What is literacy, and how does its development determine a child’s readiness to learn and succeed academically?
I define literacy rather narrowly, as the capacity to construct and express meaning through reading, writing, and talking about texts. Clearly, literacy defined this way has to be seen as developmental. Literacy is a prerequisite to the acquisition of new information and the formulation of new ideas. Almost everything kids learn from the fourth grade on they have to learn by reading and writing. Kids who struggle with the task of reading or writing—through which they must convey what they’ve learned—are unable to show their teachers that they understand. This article is part of an ongoing series on the education of children from preK through grade 3, made possible through the support of the Foundation for Child Development. This is an excerpt from the Harvard Education Letter. Subscribers can click here to continue reading this article. Click here to become a subscriber.
