We discuss the identity of Elementary School II from official documents and researches on the subject and point out the task of literacy - though with a different approach from that undertaken in Elementary School I - as a possible defining element of that identity. As the concept of literacy is not consensual, we use the proposition in the domain of signs and codes proposed by the French philosopher and semiotician Roland Barthes, which provides a strong dose of emotion and subjectivity into this task, besides taking into consideration the characteristics of post-industrial society that affect all of us, especially our students. And so on, we conducted a theoretical exercise about how science teaching, in its specialist areas, can contribute to this identity, and enhance literacy at a basic educational level.
Literacy; Elementary school II; Science education; Roland Barthes; Identity