Literacy Dig: PetCo's Learning Environment

We chose PetCo for the location of this literacy dig as a place that would have some specialized language and would be likely to have different people coming and going, as well as having several different sorts of writing displayed.  For this project, I was in charge of eavesdropping--that is, observing and recording bits of talk--and looking out for what people said to each other, who was saying what, and the routine ways of talking in the location.  For most of the time, I didn't hear much conversation happening.  The store wasn't particularly busy, and when people came in alone, they were not prone to talking.  Those who came in as a part of a group were more likely to talk, generally to comment on how cute the animals were or to discuss products.  Something that complicated my attempts to listen were that several of the customers weren't speaking English, so I had to rely on facial expressions and body language (as well as the focus of their attention) to guess what they were discussing.  I did hear one conversation in which a man asked the woman with him if she had ever seen a sleeping turtle, after which they checked out the turtle cages.  I also overheard pieces of a conversation between an employee getting off work and one starting a shift; they were discussing what needed to be done, as well as shipping dates and what was in stock.  I also heard employees greeting customers and checking whether they were finding everything alright.  The cashier, upon finishing a transaction, told the customer to "Have a good day."

But it wasn't until near the end of my observation period that I hit gold.  A grandmother came in with two of her grandchildren, one infant girl and one boy probably around 3 years old.  The little boy immediately noticed that some of the fish tanks were empty.  Then they talked about the cats and the grandma pointed out the dogs.  They discussed things that you can do with pet dogs, like playing fetch.  But what was really great was the conversation the grandma had about the aquarium area.  She pointed out to her grandson that the signs under each tank tell you what kind of fish is in it and what kind of habitat and care it needs.  I loved how she took the opportunity to draw attention to how information was presented to her young charge, even though he couldn't read it yet.  After hearing this exchange, I read Rebecca Powell and Nancy Davidson's (2005) article "The Donut House:  Real World Literacy in an Urban Kindergarten Classroom" (Language Arts, 82(5), 248-256), and I was even more blown away by how powerful the kind of conversation that this grandmother was having with her grandson is.  Powell and Davidson talk about how having topics of study about which children naturally want to learn is really helpful in terms of student engagement and intrinsic motivation, and this was certainly something that interested this little boy, since even before going to the fuzzy critters, he noticed the absence of fish in some tanks and checked out the fish as his grandmother situated the little girl in their cart.  As Dr. Keller pointed out in my social studies methods course yesterday, children experience "sensitive periods" during which they have keen, focused attention on certain areas, but then then their learning is accomplished and they move onto the next thing.  This little boy seemed to be pretty keen on fish, and his grandmother definitely tapped into that interest to create a teachable moment about what writing can tell you and where to locate information.