Building Foundations of Literacy Literacy Survey Assignment. Personal and Professional.

Student’s Name
Tutor’s Name
Course
Date
Literacy Survey
Personal and Professional.
Learning is a lifelong process that cannot be limited by time or age. However, the environment in which one lives has a significant influence on literacy development. From personal experience, I can testify that building literacy skills require a certain degree of encouragement and assistance. I started to learn about reading and writing when I was in preschool. At first, I did not like the idea because I thought it was a waste of my precious time playing. I can call it childhood naiveté because today, I can reflect on how literacy has changed my life and say that it is a beautiful experience.
I came to learn about how to read and write during the first days in preschool. At the time of my admission, I had no idea what reading and or writing is all about until our teacher introduced as to some cultured drawings called vowels and alphabetical order. There were also many charts containing animals, fruit cars, images of a boy and a girl as well as that of a man and a woman. The diagrams and drawings were mounted everywhere on the walls of the classroom. Every time we arrived in school, our teacher took us through all the Charts and illustrations explaining what they are. He read the contents of the charts aloud, and we repeated after him. That is how I came to know how to read. There was no other way I could understand how to read without seeing or seeing someone does it.
The daily routine of reading the charts with and sometimes without the assistance of the teacher made the exercise very interesting. As a result, I developed an interest in reading and became my teacher's favorite pupil, especially in languages. The close relationship and rapport with my teacher made me grow more interest in reading. Reading became my hobby, and I could not wait for the schools to open to read with my teachers and young classmates.
The most challenging part of the early development of literacy and literacy skills is the ability to write. Reading and writing are part and parcel of literacy, and none can operate in isolation of the other (Brandt and Gee). Literacy development is measured against existing and persistent growth in the ability to read and write. One cannot brag about being literate if their writing and reading skills are not congruent. The two must complement each other, and at no given time should one be missing or declining. I learned about writing at the same time that came to know how to read. During my elementary education, no day was a success without completing a writing assignment, at least as far as my teacher was concerned a single day without participating in a writing exercise.
Animals, fruits, and furniture drawings conspicuously displayed in the walls of the classroom helped me in building literacy skills. Preschool programs such as drawings contribute to the development of early cognitive skills (Borghans, Lex, et al.). While reading turned out to be an easy task, partly because of the beautiful paintings of the vowels and alphabetical chart that dominated learning materials, the writing was an uphill task. It requires extra energy and interpersonal skills to write comprehensible sentences. Writing consistently and getting comments from my teacher significantly shaped my literacy skills. We were assigned writing tasks that involved drawings and joining the dots to make a complete sentence. Drawings assignment was the turning point of my writing skills. It was an exciting experience since most of the tasks required us to draw and name the animals and pets we kept at home. The passion and the urge to do as many drawings as possible catapulted me to another level of literacy.
I found nothing exciting like drawing our pet dog, Oscos. Since it was my best friend back at home, bringing Oscos was more fun than the literary assignment. In the process, my writing skills improved tremendously as an increased number of drawings. It is through drawing that I learned how to write and communicate my thoughts and opinion in writing. By the time I was exposed to writing sentences and paragraphs, I already knew how and when to use a capital letter in a sentence. When I joined elementary school, I already knew how to apply, articles ‘an' ‘' and ‘the' in a sentence. I could read and make short notes on storybooks. Drawing helped me build writing skills that define my literacy and excellent grasp of the English language today. Effective communication and listening are the defining features of literacy (Ahmed, n.p). I learned to listen in different contexts through critical and therapeutic listening, depending on the circumstances of each case. Practical application of acquired literacy skills improved my communication and listening skills. There is power in spoken words, but there is a higher power in organized thoughts reduced into writing.
The journey to the acquisition, exhibition, and useful application of literacy skills are never complete or legitimate without literacy sponsors. Anyone can be a literacy sponsor to another depending on the context and their roles. Sponsors include "any agents, local or distant, concrete or abstract, who enable, support, teach, model, as well as recruit, regulate, suppress, or withhold literacy—and gain an advantage by it in some way" (Brandt 166). Many people in my life enabled supported, robust, and modeled my literacy. The most outstanding sponsors are my mother and grade one teacher. My mother always insisted on seeing my books every night before I retired to bed. She would start by asking me what I learned that day then proceed to confirm if what I told her is true. Her participation in my literacy journey went beyond mere parental responsibility.
My grade one teacher was more than a teacher, but a dedicated, educated person who got out of his way to ensure that every pupil was admitted in his class left fully baked. Two events will never escape my memory as far as my literacy journey is concerned. One of them is the inter-school English contest, which I was privileged to participate in. I became the best student and above all, awarded for scoring unprecedented marks in Literature. I considered the contest as a golden opportunity to showcase my prowess in language, and it worked out. The event earned me respect and admiration among my contemporaries and teachers alike. There are no mistakes but an excellent opportunity to learn from our undoing. I want to admit that I have been a victim of a literacy deficit. There was during my sixth grade when my lack of literacy became a communication barrier. It happened when I asked the literature question, and the teacher answered using metaphor and hidden meaning. Even though I was the designated beneficiary of the answer, I got nothing since by then, I was not a critical listener, and neither had I mastered the technique of inferring meaning.
While the general knowledge is that literacy is all about the ability to read and write, the contrary is true, especially in the education field. From my professional training experience, literacy is the ability to observe, evaluate, analyze, and synthesize information to produce strategic success. In the field of education, literacy is the ability to create a literature environment by employing teaching methods that enhance the learner's understanding of the literacy function and create room for practicing literacy skills (Medwell). In education, literacy is the ability to assemble and utilize the available resources to inspire knowledge. Education is power, but that power does not exclusively reside in spoken and written words. Reading and writing are essential tools of communication that anyone who went to school can use and exploit.
Literacy can mean different things to different people depending on the context and field of specialization (Gee). For instance, how literacy is defined in the context of Information Technology is not necessarily similar to the definition it is assigned or dedicated to the education field. A person with computer knowledge is literate in their rights, and so is the person knowledgeable in finance management. The former possesses what is known as computer or Information Communication Technology literacy while the latter's financial literacy. Therefore, a person who can write and speak in the English language, for instance, in a way that can only be discerned by a specific group or category of people is also literate in their rights. This is what distinguishes the definition and components of literacy in education from other fields. In this field, it doesn't stop at the ability to read and write but goes to the extent of the ability to listen and communicate effectively.
Adolescent Observation
A keen observation of how average adolescents interact with one another, whether verbal or non-verbal, raises the question of the place of literacy in modern communication. It also increases the subject of the site of adolescent literacy institutions. If someone seeks my opinion on adolescents' literacy practices, my answer would be very brief and concise. Change is inevitable, and one should be ready and willing to change with the change before the shift changes them. It is unavoidable because adolescents' literacy is here with us, and the least we can do is to focus on the assets of these adolescents, rather than their perceived deficits.
Vocabularies or their use in a sentence written or spoken is itself evidence of literacy within the definition of the latter in an education context. From my observation, adolescents have neither time nor space for the application or use in their verbal communication. From an adult perspective, the interaction among adolescents embodies casual literacy practices. However, the interaction, when looked at through the lenses of a teacher, is an excellent opportunity to appreciate the dying and emerging literacy practices. Adolescent literacy institution is influenced by self-efficacy and engagement. Having learned how to read and write, they believe that conventional literacy practices are only relevant to course work or examination. There is no doubt that formal communication that incorporates appropriate use of vocabulary contributes towards the development of literacy. However, literacy is not confined to reading or writing that includes vocabulary.
Another observation of adolescents' interaction is dialogue. Conversations of adolescents have one thing in common. They are either shortened or do not comply with formalism. For instance, adolescents do not abide by the educated protocol both in their verbal and non-verbal communication. It is rare to find adolescents referring or calling their peers with their surname, and even if they do, they do not use the prefix, Mr. X or Ms. Y, as required by the properly educated protocol. What is surprising is that they love it that way. No one raises the issue in the middle of a heated conversation to seek clarification on why so and or so-referred to them inappropriately. From my observation, even though they do not comply with the conventional or accepted literary rules, the interaction is useful and productive. What does this say about the literacy practices of adolescents? The literacy practices of adolescents expose them to the challenges morphology. Informal dialogue significantly affects one's ability to read and write. Since the method is a commonplace among adolescents, it affects their ability to understand the morphological structure of a sentence.
Another non-verbal literacy practice among adolescents is concerning body movements. Action speaks volumes, but silence is eloquent. Nothing makes more sense of this phrase, like the way adolescents utilize elements of literacy when interacting with their peers. Everybody movement is intentional and deliberate meant to communicate a point. Every word is accompanied by demonstration, and a gesture punctuates every silence. What surprised me is that adolescents use non-verbal communication, such as gestures and body movements, inappropriately. It would be expected that someone who can read and write and has a liberal education understands the meaning of every element of communication. It is particularly surprising because they interact so well and get along in their conversations despite the inappropriate use of nonverbal communication.
For the entire time that I spent observing how adolescents interact with one another, there was not even a single incident where there was no use of facial expression. I would say facial expression dominates most of their conversation. Despite the fact that facial expression is one of the techniques at the narrator's disposal to capture the attention of their audience, adolescents seem to be unaware of this. It raises the question of whether they understand the silent element of literacy.
Interviews.
Although they may look as informal assessments aimed at eliciting extensive information on people's reading and writing practices, literacy practice interviews are arguably one of the best ways of understanding the nature and scope of literature in society or among a dedicated group of people. This is so because the numerous interview questions will involve their necessity to books and their struggle for access to reading and writing materials, their reading habits, and their attitudes towards reading and writing.
For my study, I carried out detailed interviews on three people, my excellent language teacher who taught me English when I was in high school, and one person who has had the most extensive experience in literacy work. The second person I interviewed was an eloquent speaker in my city. I chose him because of the attention he has been getting forever since I was a kid regarding how he has mastered the English language and public speaking. He is always called to be the master of insignificant ceremony events around the country because of his outstanding command of words and delivery. Lastly, I interviewed a young writer who was introduced to me by my friend. He is a youth writing for Times Press, a media company in my location. All the interviews were performed partly in one-on-one settings and partially online.
After asking each of them to introduce themselves (which they did, briefly), I created six questions that I asked my interviewees. The following is an outline of the problems:
1 Why is literacy education important to you?
2 How will you describe and categorize your passion for literature?
3 How often do you read and write, and why do you find it fun to read and write?
4 Do you share your reading influence with the people around you?
5 What do you like to read and write about the most?
6 What is your take on the state of literacy in the world today?
I asked my interviewees the questions above to obtain a concrete understanding of what literacy means to them and create a firmer stand on the topic. The first reason for the items was to identify the varying levels of reading and writing and their use for engagement among different groups of people, ages, and cultures (Guerin-Pace & Alain 224). Additionally, I asked the questions to identify their specific reasons for reading and writing as well as collect certain types of literature that they involve themselves with the most in their professions. Besides, in order to understand the various social networks in which reading and writing are carried out, and to document how the systems mediate their literacy practices, I asked the interviewees the question on whether they involve those around them in their passion. Finally, I wanted to examine their love for literature to know their attitudes towards it.
From their answers, all three individuals state that literacy education is essential not only to themselves but to the progress of the English language in general. However, what I found to be pertinent was how all of them related the significance of literacy to economic development. All of them said that the economy of a nation is enhanced when learners have higher literacy levels. This is because standard and effective literacy skills are vital in opening important doors of education and employment opportunities, enabling people to escape poverty and chronic unemployment. This notion is even more essential in the world today because of the advancing technology, which necessitates that individuals continuously acquire basic knowled...