Supporting the Literacy Development of Children Living in Homeless Shelters

There are approximately 1.5 million children in the United States who go to sleep each night without a home of their own (National Center on Family Homelessness, 2009). In this article, we provide insights into how educators can create greater classroom support, particularly in literacy learning &am...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Reading teacher 2009-02, Vol.63 (5), p.384-392
Main Authors: MacGillivray, Laurie, Ardell, Amy Lassiter, Sauceda Curwen, Margaret
Format: Article
Language:English
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:There are approximately 1.5 million children in the United States who go to sleep each night without a home of their own (National Center on Family Homelessness, 2009). In this article, we provide insights into how educators can create greater classroom support, particularly in literacy learning & development, for this population. Drawing from our work with families living in homeless shelters in two diverse regions in the United States, we share the voices of: 1) a director of a homeless shelter; 2) a principal of a school with many students who are homeless; 3) a teacher who has many students in her classroom who do not have homes; 4) a parent living in a homeless shelter; & 5) a child living in a homeless shelter. Following each stakeholder's comments, we ask what teachers can learn from this. The article concludes with specific recommendations for educators. Adapted from the source document
ISSN:0034-0561