What Successful Literacy Teachers Do by Glasgow Neal A.;Farrell Thomas S. C.;

Author:Glasgow, Neal A.;Farrell, Thomas S. C.; [Glasgow, Neal A.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 1650889
Publisher: Corwin Press
Published: 2007-04-26T00:00:00+00:00

What the Research Says

The research of Smith and coworkers (2003) points to a lack of attention paid to language and literacy practices ethnic and linguistic-minority students bring from their countries of origin. These practices are often considered barriers to the types of literacy valued in U.S. schools. The authors explained that recent studies have discovered benefits for incorporating linguistic and other aspects of nonmainstream cultures into instruction. In their research they further examined the idea that educators can explore their own understanding of reading and writing, and how to teach these subjects, by considering the practices of other countries. They selected Mexico for their work because it is the country of origin for many Hispanic students and families.

The authors stated that as Spanish-speaking children continue to increase in number, it is important to find out what they have been taught. In their study, they conducted a qualitative literacy practice (writing, speaking, and reading) study in a small city in central Mexico. Over a period of six months, they collected data within first- and fourth-grade classrooms in two neighboring schools with different socioeconomic populations. The first school had students from working-class parents generally considered of indigenous heritage. The second school was a private Montessori school attended by children of middle-class and professional parents. Classroom observations and interviews served as data collection. Finally, to better understand how the school-based literacy practices observed fit into the culture, researchers studied the surrounding community, comparing school and locally produced texts (signs, advertising, banners, etc.). In this way the researchers could contrast and compare different uses of oral and written language within the modalities of reading, writing, and speaking. The following is a summary of the study’s findings.

Writing was generally highly controlled in both schools, and writing centered on short, discrete texts, typically dictation or copying of teacher-produced models. Students were rarely allowed to write texts longer than a sentence. They saw no examples of student writing for communicative purposes or the “authoring” function of writing. The greatest concern was the correctness of form, spelling, punctuation, and accent marks.

In contrast to the writing, spoken language was used as the medium of choice for expressive communication. There were few limitations on what students were allowed to say or how they said it.

Reading was not as controlled as the students’ writing or as free as spoken language at either school. However, there was no “free-reading” or sustained silent reading like you might find in the United States. Free reading was always a solitary activity reserved for the end of lessons. Children were never asked to comment on or write about something they read. Oral reading was treated like written language and it was highly monitored. Errors in pronunciation were corrected and, somewhat as in writing, form (a public display of literacy) was more important than comprehension and content. The authors also mentioned that excessive reading for extended periods could be seen as antisocial behavior.

Written text in the community was seen and treated very differently from how literacy is viewed in schools.

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