My Definition of Literacy

On page 32, Au starts off his paragraph saying, "As part of culturally responsive instruction, teachers my explore with their classes the way in which students and their families use literacy at home and in the community. Students may use literacy in sophisticated ways which are not necessarily familiar to teachers from mainstream backgrounds."

This quote speaks strongly to me because it reminds me of a class that I took as an undergrad. It was about teaching African American students and studying their culture in American. My professor told us a story about her first years of teaching high school, she didn't understand why the African American students would be sitting at the back of her class everyday in which she would catch them talking and passing notes during silent reading. One day she had the courage and to walk over to two students that were passing notes and grab it from them. She didn't read it out loud in front of the class, but read it after school. She was surprised of what they wrote as she assumed that she was going to find a statement saying something immature. Instead she realized that students were passing notes of what they were reading about. She was ecstatic that her students did care about class, but realized that she needed to do something to connect to the other student or she feared the worse, that her student couldn't read. She spoke to one of her colleagues and he asked her what his culture or family dynamics were like. After much research and speaking to this student she came to the conclusion that the student would only read if the article or book pertained or associated with his life situations.

The moral of her lecture was it depends on the student if they want to take in any reading, writings, or any other form of literacy. It is a choice. As an educator it is up to us to find literature that will connect to all students.