PERSONAL LITERACY PROFILE

EDUC1707 Literacy in Primary and Middle Years Contexts, Semester 2, 2014

Hayley Rice
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RATIONALE

What does it mean to be literate in the 21st Century? The answers to this question are very
complex, and thinking about the answers will help you in preparing to teach literacy in
schools. One way to think about the answers is to think about the question in relation to
yourself. How do you use literacies in your everyday life? Also related to answering this
question is an understanding that literacies are not just print related, and a text can have more
than one way of representing meaning, that is, meaning is not just derived from words, but
can also be made from images, audio, gesture, touch and the relations between all these
modes.

Reference

Allen, J. (2010). Literacy in the welcoming classroom: creating family-school partnerships that support student learning. New York: Teachers College Press. – Chapter 3

Ashton, J., Arthur, L., & Beecher, B. (2014). Multiliteracies: Embracing the multiplicity of experiences called ‘literacy’. In L. Arthur, J. Ashton, & B. Beecher (Eds.) Diverse literacies in early childhood: A social justice approach (pp. 1-21). Camberwell, VIC: ACER Press.
Comber, B., & Kamler, B. (2004). Getting out of deficit: pedagogies of reconnection. Teaching education, 15(3), 293-310.
Kalantzis, M., & Cope, B. (2012). Literacies. Melbourne: Cambridge University Press. Chapter 1: Literacies on a human scale pp.21-40
Kalantzis, M., & Cope, B. (2012). Literacies. Melbourne: Cambridge University Press. Chapter 14: Literacies and learner differences pp. 374-400.
Multi-literacies Kalantzis, M., & Cope, B. (2012). Literacies. Melbourne: Cambridge University Press. Chapter 7: Literacies as multimodal designs for meaning pp.173-205.
Sharan, Y., 2014, ‘Cooperative Learning and Intercultural Education Revisited: Continuing Challenges and New Directions’, Intercultural Education, Volume 25, Issue 3, p.175-178

Week Five - Home School Connections

Allen, 2009 and Comber & Kamler, 2004, gives an insight of the strong and imperative value of students home and school connections and how it holds a strong benefit for students as avid learners as it aims to provide students with a supportive environment, and a heavy communication reliance between students, teachers and parents and overall, a positive and engaging school experience.

As mentioned in the previous blog, students bring to the class a whole array of attributes and knowledge’s, cultural experiences and understandings. In a class of 24 students, it is near impossible that on a day to day basis the teacher deeply understand and have knowledge of a student and their home life. It is beneficial to have an understanding of this home life as it may give an indication of how a student may learn and the different literacies they learn best with. There are many different ways in which a teacher can learn certain attributes.

I reflect on my time in school and the connections made between home and school life. All throughout my schooling my parents played a vital role in the communication between me, the school and us. In early primary, I remember being provided a journal which I made entries in about what happened on the weekend. The would then read and write notes back. Another example of this type of home school connection was with Lamby the class "pet". We each had a week with Lamby and would take photos and write a recount of how we spent the week. This correspondence provides the teacher with knowledge of my home life, my interests and a vague idea of the family structure, without being invasive.

The Bronfenbrenner Ecology Theory System is based on human development and how it is influences by the array of environmental systems that can impact on a child's development. Children's home life plays a major part in the child's development at school. Below is a diagram of the factors that are evident in my life, and impacted on my schooling and development.

It is vital in the 21st century for teachers to be aware of students' home life as it provides insights to their learning capabilities, strengths and weaknesses. The Bronfenbrenner Ecology Theory System is a way to view the home life of children and their developmental progress.

Week Three - Life Worlds

The life world is not particularly explicit or set in stone. It is a set of habits, behaviours; values and interests that go without saying in a particular context (Kalantzis. 2012). My past, my present and my future has and will shape me as a person and determine where I will end up. My life world attributes also shape me as a person in four (4) particular domains, narrative, persona, affinity and orientation.

My life worlds have critically developed my literacy skills and understandings. The interconnection of my life world attributes have shaped me as a learner, an academic and ultimately a literacy prod-user.

Suggested by Kalantzis, 2012, there are different aspects that can affect the outcomes of literacy learners. These aspects are broken into three (3) categories, material, corporeal and symbolic differences. Similar to the four (4) domains of attributes, these differences include factors such as, socio-cultural background, economic status and family background.

In schools today, there are many different cultures being brought into the classroom and many different values and belief systems Kalantzis, (2012) It is vital for the teacher to provide an inclusive classroom environment for all students to learn and incorporate their life world attributes in. One TED talk that I watch religiously is the "Every Kid Needs a Champion" by Rita Pierson. Rita explores the imperative that all children need a teacher that can make a difference for each individual child, regardless of their life world and regardless of their disposition. She suggests that every child is different and they need different modes of attention and assistance to achieve outcomes and ambitions. Backgrounds influence how children are today so it is important as an educator to cater for all children needs and life world attributes.

Sharan (2014) suggests that a transformation has been made in regards to the disposition of perceptions towards the multifaceted inclusion of a variety of cultural attributes and material, corporeal and symbolic differences. This transformation of scrutiny has been positively influenced by the increasing number of diverse cultures and attributes in the classroom. Thus, provides reinforcement that multimodal literacy embedded into the classroom is beneficial for all literacy learners and prod-users.

Week Two - Multimodality and Synaesthesia

Multimodality is making meanings in more than one way (Kalantzis. 2012) and how these modes of meaning are interconnected in our practices of representation and communication. In the 21^st Century it is so easy to learn through a multimodal way without knowing it. There are seven (7) modes of meaning:

· Written meaning (writing and reading)
· Visual meaning (perception and image)
· Spatial meaning (location and positioning)
· Tactile meaning (touch and bodily sensation)
· Gestural meaning (body language)
· Audio meaning (sound and music)
· Oral meaning (speaking and listening)

Multimodal literacies are imperative in the 21^st century classroom as individual learners have strengths and weaknesses relating to these modes of meanings. A class may be learning through a didactic approach, writing and reading facts about Australia’s geography, however by introducing visual meaning, perception and image, students are making meaning in more than one way and it is evident that the modes are interconnected through the representation and communication of knowledge and understanding. During school, my teachers and facilitators recognised my need for visual aids and prompts to make meaning, as well as the written mode. This, in turn provided me with extra knowledge and gave me sufficient modes of learning.

Synaesthesia is making meaning in one way, then another; shifting between one mode and another. Knowing how to represent and communicate things in multiple modes is a way to get a multifaceted and, in this sense, a deeper understanding of these things as Kalantzis, 2012 suggests. I think of when I encounter this type of meaning making and what comes to mind in my usual study habits. Earphones plugged in, textbook open and FaceBook messenger in hand, for the occasional question being sent to a fellow student, shifting between these modes and making meaning in many ways is how I express synaesthesia on a near regular basis. This is a great way to initiate meaning and understand concepts through many modes.

Representation, communication and interpretation are the cycle of literacy meaning making. Representation is what you are telling yourself, communication is what you are telling others and interpretation is what you are telling yourself what you think others mean. This cycle can be processed and initiated by any other the seven (7) modes of meaning making (Kalantzis, 2012).

Collectively speaking, written meaning is the most significant mode of literacy as, without it, it is deemed someone is illiterate. Thus, it can be suggested that written meaning is the most important literacy for students to learn, however, through a synaesthesia meaning making approach, a deeper understanding may be achieved. Overall, in the 21^st century it is vital to see literacies through the seven (7) modes.

Week One - What is literacy in the 21st Century?

‘Literacy is 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 his or her goals, develop his or her knowledge and potential and participate fully in community and wider society’(UNESCO 2005).

It has only recently been apparent to me at how frequent I am a user of literacy. I previously believed that literacy was reading and writing, English class and punctuation. However, “there is not a single notion of literacy as a skill which people possess or not, but multiple literacies” (Richmond, 2008). Phillips (2014), challenged me to think of that spatial, audio, visual, gestural, tactile and oral means are types of literacies and to engage with them as much as written. This wide array of literacies made me think of the literacies I engage with regularly and practice on a frequent basis. Bruns (2008) provided the concept of us as prod-users of literacies, being participatory more than ever through literacy codes. This got me thinking of how much of a user I am, and a producer. It was astonishing at the depth of literacy I delve into when incorporating spatial, audio, visual, gestural, tactile and oral as well as written.

Two familiar literacy codes that I am an enthusiastic user of and previously wasn't aware that they were literacy codes are audio and visual.

Here are three of my top played songs!!!

Beyonce – Run The World

Ed Sheeran – Photograph

Boyce Avenue – One Life

This is a collage of photos of me with the ones that mean the most to me!

Bruns (2008) invites us to reflect on participation and interaction with literacies. In the 21^st century it has become second nature to participate and interact with literacies through media, significantly the World Wide Web! The internet provides us with codes of literacies that I never thought were categorised as literacies. Throughout the years technology and the internet have advance thoroughly and transformed the way in which prod-users utilise literacies and engage with all codes. ‘Literacy is about making and exchanging meaning’ (Ashton, Arthur and Beecher, 2014), thus personal connections and reflections of family and schooling contexts are imperative for the meaning to resonate with the user.