Literacy Beyond the Classroom

Kimora Carr

Even on a busy afternoon, education doesn’t pause when Mary Belous’ household leaves school.

As backpacks are put up, shoes are taken off, the books are still left out. For Mary Belou, a Mandeville, Louisiana mother of four and a registered nurse, reading isn’t left solely in the hands of her children's teachers. As a mother of four children, who are all in the earlier grades of elementary, Belou finds that it is very important for children to not only read in the classroom but practice recreational reading at home.

“Parents definitely need to take a role in teaching their children to read rather than just relying on the school to help them,” she said.

In their household, reading is a part of their everyday routine. Even with Mary’s busy schedule as a registered nurse, she still finds time to prioritize her family's education through a homeschooling program, educational apps, and the neighborhood library. The Belou family has taken many trips to their local library. “We try to go to the library and I try to read with them and have them pick out books they are interested in,” Mary explained.

While building this into their routine sometimes with Belou’s demanding career, digital tools turn out to be very educational for her children. Different programs, some based on artificial intelligence, like Clever, Amira, and Reflex can help take some pressure off Mary’s shoulders while also making literacy fun for her children.

“I think AI should be used as a tool,” she said. “I don’t think it should be the main thing that

they’re using to teach kids how to read but absolutely, I think the world is going, I don’t even use pen and paper for work anymore, everything is on computer.”

At nine years old, Annie Belou is learning both how to navigate digital tools as well as the traditional reading curriculum. She said how she enjoys taking tests on the Chromebook for the sole purpose that it corrects any mistakes that are made.

“Sometimes, whenever we have a test, it might be on our Chromebook but most of the time, it's just on paper for math,” she said. Even as a third grader Belou is experiencing this transition first hand, “sometimes we do math stuff and then we do it on our computer to get ready for next year because we’re only gonna be doing our tests on the computer.”

However, even with technology being a factor in Annie’s classroom, she finds that literacy is still important. “You actually need to comprehend what the story is telling you, right?” she said. “There’s no way to escape like writing.”

For Annie, she enjoys reading even when she’s not in school. Books like Junie B. Jones makes it easier for her to just glide through the book.

It is recognized that there is a lot of pressure that students, teachers, and even parents face when it comes to modernized education and standardized testing. “I guess we have to have a way to measure school performance but I think it causes a lot of

anxiety in the student.”

The pressure can cause literacy and reading to feel more like a task than something that the student should actually enjoy doing and that is where recreational reading needs to be emphasized. If a student associates reading with just tests or assignments, it can no longer be appealing for the student to want to do. However, if the parent encourages recreational reading and sets that example of that behavior, literacy can become something sustainable.