Critique Of "Genres At Home And At School:
Nell K. Duke and Victoria Purcell-Gates insightful article, "Genres at home and at school: Bridging the known to the new" reports on genres found at home and at school for two groups of young children from low-socioeconomic status (SES) backgrounds. Duke and Gates identify genres commonly found in both settings, as well as those commonly found only in one setting or the other. Children encounter many different kinds of text in their daily life. There are many different kinds of written language used for many different reasons, especially at home and at school. This article suggests ways that being aware of genres young children encounter at home and at school offer opportunities to bridge home and school literacies and enhance children's literacy development.
Over the past two decades, emergent literacy research has revealed many children come to school with some knowledge of where print is found and what it is for. While knowledge about print does vary from child to child and from community to community, nearly all children, including those from low-SES settings, have had regular exposure to print in their homes and communities and develop important literacy knowledge because of this (Purcell-Gates, 1996).
The project that is studied in this article involves comparing data from two different research studies in the United States. In one study, 20 low-SES familes, each with at least one child between the ages of 4 and 6, were observed for one aggregated week. Observers spent time with the families in their homes and wherever else the children went. They watched specifically for any events involving written language in which the child participated or was an observer, but did not reveal the focus to the family. The observers' notes provide information about the nature and uses of print in these children's daily lives outside of school.
In the second study, 10 first-grade classrooms, all in low-SES settings, were each observed for four full...
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