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Paige Taylor

EDUC 6520

September 24, 2017

Community Literacies

For the purposes of this project, I investigated the Latino community, which is a group

that continues to grow in Nashville, Tennessee. The Economist magazine (2015) reported that

Nashvilles Latino population has grown 13-fold since 1990. Because the population of

Latinos has grown significantly in this area, a pluralist discourse is needed in order that the

linguistic and cultural diversity of the community can be understood and valued (De Jong, 2011,

p.15). Generally, the Latino community in Nashville has often been amalgamated as a

homogenous group, but there are more than twenty countries represented within it (Gomez &

Solano, 2015). The Tennessee Department of Education (2016) reported most recently that

during the 2015-2016 school year, 21.9% of the students were Hispanic or Latino.

Much print media is available for Latinos in Spanish and can be found in supermarkets,

such as Fresh & Fresh International Market and La Hacienda SuperMercado and community

centers such as Casa Azafrn in Nashville. First, the Revista Lazos (Appendix A) is a free

magazine in Spanish that boasts as being Music Citys Latino Magazine. In Revista Lazos,

readers can find advertisements and coupons for various services, such as dental care,

bookkeeping and tax assistance, and legal services. There are also news stories and articles

providing guidance, such as 11 Pieces of Advice for Parents with Rebellious Children.

Newspapers such as El Crucero de Tennessee (Appendix B) and Lazos News (Appendix C)

provide both local and international news. Advertisements can be found throughout these
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newspapers, including advertisements for restaurants providing food specific to a Spanish-

speaking country, such as authentic Mexican food (Appendix D).

Although the print resources mentioned above are helpful, community networks to

support Latinos are needed, as well. Because individuals generally go through phases of

acculturation, including culture shock and anomie (Herrera, Cabral, Murry, 2013, p. 97), I would

inform the Latino parents in my classroom of the organizations available to serve them as they

become acquainted with the culture of Nashville and the United States of America. One such

community network is Casa Azafrn. According to their website, Casa Azafrn is a place where

community members can interact with non-profit organizations and receive services in the areas

of education, law, health care, the arts, immigration, and refugees. Conexin Amricas is one of

these non-profit organizations housed within Casa Azafrn. Conexin Amricas offers

community members services such as home-buying assistance, small business classes, English

instruction, and other opportunities. Latinos for Tennessee is another network available for this

community. The mission statement of this organization is to provide the Latino community

with information on issues that affect faith, family, freedom, and fiscal responsibility so they can

advance their families and communities (Latinos for Tennessee). The above community

networks are important for the members of the Latino community because they help people to

move through the phases of acculturation.

Because my students will be at various levels of acculturation, I will want to utilize in my

classroom community literacies developed within the Nashville Latino community because

students will be able to connect what they are learning to something that is familiar to them, such

as an artifact from their community. As Jimnez, Smith, and Teague (2009) suggest, Bringing

transnational and community literacies into the classroom also makes it possible to build on
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students prior knowledge. Print media in Spanish, specifically the newspapers described

above, can be helpful tools for teaching in a classroom with English language learners. For

example, when teaching the literacy skill of inferring, I would involve the students in an exercise

in which the non-Spanish speakers in the class studied the text features of the newspaper to infer

the content of the articles. For example, I could use the article titled Huracn Mara dej 15

muertos en la isla Dominica (Appendix E), and the non-Spanish speakers would use the English

cognates, the photograph, and their prior knowledge of current events to decipher the main idea

of the article. While the non-Spanish speakers are working, the Spanish speakers in the class

would translate the text from Spanish to English to find the main idea. This translation exercise

will generate greater metalinguistic understandings (Jimnez et al., 2009) for the Spanish

speakers, as they will work together to develop a translation from their L1 to English. Then,

after both groups finish their activities, we will meet and share the inferences and the main ideas

of the article, with the Spanish speakers serving as the experts.

Another manner in which community literacies can be leveraged in the classroom

involves Math. In this exercise, students will see cans found in La Hacienda SuperMercado (See

Appendix F). I would use the net weight listed on the cans and have the students convert that

weight in grams, for instance, to milligrams. The objective of mastering conversions between

units of the metric system can be met with a greater level of engagement from students when

their own community is involved (Jimnez et al., 2009). In addition, students sometimes

struggle to generate ideas for realistic fiction pieces. In order to help them generate ideas for

their writing, I could show them photographs with various literacies from their local

communities. Examining these photographs of areas in their respective neighborhoods could

help them fashion, for creative writing, events in which that they have participated; and,
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therefore, they will be able to develop a main idea for their stories. By way of example, the

photo of the sombreros (Appendix G) and the price could help a student to formulate a story line

about a boy who bought a sombrero with his birthday money and then followed the purchase

with a series of adventures wearing the sombrero.

In conclusion, this community literacy project was an enlightening experience. It can also

serve as a useful learning opportunity for teachers of English Language Learners to conduct

because it helps those teachers, who are outside of the community, to discover networks and

resources that are available to parents and students. These very same networks are likewise

available to teachers. Casa Azafrn, to select but one example, offers tips for teachers; and, other

community networks have Spanish classes available, as well. Spending time in the students

communities will assist teachers in enhancing their understanding of the students, and they will

then be able to facilitate the acculturation process. One manner in which teachers can assist with

the acculturation process is to include various community literacies in the classroom. Not only

will this inclusion of community literacies promote engagement in the classroom (Jimnez et al.,

2009), but using these literacies will also demonstrate to the students that their teacher values

their identity as a member of the Latino community.

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References

Casa Azafrn. Retrieved from http://www.casaazafran.org/.

College or bust: Why schooling is critically important. (2015). In The Economist. Retrieved

from https://www.economist.com/news/special-report/21645995-why-schooling

critically-important-college-or-bust.

Conexin Amricas. Retrieved from http://www.conexionamericas.org/.

De Jong, E.J. (2011). Foundations for multilingualism in education: From principles to practice.

Philadelphia, PA: Caslon.

Gomez, M., & Solano, J. (2015). 13 things to know about the Nashville Latino community.

The Tennessean. Retrieved from

http://www.tennessean.com/story/opinion/contributors/2015/09/16/13-things-know-

nashville-latino-community/72305366/.

Herrera, S.G., Cabral, R.M., & Murry, K.G. (2013). Assessment accommodations for classroom

teachers of culturally and linguistically diverse students. Boston, MA: Pearson.

Jimenez, R.T., Smith, P.H., & Teague, B.L. (2009). Transnational and community literacies for

teachers. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 53(1), 16-26.

Latinos for Tennessee. Retrieved from http://latinosfortn.com/.

Tennessee Department of Education. (2016). Davidson county profile. Retrieved from

https://www.tn.gov/education/topic/report-card.
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Appendix A
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Appendix B
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Appendix C
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Appendix D
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Appendix E
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Appendix F
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Appendix G