Double Journal Entry #3

          I learned many things about teaching literacy development from this article. The first, and in my opinion the most important, is that students need to be interested in their language and in Standard English. In this study, “students interview parents and grandparents and find out how their Appalachian English has changed over time.” In performing these interviews, this captured the student’s interest and made each of them eager to discover how and why Appalachian English has changed.

          Another thing I learned about teaching literacy development is that it is important to accept each individual in your classroom. No matter how each student speaks, that is who they are and how they were raised. Their language may be grammatically incorrect, but as teachers we must allow them to speak their own dialect. One thing that has always been drilled into a child’s mind is that everyone is different, and everyone is unique. We cannot be hypocritical in our own classroom by banning the “unique differences” of language.

One other thing I learned about teaching literacy development is that students need to be taught the difference in their home and Standard English. This, in many ways, goes hand in hand with interesting the students in the two languages. Students need to understand why some individuals may speak differently, and why there is a need for a Standard English. In explaining this, it will then lead students into becoming interested in the two languages and strike more curiosity.

It is difficult for me to come up with two different experiences from my schooling that reflect literacy instruction. The reason that it is so difficult is because, from what I can remember, the difference between home and Standard English was only vaguely addressed. I am from a very small town, and it is actually uncommon to talk to someone and not be able to pick up on their “home language” within the first minute of them speaking. In a classroom setting, we were taught Standard English like every child is. We didn’t do any interesting things that made the differences between Standard and home English evident. If a student would stand in front of the class and give a speech, they would talk in their “home language,” and it was simply accepted. Yes, we do need to accept everyone’s own language roots, but to a certain extent. I feel that many students in my grade graduated from high school, and still do not know the basics of Standard English. It needed to be addressed more, especially coming from a place where many people have strong home dialects. I know that if my grade would have performed the studies in this article, each student would have been more interested in Standard English and more willing to accept the differences.

This article introduces the teaching of literacy through inclusive practices. The writers and helpers in this article would never instantly send a child who has difficulty with Standard English to a remedial class. Inclusive practices is all about including every student, and embracing their differences. Accepting that each student may have a different home dialect is the first strong step into having an inclusive classroom. I feel that these two practices are strongly linked together to provide success in the classroom.   

Related Source:

The website I found has many interesting topics in it. The site gives tips on how to prepare for a “language diverse” classroom. It also discusses how teachers need to develop a positive attitude towards linguistic diversity. I feel that every teacher should read this site and take the advice when preparing for their own classroom. 

Linguistic Diversity

 Resources:

Epstein P., Herring-Harris, L. (2011, September 15). Honoring dialect and increasing student performance in standard english. Retrieved from http://www.nwp.org/cs/public/print/resource/3655

Creative Commons Attribution. (2009, September 4). Linguistic diversity in ece. Retrieved from http://ecelinguisticdiversity.wikidot.com/teacher-attitudes