Eavesdropping

I'm listening in on students in my summer literacy class as they use all the principles we have discussed thus far to design their own classrooms. It's totally cool to hear their voices get excited as they imagine what's possible. I tell them that they have all the money they need and no standardized tests to worry about. The interesting thing though is that everything they are designing can be done within the current environment. Some would need some creative fundraising, but all can be done. I love listening to them create. 

Defining literacy as a class

Here is my summer 2013 literacy class's definition of literacy:
Literacy is:

·      Reading for information, pleasure, and understanding; comprehension

·      Communication; making, sending and receiving messages through multimodal means

·      Interpreting messages; means of understanding the world and reflecting

·      A collaborative way of meaning making

·      Symbolism – conveying meaning

·      Human made to make our life easier

·      Cultural, social, historical, digital, political tool for mediating meaning making

·      Language and interaction based

·      Facilitates organization (instructions, lists)

·      Liberating/oppressive (based on place)

·      Reflects traits of the individual

·      Power

·      Context dependent

·      Related to audience/purpose

·      Collaboratively constructed

What do you think? What, if anything would you change?