Mallory Anderson

Fall 2015

TTE317

Funds of Knowledge for Literacy Instruction pt. II

When I first arrive to Violet’s house, she was clearly very excited to see me, as she

sustained a huge grin on her face. But, whenever I would talk to her, she would get very giggly,

shy, and quiet. I told her I brought a fun activity for us to do, and that we would be making

books. When I asked her if she had ever made a book before, she shook her head yes. When I

asked her what she had written books about, she shrugged. So we found a place and sat down,

and I gave her one booklet, and left one for myself. I asked her what she might write about, and

she wasn’t sure. We spent the next five minutes thinking of topics, but she didn’t want to write

about any of them. I decided to pull out the markers I brought, and start my own book, in the

hopes that it would spark an idea for her. I told her I wanted to write a book about my cat, Olive,

so I could teach her all about my cat. Then, her eyes light up, and she told me she wanted to

write about kitties too. Then, the following interaction occurred:

V: I don’t know what to write about the kitty.

M: Well, is this about your cat…

V: I don’t have a cat.

M: Oh you don’t have a cat, well if you did have a cat, what would you want to name it?

V: ….Blueberry.

M: So then, we could call your book, Blueberry! So are you making your story about your cat, if

you had one? And maybe about all the things your cat would do?

V: Yeah…cause I really like kitties!

M: I see you drew your cover, do you want to write Blueberry on there?

V: Yeah, with the blue [marker]. *pause* Now how do I write Blueberry?

M: Hm, what’s the first sound you hear in Blueberry?

V: *sounds out to herself a couple times, /b/*

M: I can hear you saying it, you’re correct, what letter is that?

V: B?

M: There you go! Keep sounding it out, what sound do you hear next in /bllllueberry/.

V: L. *continues to sound out to herself, writes letter ‘e’*

M: I see you’ve written blue, what’s the next part you hear?

V: Berry.

M: What sound does that begin with?

V: /b/.

M: That’s correct!

V: *continues to sound out to herself, writes ‘ere’ (final spelling is BLEBERE).

M: Good job sounding out the word!

My book was called, ‘My Cat Olive’, and hers was called ‘Blueberry.’ I began to talk

about the things my cat did, like play with string, sleep a lot, and more. I told her that that’s how

I was going to write parts of my book. As I began writing, I asked her questions about what she

was going to write:

M: So what does Blueberry like to do? What are you going to write that blueberry likes to do, in

your story?

V: Mmmm…play with a yarn ball. *she begins to draw her pictures as I’m working on mine*

M: So Blueberry likes to play with yarn.

V: How do I write that?

Mom: Emma, didn’t you learn how to write the word like?

V: I did! *goes through backpack for a while to find writings with the site word like* So now,

how do I start?

M: Well, you told me earlier Blueberry was a boy, so you want to say, “He likes to play with

yarn?”

V: Yeah.

M: How do you think you would write ‘He?’

V: H….*writes ‘h’* *sounds out ‘He’* ….E!

M: So now we’re on that word ‘likes.’

V: *takes a look at the paper she found with the work ‘like’ and copies*

M: Good job. Now next, is ‘to.’

V: To…./t/, t? *writes t* ….. /o/…..o? *writes o*

M: Okay, now ‘play.’

V: P….now, e….. *stops*

M: Do we have all of play down?

V: No…a *writes a* Is that it?

M: You tell me! It’s all about what you hear.

A similar scenario happened on the next page. I began to write and draw about how my

cat liked to sleep. I then saw her doing the same thing on her page. I was vey impressed and

very pleased with her writing, but I wanted her to come up with an idea completely on her own.

While she finished this page, I moved on to write a page about how Olive was my best friend. I

moved book to where she could not see what I was writing or drawing. When we got to her last

page, I asked her what she was going to do:

M: So this is your last page, what does he like to do now?

V: Drink water.

M: That’s a good idea, cat’s drink lots of water.

V: *draws picture of Blueberry drinking water* *starts writing, referencing previous pages to

write ‘he likes to.’

M: So now, how do you think you spell drink?

V: A j. *writes j*

M: What’s the next sound you hear?

V: R… *writes r*…e *writes e*...*makes /k/ sound* Uh oh…is it a c or a k?

M: Oh that’s a good question, they both make the same sound don’t they? How do we know?

V: Well the c makes a /s/ and a /k/ sound…so maybe it’s a k.

M: That’s some good logic.

Overall, I was stunned at Violet’s book. Her ability to sound out words was phenomenal.

She really took the time to sound them out to herself, and used a high level of thinking to

strategize when she wasn’t exactly sure what written letter went with a corresponding letter

sound. For examples, when she heard the /j/ sound in ‘drink’, I completely understood what

exactly she was thinking. After saying the word out loud, I realized the word really does sound

like ‘jrink’. Because of the immense amount of thought, I was just as proud and impressed as I

was whenever she got the corresponding letter and letter sound correct.

I also found a gem when Violet logically thought about whether she should put a k or c in

the word drink. She knew the ending sound, /k/, corresponded to both the letters k and c. But,

she also knew that the letter c sometimes made an /s/ sound, so she reasoned that it was more

likely to be k.

I am definitely guilty of sometimes giving the answer before I should, and that was

evident in this conference. While all of Violet’s writing was nothing shy of amazing and

wonderful, I began to feel like I had been giving her some of the stuff to write about. Because on

my first page I wrote about what my cat liked to do (play with string), I immediately just asked

her what her cat was going to be doing. She then closely mimicked my story, and drew a picture

that was very similar to mine. I also then assumed she wanted to format her sentence like mine,

and told her she needed to write, “He likes to play with yarn.” This happened on the second

page of the book, where we both drew and wrote about our cat’s sleeping.

As the visit went on, I began to pick up on the fact that I might be giving her too much

information, and not letting her decide for herself what she wanted to write. So at this point, I

moved my book because I wanted to see what she would do on her own. I think that this was a

great ‘nudge’, because I got to see her own train of thought, and also see that she was not lost

without my book for reference. She never asked me what I wrote on the last page, or asked me

to tell her what to write. She created an action the cat did, and created her own sentence about it

as well.

Overall, this was probably the most fun home engagement I have ever done. I was very

nervous at first, especially when Violet didn’t know what to write about, or that I was basically

doing it for her by making a book with her, but I really think it ended up being great. We had an

opportunity to do something together in a fun, low-pressure environment where she wasn’t afraid

to try, and have the possibility to be wrong.