The national conference for adult education was held in Chicago last month. It was combined with ProLiteracy. I just saw an interesting post about a program that someone attended,called “Cultural Literacy and the Adult ESOL Learner.”
The post said the following:
The presenter was Planaria Price, a teacher from Evans Community (school) in the LA area of CA.
Ms. Price asserted that adults learning English are disadvantaged without the “cultural hooks” of childhood folktales and nursery stories and other stories that U.S. children learn through print and video media. These tales help learners build up needed “linguistic schemata” (background information) to increase their fluency and literacy in English. She presented video and media clips showing allusions in movies, TV shows, newspapers, and so on to such common stories as Humpty Dumpty, Cinderella, the Three Little Pigs, and others. The story she mentioned as being most frequently mentioned in print and video media was The Wizard of Oz.
Ms Planaria recommended teaching these folktales/stories/rhymes and then asking learners to “fish” – to look for references to these stories in print or other media – in the newspaper, in TV shows, in TV commercials, or in the movies.
-------------------------------------
This got me thinking about what this means to volunteer literacy and libraries....
I know that literacy tutors have probably used folktales in their lessons at times, especially for moms. Or, since folktales are found across cultures, they are a good bridge for learning, But, I hadn't thought about using them for their ability to introduce aspects of our culture.
Do any of you use folktales in lessons? If so, how and what titles have you found the most useful? Please recommend any books/stories that you have built lessons around and share your lessons with VALF so we can share with others?
Libraries could do displays of titles along with lessons plans as handouts in the area where tutors work. The display could include folktales across cultures with a poster introducing simlarities between the stories from culture to culture. What else could libraries do to support volunteer tutors and adult learners?
Sandy Newell
VALF President
I am not aware of many tutors in our literacy program tapping into folktales but I definitely see the value -- I never thought about the culture hook. I would absolutely take advantage of a lesson plan bank, so to speak, where tutors could share their lessons and retrieve others. We tend to focus on survival English skills and integrating idiomatic expressions into the lessons. Good ideas..I will be sharing this with our tutor team!
ReplyDeleteThis is so important to increasing success in literacy programs! Culturally relevant materials and techniques not only pique the interest of our learners but it also helps solidify cultural identity. It also encourages a sense of cultural 'ownership' of the program. Brava!
ReplyDeleteThis just makes so much sense - teaching the "culture background" of American English. Reminds me that we all need to be "taught the rules" of our milieu. What a wonderful way to teach the connections between language and culture and also provide English Language Learners with stories that can also be shared with their children.
ReplyDeleteThe conversations continue about the use of folktales. One person is saying that TV shows are today's culture hooks. Another teacher uses Dr. Seuss's books like Green Eggs and Ham. What do you use?
ReplyDeleteSandy Newell