What is Literacy? Response

*I Wrote this on time for class and posted it after the fact.

1. Gee defines literacy as discourses that are established as a set of ways language is used, the way we think, and the way we behave to identify ourselves within a community. Literacy is linked to the discourses within a community and how ideals are expressed by a community through its language. Therefore, literacy is linked to our identity because Gee also defines our discourse as our identity kit within a group. Our identity is influenced by our race, gender, socioeconomic class, education, ability and age.

2. I changed my understanding of literacy because I originally thought of literacy only as the ability to read and write. But now I think of literacy as the language of discourses that are particular to the community it is circulating throughout, and common to that community. This affects my own understanding of my own literacy story because now I think of literacy on a broader scale that is particular to certain groups more than others based off of the standards of what is acceptable to that group. Without being allowed to criticize that community, an outside group would not be able to do so if it doesn't understand the standards and principles within that community.