M&G

Lacreshia Meadows


English 329

Moll & Gonzalez

October 28, 2009

Learning in the Home

In the research of Luis Moll & Norma Gonzales on Language- Minority Children, they decided to start off in the home. They decided to start off in the homes of the children because they didn’t want to, “put the teachers world at the center of scrutiny and negotiation”(159). This research provided excellent information to the different types of literacy events that went on in minority homes. But realistically how many teachers have the opportunity to discover what life is like at home for their students.

The study does prove that all of the students are capable of learning. Just because they are a minority and may not do well in classroom settings they are capable of other learning activities. M &G did find that many of the minority students had families with their own businesses, musical backgrounds, and the ability to make their own money before adulthood. This did prove that the minorities were capable of learning outside the classroom which means they could learn in the classroom too.

While in the classrooms teachers used research processes to develop the skills of the students. The students themselves, “were reluctant to label themselves as researchers”(167). But they did learn, “ to come to understand that through their inquiries they have access to special information that others might lack and they are indeed capable of doing the intellectual work necessary to conduct an investigation and deal with the problems and frustrations of the work”(166). So the researchers work of starting in the homes did prove to be effective.

Realistically though how many teachers have the resources, time, effort, or energy to research the lives of their students? Though effective, the research does not realistically answer the teachers problems to understanding the literacy acts of minorities. Another question that this raises is what happens when classrooms contain more than one minority group? Just as in the freedom writers the school contained more then one minority group. Everybody in the classroom could not have the same issues or problems in the home. So this again proves to be unrealistic for teachers with minority groups in their classroom.

In conclusion M& G’s research proves to be effective but not for teachers of our time period and state standards.