What is Literacy?
Defining Literacy
The Wake Forest Center for Literacy Education believes literacy entails many crucial acts, including
- studying and cultivating intellectual knowledge among teachers, scholars, practitioners, and students from different disciplines,
- equipping children, adolescents, and adults with the powerful tool of language to dismantle barriers in educational and social systems.
- communicating personal and professional experience across complex social identities and through a variety of multilingual and multimodal systems, and
- promoting learning through engagement with diverse texts, authors, and viewpoints.
We support faculty, staff, and students with broad interests related to literacy education. Examples include but are not limited to the following literacy categories.
“The skills and abilities required to read and write effectively in grades 4–12.” (ILA)
“The ability to use printed and written information to function in society, to achieve one’s goals, and to develop one’s knowledge and potential beyond secondary school.” (ILA)
“The knowledge and skills needed to understand, interact with, and evaluate AI technologies and responsible usage of intelligent machines.” (ILA)
“The knowledge and understanding required to participate authentically in the arts (e.g., dance, media arts, music, theatre, visual arts)….[including] the use of appropriate materials and in appropriate spaces.” (NAS)
“Having the knowledge and skills you need to participate in making change in your community.” (ABCLLC)
“The development of literacy and learning skills for any individual or group of individuals outside of the formal education system….in the context of home and community.” (ILA)
“The ability to actively read texts in a manner that promotes a deeper understanding of socially constructed concepts such as power, inequality, and injustice in human relationships.” (ILA)
“Being able to understand [and engage with] the traditions, regular activities and history of a group of people from a given culture.” (ABCLLC)
“The ability to understand data and data practices sufficiently to meaningfully interpret data and effectively communicate that meaning.” (NNLM)
“The socially mediated ways of generating and interpreting online content through multiple modes….requires readers and writers to examine how the texts they consume, produce, and distribute online advocate for certain views while silencing other ideas.” (ILA)
“Refers to the specifics of reading, writing, and communicating in a discipline….focuses on the ways of thinking, the skills, and the tools that are used by experts in the disciplines.” (ILA)
“Everything a child knows about reading and writing before he or she can read or write.” (CLEL)
“An individual’s understanding of how their actions and decisions affect the environment.” (EEAI)
“The home literacy activities of families….[including a] focus on developing the literacy skills of parents and children simultaneously.” (ILA)
“Having the skills and knowledge to make informed decisions about managing your money….[and] how to navigate the financial system.” (ABCLLC)
“The knowledge, skills, and behaviors that contribute to well-balanced diets, taking into account structural factors such as access, security, and sustainability.” (ALA)
“The knowledge, skills, and attitudes necessary to live and work effectively in the new global environment.” (NEDOE)
“The degree to which individuals have the ability to find, understand, and use information and services to inform health-related decisions and actions for themselves and others.” (CDC)
“To read and learn about the stories, mysteries, questions, controversies, issues, discoveries, and drama that are the real substance of history.” (ISTE/ASCD)
“A set of abilities requiring individuals to recognize when information is needed and have the ability to locate, evaluate, and use effectively the needed information.” (ALA)
“The ability to compose and analyze using all forms of communication….[including] evaluating message, meaning, and the relationships between medium, audience, information, and power.” (ILA)
“The ability to use basic math skills in everyday life and the ability to use numbers to solve problems or manage finances.” (EQLit)
“Systems of representation that use different ways of expressing one’s self and different forms of media, such as print, drawing, photography, and audio and video recording.” (ILA)
“The development and repeated use of fine motor skills, balance, confident movement, and the enjoyment of being able to move with skill.” (EQLit)
“The ability to identify, apply, and integrate concepts from science, technology, engineering, and mathematics to understand complex problems and to innovate to solve them.” (WA)
“The ability to interpret and communicate with visual images and graphic formats; this includes those in printed texts and other media, as in interpreting art, television shows, and nature.” (ILA)
“The skills employees need to have in order to be successful at work functions and manage the demands of their jobs in a healthy, productive way.” (ABCLLC)