i’m in the bloghouse
A cute way of saying, Ms. Washington is up in the dog house. I’m going to make a confession, and I really hope that it does not make me seem like a bad teacher. I include families in everything when I teach, family night, I correspond regularly, I call with positive comments about their child, I made a point to write a note home to each child every month and praise them. But I realized something when I was reading…I’m afraid that I was doing some of these things selfishly. At parent teacher conferences, I wanted parents to see literacy and school from my perspective. I feel like I sometimes ignored their perspective, but then I got to thinking more…
At the school that I taught at last year (ps. I only have one year experience teaching, so I’m a little green) I think I would have been uncomfortable asking a parent, “So what types of things do you like to read with Johnny at home?” I say this because I am afraid I would come across condescending. I’m afraid it would come across accusatory, so I stayed in my safe zone of talking about what we do at school. Honestly, that’s all I ever was asked, “How can I help my child with what you are doing in the classroom at home?” What if the parents didn’t have time to read at home? What if they didn’t go to the grocery store with a list? What if they didn’t receive magazines in the mail? No telephone, so no telephone book? No money for print on tv? No activity books? It was too scary for me because I was working with a population of people, who for the most part, didn’t have a lot of extra money to buy or create print-type materials.
The readings made me think though. I think that without realizing it, I incorporated literacy from home in my classroom. Not to toot my own horn, because honestly, I didn’t really think I was doing something research based, I just thought I was doing what was best. I’ve used telephone books in dramatic play, mailing letters within our classroom, catalogs, appointment books, bills, money, receipts, recipes, and address books. All of these things were incorporated into center time, not really into whole group instruction daily, but the kids were exposed to it.
Bottom line: Realize what kids are doing at home. Be in contact with the parents, know what each child’s home life is like. Love them, do the best you can, and value their culture and home.
krisco85 said,
April 13, 2009 @ 1:56 pm
That’s great that you were basically doing those things without even realizing them! It sounds like pretty much anything can be turned into a literacy experience. I think even families that may not have as many resources as others, have something in their home that they can use for a teaching opportunity. I know some kids first learn the letter M from going to McDonald’s! Using things from the home not only teaches them literacy skills, but it may also help with teaching daily living skills as well. For example, if you use bills and appointment books, they’ll get a lesson on what those are and how you use them, plus whatever literacy lesson you come up with from them!
cbh said,
April 14, 2009 @ 9:10 pm
I struggled with not coming across the wrong way or making parents/care takers uncomfortable during my literacy information night. i wanted the night be a night where parents would learn more about what was happening at school in literacy (especially b/c most of the parents in attendance were first time kindergarten parents) but then I tried to open the conversation to parents to share what they are doing at home. I found that most of the parents were reluctant to share their literacy moments with one another because either A) they weren’t sure they really counted as literacy or B) they were fearful of doing something wrong, and lastly C) they were there to gain information, not share information. I didn’t know how to change the tone of the night to help parents feel validated in their efforts to engage their children in literacy at home. Perhaps it was the wrong venue… a one-on-one conference might have been better. Food for thought….