By: Teressa Massedge
Student’s literacy is heavily influence by their own identity! How a student interrupts the literature is based on their own literate practices. This means that each student can hold their own meaning of literacy because of their social and cultural life and their individual life experiences. A student is able to be multiliterate because they connect their literate practices and their identity to literacy. Students have the ability to use their experiences and resources through their identity to comprehend a text. Within a person’s identity they are able to pull from inside themselves in order to engage in literate practices and to make meaning. Students are able to draw from their identity being the lifeworld (real world) and their school-based world.
It is our job as educators to help our student to learn to use their own literacy identity. We must remember that each student does not have the same identity as another, making the comprehension of the text vary from student to student. As I was reading a book to my student when day, I ask the very common question, “What is the stories message?” However, when understanding a student’s literacy identity the answer to this question will always be different because each student identity is different. Each student’s social and cultural background and life experienced have shaped how they interpret literature and it’s important to help them explore their own ways of comprehension. Students are their own source of resource and they are able to understand literacy because of all the knowledge they have been exposed too. We must encourage our students to pull from their resources and grasps questions according to their literacy identities!
Going beyond..... : https://www.ernweb.com/educational-research-articles/literacy_identity_reading/
I like how you connect personal experiences to their literacy identity. I agree that background and experience play a large role in how students comprehend and interpret what they read. I think it's our job as educators to find texts of all types that our diverse students can find engaging and relevant.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree. Students bring so much knowledge and so many experiences with them when they enter the classroom. Teachers must allow students to showcase this knowledge and share these experiences so that connections can be made and deeper learning can occur.
ReplyDeleteA student's identity can greatly affect their literacy. I completely agree with everything you said! A student's identity has a direct influence on how they behave, learn, interact, etc in the classroom. If a teacher does not know the identities of their students, I feel that they will be doing them a disservice. As an educator, it is so important that we really know our students in order to provide them with the best possible learning experience!
ReplyDeleteI think it is important to know your students' literacy identity in order to help with book selection and teaching points. It is important to work from known to new so that students can assimilate their new learning with the known. Reading comprehension is greatly impacted by a student's literacy identity. I was reading a book with a child about a cat named Oliver and a boy who wanted to play fetch with him. The cat didn't go get the ball, but the boy's mom dropped a ball of yarn and Oliver ran to get that. The student did not know what a ball of yarn was or why Oliver liked it. This unknown information made the understanding of the story very challenging for her. By knowing a child's background knowledge and vocabulary aids in understanding his/her literacy identity.
ReplyDeleteTeressa, I thought your perspective as an educator was informative. I totally agree with you that student’s literacy is heavily influenced by their own identity. I thought the picture of “Figure 1” you posted nicely broke it down and made it easy to understand. You are correct, educators do have a big responsibility to help their students learn how to use their own literacy identity.
ReplyDeleteGreat post Teressa! I think this is what makes literacy fun to explore. I love that every student can bring new perspective on a text and view it completely different from their peers based on their unique background. It makes for a exciting classroom and learning!
ReplyDeleteTeressa, I agree with you! It is so important to make sure that each student's background is taken into consideration when having conversations and instructing in any capacity! Each child is unique, as is their experience!
ReplyDeleteHi Teressa,
ReplyDeleteI found your connection between multiculturalism and literacies very insightful. I agree with you that it is important as educators to keep in mind our student's backgrounds, experiences, and cultures in order to help them be the most successful with the most appropriate forms of literacies for them as individuals!
Teressa, I enjoyed reading your post. I liked how you made a personal connection about a student. I completely agree that each student may interpret literacies in different ways. I think that each student has a different upbringing, which means that their attitudes and beliefs may differ. This influences their insights and meanings on literacies and experiences in general. I think it's important for teacher's to always be aware of this throughout their careers.
ReplyDeleteHi Teressa! I found this post about social and cultural identities to be very interesting. Each and every student has different social and cultural identities, and that is something that can utilized in classroom discussions. Different interpretations of texts reflect student values and beliefs, and through those interpretations, students can be introduced to multiculturalism in education.
ReplyDeleteA student’s identity could definitely help with reading selections and different books for that specific individual. Every students background should never be ignored and should always be the main focus. I liked the Venn diagram you added with you blog, it shows us how to use literacy identity appropriately!
ReplyDeleteHi Teressa,
ReplyDeleteYou brought up a great point that "each student can hold their own meaning of literacy because of their social and cultural life and their individual life experiences." I agree the students literacy is based on their home life. If their parents teach them to read and write at a young age and they practice it at home and not just a school they are more likely to be stronger at understand all forms of literacy. If they do not have a home life where they value other beliefs they may not fully understand their own literacy practice. It is up to the teacher to figure out how they can help each student in their way.
I agree that it is so important for students to be bale to show who they are in the classroom. the classroom is full of so many diverse student backgrounds that should be celebrated. Its should always be a teachers main priority to make sure that all students backgrounds are showing the classroom and that the students are not afraid to be themselves.
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