Literacy is communication. It is listening to people inside and outside the surrounding comforts of familiar environments. Literacy is speaking on the phone, e-mailing friends, text and instant messaging. It is talking to neighbors, communicating with coworker, writing notes and cards to family and friends. It is corresponding both verbally and in writing with public and private institutions. The literacy umbrella includes verbal as well as nonverbal encounters. Nonverbal literacy encompasses writing, body language, and sign language. Literacy is playing games with friends and entertaining family. Literacy is the process by which people connect, whether it is for just a few minutes or for a lifetime.

     Literacy in the more definitive sense is the encoding, decoding, and comprehension of words, both spoken and written. Each component plays a significant role in its overall contribution to literacy. Encoding is being able to pull sounds or oral speech together to form the symbols for written language. Decoding is breaking words down into their individual sound components then sliding them back together for correct pronunciation of words. Comprehension is a reading event where people/students demonstrate their knowledge of texts through both speaking and/or writing.  Furthermore literacy is metacognitive occurrences that are performed both individually and in the company of others where the group’s contributions form the gestalt of individual input.

     Literacy is reading. Reading has developed over the years to mean more than the simple definition of encoding and decoding a text. It is the involvement of the reader in relationship to the text. It incorporates the interaction as well as the transaction between the reader, the words, and the author's intention. As people, young and old, read they bring with them all their past experiences and all their ideas about what they know or have learned to the reading experience. Literacy is the dialogue between the self and the text to gain understanding and etch out meaning from what is being read. It is questioning the author, inferencing the text, and predicting outcomes based on what is known. Reading engages the mind. It is the automaticity of instantly knowing the pronunciation of words, the meaning of words, and the meaning of words as they are strung to together to form sentences. Reading is thinking.