My Literacy Practices

I've always thought of my literacy skills as relatively advanced - I've had a good education and tried to make the best of it by challenging myself and maintaining my skills. Now that my definition of literacy is expanding, so too is my self-awareness.

During the last couple of weeks I have been taking notice of the literacy skills I use and which modes I am dominant in. I walked around my unit and grouped things I saw into which mode of literacy they indicate I am literate in. Here is a mind map I made, synaethesing with my visual and written literacies.

Image created on iPad app.: Inspiration Map

When making this mind map I realised I am heavily dominant in written literacy. I found countless things all over my unit that require written literacy which supports my self-image of being highly literate in the traditional sense. This dominance reflects my schooling experience which was heavily focused on learning to read and write competently from an early age of 5 and building on these skills throughout my education. Completing years 1 to 5 in an English curriculum gave me the benefit of high standards of speech and elocution, and even high standards of written communication. Grammar was consistently taught, and we were given many opportunities to build our literacies through assignments, games, lessons and homework. I then completed year 6 in an Australian school which put me behind in my written and visual literacies when I returned to an English curriculum in year 7. Years 8 and 9 I completed in Australia and years 10, 11, and 12 I completed in an American curriculum. I think the British curriculum gave me strong written and oral literacies and I also think my schooling experience developed my visual and gestural literacies.

My travels exposed me to diversity in the education system as well as culturally. Having spent time getting to know people from all over the world in a variety of situations gave me knowledge of different cultures and religions. I believe this understanding has given me insight into why people do the things they do. Exposure to different languages has also developed my gestural literacy as I have been able to communicate using body language and significant gestures to indicate intentions. This literacy was not evident in my unit but I plan on taking note of my social activities in the coming days to find out if and when I use this literacy.

Here is a map showing what percentage of the country's population is literate based on a deficit view of literacy (a view categorising people unable to read and write as illiterate), and based on data collected from 2005-2013.

World Literacy Map (World Maps, 2013)