Entry #10

I would like to focus on Thalias Entry #9. I think that she brought up some really interesting points and different perspectives that what our classmates as well as myself were thinking. She was asking questions that were related to the way that economy effects children and learning vocabulary. I remember having a discussion about this in a different class earlier this semester because it is true that lower economic areas tend to have a difference in language. I was informed that this isn't because of the people or the school but because of the lack of resources and time due to funding. 

BLESS

Thalia gets vulnerable with us and discusses what it was like for her living in a low economic area and how her vocabulary and English in general was effected. Thalia believes that home life is crucial in developing literacy. She states, " I do disagree that caregiver education and accessibility to literary avenues are reasons for this gap. There are always ways to access the beauty and greatness of literature and everything involved."  Thalia believes that children need the environment from home, school, etc. to be supportive of their learning in order to promote literacy growth among the students. I really like that Thalia brings this idea into the equation because I think she's absolutely right. Home life has such a large effect on children and their growth both mentally and physically. I have seen this over and over with working with children. To expect the schools to be the only source of education and resources is setting your child up for failure.

ADRESS

Although I do agree with Thalia I went back to Zipke's article and found the quote, "Children are enormously interested in word play. The playground is a great place to find examples of this interest" (Zipke 2008, pg. 128) where they discuss how word play is fun for children and can be a huge resource in learning. I realized that while there are the physical or verbal resources children could be receiving from home, school is the place where we will see the children's literacy and literacy skills flourish. The students not only learn from their teachers but from their peers as well. They are exposed to so much more when they are in a variety of environments they can learn from. As educators we can provide students with what they need to succeed despite their home life. When we become educators we will have students coming from all walks of life, some who didn't have English resources because they speak another language. These are all possibilities that we are conditioned to adapt to so that we may educate all students. This can be very frustrating for educators to see that they could be in a better situation or learning more than they are but we have to start where the students are. 

As we go back to thinking about how economic status affects the schools and students literacy I believe it to be true. If there are a lack of resources it can be hard to teach students but I think the new wave of teachers such as ourselves that are coming in with knew knowledge and ways to teach are going to help that. We know what is happening within the districts and we are being taught how to make the best of these situations and to teach with the goal of the success of each student individually rather than the competitiveness that we grew up with. I think the students will be benefiting from new teachers whether their homelives are helping or hindering their learning. All of these things combined as well as providing ways that homes can have resources to help their child's literacy develop will allow growth among our students of any economic class. Something that I am fond of in my placement right now is that the students have a bag for books that they change out weekly which they return to the class library. Every week they get a few new books for home. So what other methods can we use to make sure that there is no gap or at least reduce the gap?

Zipke, M. (2008). Teaching metalinguistic awareness and reading comprehension with riddles. The Reading Teacher, 62(2), 128–137. https://doi.org/10.1598/rt.62.2.4