1. Becoming Literate
A Lesson From The Amish
By Andrea R. Fishman

2. What does literacy mean to the
Fishers?
• When the Fisher family’s reading and writing
practices were described in the first few
pages, did it seem similar to a typical middle
class American family? Did it sound similar to
forms of literacy reinforced in your own
household or community?

3. Language and Literacy Acquisition
• Literacy is strictly taught and control in the Fisher
household: books, magazines, songs, letters, and
games are selected or written to align with Amish and
the family’s values
• Exposure to alternative literacies is strictly prohibited
• School literacy and home literacy are divided, but
school literacy is designed to reinforce home literacy
• Literacy is prioritized below household labor
• Critical Period Hypothesis (David Singleton, Christian
Abello-Contesse, and Mike Long)

4. Communal Literacy Acquisition
Reading of Letters
• “*I+n the Fisher family, letters received and
even letters written are often read out
loud, and though this oral sharing is done for
informative rather than instructive
purposes, it provides an implicit model for
everyone to follow” (240)

5. Secular & Religious
• Fishman argues that Eli experiences or can
distinguish between both secular and religious
literacy (245). Did you find this to be true from
your reading? Is there truly a difference
between secular and religious literacy in this
Amish community?
• Fishman argues “he *Eli+ knew what counted
as writing in his world just as he knew what
counted as reading” (245)

6. What does this community’s literacy practices lack
by comparison to mainstream American?
• Third-person-singular point of view
• Critical reading
• Individual analysis
• Literacy appreciation (as in novels or fiction writing in
general)— “Text whether biblical or secular, is
perceived not as an object but as a force acting on
the world, and it is the impact of that force that
counts” (Sic) (246)

7. Rights to Literacy
“We need to realize that students, even first-graders,
have been reading the world—if not the word—for at
least five, six, or seven years; they come to school not
devoid of knowledge and values but with a clear sense
of what their world demands and requires, including
what, whether, and how to read and write, though
their understandings may differ significantly from our
own” (Fishman 248).
-Also see Geneva Smitherman, Victor Villanueva, Elaine
Richardson, and Gail Y. Okawa