Beyond the Book: Summer Literacy Adventures
We are in the final month of school in Calgary and it is busy! It is so busy we feel it in our breath, our movements, and every thought. At times like this, it is easy to fall prey to the busy. But when we focus on what is most important, we are reminded that busy is not why we are here. Our students deserve all that we can give, especially in the busy of these final weeks.
With this in mind, I decided to follow Matt Renwick’s example and frame this post as a bridge between school and summer. Matt’s last blog post offered some fantastic suggestions around facilitating summer reading through authentic experiences. After reading I wondered, what else might we do to support our students over summer?
Knowing oral language is the foundation of literacy, my mind wandered there. In their book Literacy: Reading the word and the world, Freire and Macedo remind us “reading does not consist merely of decoding the written word or language; rather it is preceded by and intertwined with knowledge of the world (1987, p. 29). Following their advice, I looked to the world to see what might be reflected back to me.
Below are some suggestions that might open up how students and their families approach literacy over the summer months.
Make time for talk.
Remember that feeling of busy I began this post with? The great thing about summer is family and friends generally have more time to spend together. Car rides, family outings, dinner conversations, and campfire evenings are great opportunities to connect and build literacies outside of classroom walls. Dr. Catherine Snow and Diane Beals offer some useful suggestions (2006) about mealtime talk that supports literacy development. They suggest the conversations that happen at the dinner table can provide opportunities to talk about topics in greater depth (extended discourse). The common narrative or explanatory structures typically used at mealtimes expose children to relatively sophisticated vocabulary. Summer is a great time to remind your students and their families that their dinner table conversations are important. Of course, the dinner table can really be any place depending on the weather!
Explore your place.
As educators, we understand that literacy does not live in one place. It occurs within and between contexts. Students can learn what words mean in the world in order to better understand and use them in print. Many places offer free summer opportunities for families to wander, experience, and talk. Sharing some examples with parents (such as this http://www.todocanada.ca/free-family-activities-every-day-summer-calgary/) can help families step into rich literacy experiences. These opportunities help build students’ knowledge, which in turn helps them with reading and writing. Lots of these hot spots also offer maps or guides when you visit, so make sure to remind parents that books are not the only sources of print in our lives.
Offering parents simple conversation structures such as ‘Strive for 5’ (Weitzman & Greenberg, 2010, p. 11) can also help deepen potential conversations to get kids talking and learning during family outings. Letting children lead the conversation, asking open-ended questions, and aiming for at least 5 turns back and forth increase the likelihood of extended conversation and extended learning. As adults, we often forget that to our children our world is new and exciting. Taking time to listen, question, and talk together will remind everyone we truly do live in a WONDERful place.
Leverage what they love.
Anyone who is a parent knows that summer is not all a ball of sunshine. Some days are rainy and some days everyone just needs a break from each other. We also know how much kids love technology. Some well-chosen websites can save even the rainiest of summer days. Camp Wonderopolis offers many rich literacy provocations and the multimodal structure that draws kids in. Alternatively, playing audio books or podcasts on car rides or during 'quiet time' opens up more chances to listen, talk, and build knowledge together. Jennifer Gonzalez offers a parent-friendly explanation and some of her favourite podcasts here that could be a great blog post to share with parents heading into summer.
While I know that summertime literacy is not as easy as this list suggests, I also know there are some intentional things we can do over the summer months to keep kids learning and growing. If we can support parents to see the everyday literacy opportunities in their world, it opens up new ways to connect and support their children.
What suggestions would you add to this list? What opportunities can you find when you look at the world as our literacy classroom? Please share your ideas in the comments.
With thanks,
Heather
References
Freire, P., & Macedo, D.P. (1987). Literacy: Reading the word and the world. South Hadley, MA: Bergin & Garvey.
Snow, C. E., & Beals, D. E. (2006). Mealtime talk that supports literacy development. New Directions for Child and Adolescent Development,2006(111), 51-66. doi:10.1002/cd.155
Weitzman, E., & Greenberg, J. (2010). ABC and beyond: building emergent literacy in early childhood settings. Toronto: The Hanen Centre.