Literacy Dig

When reading about literacy digs and situated literacy, memories of a childhood now past came to the forefront of my mind. Our elementary school classroom implemented an experiment of learning to run a retail store. Until this day, I still remember how to set up the store. Not only did that experiment raise my interest in business, it also still applies to how adults start a business today. What a project worth teaching! We learned about our community and what details we needed to pay attention to in order to run our business. I always enjoyed reading, but setting up that project kept me engaged with the literacy details that surround us everyday. These lessons showed us a way that we could contribute to our community. Getting children involved with this type of learning is still as beneficial today as it was for our classroom 20 years ago.

Fast forward to an elementary school in the metropolitan area of Kentucky that produced a Donut House experiment. Some of the children were struggling with literacy and felt little motivation to make it work. That is when their teacher decided to input situated literacy. According to The Donut House: Real World Literacy in an Urban Kindergarten Classroom, the students were prompted to learn literacy by engaging in something that they found fascinating and taught them about contributing to their community; a donut house. Mrs. Davidson and her students visited the local donut shop to observe and take notes on the process of opening their own store. This included learning how to make donuts. Later in the assignment, students also learned to make signs, petitions, permit requests, ask for donations and other types of assistance from other community members to get the store opened. This experience is great because the students were not just told how to open a donut shop; they lived it in real world experience. The confidence gained from this project and increase in literacy will help all types of children in many aspects of life.

After reading the donut shop, I was interested to see how kids learn from other places that they are exposed to on a daily basis. Good thing we had a group assignment to explore that idea. Several members of my class and I met at a local health food co-op in our town. We observed the place and recorded what type of literacy we thought would impact children as they visited the store. There were many types of literacy in the co-op. For instance, children could see signs regarding safety, health and prices. Some of the literacy that was especially helpful for children were signs with images attached. The bathroom had an image of a male or female, fire hose had a clear window where you could see the actual hose, the produce section had drawings of different produce, and there were many types of advertising on the products geared towards children. There were also information packets containing health food information, coupons, and other services. Some patrons also had lists of the food items they needed. Children could also notice the dialogue between shoppers and staff. It was clear that there were a great deal of opportunities for learning literacy in the co-op.

Situated Literacy is an innovative and beneficial strategy for children! This is also a system they can take into adulthood. 20 years ago, we did our project in the conference room of my school. The children who worked on the Donut House were able to go out into the field and really engage with their community. For our class assignment, we also explored a literacy dig at a local co-op to observe. There are many strategies for implementing this philosophy with your class and the children will enjoy it as well as learn form the experience. Situated literacy provides students with skills that they can carry into the future, it teaches children to work well with others, and of course it empowers them to find the motivation to improve their reading and writing!