How has your literacy culture shaped how you read? Something to consider.
Sunday, January 29, 2012
Literacy as a Culture
The Amy Johnson article, "The Jones Family’s Culture of Literacy" brings up a very interesting point about how and why people learn to read. For some people reading seems so second nature that it's easy to forget it came from somewhere. People, like Kiki, who are fortunate to have a family culture centered around reading will have a stronger grasp of literacy concepts from a younger age that will be helpful when going in top school. Johnson really highlighted how people can be so immersed in literature, whether consciously or not, through religion and finances, entertainment and day-to-day life. I feel that our ability to read is sometimes taken for granted because it is so easy for so many of us. To think about just how many words you read in one day, or how many words I have to know to be able to write this, just the individual words in my vocabulary I have the ability to read, write, and say. The amount of words the average adult must know is mind-boggling and we so often pass it off as something that just happens.
When you do start to think about how central literacy is to our culture as a whole it becomes clear how important it is that students who come into your classroom are good readers when they leave. This means however, that you are going to have to find ways to connect with not only the Kikis in your classroom who have grown up in reading environments, but also with those who have grown up with little to no literacy. Knowing about literacy culture reminds us how different every student is. To be effective teachers we must not only remember how crucial the lessons are, but that every student will be learning them in their own way.
How has your literacy culture shaped how you read? Something to consider.
How has your literacy culture shaped how you read? Something to consider.
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I believe that our own cultural past deeply influenced our abilities today, but my concern is more focused on how things have trended away from the traditional family way of doing things and into the new Modern way. How will this affect our future students? How will we adjust to make up for that lost time spent reading at home. How are we expected to continuously increase expectations and standards for teachers when it seems those are the only standards being raised...just thought.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading this Jones Culture article, it makes me see more how many families in the past decades were more pro-active than many compared to today.... of course. this doesn't apply to the whole, but many.
You made a valid point when you stated we are not conscious about how reading sentences or words are like second nature to many of us. We read words and sentence and we are not aware of the thought process we take in order to understand the meaning behind the sentence/phrase; and I find this very interesting. We as educators must be aware that reading is a process and in order to help every student in our class understand how to read we must be able to relate to every student. Overall you have valid statements that I agree with wholeheartedly.
ReplyDeleteI think that our past literacy experiences are crucial to how we will implement reading in our classroom. I think it is important to realize that all of your students will come from different backgrounds and it is our duty to make sure that we appeal to all of them and help them understand the importance of reading. It is crazy to me to think about the students that we will have that have never even opened a book before. I completely agree with you and that we need to find ways to appeal to all of our children and understand that they will all find their own way to connect to the literacy. I think it is important to hear all of their opinions about reading whether they are good are bad and adapt to each of the students in an effective and understanding way.
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