Module in

Ed 206:
Building and
Enhancing
New Literacies Across
the Curriculum

by

Prof. Ramona M. Bais

 Notes to the Students
This module is a part of the series of modules for flexible learning. This is meant
for the course in Ed 206-Building and Enhancing New Literacies Across the Curriculum.
This is a 3-unit subject, which covers the midterm and the final terms.

The Course Outcomes of this subject are as follows: articulate the rootedness of
education in philosophical, socio-cultural, historical, psychological and political contexts;
demonstrate mastery of subject matter/discipline; facilitate learning using a wide range
of teaching methodologies and delivery modes appropriate to specific learners and their
environments. ; develop innovative curricula, instructional plans, teaching approaches
and resources for diverse learners; apply skills in the development and utilization of ICT
to promote quality, relevant, and sustainable educational practices; demonstrate a
variety of thinking skills in planning, monitoring, assessing and reporting learning
processes and outcomes; practice professional and ethical teaching standards sensitive
to the local, national, and global realities; pursue lifelong learning for personal and
professional growth through varied experiential and field-based opportunities.

Building and Enhancing New Literacies Across the Curriculum is an important

means of creating opportunities on how the different learning theories and the different
disciplines in all education levels merge together into creating new knowledge and
building a better understanding of the complexities of this world. This module presents
self-contained and independent activities to promote appreciation of the concepts of
new literacies in the 21st century as an evolving social phenomena and shared cultural
practices across learning areas. It integrates theories and practices by helping students
analyse and reflect on field based interdisciplinary explorations and other teaching
strategies. Perhaps, the most challenging part of teaching new literacies across the
curriculum is developing student’s critical and creative potential. The activities in this
module expose them to various strategies to connect to the different new literacies
across the curriculum in our country as well as in the world.

Concepts of 21st literacies introduce includes the following, a.) globalization

and multi-cultural literacy, b.) social literacy, c.) media literacy, d.) financial literacy, e.)
cyber/digital literacy, f.) eco-literacy and g.) arts and creativity literacy.
 TABLE OF CONTENTS

Unit I. Introduction to the 21st Century Literacies

Lesson 1. Traditional or Conventional Literacy
Lesson 2. Expanded Views of Literacy
Lesson 3: Literacy in the 21st Century
Unit II. Globalization and Multi-cultural literacy
Lesson 1: Nature and Concepts of Globalization
Lesson 2: Dimensions of Globalization ( Economic, Political & Cultural )
Lesson 3: Aftermath of Globalization and Its Effect on Higher Education
Lesson 4 : Cultural and Multicultural Literacy Differentiated
Lesson 5: Theories Supporting Integration of Multicultural Literacy in the Learning Curriculum
Unit III. Social Literacy
Lesson 1. Definition and Scope of Social Literacy
Lesson 2. 21st Century Skills in a changing multi-cultural and social environment.
(Learning skills, literacy skills, life skills )
Lesson 3.Issues in Teaching and Learning Multicultural Literacy in the Philippines
Unit IV. Media Literacy
Lesson 1. The Role of Parents and Teachers in Teaching Social Skills to Children
Lesson 2. Issues in Teaching Social Literacy
Unit V. Financial Literacy
Lesson 1. The Benefits of Financial Literacy
Lesson 2. Financial Literacy in the Philippines
Lesson3. Developing Personal Financial Literacy
Unit VI. Cyber Literacy/Digital Literacy
Lesson 1. Media Literacy / What it is not
Lesson 2. Challenges to media literacy education.
Lesson 3. Digital Literacy
Lesson 4. Digital Natives versus Digital Immigrants
Lesson 5. Challenges to digital Literacy Education
Unit VI. Eco-Literacy
Lesson 1. Environmental Literacy
Lesson 2. Eco-Literacy
Lesson 3. Greening Initiatives in Colleges and Universities
Unit VII. Arts and Creativity Literacy
Lesson 1.Definition of arts/creativity literacy
Lesson 2. Arts-based teaching literacy
Lesson 3. Creative literacy in Education and business.
Lesson 4. Literacy through creativity
Lesson 5. Arts, Literacy and learning
Lesson 6. Literacy in the arts/Art education
Lesson 7. Integrating Art Education and Literacy Education
Lesson 8. Issues in Teaching Creativity
Unit I: Introduction to 21st Century Literacies
The contemporary age is characterized by knowledge and information,
production, industrialization and increasing cultural and global integration. For
individuals and professionals to thrive in the global community, they need
possess new skills, competencies and dispositions as emerging technologies,
industries and relations have become more complex and intricate.

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

In consonance with the PPST, the outcomes-based curriculum for pre-service

teacher education put premium on the development of the pedagogical content
knowledge and 21st century skills and competencies of future teachers (CHED
Memo # 74 and 75, s. 2017).

Learning outcomes
-Define conventional literacy
-develop a clear and practical understanding of the
definitions of conventional literacy
-develop a clear and practical understanding of the
definitions of expanded views of literacy in the 21st
century.

Activate Prior Knowledge

Literacy is defined as the state of being able to read and write. The word
literacy stems from the word “literate” derived from the Latin word literatus,
meaning a person – it carried the idea that such a person was cultured and
educated and 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.

Acquire New Knowledge

Here is your first lesson – Read and learn.

Lesson 1. Definitions and nature of Conventional Literacy

Miller divides this conventional concept of literacy into 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. It is the ability to recognize letters and words.
2. Comprehension literacy – the ability to understand the meaning of
what is being read.
3. Functional or Practical literacy- it is the ability to read (i.e. decode
and comprehend written materials needed to perform everyday
vocational tasks.

Based on this conventional view of literacy, two things exist for reading: 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.

Lesson 2. 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 on the screen.

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, develop
their knowledge and potential and to participate fully in their community and
wider society.

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 of 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.

Three critical things 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 system 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 required not only of
students but of teachers as well.

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 multi-
media, create something that can be played online or on a computer.

Digital Storytelling can be broken down into 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.

Apply your Knowledge

Activity 1. Conventional Literacy

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

you?
2. How deep is your level of comprehension?
 3. As a pre-service teacher, what kind of written materials should you be able
to read and understand? Are you reading these materials? How well can
you understand them?

Activity 2. Expanded views of Literacy

1. Which of the new literacies are you knowledgeable in? Which of the new
literacies do you lack knowledge in?
2. Although reading education in the philippines aims to develop
functional/Practical literacy in learners, what level of literacy is being
developed when classroom practices focus more on memorization
rather than on understanding and application?
3. Write a reaction paper about the 21st century literacies.

Assess your Knowledge

Reflect and answer the following questions:

1. Compare and contrast the traditional concept of literacy to the modern

view of literacy.
2. Describe the changes in the 21st century that have led to the rise of new
literacies.
3. What teaching strategies and forms of assessments could you use to
help develop functional literacy?
4. Prepare a lesson (lesson plan) that incorporates some of the new
literacies.
Summing-Up

How Much Have I Learned

A. Let us find out how much we have learned from the lesson. You may go
back to your readings and activities which you have done before.

• Literacy is the state of being able to read and write.

• In Conventional literacy, two things for reading to exist are texts and
meaning or message being communicated by the text for the reader
to extract.
• Expanded views of 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.

References:

Alata, EJ and Ignacio, EJ., 2019. Building and Enhancing New Literacies Across
the Curriculum. 1st edition, Rex Bookstore, Philippines.

Miller, G. A. (1973).Linguistic Communication: Perspective for Research. Newark

Del: International Reading Association.

United Nations Education Scientific and Cultural Organization (2004). The

plurality of literacy and its implications for policies and programmes. Retrieved
from http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0013/001362/13624e.pdf

https://www.readingrockets.org/article/21st-century-literacies