these things
take place without having to know anyone from or anything about Korea, Thailand, Vietnam, or the
Middle East.
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Effects of Globalization

The effects of Globalization are multi-dimensional. As shown earlier, they range from economic to
cultural, on both national and individual levels.

Meyer (2000) summarizes the effect of Globalization as follows:

 Economic, political, and military dependence and interdependence between nations;

 Expanded flow of individual people among societies;

 Interdependence of expressive culture among nations; and

 Expanded flow of instrumental culture around the world.

Economic Dependence/Interdependence

When the term globalization entered the Philippine public mindset in the early 90’s, it was
popularly understood to be a mainly economic phenomenon, and a negative one at that. The idea
that foreign-owned businesses could come into the country and freely ‘’set-up shop’’ thereby
choking-out local industries was not a welcome thought, even though it was erroneous.

Kentor (2001) notes that foreign capital dependence increases income inequality in four ways:

1. It creates a small, highly paid class of elites to manage these investments, who create
many but usual low-pay jobs;

2. Profits from these investments are repatriated, rather than invested in the host country,
therefore inhibiting domestic capital formation;

3. Foreign capital penetration tends to concentrate land ownership among the very rich; and

4. Host countries tend to create political and economic climates favorable to foreign capital
that in turn limit domestic labor’s ability to obtain better wages.

In simple words, ‘’the rich becomes richer, and the poor becomes poorer.’’

Political and Military Dependence/Interdependence

• A survey conducted in late 2018 found that three in five Filipinos believe that the US would
intervene on behalf of the country in case of way (Viray, 2018).

• The point is that where there are some forms of economic dependence/interdependence,
political dependence/interdependence is not far behind, as the participating nations strive
to protect their investments and interests in one another.

Expanded Flow of Expressive and Instrumental Culture

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• Expressive culture, as the term suggests, deal with how a particular culture expresses
itself in its language, music, arts, and the like.

• Globalization encourages the monetization of these cultural artifacts and their

import/export among participating cultures; the increase consumption of which changes
the consuming culture.

• Instrumental Culture on the other hand, refers to ‘’common models of social order’’ (Meyer,
2000) – that is models or ways of thinking about and enacting national identity, nation-state
policies both domestic and foreign, socio-economic development, human rights, education,
and social progress.

Expanded Flow of People among Societies

• The fact globalization encourages the movement of people between nation-states should
come as no surprise to us.

• The Philippine Statistic Authority (PSA) estimates there were 2.3 million Overseas Filipino
Workers (OFWs) during the period of April to September 2017, who were responsible for
up to 2015.2 billion pesos in remittance (Philippine Statistic Authority (PSA), 2018)

• Meyer (2000) observes three reasons for this:

1. Socio-economic

2. Political expulsion

3. Travel/tourism

Cultural Literacy

• Culture Literacy is a term coined by Hirsch (1983), referring to the ability to understand the
signs and symbols of a given culture and being able to participate in its activities and
customs as opposed to simply being a passive (and outside) observer.

• The signs and symbols of a culture include both its formal and informal languages, its
idioms and forms of expression, entertainment, values, customs, roles, traditions, and the
like – most of which are assumed and unstated.

• Thus, they are learned by being part of the culture, rather than by any formal means.

Cultural Literacy in the Philippines

• The Nation Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCAA) is the government body tasked
with the documentation, preservation, and dissemination of Philippine Culture, both locally
and abroad.
 Building and Enhancing New Literacies Across the Curriculum| 10

• Part of hoe the NCAA is addressing this and related matters via through the establishment
of the Philippine Cultural Education Program (PCEP), which ‘’envisions a nation of
culturally literate and empowered Filipinos’’ (NCAA, 2015).

• Designed to make cultural education accessible to all sectors of Philippine Society, the
PCEP held national consultative meetings, conferences, workshops, art camps, and
festivals on cultural-based teaching and good governance from 2003 to 2007.

• As a result of Republic Act 10066 (2010), PCEP has been designated as the body,
together with the Department of Education (DEPED) tasked to ‘’formulate the cultural
heritage education programs both for local and overseas Filipinos’’ that are to be an
integral part of Philippine education in all its aspects.

• Cultural education –and thus cultural literacy – in the Philippines is quite a challenge, given
that Philippine culture is a complex blend of many indigenous and colonial cultures and
varies widely across regions, and the average citizen is almost as ignorant of other
Philippine cultures as foreigners are.

Challenges for Cultural Literacy in the Philippines

As Applebee (1987) observes, interesting discussions on cultural literacy give rise to some very
difficult questions which are particularly important to a multicultural and multilingual nation like the
Philippines;

• What kinds of knowledge constitute cultural literacy? Is it knowing facts, names, and
dates, or is it something more experiential like being familiar with a story or a particular
song?

• If culture is more ‘’caught than taught’’, should cultural literacy be one of the goals of
education? If yes, how does one teach it?

• Whose culture must we be literate in to be considered ‘’culturally literate’’? Who decides

which cultures are included and which ones are excluded, and on what bases?

• Is cultural literacy education simply a means for the dominant culture to express its
dominance over minority cultures?

• How is cultural literacy to be assessed and evaluated? How we know someone is

‘’culturally literate’’?

Multicultural Literacy

• As cultures begin to mix and change as a result of globalization, conflicts inevitably arise
over identity, values, and worldviews. This situation is consequently needs for a literacy
that enables us to quickly and easily identified resolve such conflicts, preferably before
they even begin. This has come to be understood as Multicultural Literacy.
 Building and Enhancing New Literacies Across the Curriculum| 11

• Multicultural Literacy as a set of skills and knowledge is difficult to define because of how it
changes depending on the contexts in which it is discussed.

Skills and knowledge required to be multicultural literacy are:

• Selflessness;

• Knowledge that good and useful things can (and do) come from those from us;

• Willingness to compromise;

• Acceptance that there are limits; and

• Adie that we cannot be friends with everyone.

Issues in Teaching and Learning Multilingual Literacy in the Philippines

• A number of important issues stand in the way of Philippine educators attempting to learn
multilingual literacy for themselves and teach it in tern to others, which are different from
what can be found in Western literature, particularly those of the US.

Conflicting requirements for Peace

• When all is said and done, the heart of multicultural literacy is peace among different
cultures – that is, productive and non-violent interactions.

• It is easy to assume that all cultures value peace to the same degree and are therefore
willing to make the same compromises in order to attain it, but this is not necessarily true.

Nationalistic and Regionalistic Pushback

• The increasing demand of multicultural sensitivity, inclusion, and diversity in the recent
years has also given rise to resistance from groups who believe that their identity is being
‘’watered-down’’ by the needed compromises.

Persistence of the Problem

• On the surface, multicultural literacy might seem to just be a matter of ‘’good common
sense,’’ and understandably so, no one actively desires to experience discrimination
regarding what they know and what they can and cannot do simply on the basis of race,
ethnicity, or in the case of the Philippines, region of origin.

The Questions of Value

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• Another issue in teaching and learning multicultural literacy is better posited as a

questions: Why should I treat people of another culture with respect?’’

Main Task

Instructions: Interview a student in your school or near your area (as long as he/she is not your
family member) who is a part of the cultural minority. He or She could be a foreigner or a Fellow
Filipino who belong to a different ethno-linguistic group. Ask him/her about his/her culture,
difficulties in adjusting to the mainstream culture, and how students like you can help him/her?

Just like the usual interview session, you have to introduce yourself.
Name, Course & Year Level, School, and introduce the activity (include the subject but not the
instructor's name). You also have to ask the same details excluding the task's name. By then, you
can start asking questions based on the questions presented above. Please make sure to wear
mask even if you are sitting side by side. Observe physical distancing. If ever your chosen
interviewee is not present near in your community, make sure to record the interview session. you
can choose any platform such as Messenger (Video Call), Zoom, Google Meet, etc.

The session should be not more than 6 minutes and not less than 3 minutes. Send the video here
in schoology.

Reinforcement Activity

Instruction: Read and answer the given question exhaustively.

Consider regional discrimination in the Philippines: If a woman speaks Cebuano or bisaya in

Manila, she is often assumed to be a maid or yaya; If a man speaks Tagalog with a heavy,
provincial accent, he is often assumed to be a laborer, driver, or involved in some form of manual
or servile labor. Explain thoroughly why there is an occurrence of such practices in our country
 Building and Enhancing New Literacies Across the Curriculum| 13

Chapter III: SOCIAL LITERACY

Time Table: 3 hours

Topic Learning Outcomes:

a. Develop understanding of working definition of social literacy;
b. Explain the roles of parents and teachers in teaching social skills to children; and
c. Discuss and examine issues in social literacy

Enabling Activity

Watch the clip entitled “What is SOCIAL LITERACY?” by The Audiopedia and share your
thoughts in the class. Refer to (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wlV-Bd0URKs)

Deepen!

Social literacy concerns itself with the development of social skills, knowledge and positive human
values that enable human beings to act positively and responsibly in range of complex social
settings. It is the knowledge of how to behave and treat other people in a way that is morally
upright, just, and equitable, with a view of promoting positive and productive relations that are free
from unfair prejudices, hate, and discrimination. These three descriptions will be explained below.

By morally upright, we refer to thoughts, speech, actions, and motivations that adhere to a
standard of right and wrong. On the other hand, just refers to speech, actions, and behaviors that
are in-line with a fixed standard of justice-a system that promotes and rewards good and at the
same time punishes wrongdoing. Any system of justice, whether national, regional, or local,
requires a body of rules or laws by which to measure and administer rewards and punishment.
 Building and Enhancing New Literacies Across the Curriculum| 14

Equitable are the speech, actions, behaviors, and decisions that treat others fairly, regardless of
background or circumstances. Not to be confused with equality, which connotes a fixed standard of
treatment for all people, equity seeks the good of others, and labors to find means by which
everyone gets "what they need" rather than simply "everyone gets the same thing in the same
amount."

Peers and schools play a formative role on the social skills development of children. These
social skills are often expressed as consisting of three inter-related components: social perception,
social cognition and social performance (Arthur, Davison, & Stow, 2000). Increasing emphasis has
been placed on the last component, particularly in terms of outcomes. Social skill is defined in
literature as 'the ability to interact with others in a given social context in specific ways that are
socially acceptable or valued and at the same time personally beneficial, mutually beneficial, or
primarily beneficial to others.

There are several types of social skills that must be mastered for a child to be socially
adept. These range from the ability to initiate, maintain, and end a conversation to reading social
signals to more complex skills such as solving problems and resolving conflict (Lawson, 2003). The
following examples represent some of the fundamental principles of relating well to others. Children
with social skill deficits can be taught these skills directly by parents, teachers, and/or professionals
using the strategies of modeling, role-playing, rehearsal, and practice.

 Greeting - Children develop relationships with peers by interacting with them. The first
step in a social interaction is greeting someone. Greeting others is done not only with
words like "Hi!" or "How are you?" but with facial expressions, tone of voice, and
gestures such as a nod or a wave. The nonverbal part of greeting someone is just as
important as the words. It is not so much what one says but how he/ she says it that lets
people know he/she is glad to see them.
 Initiating Conversation - In order to carry on a conversation, a child must be able to
initiate, maintain and close conversation appropriately. This requires good listening and
attention skills, as well as the ability to take turns and probe for missing information.
Being a good conversationalist requires turn-taking and reciprocity. Children have to
listen as well as talk. If they do not show an interest in what the other person has to say,
they probably will not be interested in talking. Impulsive children often have trouble
knowing when to talk and when to listen.
 Understanding the listener - Once a conversation is initiated, it has to be maintained. In
order to do that, it is important to understand the audience one is talking to. A socially
adept child quickly and unconsciously identifies and categorizes his listener, measures
what he/she has planned to say against the anticipated response of the listener, and
then proceeds, alters, or avoids what she has planned to say. He/She knows that
talking to authority figures is not done in the same way when talking to peers. A misread
of the listener often leads to a misunderstood message and potential social rejection.
To converse in a socially appropriate manner, children must be able to take the
perspective or point of view of the other person, i.e ., think the way they think. To do this
a child must pretend that he/she is the listener and think about what he/she needs to
hear to understand what is being said.
 Empathizing - Empathy is more than perspective taking; it means that one is able to feel
what the other person feels. Empathy allows one to really connect with other people.
 Building and Enhancing New Literacies Across the Curriculum| 15

Other children often think of children who lack empathy as mean, unkind, or self-
centered.
 Reading Social Cues - It is very important to read social cues in a conversation. Cues
are the hints and signals that guide us to the next thing to say or do. Social cues can be
verbal or nonverbal. Verbal cues are the words that the other person is saying. Tone of
voice is an important part of verbal cues. Good detectives pay very close attention to
nonverbal cues
 Previewing or Planning - Conversations also require that one previews or thinks about
what effect the words or actions may have on the listener before she says or does
them. If the impact will be negative, one can adjust what she might say or do.
 Problem-Solving - Problems and conflict are often a part of social interactions.
Someone may not agree, get angry, insult, or become aggressive at something that one
says. How one reacts to these conflicts depends on how good her problem solving skills
are. Conflicts cannot be avoided and are often necessary to "clear the air." Turning a
conflict from a "win-lose" situation to a "win-win" situation is the best way to resolve
conflict. This requires negotiation and compromise, give and take that results in a
situation where all parties can live with and help maintain friendships.
 Apologizing - Everyone makes social mistakes at one time or another. A person with
good social skills is confident enough to make a sincere apology for her error. This is a
courageous act and is the quickest and easiest way to correct a social blunder. In
reality, other people usually have a higher opinion of someone who apologizes for
making a mistake. Apologizing is a sign of humble and mature character when one
commits mistakes.

The Role of Parents and Teachers in Teaching Social Skills to Children

Parents typically play the major role in teaching children social skills. Parents can directly
teach social skills by modeling, role-playing, and providing opportunities for their child to rehearse
and practice new skills. They should encourage and praise the child for successfully using a new
skill. Professionals typically intervene only when children are having substantial social difficulty with
peers. These individuals can implement structured, guided, and effective programs that often
involve group work with peers. Children must then generalize the skills they learn in the group to
school and other personal social situations.

School is the place where children spend the majority of their time with peers. It is,
therefore, a natural and perfect setting for children to learn and practice social skills. While
teachers do not have to teach a class in social skills, they can take advantage of every opportunity
to help children improve their social skills. They should be alert to teasing and bullying and aware
of children that are rejected or ignored by their peers. They should work cooperatively with the
children's parents to prevent the humiliation, embarrassment, and distress that befall these
children. Pairing a socially inept child with a socially adept one, involving children in cooperative
instead of competitive learning exercises, identifying and acknowledging the strengths of all
children, understanding social weaknesses, and creating an environment in which diversity is
accepted and celebrated can greatly enhance all children's social abilities, sense of belongingness,
and self-esteem, not just in the classroom but in life as well.

Issues in Teaching Social Literacy

 Building and Enhancing New Literacies Across the Curriculum| 16

How children develop their social literacy is intrinsically a contextual matter and is not
something that can be easily traced in a linear or developmental fashion. The acquisition of social
literacy is a complex process that is historically and culturally conditioned and context-specific.
Children learn through social practices, both explicit and implicit, and become human through
social interaction. Nevertheless, it is also the case that children engage in social activity before
they are taught it; in other words, children are disposed to be social before they learn what
sociability is all about.

There are two distinct ways of answering the question on how children learn to live socially
with each other and with adults. The first view is normative and communal. From their culture,
children learn customs that provide them with a guide to act in ways that minimize conflict. The
second view is pragmatic and individualistic. The social order of children is created by explicit and
implicit agreements entered into by self-seeking individuals to avert the worst consequences of
their selfish instincts (Arthur, Davison, & Stow, 2000). In this last view, social order is dependent on
sanctions and formal agreements. Rules are obeyed because they confer personal advantage on a
child. In the normative view, children are persuaded of the moral force of acting socially through
their voluntary associations with others, both in their immediate circle, such as the family, and in
the wider community, for example, through membership of a church or club. The child in this
normative view will not only know the correct behavior but will perform the role without any need for
regular, conscious reference to the rules governing it.

Teaching social literacy in schools is not as easy as it appears to be due to subjective

standards of morality and inherent human capacity to judge and make excuses.

Subjective Standards of Morality

The natural outcome of postmodern philosophies is that truth and morality are considered
subjective and open to individual interpretation. This can be seen in the current culture, where
actions and behavioral patterns that were once considered bad have now become acceptable-so
much so that many now consider them to be even good. When the standard of measure between
good and bad changes, this gives us license to change as well and opens the gates to all kinds of
abuse. This, in effect, pulls the rug out from under any and all attempts at true justice and
equitability, since they themselves rely on a fixed moral standard.

Interestingly, many of those who insist on a subjective moral standard will be the first to
demand for a fixed moral standard when they themselves fall victim to a subjective morality's
inevitable outcome.

Human Nature

While we would all like to believe that people are inherently good, experience has taught
us that the inherent goodness of humanity is, at best, unreliable: Sometimes it is there, often it is
not. We are quick to champion the cause of moral uprightness, justice, and equity, but balk when
our words and actions come under their scrutiny. In other words, we insist that others be judged
according to a fixed moral standard, but invoke a subjective one when our own behavior is
questioned. We demand justice when we perceive ourselves to be victims of wrongdoing, but we
surround ourselves with excuses when we do wrong. We insist that others treat us equitably, but
are reluctant when treating others with equity costs more than we expected.
 Building and Enhancing New Literacies Across the Curriculum| 17

Main Task

Instructions: Make a list of Dos and Don’ts in the school; and the workplace in relation to social
literacy. Present it creatively through an infographic.

Chapter IV: FINANCIAL LITERACY

Time Table: 3 hours

Topic Learning Outcomes:

a. Define financial literacy;
b. Assess level of personal financial literacy using set of standards and questions;
c. Characterize financial literacy in the Philippines; and
d. Start practical steps to develop personal financial literacy.

Enabling Activity

Watch the video entitled “The Most Valuable Financial Asset You Will Ever Have | Importance of
Financial Literacy/Intelligence” thru the link provided below.(
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1V_5R6dHNFE. After watching the video, share your
thoughts with a pair.

Deepen!

The national Endowment for Financial Education defines financial literacy as ‘’the ability to read,
analyze, manage, and communicate about personal financial conditions that affect material well-
being.

It includes the ability to discern financial choices, discuss money and financial issues
without (or despite) discomfort, plan for the future, and respond competently to life events that
affect every day financial decisions, including events in the general economy’’ (In charge Education
Foundation, 2017)

Hastings, et. al. (2013) refers to financial literacy as:

• Knowledge of financial product (e.g., a stock vs. a bond, fixed vs. adjustable rate
mortgage);
 Building and Enhancing New Literacies Across the Curriculum| 18

• Knowledge of financial concepts (e.g., inflation, compounding, diversification, credit

scores);

• Having the mathematical skills or numeracy for effective financial decision making; and

• Being engaged in certain activities such as financial planning.

• Public and private institutions alike have recognized the need for financial literacy to be
incorporated in the school curriculum.

• Financial education and advocacy programs of the public and private sectors have been
identified as key areas in building an improved financial system in the Philippines (Go,
2017).

• Republic Act (RA) 10922, otherwise known as the ‘’Economic and Financial Literacy Act,’’
mandates DepEd to ‘’ensure that economic and financial education becomes an integral
part of formal learning.’’

The Six Standards and Concepts

Standards Key Concepts

Earning Income • Income earned or received by people
• Different types of jobs as well as different forms of
income or received
• Benefits and costs of increasing income through the
acquisition of education and skills
• Types of income and taxes
• Labor market
Buying Goods and • Scarcity, choice, and opportunity cost
Services • Factors that influence spending choices, such as
advertising, peer pressure, and spending choices of
others
• Comparing the costs and benefits of spending
decisions
• Basics of budgeting and planning
• Payment methods, costs, and benefits of each
• Budgeting and classification of expenses
• Satisfaction, determinants of demands, costs of
information search, choice of product durability
Saving • Concept of saving and interest
• How people save money, where people can save
money, and why people save money
• The role that financial institutions play as
intermediaries between savers and borrowers
 Building and Enhancing New Literacies Across the Curriculum| 19

• The role government agencies such as the Federal

Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) play in
protecting saving deposits
• Role of markets in determining interest rates
• The mathematics of saving
• Real versus nominal interest rates
• Present vs. future value
• Financial regulators
• The factors determining the value of a person’s
savings over time
• Automatic savings plans, ‘’rain-day funds’’
• Savings for retirements
Using Credits • Concept of credit and the cost of using credit
• Why people use credit and the sources of credit
• Why interest rates vary across borrowers
• Basic calculations related to borrowing (principal,
interest, compound interest)
• Credit reports and credit scores
• Behaviors that contribute to strong credit reports and
scores
• Impact of credit reports and scores on consumers
• Consumer protecting laws
Financial Investing • Concept of financial investment
• Variety of possible financial investments
• Calculate rates of return
• Relevance and calculation of real and after-tax rates of
return
• How markets cause rates of return to change in
response to variation in risk and maturity
• How diversification can reduce risk
• How financial markets react to changes in market
conditions and information
Protecting and • Concepts of financial risk and loss
Insuring • Insurance (transfer of risk through risk pooling)
• Managing risk
• Identity theft
• Life insurance products
• How to protect oneself against identity theft

Financial Literacy in the Philippines

In this article ‘’State of Financial Education in the Philippines,’’ Go (2017) indicated several
findings of researches with regards to the state of financial literacy in the country including the
following:
 Building and Enhancing New Literacies Across the Curriculum| 20

 World Bank study in 2014 estimated 20 million Filipinos saved money but only half had
bank accounts.

 Asian Development Bank (ADB) study in 2015 revealed that PH does not have a national
strategy for financial education and literacy.

 In 2016, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) released the national strategy for financial
inclusion, stating that while institutions strive to broaden financial services, financial literacy
should also complement such initiatives.

 As per Standard & Poor’s (S&P) Ratings services survey last year, only 25% Filipinos are
financially literate.

 Ten years after discovery of the stock market, still less than one percent of PH population
is invested in it.

 More than 80% of the working middle class have no formal financial plan.

The benefits of Financial Literacy

• One’s level of financial literacy affects one’s quality of life significantly.

• It determines one’s ability to provide basic needs, attitude toward money and investment,
as well as one’s contribution to the community.

• Financial literacy enables people to understand and apply knowledge and skills to achieve
a lifestyle that is financially balanced, sustainable, ethical, and responsible.

Developing Personal Financial Literacy

• One’s attitude about money is heavily influenced by the parent’s attitude and behavior
about money. The attitude you formed early in life probably affect how you save, spend,
and invest today.

• There are six major characteristic types in how people view money (Incharge, 2017).

a. Fugal c. Status e. Powerful

b. Pleasure d. Indifference f. Self-worth

Spending patterns

• Before one can come up with a financial improvement plan, one needs to analyze his/her
spending habits

• Two common types of spending pattern:

1. Habitual Spending – occurs when one spends out of habits, when one buys the same items
daily, weekly or monthly.
 Building and Enhancing New Literacies Across the Curriculum| 21

ex: daily: water, rice, coffee, and the like

weekly: groceries and the like

monthly: electric bills, internet bills and the like

2. Impulsive Spending – occurs when one mindlessly purchases items that he or she does not
need.

ex: sales on malls and the like

Fixed vs. Variable Expenses

• Fixed expenses remain the same year-round. Car payment is an example.

• Variable expenses occur regularly but the amount you pay varies. Electric and gas bills are
examples of these.

Needs vs. Wants

• Financial disciplines starts with an ability to recognized whether expenses are needs or
wants, and followed by ability to prioritize needs over wants.

• Needs are essential for survival.

ex: water, rice and the like

• Wants are things that you would like to have but can live without.

ex: cellphones, new clothes and the like

Practical Steps to enhance Financial Literacy

• Setting Financial Goals

1. Short – term goals – can be measured in weeks and can provide instant gratification and
feedback.

2. Medium goals – should be accomplished within one to six month.

3. Long-term goals – can take years to achieve.

• Developing a Spending Plan

Three easy steps:

1. Record – keep record of what you spend

 Building and Enhancing New Literacies Across the Curriculum| 22

2. Review – analyze the information and decide what you do

3. Take action – do something about what you have written down

• Importance of Saving

Here are some reasons why saving is important:

1. Emergency Bolster

2. Retirement

3. Future Events

4. Instability of Social Security

5. A Little Goes a Long Way

There are two ways to save:

1. save before you spend; and

2. save after you spend wisely

In order to stick to the savings habit, you should:

1. commit to a month;

2. find an accountability partner;

3. find a savings role model who is successful with his/her money, through tried and true
savings; and

4. write your goal down and track it; and

5. avoid attempting situations (don’t go to the mall to ‘’hang out’’)

Main Task

Instructions: How does your current budget and ideal budget pie chart look like? Using the
following categories, map your ideal and current budget plan using a pie chart. You may use as
more categories as needed.

a. Housing
b. Electric bills
c. Internet
d. Food
 Building and Enhancing New Literacies Across the Curriculum| 23

e. Debt
f. Education
g. Transportation

Reinforcement Activity

Instruction: Read and answer the given question exhaustively.

How does your current budget pie chart compare with your ideal budget pie chart? Discuss the
things you opt to do in order to make them at least identical in the future.

Chapter V: MEDIA AND CYBER OR DIGITAL LITERACIES

Time Table: 3 hours

Topic Learning Outcomes:

a. Develop a working understanding of Media and Cyber/Digital Literacy and how they relate
to one another;
b. Appreciate the importance of developing Media and Cyber/Digital Literacy both in
ourselves and one another in the information age; and
c. Realize that practical steps must be taken to develop these literacies early in children and
cannot wait ‘’until they are older.’’

Deepen!

Of all the 21sr century literacies presented in this book, none of them embodies the ‘’newness’’ of
these literacies quite like those needed to make sense of the absolute deluge of information
brought to us by the internet.

With the vast number of websites, web forums, and social media applications now
available for us, never before has there been so much information --- in nearly every form
imaginable, from nearly every source imaginable --- available to us twenty four-hours a day, no
matter our location.

Presentation-30

Content-30

Creativity-30

Impact-10
 Building and Enhancing New Literacies Across the Curriculum| 24

Media Literacy

 Like all the literacies discussed in this book, media literacy can be in several ways.

 Aufderheide (1993) defines it as ‘’the ability to access, analyze, evaluate and communicate
messages in a wide variety of forms,’’

 While Christ and Potter (1998) defines it as ‘’the ability to access, analyze, evaluate and
create messages across a variety of contexts.’’

 Hobbs (1998) posits that it is a term used by modern scholars to refer to the process of
critically analyzing and learning to create one’s own messages in print, audio, video and
multimedia.

 Perhaps in its simplest sense, media literacy can thus be defines as ‘’the ability to identify
different types of media and understanding the messages they are communicating’’
(Common Sense Media n. d)

 According to Boyd (2014) media literacy educating begun in the United States and United
Kingdom as a direct result of war propaganda in the 1930’s and the rise of advertising in
the 1960’s.

 Aufderheide (1993) and Hobbs (1998) reported, ‘’At the 1993 Media Literacy National
Leadership Conference, US educators could not agree on the range of appropriate goals
of media education or the scope of appropriate instructional techniques.’’

Five Essential concepts necessary for any analysis of media messages

1. Media messages are constructed.

2. Media messages are produced within economic, social, political, historical, aesthetic
concepts.

3. The interpretative meaning-making process involved message reception consist of an

interaction between the reader, the text, and the culture.

4. Media has unique ‘’languages,’’ characteristics which typify various forms, genres, and
symbol systems of communication.

5. Media representations play a role in people’s understanding of social reality.

What Media Literacy is not?

 Given the broad and somewhat nebulous nature of media literacy, its implied definition can
be gleaned by understanding what media literacy is not.

 The following is the list of actions that are often mistake for being representative of media
literacy (Center for Media Literacy, n. d.):
 Building and Enhancing New Literacies Across the Curriculum| 25

a. Criticizing the media is not, in and of itself, media literacy.

b. Merely producing media is not media literacy although part of being media literate is the
ability to produce media.
c. Teaching with media (videos, presentations, etc.) does not equal media literacy.
d. Viewing media and analyzing it from a single perspective is not media literacy.
e. Media literacy does not simply mean knowing what and what not to watch; it does mean
‘’watch carefully, think critically.’’

Challenges to media literacy education

 One glaring challenge to teaching Media Literacy is, ‘’how do we teach it?’’

 How to measure media literacy and evaluate the success of media literacy initiatives

 Is media literacy best understood as a means of inoculating children against the potential
harms of the media or as means of enhancing their appreciation of the literacy merits of
the media?

Digital Literacy

 Digital Literacy (also called e-literacy, cyber literacy, and even information literacy by some
authors) is not different although now the ‘’text’’ can be images, sound, video, music, or a
combination thereof.

 Digital Literacy can be defines as the ability to locate, evaluate, and communicate
information on various platforms.

 It is the technical, cognitive, and sociological skills needed to perform tasks and solve
problems in digital environment (Eshet-Alkalai, 2004; Snavely & Cooper, 1997; Behrens,
1994; Andretta, 2007; Webber & Johnson, 2000), so much so that the skills and
competencies listed by Shapiro & Hughes (1996) in a curriculum they envisioned to
promote computer literacy should sound very similar to readers today:

 Resource literacy

 Social-structure literacy

 Research literacy

 Publishing literacy

 Emerging technology literacy

 Critical literacy
 Building and Enhancing New Literacies Across the Curriculum| 26

Bawden (2008) collated the skills and competencies comprising digital literacy from contemporary
scholars on the matter into four groups;
1. Underpinnings
2. Knowledge
3. Central Competencies
a. reading and understanding digital and non-digital formats;
b. creating and communicating digital information;
c. evaluation of information
d. knowledge assembly
e. information literacy; and
f. media literacy.
4. Attitudes and Perspectives

Information Literacy within Digital Literacy

 Alongside Information Literacy, Eshet-Alkalai (2004) highlights a kind of Socio-Emotional

literacy needed to navigate the internet, raising questions such as, ‘’How do I know if
another user in a chatroom is who he says he is? Or ‘’How do I know if a call for blood
donations on the Internet is real or a hoax?’’

Digital Natives

 The term Digital Native has become something of a buzzword in the education sector over
the past decades.

 This was popularized by Prensky (2001) in reference to the generation that was born
during the information age (as opposed to digital immigrants – the generation prior that
acquired familiarity with digital systems only as adults) and who has not known a world
without computers, the internet, and connectivity.

Challenges to digital Literacy Education

 Digital Literacy Education many of the same challenges to Media Literacy For example:

a. How should it be taught?

b. How can it be measured and evaluated?

c. Should be taught for the protection of students in their

consumption of information or should it be to develop their appreciation for digital media?

 Brown (2017) also noted that despite the global acknowledgement that Digital Literacy
education is a need, there is as of yet no overarching model or framework for addressing
all of the skills deemed necessary.
 Building and Enhancing New Literacies Across the Curriculum| 27

Despite the challenges posted by the broad and fluid nature of media (and therefore digital)
literacy, educators in the Philippines can be spearheaded literacy efforts by doubling-down on
those concepts and principles of Media Literacy that are utmost importance, namely, critical
thinking, and the grounding of critical thought in a moral framework.
• Teach media and digital literacy integrally.
• Master your subject matter
• Think ‘’multi-disciplinary’’.
• Explore motivations, not just messages.
• Leverage skills that students already have

Main Task

Instructions: Watch a TED talk online on a topic that is completely new and foreign to you. Create
an outline or a mind map of the speaker's lecture, using ONLY what you were able to understand
from the video. You can choose whatever topic/video that interests you the most. You can use
Youtube for searching a TED Talk Video.

Chapter VI: ECOLOGICAL LITERACY

Time Table: 3 hours

Topic Learning Outcomes:

a. Define ecological literacy;

b. Distinguish among environmental literacy, ecoliteracy, and ecological literacy; and
c. Recognized individual and collective roles in protecting and rehabilitating the environment
and ecosystem.

Enabling Activity

Instruction: Based on your school experiences, list down ways by which a community helps a
school and ways by which a school helps a community in terms of saving our Ecology. Come up
with an exhaustive list. Relate your list to the lines provided below.

The development of ecological understanding is not simply another subject to be learnt but a
fundamental change in the way we see the world.
-John Lule, 1994

Deepen!

 We are now at a critical point with many environmental issues such as climate change and
rampant environmental destruction. Alienation from nature greatly contributes to the
aggregation of these environment problems.
 Building and Enhancing New Literacies Across the Curriculum| 28

 Ecological literacy is important to business and political leaders, and to all levels of
education.
 Ecological literacy refers to an individual’s understanding not only of ecological concepts,
but also of his or her place in the ecosystem (Meena &Alison, 2009).
 The term ecological literacy was first introduced by David Orr in 1989 in his essay
‘’Ecological Literacy’’.

Characterizing an Ecoliterate Person

 Dr. Tom Puk (2002) of Lakehead University characterized an ecological literate person of
the 21st Century as ‘’the responsible, lifelong learner who strives to improve the human
condition and environment within the context of self, human groups, the biosphere, and the
ecosphere.’’

The ecologically literate person in order to achieve the aforementioned ultimate goal should
become:

 An inquirer, who actively secures basic skills and knowledge in order to carry out
ecological responsibilities.

This also enables her to reach her own potential and place in the physical and natural
environment;

 A reflect learner, who understands the value and limitations of human knowledge, the
power and limitations of the natural world, the role of intuition in real life pursuits, and the
role of self as it is manifested in one’s personal narratives;

 Intelligently self-directed, who engages in self-appraisal, sets new learning objectives,

develops plan to achieve those objectives, carries out those plans in a flexible inquiry-
directed manner, and reflects on the whole process;

 Morally responsible, who governs actions with percepts (responsibility, seeking justice and
equality for all) that maintain harmonious relationships;

 Ecologically responsible, who embodies ecological ideas in daily life; and

 Seek self-transcendence, who moves beyond the limitations of personal ego by identifying
with human groups, flora and fauna, ecosphere, that transcend the individual life in scope
and time.

The ecologically literate person of the 21st century has a positive view of life, grounded on the
faith of interconnectedness, and has the capacity to competently perform significant life, work, and
related tasks.

Such a view enables her/him to look upon the human experience positively and all living things
compassionately.
 Building and Enhancing New Literacies Across the Curriculum| 29

Environmental Literacy, Ecological Literacy, and Ecoliteracy

 Framewoks for ecoliteracy exhibit a high degree of similarity with frameworks of

environmental literacy, in that both set include similar affective, knowledge, cognitive skills,
and behavioral components.

 However, what most differentiates ecoliteracy from environmentatl literacy is the clear
emphasies on sustainability, and the introduction of spiritual, holistic components,
expressed in terms of ‘’celebration of Creation’’ (Orr, 1992), ‘’spirit’’ and ‘’reverence for the
Earth’’ (Capra, 1996, 2007), and ‘’expansion of the soul’’ (Wooltorton, 2006).

 An ecoliterate person is prepared to be an effective member of sustainable societ, with

well-rounded abilities of head, heart, hands, and spirit,comprising an organic
understanding of the world and participatory action within and with the environment.

Environmental literacy, ecological literacy, and ecoliteracy

General Dominant Primary Examples of
conceptions educational pedagogical strategies
of objectives approaches
environment
Environmental Problem field Develop Cognitive Case study,
literacy of values problem-solving Pragmatic issue analysis,
skills, from Affective/Moral problem-solving
diagnosis to project
action Analysis and
Develop a clarification of
system of values, criticism
ethics of social values
Adopt

environmentally
responsible
behaviors
Ecological Object of Acquire Cognitive Observation,
literacy study System knowledge of demonstration,
ecological Experiential experimentation
concepts and
principles Case study,
environmental
 Building and Enhancing New Literacies Across the Curriculum| 30

Develop skills system

related to the analysis,
scientific construction of
method: ecosystem
observation models
and
experemintatio
n

Develop
systems
thinking:
analysis and
synthesis

Understand
environmental
realities in view
of informed
decision-
making

Ecoliteracy Shared Promote and Cognitive Case study,

resource for contribute to social
sustainable economic Pragmatic marketing,
living development sustainable
Gaia that address Holistic consumption
social equity activities,
and ecological Intuitive/Creative sustainable
sustainability living
management
Develop the project
many
dimensions of
one’s being in Immersion,
interaction with visualization,
all aspects of creative
the workshops
environment

Develop an
organic
understanding
of the world
and
 Building and Enhancing New Literacies Across the Curriculum| 31

participatory
action in and
with the
environment

 Environmental Literacy

An individual’s understanding, skills and motivation to make responsible decisions that

considers his or her relationships to natural systems, communities and future generations.

Greening Initiatives in Colleges and Universities

 Increased awareness of environmental degradation and concern of its rehabilitation have

prompted colleges and universities to green their campuses.

 A green campus is ‘’ a place where environmentally responsible practice and education go

hand-in-hand and where environmentally responsible tenets are borne out by example’’
(NEIWPCC n. d).

 The green campus institution is a model environmental community where operational

functions, business practices, academic programs, and people are interlinked, providing
educational and practical value to the institution, region and the world.

Greening initiatives, although challenging and demanding, yield significant benefits in the long run:
 Environmental and economic sustainability
 Reputation as a leader through example
 Economic benefits
 ‘’Real-life’’ work experience for your students
 Improved quality of life in the campus

 Ecological/Ecoliteracy literacy

- a form of transformative education that requires shifts in three related areas:

a. perception (seeing)
b. conception (knowing)
c. action (doing)

In schools, teachers are also required to shift emphasis through the following:
 From parts to whole
 From objects to relationships
 Building and Enhancing New Literacies Across the Curriculum| 32

 From objective knowledge to contextual knowledge

 From quantity to quality
 From structure to process
 From contents to patterns

 Ecological literacy refers to an individual’s understanding not only of ecological concepts,

but also of his or her place in the ecosystem.

 Ecological literacy is a form of transformative education that requires shifts in three related
areas:

a. perception (seeing) c. action (doing)

b. conception (knowing)

 The ecologically literate person of the 21st century has a positive view of life, grounded on
the faith of interconnectedness, and has the capacity to competently perform significant
life, work, and related tasks.

Main Task

Instructions: What environmental issues and concerns move you and provoke you to action? What
efforts and practical steps do you do to influence others to take actions?

Chapter VII: ARTISTIC AND CREATIVE LITERACY

Time Table: 3 hours

Topic Learning Outcomes:

a. Characterize artistically literacy;

b. Discuss the value of Arts to education and practical life;
c. Identify approaches to developing/designing curriculum that cultivates the arts and
creativity among learners;
d. Formulate a personal definition of creativity; and
e. Design creative and innovative classroom activities for specific topic and grade level of
students.

Enabling Activity

Instruction: Is creativity the same with innovativeness? Read various definitions on these
two concepts and organize your notes using a Venn Diagram.
 Building and Enhancing New Literacies Across the Curriculum| 33

Deepen!

Introduction

 Artistic Literacy is defined in the National Coalition for Core Arts Standards: A Conceptual
framework for Arts Learning (2014) as the knowledge and understanding required to
participate authentically in the arts.

The flexibility of the forms comprising the arts position students to embody a range of literate
practices to:
 Use their minds in verbal and nonverbal ways;
 Communicate complex ideas in a variety of forms;
 Understand words, sounds, or image;
 Imagine new possibilities; and
 Persevere to reach goals and make them happen.

Engaging in quality of arts education experiences provides students with an outlet for powerful
creative expression, communication, aesthetically rich understanding, and connection to the world
around them.

Being able to critically read, write, and speak about art should not be the sole constituting
factors for what counts as literacy in the arts ( Shenfiled, 2015).

Eight Valuable Lessons or Benefits that education can learn from Arts posited by Elliot Eisner as
follows;

 Form and content cannot be separated

 Everything interacts; there is no content form and no form without content

 Nuance matters. To the extend to which teaching is an art, attention to nuances is critical

 Surprise is not to be seen as an intruder in the process of inquiry, but as part of the
rewards one reaps when working artistically

 Slowing down perception is the most promising way to see what is actually there

 The limits of language are not the limits of cognition

 Somatic experience is one of the most important indicators that someone has gotten right

 Open-ended tasks permits the exercise of imagination, and an exercise of the imagination
is one of the most important human aptitudes

Characterizing Artistically Literate Individuals

 Building and Enhancing New Literacies Across the Curriculum| 34

 How would you characterized an artistically literate student?

 Literature on art education and art standards in education cited the following as common
traits of artistically literate individuals:

a. use a variety of artistic media, symbols, and metaphors to communicate their own ideas and
respond to the artistic communications of others;

b. develop creative personal realization in at least one art form in which they continue active
involvement as an adult;

c. cultivate culture, history, and other connections through diverse forms and genres of artwork;

d. find joy, inspiration, peace, intellectual stimulation, and meaning when they participate in the
arts; and

e. seek artistic experience and support the arts in their communities.

Issues in Teaching Creativity

 In his famous TED talks on creativity and innovation, Sir Ken Robinson (Do schools kill
creativity? 2006; How to escape education’s death valley?, 2003) stressed paradigms in
the education system that hamper the development of creative capacity among learners.
 He emphasized that schools stigmatize mistakes.
 This primary prevents students from trying and coming up original ideas. He also reiterated
the hierarchy of systems.
 Firstly, most useful subjects such as Mathematics and languages for work are at the top
while arts are at the bottom.
 Curriculum competencies, classroom experiences, and assessment are geared toward the
development of academic ability.
 Students are schooled in order to pass entrance examination in colleges and universities
later on.

Because of this painful truth, Robinson challenged educators to:

 Educate the well-being of learners and shift from the conventional learnings toward
academic ability alone;

 Give equal weight to the arts, the humanities, and to physical education;

 Facilitate learning and work toward stimulating curiosity among learners;

 Awaken and develop powers of creativity among learners; and

 View intelligence as diverse, dynamic, and distinct, contrary to common belief that it should
be academically ability-geared.

Enhance
 Building and Enhancing New Literacies Across the Curriculum| 35

 In ‘’First Literacies: Art, Creativity, Play, Constructive Meaning – Making,’’ McArdle and
Wright asserted that educators should make deliberate connections with children’s first
literacies of art and play.

 A recommended new approach to early childhood pedagogy would emphasize children’s

embodied experience through drawing. This would include children’s creation,
manipulation, and changing of meaning through engaged interaction with art materials
(Dourish, 2001), through physical, emotional and social immersion (Anderson, 2003).

 The educators proposed four essential components of developing or designing curriculum

that cultivates students’ artistic and creative literacy.

Four essential components of developing or designing curriculum

 Imagination and pretense, fantasy and metaphor
 Active menu to meaning making
 Intentional, holistic teaching
 Co-player, co-artist

Main Task Instructions: Choose a Grade Level and Topic. Design an instructional plan showing
creative classroom activities that will engage learners.

Chapter VIII: CRITICAL LITERACY

Time Table: 3 hours

Topic Learning Outcomes:

a. Characterize Critical Literacy;

b. Discuss a brief background of critical literacy theory; and
c. Apply principles of critical literacy in designing lessons and classroom activities.

Enabling Activity

Instruction: Let us explore your personal literacy histories by recalling and writing below
your answers to the following;

a. Your first memories of reading (what, where, with whom?)

b. Favorite reading as a child and as an adult

Deepen!

Introduction
 Building and Enhancing New Literacies Across the Curriculum| 36

• The concept of critical literacy is theoretically diverse and combine ideas from various
critical theories, such as critical linguistic, feminist theory, critical race theory, as well as
reader response theory and cultural and media studies (Luke et al., 2009).

• Critical Literacy is a central thinking skills that involve the questioning and examination
ideas, and requires one to synthesize, analyze, interpret, evaluate, and respond to the
texts read or listened to (University of Melbourne, 2018).

History of Critical Literacy Theory

• Much of the earliest scholarship on critical literacy is grounded in Freirian Pedagogy.

The Authors identified three form of educational practice that literacy take on, varying by their
commitment to inquiry and action:

• Liberal Education

• Pluralism

• Transformative Praxis

Janks (2000) posited four possible orientation for future approaches to critical literacy
education

a) To understand how language maintains social and political forms of domination;

b) To provide access to dominant forms of language without compromising the integrity of

non-dominant forms;

c) To promote a diversity which requires attention to the way that uses of language create
social identities; and

d) To bring a design perspective that emphasizes the need to use and select from a wide
range of available cultural sign system.

Critical Literacy and the Arts

• The creation of artistic products by an individual and the perception and rejection upon
other’s artwork showcase the power of critical literacies at work within Arts context.

Luke (2000) argues that it is the primary aim of critical literacy to:

1. Allow students to see how texts work to construct their world, their cultures, and their
identities in powerful, often overtly ideological ways; and
 Building and Enhancing New Literacies Across the Curriculum| 37

2. Understand how they use texts as social tools in ways that allow for a reconstruction of
these same worlds.

The arts, literacy, and reality are dynamically linked and the understanding attained by
critically reading aesthetic texts involves perceiving the relationship between the art, its creator,
and its context.

Text Analysis

• Textual analysis can be guided by asking the learners to make their way systematically
through a list of questions such as the following:

• Freebody and Luke (cited in Luke, 2000) developed a four-tiered approach to early reading
instruction that as now been adapted across Australian schools.

Four – Tiered Approach

1. Coding Practices: Developing Resources as a Code Beaker
2. Text – Meaning Practices: Developing resources as a Text Participant
3. Pragmatic Practices: Developing Resources as Text User
4. Critical Practices: Developing Resources as Text Analysis and Critic

• What is the subject or topic of the text?

• Why might the author have written it?

• Who is it written for? How do you know?

• What values does the author assume the reader hold? How do you know?

• What knowledge does the reader need to bring to the text in order to understand it?

• Who would feel ‘left out’ in this text and why? Who would feel that the claims made in the
text clash with their own values, belief, or experience?

• How is the reader ‘poisoned’ in relation to the author (e. g., as a friend, as an opponent, as
someone who needs to be persuaded, as invincible, as someone who agrees with the
author’s views)?

Another Approach for analyzing text is to use a checklist such as CARS (Credibility, Accuracy,
Reasonableness, Support), which was originally developed for use in evaluating web site.
• Credibility
 Building and Enhancing New Literacies Across the Curriculum| 38

• Accuracy
• Reasonableness
• Support

Text Clustering

• Text clustering involves confronting students with texts which obviously contradict each
other.

• The task is to use whatever evidence they can find to try to make judgments about where
the truth actually lies.

• Sometimes these judgments are relatively easy.

• News report, fairy tales, everyday text are good materials for text clustering.

Summary
• Critical Literacy is a vital element to teach pupils in the 21st Century.
• Critical Literacy is a central thinking skill that involves the questioning and examination of
ideas, and requires one to synthesize, analyze, interpret, evaluate, and respond to the text
read or listened to.
• Texts are always situated in the fields of power, with economic, cultural, and social
exchange involved.

Main Task

Instructions: Collect a range of reading materials.

a. Classify by categories (request from charities, public information leaflets, etc)

b. When you have worked out five or six broad types, identify:
• Who produced them (example: public bodies, commercial enterprise, local
authorities)
• For whom they are produced
• Why the texts were produced
• Whether each one is relevant to you or not, and why