ACTIVITY RECOGNIZING DIFFERENT LITERACIES

1. Make a list of everything that you have read or written so far today. Consider all kinds of “texts,” including videos, advertisements, text messages, cereal boxes, and so on. Then, try to categorize the texts you have encountered or created. What commonalities and patterns do you notice? How do these texts illustrate “literacy” in the twenty-first century?

2. Explain how each of the following texts demonstrates unique literacies and try to describe the symbol systems used to communicate the information. Are you or people you know “literate” within the communities that use these symbol systems? What can you understand and what can you not?

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   Kate Robbins, Library of Congress, Music Division

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   ThursdayNightPizza.com
   

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3. Write an explanation of your own literacies. You may want to consider one or more of the following questions to guide your response:

   • Do the majority of your literacies tend to be part of unique literacy communities or are they literacies used by the general public?

   • How are your literacies different from those of other people? What roles do age, gender, interests, and cultural background play?

   • How have your literacies changed or grown over time? Why have they changed? What new literacies do you think you might add in the future?