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What is Literacy?

 

Literacy

Literacy is basically the ability to decode and encode a language for meaning, using different cognitive abilities/strategies. It can be a cultural language- the first language one learns to speak, or any other language after that. People can be literate in as many languages as they want to learn. The term literacy is extended to the ability of making meaning in specific languages such as computer, media, financial, environmental literacy and so on. The United Nations Educational, Scientific  and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) defines literacy as “the ability to identify, understand, interpret, create, communicate and compute, using printed and written materials associated with varying contexts”

 

The Literacy Journey

So how does the literacy journey begin?  Literacy begins with oral language as preparedness for reading . Reading is a tool that can help us do a variety of jobs. It’s a skill because the more we practice the better we read. It’s an ability because it empowers us to think and learn new things, and it’s also a process because we learn it over a period of time. When we over-learn the reading process, it frees up the conscious mind, allowing it to focus on other cognitive areas required to deal with a new situation. The development of oral language, starting when we are infants, is important to the reading process later on. When children go to school with large vocabularies and reading readiness skills (i.e. they know how to handle a book), they are well equipped to learn to read.

The Reading Puzzle

My opinions about literacy and literature are a result of my personal experiences both as a learner, a teacher as well as the vast amounts of research papers and books that I’ve read over the years. I agree with Elaine K. McEwan’s  jigsaw puzzle of the readiing components. I believe all the components are equally important and when one piece of the reading puzzle is missing or poorly taught, then it affects the whole experience. According to E. McEwan, the pieces of the reading puzzle are: Phonological Awareness, Phonics, Spelling, Reading a lot, A reading culture, Language, Fluency, knowledge and Cognitive Strategies.

Illiteracy

On the other hand, Illiteracy is the inability to read and write. Different approaches to teaching reading and writing since the 1950s were/are attempts to reduce the illiteracy rate in North America as well as other countries. Many people may not be completely illiterate, but their poor literacy skills don’t allow them to fill out an application, or read a simple children’s story. They are dependent on others, who may or may not give the information they need, and that makes people vulnerable.

 

With Love and Gratitude.

Alda

Source:

McEwan, Elaine. Teach Them All to Read(2002)

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The True Power of Water and the Creation of a Nurturing Environment

The True Power of Water by Masaru Emoto is a favourite book of mine.  He researched water and took pictures of frozen water crystals.  These crystals  had been exposed to different vibration frequencies and environmental toxins.

If water was exposed to positive words (love, gratitude, thank you, beautiful music ie- Pachelbel’s Cannon in D Major) it formed beautiful crystals, but if it was exposed to negative words (fear, worry, stress , a piece of heavy metal music) the crystals were deformed and unbalanced. These can be seen in the pictures in the book. For example:


Thank you

 

 

“Cannon in D Major” Pachelbel

 

Love and Gratitude

On page 142  of The True Power of Water under the subtitle “Love” and “Gratitude” Change the World, Emoto writes,“ Water responded to words used for talking to children.” If we talk lovingly to children, whose bodies are 90% water, then we can imagine what a High vibrational energy download that is.  Masaru  Emoto says, “We must pay respect to water, feel love and gratitude, and receive vibrations with a positive attitude. Then, water changes, you change, and I change. Because  both you and I are water”. (p.145). The implications for raising healthy and happy children are amazing not to mention their enhanced ability to learn to read and  read to learn- full literacy.

The Two Minds

The conscious mind is busy with learning, but the subconscious mind which has been downloading information since conception, can be an asset or a hindrance because  it runs our lives. So it is to our advantage that the ‘programs’ are beneficially positive.   Dr. Lipton, humorously, entitles chapter 2 in The Biology of Belief – “It’s the Environment, Stupid”.  It is the environment that changes/activates genes.

The Power to Change

By consciously empowering ourselves, we can change our environment. The same goes for children’s learning environments both at home and at school. How great to know that we have the power to change by creating positive vibrations that can be felt throughout the human body.  The ability to change by using one’s free will!

With Love and Gratitude,

Alda

 

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Nurturing The Child to Successfully develop the Reading Puzzle

Nurturing Environment 

A nurturing environment is critical to children’s lives. It provides the ‘frame’ to assemble  daily learning.  Children learn better in safe environments because they are not intimidated or bullied. Therefore it’s easier to be a risk-taker when learning, to venture a guess, to go out of their comfort zone. Healthy, well nourished children raised in loving homes provide a strong ‘frame’ in which teachers and parents can help them build their reading puzzle. A nurturing environment is key to children’s overall development.

Even Before Birth

However, the ‘frame’ of the reading puzzle starts taking shape way before the child gets to daycare/school. Epigeneticist Dr. Bruce Lipton in The Honeymoom Effect  explains how babies in utero experience the same emotions and physiology as the mother because they are bathed in the same blood chemistry as the mother. So whatever emotion the mother is feeling so will the baby feel it.

He quotes from Tomorrow’s Baby: The Art and Science of Parenting from Conception through Infancy by Dr. Thomas Verney & Pamela Weintraub, (2002),29 that “Awake or asleep,…[unborn children] are constantly tuned in to their mother’s every action, thought, and feeling. From the moment of conception, the experience in the womb shapes the brain and lays the groundwork for personality, emotional temperament, and the power of higher thought”. By the time the child is born he/she is already programmed by these experiences. Therefore the nurturing environment starts in the womb.

Good Vibrations

Hence the reason why people play certain types of classical music ( known as the Mozart effect) to fetuses. The high vibrations of the music, permeating the water around and in the baby’s body, provide a healthy environment for the fetus, by counterbalancing any emotion being experienced by mom. From the womb through the first year of life infants’ brains operate at the slowest brain-wave frequency, they sleep a lot. From 2 to 6 years of age the brain-wave frequency is a vibrational frequency  associated with children’s great imaginations which they show through their play, where imagination and reality become blurred in their minds.

Dr. Lipton explains that at this stage ‘information can be directly downloaded into the subconscious mind,[and]…this is a highly programmable  theta (wave) state ,children record vast amounts of information they need to survive in their environment, but they do not have the capacity to consciously  evaluate the information, while  it’s being downloaded”.(The Honeymoom Effect, (2013),81-82. How crucial that parents and teachers know this!

Low Vibrations and Conditioning

The negative, low vibration behaviours of adults program children’s   subconscious minds. Yet adults probably have no idea how these beliefs will later on reflect in the children’s lives. I think as parents we have all been there in anger and frustration and with good intentions. Foremost in our minds was   what was best for the children.

We did the best we could with what we knew at the time. I’ve apologized to my children, probably not enough. I have a second chance to model appropriate behavior with my grandchildren. Now I know a little more than I knew then. That’s part of my personal growth. I believe that when anyone expands in their knowledge, behaviour and spiritual journey, we all benefit such is the universal connection.

Therefore, the importance of conscious parenting by modeling positive behavior can do wonders for learning survival skills, so children can survive in their environment instead of being dragged down by it. Children learn by observation of the world around them. We must be careful of what they are observing.

 

With Love and Gratitude

Alda

 

Source:

Bruce Lipton, PhD,  The Honeymoon Effect, 2013

 

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Hello and Welcome!

My name is Alda Silva and I’m passionate about literacy.

I trained as an elementary

school teacher, graduated from Trent University and focused on literacy as part of my on-going professional learning journey. As a result of continuing education, through Queen’s University courses, I acquired Reading and ESL specialist qualifications, among others, to support my teaching and learning experience.

I want to share what I’ve learned through my experiences as a learner and a teacher. Being literate in  more than one  language is crucial in today’s world. It empowers people. Although there are different types of literacy, such as numeracy, computer, digital, technology, critical, financial and media  to name a few, the ability to read and write in one or more spoken languages is at the root of mastering any type of literacy.

 

With Love and Gratitude,

Alda