Literacy Activities For Families with Young Children
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Transcript of 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: [email protected] PHONE: (225) 578-3921