21st Century Literacy

21st Century Literacies

What do you think about the statement below?

I Like Howards Gardners point of view, language is growing each day at a rapid pace and in all different forms from standard text to computorized texting, from local slang to globl slang. Meaning can be derived from all froms of communication visual, non verbal commands, signs and symbols. It is important to keep up with the common communication of your students. Knowing the difference between fat and phat can go a long way when trying to connect with the 21 st century student.

In Intelligence Reframed Howard Gardner contends that "literacies, skills, and disciplines ought to be pursued as tools that allow us to enhance our understanding of important questions, topics, and themes." Today's readers become literate by learning to read the words and symbols in today's world and its antecedents. They analyze, compare, evaluate and interpret multiple representations from a variety of disciplines and subjects, including texts, photographs, artwork, and data. They learn to choose and modify their own communication based on the rhetorical situation. Point of view is created by the reader, the audience and the medium.


Basic Language Literacy
Online Reading Strategies (A Think Aloud)
Online Reading Strategies (PowerPoint)
Phonetic and Pictorial Alphabets
New Meanings
Paragraph Art
Argument and Persuasion
Constructing an Argument
Resources for Young Writers
Literary Club
Bone From a Dry Sea (from a factual quiz to thinking activity)
Socratic Seminar Rubric (.pdf)
Visual Literacy
Reading Photographs: Handout
Visual Literacy Project: Plan Brainstorming
Spatial Literacy
Three Information Literacy Questions to Ask About a Map: Handout
Historical Literacy
Primary Sources
Reading the Context: Martin Luther King
Turn of the Century Child (An American Memory Fellows Project)
Cultural Literacy
Ethnography Project
Information Literacy
Building Blocks of Research
Choose the Best Search Engine for Your Information Need
Choosing Invisible Web Databases
Teaching the Commons (Powerpoint)
The Ethical Researcher
Who knows what? A School-wide Lens on Evaluation: Handout
Deconstructing a Web Site: Advocacy or Education?
Political Literacy and News Media Literacy
Reading Media Photographs
You are Shocked
Libraries and the First Amendment
Scientific Literacy
Genetics #1, #2
Global Warming: Science and Society
Mathematical Literacy
Job Search: Mathematician
Finding and Using Data
Students' Financial Literacy Eroding (San Francisco Chronicle)