La Iglesia, Pokemon, the Rec Center: Latino Children’s Home and Community Access Points to Literacy

• In Event: Roundtable Session 111
  In Roundtable Session: Family and Community-Based Resources for Language and Literacy

Abstract

This paper is grounded in critical sociocultural theory and shares findings from an ethnographic study of the home and community access points to literacy of two young Latino bilinguals. Analyzing the out-of-school contexts where literacy practices are co-constructed by children and the network of people mediating their developing literacy, the study looks across children’s worlds and the print, digital, and identity texts with which they engaged. The study also illuminates the families’ differing approaches to supporting children’s learning and the children’s agency. The concept of “access points to literacy” is explored and implications for teaching and teacher prep are discussed.

Author

• Dinah Volk, Cleveland State University