1. Acquiring Literacy Heather Gary Cristina Watson Laura Potenski Kelly Clifford

2. Refreshers Kaluli- treat infants as “soft”, no understanding -believe you cannot know another’s thoughts - fit the child into the situation - clarification is speaker’s responsibility - no adult expansion of child utterances Samoan- child’s early language is “angry” - highly stratified society - child often used as reporter/messenger - talk directed at child, not with *Ochs & Scheiffelin, 1995

3. Small-Group Activity Provide an example of how a typical child growing up in your assigned culture would respond. Support your answer with evidence from the readings. Discuss the following: 1)How does the author of your article define “literacy”? 2)How does culture affect oral language, and in turn, how does this affect literacy acquisition? Group 1 – MaintownGroup 3 – Samoan -American Group 2 – TracktonGroup 4 - Kaluli

4. Jig-Saw In your new group: –Present your child’s response, citing evidence from the text. –How can teachers modify lessons to encourage children’s acquisition of “conventional forms” (like reasoning and higher-order thinking) if their culture does not emphasize them? –Should teachers expect a certain standard and quality of literacy from their students, regardless of each student's individual cultural norms?

5. Focus Questions How do culture & the home environment play a part in the development of reasoning skills? How does culture affect oral language? In turn, how does this impact literacy acquisition? How do you use each culture’s strengths to further develop their literacy skills?