Literacy

High school (ages 12+)
Thinking & Learning

Name:

Date:

Step 1 · Read the article

Open the article and read it at the level above. Then answer the questions below in your own words.

https://smallwhale.org/articles/literacy

Write what each word means, using the article.

Do not copy the article. Write two things you learned, the way you would explain them to a friend.

Answers below are taken from the article’s stored facts, so they match what the student read.

1. What is the early writing systems?Included cuneiform (Mesopotamia) and hieroglyphs (Egypt)
2. What is the alphabetic revolution?The Phoenician alphabet simplified writing, making it more accessible
3. Why is literacy important for society?Literacy helps people go to school, get jobs, and vote. It also lets us find good information and keep our culture alive.
4. What are different kinds of literacy?Literacy can be practical, like reading a recipe; critical, like questioning a news article; or digital, like checking a website. All help us use words in different ways.

Grapheme: The smallest unit of a written language that represents a sound.
Phoneme: The smallest unit of sound in a spoken language.
Orthographic Processing: The ability to recognize written words and their spelling patterns.