Examines family literacy and parental involvement awareness among preservice and mentor teachers in a professional development school setting. Finds a wide range of awareness of the importance of family literacy. Supports the urgent need for teacher education programs that include strategies for involving parents. (RS)

In this work, prominent authorities review the latest research on all aspects of ELL instruction (K-12) and identify what works for today's students and schools. Provided are best-practice guidelines for targeting reading, writing, oral language, vocabulary, content-domain literacies, and other core skill areas; assessing culturally and…

The goal of the family literacy workshop "Reading Theatre, Parents as Actors: Movie production in a Family Literacy Workshop" is to empower and motivate parents to learn various storytelling strategies through theatrical production experiences and apply them at home. This is a theory-based family literacy practice supported by McClelland's…

This case study addresses a middle class family's role in their son's literacy development through an investigation of the socio-cultural practices that support his literacy acquisition. Rogoff's socio-cultural framework, which proposes three planes of analysis for observation of human development, is used for the analysis. The literacy practices…

Literacy is power--the power to improve one's life and shape one's community. All people should know how to read and write, yet 771 million people (18 percent of the world's population) are illiterate. The programs described in this booklet address this challenge. They are samples of a few of the many hundreds of excellent programs around the…

When viewed through the lens of critical pedagogy, children's literature offers a viable avenue for tapping the "funds of knowledge" abounding in culturally and linguistically diverse communities. It is an effective means for promoting dialogue, arousing critical consciousness, and facilitating the "coming to voice" of…

For educators interested in engaging in critical literacy work with families and schools, the efforts can be both exhilarating and exasperating. Reflecting on a two-year family literacy project, we consider the possibilities and pitfalls of the projects' design and implementation. The work described in this article takes a stance that is both…

Based in a constructivist paradigm, socio-cultural views of literacy place a high degree of importance on how students connect to what they read. This means that instruction must follow constructivist principles and allow ample opportunity for discussion and learner-centered activities. In addition, this framework requires careful attention be…

Background: This study is the follow-up in early adolescence of children born to families with a history of dyslexia ( Gallagher, Frith, & Snowling, 2000). Methods: Fifty young people with a family history of dyslexia and 20 young people from control families were assessed at 12-13 years on a battery of tests of literacy and language skills, and…

An ethnographic study of the "Literacy in the Community" project examined what ordinary people read and write in their everyday lives, how they make sense of literacy, and how it fits into the rest of their daily activities, focusing on literacy in the home. Subjects, 20 adults from Lancashire, England, between the ages of 20 and 30…

This statewide evaluation of Even Start family literacy programs in Maine was conducted from November 1999 through September 2000. Six out of seven Even Start programs funded by the Maine State Department of Education for the 1999-2000 year participated in the study. All Maine Even Start programs offer a combination of home-based and center-based…

Training for family literacy began in 1993 with the development of the "Come Read with Me" model. Since that time over 300 facilitators have been trained, but a 1997 survey found only a fraction of these individuals were still active in family literacy programs. The Saskatchewan Literacy Network was faced with the challenge of delivering…

Analyzes literacy events co-constructed by three bilingual, mainland Puerto Rican kindergarteners and the network of adults and children in their homes who support their developing literacy. Reveals and gives value to some of the many literacies in the children's lives and communicates a respectful approach to the study of literacy in families…

Describes the many and varied literacy projects in which the author and his family are involved. Discusses how, reaching far beyond print media, they xperiment with other forms of literacy that enrich each of them personally, socially, and politically. (RS)

A qualitative study of Bookstart, which gave free children's books and support to British inner-city families, collected data from librarians, health visitors, and nursery school staff. Bookstart increased positive attitudes toward and interest in books. Health visitors' support was crucial in helping parents use the books to support children's…