Funds+of+Knowledge

﻿Funds of Knowledge To help a teacher learn to identify the characteristics of a child so they can develop a curriculum more engaging and meaningful they must build up a ‘funds of knowledge’ about the child. It is important for the teacher to make connections between the children, their families and the communities they live in, because children and their families can have differing levels of funds of knowledge. Moll et al, (1992) ‘describes funds of knowledge as the tool, strategies and activities families engage in, to live their lives.’

** TABLE 1: ** Table 1 presents the findings from interview with 8 year old boy, Ben*. From the questions asked it was established that Ben is a very sporty and activity child at school and home, who is close with his family, especially his younger brother Ryan. He is also very capable of using many different forms of technology.


 * ** Question ** || ** Child’s Response ** ||
 * ** What are your interests? What do you like to do when you’re not at school? ** || Playing with my friends, lego, karate, basketball. ||
 * ** What are your favourite places? Why? ** || Queensland because it has water slides and the oval at school because you can play games. ||
 * ** Who are important people to you? ** || Mum, Dad, Nana and Pop. ||
 * ** Tell me about the things your good at. ** || Basketball because I’m good at shooting. ||
 * ** When you find something interesting how do you find out about it? ** || Look it up on the computer. ||
 * ** What are your favourite games? ** || Angry birds, tiggy, and basketball. ||
 * ** Who do you play with at home? ** || My little brother Ryan*. ||
 * ** What kinds of movies and TV shows do you like? ** || Ben 10, Spongebob and Rango. ||
 * ** What technologies do you use? ** || Ipod touch, Nintendo DS, Wii and computer. ||
 * ** What do you do with them? ** || Play games and look up things for school on the computer ||
 * ** What things would you like to do when you grow up? ** || Play golf so I can hit the ball really far and a policeman because they get the bad guys. ||
 * Table 2:** This table shows that this child is an extremely active and loves to play in the outdoors. They enjoy performing and reading stories by Mem Fox.
 * **Question** || **Child’s Response** ||
 * **Favourite things to do** || * Got to the movies
 * Swimming
 * Waterslides
 * Dance ||
 * **Favourite Places** || * The bush
 * Swimming Pool ||
 * **Languages Spoken** || * English
 * Small number of Italian words ||
 * **Favourite Books/games/films/tv** || * How To Train A Dragon
 * Neighbours
 * Hannah Montana
 * Mem Fox ||
 * **Favourite music** || * Justin Bieber
 * Taylor Swift ||
 * **Favourite games** || * Tiggy
 * Tball ||
 * **Technologies used** || * Computer
 * Nintendo Wii
 * MP3 Player ||
 * Table 3:**
 * ** AREA OF INTEREST ** || ** STUDENT’S PERSPECTIVE ** || ** PARENT’S PERSPECTIVE ** ||
 * ** Home Environment ** || Live with Mum & Dad, near the beach, only speak English at home, an only child. Because he is an only child he spends a lot of time with his parents on weekends participating in a range of different activities and visiting new places. || Both work in the city but didn’t want to raise him there. Because they work at lot they feel a close-knit community is important and encourage him to develop friendships with neighbours. ||
 * ** Travelling ** || Been to New York, which was his favourite place because of all the walks they went on there, as well as London, France, Hong Kong, India, Bali, and around most of Australia, including Sydney many times || His Dad travels a lot with work, particularly to Sydney, so when the opportunity is available they try to take him with them. They believe that seeing the world and different cultures is very important. ||
 * ** Parents Work ** || Mum & Dad both work ‘about sport,’ and sometimes he gets to go with them to work. || His Mum works at the ABC, in the sports field, and his Dad is also in the industry. Both are very interested in health & fitness and try to incorporate their son into this. ||
 * ** Hobbies ** || He loves the outdoors, and particularly playing sport. He loves footy, cricket, gymnastics, tennis and swimming in their new pool. He also loves going for runs. He has competed in junior marathons in Sydney. || Encourage him to play outside as much as possible, and have signed him up to many after school sporting activities. He goes with them on morning runs sometimes, and often go on bike rides on weekends. ||
 * ** TV Shows / Movies ** || Finds going to the cinemas scary, but owns a few movies, Madagascar & Ice Age are his favourites. His favourite TV shows are Bear Grylls, World of Wonders, and most shows that are on ABC3 || His parents try to limit TV, and don’t allow him to watch much except for the ABC. They encourage him to watch nature documentaries which he loves, and allow him to select a new movie each month from iTunes. ||
 * ** Approaches to Learning ** || If he is unsure of something, he will ask him Mum, Dad, or teacher, or the computer (Google). Sometimes he uses instructions from books, like when he is building Lego. || Try to encourage him to ask lots of questions, and they also ask him questions to try to understand his thought processes. Encourage him to practice writing at home by writing books that they then laminate/bind and have made a collection of. They also read together every night and he has an extensive collection of books. ||
 * ** Use of Technology at Home ** || Uses the family Mac desktop to watch movies on, and to use Google sometimes. Has used Wii games at friends’ houses. || Do not allow him to use their phones, don’t believe children should have a high reliance on technology for entertainment while they’re still so young. They do not have any computer games or allow him on the internet without supervision. They do not own any gaming consoles although he wants to get Wii Fit. ||
 * ** Books ** || Has a collection of books about the world that he loves, each focus on a different country, Egypt is his favourite because of the pop-outs with the pyramids. He also like his Lego books which help him find new things to make, and he has lots of information books about animals. || Believe books and reading is very important and will buy him any book he wants. They try to encourage him to read some information books as they help him to learn about the world. He has recently become interested in ‘chapter books,’ and they think this is because it makes him feel more advanced/older, like the grade two’s in his composite class. ||


 * Table 4:**
 * ** Question ** || ** Childs response ** ||
 * Who reads with you? || // Her teacher reads with her class. At home her Mum and Dad both read with her. // ||
 * Who helps you with your homework? || // Both her Mum and Dad both help her with her homework // ||
 * What do you like to do when you’re not at school? || // Child A enjoys playing with her sister and having sleepovers at her best friends house. She also enjoys going on the motor bike with her Dad and playing on the trampoline // ||
 * Do you do anything outside of school eg ballet, netball? || // . Child A does swimming lessons, piano lessons and is starting netball training. ‘but my favourite one is swimming lessons’. // ||
 * What are your favourite games to play? Computer, hide and seek etc? || // Mums and Dad’s, DS games // ||
 * Who do you play these games with? || // My friends at school’ also her younger sister // ||
 * Do you like listening to music? Who’s your favourite band/singer? || // Miley Cirus // ||
 * TABLE 5: CHILD INTERVIEW **
 * ** Question ** || ** Child’s Response ** ||
 * ** What do you like to do when you’re not at school? ** || Play with the dog Barry, draw, shop with mum and go to the park with dad, feed the fish and chooks ||
 * ** What are your favourite games? ** || Go Fish ||
 * ** Who do you play with at home? ** || Barry and older sisters ||
 * ** What technologies do you use? ** || Nintendo DS and playing games on sisters’ ipods ||
 * ** What music do you like to listen to? ** || Anything I can dance to and The Wiggles ||
 * ** Tell me about your favourite food. ** || I like eating chocolate and I don’t like meat and vegetables. I never eat with the family because I always eat sandwiches for dinner ||
 * ** Do your friends like the same things as you? ** || My bestfriend likes the same things as me ||
 * ** What pets do you have? ** || 3 fish – Superman, Batman and Ranger, chooks, a dog and a cat ||
 * ** Tell me about things you are good at. ** || Drawing pictures of mum and dad, dancing ||
 * ** Who are important in your life? ** || Mum, dad, sisters and pets ||



After engaging with an early years learner and establishing a funds of knowledge we learnt that developing a bank of information about the children you are teaching is important as it enables the teacher to focus on each child’s individual needs. As each child is different, to be effective in your role as a teacher you must treat children as individuals rather than as a majority.
 * Table 6:**