Sample Programs

On Site:

1. Buddy Read creates a book discussion group within the school. Participants include a student and an adult buddy (a parent, relative, or friend). Once the librarian selects a title, each pair reads the book on their own and then they come together to discuss it at a designated time. It helps if the librarian, or leader, prepares questions for discussion prior to the gathering and offers opportunities for everyone to participate. (Reeder, Pam and Sowers, Karen. Family Literacy: It Takes a Village. Library Talk, November/December, 2002)
2. Family Read Night can happen once a week, month, or year, but at some point parents need to be invited into the school library and become comfortable and familiar with it. This can be organized around a presentation, a film night, an Accelerated Reader orientation, or a PTA meeting. Presentation topics might include encouraging reluctant readers, research skills and methods, or targeting various reading strategies. The event may simply be an open house where participants may come and go at their leisure, check our books, use the computers, enjoy refreshments, and listen to a storyteller or booktalk. To create a more festive atmosphere, choose a fun theme for the evening such as a pajama party, a beach party, an author’s birthday party, a camp-out, a day in the jungle, the Wild West, under the sea, or a day in Camelot. (Reeder, Pam and Sowers, Karen. Family Literacy: It Takes a Village. Library Talk, November/December, 2002)
3. Reach out to Parents whose first language is not English by incorporating multilingual strategies and materials into programs. Many of these parents don’t realize that reading, talking, and singing to their children in their first language will help develop literacy skills (From PLA/ALSC Early Literacy Initiative, 2003 Evaluation).
4. Children’s Author Fact Finding Safari is a program for parents and kids to learn web skills while searching for answers to questions about their chosen author.
   
5. Family Literacy Backpacks promote collaboration between teachers and library/media specialists. Backpacks filled with materials and activities for home use.

Community:

1. Reading Circles. The Reading Circle is a place where young children and adults read together for enjoyment. Once a week for an hour, parents and volunteers get together with children to enjoy books and stories. Reading Circles are organized in low income housing communities, community centers, after school programs, aboriginal communities - anywhere families and children gather.
2. Youth Mentor Programs offer high school students a chance to be influential role models by volunteering to tutor young readers. Collaborative efforts between elementary and high schools allow outstanding secondary students to mentor assigned primary students. (Reeder, Pam and Sowers, Karen. Family Literacy: It Takes a Village. Library Talk, November/December, 2002)
3. Reader Outreach Program is appropriate in communities where there is little participation in or accessibility to local library programs. Select a local church or community center and set up a reading event that may include a storyteller, guest author, book giveaways, or storytime. These services provide an awareness and education about the school library for many that may have never seen the facility firsthand. (Reeder, Pam and Sowers, Karen. Family Literacy: It Takes a Village. Library Talk, November/December, 2002)
4. The “Books to Go” team (public librarian and school library media specialist) selected books for the literature component of the math program, placed them in a box that traveled throughout the classrooms. Literature boxes could be prepared around a variety of subjects and disciplines.
5. Family Tales. School and public librarians gather or purchase new books about families and read them to students and then help the students create interview questions for them to ask their own relatives. The students then write and illustrate their own stories and then present them at a community wide program. The stories can be compiled into books for the library collections.
6. Parent Read-Aloud Workshop: Together, librarians and teachers conducted a workshop for parents of first and second grade students in read-aloud skills, after which the parents recorded popular books. These tapes and books, along with stuffed animals, were then circulated in both the public and school libraries in special S.T.A.R. (Snuggle Together And Read) bags.
   
7. Kindergarten Read Event: Parents of incoming kindergarten children attended a lively two-hour interactive presentation, "Let’s Read! Reading Aloud to Children," which was organized and conducted by school and public librarians and reading teachers, and included hand-outs of booklists, tips and motivational materials. The program resulted in a parents "read-aloud" group and a replicable program that was repeated at P.T.A. meetings.
   
8. Tour of Public Library: In collaboration with the local public librarian, plan an evening at the local public library. Here the parents can meet both the school and public librarians and receive first hand an introduction to the resources available for both their children’s learning and their own pursuits and needs. The families can be conveniently introduced to the public libraries if any of the above events occurs at the local library.
9. Invite Parents to School for Public Librarian School Visit: Most public librarians do school visits in the spring to promote the summer reading programs. Others visit the classrooms for presentations about the resources available at the public library. Model collaboration by working together as school and public librarians to present the information and supportive resources available in the community.

Resources

Organizations

International Reading Association http://www.reading.org/

National Center for Family Literacy  http://www.famlit.org/

National Coalition for Literacy http://www.national-coalition-literacy.org/

National Education Association http://www.nea.org/readacross

ProLiteracy Worldwide http://www.proliteracy.org/

Reading Is Fundamental, Inc. http://www.rif.org/

Reading Rockets http://www.readingrockets.org

Articles and Documents:

Public and School Library Partnerships - slideshare presentation  www.slideshare.net/jmthuma/public-and-school-library-partnerships

Successful Strategies in Family Literacy by Rebecca V. Dyer and the Maine Family Literacy Initiative which is a collaborative project of the Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy and the Maine Department of Education. This 95 page PDF document includes information on starting a family literacy program, how to collaborate with others, how to design and how to run a program. The appendixes include forms used to propose, assess and evaluate family literacy programs in the Maine Family Literacy Initiative. http://www.state.me.us/education/meflit/Successful%20Strategies%20(full%20version).pdf

A New Wave Of Evidence: The Impact Of School, Family And Community Connections On Student Achievement. By Anne T. Henderson, and Karen L. Mapp (2002) Austin, Texas: National Center for Family and Community Connections with Schools. http://www.sedl.org/connections/resources/evidence.pdf

Web Resources:

Midwest Regional LINCS Family Literacy Special Collection. http://literacy.kent.edu/Midwest/FamilyLit/siteindex.html

Books:

Many Families, Many Literacies: an International Declaration of Principles edited by Denny Taylor. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann Trade, 1997. This collection of works by education experts and family literacy practitioners and participants presents an excellent foundation for redefining family literacy programs. The contributors highlight the political implications of the family literacy movement by acknowledging the complexities within and among families. Attempting to move away from the frequently deficit-driven model of family literacy, these folks aim to build on the strengths that families bring to the learning situation, their diverse languages, literacies and problem-solving capabilities.

Bridges to Literacy: Children, Families, and Schools edited by David K. Dickinson. Cambridge MA: Blackwell Publishers, 1994. This book chronicles the construction of new bridges not only among schools, communities and families, but also among developmental and cognitive psychologists, education researchers, early childhood educators and library scientists. While mostly theoretical, the articles do practically address issues such as programming, collaboration and evaluation.

Family Involvement in Literacy: Effective Partnership in Education edited by Sheila Wolfendale and Keith Topping. New York: Cassell, 1996. A collection of perspectives on parent and family focused literacy work, offering practical methods supported by research and theory.

Connecting Fathers, Children, and Reading: A How-to-do it Manual for Librarians by Sara Willoughby-Herb and Steven Herb. New York: Neal-Schuman Publishers, Inc., 2002. This excellent resource recognizes that fatherhood is changing as family roles are changing in our society. It includes information on selection, programming, collaboration, and large annotated lists with resources and books about fathers and fathering.

Founding and Funding Family Literacy Programs by Carole Talan. Neal-Schuman Publishers, Inc. 1999. Written more for public librarians, this book has a few really great ideas for fundraising with an eye for the long term.

Community Collaborations for Family Literacy Handbook by Shelley Quezada and Ruth S Nickse. Neal-Schuman Publishers, Inc. 1993. Some of the information is rather dated but this book has some great ideas.

Founding and Funding Family Literacy Programs by Carole Talan. Neal-Schuman Publishers, Inc. 1999. Written more for public librarians, this book has a few really great ideas for fundraising with an eye for the long term.

Community Collaborations for Family Literacy Handbook by Shelley Quezada and Ruth S Nickse. Neal-Schuman Publishers, Inc. 1993. Some of the information is rather dated but this book has some great ideas.