Literacy at Home Translates to the Classroom

During my Foundations of Education course, our semester-end assignment was to turn in a 10+ page paper on a Blue Ribbon school that we had focused on for the entire semester.  Blue Ribbon schools are recognized for their overall academic excellence or for their progress in closing achievement gaps among student subgroups.  The elementary school I selected was Viers Mill Elementary in Silver Spring, MD.  While I could focus this blog post on all of the incredible things that Viers Mill has accomplished to become a Blue Ribbon School, I want to focus on one particular conversation that I had with the principle when I had the opportunity to interview him.  This is something that will always stick with me. We were talking about how many kindergartners come to his school unable to read and have never been read to before at home.  Futhermore, and what shocked me the most was that he said he has actually witnessed several kindergartners who started his school unable to speak.  I honestly didn't know if I could fathom there being some five year olds who entered elementary school unable to speak any type of language, neither English nor their native language.  How could this be?

The terribly sad reality is that there are many children living conditions of poverty who start school unable to speak due to noise and poor conversation at home.  The children who do not grow up with parents due to them always being at work, combined with continuous noise from the television, and a lack of literacy practice such as reading books at home is contributing to a lack of verbal skills when these students arrive at school.  If you think about it, if a child is never talked to directly, how will he or she ever learn to speak?  This is exactly what the Principle of Viers Mill Elementary said during our conversation.  He said many of these children have never practiced a language, have never opened a book.  Talk about a challenge that these Kindergarten teachers face.

I'll never forget this takeaway that I had after our conversation and the importance of reading to children at home, before they enter Pre-K or Kindergarten to provide a literacy-rich home environment.  As teachers we can develop strategies to teach parents how to incorporate literacy into their home. An example might include hosting a workshop at the school that helps families learn different ways to help their children with literacy skills at home, including ways to read aloud.

There is increasing evidence that parental beliefs and attitudes about reading and the opportunities parents provide their children in reading can greatly influence children's reading development (http://www.justreadflorida.com/promote.asp).  It's our responsibility  as teachers to help parents become aware of the benefits of reading and the introduction of literacy skills at a very early age.