Quote: "Much of this research is underpinned by the belief that children's literacy comes from the home, and the home is where children learn much of their literacy skills." (Pahl 53)
Comment: I think this is a very important point, to recognize that although we are teaching out students literacy, we are not the only influence nor are we the greatest influence in their learning of literacy. It is important that we understand this and embrace their home literacy practices. If we can get their families involved in what we are doing at school, this is all the better. If we understand the backgrounds of our students, then we can better incorporate those things into the ways we teach and help to facilitate a greater learning. By finding things that our students can connect to outside of school, we can better motivate them to read and write and develop their literacy skills.
Question: How can we facilitate the connections between home and school literacy for our students? We often talk about finding things that the students relate to, but what are real ways that we can do this?
I think that the most important thing that we can do is to communicate with our students and with their parents. By simply communicating with the children, seeing how they spend their recess time, what they choose to free write about, and asking parents about the student's interest I feel like we can learn a lot. The easiest way is just to constantly be observing your students and building a relationship of trust where your students feel comfortable telling you about themselves. Just like with every other situation, the best way to get to know a person is to talk to them and watch them in their element.
ReplyDelete