Wednesday, September 26, 2007
importance of literacy
To me the most important part of literacy is comprehension and understanding. Reading and understanding are totaly different things. I can read a story, or a text book, or an article, but the words have no meaning if I'm not comphrending their meaning. Literacy requires a lot to fully understand, background knowledge and understanding is required so understanding is easier and I am able to differentiate what I'm reading. If I am un-educated and I read an article, I can read it, but it won't do anything for me, because I don't understand it, the words are just words. If I am educated about the topic, the article will make sense to me because I have prior knowledge on the subject area, so the words make sense to me. And from understanding I can then make my own, educated choices, decide what is/isnt important that I need to read. So to me, comprehension is the most important part of literacy, so one can understand what they are reading.
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4 comments:
I agree with you, and I like the way that you explained your thoughts. This post relates a lot to the earlier post by Laryss, who talked about how comprehension is what ties together the different aspects of literacy; I think you did a good job of explaining why that is.
I agree that comprehension and understanding are key elements to literacy. I think that it is also important to combine this idea with the use of prior knowledge in processing information and helping a reader to understand what they are reading. You did a great job at explaining your position.
I definitely see your point, and yet I also know that decoding, and phonics, and vocabulary all play a part in that comprehension.
I really don't know what I think the most important part of literacy is -- I see how tangled up the different components are, and yet I also see (like Joe mentioned) how students usually have strengths in one area and weaknesses in another. It's almost like the most important part of literacy changes, depending on the student.
I like your posting. I do agree that comprenhension and understanding are important elements in literacy. I also think that background knowledge and the level of education play an important role on what everyone chooses to read every day.
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