Transnational Community Literacy:
Exploring the Franklin Elementary Surroundings
The surrounding community of Franklin Elementary contains a highly diverse population of varying ethnicity, language, and socioeconomic status. However as I strolled through the surrounding community, I was shocked by how similar the community appears in comparison to a typical mainstream suburban community. Located only 2 miles away from Brigham Young University campus, the environment surrounding Franklin Elementary had average sized houses, wide streets, churches, traffic lights, traffic signs, gas stations, and many other things found in a typical American neighborhood. At first there was little indication that Franklin Elementary is located in such a diverse community with a 60% ethnic minority population, 53% of whom are Hispanic, surpassing Caucasian cultural dominance. But I happened to arrive just as dozens of ethnically diverse students left for home that day.
Necessary Literacies
The texts found throughout the community were primarily practical in nature and required a diverse range of literacies to understand them. Straying away from traditional definitions of literacy, many of the items can aid academic achievement in math, science, social studies, art, and many other subject areas. Increased numeracy or numerical literacy can help children identifying times on bus schedules, dates of the year, incomes and expenses for forms, speed limit signs, and gas station prices. Basic understanding of numbers allows children to identify them, but increased understanding will allow them to perform simple arithmetical operations and statistical analysis. Children are also expected to have a certain degree of visual literacy, which allows them to read...
... middle of paper ...
...nters in the area geared towards Hispanics. Even the inclusion of signs and pamphlets in Spanish as well as English were not clear indicators of the many minority cultures that live in the community. I did not find any signs in a language other than Spanish or English with the exception of one sign in Chinese, which still addresses the needs of only a few specific immigrant cultures. And because of the increasing diversity nationwide and the increasing importance of second language learning, it is not uncommon to find Multilanguage texts found in schools, on buses, in office buildings, and on the street meaning the few indicators of an immigrant community were not as easily identifiable as indicators.
References
GreatSchools. (2011). Student information for Franklin School. Retrieved from http://www.greatschools.org/utah/provo/552-Franklin-School/?tab=demographics
Franklin College, established in 1834, was the first coeducational institution in Indiana and the seventh in the nation. Franklin College has grown, physically and ideologically, and has made changes to its campus to support the larger amount and increasing variety of people. These changes in physical appearance include the construction of new buildings like new dormitories. Ideologically, Franklin has grown towards an ideology that gives students the opportunity for greater equality and responsibility. Franklin College commissioned surveys and studies that showed the potential for enrollment to grow, and it did. With enrollment up, Franklin College’s campus was becoming too small. Not only was the number of students increased, but these students were different. These students might be from different economic backgrounds, different ages, or different major life choices and all of these things shaped Franklin College’s campus.
It is crucial to understand the historical context of immigration in America. Initially, most immigrants were from Europe and were not restricted by any immigration laws. Now, most immigrants come from Latin America but are restricted to severe immigration laws. The Latino/a community is one of the most severely affected groups because the current immigration system disproportionally affects Latino/as. Recognizing how the experience of Latino/a immigrants have been both similar and different in the past from other immigrant groups and dispelling common misconceptions about Latino/as today brings awareness of how Latino/as are affected.
Another struggle for identity with Latinos is their struggle with the Spanish and English languages. While some Latinos may speak Spanish in their homes, the language may not be conversationally used in their schools. Some Lat...
For this assignment, I completed a survey to assess my school’s literacy program by using a survey that was adapted from by Patty, Maschoff, & Ransom (1996) to analyze the instructional program and the school’s infrastructure. To be able to answer my survey, I needed to go colleagues of mine in the English Department and to my administration to help with these questions. Being a math teacher, we hardly ever discuss the literacy and the students’ acquisition of it in our department meeting during staff development days. Since I am not truly current with literacy acquisition in education, I am hoping to understand more from this process so I can help all my students. I want them to be able to read texts related to math and find information that will be useful to them during the year.
Center Grove is becoming an increasingly global community. I was not aware of Center Grove’s shift from a racially homologous community to a global one until I entered Mrs. McNeill’s English as a New Language (ENL) class on April 20. For Publications, I had to write a story on immigrants that attend Center Grove High School. Initially, I thought that this story would be difficult to write; I was not aware that there were immigrants at Center Grove High School. However, when I entered the classroom, my assumption about the lack of immigrants at Center Grove was refuted. The class had students from Japan, India, Nepal, Ukraine, Mexico, Puerto Rico, and Ethiopia. With my newfound knowledge that I was living in an increasingly global community, I realized the importance of
Currently, the Cabot Public Schools lacks in the area of diversity when it comes to race and ethnicity. However, in recent years, t...
Literacy, or the capability to comprehend, translate, utilize, make, process, assess, and speak information connected with fluctuating settings and displayed in differing organizations, assumes an essential part in molding a young's persons trajectory in life. The ability to read speaks to a key factor of scholarly, social, and financial success (Snow, Burns, & Griffin, 1998). These abilities likewise speak to a fundamental segment to having a satisfying life and turning into an effective worker and overall person (Snow, Burns, & Griffin, 1999). Interestingly, recent studies have demonstrated that low reading skills lead to critical hindrances in monetary and social achievement. As stated by the National Center for Education Statistics, adults with lower levels of reading skills and literacy have a lower average salary. Another study evaluated that 17 to 18 percent of adults with "below average" literacy aptitudes earned less than $300 a week, though just 3 to 6 percent of adults with "proficient" reading abilities earned less than $300 a week (Snow, Burns, & Griffin, 1998).
Literacy, as a concept, has been evolving during the last few decades, presenting itself as a more complex term to comprehend. The deeper understanding of this notion has made the process of learning it, a bigger and more elaborate challenge.
At least 40 million American adults need stronger literacy skills to take advantage of more lifelong learning opportunities (Knowles 12). Low literacy limits life chances, regardless of how it is defined or measured. According to The Random House Dictionary literacy is defined as “the quality or state of being literate, esp. the ability to read and write.” Another breakdown of the word, from the same source is “possession of education.” Basic skills and literacy abilities are widely viewed as necessities for lifelong learning and the development of success among individuals, families, communities, and even nations. Better knowledge about literacy is an essential condition for improving it. Helping children improve their literacy skills can help them develop the capacity for lifelong learning, keep pace with changing educational expectations and rapid technological change, and achieve their life goals. Today in society there are many adults with poor literacy skills who lack the foundation they need to find and keep decent jobs, to support their children’s education and help them mold a literate future. I have taken one small step towards this problem by tutoring at two schools. The more time people put towards helping the youth of America is the more literate our population can become. Every small action can help, even if it is just tutoring at local middle and junior high schools.
Literacy is an important issue in education. It is vital that students of all ages demonstrate the skills of reading, writing, and communication. Curriculums across the state of New Jersey as well as through out parts of the United States push for ways of including literacy processes in every content area. Administrators and school officials see written and oral communication as abilities students should utilize in their social studies, science, and mathematics classrooms, not just in language arts, English, and foreign language. In order to expand the literacy of all pupils, school curriculums now include journals, essay examinations, timed writing, response questions, and open-ended questions across all subjects. Math teachers must now grade open-ended questions, science students write in journals detailing their experiences in laboratory work, while teachers of United States history lean towards essay tests in contrast to the multiple-choice exams of the past. Essays provide numerous benefits for both students and teachers. They enhance literacy and sharpen writing skills in many ways. For a truly enriched and engaging curriculum, every teacher must include essay and/or open-ended assessments.
Growing up in a Hispanic household, our family always visited communities that were predominantly of Hispanic heritage, even though those neighborhoods were far from my home. We would make the trek for grocery shopping, Hispanic restaurants, the surrounding community, and most importantly for healthcare. Now you may be wondering why we didn’t live there. Though I do not know the exact reason, it is most likely due to my father’s employment. Without the facility of a vehicle, public transportation became something we relied on making location the number one factor when it came to employment. In terms of healthcare, there were plenty of clinics, hospitals, and dentists near us, nonetheless, the main problem was they were not within our budget.
The difficulty of speaking the language, and knowing the customs of the community are paramount to being able to assist residents and business owners. The immigrant does not always learn the language when they come to, and live within the borders of the United States. Inability to communicate makes responding to the phone calls more difficult, however, there have been strides in ...
My personal literacy development has been a constant struggle since my arrival in America as a boy with a Spanish-speaking mother and a bi-lingual father. We spoke Spanish at home. As I began school I could only speak a small amount of English and understood only slightly more. I learnt, as young children do, through listening to the people around me and using any visual aids I could to scaffold the gaps in my understanding (Winch, Johnston, March, Ljungdahl, Holliday, 2012). My lack of basic literacy affected every area of my learning with only math classes allowing me to feel slightly comfortable due to the international nature of numerical literacy. I quickly developed the oracy skills required to be able to contribute to social and academic situations but unfortunately developed other ways to hide my lack of progress in other areas.
Literacy is an on-going skill that teachers and students alike should commonly study and practice in all grades. Problems faced by teachers, especially teachers in higher grades, are not having the skills to be effective teachers of literacy. To effectively teach literacy across content areas, a teacher would need skills such as knowledge of the reading process and the ability to cultivate the knowledge gained in order to make informed decisions within their classrooms (Clary, Oglan, Styslinger,
Ward (2005) explores writing and reading as the major literary mediums for learning mathematics, in order for students to be well equipped for things they may see in the real world. The most recent trends in education have teachers and curriculum writers stressed about finding new ways to tie in current events and real-world situations to the subjects being taught in the classroom. Wohlhuter & Quintero (2003) discuss how simply “listening” to mathematics in the classroom has no effect on success in student academics. It’s important to implement mathematical literacy at a very young age. A case study in the article by authors Wohlhuter & Quintero explores a program where mathematics and literacy were implemented together for children all the way through eight years of age. Preservice teachers entered a one week program where lessons were taught to them as if they were teaching the age group it was directed towards. When asked for a definition of mathematics, preservice teachers gave answers such as: something related to numbers, calculations, and estimations. However, no one emphasized how math is in fact extremely dependable on problem-solving, explanations, and logic. All these things have literacy already incorporated into them. According to Wohlhuter and Quintero (2003), the major takeaways from this program, when tested, were that “sorting blocks, dividing a candy bar equally, drawing pictures, or reading cereal boxes, young children are experienced mathematicians, readers, and writers when they enter kindergarten.” These skills are in fact what they need to succeed in the real-world. These strategies have shown to lead to higher success rates for students even after they graduate