Cultural Literacy Reflection

Having completed the New Literacies project, I can say that I've learned a lot not only about my own topic, Cultural Literacy, but the literacies as well through my peers' projects. I chose to do my project on cultural literacy because I feel that in our society today it is impossible not to interact with another person from a different background. Also, as a future teacher, it is vital to know and understand where your students are coming from, what they have experienced, and how these ideas of cultures can benefit the classroom.

Being culturally literate goes beyond knowing how to read, write, or speak a language. It's knowing the language and culture enough to work, live, and be a contributing member of society. Having applied cultural literacy to refugees, I can see how the definition fits into a real life scenario. Refugees have to learn an entirely new language and culture from their own. It's really interesting, because the government only gives refugees funding for six months. In those six months, they are expected to find a place to live, a job, and be able to live in this new country on their own. Having worked with refugees, it often takes YEARS before this is accomplished, which is why it's so important to be aware of the struggles that refugee youth as well as their families are going through. Keeping this idea in mind, while focusing on the difficulties refugee youth may find is what I chose to focus on.

In completion of my project, I was able to see where discrepencies fall with how our government funds refugees and perhaps considers them able to be contributing members of society, and long of a process it really is for refugees. This is especially important to remember as future teachers, as many refugee youth have added responsibilities in their families, such as translating for their parents, compared to their American peers.

Through the project I was able to make connections to what I've learned to how I will work with Cultural Literacy in a classroom. It is vital to understand and get to know your students. This may be difficult if you were to have a refugee who is still learning the language. But there are ways to build trust between student and teacher in order to build a trusting relationship. In the classroom, refugee youth should be able to share aspects from their own culture, while learning a new culture. By doing this, the teacher and students may be able to see similarities, as well as learn something new!