WHALEY, NICOLE GRZNAR, JASMINE

BREWER, CHRISTOPHER LUTZ, ELIZABETH

AGUILAR, CHARLI NETHERTON, NATALIE

DODD, PATRICIA HAMMOND, ROYON

*Save Literacy.Save the World!

Causes of Illiteracy

*Poverty

*Governmental Restrictions

*Political

*Economic

*Civil Unrest

*Apathy

Response

Improved Literacy

Better Economic Opportunities

Better Quality of Life

*Introduction

The United Nations found in studying 89 developing countries, that as women become more literate, the rate of infant deaths declines

“People who can read enjoy better health, make more money, create safer and more stable democracies, and serve their communities more effectively,”

If we believe that education is the path to unleashing the genius and humanity in every child, then building bridges to increased international understanding and appreciation is essential. (Bigler 1998).

New research on India published in the journal Social Science and Medicine shows that literacy - a non-income good - has a greater impact on public health in India.

HEADLINES

STATISTICS

Adult Illiteracy Rate 16.3%

Adult Illiterate Population 793.1 million

Adult Women Illiterate Population

64.1%

Youth Illiteracy Rate 10.7%

Youth Illiterate Population 127.3 million

Youth Women Illiterate Population

60%

Source: UNESCO Institute for Statistics, September 2011

Global Organizations

Promoting Reading* International Reading Association

*World Literacy Initiative

*Scholastic’s World Literacy Day September 8

*The Literacy Project (Google)

*One World Literacy Foundation

*World Literacy Crusade

*The Center for Literacy Studies

Improving literacy does not mean simply teaching people to read. It also entails opening their minds to the splendid world of literature. Reading can take them to new places, introduce them to new ideas, inspire them to improve their lives and the lives of their families.

READING BILL OF RIGHTSWE BELIEVE that literacy—the ability to read, write and understand—is the birthright of every child in the world as well as the pathway to succeed in school and to realize a complete life. Young people need to read nonfiction for information to understand their world, and literature for imagination to understand themselves.

WE BELIEVE that the massive amounts of digital information and images now transmitted daily make it even more important for a young person to know how to analyze, interpret and understand information, to separate fact from opinion, and to have deep respect for logical thinking.

WE BELIEVE that literature and drama, whether on printed pages, screens, on stage or film, help young people experience the great stories of emotion and action, leading to a deeper understanding of what it means to be truly human. Without this literacy heritage, life lacks meaning, coherence and soul.

WE BELIEVE every child has a right to a “textual lineage”—a reading and writing autobiography which shows that who you are is in part developed through the stories and information you’ve experienced. This textual lineage will enable all young people to have a reading and writing identity which helps them understand who they are and how they can make their lives better. In short, “You Are What You Read.”

WE BELIEVE every child should have access to books, magazines, newspapers, computers, e-readers, and text on phones. Whatever way you read, you will need to figure out what the facts are or what the story tells you. No matter how and where you get access to ideas, you will need the skills of reading to understand yourself and your world.

WE BELIEVE that reading widely and reading fluently will give children the reading stamina to deal with more challenging texts they will meet in college, at work and in everyday life. And every child should be able to choose and own the books they want to read, for that choice builds literacy confidence—the ability to read, write and speak about what they know, what they feel, and who they are.

WE BELIEVE that every child has the right to a great teacher who will help them learn to read and love to read. Children need teachers who provide intentional, focused instruction to give young people the skills to read and interpret information or understand great stories they will encounter throughout life.

WE BELIEVE that in the 21st century, the ability to read is necessary not only to succeed but to survive—for the ability to understand information and the power of stories is the key to a life of purpose and meaning.

--Scholastic Books, Founder of World Literacy Day

*How does reading literature make a student feel like they are a part of the global community?

*Improving literacy, giving children access to the depth and breadth of world literature, could make them see their place on the world stage. Generations of writers have explored the themes of warfare solving few problems, and peace bringing prosperity, not starvation and poverty. Being able to experience this literature can make them feel part of the bigger picture. If we can improve education, we can open doors never dreamed of for students all over the planet.

* How does studying literature

foster empathy

with others?

*Children who cannot read cannot see beyond the boundaries of their town or village. Teaching these children to read and sharing the vast body of world literature can show them that there are children in other towns, other villages experiencing some of the same problems. A child in British Columbia can read about a child in Bogota or Cairo and see how their life is better or worse than their own. Improved education will bring these students together in a personal, intimate way.

Various forms of visual aids can be used for visual communication, such as photos, computer-generated clip art, animations, video clips or pictographs.

*Visual Aids improve reading comprehension

Pictographs combined with simplified text can be an efficient and effective tool to improve communication with adults with low-literacy skills (Choi 2011).

Learners improve their learning when they receive words with corresponding pictures.

Pictographs can:

1. Facilitate users’ cognitive learning process,

2. Direct attention to important details

3. Reduce the reliance on complex textual information

*Visual communication

Pictographs are also well suited to show easy step by-step instructions of complex and lengthy procedures consisting of multiple actions, thus making an entire action sequence easier to learn(Choi 2011).

*Research suggest that parenting practices and the social experiences available to children influence not only their cognitive abilities but also the way their brains process speech sounds (Matutue, 2012).

*Usual Suspects

*The process of becoming literate begins in early childhood and usually involves several years of schooling.

*Improving reading level achievements are linked to a child’s opportunities to practice these skills.

*Schools with limited resources often waste instructional time, offer only limited instruction and lack textbooks; hence the students who attend those schools rarely practice reading and may remain illiterate for years (Matute, 2012)

& Education

Mark Twain

Rudyard Kipling

Chinua Achebe

Cervantes

Dostoyevsky

The Epic of Gilgamesh

Valmiki

Tolstoy

Shakespeare

Sheikh Saadi of Shiraz

Jalalu'l-Din Rumi

Ovid

Murasaki Shikibu

Lu Xun

Toni Morrison

Franz Kafka

Everyone should have the ability to read and to experience literature in all its glories. Every governmental program, every charity, every Mom who sits down to read her children a bedtime story promotes this noble goal. As citizens of this earth, literature is a gift we should all be able to share.

 Bartlett, John. Bartlett's Familiar Quotations. 18. New York: Little, Brown, 2012. Print.

"Famous Literacy Quotes." http://oneworldliteracyfoundation.org. World Literacy Foundation, n.d. Web. 30 Jun 2013.

Jerome, Sarah D. "Leading Schools for Global Literacy." School Administrator 64.9 (2007): 60. ProQuest. Web. 30 June 2013.

"Literacy Key to Prosperity." The Windsor Star: 0. Oct 03 2007. ProQuest. Web. 30 June 2013 .

"Public Health; Literacy, Not Income, Key to Improving Public Health in India." NewsRx Health (2013): 32. ProQuest. Web. 30 June 2013.

"Scholastic Launches Global Literacy Campaign." Reading Today 28.3 (2011): 3. ProQuest. Web. 30 June 2013.

"Top 100 Works in World Literature." http://www.infoplease.com. Norwegian Book Clubs, n.d. Web. 30 Jun 2013.

UNESCO, United Nations. UNESCO. UIS Fact Sheet

United States. U. S. Department of State. World Literacy Day 2012: Literacy Supports Peace, Development . Washington, D.c.: , 2012. Print. <World Literacy Day 2012: Literacy Supports

Peace,http://iipdigital.usembassy.gov>.

*Works Cited

*Works CitedChoi, Jeungok. "Literature Review: Using Pictographs in Discharge Instructions for Older Adults with Low-literacy Skills." Journal of Clinical Nursing 20.21 (2011): 2984-996. Print.

Eskey, David E. (1996). Review of Mike Baynham 'Literacy practices: Investigating literacy in social contexts' Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 18, pp 394-394.doi:10.1017/S027226310001531X.

"India's Literacy Rates Rise." Telegraph.co.ukNov 21 2006. ProQuest. Web. 1 July 2013.

"Literacy Rate Decreases." AllAfrica.comApr 18 2013. ProQuest. Web. 1 July 2013.

Matute, Esmeralda, Teresita Montiel, Noemi Pinto, Monica Rosselli, Alfredo Ardila, and Daniel Zarabozo. “Comparing Cognitive Performance in Illiterate and Literate Children”. International Review of Education 51.1 (2012): 109- 27. Academic Search Premier. Web. 26 June 2013

Weegar, Tom. Literacy A. "Why is Literacy Important to Residents of the Alberni Valley?" Alberni Valley Times: 0. Oct 03 2007. ProQuest. Web. 1 July 2013 .