Multiple Roads to Literacy.

It is until now that I am trying to decode how was it, that I learned how to read and write? Thinking about learning to read and write it made me recapitulate how my 4 kids learned it. And finally I got to the conclusion that each of them and even myself learned those skills in a different way, at a different pace and at different ages.

Before I read the article I was assuming all children were taught in school, but after the fact I realized that as Goodman explains: “Many of these roads to literacy are taken for granted by members of a liberate society”.

I consider myself an avid reader, but nevertheless it wasn’t like that always. As I was reading the article, I was relating to those roads to literacy explained by Goodman that I experienced. With my kids it is definitely the “Demonstration Road Literacy” the one that is working. They see at home that mom and dad read on a daily basis, they see their mother reading fiction books at all times. It got to a point where my 8 years old is really enjoying literature by experiencing mostly the same road I did.

On the other hand I have my 5 years old who is been a technological addict since she was three years old. By using the iPad is how she got the first approach to reading and writing. All games were about sight words. Due to the fact that during my childhood there wasn’t any of this technology devices, I wasn’t aware of how to utilize them for this purpose.

All these unique and personal literacy experiences were awesome, but it would be a better experience if I was aware which roads they was taking. But now after reading this article I will have a ‘conscious acknowledgement of a legitimacy for multiple roads to literacy”. This goes along with what Goodman explains on page 56 “Those who speak to families and communities about literacy development, who plan literacy curriculum for schools, or who publish literacy materials must be acknowledgeable about the literacy events that occur in a wide range of households”.

References:

Goodman, Yetta M. & In Taylor, D. (1997). Many families, many literacies: An international declaration of principles. Portsmouth, NH Einemann.