Literacy Today March/April 2019

Welcome to interactive presentation, created with Publuu. Enjoy the reading!

LA’s 2018 What’s Hot in Literacy Report highlighted family engagement as an area

that needs more attention. Further, the area of assessment landed among the

top five hot topics. As an instructor in an urban teacher preparation program, I

wondered how we could rethink family engagement.

It led me to this question: What if teachers looked at family literacy practices

with an assessment mind-set?

We know that data should drive instruction. And research strongly

suggests that students’ families play a significant role in shaping their literacy

development. I believe we should bridge these two concepts. By asking teachers to

consider family literacy practices as additional data to drive their instruction, we

can bring family and community assets into our literacy curriculum.

The following are three steps for teachers who want to use family data to drive

literacy instruction and engage families.

Step 1: Learn about families’ practices

First, teachers should assess the literacy practices that exist within each student’s

family. This means gathering information about what families do together and

how literacy is involved. Teachers can seek out community- and family-centered

events to collect data around family literacy practices. Teachers can also send

home surveys to learn more about home literacies.

For example, teachers could identify practices such as telling stories, playing

board games, reading recipes and cooking, and visiting museums or cultural

events as practices that involve literacy. The key is to be intentional in learning

about families and their language, literacy, and cultural practices and to find

creative ways to gain knowledge about them.

For example, when I taught second grade in an urban public school, I

conducted several home visits to learn more about my students, their families, and

their communities. I found that listening to music, particularly pop and hip-hop

songs, was a common practice among many of my students’ families. Students

demonstrated proficiency in literacy, language, and memorization by knowing

every line of songs that came on the radio, and family members would sing along

with their children. I recorded notes of my observations and kept an individual

Steps to bringing family literacy practices into the classroom

CONNECTING

COMMUNITIES

AND CURRICULUM

By Jennifer Albro

Jennifer Albro

(jennifer.j.albro@gmail

.com), an ILA member since

2014, teaches graduate

courses in literacy at Johns

Hopkins University School

of Education in Washington,

DC, in addition to coaching

and mentoring teachers in

the Urban Teachers program.

Albro was a 2015 ILA 30

Under 30 honoree.

LITERACY

LEADERSHIP

By asking teachers to consider family literacy

practices as additional data to drive their

instruction, we can bring family and community

assets into our literacy curriculum.

8

literacyworldwide.org | March/April 2019 | LITERACY TODAY

Made with Publuu - flipbook maker