the power of literacy essay

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Frederick Douglass & The Power of Literacy

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Pratham Institute

For Literacy, Education & Vocational Training

The Power of Literacy: Importance of Reading and Writing

Power of Literacy! the ability to read and write, serves as a cornerstone of human development and progress. It empowers individuals with the tools they need to navigate the complexities of the modern world, enabling them to access knowledge, communicate effectively, and contribute meaningfully to society. In this blog post, we’ll delve into the profound impact of literacy, exploring how it enriches lives, enhances education, and plays a pivotal role in shaping a brighter future.

Enriching Personal Development

Literacy is not just about decoding words on a page; it’s about understanding, analyzing, and interpreting the written word. Reading exposes individuals to diverse perspectives, cultures, and ideas, fostering empathy and expanding their worldviews. Through literature, people can explore the human experience, enhance critical thinking skills, and develop their unique voices.

Empowering Education

Literacy is the foundation of education. Proficient reading and writing skills are essential for students to engage with their subjects, access educational resources, and excel academically. Literacy equips learners with the ability to comprehend textbooks, research information, and express their thoughts coherently through writing assignments.

Bridging Communication Gaps

Effective communication is at the heart of human interaction. Literacy empowers individuals to express themselves clearly, share ideas, and engage in meaningful conversations. In a digitally connected world, the ability to communicate through written language is essential for personal and professional success.

Opening Doors to Knowledge

The written word is a repository of human knowledge and wisdom. Literacy grants individuals access to an immense wealth of information, from historical accounts to scientific discoveries. It enables them to stay informed, make informed decisions, and contribute to informed public discourse.

Fostering Economic Opportunities

In today’s information-driven economy, literacy is closely linked to economic success. Proficiency in reading and writing is crucial for obtaining employment, navigating job applications, and advancing in one’s career. Literate individuals are more likely to have access to better job opportunities and higher earning potential.

Empowering Social Change

Literacy is a catalyst for positive social change. When people can read and write, they can engage in civic participation, advocate for their rights, and contribute to community development. An informed and literate society is better equipped to address social issues, promote equality, and effect positive transformations.

Nurturing Lifelong Learning

The journey of learning doesn’t end with formal education. Literacy nurtures a lifelong love for learning and self-improvement. Whether it’s reading for pleasure, staying updated with current events, or acquiring new skills, literacy encourages individuals to continuously expand their horizons.

The power of literacy transcends mere reading and writing; it transforms lives, empowers individuals, and strengthens communities. From enriching personal development and education to bridging communication gaps and fostering economic opportunities, literacy is the key to unlocking a world of knowledge and potential. By nurturing literacy skills, we lay the foundation for a society that thrives on informed decision-making, empathy, and a shared commitment to progress. Embrace the importance of literacy, for it is a beacon that guides us towards a brighter, more inclusive future.

Chapter 1. What is Literacy? Multiple Perspectives on Literacy

Constance Beecher

“Once you learn to read, you will be forever free.” – Frederick Douglass

Download Tar Beach – Faith Ringgold Video Transcript [DOC]

Keywords: literacy, digital literacy, critical literacy, community-based literacies

Definitions of literacy from multiple perspectives

Literacy is the cornerstone of education by any definition. Literacy refers to the ability of people to read and write (UNESCO, 2017). Reading and writing in turn are about encoding and decoding information between written symbols and sound (Resnick, 1983; Tyner, 1998). More specifically, literacy is the ability to understand the relationship between sounds and written words such that one may read, say, and understand them (UNESCO, 2004; Vlieghe, 2015). About 67 percent of children nationwide, and more than 80 percent of those from families with low incomes, are not proficient readers by the end of third grade ( The Nation Assessment for Educational Progress; NAEP 2022 ). Children who are not reading on grade level by third grade are 4 times more likely to drop out of school than their peers who are reading on grade level. A large body of research clearly demonstrates that Americans with fewer years of education have poorer health and shorter lives. In fact, since the 1990s, life expectancy has fallen for people without a high school education. Completing more years of education creates better access to health insurance, medical care, and the resources for living a healthier life (Saha, 2006). Americans with less education face higher rates of illness, higher rates of disability, and shorter life expectancies. In the U.S., 25-year-olds without a high school diploma can expect to die 9 years sooner than college graduates. For example, by 2011, the prevalence of diabetes had reached 15% for adults without a high -school education, compared with 7% for college graduates (Zimmerman et al., 2018).

Thus, literacy is a goal of utmost importance to society. But what does it mean to be literate, or to be able to read? What counts as literacy?

Learning Objectives

Describe two or more definitions of literacy and the differences between them.
Define digital and critical literacy.
Distinguish between digital literacy, critical literacy, and community-based literacies.
Explain multiple perspectives on literacy.

Here are some definitions to consider:

“Literacy is the ability to identify, understand, interpret, create, communicate, and compute, using printed and written materials associated with varying contexts. Literacy involves a continuum of learning in enabling individuals to achieve their goals, to develop their knowledge and potential, and to participate fully in their community and wider society.” – United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)

“The ability to understand, use, and respond appropriately to written texts.” – National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), citing the Program for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC)

“An individual’s ability to read, write, and speak in English, compute, and solve problems, at levels of proficiency necessary to function on the job, in the family of the individual, and in society.” – Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA), Section 203

“The ability to identify, understand, interpret, create, communicate, and compute, using printed and written materials associated with varying contexts. Literacy involves a continuum of learning in enabling individuals to achieve their goals, to develop their knowledge and potential, and to participate fully in their community and wider society.” – Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development’s (OECD) Program for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC), as cited by the American Library Association’s Committee on Literacy

“Using printed and written information to function in society, to achieve one’s goals, and to develop one’s knowledge and potential.” – Kutner, Greenberg, Jin, Boyle, Hsu, & Dunleavy (2007). Literacy in Everyday Life: Results from the 2003 National Assessment of Adult Literacy (NCES 2007-480)

Which one of these above definitions resonates with you? Why?

New literacy practices as meaning-making practices

In the 21 st century, literacy increasingly includes understanding the roles of digital media and technology in literacy. In 1996, the New London Group coined the term “multiliteracies” or “new literacies” to describe a modern view of literacy that reflected multiple communication forms and contexts of cultural and linguistic diversity within a globalized society. They defined multiliteracies as a combination of multiple ways of communicating and making meaning, including such modes as visual, audio, spatial, behavioral, and gestural (New London Group, 1996). Most of the text’s students come across today are digital (like this textbook!). Instead of books and magazines, students are reading blogs and text messages.

For a short video on the importance of digital literacy, watch The New Media Literacies .

The National Council for Teachers of English (NCTE, 2019) makes it clear that our definitions of literacy must continue to evolve and grow ( NCTE definition of digital literacy ).

“Literacy has always been a collection of communicative and sociocultural practices shared among communities. As society and technology change, so does literacy. The world demands that a literate person possess and intentionally apply a wide range of skills, competencies, and dispositions. These literacies are interconnected, dynamic, and malleable. As in the past, they are inextricably linked with histories, narratives, life possibilities, and social trajectories of all individuals and groups. Active, successful participants in a global society must be able to:

participate effectively and critically in a networked world.
explore and engage critically and thoughtfully across a wide variety of inclusive texts and tools/modalities.
consume, curate, and create actively across contexts.
advocate for equitable access to and accessibility of texts, tools, and information.
build and sustain intentional global and cross-cultural connections and relationships with others to pose and solve problems collaboratively and strengthen independent thought.
promote culturally sustaining communication and recognize the bias and privilege present in the interactions.
examine the rights, responsibilities, and ethical implications of the use and creation of information.
determine how and to what extent texts and tools amplify one’s own and others’ narratives as well as counterproductive narratives.
recognize and honor the multilingual literacy identities and culture experiences individuals bring to learning environments, and provide opportunities to promote, amplify, and encourage these variations of language (e.g., dialect, jargon, and register).”

In other words, literacy is not just the ability to read and write. It is also being able to effectively use digital technology to find and analyze information. Students who are digitally literate know how to do research, find reliable sources, and make judgments about what they read online and in print. Next, we will learn more about digital literacy.

Malleable : can be changed.
Culturally sustaining : the pedagogical preservation of the cultural and linguistic competence of young people pertaining to their communities of origin while simultaneously affording dominant-culture competence.
Bias : a tendency to believe that some people, ideas, etc., are better than others, usually resulting in unfair treatment.
Privilege : a right or benefit that is given to some people and not to others.
Unproductive narrative : negative commonly held beliefs such as “all students from low-income backgrounds will struggle in school.” (Narratives are phrases or ideas that are repeated over and over and become “shared narratives.” You can spot them in common expressions and stories that almost everyone knows and holds as ingrained values or beliefs.)

Literacy in the digital age

The Iowa Core recognizes that today, literacy includes technology. The goal for students who graduate from the public education system in Iowa is:

“Each Iowa student will be empowered with the technological knowledge and skills to learn effectively and live productively. This vision, developed by the Iowa Core 21st Century Skills Committee, reflects the fact that Iowans in the 21st century live in a global environment marked by a high use of technology, giving citizens and workers the ability to collaborate and make individual contributions as never before. Iowa’s students live in a media-suffused environment, marked by access to an abundance of information and rapidly changing technological tools useful for critical thinking and problem-solving processes. Therefore, technological literacy supports preparation of students as global citizens capable of self-directed learning in preparation for an ever-changing world” (Iowa Core Standards 21 st Century Skills, n.d.).

NOTE: The essential concepts and skills of technology literacy are taken from the International Society for Technology in Education’s National Educational Technology Standards for Students: Grades K-2 | Technology Literacy Standards

Literacy in any context is defined as the ability “ to access, manage, integrate, evaluate, and create information in order to function in a knowledge society” (ICT Literacy Panel, 2002). “ When we teach only for facts (specifics)… rather than for how to go beyond facts, we teach students how to get out of date ” (Sternberg, 2008). This statement is particularly significant when applied to technology literacy. The Iowa essential concepts for technology literacy reflect broad, universal processes and skills.

Unlike the previous generations, learning in the digital age is marked using rapidly evolving technology, a deluge of information, and a highly networked global community (Dede, 2010). In such a dynamic environment, learners need skills beyond the basic cognitive ability to consume and process language. To understand the characteristics of the digital age, and what this means for how people learn in this new and changing landscape, one may turn to the evolving discussion of literacy or, as one might say now, of digital literacy. The history of literacy contextualizes digital literacy and illustrates changes in literacy over time. By looking at literacy as an evolving historical phenomenon, we can glean the fundamental characteristics of the digital age. These characteristics in turn illuminate the skills needed to take advantage of digital environments. The following discussion is an overview of digital literacy, its essential components, and why it is important for learning in the digital age.

Literacy is often considered a skill or competency. Children and adults alike can spend years developing the appropriate skills for encoding and decoding information. Over the course of thousands of years, literacy has become much more common and widespread, with a global literacy rate ranging from 81% to 90% depending on age and gender (UNESCO, 2016). From a time when literacy was the domain of an elite few, it has grown to include huge swaths of the global population. There are several reasons for this, not the least of which are some of the advantages the written word can provide. Kaestle (1985) tells us that “literacy makes it possible to preserve information as a snapshot in time, allows for recording, tracking and remembering information, and sharing information more easily across distances among others” (p. 16). In short, literacy led “to the replacement of myth by history and the replacement of magic by skepticism and science.”

If literacy involves the skills of reading and writing, digital literacy requires the ability to extend those skills to effectively take advantage of the digital world (American Library Association [ALA], 2013). More general definitions express digital literacy as the ability to read and understand information from digital sources as well as to create information in various digital formats (Bawden, 2008; Gilster, 1997; Tyner, 1998; UNESCO, 2004). Developing digital skills allows digital learners to manage a vast array of rapidly changing information and is key to both learning and working in the evolving digital landscape (Dede, 2010; Koltay, 2011; Mohammadyari & Singh, 2015). As such, it is important for people to develop certain competencies specifically for handling digital content.

ALA Digital Literacy Framework

To fully understand the many digital literacies, we will look at the American Library Association (ALA) framework. The ALA framework is laid out in terms of basic functions with enough specificity to make it easy to understand and remember but broad enough to cover a wide range of skills. The ALA framework includes the following areas:

understanding,
evaluating,
creating, and
communicating (American Library Association, 2013).

Finding information in a digital environment represents a significant departure from the way human beings have searched for information for centuries. The learner must abandon older linear or sequential approaches to finding information such as reading a book, using a card catalog, index, or table of contents, and instead use more horizontal approaches like natural language searches, hypermedia text, keywords, search engines, online databases and so on (Dede, 2010; Eshet, 2002). The shift involves developing the ability to create meaningful search limits (SCONUL, 2016). Previously, finding the information would have meant simply looking up page numbers based on an index or sorting through a card catalog. Although finding information may depend to some degree on the search tool being used (library, internet search engine, online database, etc.) the search results also depend on how well a person is able to generate appropriate keywords and construct useful Boolean searches. Failure in these two areas could easily return too many results to be helpful, vague, or generic results, or potentially no useful results at all (Hangen, 2015).

Part of the challenge of finding information is the ability to manage the results. Because there is so much data, changing so quickly, in so many different formats, it can be challenging to organize and store them in such a way as to be useful. SCONUL (2016) talks about this as the ability to organize, store, manage, and cite digital resources, while the Educational Testing Service also specifically mentions the skills of accessing and managing information. Some ways to accomplish these tasks is using social bookmarking tools such as Diigo, clipping and organizing software such as Evernote and OneNote, and bibliographic software. Many sites, such as YouTube, allow individuals with an account to bookmark videos, as well as create channels or collections of videos for specific topics or uses. Other websites have similar features.

Understanding

Understanding in the context of digital literacy perhaps most closely resembles traditional literacy because it is the ability to read and interpret text (Jones-Kavalier & Flannigan, 2006). In the digital age, however, the ability to read and understand extends much further than text alone. For example, searches may return results with any combination of text, video, sound, and audio, as well as still and moving pictures. As the internet has evolved, a whole host of visual languages have also evolved, such as moving images, emoticons, icons, data visualizations, videos, and combinations of all the above. Lankshear & Knoble (2008) refer to these modes of communication as “post typographic textual practice.” Understanding the variety of modes of digital material may also be referred to as multimedia literacy (Jones-Kavalier & Flannigan, 2006), visual literacy (Tyner, 1998), or digital literacy (Buckingham, 2006).

Evaluating digital media requires competencies ranging from assessing the importance of a piece of information to determining its accuracy and source. Evaluating information is not new to the digital age, but the nature of digital information can make it more difficult to understand who the source of information is and whether it can be trusted (Jenkins, 2018). When there are abundant and rapidly changing data across heavily populated networks, anyone with access can generate information online. This results in the learner needing to make decisions about its authenticity, trustworthiness, relevance, and significance. Learning evaluative digital skills means learning to ask questions about who is writing the information, why they are writing it, and who the intended audience is (Buckingham, 2006). Developing critical thinking skills is part of the literacy of evaluating and assessing the suitability for use of a specific piece of information (SCONUL, 2016).

Creating in the digital world makes the production of knowledge and ideas in digital formats explicit. While writing is a critical component of traditional literacy, it is not the only creative tool in the digital toolbox. Other tools are available and include creative activities such as podcasting, making audio-visual presentations, building data visualizations, 3D printing, and writing blogs. Tools that haven’t been thought of before are constantly appearing. In short, a digitally literate individual will want to be able to use all formats in which digital information may be conveyed in the creation of a product. A key component of creating with digital tools is understanding what constitutes fair use and what is considered plagiarism. While this is not new to the digital age, it may be more challenging these days to find the line between copying and extending someone else’s work.

In part, the reason for the increased difficulty in discerning between plagiarism and new work is the “cut and paste culture” of the Internet, referred to as “reproduction literacy” (Eshet 2002, p.4), or appropriation in Jenkins’ New Media Literacies (Jenkins, 2018). The question is, what kind and how much change is required to avoid the accusation of plagiarism? This skill requires the ability to think critically, evaluate a work, and make appropriate decisions. There are tools and information to help understand and find those answers, such as the Creative Commons. Learning about such resources and how to use them is part of digital literacy.

Communicating

Communicating is the final category of digital skills in the ALA digital framework. The capacity to connect with individuals all over the world creates unique opportunities for learning and sharing information, for which developing digital communication skills is vital. Some of the skills required for communicating in the digital environment include digital citizenship, collaboration, and cultural awareness. This is not to say that one does not need to develop communication skills outside of the digital environment, but that the skills required for digital communication go beyond what is required in a non-digital environment. Most of us are adept at personal, face- to-face communication, but digital communication needs the ability to engage in asynchronous environments such as email, online forums, blogs, social media, and learning platforms where what is written may not be deleted and may be misinterpreted. Add that to an environment where people number in the millions and the opportunities for misunderstanding and cultural miscues are likely.

The communication category of digital literacies covers an extensive array of skills above and beyond what one might need for face-to-face interactions. It is comprised of competencies around ethical and moral behavior, responsible communication for engagement in social and civic activities (Adam Becker et al., 2017), an awareness of audience, and an ability to evaluate the potential impact of one’s online actions. It also includes skills for handling privacy and security in online environments. These activities fall into two main categories: digital citizenship and collaboration.

Digital citizenship refers to one’s ability to interact effectively in the digital world. Part of this skill is good manners, often referred to as “netiquette.” There is a level of context which is often missing in digital communication due to physical distance, lack of personal familiarity with the people online, and the sheer volume of the people who may encounter our words. People who know us well may understand exactly what we mean when we say something sarcastic or ironic, but people online do not know us, and vocal and facial cues are missing in most digital communication, making it more likely we will be misunderstood. Furthermore, we are more likely to misunderstand or be misunderstood if we are unaware of cultural differences. So, digital citizenship includes an awareness of who we are, what we intend to say, and how it might be perceived by other people we do not know (Buckingham, 2006). It is also a process of learning to communicate clearly in ways that help others understand what we mean.

Another key digital skill is collaboration, and it is essential for effective participation in digital projects via the Internet. The Internet allows people to engage with others they may never see in person and work towards common goals, be they social, civic, or business oriented. Creating a community and working together requires a degree of trust and familiarity that can be difficult to build when there is physical distance between the participants. Greater effort must be made to be inclusive , and to overcome perceived or actual distance and disconnectedness. So, while the potential of digital technology for connecting people is impressive, it is not automatic or effortless, and it requires new skills.

Literacy narratives are stories about reading or composing a message in any form or context. They often include poignant memories that involve a personal experience with literacy. Digital literacy narratives can sometimes be categorized as ones that focus on how the writer came to understand the importance of technology in their life or pedagogy. More often, they are simply narratives that use a medium beyond the print-based essay to tell the story:

Create your own literacy narrative that tells of a significant experience you had with digital literacy. Use a multi-modal tool that includes audio and images or video. Share it with your classmates and discuss the most important ideas you notice in each other’s narratives.

Critical literacy

Literacy scholars recognize that although literacy is a cognitive skill, it is also a set of practices that communities and people participate in. Next, we turn to another perspective on literacy – critical literacy. “Critical” here is not meant as having a negative point of view, but rather using an analytic lens that detects power, privilege, and representation to understand different ways of looking at texts. For example, when groups or individuals stage a protest, do the media refer to them as “protesters” or “rioters?” What is the reason for choosing the label they do, and what are the consequences?

Critical literacy does not have a set definition or typical history of use, but the following key tenets have been described in the literature, which will vary in their application based on the individual social context (Vasquez, 2019). Table 1 presents some key aspects of critical literacy, but this area of literacy research is growing and evolving rapidly, so this is not an exhaustive list.

Table 1. Key Aspects of Critical Literacy

Reading includes the everyday texts students encounter in their lives, not just books assigned at school.	Students write down the messages that they see in public, take photographs of graffiti or signs, or collect candy wrappers to bring to class.
Diverse students’ knowledge (coming from the classroom and the children’s homes) (Gonzalez, Moll, & Amanti, 2006) and multilingual/modal practices (Lau, 2012) should be used to enhance the curriculum.	Invite children to bring and share meaningful objects, stories, and language from home.
Students learn best when learning is authentic and connected to their lives.	Provide a wide variety of texts in the classroom to represent children from many different backgrounds.
Texts are never neutral but reflect the author’s social perspective. On the flip side, the way we read texts is not neutral either.	Maps are based on selections of what to include and exclude. Putting north at the top and Europe at the center implies that those regions are more important.
Critical literacy work focuses on social issues, including inequities of race, class, gender, and disability, and the ways in which we use language to form our understanding of these issues.	O’Brien (2001) asked children to analyze a catalogue promoting Mother’s Day. They discovered that the mothers in the photographs were all youthful (age), White (race), well-dressed (class), and able-bodied (disability).
Literacy practices should be transformative: Students should be empowered to investigate issues that impact them and then to engage in civic actions to solve problems.	Students take photographs of trash in their local park. They interview people in the neighborhood about the park conditions, and then they create a slideshow to present at a city-council meeting.

An important component of critical literacy is the adoption of culturally responsive and sustaining pedagogy. One definition comes from Dr. Django Paris (2012), who stated that Culturally Responsive-Sustaining (CR-S) education recognizes that cultural differences (including racial, ethnic, linguistic, gender, sexuality, and ability ones) should be treated as assets for teaching and learning. Culturally sustaining pedagogy requires teachers to support multilingualism and multiculturalism in their practice. That is, culturally sustaining pedagogy seeks to perpetuate and foster—to sustain—linguistic, literary, and cultural pluralism as part of the democratic project of schooling.

For more, see the Culturally Responsive and Sustaining F ramework . The framework helps educators to think about how to create student-centered learning environments that uphold racial, linguistic, and cultural identities. It prepares students for rigorous independent learning, develops their abilities to connect across lines of difference, elevates historically marginalized voices, and empowers them as agents of social change. CR-S education explores the relationships between historical and contemporary conditions of inequality and the ideas that shape access, participation, and outcomes for learners.

What can you do to learn more about your students’ cultures?
How can you build and sustain relationships with your students?
How do the instructional materials you use affirm your students’ identities?

Community-based literacies

You may have noticed that communities are a big part of critical literacy – we understand that our environment and culture impact what we read and how we understand the world. Now think about the possible differences among three Iowa communities: a neighborhood in the middle of Des Moines, the rural community of New Hartford, and Coralville, a suburb of Iowa City:

You may not have thought about how living in a certain community might contribute to or take away from a child’s ability to learn to read. Dr. Susan Neuman (2001) did. She and her team investigated the differences between two neighborhoods regarding how much access to books and other reading materials children in those neighborhoods had. One middle-to-upper class neighborhood in Philadelphia had large bookstores, toy stores with educational materials, and well-resourced libraries. The other, a low-income neighborhood, had no bookstores or toy stores. There was a library, but it had fewer resources and served a larger number of patrons. In fact, the team found that even the signs on the businesses were harder to read, and there was less environmental printed word. Their findings showed that each child in the middle-class neighborhood had 13 books on average, while in the lower-class neighborhood there was one book per 300 children .

Dr. Neuman and her team (2019) recently revisited this question. This time, they looked at low-income neighborhoods – those where 60% or more of the people are living in poverty . They compared these to borderline neighborhoods – those with 20-40% in poverty – in three cities, Washington, D.C., Detroit, and Los Angeles. Again, they found significantly fewer books in the very low-income areas. The chart represents the preschool books available for sale in each neighborhood. Note that in the lower-income neighborhood of Washington D.C., there were no books for young children to be found at all!

Now watch this video from Campaign for Grade Level Reading. Access to books is one way that children can have new experiences, but it is not the only way!

What is the “summer slide,” and how does it contribute to the differences in children’s reading abilities?

The importance of being literate and how to get there

“Literacy is a bridge from misery to hope” – Kofi Annan, former United Nations Secretary-General.

An older black man with a goatee speaks at a podium for the United Nations in a suit.

Our economy is enhanced when citizens have higher literacy levels. Effective literacy skills open the doors to more educational and employment opportunities so that people can lift themselves out of poverty and chronic underemployment. In our increasingly complex and rapidly changing technological world, it is essential that individuals continuously expand their knowledge and learn new skills to keep up with the pace of change. The goal of our public school system in the United States is to “ensure that all students graduate from high school with the skills and knowledge necessary to succeed in college, career, and life, regardless of where they live.” This is the basis of the Common Core Standards, developed by the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) and the National Governors Association Center for Best Practices (NGA Center). These groups felt that education was too inconsistent across the different states, and today’s students are preparing to enter a world in which colleges and businesses are demanding more than ever before. To ensure that all students are ready for success after high school, the Common Core State Standards established clear universal guidelines for what every student should know and be able to do in math and English language arts from kindergarten through 12th grade: “The Common Core State Standards do not tell teachers how to teach, but they do help teachers figure out the knowledge and skills their students should have” (Common Core State Standards Initiative, 2012).

Explore the Core!

Go to iowacore.gov and click on Literacy Standards. Spend some time looking at the K-3 standards. Notice how consistent they are across the grade levels. Each has specific requirements within the categories:

Reading Standards for Literature
Reading Standards for Informational Text
Reading Standards for Foundational Skills
Writing Standards
Speaking and Listening Standards
Language Standards

Download the Iowa Core K-12 Literacy Manual . You will use it as a reference when you are creating lessons.

Next, explore the Subject Area pages and resources. What tools does the state provide to teachers to support their use of the Core?

Describe a resource you found on the website. How will you use this when you are a teacher?

Watch this video about the Iowa Literacy Core Standards:

Literacy is typically defined as the ability to ingest, understand, and communicate information.
Literacy has multiple definitions, each with a different point of focus.
“New literacies,” or multiliteracies, are a combination of multiple ways of communicating and making meaning, including visual, audio, spatial, behavioral, and gestural communication.
As online communication has become more prevalent, digital literacy has become more important for learners to engage with the wealth of information available online.
Critical literacy develops learners’ critical thinking by asking them to use an analytic lens that detects power, privilege, and representation to understand different ways of looking at information.
The Common Core State Standards were established to set clear, universal guidelines for what every student should know after completing high school.

Resources for teacher educators

Culturally Responsive-Sustaining Education Framework [PDF]
Common Core State Standards
Iowa Core Instructional Resources in Literacy

Gonzalez, N., Moll, L. C., & Amanti, C. (Eds.). (2006). Funds of knowledge: Theorizing practices in households, communities, and classrooms . New York, NY: Routledge.

Lau, S. M. C. (2012). Reconceptualizing critical literacy teaching in ESL classrooms. The Reading Teacher, 65 , 325–329.

Literacy. (2018, March 19). Retrieved March 2, 2020, from  https://en.unesco.org/themes/literacy

Neuman, S. B., & Celano, D. (2001). Access to print in low‐income and middle‐income communities: An ecological study of four neighborhoods. Reading Research Quarterly, 36 (1), 8-26.

Neuman, S. B., & Moland, N. (2019). Book deserts: The consequences of income segregation on children’s access to print.  Urban education, 54 (1), 126-147.

New London Group (1996). A Pedagogy of multiliteracies: Designing social futures. Harvard Educational Review, 66 (1), 60-92.

O’Brien, J. (2001). Children reading critically: A local history. In B. Comber & A. Simpson (Eds.), Negotiating critical literacies in classrooms (pp. 41–60). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.

Ordoñez-Jasis, R., & Ortiz, R. W. (2006). Reading their worlds: Working with diverse families to enhance children’s early literacy development. Y C Young Children, 61 (1), 42.

Saha S. (2006). Improving literacy as a means to reducing health disparities. J Gen Intern Med. 21 (8):893-895. doi:10.1111/j.1525-1497.2006.00546.x

UNESCO. (2017). Literacy rates continue to rise from one generation to the next global literacy trends today. Retrieved from http://on.unesco.org/literacy-map.

Vasquez, V.M., Janks, H. & Comber, B. (2019). Critical Literacy as a Way of Being and Doing. Language Arts, 96 (5), 300-311.

Vlieghe, J. (2015). Traditional and digital literacy. The literacy hypothesis, technologies of reading and writing, and the ‘grammatized’ body. Ethics and Education, 10 (2), 209-226.

Zimmerman, E. B., Woolf, S. H., Blackburn, S. M., Kimmel, A. D., Barnes, A. J., & Bono, R. S. (2018). The case for considering education and health. Urban Education, 53 (6), 744-773.U.S. Department of Education. Institute of Education Sciences.

U.S. Department of Education. Institute of Education Sciences, National Center for Education Statistics, National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), 2022 Reading Assessment.

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How to write a literary analysis essay | A step-by-step guide

How to Write a Literary Analysis Essay | A Step-by-Step Guide

Published on January 30, 2020 by Jack Caulfield . Revised on August 14, 2023.

Literary analysis means closely studying a text, interpreting its meanings, and exploring why the author made certain choices. It can be applied to novels, short stories, plays, poems, or any other form of literary writing.

A literary analysis essay is not a rhetorical analysis , nor is it just a summary of the plot or a book review. Instead, it is a type of argumentative essay where you need to analyze elements such as the language, perspective, and structure of the text, and explain how the author uses literary devices to create effects and convey ideas.

Before beginning a literary analysis essay, it’s essential to carefully read the text and c ome up with a thesis statement to keep your essay focused. As you write, follow the standard structure of an academic essay :

An introduction that tells the reader what your essay will focus on.
A main body, divided into paragraphs , that builds an argument using evidence from the text.
A conclusion that clearly states the main point that you have shown with your analysis.

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Step 1: reading the text and identifying literary devices, step 2: coming up with a thesis, step 3: writing a title and introduction, step 4: writing the body of the essay, step 5: writing a conclusion, other interesting articles.

The first step is to carefully read the text(s) and take initial notes. As you read, pay attention to the things that are most intriguing, surprising, or even confusing in the writing—these are things you can dig into in your analysis.

Your goal in literary analysis is not simply to explain the events described in the text, but to analyze the writing itself and discuss how the text works on a deeper level. Primarily, you’re looking out for literary devices —textual elements that writers use to convey meaning and create effects. If you’re comparing and contrasting multiple texts, you can also look for connections between different texts.

To get started with your analysis, there are several key areas that you can focus on. As you analyze each aspect of the text, try to think about how they all relate to each other. You can use highlights or notes to keep track of important passages and quotes.

Language choices

Consider what style of language the author uses. Are the sentences short and simple or more complex and poetic?

What word choices stand out as interesting or unusual? Are words used figuratively to mean something other than their literal definition? Figurative language includes things like metaphor (e.g. “her eyes were oceans”) and simile (e.g. “her eyes were like oceans”).

Also keep an eye out for imagery in the text—recurring images that create a certain atmosphere or symbolize something important. Remember that language is used in literary texts to say more than it means on the surface.

Narrative voice

Ask yourself:

Who is telling the story?
How are they telling it?

Is it a first-person narrator (“I”) who is personally involved in the story, or a third-person narrator who tells us about the characters from a distance?

Consider the narrator’s perspective . Is the narrator omniscient (where they know everything about all the characters and events), or do they only have partial knowledge? Are they an unreliable narrator who we are not supposed to take at face value? Authors often hint that their narrator might be giving us a distorted or dishonest version of events.

The tone of the text is also worth considering. Is the story intended to be comic, tragic, or something else? Are usually serious topics treated as funny, or vice versa ? Is the story realistic or fantastical (or somewhere in between)?

Consider how the text is structured, and how the structure relates to the story being told.

Novels are often divided into chapters and parts.
Poems are divided into lines, stanzas, and sometime cantos.
Plays are divided into scenes and acts.

Think about why the author chose to divide the different parts of the text in the way they did.

There are also less formal structural elements to take into account. Does the story unfold in chronological order, or does it jump back and forth in time? Does it begin in medias res —in the middle of the action? Does the plot advance towards a clearly defined climax?

With poetry, consider how the rhyme and meter shape your understanding of the text and your impression of the tone. Try reading the poem aloud to get a sense of this.

In a play, you might consider how relationships between characters are built up through different scenes, and how the setting relates to the action. Watch out for dramatic irony , where the audience knows some detail that the characters don’t, creating a double meaning in their words, thoughts, or actions.

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Your thesis in a literary analysis essay is the point you want to make about the text. It’s the core argument that gives your essay direction and prevents it from just being a collection of random observations about a text.

If you’re given a prompt for your essay, your thesis must answer or relate to the prompt. For example:

Essay question example

Is Franz Kafka’s “Before the Law” a religious parable?

Your thesis statement should be an answer to this question—not a simple yes or no, but a statement of why this is or isn’t the case:

Thesis statement example

Franz Kafka’s “Before the Law” is not a religious parable, but a story about bureaucratic alienation.

Sometimes you’ll be given freedom to choose your own topic; in this case, you’ll have to come up with an original thesis. Consider what stood out to you in the text; ask yourself questions about the elements that interested you, and consider how you might answer them.

Your thesis should be something arguable—that is, something that you think is true about the text, but which is not a simple matter of fact. It must be complex enough to develop through evidence and arguments across the course of your essay.

Say you’re analyzing the novel Frankenstein . You could start by asking yourself:

Your initial answer might be a surface-level description:

The character Frankenstein is portrayed negatively in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein .

However, this statement is too simple to be an interesting thesis. After reading the text and analyzing its narrative voice and structure, you can develop the answer into a more nuanced and arguable thesis statement:

Mary Shelley uses shifting narrative perspectives to portray Frankenstein in an increasingly negative light as the novel goes on. While he initially appears to be a naive but sympathetic idealist, after the creature’s narrative Frankenstein begins to resemble—even in his own telling—the thoughtlessly cruel figure the creature represents him as.

Remember that you can revise your thesis statement throughout the writing process , so it doesn’t need to be perfectly formulated at this stage. The aim is to keep you focused as you analyze the text.

Finding textual evidence

To support your thesis statement, your essay will build an argument using textual evidence —specific parts of the text that demonstrate your point. This evidence is quoted and analyzed throughout your essay to explain your argument to the reader.

It can be useful to comb through the text in search of relevant quotations before you start writing. You might not end up using everything you find, and you may have to return to the text for more evidence as you write, but collecting textual evidence from the beginning will help you to structure your arguments and assess whether they’re convincing.

To start your literary analysis paper, you’ll need two things: a good title, and an introduction.

Your title should clearly indicate what your analysis will focus on. It usually contains the name of the author and text(s) you’re analyzing. Keep it as concise and engaging as possible.

A common approach to the title is to use a relevant quote from the text, followed by a colon and then the rest of your title.

If you struggle to come up with a good title at first, don’t worry—this will be easier once you’ve begun writing the essay and have a better sense of your arguments.

“Fearful symmetry” : The violence of creation in William Blake’s “The Tyger”

The introduction

The essay introduction provides a quick overview of where your argument is going. It should include your thesis statement and a summary of the essay’s structure.

A typical structure for an introduction is to begin with a general statement about the text and author, using this to lead into your thesis statement. You might refer to a commonly held idea about the text and show how your thesis will contradict it, or zoom in on a particular device you intend to focus on.

Then you can end with a brief indication of what’s coming up in the main body of the essay. This is called signposting. It will be more elaborate in longer essays, but in a short five-paragraph essay structure, it shouldn’t be more than one sentence.

Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is often read as a crude cautionary tale about the dangers of scientific advancement unrestrained by ethical considerations. In this reading, protagonist Victor Frankenstein is a stable representation of the callous ambition of modern science throughout the novel. This essay, however, argues that far from providing a stable image of the character, Shelley uses shifting narrative perspectives to portray Frankenstein in an increasingly negative light as the novel goes on. While he initially appears to be a naive but sympathetic idealist, after the creature’s narrative Frankenstein begins to resemble—even in his own telling—the thoughtlessly cruel figure the creature represents him as. This essay begins by exploring the positive portrayal of Frankenstein in the first volume, then moves on to the creature’s perception of him, and finally discusses the third volume’s narrative shift toward viewing Frankenstein as the creature views him.

Some students prefer to write the introduction later in the process, and it’s not a bad idea. After all, you’ll have a clearer idea of the overall shape of your arguments once you’ve begun writing them!

If you do write the introduction first, you should still return to it later to make sure it lines up with what you ended up writing, and edit as necessary.

The body of your essay is everything between the introduction and conclusion. It contains your arguments and the textual evidence that supports them.

Paragraph structure

A typical structure for a high school literary analysis essay consists of five paragraphs : the three paragraphs of the body, plus the introduction and conclusion.

Each paragraph in the main body should focus on one topic. In the five-paragraph model, try to divide your argument into three main areas of analysis, all linked to your thesis. Don’t try to include everything you can think of to say about the text—only analysis that drives your argument.

In longer essays, the same principle applies on a broader scale. For example, you might have two or three sections in your main body, each with multiple paragraphs. Within these sections, you still want to begin new paragraphs at logical moments—a turn in the argument or the introduction of a new idea.

Robert’s first encounter with Gil-Martin suggests something of his sinister power. Robert feels “a sort of invisible power that drew me towards him.” He identifies the moment of their meeting as “the beginning of a series of adventures which has puzzled myself, and will puzzle the world when I am no more in it” (p. 89). Gil-Martin’s “invisible power” seems to be at work even at this distance from the moment described; before continuing the story, Robert feels compelled to anticipate at length what readers will make of his narrative after his approaching death. With this interjection, Hogg emphasizes the fatal influence Gil-Martin exercises from his first appearance.

Topic sentences

To keep your points focused, it’s important to use a topic sentence at the beginning of each paragraph.

A good topic sentence allows a reader to see at a glance what the paragraph is about. It can introduce a new line of argument and connect or contrast it with the previous paragraph. Transition words like “however” or “moreover” are useful for creating smooth transitions:

… The story’s focus, therefore, is not upon the divine revelation that may be waiting beyond the door, but upon the mundane process of aging undergone by the man as he waits.

Nevertheless, the “radiance” that appears to stream from the door is typically treated as religious symbolism.

This topic sentence signals that the paragraph will address the question of religious symbolism, while the linking word “nevertheless” points out a contrast with the previous paragraph’s conclusion.

Using textual evidence

A key part of literary analysis is backing up your arguments with relevant evidence from the text. This involves introducing quotes from the text and explaining their significance to your point.

It’s important to contextualize quotes and explain why you’re using them; they should be properly introduced and analyzed, not treated as self-explanatory:

It isn’t always necessary to use a quote. Quoting is useful when you’re discussing the author’s language, but sometimes you’ll have to refer to plot points or structural elements that can’t be captured in a short quote.

In these cases, it’s more appropriate to paraphrase or summarize parts of the text—that is, to describe the relevant part in your own words:

The conclusion of your analysis shouldn’t introduce any new quotations or arguments. Instead, it’s about wrapping up the essay. Here, you summarize your key points and try to emphasize their significance to the reader.

A good way to approach this is to briefly summarize your key arguments, and then stress the conclusion they’ve led you to, highlighting the new perspective your thesis provides on the text as a whole:

If you want to know more about AI tools , college essays , or fallacies make sure to check out some of our other articles with explanations and examples or go directly to our tools!

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By tracing the depiction of Frankenstein through the novel’s three volumes, I have demonstrated how the narrative structure shifts our perception of the character. While the Frankenstein of the first volume is depicted as having innocent intentions, the second and third volumes—first in the creature’s accusatory voice, and then in his own voice—increasingly undermine him, causing him to appear alternately ridiculous and vindictive. Far from the one-dimensional villain he is often taken to be, the character of Frankenstein is compelling because of the dynamic narrative frame in which he is placed. In this frame, Frankenstein’s narrative self-presentation responds to the images of him we see from others’ perspectives. This conclusion sheds new light on the novel, foregrounding Shelley’s unique layering of narrative perspectives and its importance for the depiction of character.

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Literacy is More than Just Reading and Writing

NCTE 03.23.20 Diversity

From the NCTE Standing Committee on Global Citizenship

This post was written by NCTE member Amber Peterson, a member of the NCTE Standing Committee on Global Citizenship.

“History is written by the victors.” —Unknown

As committee members, we regularly wrestle with pinning down a comprehensive definition of literacy. The common definition, “the ability to read and write,” gets increasingly complex upon closer examination. What does mastery of reading and writing look like? How do we measure it? How do we weigh digital and technological proficiency? Where does numeracy come in? How do the values of our communities and cultural practices come into play? sWhen measuring literacy, which languages and dialects count and which do not?

Despite the complexity, literacy is the global metric we use to assess the health and competence of communities. High literacy rates have been found to correlate to everything from better access to economic opportunity, to better nutrition, to environmental sustainability.

In fact, bolstering global literacy underpins all of UNESCO’s 2030 Sustainability Goals, acknowledging the fact that ideals like gender equality, sustainable infrastructure, and eradicating poverty and hunger are not possible without literate populations. Correspondingly, UNESCO’s hefty definition of literacy is “a means of identification, understanding, interpretation, creation, and communication in an increasingly digital, text-mediated, information-rich and fast-changing world.” (UNESCO)

This focus on literacy as a tool for meaningful engagement with society makes sense. As our population expands and technology breaks down ever more barriers between us, the ability to communicate and interact with those around us becomes even more important. In our consideration of literacy, however, it is impossible to ignore the myriad ways that imperialist and colonialist systems shape gender and regional disparities in access.

Many historians propose that written language emerged at least in part as a tool for maintaining power. One’s class status dictated one’s access to literacy education, and often those without power were prohibited from learning to read and write at all. Colonialism, imperialism, and the sprawl of anglo-european, male-centered ideology from the 15th Century onward have created global power structures that still dominate today.

When considered from that perspective, it is no surprise that women make up two thirds of the world’s illiterate population, and that sub-Saharan Africa, the region arguably hit hardest by many of those inequitable power structures, has some of the lowest literacy levels in the world.

While our focus must and should be on providing everyone everywhere with the tools to “identify, understand, interpret, create, and communicate in an increasingly digital, text-mediated, information-rich, and fast changing world,” those persistent inequitable power structures dictate that progress will always be lopsided and slow.

As we slog onward, perhaps we also need to examine and consider more closely the world and experience of the “illiterate” as well. Only relatively recently has literacy been expected or even possible for the vast majority of society. For centuries, people have lived, laughed, traded, communicated, and survived without being able to read and write. Even today, though illiteracy can be a literal death sentence (studies have shown that female literacy rates can actually be a predictor of child mortality rates (Saurabh et al)), it is most certainly a metaphorical one wherein the experiences had and contributions made by those so afflicted are devalued both by design and by conceit.

We doom entire cultures and erase the experiences of entire populations by embracing the superiority of those who are literate, but illiteracy doesn’t mean ignorance. We can and should learn from everyone and we must provide other avenues to global citizenship for those who can’t read and write.

So what does this mean for our definition of literacy? At its simplest, literacy is the way that we interact with the world around us, how we shape it and are shaped by it. It is how we communicate with others via reading and writing, but also by speaking, listening, and creating. It is how we articulate our experience in the world and declare, “We Are Here!”

In my work as the director of program innovation for LitWorld, I get to interact with young people all over the world and examine the idea of literacy from many different angles. Resources for literacy education differ dramatically from one place to another, as do metric taking procedures and general best practices.

What does not change is the inherent drive for people to express themselves, to learn, and to grow. I see the enthusiasm with which young people jump at the chance to share stories of themselves and of the world, to be listened to and to absorb. I also see firsthand the devastating effect of being told that your story, your community, and your culture do not matter. I have witnessed the loss of confidence, the dwindling self-esteem, and the cycle of hopelessness that comes with the silencing of voices.

It is our charge as educators and as global citizens to embrace literacy in ALL of its forms.

5 Suggestions for Embracing Literacy for Global Citizenship in the Classroom

Focus on students’ own stories . Find ways to center their experiences and lean in to opportunities to share them both informally and formally.
Embrace ALL of the languages your students speak. Being multilingual is an asset, not a deficit! Many of our students are multilingual in ways we never acknowledge. Mastery of formal and standardized language structures is an important tool that every student deserves access to, but life often happens outside of and around those structures. Those everyday interactions are important, valuable, and valid as well.
Provide regular access to diverse stories, images, experiences, and perspectives. The world is enormous and that diversity is beautiful. Help your students to see it as such. Providing access to underrepresented narratives and accounts helps to decolonize your classroom and normalize embracing the unfamiliar.
Place value on reading, writing, speaking, listening, and creating in your students’ work. Ensure that reading and writing are not the only ways in which students are acknowledged and celebrated for taking in ideas, expressing their thoughts, or demonstrating understanding. Encouraging multiple modes of expression not only provides more opportunities for students to explore and display their own intelligence, it also primes them to seek information, inspiration, and knowledge from diverse sources.
Read aloud together, and often . Reading aloud is effective across grade levels, despite the fact that this critical practice usually stops in elementary school. Reading aloud can provide access to content that students might not be able to access on their own. It is also a way of creating community and building a shared experience as a whole class.

The Standing Committee on Global Citizenship works to identify and address issues of broad concern to NCTE members interested in promoting global citizenship and connections across global contexts within the Council and within members’ teaching contexts.

Literacy. (2018, March 19). Retrieved March 2, 2020, from https://en.unesco.org/themes/literacy

Saurabh, S., Sarkar, S., & Pandey, D. K. (2013). Female Literacy Rate is a Better Predictor of Birth Rate and Infant Mortality Rate in India. Retrieved March 2, 2020, from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4649870/

The Sustainable Development Agenda—United Nations Sustainable Development. (n.d.). Retrieved March 2, 2020, from https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/development-agenda/

Defining and Understanding Literacy

An Introduction to Punctuation
Ph.D., Rhetoric and English, University of Georgia
M.A., Modern English and American Literature, University of Leicester
B.A., English, State University of New York

Simply put, literacy is the ability to read and write in at least one language. So just about everyone in developed countries is literate in the basic sense. In her book "The Literacy Wars," Ilana Snyder argues that "there is no single, correct view of literacy that would be universally accepted. There are a number of competing definitions, and these definitions are continually changing and evolving." The following quotes raise several issues about literacy, its necessity, its power, and its evolution.

Observations on Literacy

"Literacy is a human right, a tool of personal empowerment and a means for social and human development. Educational opportunities depend on literacy. Literacy is at the heart of basic education for all and essential for eradicating poverty, reducing child mortality, curbing population growth, achieving gender equality and ensuring sustainable development, peace, and democracy.", "Why Is Literacy Important?" UNESCO , 2010
"The notion of basic literacy is used for the initial learning of reading and writing, which adults who have never been to school need to go through. The term functional literacy is kept for the level of reading and writing that adults are thought to need in a modern complex society. Use of the term underlines the idea that although people may have basic levels of literacy, they need a different level to operate in their day-to-day lives.", David Barton, "Literacy: An Introduction to the Ecology of Written Language ," 2006
"To acquire literacy is more than to psychologically and mechanically dominate reading and writing techniques. It is to dominate those techniques in terms of consciousness; to understand what one reads and to write what one understands: It is to communicate graphically. Acquiring literacy does not involve memorizing sentences, words or syllables, lifeless objects unconnected to an existential universe, but rather an attitude of creation and re-creation, a self-transformation producing a stance of intervention in one's context.", Paulo Freire, "Education for Critical Consciousness," 1974
"There is hardly an oral culture or a predominantly oral culture left in the world today that is not somehow aware of the vast complex of powers forever inaccessible without literacy.", Walter J. Ong, "Orality and Literacy: The Technologizing of the Word," 1982

Women and Literacy

Joan Acocella, in a New Yorker review of the book "The Woman Reader" by Belinda Jack, had this to say in 2012:

"In the history of women, there is probably no matter, apart from contraception, more important than literacy. With the advent of the Industrial Revolution, access to the power required knowledge of the world. This could not be gained without reading and writing, skills that were granted to men long before they were to women. Deprived of them, women were condemned to stay home with the livestock or, if they were lucky, with the servants. (Alternatively, they may have been the servants.) Compared with men, they led mediocre lives. In thinking about wisdom, it helps to read about wisdom, about Solomon or Socrates or whomever. Likewise, goodness and happiness and love. To decide whether you have them or want to make the sacrifices necessary to get them, it is useful to read about them. Without such introspection, women seemed stupid; therefore, they were considered unfit for education; therefore, they weren’t given an education; therefore they seemed stupid."

A New Definition?

Barry Sanders, in "A Is for Ox: Violence, Electronic Media, and the Silencing of the Written Word" (1994), makes a case for a changing definition of literacy in the technological age.

"We need a radical redefinition of literacy, one that includes a recognition of the vital importance that morality plays in shaping literacy . We need a radical redefinition of what it means for society to have all the appearances of literacy and yet to abandon the book as its dominant metaphor. We must understand what happens when the computer replaces the book as the prime metaphor for visualizing the self." "It is important to remember that those who celebrate the intensities and discontinuities of postmodern electronic culture in print write from an advanced literacy. That literacy provides them the profound power of choosing their ideational repertoire. No such choice or power is available to the illiterate young person subjected to an endless stream of electronic images."

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Editor Definition

The Powers of Literacy: A Genre Approach to Teaching Writing

Education Policy, Organization and Leadership
Information Trust Institute
Coordinated Science Lab
European Union Center
Center for Global Studies
National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA)
Lemann Center for Brazilian Studies

Research output : Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Book

Literacy remains a contentious and polarized educational, media and political issue. What has emerged from the continuing debate is a recognition that literacy in education is allied closely with matters of language and culture, ideology and discourse, knowledge and power. Drawing perspectives variously from critical social theory and cultural studies, poststructuralism and feminisms, sociolinguistics and the ethnography of communication, social history and comparative education, the contributors begin a critical interrogation of taken-for-granted assumptions which have guided educational policy, research and practice.

Original language	English (US)
Publisher
Number of pages	286
ISBN (Electronic)	9780203149812
ISBN (Print)	9780415694278, 9780415751018
DOIs
State	Published - Dec 8 2011

Publication series

Name	Routledge Library Editions: Education

ASJC Scopus subject areas

General Social Sciences

Online availability

10.4324/9780203149812

Library availability

Fingerprint

Approaches to Teaching Keyphrases 100%
Literacy Keyphrases 100%
Teaching of Writing Keyphrases 100%
Genre Approach Keyphrases 100%
Social History Social Sciences 100%
Teaching Material Social Sciences 100%
Ideologies Social Sciences 100%
Cultural Studies Social Sciences 100%

Research output

Research output per year

Bibliographical Essay: Developing the Theory and Practice of Genre-based Literacy

Research output : Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter

Histories of Pedagogy, Cultures of Schooling

Commerce 100%
History of Pedagogy 100%
Multiculturalism 50%
Vietnamese 50%

Introduction: How a Genre Approach to Literacy Can Transform the Way Writing Is Taught

Literacy 100%
Literacy Learning 100%
Genre Approach 100%
Educational Setting 100%
Apprentice 100%

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AB - Literacy remains a contentious and polarized educational, media and political issue. What has emerged from the continuing debate is a recognition that literacy in education is allied closely with matters of language and culture, ideology and discourse, knowledge and power. Drawing perspectives variously from critical social theory and cultural studies, poststructuralism and feminisms, sociolinguistics and the ethnography of communication, social history and comparative education, the contributors begin a critical interrogation of taken-for-granted assumptions which have guided educational policy, research and practice.

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The Transformative Power of Literacy: Shaping Lives and Society

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Literacy and Driving

Literacy and Daily Life Challenges

Health implications of illiteracy, exemplars of literacy impact: malcolm x and helen keller, conclusion: a call to foster literacy.

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“What Is Literacy? The Power of a Definition” by Keefe & Copeland Essay (Article Review)

To find inspiration for your paper and overcome writer’s block
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In their article, Keefe and Copeland (2011) focus on how definitions of literacy affect literacy opportunities for populations with extensive needs for support. The authors argue that various interpretations of literacy impact the opportunities available to people with extensive needs for support, which can either undermine or promote literacy in these populations. Keefe and Copeland (2011) indicate that literacy is widely considered to be a human right, which is why it is essential to ensure that all people have equal access to literacy instruction.

In the first section of the article, the researchers describe some of the conflicting beliefs about the definition of literacy. For example, the United Nations’ definition of literacy implies that only those individuals who can read and write conventionally should receive literacy instruction (Keefe & Copeland, 2011). However, it is necessary to acknowledge that some people with extensive needs for support communicate their ideas in different, non-conventional ways; positioning literacy as a human right should ensure access to literacy training for all individuals, regardless of their abilities.

With regards to the U.S., the authors examine how the report of the National Reading Panel (NRP) failed to address the problem of defining literacy and to consider students with disabilities and special needs (Keefe & Copeland, 2011). This issue affects the current legislation, as it creates the problem of providing sufficient literacy instruction for people with extensive needs for support. The authors also discuss some concerns regarding the definition of literacy in education. According to Keefe and Copeland (2011), education theory presents a variety of definitions, and few of them reflect the needs of people with extensive requirements for support.

In the second part of the article, the authors propose five defining characteristics of literacy, arguing that these should be included in the definition. Keefe and Copeland (2011) stress the idea that all people are capable of learning literacy, and that literacy is a fundamental human right. The authors also consider the social and interactional aspects of literacy, stating that it includes communication and is a collective responsibility.

Overall, the authors show how modern and historical definitions of literacy caused problems for developing literacy in students with extensive needs for support, thus building a rationale for creating a new definition. The article is significant to education and literacy instruction as it shows the need for developing a comprehensive definition of literacy to promote literacy opportunities for disadvantaged populations.

Keefe, E. B., & Copeland, S. R. (2011). What is literacy? The power of a definition. Research and Practice for Persons with Severe Disabilities, 36 (3-4), 92-99.

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IvyPanda. (2021, June 21). “What Is Literacy? The Power of a Definition” by Keefe & Copeland. https://ivypanda.com/essays/what-is-literacy-the-power-of-a-definition-the-article-by-keefe-and-copeland/

"“What Is Literacy? The Power of a Definition” by Keefe & Copeland." IvyPanda , 21 June 2021, ivypanda.com/essays/what-is-literacy-the-power-of-a-definition-the-article-by-keefe-and-copeland/.

IvyPanda . (2021) '“What Is Literacy? The Power of a Definition” by Keefe & Copeland'. 21 June.

IvyPanda . 2021. "“What Is Literacy? The Power of a Definition” by Keefe & Copeland." June 21, 2021. https://ivypanda.com/essays/what-is-literacy-the-power-of-a-definition-the-article-by-keefe-and-copeland/.

1. IvyPanda . "“What Is Literacy? The Power of a Definition” by Keefe & Copeland." June 21, 2021. https://ivypanda.com/essays/what-is-literacy-the-power-of-a-definition-the-article-by-keefe-and-copeland/.

Bibliography

IvyPanda . "“What Is Literacy? The Power of a Definition” by Keefe & Copeland." June 21, 2021. https://ivypanda.com/essays/what-is-literacy-the-power-of-a-definition-the-article-by-keefe-and-copeland/.

The power of literacy

Many women from the rural villages in Kangulumira, Uganda, never learned how to read or write. They never had the opportunity to attend school past primary level 2. When money was tight, sons were sent to school and daughters worked the fields and were married off as soon as possible.

Annah is one of them

Accessing information about her community, voting, reading to her granddaughter, or writing an e-mail was impossible for Annah. At the age of 70, she decided to join forces with other grandmothers in her community Kirugu to learn how to read and write.

My name is Annah. I live in Kirugu. I am 70 years old. I am in the Sunflower Grandmothers literacy group. I learned literacy late, but I am very happy. I can read and write.

Striving towards full social integration

Friends and community members asked Annah and her fellow grandmothers "Why do you old women want to learn English?" ‘Because we want to hold committee positions in our church and community, help our grandchildren, fill in our own voting forms …’, was the answer.

A learning chance at last

Pauline McLeod, Charles Muwangala and two teachers from the Sunflower School Project, who were trained on family literacy by the UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning and the Commonwealth of Learning, took on the challenge to help these grandmothers. Local teachers James, David and Oliver with support from Charles Muwangala and Pauline McLeod set up two groups to provide these grandmothers with a chance they should have received a long time ago.

Step by step

Three times a week, grandmothers and often their grandchildren gather under the trees and begin English lessons together. Most of them have had to begin at primary school level 1, learning alphabet sounds, writing letters, learning words, and writing sentences, enabling them to now converse in English.

Connected through online learning

Every month they charge mobile devices with a small solar charger to meet virtually on Zoom with literacy trainer Pauline McLeod in New Zealand. They share their learning with her and another Ugandan grandmother literacy group, two hours away in a more remote area.

Nothing can stop them

Sometimes, members of the group have to climb a tree for internet reception. But not even poor connectivity can stop them on their learning path!

With the literacy skills acquired together with her peers, Annah has been able to read for the first time in her life.

I love school because the teacher teaches me what I need to know.

Revitalizing family connections

Her fellow grandmothers have also made big steps. They are now writing stories and reading them to their grandchildren, a bonding experience they have never had before.

The Village of Sunflowers

Inspired by their own learnings, the group created a theatre play entitled “The Village of Sunflowers”. Each of the grandmothers played her own role of a villager – head person, head mistress, teacher, doctor, midwife, tailor, shopkeeper or any other distinctive position. They acted out what had become a reality for themselves: A community where everyone supports each other.

Supporting their grandchildren

Literacy skills did not only benefit Annah herself. She and other grandmothers are now also able to support their grandchildren, assisting them in decoding, reading and writing stories. During times of COVID-19-induced school closures, such assistance is of particular importance to ensure that coming generations will be literate and provided with the chances they deserve.

Literacy is alive and empowering not only for the grandmothers and children, but for the community as well. It is a community where everyone is helping each other and giving hope and positivity in this time of uncertainty. Children are able to continue learning when school is out.

Lives have changed

After four months of literacy classes, all of the grandmothers are able to read and write. Their lives have changed. And they are proud to pass on what they have learned to the astonishment of their families. Husbands have witnessed the transformation of their wives through literacy and are now also asking for classes.

We no longer feel left behind. We have been given an opportunity to learn to read and write and contribute to the education of our grandchildren. We know education will give them better opportunities.

Training by UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning and Commonwealth of Learning

Pauline McLeod, Charles Muwangala, Caroline Nafuna and Janipher Naluboga from the Sunflower School Project, Uganda, together with over 230 further participants from 60 countries successfully completed an online training course on family and intergenerational literacy and learning conducted by the UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning and the Commonwealth of Learning in 2020/2021. The literacy classes in rural Uganda were a follow-up to this training. They show that family literacy truly makes a difference, for old and young alike. Learn more

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The Transforming Power of Reading Aloud

Literacy is an act of power and freedom. It is why slaves in our wrenching and painful U.S. history were forbidden to learn to read and write, and why young girls living in repressive societies today are kept out of the classroom. When children realize the power of narrative, they begin to dismantle patriarchy, racism, and oppression. In a true democratic society, every child has these tools of literacy to both absorb the stories of the world and to tell his or her own.

The most effective way to cultivate a love of reading in children is to read to them. A study conducted by the Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research found that reading aloud to children every day puts them almost a year ahead (academically) of children who do not receive daily read-aloud. This practice sets the stage for lifelong success.

LitWorld’s World Read Aloud Day (WRAD) was inspired by a conversation with a young student. I was reading a book aloud to him and his classmates when he looked at me and said, “Mrs. Allyn, let’s make sure everyone knows how good this feels. Let’s have a holiday for the read-aloud.” I realized that sometimes in education we have this idea that if something is fun for children, it must not good for them. But here, we have a purely simple case; the read-aloud, yes, is fun for children, but also deeply good for them (and for democracy).

There’s much more to reading aloud than reciting words from a page. It’s a meaningful experience for your students (at all ages), and fine-tuning it is key to fostering a passion for stories, language, and social justice in everyone.

Here are five ways to create a home or classroom environment for more impactful read-aloud:

Designate a special place and time for reading aloud : Whether it’s creating an elaborate fort together or something simpler, like a reading “nook,” building a safe space allows kids to relax and open up for conversation and to engage around the books you are reading together.
Keep track of books that inspire the richest conversations : Make a file on your device to save favorite read-aloud titles. Find space in your classroom to post children’s reviews and comments after reading. Document the journey together, valuing the titles that invite new worlds and/or reflect your deepest selves.
Solicit your students for story recommendations and books they want to read (and read again) to share ownership of the read aloud experience : Scholastic, our extraordinary sponsor in WRAD, published the Kids and Family Reading Report , which shows that children are most likely to finish (and enjoy) books they choose themselves.
Make read-aloud a performance : Invite students from other classrooms, teachers, librarians, staff, parents, grandparents and members of the local community. Stage a play, read aloud from children’s own narratives, or host a read-aloud-athon on World Read Aloud Day to bring the importance of reading aloud to the fore.
Use read-aloud as a tool for social justice and equity : By discussing a shared text, we can honor and hear quieter voices in our classrooms and at home. Make sure to stop for “turn and talks” during the read-aloud and to select books that reflect a wide range of cultures, languages, and perspectives.

In this way, multiple voices and stories wash over your community like a cleansing, celebratory rain, signifying the start of a new era and a time when all children’s voices matter and will be heard.

Join us on February 1 (and the other 364 days of the year!) to see reading and literacy transform children’s lives. Visit us at litworld.org/wrad to find related resources and our Facebook page to see (and post) photos from across the world in the coming days and weeks. Remember to use the tag #WorldReadAloudDay to share your experiences!

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Chapter | 21 pages, introduction: how a genre approach to literacy can transform the way writing is taught, chapter 1 | 16 pages, genre as social process, chapter 2 | 25 pages, histories of pedagogy, cultures of schooling, chapter 3 | 27 pages, the power of literacy and the literacy of power, chapter 4 | 26 pages, gender and genre: feminist subversion of genre fiction and its implications for critical literacy, chapter 5 | 21 pages, a contextual theory of language, chapter 6 | 17 pages, grammar: making meaning in writing, chapter 7 | 25 pages, curriculum genres: planning for effective teaching, chapter 8 | 24 pages, genre in practice, chapter 9 | 28 pages, assessment: a foundation for effective learning in the school context, chapter | 17 pages, bibliographical essay: developing the theory and practice of genre-based literacy.

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DOI: 10.2511/027494811800824507
Corpus ID: 144341365

What is Literacy? The Power of a Definition

Elizabeth B. Keefe , S. R. Copeland
Published 1 December 2011
Research and Practice for Persons with Severe Disabilities

163 Citations

Promoting literacy instruction for people with severe disabilities: achieving and realizing a literate identity, ‘it’s all about community’: educators’ experiences addressing literacy instruction for adults with complex support needs, literacy instruction for all students within general education settings, national language and literacy policies and multilingualism in ghana: implication for literacy development in basic schools, exploring the role of ontological identity in the development of workplace literacy, exploring critical literacy for elementary students with disabilities.

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LeVar Burton: Literacy is Freedom

Imagine a world where every child has the tools to successfully read, write, and raise their voice. A world where there are no opportunity gaps. A world where education is the great equalizer.

For decades, legendary actor, producer, and literacy advocate LeVar Burton has helped lead conversations about literacy through his work and beloved television series, Reading Rainbow.

Like Burton, Lexia® has worked hand in hand with educators for decades to make literacy a reality for all students. But there is still much work to be done. According to the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), only 35% of fourth grade students and 32% of eighth grade students in the U.S. read proficiently.

The research is clear: Virtually all young people can learn to read through literacy instruction grounded in the science of reading. By embracing evidence-based reading instruction, we can turn the tide of literacy learning in the U.S. and beyond—because literacy can and should be for all.

Watch and listen as Burton raises a rallying cry for the literacy transformation our young people need. We stand united by our commitment to realizing every child’s fundamental right to the liberatory power of reading.

'The Right to Read:' A Conversation With Kareem Weaver

Join us in this Q&A webinar with Kareem Weaver, literacy advocate and star of the documentary, “The Right to Read,” and other reading experts as they discuss what we can learn from the film to improve literacy for all students.

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Poet of the Natural World: Mary Oliver Papers Newly Available in the Manuscript Division

June 20, 2024

Posted by: Julie Miller

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This is a guest blog by Barbara Bair, historian of Literature, Culture, and the Arts in the Manuscript Division

In honor of Pride Month, the recently acquired personal papers of best-selling Pulitzer Prize-winning poet, essayist, literary critic, and teacher Mary Oliver (1935-2019) are now open to researchers in the Library of Congress Manuscript Division. The Mary Oliver Papers include some 40,000 items in more than 118 containers, dating primarily from 1934 to 2019. The collection documents Oliver’s creative life, friendships, and professional writing and academic careers. It includes correspondence, prose writings, poetry, notebooks, teaching materials, drafts, photographs, interviews, and speeches representative of Oliver’s love of nature, birds, and the seaside.

One sheet of paper with two columns listing handwritten names of birds, numbered 1-40. Headed 1991.

The Mary Oliver Papers were received by the Library in December 2023 as a generous gift of Amalie Moses Reichblum and Bill Reichblum, NW Orchard LLC. The Reichblums, who are members of the Library’s James Madison Council, were close friends of Oliver and executors of her estate. In addition to the archival collection, they established the Mary Oliver Memorial Event Fund for Emerging Poets at the Library, in keeping with wishes expressed by Oliver. A public inaugural poetry reading and interview sponsored by the fund was facilitated by U.S. Poet Laureate Ada Limón at the Library in April. The Mary Oliver Papers were processed in the Manuscript Division in spring 2024 by archivist Elizabeth Livesey with the assistance of archives technicians Shandra Morehouse and Tammi Taylor.

Prominent in this newly available collection are materials pertaining to Oliver’s creative process and the publication of her work. Also represented is her life in the artist and LGBTQ+ communities of Provincetown, Massachusetts, on Cape Cod, and her personal and professional relationship with her longtime partner, the photographer and bookstore owner Molly Malone Cook (1925-2005). Cook served as manager of Oliver’s literary career and public appearances. As a member of the Provincetown community, she promoted photography as a fine art and maintained a friendship network that included filmmaker John Waters and other local writers, artists, and photographers. Oliver praised Cook as her best and most discerning reader. She dedicated her book Long Life (2004) to Cook, and their book, Our World, features photographs by Cook and text by Oliver.

Two women holding paper cartons of popcorn, outdoors, in front of a shingled building, passersby in the background.

Photographs of Oliver by Cook taken in Provincetown, as well as snapshots of their life together, including their dogs and home, are available in the collection, as is a 1995 issue of Provincetown Arts featuring a photograph of Oliver on the cover taken by her friend Barbara Savage Cheresh. That issue of the magazine includes a few Oliver poems and an article on her importance as a nature poet by fellow poet and Walt Whitman aficionado Mark Doty.

Oliver’s papers reveal her to be a witty and expressive letter writer. Correspondence with friends, such as dancer and potter Paulus Berensohn (1933-2017) demonstrate her closeness to those who shared her love of walking in nature, and her feelings about meadows, marshes, woodlands, and waterways, and the herons, hawks, insects, and animals who inhabited them. Like Walt Whitman , whose personal papers are also held in the Manuscript Division, and whom Oliver memorialized along with Wordsworth and Emerson as key influences in her essays, Oliver carried small pocket notebooks with her as she went about her days. She used them to jot down trial lines of poetry and descriptions of the world around her. In one notebook, created during her time teaching at Sweet Briar College in Virginia in 1991, she described the sight of brown bats flying over the quad at night. In her poem “The Morning Walk,” published in Long Life , she writes of thankfulness expressed in the peewee’s whistle, the twisting of the snake, or by the beaver who slaps his tail on the water of a pond—or by a person (such as herself) who may reach out to embrace the oak tree, or take out a notebook to record what was being observed.

Sheet of paper headed "statement of plan," typed statement with square of newspring glued on.

An application for a Guggenheim fellowship, meanwhile, reveals Oliver’s uneasiness at being pegged only as a nature poet, when in fact she was interested in many things, including democracy in the United States and the regional variety of its people. When awarded the fellowship, she used it to work on her poetry collection, American Primitive, for which she was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1984.

Spirituality and eco-consciousness are also important parts of Oliver’s orientation to living reflected in the collection. She kept a copy of the poems of the Persian poet Rumi on her writing desk. An Anglican, she also kept a Book of Common Prayer nearby and pasted times for daily prayer on her typewriter. She emblazoned the typewriter with a bold message to her writer-self, positioned just above the keyboard, that read simply “COURAGE.” In trial lines jotted in her notebooks and in her published poems, she posited that every tree, every bush, and every flower is a reason to expound, and that the gladness she felt in response to the natural world is its own form of prayer. She continued to support the importance of environmental sustainability and stewardship after moving to Florida late in her life.

Image of a poster, reading at left: "Rachel Carson Distinguished Lecture" a yellow half circle, a bird, grasses, information about Oliver's poetry reading.

On June 14, 2024, United States Poet Laureate Ada Limón dedicated a tribute to a Mary Oliver poem titled “Can You Imagine” at the Cape Cod National Seashore, Massachusetts. The event inaugurated her “You are Here: Poetry in the Parks” site-specific poetry installation initiative focused on poetry of the natural world, cosponsored by the National Park Service and the Poetry Society of America.

Photograph of an electric typewriter, printed sign with Courage in caps taped above the keyboard.

As Mark Doty observed in his Provincetown Arts article, Mary Oliver teaches us that “the created world is something to cherish” and the central part of her “art is … to return us to wonder.”

Do you want more stories like this? Then subscribe to Unfolding History – it’s free!

“The created world,” Mark Doty, “Natural Science: In Praise of Mary Oliver,” Provincetown Arts 11 (1995), 27.

I am thrilled that Mary Oliver’s collection will be available at the Library. Many, many thanks to the Reichblums and to everyone at the Library who helped make it possible — Barbara Bair not least among them.

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Viewpoint: Is ‘Big Food’ downplaying risks of ultra-processed foods?

The rising concern about the health impact of [ultra-processed foods, or] UPFs has recast the debate around food and public health, giving rise to books, policy campaigns, and academic papers. It also presents the most concrete challenge yet to the business model of the food industry, for whom UPFs are extremely profitable.

The industry has responded with a ferocious campaign against regulation. In part it has used the same lobbying playbook as its fight against labeling and taxation of “junk food” high in calories: big spending to influence policymakers.

FT analysis of US lobbying data from non-profit Open Secrets found that food and soft drinks-related companies spent $106 million on lobbying in 2023, almost twice as much as the tobacco and alcohol industries combined. Last year’s spend was 21 percent higher than in 2020, with the increase driven largely by lobbying relating to food processing as well as sugar.

Scientists at the US government’s Agricultural Research Service led [a] study demonstrating it was possible to build a healthy diet with 91 per cent of the calories coming from UPFs. The authors had connections to the soy industry, sauces and flavouring company McCormick, and Atkins diet food owner Simply Good Foods.

Regulatory bodies also have some of these corporate links. A review of conflicts of interest in UK food regulation found that 9 of the 15 members of the government’s Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition had received funding from the UPF industry.

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The exponential growth of solar power will change the world

An energy-rich future is within reach

The sun at dawn rising over a solar panel

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I t is 70 years since AT&T ’s Bell Labs unveiled a new technology for turning sunlight into power. The phone company hoped it could replace the batteries that run equipment in out-of-the-way places. It also realised that powering devices with light alone showed how science could make the future seem wonderful; hence a press event at which sunshine kept a toy Ferris wheel spinning round and round.

Today solar power is long past the toy phase. Panels now occupy an area around half that of Wales, and this year they will provide the world with about 6% of its electricity—which is almost three times as much electrical energy as America consumed back in 1954. Yet this historic growth is only the second-most-remarkable thing about the rise of solar power. The most remarkable is that it is nowhere near over.

To call solar power’s rise exponential is not hyperbole, but a statement of fact. Installed solar capacity doubles roughly every three years, and so grows ten-fold each decade. Such sustained growth is seldom seen in anything that matters. That makes it hard for people to get their heads round what is going on. When it was a tenth of its current size ten years ago, solar power was still seen as marginal even by experts who knew how fast it had grown. The next ten-fold increase will be equivalent to multiplying the world’s entire fleet of nuclear reactors by eight in less than the time it typically takes to build just a single one of them.

Solar cells will in all likelihood be the single biggest source of electrical power on the planet by the mid 2030s. By the 2040s they may be the largest source not just of electricity but of all energy. On current trends, the all-in cost of the electricity they produce promises to be less than half as expensive as the cheapest available today. This will not stop climate change, but could slow it a lot faster. Much of the world—including Africa , where 600m people still cannot light their homes—will begin to feel energy-rich. That feeling will be a new and transformational one for humankind.

To grasp that this is not some environmentalist fever dream, consider solar economics. As the cumulative production of a manufactured good increases, costs go down. As costs go down, demand goes up. As demand goes up, production increases—and costs go down further. This cannot go on for ever; production, demand or both always become constrained. In earlier energy transitions—from wood to coal, coal to oil or oil to gas—the efficiency of extraction grew, but it was eventually offset by the cost of finding ever more fuel.

As our essay this week explains, solar power faces no such constraint. The resources needed to produce solar cells and plant them on solar farms are silicon-rich sand, sunny places and human ingenuity, all three of which are abundant. Making cells also takes energy, but solar power is fast making that abundant, too. As for demand, it is both huge and elastic—if you make electricity cheaper, people will find uses for it. The result is that, in contrast to earlier energy sources, solar power has routinely become cheaper and will continue to do so.

Other constraints do exist. Given people’s proclivity for living outside daylight hours, solar power needs to be complemented with storage and supplemented by other technologies. Heavy industry and aviation and freight have been hard to electrify. Fortunately, these problems may be solved as batteries and fuels created by electrolysis gradually become cheaper.

Another worry is that the vast majority of the world’s solar panels, and almost all the purified silicon from which they are made, come from China. Its solar industry is highly competitive, heavily subsidised and is outstripping current demand—quite an achievement given all the solar capacity China is installing within its own borders. This means that Chinese capacity is big enough to keep the expansion going for years to come, even if some of the companies involved go to the wall and some investment dries up.

In the long run, a world in which more energy is generated without the oil and gas that come from unstable or unfriendly parts of the world will be more dependable. Still, although the Chinese Communist Party cannot rig the price of sunlight as OPEC tries to rig that of oil, the fact that a vital industry resides in a single hostile country is worrying.

It is a concern that America feels keenly, which is why it has put tariffs on Chinese solar equipment. However, because almost all the demand for solar panels still lies in the future, the rest of the world will have plenty of scope to get into the market. America’s adoption of solar energy could be frustrated by a pro-fossil-fuel Trump presidency, but only temporarily and painfully. It could equally be enhanced if America released pent up demand, by making it easier to install panels on homes and to join the grid—the country has a terawatt of new solar capacity waiting to be connected. Carbon prices would help, just as they did in the switch from coal to gas in the European Union.

The aim should be for the virtuous circle of solar-power production to turn as fast as possible. That is because it offers the prize of cheaper energy. The benefits start with a boost to productivity. Anything that people use energy for today will cost less—and that includes pretty much everything. Then come the things cheap energy will make possible. People who could never afford to will start lighting their houses or driving a car. Cheap energy can purify water, and even desalinate it. It can drive the hungry machinery of artificial intelligence. It can make billions of homes and offices more bearable in summers that will, for decades to come, be getting hotter.

But it is the things that nobody has yet thought of that will be most consequential. In its radical abundance, cheaper energy will free the imagination, setting tiny Ferris wheels of the mind spinning with excitement and new possibilities.

This week marks the summer solstice in the northern hemisphere. The Sun rising to its highest point in the sky will in decades to come shine down on a world where nobody need go without the blessings of electricity and where the access to energy invigorates all those it touches. ■

For subscribers only: to see how we design each week’s cover, sign up to our weekly Cover Story newsletter .

This article appeared in the Leaders section of the print edition under the headline “The solar age”

Leaders June 22nd 2024

Ai will transform the character of warfare, emmanuel macron’s project of reform is at risk, how to tax billionaires—and how not to, javier milei’s next move could make his presidency—or break it, india should liberate its cities and create more states.

From the June 22nd 2024 edition

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Nigel Farage’s claim that NATO provoked Russia is naive and dangerous

It is also a wilful misreading of history

Technology will make war faster and more opaque. It could also prove destabilising

A snap election in France reveals the flimsiness of his legacy

It doesn’t need more government. It needs more governments

Radical experiments with the currency could spell disaster

Closing loopholes would be a better bet than a levy on unrealised capital gains

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The Importance and Role of Literacy in My Life

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Published: Mar 3, 2020

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