Cultural Literacy: Week 9

The definition of cultural literacy, according to dictionary.com, is the knowledge of history, contributions, and perspectives of different cultural groups, including one’s own group, necessary for understanding multiple forms of media.  This is related to the definitions of general literacy that some of my peers posted.  One definition states that it is “a complex set of abilities needed to understand and use the dominant symbol systems of a culture – alphabets, numbers, visual icons – for personal and community development.  The nature of these abilities, and the demand for them, vary from one context to another”.  This parallels to the meaning of cultural literacy because forms of media are likely to vary across cultures.  Additionally, the skills learned in one culture may be inapplicable or worthless in another culture, thus, an individual may have to learn an entirely new set of literacy skills.  Another definition posted by one of my peers states, “Literacy is a fundamental human right and the foundation for lifelong learning.  It is fully essential to social and human development in its ability to transform lives.  For individuals, families, and societies alike, it is an instrument of empowerment to improve one’s health, one’s income, and one’s relationship with the world”.  This definition also relates to that of cultural literacy because in order to fully function in a culture, one must understand the different forms of media within that culture.  Therefore, each form of traditional literacy (reading, speaking, listening, viewing, and writing) is absolutely necessary in being culturally literate.  With these skills, an individual can improve and develop all areas of their life.

Cultural literacy is a subject of concern in my field placement classroom.  Five of my students are English Second Language Learners; some of them have parents who speak only their first language and are therefore bilingual, and some have moved from a different country and are monolingual.  Hence, they know many skills that are prevalent in developing literacy in terms of their first culture, as well as skills that are prevalent in the American culture.  However, some students are still in the emergent stage in more than one of these skills.  This, in turn, affects how their ability to function socially, behaviorally, and academically.  One student, in particular, has only been in the United States for nine months and knows a minimal amount of English.  As a result, he does not fully engage in lessons of all subject area and often wanders around the room or displays off-task behavior.  Additionally, he has very few conversations with peers and does not continue conversations if they are started.  Conversely, if he knew more English, he would have higher success in reading, writing, speaking, and listening; therefore, pushing towards becoming fully functional and developing a complete sense of belonging in American society.

Aside from cultural literacy and its prevalence around the world, my digital literacy is developing as a result of investigating Glogster, the technology my group is using to present our understanding of cultural literacy.  This technology is useful for teaching because it is site that supports all types of learners.  It allows the user to post videos, use various graphics, layouts, and texts.  It is also kinesthetic, as the user can interact with links and various parts of the information presented.  Thus, the site can attract and maximize the understanding of the information of visual, auditory, and kinesthetic learners.  In terms of my own learning, I typically acquire information better if it is displayed in a brief, outlined format.  Glogster does not require the producer of the product to write paragraphs on paragraphs of information, but rather a few sentences or bullet points.  This may be beneficial to children with reading disabilities, who become overwhelmed when given a lot of information.  This form of technology does not require students to use concepts of print; while looking at a Glogster, the viewer can go anywhere on the page in no specific order.  This may be both an advantage and a disadvantage to those students who have not yet developed some of these concepts, or to those who rely on order and structure in reading, respectively.