"...As Soon As She Opened Her Mouth!"

This "double-entry" posting includes portions of the text and my responses to each portion.

"'Mommy!' he cried. 'What did I write?' 'What did I write?' 'I don't know sweetie. What did you write?' answered his mother. 'I don't know! I can't read!' he cried."

--I've experience this first-hand with a little girl who sits with me often during church. One Sunday while I was away visiting friends at another congregation, she (the four-year-old girl) asked one of my older sisters where I was. When my sister told her I wouldn't be there that morning because I was visiting another church, my sister said, "You could write her a note if you want, and I'll be sure to give it to her!" The little girl was very excited, grabbed a pencil and paper, and then said to my sister, "...I don't know what a note is." At least she knew it involved pencil and paper..

"It suggests, among other things, that children who experience other people in their lives reading and writing for many different reasons in the years before they begin school are better equipped conceptually to make sense of--to learn from--the beginning reading and writing instruction in their schools...children from homes of povery experience fewer instances of people reading and writing for a broad number of purposes than do children from mainstream homes."

--Although statements such as this never surprise me, they always make me think..how do we break the cycle? It seems that illiterate students often grow into illiterate parents who then raise illiterate children because they don't know any better. It takes parents like Jenny, who realize they are uneducated but want more for their children and teachers who are willing to take the time and effort to make all of their students literate to break this cycle.

"Within this, I see literacy use as cultural practice. It is cultural practice because reading and writing are woven into the everyday experiences of people, and these everyday activities, attitudes, and beliefs help to define and distinguish among cultural groups."

--I think it's difficult at times for me to relate to statements about cultural practices and cultural groups not because I find them irrelevant or don't understand them, but because I haven't been exposed to enough diversity to help me picture what it's like for students of other cultural backgrounds to learn and develop their emergent literacy skills. I'm looking forward to learning more about diversity throughout this course in order to become a more informed educator.

"First, and most obvious, teachers and schools must accept, believe, and act upon the belief that children of poverty are learners, have been learning since birth, are ready to learn at anytime, and will learn. This crucial beginning stance on the part of teachers will help to ensure that any failure in the achievement of these children will lead to an examination of their instruction and not to a shrugging off of their futures."

--From a student's perspective, and from the perspective of a pre-service teacher who's heard talk from other teachers, it seems to be so easy to blame the students and their lack of experience instead of blaming the instruction provided for the students. One of the main functions of education is to provide experiences for all students to succeed, not just the ones who may be a little more 'well-off' than others.

This reading was incredibly interesting and beneficial! It's certainly going in my file of readings worth keeping.