Why Literacy?

I would argue that literacy is linked with the development of critical thinking skills. Literacy in my opinion is not just knowing how to read but making choices from what you are reading; comprehension. A certain level of understanding and comprehension needs to be reached to make choices from reading. Some might say being able to decipher from fact and fiction or at the very least questioning what we read as being fact or fiction is a needed skill in our society.

A shift from learning to read to reading to learn should be made in education after students know how to read. Reading to comprehend what the author is saying is I think the first step, then being able to agree or disagree in an informed way is the next.

Policy in our country is at a pinnacle of change or could be. To help students become active citizens in society as a teacher, I will have to be able to teach them to decipher the massive amounts of information available now as fact or fiction and how to make informed decisions.

This set of skills just enforces, in my opinion, why it is important to have student autonomy in the classroom at all levels. So students can begin to make decisions and know that their actions have reactions for not just themselves.