SEd Prof 312
Building and Enhancing
New Literacies Across the
Curriculum
MODULE 1
Introduction to 21st Century Literacies
Introduction
Students are taught to read and write print with fluency, speed and
comprehension of the message of the writer and the interpretation of the content of
the material. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization
(UNESCO) asserts that a person, who is literate, can comprehend and write simple
and short sentences related to his/her daily life.
Module 1 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 perspective on literacy. It
also gives them the opportunity to pause and reflect on their own literacies even as
they attempt to teach the new literacies to their students.
Learning Outcomes
At the end of this lesson, you should be able to:
1. discuss new literacies and their impact on the teaching-learning process; 2. cite
how functional literacy and new literacies can be integrated in the curriculum and
practiced in the classroom;
3. draw relevant life lessons and significant values from personal application of
functional literacy; and
4. analyze a research abstract on new literacies and their implications on teaching
and learning.
Learning Content
TRADITIONAL OR CONVENTIONAL LITERACY
The word “literacy” stems from the word “literate”, which first appeared in the
15th 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.
Miles (1973) divides this conventional concept of literacy into three
categories:
1. Basic Literacy - Ability to correspond visual shapes to spoken sounds in
order to decode written materials and translate them into oral
language.
- Ability correspond letters and words.
2. Comprehension Literacy - Ability to understand the meaning of what is
being read.
3. Functional or Practical Literacy - Ability to read (i.e., decodes and
comprehend) written materials needed to perform everyday vocational
tasks.
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 that it means. Without
understanding of the meaning of the words, reading has not taken place. Based on
this, Schlechty (2001) defines concept of functional illiteracy as the state of being able
to read, but not well enough to manage daily living and employment tasks that
require reading skills beyond a basic level.
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 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.”
In addition, Mkandawire (2018) more succinctly posits that literacy is “a form
knowledge, competence, competence, and skills in a particular field or area,” being
supported by UNESCO (2006), Barton (2007), and Mkandawire, Siooaya Mudenda,
& Cheelo (2017), which acknowledged that— as we have just pointed out— modern
views appear to equate literacy with knowledge.
This shift in the definition of literacy from “reading and writing” to
“knowledge” is especially important as we explore the “new” literacies of the 21 st
century that seem far-removed from the contexts upon which conventional literacy is
based.
NEW LITERACIES
At first, literacy was used in various types, such as computer literacy,
technology literacy, Internet literacy, and media literacy, respectively (Altun, 2005).
Later on, it become a lifestyle along with a person’s entire life in a society that
encompasses information literacy, cultural literacy and universal literacy.
Truly, literacy has changed and developed through a multitude of phases
within a specific period based on societal needs.
Kress (2003) posited that literacy can only happen when having a kind of
potential content through interaction with the text. Likewise, a particular text maybe
understood for being connected or related. Although in a way, such meaning can be
more relational than literal or expressing solidarity or affinity with particular people,
like understanding the Internet, online practices and online content. Hence, anything
available online can become a resource for making diverse meaning.
Moreover, the Primary English Teaching Association Australia (2015) asserts
that 21st Century literacy has expanded to include social change, increasing field
expertise and digital technologies. To be literate requires comprehension, selection
and use of multimodal codes and conventions to interpret and express ideas, feelings
and information. Subject-specific literacies are recognized to require the application
of specialized knowledge and skills, information skills, and the creative and
imaginative language. Literacy in the 21st century, therefore, demands the ability to
perform and act confidently, efficiently and ethically with a wide range of written and
visual, print, live, digital or electronic text types according to purpose
(www.petaa.edu.au).
The increasing complexity of modern communication gives rise to a number of
distinct capabilities and possibilities. Hence, 21st Century literacy combines cross
curricular capabilities also called ‘multiliteracies’ and now commonly referred to as
‘new literacies’. These broad skills include visual literacy, information literacy,
cultural literacy and digital literacy dynamics. These new literacies are fused with
traditional print literacy to create opportunities and enable students to understand
and use new text types, while exploring knowledge and information with a wide array
of technological tools, such as blogging, fanfic writing, manga producing, meme-ing,
photoshopping, animé music video (AMV), podcasting, vodcasting, and gaming,
running a paper-based zine, reading literary novels and wordless picture books,
reading graphic novels and comics, and reading bus timetables. (Primary English
Teaching Association Australia, 2015)
EXPLORING THE NEW LITERACIES
There are seven new literacies that are stressed in the 21 st century curriculum.
1. Multicultural Literacy is about understanding ethnic groups that comprise
the population and focuses on complex issues of identity, diversity and
citizenship.
2. Social literacy is the development of social skills, knowledge and positive
values in human beings to act positively and responsibly in sophisticated
complex social settings.
3. Media literacy is the ability to access, analyze, evaluate, and create media.
4. Financial literacy is the ability to make informed judgments and make
effective decisions regarding the use and management of money.
5. Digital literacy is the ability to effectively use digital devices for purposes of
communication, expression, collaboration and advocacy in a knowledge-based
society.
6. Ecological literacy is understanding the principles of ecosystems toward
sustainability.
7. Creative literacy is the ability to make original ideas that have value, and the
ability to see the world in new ways.
FUNCTIONAL LITERACY
The term functional literacy was initially defined by UNESCO through William
S. Gray in his teaching of Teaching of Reading and Writing (1956) as adult training
to meet independently the reading and writing demands placed on them. It stresses
the acquisition of appropriate verbal, cognitive and computational skills to
accomplish practical results in specific cultural settings dubbed as survival literacy
and reductionist literacy.
Referring to functional literacy, UNESCO states the following:
1. Literacy programs should be integrated to and correlated with economic and
social development plans.
2. The eradication of illiteracy should begin with population sectors, which are
highly motivated and need literacy for their own and their country’s benefit.
3. Literacy programs should be linked with economic priorities and carried out in
areas undergoing rapid economic expansion.
4. Literacy programs must impart not only reading and writing but also
professional and technical knowledge leading to greater participation of adults
in economic and civic life.
5. Literacy must be an integral part of the over-all educational system and plan of
each country.
6. The financial need for functional literacy should be met with various resources,
as well as be provided for economic investments.
7. The literacy programs should aid in achieving main economic objectives, (i.e.
increase in labor productivity, food production, industrialization, social and
professional mobility, creation of new manpower and diversification of the
economy).
Thus, literacy materials present reading, writing and numeracy concepts using
words and ideas needed in using information for learners to enhance sufficient
literacy skills and continue learning on their own.
A new functional literacy aspect, called specific literacy, is becoming a trend,
in which the job of the student is analyzed to see exactly the literacy skills needed
and those that are only taught. This is to prevent job-skill mismatch. In specific
literacy, the student may learn very little but will be of immediate value that would
result in increased learner motivation.
Therefore, the specific literacy strategy is a planning tool that allows the
literacy worker to focus on skills that are of value to the learners.
Significance of this approach includes literacy that: (1) starts in the workplace;
(2) uses a diagnostic approach; (3) identifies turning points in economic life that
may act as an incentive to learning; (4) assess the limits of a short-term
intervention; and (5) looks for generic skills.
Gunes (2000) posited that functional literacy constitutes the second level of
literacy next to basic literacy, in which literary and mathematical information and
skills can be utilized in one’s personal, social, economic and cultural endeavors.
Therefore, the essence in functional literacy is to learn basic related information
and skills and use them in daily life. Functional literacy level comprises both
technical and functional skills while encompassing social, citizenship, and
economic roles.
UNESCO defines functional literacy as the ability of an individual to take part
in significant activities in professional, social, political and cultural aspects in a
society, where he/she lives using his/her literacy skills.
The Education for All Global Monitoring Report (UNESCO, 2006) states that
functional literacy means the ability to make significant use of activities
involving reading and writing skills that include using information,
communicating with others, and following a path of lifelong learning
necessary for the ability to express him/herself in daily life. UNESCO’s
definition also adds that functional literacy includes those skills essential
for both official and unofficial participation, as well as those which are
necessary for national change and development that can be used to aid
an individual in contributing to his/her own development and that of
his/her family and the society.
Based on these definitions, functional literacy can be concluded as an activity
that contributes to development of an individual and the society, including the
ability to use information and skills related to listening, speaking, reading,
writing, and arithmetic necessary for daily life in social, cultural and economic
aspects effectively.
INTEGRATION OF NEW LITERACIES IN THE CURRICULUM
To address the call for literacy in today’s world, students must become
proficient in the new literacies of 21 st century technologies. The International Reading
Association (IRA) believes that literacy educators have the responsibility to integrate
information and communication technologies into the curriculum to prepare students
for the future they deserve.
The multiliterate learner. Today, the internet and other forms of information
and communication technologies (ICTs) are redefining the nature of reading, writing
and communication.
Students would desire for: (1) teachers who use ICTs skillfully for teaching and
learning; (2) peers who use ICTs responsibly and who share their knowledge; (3) a
literacy curriculum that offers opportunities for collaboration with peers around the
world; (4) instruction that embeds critical and culturally sensitive thinking into
practice, standards and assessments that include new literacies; (5) leaders and
policymakers who are committed advocates of ICTs for teaching and learning; and (6)
equal access to ICTs for all classrooms and students.
Coiro, et. al (2008) noted four common elements as broader dimensions of
new literacies, to wit: (1) the Internet and the other ICTs require new social practices,
skills, strategies, and dispositions for their effective use; (2) new literacies are central
to full civic, economic, and personal participation in a global community; (3) new
literacies rapidly change as defining technologies change; and (4) new literacies are
multiple, multimodal and multifaceted, thus, they benefit from multiple lenses
seeking to understand how to better support the students in a digital age.
Impact of new literacies on instruction. Additional changes are taking
place in literacy instruction (Grisham and Wolsey, 2009). Henry (2008) restated that
engagement in literacy activities is being transformed today like at no other time in
history. As students turn to the internet and other information communication
technologies (ICTs) at increasing rates to read, write and interact with texts, they
must develop new skills and strategies, or new literacies, to be successful in these
multimodal, intertextual and interactive environments.
Leu, et. al (2004) posited that changes in literacy are confronted by
innovation, that the new literacies of today will be replaced by even newer ones
tomorrow as new ICTs continuously emerge in a more globalized community of
learners. And such changes bear important implications to instruction, assessment,
professional development and research.
MULTILITERACIES IN THE EDUCATIONAL REFORM
In a broader essence, the concept of 21 st century skills are motivated by the
belief that teaching students the most relevant, useful, in-demand, and universally
applicable skills should be prioritized in today’s schools.
21st century skills may be taught in a wide variety of school settings. Teachers
may advocate teaching cross-disciplinary skills, while schools may require 21 st century
skills in both instruction and assessment process.
Educational strategies that include authentic, outcome-based learning,
project-based learning and performance-based learning tend to be cross-disciplinary
in nature. Students complete a research project, create multiple technologies, analyze
and process information, think creatively, plan out the process, and work
collaboratively in teams with other students.
Likewise, schools may allow students to pursue alternative learning pathways,
in which students earn academic credit and satisfy graduation requirements by
completing an internship, apprenticeship or immersion experience. In this case,
students can acquire a variety of practical, job-related skills and work habits, while
also completing academic coursework and meeting the same learning standards
required of students.
Assessment of multiliteracies. Assessment moves from usual
memorization of facts and disconnected processes to demonstration of understanding
through application in a variety of contexts. Real-world audiences are important part
of the assessment process, including self-assessment.
Media literacy skills are honed as students address real-world issues from the
environment. Students use the technological and multimedia tools now available to
them to design and produce websites, television shows, radio shows, public service
announcements, mini-documentaries, electronic portfolios, DVDs, oral histories and
even films.
In a way, students can freely express their points of view as they create projects
using multimedia and deliver these products to real-world audiences, realizing that
they can make a difference and change the world. They learn what it is to be a
contributing citizen, and carry these citizenship skills throughout their lives.
As a result, standardized test scores are higher because students have acquired
the skills and content in a meaningful connected way with profound understanding.
They actually master the content on a much higher level and develop their basic skills
by constant application throughout their schooling.
Preparing teachers for multiliteracies. New London Group (1996)
underscored multi-literacies as multimodal ways of communication that include
communications between and among other languages using diverse channels within
cultures and an ability to understand technology and multimedia. As such, applying
multiliteracies to teaching offers a new classroom pedagogy that extends and helps
manage classrooms.
Biswas (2014) asserted that one challenge for educators is to help students
create a sustainable literacy development throughout schooling, so that students can
develop strong literacy skills (Barshim, et. al, 2008). Certainly, new and multiple
literacies require students to integrate technology-enhanced educational tools into
their work. Ajayi (2011) recommended that teacher education must prepare teachers
to teach multiliteracies in their schools where there is a critical gap between
multiliteracies and classroom pedagogy (Pennington, 2013). Given globalization and
technological changes, teaching multiliteracies is indispensable to literacy teaching
and learning in the 21st century.
Therefore, Newman (2002) in Biswas (2014) suggests that teachers integrate
four components of multiliteracies in teaching:
1. Situated practice leads students towards meaningful learning by integrating
primary knowledge.
2. Overt instruction guides students to the systematic practice of learning process
with tools and techniques.
3. Critical framing teaching students how to question diverse perceptions for
better learning experiences.
4. Transformed action teaches students to apply the lessons they learn to solve
real-life problems.
Thus, teaching multiliteracies can inform, engage, and encourage students to
embrace the multiplicity of learning practices (New London Group, 1996). Moreover,
teaching multiliteracies can help teachers blend and apply the following four
instructional processes of multiliteracies in classroom to ensure successful teaching
and advancing students’ learning processes.
Research shows that effective instruction in 21 st Century literacies takes an
integrated approach, helping students understand how to access, evaluate, synthesize,
and contribute to information (New London Group, 1996).
Teachers insist to: (1) encourage students to reflect regularly on the role of
technology in their learning; (2) create a website and invite students to use it to
continue class discussions and bring in outside voices; (3) give students strategies for
evaluating the quality of information they find on the Internet; (4) be open about
one’s own strengths and limitations with technology and invite students to help; (5)
explore technologies students are using outside the classroom and find ways to
incorporate them into one’s teaching; (6) use wiki to develop a multimodal reader’s
guide to a class text; (7) include a broad variety of media and genres in class texts; (8)
ask students to create a podcast to share with an authentic audience; (9) give
students explicit instruction about how to avoid plagiarism in a digital environment;
and (10) refer to the Partnership for 21st Century Skills website.
For schools and policymakers: (1) Teachers need both intellectual and material
support for effective 21st century literacy instruction; (2) Schools need to provide
continuing opportunities for professional development, as well as up-to-date
technologies for use in literacy classrooms; (3) Address the digital divide by lowering
the number of students per computer and by providing high quality access
(broadband speed and multiple locations) to technology and multiple software
packages; (4) Ensure that students in literacy classes have regular access to
technology; (5) Provide regular literacy-specific professional development in
technology for teachers and administrators at all levels, including higher education;
(6) Require teacher preparation programs to include training in integrating
technology into instruction; (7) Protect online learners and ensure their privacy; (8)
Affirm the importance of literacy teachers in helping students develop technological
proficiency; and (9) Adopt and regularly review standards for instruction in
technology.
The integration of new literacies and the teaching of multiliteracies open new
pedagogical practices that create opportunities for future literacy teaching and
learning. Multiliteracies can also help teachers provide equal access to learning for all
students. In effect, students learn to collaborate by sharing their thoughts with others
in online spaces where they can engage in different forms or modes of learning
process. Consequently, students can be expected to become more confident and
knowledgeable in their learning through participatory and collaborative practices as a
result of this new literacy integration in the curriculum for teacher education (New
London Group, 1996).
Activity 1.
References
Ajayi, L. (2011). A multiliteracies pedagogy: Exploring semiotic possibilities of a
Disney video in a third-grade diverse classroom. The Urban Review, 43(3), 396-413
Biswas, S. (2014). How to teach multiliteracies. Washington State University.
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to-teach-multiliteracies, December 29, 2018.
Coiro, J., et. al. (2008). Best practices in teaching the new literacies in today’s
Internet. Mahwah, NJ: Eribaum.
De Leon, E. (2020). Building and Enhancing New Literacies Across the Curriculum.
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Henry, L. (2008). New literacies: Preparing today’s youth for advancement in the
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2019.
Kress, G. (2003). Literacy in the new media age. London: Routledge.
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