Tuesday, September 20, 2011

Literacy at home vs. school

In chapter 5 of "I Already Know How To Read" Martens discusses the fact that literacy at home is much different than literacy that children work on at school. She talks about her daughter Sarah's experiences with reading and writing at home in contrast with what she works on in the classroom every day at school. Martens discovers that at home, literacy is a great and meaningful experience where Sarah is able to express herself in any way she wants, whereas literacy at school is very unexciting and meaningless. At home, children are able to express themselves through drawing or writing or any way that they can think of. There are no boundaries or rules for what they must accomplish or talk about. Children can use their imagination to create stories or words and take risks with their thinking through literacy. In many schools, like in this situation with Sarah, the students are tied down by many guidelines and specifics to where they are unable to express their own original ideas or meanings. Children are required to only write about certain things that may not even interest them. This lack of freedom in literacy at school can easily bring negative connotations to reading and writing for many children and later on stress that they do not enjoy it at all. This occurance does not necessarily happen because of poor teachers, but it often simply happens because of all of the standards that students and teachers are required to meet. Schooling should ideally be more open for children to express themselves so that they can learn to enjoy discovering new things rather than being forced to.

5 comments:

  1. Teachers need to make literacy exciting and meaningful within their classrooms. Children need to feel free to express themselves. Freedom can be a great thing in the classroom. You made some great points comparing literacy at school to literacy at home

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  2. What you described in this post is happening right now for a little girl I know who is in kindergarten. At school, they are learning sight words and reading repetitive stories over and over, and they are supposed to read them again every night at home. She is so bored with this, and it is really a struggle for her to do the reading at home because it is not interesting to her at all. Teachers need to find a way to connect personally with children through their reading, even at the most basic level. I definitely agree with your statement that children should be able to express themselves, rather than be forced to conform exactly to the curriculum.

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  4. I think you pull a great point out of Marten’s text. So many times reading is forced at school, and children begin to have a negative view of the amazing literacy potential. Families can do a great job of helping build a positive attitude about reading through keeping reading as a community activity. As teachers, it is our job to make reading relevant, enjoyable, and new. I think teachers could enjoy this task as much as the students they are giving it to!

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  5. I think you wrote very important point that I've never thought about before. Having freedom to write anything is really important to children. They always think and always want to express and share with others. Writing and drawing is one of the significant ways for expressing children's thought. Therefore, teacher always be ready to help and encourage them to be creative.

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