It is easy for people to forget, particularly educators, that there are many out-of-school literacies. Since being in the traditional school setting for a while I had forgotten about how influential and important out-of-school literacy is and, as a future educator, how essential it is for my students. What is out-of-school literacy? Doesn’t literacy learning only occur in the classroom? – No, not exactly. Out-of-school literacy is literacy learning that occurs outside of the structured schedule (curriculum) of traditional class and there are many examples of out-of-school literacy - these include art, music, any form of literature (i.e. graphic novels, books of interest), and movies (just to name a few).
In “What they don’t learn in school” by Jabari Mahiri (which is a collection of youths experiences with multiple literacies by professional educators), gives insight into the lives of “unschoolers” who practice a form of out-of-school literacy. They don’t go to school and don’t follow a definite scheduled learning like “home schoolers” do, instead they may research a topic/subject that they are interested in and create their own projects – a type of self motivated learning. I think that all students are capable of self motivated learning and practice it different ways.
Out-of-school literacies are important in identity formation for young people, I remember when I was in middle school I use to draw and create artwork – it was central to my life at the time and meaningful. Just as the students described in “What they don’t learn in school”, Peter Cowan in “Devils or Angels: Literacy and Discourse in Lowrider Culture” (a chapter in Mahiri’s book) explores artwork by Hispanic (mainly Mexican American) students and how it is central to their identity formations and is meaningful to them – a form of literacy. These students understand the meanings of their artwork and the connections to their everyday lives.
As a future educator it is imperative to remember that there are out-of-school literacies that occur in everyone’s lives – for example, I still enjoy creating forms of artwork, particularly paintings, and it is meaningful to me. Teachers can incorporate out-of-school literacy techniques in the classroom; for example we can learn from the “unschoolers” and incorporate meaningful projects – which can be done if we remain aware of what is significant to the students. This reminds me of how important it is as an educator to incorporate and connect relevant information to the topic/subject being taught so to cultivate their own self motivated interest in learning.
In “What they don’t learn in school” by Jabari Mahiri (which is a collection of youths experiences with multiple literacies by professional educators), gives insight into the lives of “unschoolers” who practice a form of out-of-school literacy. They don’t go to school and don’t follow a definite scheduled learning like “home schoolers” do, instead they may research a topic/subject that they are interested in and create their own projects – a type of self motivated learning. I think that all students are capable of self motivated learning and practice it different ways.
Out-of-school literacies are important in identity formation for young people, I remember when I was in middle school I use to draw and create artwork – it was central to my life at the time and meaningful. Just as the students described in “What they don’t learn in school”, Peter Cowan in “Devils or Angels: Literacy and Discourse in Lowrider Culture” (a chapter in Mahiri’s book) explores artwork by Hispanic (mainly Mexican American) students and how it is central to their identity formations and is meaningful to them – a form of literacy. These students understand the meanings of their artwork and the connections to their everyday lives.
As a future educator it is imperative to remember that there are out-of-school literacies that occur in everyone’s lives – for example, I still enjoy creating forms of artwork, particularly paintings, and it is meaningful to me. Teachers can incorporate out-of-school literacy techniques in the classroom; for example we can learn from the “unschoolers” and incorporate meaningful projects – which can be done if we remain aware of what is significant to the students. This reminds me of how important it is as an educator to incorporate and connect relevant information to the topic/subject being taught so to cultivate their own self motivated interest in learning.
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