|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 Lesson Ten |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Excerpts from Reflective Journals | Excerpts
from Literature | References
Often times, we, as teachers, ask students to do things
without sufficiently explaining to them why they are necessary
or helpful. Keeping written logs of reading or any type of
literacy activities is an excellent way to monitor progress
and help students become witnesses to their own growth. However,
without explaining the reason and vision behind such record
keeping, often it will not get done. With the time constraints
that family literacy class participants face it is often
all they can do to attend classes. Time spent outside of
class needs to seem worth it to them. Decide the why behind
record keeping activities, share that with your students,
and review these reasons often; students, like teachers,
often forget or get off-track.
Excerpts from Reflective Journals
- April 2nd, 2002 (Wave I) – “We got started tonight by having Marisol
tell me what she had done with her son. She’d written down (in not-so-correct
Spanish) that she had read with her son, and that he really liked the book. YEA—I
was thrilled that she had also gone to great lengths to write down words from
the book in her own notebook; that represents time for her, because writing doesn’t
come easy for her.”
- April 9th, 202 (Wave I) – “But I really enjoy asking her how it
went reading to her son, and she has shown me some very simple comments she’s
written after reading the book(s) to her son.”
- April 20th, 2002 (Wave II) – “Okay, so today was great! I began
by looking over their reading logs. Most had not written in them. It is hard
to get them in the habit of bringing the PACT packets, and/or writing in these
after they have read with people at home.”
- May 9th, 2002 (Wave II) – “I absolutely love to see students arriving with words written out on the sheets I included in
the
PACT packet, and the books
by their side in which they found the words. WOW! This is great! Little by little
I am seeing small successes and it is so exciting to me.”
Excerpts from Literature
- Paratore, 2001, “The literacy log serves a dual purpose. First, by requiring
parents to report each day on their previous day’s home literacy experiences,
we raise their awareness of the ways they use literacy in their daily lives… The
sharing and discussion that emerge from the literacy log entries enable us to
emphasize the importance of initiating family literacy events and practices that
are important and relevant in the daily lives of children and adults… Second,
the logs also serve a documentation function by providing a record of routine
uses of literacy in families throughout their period of participation” (p.
35).
- Paratore, 2001, “Learners keep individual portfolios in which they maintain
a record of texts they have read and those they have written. Approximately once
each month, they review these records and complete a self-assessment” (p.
44).
References
Paratore, J. R. (2001). Opening doors, opening opportunities:
Family literacy in an urban
community. Boston: Allyn and Bacon.
[Previous] | [Next]
|
|
