It is a bit tricky to define literacy and literate, as a simple "able to read" doesn't cut it. I think it would be fair to say that this could tie into reading levels. Your class might have a certain reading level it needs to get to in order to be considered "proficient" and your students might have varying degrees of literacy.
It would also not be fair to call a person illiterate simply because they cannot read English. They may be highly proficient in reading another language (or braille, if you'd like to go that far.) However, with a rise in audio books, who is to say that someone who cannot read the letters on the page cannot pick out themes and meanings from the words that they hear?
I think in that sense then, literacy means being able to discern meaning from a text. I understand that this definition might create a bit of a problem if you had a beginning reader attempt to take meaning from a Dicken's novel, but I also feel that if you don't look at this as an either/or situation, and instead view it as there being degrees of literacy, then it isn't as problematic as it would seem.
Your take in the comments, I'll do my best to respond.
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