Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Literacy Journey: Home and School!

When looking at a specific example of a child’s literacy journey you can find out so much about how that individual child learns. You can see how the school and home environments influence each other when it comes to the idea of literacy learning. Making a learning bridge or “the third space” that connects what the child is learning at home to the lessons at school is the teacher’s job. This job is very important because children need to be set up to succeed in school. Without this connecting bridge of information children may feel lost and be unwilling to try to learn new things. When teachers connect the information that children already know from home to their school lessons, it gives children the opportunity to add more information into their schemas, therefore learning. Children already have so much information about literacy that they have learned from home. So it is important for teachers to communicate with parents to find out what kind of literacy skills their child has and what kinds of literacy activities take place at home. Literacy activities can be anything from writing a birthday card to reading a magazine together. Understanding a child’s background and life at home will allow the teacher to make connections within their lesson plans. These connections will help children build knowledge off of previous information already learned. Upon obtaining information about an individual child teachers will find out interesting facts about that child and then will be able to use this information to better their classroom and activities. It is important for teachers to know what language(s) the child speaks at home. If a child speaks a different language than the children in your class it is important to bring their language into the classroom. Teachers have to use different teaching methods to make sure they are reaching every student in their classroom. Creating this type of connection or “the third space” will enrich children’s learning experiences.    

4 comments:

  1. I think all of your thoughts about things teachers should find out from parents are important. Teachers should make sure parents know that "literacy activities can be anything," as you said. Sharing even the most simple family literacy practices can help a teacher understand a child's home life and create the best possible connection between home and school.

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  2. I liked your points. Every child has a right to success their school lives and helping them to be successful is one of the mosrt important jobs for teachers. For doing that, creating a great lesson plans, communicating with parents all the time, and understaning children's background are the examples of teacher's jobs.

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  3. i agree that it is absolutely the teacher's responsibility to help create a strong and positive third space for each child in the classroom. The parents and students must give their opinions and clues as well, but it is the teacher's job to foster this relationship in order to create a complete circle.

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  4. Remembering that being a teacher requires individualized lesson plans is so important. A teacher can probably get away with teaching everyone in the same manor, but she could be so much more successful if she got a little creative and personalized her lessons. It can only help the classroom for each lesson to be individualized.

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