Expanding the Literacy Toolbox (Scholastic Literacy Research Paper Volume 11)

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Why we must broaden our definition of literacy and incorporate new media in the classroom.

David Rose and Anne Meyer

For over a century we have been striving to reach the goal of universal literacy. Although more children can read and write than ever before, there is growing concern that we are no longer making progress. Worse, there is widespread alarm that we are losing ground. A recent survey measuring international literacy shows that although the United States can claim a large number of adults (19 percent) who scored at highest levels of literacy, 24 percent scored at the lowest levels, just above Poland, the industrialized nation that ranked the lowest (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development; l995).

We have made progress. In the l920s, only one in four Americans went to college. In the 1950s, it was one in two. In the 1990s, it is three of four. The paradox of such progress is that it isn't good enough. Americans are entering a changed and competitive workforce that requires new sets of skills to succeed. Our increasingly information-based culture demands correspondingly increased levels of knowledge and skill. More centrally, the definition of what constitutes literacy in our culture is changing dramatically. The kind of literacy now required for satisfactory performance in business, industry, academia, and government is not the kind of literacy toward which schools have been striving.

We cannot achieve the goal of universal literacy by continuing to rely on current approaches and technologies. This paper traces the development of communications technologies and their relationship to pedagogy over the centuries. It also makes an urgent case for applying new technologies to today's classrooms. When we do, we will not only make strides in achieving the goal of universal literacy, we make it possible for all learners, no matter what their background, experience, or special circumstance, to learn to read and write with power and purpose, early in their lives as students. The historical perspective in this paper shows why Scholastic Literacy Place, with its WiggleWorks Plus and Smart Books, is a leader in the use of new technologies to support all learners.