How is literacy part of your content area?

Literacy IS my content area! Literacy is everyone's content for without it, what would there be? I have willingly abandoned my previous definition of literacy which stated literacy was the ability to read and write, make change, tell time, and follow a schedule. Granted all of those are important and do contitute a "literate" person, functioning illiterate at best. However, after taking this course, I have learned how to approach the term literacy in a different way. With that being said, my definition of literacy includes far more. I can't exactly tell you what I think it is in a sentence or two because I am still not sure. I do however, have what I have coined a "working" definition. I am completey satisfied leaving this class not being able to rattle off some memorized, text book definition of literacy. Which I have to admit was rather difficult- breaking that "schooling" mold! What matters most, and how I can verify that I have learned and that I am leaving this course having grown, is the fact that I understand what "literacy" means. I am content walking away with a "working" definition because I know the more I learn, the more my definition will evolve, expand, and change. I have learned how to focus more on the process of things and not the final product. The final product would essentially be that memorized, black and white, defintion of literacy. But the process of taking on the challenge of defining it, is much more powerful because you really have to stop and think..."well what is literacy?" "Could Pokemon or dance really be a literacy?" For me, it was the process of honestly and seriously evaluating my previous definition and "testing" it to see if it truly had any worth and if it was even relevant. The process also involved being open minded and reading researchers' insights and critically examining how they approached literacy. It also entailed engaging in candid conversations with my classmates and even arguing at times, just to again question what it is litercy could be. It was a process of constantly revisiting what I had thought it was and taking into account what I had just learned. And like I said, it is extremely difficult walking away from a class not having that solid, black and white "proof" that I learned. At times I begged, "just give me the written exam and let me recite and rewrite notes from textbooks! Please oh please, it makes life so much easier!! I want that instant feeling of accomplishment that I typically feel upon completing a written exam of which I haven't thought but rahter memorized everything you (the teacher) says I should know!" To walk away from a class without that written exam makes me feel like I haven't learned anything- when really I have learned a lot more because I have