Although most of us would agree that family history has an important impact on literacy within that family, I was surprised at how every activity in a family's history has, in some form, molded the literacy abilities of the most recent generation of that family.
The article about the Jones Family was especially informative about how literacy is imbedded into daily life, even if earlier generations of a family were not exposed to traditional avenues towards literacy. Ways to establish literacy are hidden everywhere, and formal education, while extremely important, is only one method of teaching literacy.
As seen in the article, literacy was passed down through generations of the Jones family by and was practiced in many different forms, such as reading the Bible, keeping track of the family's finances, or reading the daily newspaper.
In the future, as a teacher, I will be more aware of how my students' backgrounds affect what they bring in to my classroom. Just because a particular student's family does not have an extensive academic background does not mean that the student comes from an illiterate background. With my own children, I will try to provide a wider variety of activities that aid literacy than provided previously. Children are able to absorb information from endless sources, and it is up to me to provide these sources.
Week One Blog Post
10 years ago
