Literacy and Stitching

by Linda Stanek

What is literacy, and how does stitching tie in?

Literacy is often thought of as being the ability to read and write. It’s also the ability to comprehend what you have read. As all of Bloom’s taxonomy is practiced in the process of stitching, just as it is used in learning to read and in reading comprehension.

Readers, especially emergent readers, must be risk takers. They must be willing to take chances on a word. Using phonics, contextual and illustrative cues, they often have to guess at the meaning of a word. If it doesn’t make sense in the context of the sentence (an evaluation), they must go back and look at it again, analyze, synthesize.

As their reading develops, they need to be critical thinkers, asking does this make sense? Do I think this is true? Who is the source of this information, and are they credible? They must evaluate.

As they develop as writers they must put their words on paper, evaluate them, try something different. They must be Creatives.

So here’s to Creatives who read and write. Who paint or draw or do scientific experiments. Here’s to the Creatives who design and stitch and cheer on others as they do the same.

Here’s to trying! Here’s to failing and trying something new. Here’s to encouraging others to try. Here’s to analyzing, synthesizing, and evaluating again.

And here’s to you, for recognizing and valuing your creativity, for fostering creativity in others—especially children—and for caring about the literacy of our up and coming next generation.

Linda Stanek was born and raised in Columbus, Ohio, and has always loved visiting the zoo. She spends her time taming stray cats and corralling words into stories and books—both fiction and nonfiction. She also writes for magazines, e-zines, and non-profit organizations and writes teacher’s guides for award-winning children’s books.

Linda has a B.S. degree in elementary education from The Ohio State University. She lives in Columbus with her three cats, Frankie (named after a Columbus Crew soccer player), Chloe (just because she likes the name), and Cubby (named after the Chicago Cubs baseball team). Beco’s Big Year is her second book.