A recent language and literacy activity that was shared with students in my classroom was storytelling. The goal of the practice was to help the pupils strengthen their abilities to communicate their thoughts, ideas, and feelings. The activity did not require many items except for a prompt jar and pieces of paper, which the students were asked to pick from the jar and tell a story based on what was written in their prompts. A teaching strategy employed to enhance engagement was based on classroom discussions, and the type of questions used to support the pupils centered around assisting them in finding necessary associations with words they were given.
Furthermore, the described activity can be revised to facilitate the language development of DLL students based on utilizing the Funds of Knowledge (FoK) toolkit. First, the goal of the activity is likely to expand to allow me, as an educator, to gain more knowledge about my pupils that can be used for future lessons (“Funds” 2). For instance, the storytelling prompts could be closer connected to each child’s background. Second, an additional strategy I would use is taking notes about my students’ experiences to help me better understand their FoK (“Funds” 2). Third, I may try to draw on the strengths of DLL pupils’ linguistic capacities by asking them to translate their prompts to assist them in comprehending the topic (“Funds” 4). Fourth, I would modify the questions into those that would ask the students to connect the stories with what is happening in their lives (“Funds” 3). Fifth, the information I would collect prior to the activity would focus on the pupils’ interests and everyday tasks to make the storytelling process more relatable (“Funds” 3). Consequently, I would transform the activity into being more student-centered rather than being generic.
Work Cited
“Funds of Knowledge Toolkit.” Washington Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction, Web.