The only reason I picked up writing at an early age was because I had literacy advocates in my life. I did not know what those were until I was in graduate school. For graduate studies in teaching reading and writing, I was asked to write about the people that impacted my reading and writing habits. It was a powerful moment. But what is a literacy advocate, you ask? To put it simple: it is somebody who supports you reading and writing journey. In this post, we will explore the importance of literacy advocates.
Why Literacy Advocates are So Important
I started reading at an early age and can remember falling in love with books and writing before I can remember falling in love with anything else. In fact, as a kid, I recall romanticizing my future life by imagining that I was an old writer who would sit under a tall oak tree in my parents’ front yard thinking and jotting ideas down in a journal. I have no idea why I thought this, but probably because it sounds cool and writerly and glamorized.
When I was teaching composition in graduate school, one of the first essays I had students write was an essay on literacy advocates. I immediately saw the power in allowing students to reflect on who affected their reading and writing journeys. The idea was to make students reflect on their lifetime of reading and writing behavior in an organic way, and it paid off. What I discovered was that most students had negative perceptions about reading or writing from prior experiences with teachers, parents, or particular classes they took; however, most of them had somebody in their life that told them reading, writing, and learning was important.
Many of the students pointed to their mothers or grandmothers because they were the ones that helped them read their first books and write their first sentences. Other students who felt that they lacked a literacy advocate pointed to stern teachers or parents who were too unrealistic and peremptory (or not enough) when it came to reading and writing.
So, while the experiences were varied, students all had stories to share, both good and bad, about how they first approached reading and writing.
Conclusion
The overall point to make about a literacy advocate is that they support us in learning an extremely complex skill. In turn, this helps us in the future because we can associate positive moments with our learning. The importance of literacy advocates is clear. If we don’t think about reading or writing as a chore, then it becomes something that is important to our success. If we reframe it that way by urging students to think about an advocate, that creates power and meaning.
Nonetheless, adults in our formative years have a huge impact on who we are and who we will become. That could be teachers or parents. Their intellectual impact can change the way we think about the world and ourselves. This goes from how we act in society to how we read or write. Therefore, their guidance and love of reading and writing is an important gift that all young people should experience.
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