DOCUMENT RESUME ED 341 968 CS 010 844 AUTHOR Moll, Luis C.; And Others TITLE Community Knowledge and Classroom Practice:Combining Resources for Literacy Instruction. Technical Report. INSTITUTION Arizona Univ., Tucson. Coll. of Education.; Development Associates, Inc., Arlington, Va. SPONS AGENCY Office of Bilingual Education and MinorityLanguages Affairs (ED), Washington, DC. PUB DATE Sep 90 CONTRACT 300-87-0131 NOTE 332p.; Innovative Approaches Research Project.Faint type on several pages will contribute tomarginal legibility. Best available copy. PUB TYPE Reports - Research/Technical (143) EDRS PRICE MF01/PC14 Plus Postage. DESCRIPTORS *Bilingual Education; Case Studies; Classroom Research; Ethnography; *Family Environment;Family Influence; *Family School Relationship;Instructional Effectiveness; Intermediate Grades; *Literacy; *Mexican Americans; School Community Relationship; Teacher Student Relationship IDENTIFIERS Arizona (Tucson); Language Minorities ABSTRACT A study examined simultaneously household and elementary classroom life, and collaborated closely withteachers to develop implications for the teaching of literacy.The study consisted of three main, interrelated activities: anethnographic analysis of the use and transmission of knowledgeand skills within and among households (represented by 24 males and29 females) in a Latino community in Tucson, Arizona; implementationof an after-school site where researchers and teachers examineclassroom practices and use local resources to experiment withliteracy instruction; and classroom observations examiningexisting methods of instruction and exploring how to change instructionby applying what was learned at the after-school site.Results indicated that:(1) the working-class, Hispanic households possessed ample fundsof knowledge that become manifest through household activities;(2) in contrast to households, most classroom (and most teachers) function inisolation not only from other classrooms but from thesocial world of the students and the community; (3) the key to thedevelopment and implementation of any innovation was the involvement ofteachers in the research process; and (4) teachers can take advantageof these funds of knowledge in a number of ways, includinginviting parents to contritiute to lessons. Findings suggest that readingand writing lessons be reorganized to become more interactive orparticipatory, emphasizing the children's use of literacy to obtain andcommunicate meaning. (Nine tables and four figures of data areincluded; 105 references are listed. The appendixes Include a tableof background characteristics of the sample households, fieldnote samples, evaluation instruments, and readina and writing samples.(RS) Community Knowledgeand Classrxm Practice CornUning Rear-Jarmo for Literacy Irettva fon T,L,SIN U-11 OEFAIIRMENT OF EDUCATION Cede ca taut:Mend ReseinItI erdnreamemere EDUCArONAL. RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER (ERta flTha document hes teen reproduced as received from the person or menu/mon onguratmg i? Mlner MINN* IWO been made to anprom reproduchon qudrty Panne of dew ot opnuonutated at the 45 mem do not neCiPSIffsly rePteeint othcso OEM Posdon or Policy 43 $14 If Technical Report 4! for the U.S. Department of Education jg Office of Billingual Education and Minority Languages Affairs Luis C. Moll College of Education University of Arizona Carlos Velez-Ibanez James Greenberg Bureau of Applied Research in Anthropology University of Arizona Charlene Rivera IARP Director Development Associates, Inc. September 1990 BEST COPY HARARE Community Knowiecige and Classroom Prctice Corni2ining gesources for Literacy Instniction LIJiS C. Moll, frincipal investigator Carlos V6lez-lbhPiez, Co-principal investigator James Greenberg, Co-principal investigator Collaborators Kosi Andrade Joel Dworin Douglas Fry Elizabeth Saavedra Javier Tapia Kathy Whitmore ti Final Technical Report Community Knowledge and Classroom Practice: Combining Literacy Resources for Literacy Instruction The University of Arizona College of Education Tufson, AZ 85721 602 621-1291 Development Associates, Inc. 1730 North Lynn Street Arlington, VA 22209-2009 703 276-06771 FAX 276-9432 September 1990 This research was supported by the Office of Bilingual Education and Minority Languages Affairs of the United States Department of Education under contract number 300-87-0131. The views contained in this technical report do not necessarily reflect the positions or policies of the U.S. Department of Education. Table of Contents Executive Summary List of Tables and Figures i v Introduction 1 How the report is organized 3 Practical concerns 4 Review of the literature 6 Project Design: a three-part system 17 Household study 18 After-school site 19 Classroom analysis 20 Settings and samples 21 Methodology 23 Results 31 Household analysis 31 Funds of knowledge 33 Some key findings 40 The Sanchez household 40 The Zavala family 51 Focusing on specific literacy events 56 Literacy checklist 58 The 'fracturing" of literacy: a consequence of traditional schooling 60 Household pedagogies: the emergence of confianza in children 63 Summary 67 The instructional phase of the project:After-school lab and literacy modules 70 The lab 70 A move from lab to classroom: Mobilizing funds of knowledge 77 Another move from lab to classroom: The writing module 90 Final phase of the project: Study groups, exemplary teaching, art change 99 Case study #1: Towards a literate community 103 Case study #2: A teacher's emerging practices 124 Assessing literacy use in children 138 Readhig comprehension 138 Reading samples 145 Writing samples 153 Discussion Summary of outcomes 163 Implementation issues 166 ReOlcation issues 168 Implications for educational practice 173 References 176 Appendices 162 Appendix A Appendix B Appendx C ExecutiveSummary This project was an attempt to study simultaneously household and classroom life, and collaborate closely with teachers to develop implications for the teaching of literacy.The design of the project consisted of three main, interrelated activities: (1) an ethnographic analysis of the use and transmission of knowledge and skills within and among households in a Latino community in Tucson,Arizona; (2) implementation of an atter-school site where researchers andteachers examine classroom practices, and use local resources to experiment withliteracy instruction; and (3) classroom observations in whichwe examine existing methods of instruction and explore how to change instruction by applying wharslearned at the after-school site. The goal was to identify, coordinate, and "mix"resources from these three domains to advance the literacy instruction of students. Eachcomponent can be summarized as follows: (1) Households. The emphasis ofour analysis has been on understanding the iocial and culturaldynamics of household life.In particular, we are interested in understanding the social relationships that facilitatewhat Milardo (1988) has called the complex "interconnections bonding familiesto their social environments of kin, friends, neighbors, co-workers and acquaintances"(p.9).These social relationships or networks are central to the households' functioning, particularlyduring difficult economic periods, because they facilitate the exchange ofnumerous resources, particularly the exchange of knowledge (Greenberg,1989; Vèlez-lbAnez, 1988). Through household observations and interviews,we have documented the history, development, and social distribution of this knowledge, whichwe term "funds of knowledge." Our household data also highlight themulti-dimensional, "thick" social relationships that constitute life outside the classroom.These multiple relationships contrast sharply with the singular teacher-child relationshipcommon in classrooms. One of our principal tasks in the project, therefore,has been to elaborate the implications of this concept of funds of knowledge forclassroom instruction.In this 2 chapter we will use our household data to make three key points: (1) the abundance and diversity of knowledge found within and among these working-class households; (2) how this knowledge is accessible through social networks, that is, through strategically created social ties; (3)the importance of the soda' and cultural character of learning; how teaching and learning in households is usually participatory, with the children taking active part in the learning arkl in the manipulation of knowledge. This information forms the basis for a much needed re- definition of working-class househokls as important resources for classroom instruction. The after-school tab.We were also fully aware, however, that household resources become pedagogically useful only through the work of teachers. For these purposes we created a lab/study group with teachers to analyze instruction and to develop innovations in the teaching ot literacy.This after-school setting represents a social context for informing, assisting, and supporting teachers performances; it isan activity setting where teachers and researchersget together to study teaching (how teachers teach and why they teach the way they do), to learn about the households, about each other, and to develop instructional innovations (for similar arguments, see Berliner, 1985; Tharp & Gallimore, 1988). Through the work in these groups we understood better the difficulty of introducing innovations into practice. Teachers face various constraints including district goals that must be accomplished, and a curriculum to follow with the usual requirements of following a specific