Teacher/Parent Reading Practices
SMAGOR who-is-at aardvark.ucs.uoknor.edu
Wed, 13 Dec 1995 07:01:38 -0600 (CST)
On Gordon's question: I wonder if, when we play two related roles,
our practices aren't more mutually constitutive. That is, rather
than schooling influencing parenting more than parenting influencing
schooling (sorry for this mix of gerunds and participles!), perhaps
the roles merge: my experiences in the classroom may indeed
influence my reading with my children, but at the same time
what I learn through reading with my child may help me with
my classroom teaching. The settings are different in significant
ways which provide different constraints and opportunities--
that is, reading with one child to whom I have many responsibilities
as opposed to reading with 25 children, reading with physical
affection (i.e., on the lap) as opposed to reading with
greater physical distance, reading things of choice rather
than selections in the curriculum, etc. But I don't see a
unidirectional flow from one setting to the other, but
rather a merging of the roles.
Perhaps this observation is too personal. I think we'd need
to know much more about people's parenting and teaching to
say with greater certainty how stances toward reading
develop.
Peter Smagorinsky smagor who-is-at aardvark.ucs.uoknor.edu
p.s. Heath's observations about home reading practices are
widely cited and have substantiated many claims about
the literacy practices of mainstream families--thanks,
Elice for pointing out the sampling issues, which raise
questions about the generalizations that are often made
from Heath's work.