• What is literacy?
• What is illiteracy?
• What are the characteristics of a literate person?

We agree as a group in general to Gee’s discussion of multiple literacies, as opposed to a single literacy.  Most people are literate to a certain degree when considering ‘being literate’ as a social practice, but those who are multiliterate are able to access and shift between different discourse communities.  This is exemplified in their access to different “identity kits” (Gee, 1991, p. 3).  As an extension of this idea, we would argue then that very few people can be considered entirely illiterate, but most of them have limited access to discourse communities, including those that are privileged or otherwise inaccessible.  By privileged discourse communities, we are primarily considering those favored by certain socioeconomic groups and empowered communities, and reified through the dominant educational system.  In order to be considered literate within the U.S. educational environment, for example, students must write and speak in a coherent manner (as modeled by the dominant discourse community), and demonstrate behavioral competence within that environment.

*Definition by Mellissa Carr, Jack Peterson, and Kris Lowrey