Children's literacy funds of knowledge in an urban Mexican elementary school: changing the approach

Abstract

In this article, we share the vernacular literacy practices of a sixth grade students in Mexico City. From a sociocultural, ethnographic perspective and based on the contributions of the sociolinguistics of mobility and funds of knowledge, we describe the experiences and knowledge that children bring with them from home and the community to school, to write and read texts on their own during class. The findings show how they appropriate literacy practices to provide meaning to their reading and writing through the relationship between school and everyday literacy and the continuum between their oralities and literacies. Children construct literacy according to their day-to-day experiences, in and out of the classroom, and embed their literacy practices within their funds of knowledge developed at home with their families. Based on these findings, we question the significance and quintessential role that has been attributed to the school in the teaching of reading and writing, as well as the prevalence of individualistic and rigid approaches to the teaching of reading and writing.