A local high school has implemented a semester-long financial literacy program aimed at providing students with essential skills for managing money. Covering topics like budgeting, saving, investing, and understanding credit, the program combines classroom instruction with hands-on activities, guest speakers from the finance industry, and field trips to local financial institutions. Students are also tasked with completing a practical project, such as creating a personal budget. This approach ensures that students not only learn theoretical concepts but also apply them in real-world scenarios. The program's strengths lie in its direct relevance to students' lives, experiential learning opportunities, and exposure to industry professionals. However, it requires significant resources for implementation, may face time constraints in covering all necessary topics, and necessitates careful assessment methods. Additionally, long-term sustainability could be a challenge, relying on consistent funding and ongoing support. Despite these considerations, the program serves as a commendable example of functional literacies pedagogy, effectively preparing students for financial decision-making in adulthood.

• April Ann Pesino

Functional literacy is the capacity to read any kind of writing and grasp its content. The capacity to interpret this text is it. Today, when we are constantly surrounded by texts from the media, this is a fundamental reality. Unfortunately, studies indicate that we are going in the opposite direction, with a large number of functional illiterates who are unable to understand simple text.
This is a result of the global loss in education, particularly in the poorest nations. Children leave the classroom with serious interpretational issues and grow up unable to engage in critical thinking. For instance, they turn into those grownups who are more likely to accept false information.
The capacity to read is only one aspect of literacy. Being literate involves much more than just being able to read and write. The continual use of writing and documentation of writing constitutes literacy. Being literate means having a different perspective on the world and being able to understand words and phrases for their messages rather than just their letters.

• Monika Samaroo Latchman

The result of fundamental knowledge is literacy, which combines all a child initially learns from their writing and speaking patterns. The importance of literacy cannot be overstated, but young children in particular need to develop these abilities in order to read and write with confidence. According to what we know, functional literacy consists of a collection of particular skills like reading and writing. All through time, while going through the process of developing fundamental cognitive abilities, you start to contribute to socioeconomic advancement and social awareness. A person who is functionally literate must be able to uphold their moral commitments, which includes being able to support themselves in society. The community is a good illustration of where literacy would be very beneficial. How many people lack fundamental literacy skills in their towns, as evidenced by the fact that they cannot use garbage disposals or understand basic traffic laws. This explains why the community's functional literacy must be improved. And where better to begin learning in this manner than with family and school? A wonderful place to start is by raising young students' understanding of functional literacy in reading classes through lectures on basic traffic and community laws or even homeroom and classroom norms.

• Shaira Marie Del Rosario

Functional literacy is the ability to read a text, whatever it is, and to extract the meaning of this text. It is the ability to interpret this text. This is a fundamental condition for today, in which we live surrounded by texts all the time through the media. Unfortunately, research shows that we are doing the opposite way, with many functional illiterates who cannot interpret simple text.

This is due to the decline in education in many countries, especially the poorest countries. Children leave the classroom with major problems of interpretation and become adults with no capacity for critical analysis. They become, for example, those adults who are more likely to believe in fake news.

Literacy is much more than simply the ability to read and write. Literacy is the constant practice of using writing and recording writing. Literacy represents a different way of seeing the world and being able to decode more than the letters and sentences, but rather perceive their meanings and messages.

• Evelyse Eerola

Functional literacy focuses on students learning the texts that enable them to succeed at school and to participate in society.

The aim is for learners to understand the reasons why text exist and how this affects the shape of texts.

An example can be to practice reading and writing words in very simple documents or performing simple skills to understand short texts like reading a pamphlet or using a TV guide.

• Amanda Mize

I find the article Grammar: Making Meaning in Writing from Martin and Rothey (1993) quite interesting since I can relate this situation with a personal experience already discussed in the previous topic about authentic literacies. Teaching English as a second language has shifted from traditional grammar to functional grammar literacies. When I learned English in elementary school, traditional grammar literacies were encouraged. I had to learn vocabulary by repeating five times each word and make a drawing about it. I learned to make sentences by learning first grammar structures, for example, if the topic was about present perfect tense I was taught through a formula such as SUBJECT+HAVE/HAS+VERB IN PAST PARTICIPLE+COMPLEMENT. However, to know this topic I had to dominate first easier sentences structures such as in Present and Past Simple. Then I had to learn from my list of verbs how the base forms of determined verbs are in past participle. I think that my generation could grasp easier this type of pedagogical approaches since I consider that we were more attentive and obedient to the teacher’s instructions. But this situation has somehow changed since technology has made younger generations “busier” with more activities done in the mobile phone (posting on social media, watching videos on youtube, playing videogames), so to retain their attention during class is more challenging, hence the need of new pedagogical literacies.
Many years later I taught English at public elementary and junior high schools. Of course learning English in private elementary and junior high schools is different from teaching English in public elementary and junior high schools not only since throughout more than ten years the pedagogical approaches have changed due to the global context but also because at public schools the quality of education is not that the same from private schools. Many public elementary schools don’t have English teachers even English is a mandatory subject. The national educational curricula expect that public elementary schools hire their own English teachers through either a local English teaching program or through the parents’ financial support. Learners from public junior high schools are expected to have a B1 level of English proficiency. But this situation is just the tip of the iceberg.
National educational curricula developed an English learning program based on developing functional grammar literacies where learners must know the what, how and why of the language. While my learning process was more focused on the what (vocabulary and verb lists, grammar formulas) and the how (school projects such as learning songs since pop music was popular due to the impact of cable/satellite television in those years), current pedagogical approaches are also focused on the why (why am I learning this language?). Unfortunately, many learners from public schools won’t find a good reason to learn English if they face difficulties at learning this language since they have never learned it before. In my perspective, both authentic and functional literacies are more objective in theory since they are more focused on learners’ involvement, but in practice they can result in mere utopias if learners’ needs and motivation are not considered. Critical pedagogies are a must for this type of educational challenges.

https://newlearningonline.com/literacies/chapter-6/grammar-making-meaning-in-writing

• Alberto Emmanuel Conti Morales

Literacy means the ability to read and write, but functional literacy is the ability to use the knowledge in everyday life. The definition comes from the organization UNESCO and assessed by UNESCO. Today functional literacy takes an important position as it is considered as needed capability. Teaching functional literacy begins from the start of the school and teachers try not only teach students to be literate but also to be able to think critically, to express their opinion in a right way.
Functional literacy is assessed by National Assessment of Adult Literacy agency, and according to this organization it is classified as: below basic literacy; basic literacy; intermediate literacy and proficient literacy. According to the classification we go from simple tasks to more and more complex skills.

• Altynay Zh

Interesting but I couldn't find information from UNESCO about it.

• Alberto Emmanuel Conti Morales

Functional literacy pedagogy in practice

When people being able to read and write, they are considered functionally literate in society and live independently. Such a person would be able to read bank guidelines to apply for a funds in a bank loans, and to fill out forms that are economically lifting up their life in the society.

There are many people in society who are little more than ‘functionally literate’ who cope quite well with the demands of everyday life. In Timor Leste, the reality has shown that disabled females have much lower literacy rates than male persons with disabilities, 10.5 percent against 20.5 percent. Children and young persons with a disability face a serious disadvantage in school attendance compared to their non-disabled counterparts. Young female farmers occupy a vulnerable position, as they often belong to poorer sections of society and tend to have less access to social services.
They also have a clear disadvantage in terms of educational outcome. They are
less likely to be in school. Only 6.4 percent of young female farmers were still in school compared to 70.1 percent of females who were non-farmers. Their illiteracy levels are significantly higher, with 36.7 percent of young female farmers being illiterate against 10.5 percent of females who are non-farmers. And then, young workers approximately 13,904 children aged 5 to 17 years old were
employed, among which 398 were below the age of 10. While more than 88 percent
of male and female children are still in school between the ages 10 and 17, only 31.6 percent of boys and 33.2 percent of girls who are working are still doing so. The percentage of illiteracy for the total group of children between the age of 10 – 17 years is 26.2 percent for those who were not working, against 49.9 percent for those who were working (GDS, UNICEF and UNFPA, 2017). We concluded that a person's inability literacy because lack of participation in education in the past. So that people in the categories mentioned above will not participate in today's
society.

Literacy is essential to a quality lifestyle, though everyone at least functionally literate then they can live without support even in current fast-paced world. Where, possessing literacy has many benefits for individuals, families, communities, and nations. The improvement in literacy levels has beneficial effects on individual (e.g., self-esteem), political (e.g., democratic values), cultural (e.g., cultural openness), social (e.g., children’s health), and economic (e.g., individual income) levels (UNESCO, 2006). On the other hand, functioning in a society without literacy becomes more difficult: those who cannot acquire basic literacy skills have fewer opportunities in every area of life (Cree et al., 2012). Therefore, government, through ministry of education should establish a program for literacy eradication.



References

Cree A., Kay A., Steward J. (2012). The Economic & Social Cost of Illiteracy: a Snapshot of Illiteracy in a Global Context. Melbourne: The World Literacy Foundation.

General Directorate of Statistics, GDS; United Nations Children’s Fund, UNICEF & United Nations

Population Fund, UNFPA (2017). Analytical Report on Education: Timor-Leste Population and Housing Census 2015. Thematic Report Vol. 11.

UNESCO (2006). “Why Literacy Matters,” in Education for All. Literacy for Life ed. UNESCO (Paris: UNESCO Publishing; ) 135–145.

• Diamantino De Assis

most functional approaches to literacy focus on students learning to read and being able to compose texts that enable them to succeed at school and to participate in society. Teachers aim is for the learners to understand the reasons why texts exist and how this affects the shape of texts. Unlike didactic approaches to literacy, which break language into its parts in order to learn formal rules, functional approaches start with the question, What is the purpose of this whole text?’ and then move on to the next question, How is the whole text structured to meet these purposes?

• Shenieza Singh

Ok.

• Alberto Emmanuel Conti Morales

One of the practical examples of functional literary pedagogy that caught my attention was the case study created by Jennifer Nott, Rachael Radvanyi, and others, who seek to teach Hamlet by William Shakespeare under this method.
It definitely took my attention since as a Literature teacher and when teaching Hamlet to my students, I realized that many practices of this study I was already doing without realizing it. And it is that in this practice it is sought that students can first understand and know the language and its variations used in this play, the development, and expression of ideas, among other literary elements.
Exercises are used such as 1. answering questions in which the student connects his own knowledge and experiences related to the themes of the work, in this case, of revenge, superstitions, adultery, courtship, family, and making moral or ethical decisions. 2. To understand the context of the language used by Shakespeare, students are asked to determine the meaning behind each soliloquy and its representation in the modern era. 3. To understand the complexity of the narrative and the drama of the story, students need to understand the importance of each character's role. For this reason, students are asked to create conceptual maps that define the stereotype, personality, identity, word-action relationship of each character in the play; among other activities of this nature.
Strengths:
• One of the strengths of this way of teaching Hamlet is that the student understands the reasons and importance of the topics that even being a classic work have an effect and comparison today.
• Students can also determine and identify with some character in the play, and create empathy. Empathy has been shown to be one of the motivational factors for driving learning between reading and knowledge.
• There is a relationship of experience and openness to controversial issues, in which students will meet different opinions that can be interesting and enriching to nurture your point of view.
Weaknesses:
• For many students, reading Hamlet in the original language version is not interesting due to the complexity of the reading and because of this, it would not be a reading of their preference.
• Although their point of view and perspective on the subject is debated, it is also sought in a formative way that they understand and learn the context of the time and space in which the events occur to elaborate a textual analysis of the reasons behind every action in the play.
• Jaderita (2012) Shakespeare's words [Video] Youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4URqr6x4UIk
• Kalantzis, Mary and Bill Cope. 1993. “Histories of Pedagogy, Cultures of Schooling.” Pp. 38-62 in , edited by B. Cope and M. Kalantzis. London: Falmer Press.
• Van Haren, R., Nott. J. Hamlet - Madness and Revenge: Study of Shakespeare. Scholar. https://cgscholar.com/bookstore/web_works/hamlet-madness-and-revenge?adv=false&category_id=learning-by-design-modules-k12&path=learning-by-design-modules-k12%2F97%2F140

• Anaid Alarcon