What Is Literacy?

Literacy is a common term and used often, yet what does it mean to be literate? More specifically, for our purpose, what does it mean to teach literacy? The first two chapters begin with the foundations of literacy and language acquisition. The third chapter highlights the importance of family and community in children’s lives and how they are the developers and nurturers of all types of literacies. Before assuming that literacy instruction begins with teaching the alphabet, we must investigate what literacy means to our students and what they bring to us as teachers. This section of the text provides you with a broad understanding of what literacy and language are in relation to students and their families.