Powerful Literacy: Are we there yet?
English is one of the subjects that learners have to study in schools because it helps them to gain various skills. English is a broader language that should be mainly embraced in learning institutions. One of the areas that make English complete is literature. Literature refers to works that are superior and have long-lasting merit. Therefore, when learners are exposed to different literary works, there is a big chance that they will develop essential literacy skills. With literature being a prestigious area, there is a need to ensure that powerful literacy is established among the students. Since literature has been present for the past years, there has been an argument on what is considered as powerful literacy and whether we are there in 2020.
In literature, literacy programs need to be carried for powerful literacy to be developed. In this case, powerful literacy refers to an approach whereby students are expected to understand a text and be able to analyse it thoroughly. This concept means that students should be able to move from saying what does this say to what does this means. The main issue that has influenced the development of powerful literacy is social background.
Most students from the high-income background are taken to prestigious schools which value problem-solving skills, criticism as well as analysis which are related to powerful literacy. On the other attributes hand, students who attend schools associated with the lower social background will not have the capacity to learn these skills that will help them develop powerful literacy.
Currently, in 2020, it is evident that appropriate measures have been taken and powerful literacy has been achieved. One of the elements which show that powerful literacy has been achieved especially by students is that they can communicate effectively. Students who have developed powerful literacy possess skills that have helped them to communicate effectively through different mediums. The second aspect that shows why powerful literacy has been achieved is that most students can analyse a text to get its meanings. Currently, most students do not just read texts, but they are capable of identifying what the texts mean in depth.
Thirdly, powerful literacy has been achieved in the sense that most of the student demonstrates creative thinking. Reading texts is one of the programs of powerful literacy development. When student ready more books, the literacy skills develop and in the end, become more creative; thus, they can come up with a solution for various problems. Lastly, powerful literacy has been developed over the past few years as students can now relate what they have learnt in the text to real-life experiences. Therefore, when these students are exposed to these experiences, it becomes easy to deal with them.
Concluding, it is evident that over the past few years, powerful literacy has been developed by many students. The main factor that has influenced the development of literacy skills is the creation of literacy programs. Since literature is one of the essential branches in English, proper approaches have to be taken to ensure that the necessary skills have been imparted to the students. Therefore, appropriate programs should be conducted in schools to help the students develop literacy skills that will lead to powerful literacy such as proper communication, creativity and proper analysis of texts.