Quote: "We need to examine what literacy actitivites our students are engaging with out of school and consider how we can form bridges to support students within school. This will give us the opportunity to think more clearly about what literacy is being supported where."
Comment: Based on the rest of this chapter, it sounds like family and home circumstances have a ton to do with literacy activities and success in school. I want to know how we as teachers can assess the family and home situations of our students, and also the literacy activities they participate in at home. It seems difficult to me to so closely link home and school because at school the students are all on an even playing field for the most part. They get the same materials and supplies, the same instruction, the same care and love (hopefully). But each student's home and family is different. From socio-economic status, to cultural backgrounds, to language barriers, family size and living arrangements, the diversity of the students in even one 30 child classroom is staggering. Not all kids get the love and support at home that other students receive, and they don't all have the same tools and materials available to them at home. So I have two questions.
Question: First, how can we figure how what the students' home lives are like without being invasive? And second, since their home lives are so important with regards to their literacy instruction, how can we insure that every student gets the support they need at home, or gets something at school or after school that makes up for the lack of it?
To answer your first question, I think we can ask the students to write a journal entry that describes a "typical day in the home". We could inform students that we are looking for "voice" in the writing and also the use of quotation marks for when people are speaking. From this assignment we could get some insight to what a "typical day" is like for each student. In addition, I feel that we will be able to learn a bit more about the students home life through parent-teacher conferences.
ReplyDeleteTo answer your second question, I don't know if we can "ensure" that students will receive the necessary support he/she needs at home, but we could create assignments that involve the students getting to know a family member better and working with him/her on a simple task. Small assignments like this could help the parent and students to work together to help the student feel support.