Essay on Family Literacy: Respecting Family Ways

Parents are the main source of information about their children. Teachers have to gather information about home literacy practices and dialects spoken in order to provide a meaningful and relevant literacy program (Makin, Jones Diaz and McLachlan, 2007). Information related to children’s interests gathered from family can assist in the settling in process and in ongoing programming. Incorporating diversity into the program can be authenticated by getting parents involved (Birckmayer, Kennedy and Stonehouse, 2008). Teachers must attempt to actively involve parents in all aspects of the classroom. Despite efforts being made to involve parents, it is inevitable that some parents will show little interest or have little time to become involved; therefore, teachers must respect the level of involvement that a parent chooses. Utilising information from parents can assist teachers in developing relationships with their students.

Throughout human history, as the most basic social unit, family has always played the irreplaceable role of the cradle of a man’s life and the first and irreplaceable school of social virtues. When children grow up and seek higher education, they depart from the wings of their parents and attend school that is considered to be their second home, which offers more instructions on the philosophy of life.

The standardized definition of literacy has always been the ability to read and write, but the cultural definition of literacy has always managed to change its shape based on the socioeconomic state of a community. A child is first raised by their community and through such connection they are molded by their community’s standards of life. A community, whether it is rich or poor, holds the ability to create/shape its own perception of literacy and therefor place a value on the importance of it. If education is only expressed in an institutional form, a child will clearly feel a disconnect between what they have learned at home and what has been taught in the classroom. Literacy in most neighborhoods, including mine, took shape in writing on

A family is meant to teach their kids the norms and values of the society so that the child knows the difference between right and wrong. (Source 3)

Because illiteracy (or low literacy) is a family issue, our Adult & Family Literacy Program – our core program - also offers

When separation threatens the relationship of two sisters, they make a goal to learn how to read and write but only Nettie had the ability to attend school she declared that “she will….’just have to go to school and learn for the both of them.’” Many cultures have different aspects of who can learn certain topics and what is an appropriate level for different individuals that can have a major influence on the cognitive development. The journal article, “All in the Family: Connecting Home and School with Family Literacy,” described of how children’s brains are like clay that can be molded and shaped in certain ways forming to the cultures approve behavior. There is no age limit on when children begin to read or begin learning, and parents have many opportunities to try new techniques to teach their child reading depending on culture believes. Every culture has different believes and strategies but these are technique that I have found can be applicable for many different cultures starting within the home.

Chapter six – Working with families, the authors talk about parents need to be more involved in the education of their children. We always encourage parents to be more involve in their child’s learning because parents are a child’s first teacher.

Throughout my field experience this semester, I learned a lot about literacy learners and teaching/learning. From my final tutoring session, I learned that literacy instruction that works for one student may not necessarily work for another and that it is important to teach literacy instruction using a variety of techniques and strategies (Serravallo, 2015). First, I learned how important it is to cater literacy instruction to the individual student. I have learned about many great instructional strategies for teaching literacy but not all strategies are going to work for every student. It is important to select strategies that build on student strengths to support the student’s literacy needs (Serravallo, 2014). I also learned that a

Deborah Brant, who is an English professor at the University of Wisconsin, conducted a research on literacy, resulting in the article, Sponsors of Literacy. In this article, she defines a sponsor of literacy as “agents, local or distant, concrete or abstract, who enable, support, teach, model, as well as recruit, regulate, suppress, or withhold literacy - to gain advantage by it in some way,” (Brant 556). A sponsor, much like a teacher, guidance counselor, siblings or mentors, can have an affect on a person’s literacy. While conducting her research, Brandt interviewed many people, all varying in age and different backgrounds. By doing this, Brandt was able to engage and observe whether they all had a different way of adapting to reading and writing, but also if social economic status, or SES, affected the way they became literate.

When the idea of a family life first began, the man was supposed to be the sole breadwinner while the wife stayed home to cook or clean or take care of the children. A traditional American family used to be a mom and a dad, with a few kids. However, that white picket fence lifestyle has become almost abnormal now. Ever since the choices of divorce, homosexuality, even role reversal have been offered to families things have never been quite the same. In the early days, divorce was an extremely shameful thing. The concept of for better or worse truly held it's meaning. A man and a woman would almost never split up, no matter how bad things got. Today, divorce papers can be mailed and signed with virtually no hassle, making the ending of a marriage

Harold Hodgkinson (1999), a noted demographer, labels poverty as the “universal handicap,” with social class more important than race. Poverty is a reality in our world, and they are a lot of children that are affected by it. Low-income children have a hard time learning how to read because they do not have the necessary support at home. Most of this kid’s parents, work 2-3 jobs to provide their children with a house, food, etc. Since the teacher can control this situations happening at home, she/he needs to find ways to help the student in the classroom. However, this doesn’t mean that low-income parents do not care about their kid’s education. Most of them do value literacy, they just do not have the extra time to help their kids at home.

Promoting collaboration and engagement with diverse families is very important. It is because including parents, school staff, teachers and children can help to build mutual trust and respect between each other. It’s also an opportunity for the parents to enhance their skills to help their children’s at home. The teacher can ask the parents to share their difficulties when they are helping their children with the schoolwork. The teacher can listen to the parents and organize activities to support and provide resources to help them. The relationship between the children, parents and teachers should be very open and supportive. It is because children learn the best where they are encouraged and supported in their lives. The home-school relationship helps the teachers to build a strong relationship with the parents and students. Epstein’s theory is about the six types of parental involvement

The type of (HLE) a child is in can significantly impacts a child’s emergent literacy development. (Senechal, Lefevre, Thomas , & Daley, 1996; Sawyer, et al., 2014; Sénéchal & LeFevre, 2002; Senechal & LaFevre, 2014). HLE is defined by the “frequency of storybook reading and literacy teaching during book reading” (Sawyer, et al., 2014, p. 65). Sénéchal & LeFevre (2002 & 2014) conducted a study to prove that a positive and helpful HLE aids in children’s emergent literacy. The Home Literacy Model used proved the original hypothesis. There was a statistically significant predictor of parent’s creating a positive HLE and frequency of shared book reading that positively correlated to the child’s literacy abilities for the beginning of grade 1. Shared book reading comprises 4% of the significant differences with the child’s vocabulary. The formal literacy measures presented by the parents like, actively listening to the child read and the method the parent uses to teach, was deemed most helpful as a predictor for the child’s reading abilities by the end of grade 1. The study concluded that a positive HLE promoted growth within the child’s vocabulary and word reading skills (Sénéchal & LeFevre, 2002; Senechal & LaFevre, 2014).

Literacy has been one of the most prominent aspects of education and schooling due to the ongoing craft of a curriculum that both questions and reflects our current sociocultural situation. Literacy teaching and learning has vastly changed over time with cultural, social, academic, and technological developments. Graff (1987) has previously proposed that, while the education system develops, it only seems appropriate for literacy approaches to be revised. Kalantzis, Cope, Chan and Dalley-Trim (2016) put forward the four literacy pedagogies of didactic, authentic, functional and critical. Pedagogical approaches draw links to developmental theories and are generally supported by academics of the relevant period, with strong ties to the sociocultural

There are several strategies that can be employed to assist those who suffer disadvantage. Early interventions, (the earlier the better), are recommended to target deficit skills through reading recovery or acceleration programs (Sparks, 1999:13-16, Cunha & Heckman, 2007:1-5). The most successful projects appear to be those that also target families, either by providing resources or through family literacy projects. Parents can thus become upskilled themselves, becoming better equipped in the process to support their children’s progress. ‘The remediation efforts that appear to be most effective are those that supplement family environments for disadvantaged