Literacy Boost Community Action

Creating a Culture of Reading Outside School Walls

2 © 2011 Save the Children

Literacy Boost: What Is It?  Literacy Boost is Save the Children’s innovative program to support the development of reading skills in young children. Teachers, students, parents and community members are engaged to help enhance the skills required for independent reading, while fostering growth in children’s vocabulary, building their confidence in expression and expanding the background knowledge that they bring to every reading task, inside the classroom as well as outside.

Literacy Boost materials and training enliven every day interactions – whether in the classroom or in the kitchen at home – with activities to enhance letter knowledge, phonemic awareness, vocabulary, reading fluency and comprehension. Research has identified these five skills as essential for acquiring literacy.1

Literacy Boost holistically pursues the goal of literacy by doing three things: using assessments to identify gaps in the five core skills, training teachers to teach national curriculum with an emphasis on core skills, and mobilizing communities for reading action.

As these countries lead the way offering impact evidence and lessons for smooth implementation, several additional country programs, including: Bangladesh, Vietnam, the Philippines, Yemen and Afghanistan, are planning to implement one or more Literacy Boost components.

Community Action: a Critical, Innovative Element of Literacy Boost Addressing the community side of education sets Save the Children apart from many other actors focused narrowly on teacher training to enhance reading skill development. Save the Children believes that more children will learn to read with comprehension if we combine teacher training with materials, opportunities to practice, use of reading skills in daily life, as well as motivation and enjoyment. By focusing on core skills, Literacy Boost helps children learn to read and develop the requisite skills for reading to learn once they reach the later grades.

By bringing reading materials as well as literacy and language activities into children’s villages and homes, Literacy Boost gives children more opportunities to practice reading skills outside school walls. It also highlights activities that promote literacy and learning through fun to motivate children's participation and kindle their enjoyment of reading.

MALAWI, Access to reading materials allows children to practice their reading skills. Photo by Amy Jo Dowd.

Currently being implemented in Malawi, Nepal, Mali, Mozambique, Pakistan, Uganda, Ethiopia and Guatemala, Literacy Boost is unique as it:

• Adapts to fit the national curriculum, as well as languages of instruction and local languages; • Creates materials and activities to fit community context and resources; • Incorporates baseline and endline assessments, often with comparison to a control group; • Trains teachers, empowering them to teach and monitor students’ mastery of core reading skills.

3 © 2011 Save the Children

The Literacy Boost Community Action toolkit focuses on three main action areas to support children in the critical early grade stages, as they learn to read:

1. Parent activities, including workshops and strategies to help parents read with their children; 2. Book Banks and materials creation; and 3. Extracurricular reading activities for children, such as Reading Camps and Reading Buddies.

For parents, Save the Children leads activities that engage everyone, regardless of their reading ability, in simple tasks that promote children’s reading skills. These include singing, talking, playing, shopping, and doing chores around the house. Many of these ideas are highlighted in the Community Strategies for Promoting Literacy Flip Book, a resource outlining simple activities that parents and children can do to build children’s reading skills, emphasizing that everyday activities have the potential to boost children’s literacy, oral language development and their knowledge of the world around them.

Providing communities with a supply and variety of reading materials is another essential part of Literacy Boost. Save the Children helps to locally create children’s print materials in Literacy Boost Book Banks as well as guidance on how to create additional age- and language-appropriate materials within each community.

Community reading activities, a vital element of Literacy Boost, engage community members in supporting the literacy development of children. Save the Children has developed several extracurricular activities for children including Reading Camps, Reading Buddies, Reading Festivals and Story Time.

Using these three action areas, Literacy Boost helps to create a culture of reading by promoting print-rich environments and reading activities, which support children’s practice as they learn to read. Community Action reinforces the message that reading matters: a message children will hear from their teachers, parents, peers and community members as Literacy Boost works at both the school and community levels.

MALAWI, Local materials such as bottle caps become tools for learning letter knowledge. Photo by Malawi Country office.

Parents Can Support Literacy and Learning Supporting children’s facility for language and literacy begin from birth as experiences and interactions serve as a foundation on which future language and literacy skills build. Integrating oral language development and age-appropriate emergent literacy activities in young children’s routines raises children’s chances for becoming successful beginning and independent readers when they enter primary school.

Some examples of activities parents can do include: • Talk wilth your child to build their vocabulary. • Tell stories to share knowledge and culture. • Promote reading readiness while doing

household tasks like cooking: ask your child to name, count and sort the ingredients, talk about where they come from to extend vocabulary and world knowledge.

4 © 2011 Save the Children

What Research Says About Parent and Community Involvement Literacy Boost draws upon the broad base of research outlining what children need as they learn to read, including parent and adult involvement, exposure to a variety of books, and regular reading aloud with quality interactions.2 US-based research in particular has shown that the most successful way to improve the reading achievement of low-income children is to increase their access to print3 and that the involvement of parents and caring adults in the community has an important, positive impact on a child’s success in development of reading skills.4

This research informs and supports Save the Children’s own findings. In fact, data collected from Literacy Boost programs across the globe all reveal a positive, correlational relationship, suggesting that children who have access to books and are read to more frequently score higher in reading competencies. In Yemen and the Philippines, Save the Children’s baseline data shows that students with more books at home (Figure 1)5 and those who were being read to at home (Figure 2)6 scored higher on a variety of reading skill assessment components than students with fewer books at home who were not being read to (illustrated in Figures 1 and 2). Interestingly, the findings of the importance of books and parental support hold across the two languages that all Filipino children are asked to use in the classroom. Save the Children’s Pakistan Literacy Boost baseline report also finds the positive relationship between access to a variety of book types, reading exposure and higher emergent literacy skills. In Figure 3, the more book types available (yellow versus blue and red) and more readers to the student at home (50 percent at the right side versus

0 at the left), the higher the estimated number of concepts about print, a measure of children’s emergent literacy skills and familiarity with books, were demonstrated.7 Similarly, data from Pakistan indicated the greater the percentage of household members who read to the student at home (50 percent of the household reading to the student versus no one reading to the student) the higher the estimated number of letters were known by the student.8 Although these data show that a relationship exists, through follow-on assessments we can test whether we can change reading habits through Literacy Boost interventions and thereby boost reading scores.

Figure 1: YEMEN, Student Reading Skills by Number of Books in the Home.

Figure 2: PHILIPPINES, Student Reading Skills by Reading at Home.

Figure 3: PAKISTAN, Concepts about Print Score by Book Types and Household Reading.

5 © 2011 Save the Children

Evidence of Literacy Boost Community Action Success Even after just one year of Literacy Boost programming, Save the Children has seen evidence of an increase in children’s reading scores and parent engagement through implementation of the three components of Community Action: parent activities and workshops, Book Banks and materials creation, and reading activities for children.

Parent Activities and Workshops In Malawi, children whose parents attended monthly workshops showed greater learning gains than peers whose parents didn’t attend; even if their parents were unable to read or write. In fact, 50 percent of parents who attended workshops were illiterate. As shown in Figure 4, these children had gains, on average, that were 18.99 percentage points higher for reading than those children whose parents did not attend (p<.01).9 The workshop effect for children was greater (although non-significantly) for those whose parents were illiterate. This suggests that the workshops may have indeed played an important role in improving children’s reading skills. In addition, parent responses from Pakistan illustrate that parents’ participation has a significant positive impact on children’s reading gains and the home environment. Following reading awareness workshops, mothers in Pakistan are showing more concern about their children’s education. One Community Reading Facilitator noted that “Before these sessions, [mothers] did not ask children about school. Now they are concerned about their children’s performance, they ask them questions about school and interact with them more. Many of them tell me that they wish they too had learned to read.”10

Mothers noted how much their children are learning through participation in Reading Camps. “I like it when they borrow books to bring home, because they share the stories with us. We especially like the Pashto materials, because we learn along with our children,” another mother added.11 Fathers also had positive feedback about the parenting sessions and Literacy Boost activities. “Because of what we discuss in the sessions, we now ask our children about school, and make sure that they attend Literacy Boost activities regularly,” one father said.12 This is a big change in fathers’ behavior and in the home environment.

MALAWI, Parents, students and community members display locally-created reading materials. Photo by Malawi CO.

Figure 4: MALAWI, Standard 2 Students’ Chichewa Vocabulary Gain Score by Parent Workshop Attendance.

6 © 2011 Save the Children

Materials Development and Book Banks With increased access to a range of books and materials, facilitated by trained community volunteers and parents, students in Literacy Boost sites have improved their reading skills.

Literacy Boost baseline data has verified that children with more access to books often have higher reading scores than those without. Book Banks include reading materials used by students and community members, which are often stored in trunks, chests or other mobile storage options. They are placed in every community surrounding the target schools, and funding permitting, in the school too. Save the Children’s Literacy Boost Community Action Toolkit outlines multiple techniques for staff, teachers and community members to create entirely locally written,

illustrated and published materials. These guidelines empower staff and community members to develop one-page stories, to adapt foreign language books into the child’s language or write original stories, and to gather a set of language-, age- and culturally-appropriate reading materials. Literacy Boost Book Banks contain between 100 and 250 books at a variety of reading levels, including: • primers (emergent reading level),

• illustrated books (emergent and beginning reading levels),

• stories (emergent, beginning and independent reading levels),

• fables (dual language where appropriate and focused for experienced reading level as content for older siblings, parents and teachers to read to children),

• guidelines for parents on how to read to and with children,

• Community Strategies for Promoting Literacy Flip Book, providing simple activities that parents and children of all reading levels can do to build the skills that help to strengthen children’s reading ability.

In Malawi, students who brought home books from the Literacy Boost Book Banks in their community had reading gains that were, on average, 16.98 percentage points greater than those who did not (p<.01).13

Fable: The Fox and the Leopard

The fox and the leopard were arguing which one was the more beautiful of the two. The leopard said, “I have a fine coat of fur with beautiful spots. My coat is known and envied all over the world.” But the Fox, interrupting him, said, “But I am much more beautiful than that. You are only beautiful on the outside. It is my beautiful intelligence that makes me the most beautiful of all." THE END

MALAWI, Locally-created literacy materials used in Literacy Boost programming. Photo by Malawi Country office.

7 © 2011 Save the Children

Children’s Reading Activities Apart from activities that engage parents and adults, Literacy Boost’s community action component includes several activities that help increase children’s interaction and engagement with reading outside of school: • Reading Camps engage older youth as camp leaders who are trained to guide a group of young

children through read-alouds, songs, games and creative arts designed to boost each of the five core skills of reading.

• Reading Buddies pair young students learning to read with older primary school students whose fluency and comprehension levels make them ideal models for these children. These pairs borrow Book Bank books and read them together on a regular basis.

• Read-A-Thons/Reading Festivals offer fun, community reading competitions for children that motivate children to practice their literacy skills during breaks in the school year.

• Story Time provides a scheduled weekly or monthly activity for volunteers to read or tell stories to children in the community to increase vocabulary, local knowledge and foster discussion.

Already, these activities have shown to have an impact on children’s reading skills. In Pakistan, Literacy Boost students who borrowed books and attended reading camps more frequently had greater scores than peers doing so less frequently, as seen in Figures 5 and 6.14 These students also demonstrated positive reading behaviors, such as being able to name their favorite story or book, as well as provide its title and a summary.

In fact, more than 92 percent of Literacy Boost girls and boys could name their favorite story or book, and more than 80 percent could give a summary. In contrast, just over half of comparison school students could name a favorite story and fewer than half could give a summary. Literacy Boost students reported that they came to know their favorite book or story by reading it themselves (50%), participating in Reading Camps (43%), practicing with a Reading Buddy (11%) or having it read to them (10%).15 Data from the Literacy Boost

pilot countries supports Save the Children’s belief that reading activities can help to compensate for a lack of literate household members by fostering reading comprehension and creating a culture of literacy for children.

Save the Children field teams have extended Literacy Boost reading activities to include Read-A-Thons and Reading Festivals, and we will further field test and hone these strategies as other countries begin implementing Literacy Boost and its Community Action components.

Figure 5: PAKISTAN, Urdu Comprehension Gains by Age, Borrowing and Frequency of Reading Camp Attendance.

Figure 6: PAKISTAN, Pashto Fluency Gains by Book Borrowing Frequency, Socioeconomic Status and Frequency of Reading Camp Attendance.

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Creating a Culture of Reading Outside School Walls Literacy Boost’s community action component focuses on an essential aspect for improving children’s reading – parents, community members and children themselves. Community action mobilizes parents to understand the importance of reading in children’s learning and in their eventual success in school. It provides a range of interesting and relevant reading materials for children to use, and gives them a chance to engage with print apart from their school textbooks. Literacy Boost’s community action focus includes a variety of community activities – from simple household tasks to more organized community-wide activities – that can build children’s language and literacy skills. All of these elements help to engage communities in the critical task of helping young children learn to read, so that they can read to learn. For more information on Literacy Boost and how you can help boost children’s reading, please contact: Ces Ochoa cochoa@savechildren.org or Amy Jo Dowd adowd@savechildren.org

Cover Photo: Bangladesh, photo by Michael Bisceglie.

References: 1. Snow, C.E., Burns, S.M., & Griffin, P. (1998). Preventing Reading Difficulties in Young Children. Washington, DC.: National

Academy Press. 2. Goldenberg, C. (2001). Making Schools Work for Low-Income Families in the 21st Century. In Neuman, S.B. & Dickinson,

D.K. (Eds.), Handbook of Early Literacy Research. (pp. 211-231). New York: The Guilford Press.; New, R.S. (2001). Early Literacy and Developmentally Appropriate Practice: Rethinking the Paradigm. In Neuman, S.B. & Dickinson, D.K. (Eds), Handbook of Early Literacy Research. (pp 245-262). New York: The Guilford Press.; Pang, E.S., Muaka, A., Bernhardt, E.B., & Kamil, M.L. (2003). Teaching Reading. Paris: UNESCO International Bureau of Education and International Academy of Education.; Wagner, D. A. (1993). Literacy, Culture and Development: Becoming Literate in Morocco. Cambridge University Press.

3. Newman, S. (2000). Americans’ Child Care Crisis: A Crime Prevention Tragedy; Fight Crime; Invest in Kids. 4. Bingham, G E. (2007). Maternal Literacy Beliefs and the Quality of Mother-Child Book-reading Interactions: Associations

with Children's Early Literacy Development. Early Education & Development. 18(1), 23-49. 5. Gavin, S. (2011). Literacy Boost Yemen Baseline Report. Save the Children. 6. Cao, Y. (2010). Literacy Boost 2009 Assessment: Philippines Country Office, MMPO/SCMPO. Save the Children. 7. Dowd, A.J.; Ochoa, C.; Alam, I.; Pari, J.; & Afsar Babar, J. (2010). Literacy Boost Pakistan Baseline Report. Save the Children. 8. Ibid. 9. Dowd, A.J.; Weiner, K.; & Mabeti, F. (2010). Malawi Literacy Boost 2009 Year 1 Report. Save the Children. 10. Mithani, S.; Alam, I.; Afsar, J.; Babar, A.; Dowd, A.J.; Hanson, J.; & Ochoa, C. (2011). Literacy Boost Pakistan Year 1

Report. Save the Children. 11. Ibid. 12. Ibid. 13. Dowd, A.J.; Weiner, K.; & Mabeti, F. (2010). Malawi Literacy Boost 2009 Year 1 Report. Save the Children. 14. Mithani, S.; Alam, I.; Afsar, J.; Babar, A.; Dowd, A.J.; Hanson, J.; & Ochoa, C. (2011). Literacy Boost Pakistan Year 1

Report. Save the Children. 11. Pinto, C. (2010). Impact of Literacy Boost in Kailali, Nepal, 2009-2010 Year 1 Report. Save the Children.

15. Ibid.

AFGHANISTAN, Metaw, Nasira, Naria and Golsama look at picture books together in the village of Ghojar Qudoq. Photo by Jeff Holt.