One of the things that I have been thinking quite a bit about lately is the term “literacy.” As scholars and teachers, we often use “literacy” to mean “the ability to read and write,” but, practically, it always means more than that. It’s well established that what scholars and educators and standards-writers really mean, especially at the secondary level, is not just reading, but something closer to “the ability to read and synthesize information from a text.” Not just writing, but “the ability to respond coherently within the boundaries of a specific genre.” These are basic social literacy ideas, of course – as Gee says, a student’s reading and writing practices and products need to fit into an acceptable form of school Discourse to count as demonstration of knowledge.

I’ve been thinking about this lately in the context of the new NAEP draft framework for what they are calling technological literacy. I found out about the invitation for public comment and took the survey just before it closed. Here’s a little about what I thought.Read More »