1. Community Studies can help students grow in language and literacy. Listening Reading Speaking Writing

2. “Stories are preserved in the memory of a group, and as those accounts are told and retold the group is connected to its history. As long as the stories of a community are recited by elders, children learn about the traditions and cultural life of their ancestors.”

3. “But what happens when elders have a diminished role in the education of the young? What happens when there is a breakdown in this vital communication between generations? Will the heritage die? Can schools play a role in reflecting the cultural heritage of the neighborhood?”

5. “…the greater the linguistic and cultural diversity of classroom, the more powerful it should be as an arena in which children’s language can grow.” (p.414).

6. “…If we, as teachers, do not recognize the language differences our school children bring, we can neither appreciate nor use them.”(p.415) Lindfors. J. (1987). Children’s Language and Learning, (2 nd Ed.). Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, Inc

7. Comprehension is shaped in part by: Past experiences Background knowledge Cultural frameworks Attitudes and values

8. “Empathy is the ability to don the shoes of another human being. One experiences this in reading Elie Wiesel or Truman Capote. Good writers put you there. Empathy pertains to feeling or to emotion….

9. “Why take the heart out of the situations we are trying to help readers understand? From: The Enlightened Eye: Qualitative Inquiry and the Enhancement of Educational Practice. Elliot W Eisner.

10. Ethnographers Historians Folklorists Sociologists Reporters Other Roles

11. Community literature Folk science/medicine Cooking Music Games Art Plays Dances

12. Brainstorming by reflecting upon personal information Interviewing a person knowledgeable about a topic (Scars) Listening to music/poetry (“I Am” poem) Reading about and researching the topic (My Dad’s Story) Responding to literature Viewing media such as pictures, movies and television

15. We promote learning when we use activities that encourage students to communicate their own experiences, ideas, explorations and feelings in oral and written language. When we promote students drawing from their own set of experiences, diversity is validated and explored. When students use their own experiences, cultural background and native language, they use their knowledge base to create. When students generate their own questions and answers, their learning becomes meaningful.

16. “…the greater the linguistic and cultural diversity of the classroom, the more powerful it should be as an arena in which children’s language can grow.” (p.414) ------------------------------------------------------------- “…if we, as teachers, do not recognize the language differences our school children bring, we can neither appreciate nor use the.” (p. 415) Lindfors, J. (1987). Children’s Language and Learning, (2 nd Ed.). Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, Inc.