Recently, my mind has been bombarded with ideas and thoughts around literacy. How is it defined in a modern, technology-based world? How do current changes affect the way literacy should be taught in the classroom?
I was lucky enough to find a twitter chat, #ntchat, focusing on literacy this week. It was a great opportunity to share ideas and collaborate with other educators to discuss what literacy looks like in the classroom today. Below is a brief summary of the chat.
Question #1: How do you define literacy? Being well-read, being able to read, or something else?
Question #2: How do we support students to acquire it – literacy?
Question #3: What about writing? Should reading and writing be taught together? How do we accomplish that?
Question #4: What web 2.0 tools or digital tools do you use to promote literacy?
From this chat it became clearer to me that yes, the definition of literacy is changing. Although the core values still exist, the meaning is evolving and changing because of the implications of technology, and also the need to adapt to today’s world. The overall arching theme that stuck out to me from this chat is the importance of modeling and being involved with reading and writing, the need for students to make connections to the things they are reading, the things happening in their lives, and across the curriculum, and the opportunities and abilities that we have in a technology-based school system to use incredible tools to create literate students.
Out With Erin 
Erin, you have archived (via this blog) so many gems from this Twitter discussion. I think the underlying truth is: no matter which literacy-enhancing method you use to engage our learners, it should be a ‘best practice’ modeled (and scaffolded, when needed) by a ‘passionate-for-learning’ teacher. Great blog post! Rhonda (@ContentLiteracy)
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