Quote: "Street identified this view with a certain governmental trend to think of literacy as a set of skills which can be acquired. However, this view of literacy did not take into consideration how people used literacy. Instead, he argued, the term ideological could be used to describe the way in which literacy is grounded in how it is used, and how it relates to power structures within society."
Comment: The most important thing that I personally got from the readings this week was that we need to not just teach the skills of literacy but to apply it to our students lives. Why will literacy be important for them? What will the be able to do if they are literate in many different areas? Thinking of literacy as just a skill you need to learn makes it harder for a student to want to be literate. If we will relate literacy to their every day home lives and to their interests, they will be much more interested in learning and wanting to be literate.
Question: How can we as teachers create literacy events that are related to our different student's interests and their home life?
I think that you are very right, we need to make literacy relevant to our students lives. I think that one way to do this is really getting to know our students and what interests them. If they like basketball, we need to help them find some books about famous players, if they like a certain movie star or celebrity we can help them find books about them. I think that we can also step outside the world of books and find appropriate magazine, newspaper and internet articles for out students to read. If we really know our students, we will be able to find a way to motivate them to become literate through their interests.
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