Friday, September 9, 2011
Transnational & Community Literacies for Teachers
I found this article to be interesting; however since I am a bilingual education major, a lot of the ideas that it focused on were exactly what I have been learning since I started my studies. In a way I thought that it's all common sense and that ever teacher implements these types of classroom communities. It made me realize that not a lot of teachers know how important this is for their students. I think that it is so important to bring a child's culture into the classroom, and to encourage literacy at home as well. The article gave several examples of how this can be done, such as analyzing different written texts in the child's home, which definitely brings a child's experiences to the class. By doing this, a child embraces his or her culture as opposed to feeling isolated or different. I hope that everyone can see the importance of the ideas in this article and make them common and standard in their classrooms!
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As a person who doesn't have an ELL background I have been finding all this information extremely insightful. I think you are right in thinking that it is common sense to an extent, however, for me it was after hearing about it that I thought "oh yes, it makes perfect sense, why wouldn't you teach this way?" With this in mind, as someone who intends to teach in a bilingual classroom you should remember that sometimes all people need are to be informed. I know if I was a teacher who might not have learned about it I would appreciate some insight into what would best help my class. Teachers can be taught too!
ReplyDeleteLike Kasha, I do not have an ELL background and have not really studied incorporating transnational and community literacy in the classroom. In fact, I was kind of confused as to how students of different ethnicity learn anything from our school systems when they are new to the country and unfamiliar to our customs, studies, and ways of life. So to me, this information is very insightful and is opening my mind to different ideas and ways of teaching that I will have to face later on down the road. Without learning about it, I don't think I would have the common sense to incorporate these ideas into my classroom because I never saw it done in my classrooms growing up. I think it is very intriguing to learn about different cultures and languages. I think it's so cool that you speak fluent Spanish! Not only is the language a challenge to learn, but becoming accustomed to the way of life is as well! I think the more teachers educate themselves with all of this knowledge, the more they can educate those students!
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