Pathways to Literacy Reflection The section I read was Chapter 13. This chapter was a study of an Urdu community school in England. The author was focused on analyzing children ages 5-7 who were learning literacy. The children were British-Pakistani and they all attended a mainstream English school that hosted the Urdu community school. The main goal was to see what kinds of effects learning literacy in multiple languages might have. The chapter provided many interesting insights on what kinds of important advantages may come from early bilingual readers learning to read in multiple languages at a time. The possible advantages were grouped into four main categories: linguistic, psycholinguistic, sociocultural, and situated and procedural …show more content…
It really can involve the children’s past experiences as well as their social interactions. One example of this was when the chapter was discussing how important talk is during learning (Robertson 2004, p. 173). Giving time for the students to share their experiences and to talk through what they’re learning is very important for growth and development. One of the best ways to do this is to have students talk about their background knowledge (Robertson 2004, 174). Teachers can help do this in many different ways, and often times it is very simple. For example, while the students are reading a text, the teacher can ask the students if they have any knowledge or experience on the topic they are reading about. Often times, this can help facilitate a conversation that will allow the students to connect their lives to what they are learning about. This is important because it helps put meaning to what they are …show more content…
Something that stuck out to me was the fact that the teacher who was teaching this Urdu community school was doing so on her own time and without funding. I think this shows how dedicated she was to provide the children with a quality learning experience. In her teaching she would allow the children to have time to talk about their learning and to make important connections between what they were learning and their lives. As a future educator, I think it is very important to consider how to promote things like this for the students. While it may not always be having a separate “school” for them to attend once a week, there are so many different resources available. Parents of English Language Learners are often very willing to help with different activities. For example, if the teacher is reading a book in a different language, their may be a parent who speaks that language who is willing to come in and read it for the class. An important thing to remember is how important it is to ask for these things. Teachers need to be advocates for their students and do everything they can to provide them with the best quality education they
My literacy journey commenced at a young age. My story begins with the typical bed time stories and slowly progresses into complex novels. Some points in my literacy journey have made me admire the written word but other times literacy frustrated me. These ups and downs within my story have made me the person I am today. My parents noticed that my reading was not up to par with other children in kindergarten and I was diagnosed with mild dyslexia at the age of five. My parents provided me a reading mentor named Mrs. Mandeville who has shaped my literacy journey in many ways. Events in my childhood have shaped my literacy in various ways.
Writing is a form of communication that has changed over the years, whether that is the way it is used or the meaning it has for some people. In the generation that I grew up in, writing has been around in many different ways, such as texting or instant messaging friends. I remember using Facebook at an early age and communicating with my friends and family through a different form of writing. Compared to my elders, the way they were taught and the way they used their writing has changed immensely. Since I grew up in a newer generation than them, my writing experience has been partially different in a good way. My literacy narrative will reflect that difference.
It is important to maintain children’s home language as it may help them learn and understand a second language. Barratt-Pugh (2000) discusses the benefits of bilingualism and maintaining it through early childhood settings, also mentions the concerns families have for their children maintaining two languages through schooling. Research within the article states that children who speak more than one language will have a higher level of understanding literacy content, form, genre, as well as understand the differences and translating within both languages. This demonstrates a contrast of strengths and experiences with literacy (linguist...
Any school curriculum should aim at enabling children to be able to think in broader terms, motivate them to want to be more knowledgeable and above all, allow them to come up with new approaches to problem solving. However, more too often teachers tend to limit the students to only the known facts in text books, something which prompts them to remain in their comfort zones. Additionally, the purpose of any formal education is not only to gain formal knowledge but also to gain social knowledge. Different teachers will have different approaches to achieve this. Despite the approach used, in the end of the day, they are expected to have involved and impacted positively on the different characters of children in their classrooms that is, the shy,
When going through life learning is an everyday occurrence as each day is constantly filled with information that is used throughout the course of your life. Each day we get stronger and stronger in whatever we decide to put our minds to, weather that be academics, sports, our jobs we are constantly learning and growing on a daily basis. This semester I have grown in English as I personally felt that through the English 102 course I have been able to grasp some key concepts and writing techniques that will better me for the future. In this class there was a list of goals and outcomes that the instructor felt would be achievable and the best way to learn throughout the course. In each goal throughout this process I feel like I have improved to some degree but there is other things that I do need to touch up on a bit more to further my writing education outside the classroom.
The general consensus people have about literacy is that for someone to be literate they have to be able to read and write, The question that needs to be answered is what are the elements that affect the way one becomes literate and sponsors they will receive? Race, color and gender are the three main factors that play into the upbringing of an adolescent. These all affect the sponsors available and the literacy someone will be able to receive.
As a child, I have always been fond of reading books. My mother would read to me every single night before I went to bed and sometimes throughout the day. It was the most exciting time of the day when she would open the cabinet, with what seemed to be hundreds of feet tall, of endless books to choose from. When she read to me, I wanted nothing more than to read just like her. Together, we worked on reading every chance we had. Eventually I got better at reading alone and could not put a book down. Instead of playing outside with my brothers during the Summer, I would stay inside in complete silence and just read. I remember going to the library with my mom on Saturdays, and staying the entire day. I looked forward to it each and every week.
Throughout my childhood, the idea of having a college education was greatly stressed. As a result, it was my duty as the next generational child, to excel in my studies and achieve a life of prosperity and success. Learning became the basic foundation of my growth. Therefore, my youth was overtaken by many hours spent reading and writing what was known to be correct "Standard" English. I first found this to be a great shortcoming, but as I grew older, I began to realize the many rewards acquired by having the ability to be literate.
Throughout this semester I have learned many ways of writing through two main essays literacy narrative and comparison and contrast. These two essays have taught me how to correctly fix my comma splices, thesis statements, and capitalization. I have engaged in numerous learning material during this summer class. Many times when I thought it would be hard to work on those three developments I never gave up. I gain more positive feedback from my teacher because he pointed out most of my mistakes I made on both literacy narrative and comparison and contrast essays to help me understand what is it that I need to work on. My development as a writer became stronger.
Literacy is defined as “the ability to use available symbol systems that are fundamental to learning and teaching for the purposes of comprehending and composing, for the purposes of making and communicating meaning and knowledge” (Stock, 2012), and it is one of the most essential skills that an early year student will learn. Literacy serves to provide the building blocks for the continued knowledge acquisition and general education of individuals of all ages; by working to understand and identify how and why literacy is taught using the structured literacy block format in Australian schools, and in identifying the benefits of utilizing this type of tool for teaching literacy in student’s early years, it will be possible to gain a better understanding of the organization, planning, and teaching approaches that are used in a literacy block approach. A sample standard literacy block will be provided, offering the means of understanding the applications of the tool, which will serve to further stress the necessity of this tool’s usage.
My relationship with literacy began when I started elementary school and that was the first starting point of my positive relationship with literacy. I really started to grow as a reader and writer throughout my middle school and high school years. Throughout my years of going to school I had many positive experiences that shaped my view of literacy today. My literacy skills have also enhanced throughout my educational years.
It is crucial for us to understand the fundamentals of the development of a child as there are countless ways to conduct lessons and to understand why children would react differently at this time to another time when they are completing a certain task. Furthermore, children develop uniquely and their development milestones differ from one another. Thus, a teacher must be cognizant of each child’s progress before conducting the class. This will help the teacher to plan and organize the lesson materials and the lesson time appropriately. There are two theories I would like to share in regards to child development: peer social interaction and cognitive development.
In our schools today, literacy should not just be a task for the English or Reading teacher. Instead, literacy should be a shared venture by all teachers within all content areas. Teaching literacy in all content areas is important because a teacher with a solid understanding of teaching literacy in his/her content area will tremendously help all students achieve greater success on class assignments and standardized assessments. There are three main points that surround the idea of teaching literacy in all content areas. Teachers need the necessary skills and knowledge to teach literacy, once the necessary skills and knowledge are gained then there is justification for teaching literacy across content areas, and
There are some theoreticians who view literacy in a form of social practice. In their view, social issues are also important components, as well as linguistic competence and understanding cognitive processes in language studies. Freire (1974) views literacy not only as a process of knowledge transformation, but also as a relationship of learners to the world. Vygotsky (1978) suggests two stages of development at social and individual level. In his view, literacy is a phenomenon that is created, shared, and changed by the members of a society. Gee (1996) similarly argues that becoming literate means apprenticeship with texts and apprenticeships in particular ways of being. In summary, literacy practices are not just about language, but about their interrelation with social practices.
Sashi’s daughter did not want her to go to her parent-teacher conference because her daughter felt embarrassed that her mom could not speak English. Sashi was then able to build a connection with her daughter’s teacher because he was able to speak Hindi with her. In the textbook, “Foundations for Multilingualism in Education,” it states that, “Multiple languages and the absence of one common language will undermine political unity and cohesiveness” (de Jong, 2011, p. 39). Although this quote is referring to unity in America and using English to become a national community, I think that this also refers to smaller communities as well. Sashi felt distance between the parents and her because she could not express herself to them in English. Sashi did not feel comfortable in the school community until the teacher was able to speak Hindi with her. This also shows how parents that do not know English too well, may feel when they come into a parent-teacher conference in school. Educators need to be able to accommodate parents the best that they can because it is important for parents to be a part of a child’s