Denise talked about literacy which she defines as comprehending and communicating via text. The key here is that text can take any form - not just words on a page. Text can include street signs, the arrangement of flowers in a garden or the layout of a new subdivision. How we understand literacy is partly dependent on the era in which we live.

Before the invention of the printing press, literacy was understood as the ability to memorise and recite key texts (such as the bible). In our modern era literacy is more than this; it is the ability to critically analyse complex forms of media, to be able to negotiate, and to reframe ideas.

Literacy begins with the ability to consume - in other words to access, communicate and use media without yet having developed the ability to be critical in that consumption.

We can support children to learn the necessary skills to not only consume but to begin to develop their critical faculty through games such as spot the difference (in images, in sound sequences for example).

We can ask open-ended questions to encourage children to explore features of the media they are consuming (I wonder what is happening here?).

We can encourage children to notice details (Oh dear, see his shoelace? I wonder what might happen when it is untied like that?) and to build on the observations of others (Jamie says that the ball is blue. I think that might be Jamie's favourite colour. What do you think?). The words we use in our interactions with children help introduce new concepts.

We can introduce more complex words and we can also introduce maths concepts (for example near/far, tall/short, in front/behind/beside, big/middle-sized/little are all maths concepts, as well as amounts - one/many - and fractions - half, equal shares). We can discuss authorship. Who wrote this, why did they write it, what were they trying to achieve, what message is being shared, are all interesting and useful topics of conversation.

We can encourage children to develop stories based on what they see in a picture. We have to think about the books and other media to which children have regular access.

Do these literacy resources offer children a glimpse into a world they will never see (travelling through space for example) or is it presented in a way that makes the experience so remote children cannot connect with any element?

Our final stage in literacy development is to engage children in creating media. There are now many resources we can use for children to become digital storytellers, and it is even possible to use children's drawings and photos to create not only a digital book but a printed one. Children can engage in making short movies, and can develop infographics.

Part of this involves strategies for sharing; collaborating in both the development of their own literacy resources and sharing those resources once developed. Again, the internet provides opportunities through easy-to-develop webpages, and other options such as Youtube, Explain Everything and Edmodo amongst many others.

The idea here is that literacy is not something you develop so you can sit yourself away to read a book, but a set of skills you can use throughout your lifetime to not only consume media but to collaborate with others and share your enjoyment of living in a literate world.