Literacy

Literacy in Alberta

Alberta Education’s definition: Literacy is the ability, confidence, and willingness to engage with language to acquire, construct and communicate meaning in all aspects of daily living.

The knowledge, skills and processes of reading and writing are taught primarily in the language arts classroom. Reading and writing are critical skills, and a large part of literacy, but simply having those skills does not make one literate. Literacy is the critical application of reading and writing learned in the language arts classroom (as well as many other skills) into new and varied contexts, such as reading a periodic table in chemistry or creating a digital poster for social studies.

In literacy we acquire information through reading but also through viewing and listening in order to make meaning. We communicate through writing but also through speaking, non-verbal expressions or gestures, creating visual images or with a combination of many of these forms.