Achieving Cognitive Complexity

1452 Words3 Pages

Literacy comes in steps, baby steps. Each person learns at

his or her own pace, gradually stepping closer and closer to the

fullest extent of cognitive literacy. Although some people start

with smaller steps, all learners can reach full cognitive literacy

through plenty of trial and error, with guidance along the way.

The steps in achieving full cognitive literacy have plateaus that

learners reach at varying stages of their lives.

The first plateau of literacy is the cultural literacy stage.

Learners reach this stage by interacting with others and

by immersing themselves in their culture. The second

plateau of literacy is the stage of foundational knowledge.

Foundational knowledge consists of the basics: reading and

writing. Following foundational knowledge is the plateau of

separated critical inquiry, where learners begin to accumulate

the skills necessary for critical reading and critical writings

as skills distinct from one another. The final plateau that a

learner reaches in order to obtain full cognitive literacy is the

metacognitive stage of literacy where the learner begins to

juxtapose critical reading, critical writing, critical thinking, and

in-depth oral communication to create the highest level of

cognitive ability.

Cultural literacy is best explained through the ethnographic

approach that Shirley Brice Heath uses in her Ways With

Words. Heath examines Trackton and Roadville, two very

different towns in the Carolinas. Heath spends two chapters

on “Learning How to Talk in Trackton” and “Learning How

to Talk in Roadville.” Before children start school in Trackton,

they are more or less ignored by the adults; it is up to the

children to make themselves heard. When they are babies,

their cooing is only referred to as noises:

When infants begin to utter sounds which can be

interpreted as referring to items or events in the

environment, these sounds receive no special attention.

Trackton adults believe a baby ‘comes up’ as a talker;

adults cannot make babies talk (Heath 75.)

To Trackton residents, children learn inherently through

immersion in the cultural society. Children in Roadville also

learn from their culture but in a different way from the children

of Trackton. In Roadville, a child’s first word is a matter of

excitement in the community,: “Young mothers often take the

first ‘da, da, da, da’ sounds from the crib as ‘daddy’ and report

the ‘word’ proudly to the father” (Heath 121). While the

Open Document