Acquiring Literacy

1. Acquiring Literacy Heather Gary Cristina Watson Laura Potenski Kelly Clifford

2. Refreshers • Kaluli- treat infants as “soft”, no understanding -believe you cannot know another’s thoughts - fit the child into the situation - clarification is speaker’s responsibility - no adult expansion of child utterances • Samoan- child’s early language is “angry” - highly stratified society - child often used as reporter/messenger - talk directed at child, not with *Ochs & Scheiffelin, 1995

3. Small-Group Activity Group 1 – Maintown Group 3 – Samoan -American Group 2 – Trackton Group 4 - Kaluli • Provide an example of how a typical child growing up in your assigned culture would respond. Support your answer with evidence from the readings. • Discuss the following: • How does the author of your article define “literacy”? • How does culture affect oral language, and in turn, how does this affect literacy acquisition?

4. Jig-Saw • In your new group: • Present your child’s response, citing evidence from the text. • How can teachers modify lessons to encourage children’s acquisition of “conventional forms” (like reasoning and higher-order thinking) if their culture does not emphasize them? • Should teachers expect a certain standard and quality of literacy from their students, regardless of each student's individual cultural norms?

5. Focus Questions • How do culture & the home environment play a part in the development of reasoning skills? • How does culture affect oral language? In turn, how does this impact literacy acquisition? • How do you use each culture’s strengths to further develop their literacy skills?