Bridging Home and School Literacy
Dr. Victoria Purcell-Gates
Dr. Victoria Purcell-Gates
- Canada research chair in early childhood literacy
- University of British Columbia in Canada
- Studies connection between home and school literacy
Why do some kids fail to learn to read & what types of literacy are shown at home?
Research
- Literacy for Life (LFL)
- worked with immigrant and refugee families in Canada
- low-English-literate adults and prekindergarten children
- Goal: measure the impact on literacy skill and knowledge
- Brought real world literacy activities into instruction
Real Life Literacy
- Examples: menus, receipts, shopping lists
- Example: Teaching children to read a menu for snack
- Having a purpose for reading and writing
- More than just skill instruction and play
Policy Makers
- This real life literacy shows more impact than just skills
- Students need more than just skill instruction
- We also need a way to measure real life literacy in curriculum to close the gap
Parents
- Find out what literacy is at home
- Not only school reading and writing
- Examples: shopping list, newspaper, maps, signs...
Teachers
- It is simple
- Ask: What is the text? & What is the purpose?
- Teachers need to imitate the social context
- Create a natural reason to use reading and writing
- Think about using technology