Literacy snapshot, E342 Monday

This week I learned a lot about myself as a literate individual. I learned that I look at several different varieties of literature including the Indiana Daily Student (IDS), Facebook, textbooks, course packets, street signs, directions, cooking instructions, and much more. Literacy is all around me and is a huge part of my life.

First, I learned that I am on Facebook much more than I should be. I find myself checking Facebook on my phone, my laptop, at the school of education, and anywhere else I have access to a computer. Second, every Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday before my 8 A.M. classes, I find myself reading the IDS. I found that as a literate individual, I spend the majority of my week reading textbooks for classes. I am in six different courses and have textbooks in all of the classes. Sometimes, I have more than one textbook in a class. All of my classes assign a lot of reading in the books and I spend a majority of my weeknights reading them.

In addition to reading textbooks for my classes, I read the course packets/syllabi for them. I read these everyday in order to find out what my homework for the night is and/or to know what big assignments I will have to do. Because I have a car on campus, I frequently find myself reading street signs. I read street signs and highway signs to know where I am going and where I need to turn. I read stop signs, construction signs, yield signs, detour signs, etc.

I often find myself reading directions and cooking instructions on a daily basis. I read directions when I have to go pick up friends from their houses or when I have to do a homework assignment. I read directions the other day when I had to set up my toaster and my drying rack. Along with reading directions, I frequently read cooking instructions. This week I read the instructions for chicken nuggets, cake, cookies, coffee, corn, a pasta dinner, and chocolate chip pancakes.

Overall, I have discovered I read a lot more than I ever realized. Literacy is a much bigger part of my life and other people’s lives than I ever recognized before. I am now beginning to understand how important literacy truly is in an individual’s life and how it can be found everywhere, not just in an educational setting.