Kids Dig Literacy

Literacy is not only the ability to read and write, but it's being able to think critically about the written word. Literacy is a life long process, not something that can be mastered or finished in a day. Literacy really is all around us. It's everywhere we look. Dr. Guttierez has come up with a way to describe this and she calls it the Third Space. The Third Space is basically the talking and reading behavior that students are doing that is not directly going on in the teachers lesson plan. Students are using literacy without knowing it. 

As an experiment, a group of teachers and I went on a 'community literacy dig.' A literacy dig is where you go to a place where children go and observe literacy in action all around you. You can write down the words that you see, the phrases that you hear, new vocabulary that is unique to this place, or even bits of talk heard around you. We decided to go to a restaurant called Finch's Brasserie in Bloomington. Finch's focuses on serving food straight from the farm to table. Because of this unique concept, you can imagine the amount of words and phrases that are unique to this restaurant. To start off, a large portion of the menu is in French. This opens up a whole new type of literacy. Some words that are in English that are unique to a restaurant are server, hostess, waitress, gluten-free, whole-grain, produce, receipt, and coffee. Other words that are unique to this establishment are mussels, wood-fired, Bloomington vicinity, Finch, Brasserie, and Soup du Jour.

Finch's also offers a menu called Baby Bird Food. Not only is this a cute play on words, it is made specifically for Birds (children) 12 years old and younger. It offers selections like mac and cheese, penne with butter, cheese pizza, and baby bird soda. By having a menu like this, Finch's is giving children the chance to develop literacy without knowing it.

All around, you can see literacy in action. From street signs to advertisements. From bus schedules to grocery store coupons. I challenge you to go on your own literacy dig. To see the literacy world through a child's eyes.