Literacy Activities For Families with Young Children

A Training for Even Start Program Professionals

September 30, 2011

Louisiana Department of Education

LITERACY ACTIVITIES FOR FAMILIES WITH YOUNG CHILDREN

BROUGHT TO YOU TODAY BY:

Rebecca E. White, Ph.D.

Professor and Extension Specialist

Family and Child Development

Cooperative Extension Service

LSU AgCenter

WHO’S HERE TODAY ?INTRODUCTIONS

• Family Literacy

• Character Critters

• Family Storyteller

• Let’s Read Together

TOPIC FOR TODAY: FAMILY LITERACY AND RESOURCES FOR EVEN START PROFESSIONALS

PREVENTING THE 30 MILLION WORD CATASTROPHE

Family Literacy Programs

MY INSPIRATION

• Tough, P. (2008). Whatever It Takes. NY: Houghton Mifflin Co.

• Hart, B. & Risley, T.R. (2003). The early catastrophe: The 30 million word gap by age 3. American Educator, Spring 2003.

• Hart, B. & Risley, T.R. (1995). Meaningful Differences in the Everyday Lives of Young American Children. Baltimore, MD: Paul H. Brookes Publishing Co.

• Hart, B. & Risley, T.R. (1999). The Social World of Children Learning to Talk. Baltimore, MD: Paul H. Brookes Publishing Co.

DAILY VERBAL INTERACTIONSMAKE A DIFFERENCE

IN LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT

• The average three-year-old has heard 20 million words

• Three year olds from very talkative, socially interactive families have heard 35 million words

• Three year olds of uncommunicative families have heard less than 10 million words

THE 30 MILLION WORD GAP

Hart, B. & Risley, T. R. (1995) Meaningful Differences in the Everyday Experience of Young American Children

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Professional45 Million Words

Working-class26 Million Words

Welfare13 Million Words

PARENT TALK

• Hart, B. & Risley, T. R. (1995). Meaningful differences in the everyday lives of young children.

IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTITIONERS

• “Any program to provide welfare children with experience equal to that of working class children would have to start from birth and run continuously all year long.” (Meaningful differences…, p. 202.)

• “Helping parents is an alternative worth trying. Rather than design or expand early intervention programs, this country could focus on helping parents ensure that their children get enough early experience so that differences never become so intractable to even the most effective intervention.” (Meaningful Differences…, p. 212.)

FAMILY LITERACY

• Parents and books are important –

for our world……

for our children……

for our families……

for our schools……

for our communities……

for our society.

FAMILY LITERACY• Reading is a fundamental life skill

• Reading is key to living a successful, productive life.

• Our society relies on parents as the first and most important teacher in their child’s life to develop the foundation for literacy for their child.

• A love for reading must be fostered in first three years of a child’s life by their parents to develop their foundation for literacy.

FAMILY LITERACY

• Family literacy programs targeting families with very young children can help our society, our families and most importantly, our children.

• Research supports the notion that if you wish to significantly improve life for children you involve their parents.

FAMILY LITERACY

• Research indicates that the single most important activity for building the understandings and skills essential for reading success appears to be reading aloud to children.

TWO OF MY PROGRAMS INSPIRED BY THIS KNOWLEDGE

SHARE YOUR SUCCESS

SO I COMMEND YOU AND YOUR WORK

LET’S REVIEW THREE RESOURCES

• Character Critters

• Family Storyteller

• Let’s Read Together

A character education program for preschool children and their

parents

CHARACTER CRITTERS

WHY EARLY CHARACTER EDUCATION FOR PRESCHOOL ?

Character education has been identified as a key need for children

WHY EARLY CHARACTER EDUCATION FOR PRESCHOOL AGE CHILDREN?

Research show the foundation for moral development is strongly influenced in the very early years of a child's life by parents, early teachers and caregivers.

PROGRAM OVERVIEW

• Developed for pre-school children and their parents

• Designed to be implemented by volunteers

• Comprehensive in design with 5 components

PROGRAM COMPONENTS

• Children’s stories about character• Parent-child interaction take-home

sheets• Educational presentations for parents• Storybooks • Program evaluation

LOUISIANA VISION FOR CHARACTER CRITTERS

For all Louisiana 4 and 5 year olds to hear the Character Critters stories from teachers, volunteers and/or their parents

PROGRAM OBJECTIVES

• Increase children’s awareness of character concepts

• Increase parents’ understanding of character concepts

• Increase parents’ involvement in developing their children’s character

• Teachers, volunteer storytellers, and parents’ to tell/read character stories to young children

• Increase volunteerism in communities

CHARACTER CRITTERS PROGRAM IMPACTS

• Thousands of free resource kits to teachers

• Thousands of teachers and volunteers trained

• Educational Website developed

• Over 150,000 parents of young children reached with storybooks

• Hundreds of thousands of young children have heard Character Critters stories

CHARACTER CRITTERS PROGRAM IMPACTS - TEACHERS

• Learned activities to help with students’ development

• Learned to teach character concepts to their students

• Are conducting character activities for their students

CHARACTER CRITTERS PROGRAM IMPACTS - CAREGIVERS AND PARENTS

• Childcare providers learned to teach concepts of character

• Parents learned activities to help with their child’s’ development

• Parents indicated they will teach the traits of character

CHARACTER CRITTERS MATERIALS

• Volunteer resource kits have been developed by some faculty to include puppets and other teaching supplies

CHARACTER CRITTERS WEBSITE

• Go to http://www.lsuagcenter.com

• Click on ‘Family and Home’ topic

• In Family section, click on ‘Character Development’

• On right side of screen under ‘sub-topics’ click on ‘Character Critters’

VOLUNTEERS GETTING MATERIALS READY

CRITTER STORYTELLING VOLUNTEERS

HEARING THE CRITTER STORIES

HEARING THE CRITTERS STORIES

Bunny Hop Activity

LEARNING TO PLANT A TREE LIKE CARRIE THE CARING CAT

Kindergarten students hoppin’ round like

Fran and Freddie the Fair Frogs.

CRITTERS IN THE CLASSROOM

MORE CRITTERS IN THE CLASSROOM

Kindergarten students learning about fairness

Kindergarten students talking about fairness

PARENTS TELLING STORIES TO THEIR CHILDREN

LET’S READ TOGETHER

An Early Literacy Curriculum from the

University of California Cooperative Extension

• How to read aloud with children (Whitehurst & Lonigan, 2001)

• How to extend the storybook (Richgels & Wold, 1995)

• How to tell and use family stories (Buchoff, 1995)

• How to encourage language skills (Jordon, Snow & Porsche, 2000)

• Start early

• Target efforts

• Be comprehensive

• Intensive interventions

• Use highly trained professionals

• Provide compensatory learning

• Hold programs accountable

Source: Susan Neuman, presentation at IRA 2005 Conference

RESEARCH GUIDING DEVELOPMENT OF LET’S READ TOGETHER

Research on Delivery Research on Content

LET’S READ TOGETHEROVERVIEW

• Organized around a series of workshops for parents with children 0-5 years of age

• Each workshop is organized around a featured book, selected for specific age group

• Each workshop features hands-on, interactive activities for parents to learn skills

• Comes in English and Spanish

• Features Preschooler Series, Toddler Series and Infant Series

PROGRAM GOALS

• Let’s Read Together is an early literacy program that helps parents of infants, toddlers, and preschoolers prepare their children for successful lifelong learning.

PROGRAM OBJECTIVESPARENTS WILL…

• Learn about their important role in their child’s early literacy development and later school success.

• Learn how to interact with their children in ways that promote enjoyment, self confidence and a joy of learning.

• Understand the importance of early literacy and the skills and knowledge their children need to be successful learners.

• Learn effective read aloud techniques and use them to read everyday to their child.

• Learn to use simple strategies and activities to enhance early literacy development.

• Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?

• Goodnight Moon

• Growing Vegetable Soup

• Numbers/Los Numeros

• That’s Not My dinosaur

• Where’s Spot

• Alphabet Fiesta

• Frog On His Own

• Is Your Mama a Llama?

• The Little Mouse, the Red Ripe Strawberry and the Big Hungry Bear

• Rosie’s Walk

• The Very Hungary Caterpillar

LET’S READ TOGETHERWORKSHOP SERIES

Preschooler Series Toddler Series

• Animals to Count

• Baby Born

• My Colors / Mis Colores

• My First Real Mother Goose

• Read To Your Bunny

LET’S READ TOGETHERWORKSHOP SERIES

Infant Series

• Welcome

• Introductory Activity – Animal Charades

• Book Talk – summary, type, author info

• Reading Aloud – Is Your Mama a Llama?, discussion

• Retelling the Story – What Does Your Mama Look Like?

• Literacy Theme – Ready to Read

• More Activities – Rhyming Word Game, Where do animals live?, Fruit and Vegetable Animals Recipe

• Family Activity Booklet

• Closing and Evaluation

LET’S READ TOGETHERWORKSHOP AT A GLANCE

• Let’s look at the resources.

LET’S READ TOGETHER

FAMILY STORYTELLER

A family literacy program from the

University of Nevada Cooperative Extension

KNPB, Channel 5

Washoe County Library

Washoe County School District

MAJOR FEATURES

• Children’s literature

• Instructional video tapes (VHS)

• Flexible format (workshop, one-to-one, or home visitation)

• Parent-child involvement with related activities

• Designed for parents with limited literacy skills

• Designed for parents and preschool children ages 2 ½ - 6 years

• Emphasizes and models carefully selected book reading techniques

FAMILY STORYTELLERFamily storyteller introduces families to the joy of literature and language, showing parents techniques for how to read with their children, providing time to practice those skills and providing books and other language activities for use at home.

• Introductory material and suggestions for trainer

• Planning guides• Detailed lesson plans for

parent educator with handout masters, instructions for parent packets and forms for program evaluation

FAMILY STORYTELLER MANUAL

• To enrich parent/child interaction and the home environment to enhance the language and lifelong learning skills of both parent and child.

FAMILY STORYTELLER GOALS

• Increase their language skills

• Come to love reading and writing

• Learn about their world through carefully selected books

• Do better at school

• Feel closer with parents

• Have fun and enjoy the stories

• Help their children do better in school

• Watch their children grow in independence

• Get a special private time with their children

• Have fun and enjoy the stories

FAMILY STORYTELLER ……

CAN HELP PARENTS CAN HELP CHILDREN

• Goodnight Moon

• The Very Hungry Caterpillar

• Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?

• Peter’s Chair

• The Wheels On The Bus

• Have You Seen My Duckling?

FAMILY STORYTELLER GOALS

FEATURED BOOKS

• Let’s look at the resources.

FAMILY STORYTELLER

HOW YOU CAN HELP!

• Take provided Character Critters resources and develop your customized support materials

• Use the Character Critters resources, your enhancement materials and ideas with your parents and children

• Showcase parent-child activity sheets in child’s classroom

WEBSITE: WWW.LSUAGCENTER.COM

FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT:REBECCA WHITE, PH.D.

EMAIL: BWHITE@AGCENTER.LSU.EDU PHONE: (225) 578-3921