Kingston Literacy Projects

Family Literacy at Kingston Literacy
	What is “family literacy,” and how is it different from literacy in general?
	Most of us are familiar with what the term “literacy” means. In general, it‘s assumed to mean something like “the ability to read and write.” Statistics Canada defines literacy as, “...the information processing skills necessary to use the printed material commonly encountered at work, at home, and in the community.” “Family Literacy,” on the other hand, is not quite so cut and dried. For some, it conjures up images of a parent curled up in a big easy chair with their child and a book, by a roaring fire: quite an idealistic image.
	The International Reading Association’s Family Literacy Commission includes the following elements in its definition of family literacy:
a) Family literacy encompasses the ways parents, children and extended family members use reading and writing at home and in their community. b) Family literacy can occur naturally during the routines of daily life, and helps adults and children “get things done.” Examples of it include: writing notes to communicate messages, making grocery lists, reading/following directions, and sharing stories and ideas through conversation, reading and writing. c) Family literacy can be initiated purposefully by a parent, or may occur spontaneously as parents and children go about the business of their daily lives. d) Family literacy may reflect the ethnic, cultural or racial heritage of the families involved. e) Family literacy can be initiated by outside institutions or agencies. These activities support the acquisition and development of school-like literacy behaviours of parents, children and families. Activities include: family story-book reading, completing homework assignments, or writing essays or reports.

Why is it important? There is a vast amount of research that indicates that children who come from a language-rich home have an easier time learning to read and write. According to the Ontario Literacy Coalition, children raised in homes where reading is prevalent are likely to enter grade one with several thousands of hours of critical one-to-one pre-reading experiences and therefore good emergent literacy skills, and a desire to learn to read. As a result, these children tend to experience greater success in school. Recent research also indicates that if certain cognitive processes are not developed or honed by a very young age, the physiological capacity for such development is lost: a definite “use it or lose it” scenario. A child’s potential can be seriously undermined at a very early age if proper nurturing, nutrition and stimulation are not provided. Although most homes provide valuable literacy experiences for their children, being read to or talking about books has the highest correlation with later success in school. Parents who did not have books in the home or were not read to as children are unlikely to expose their children to these advantages. Also, parents who have not had experience with books as children may not know how to use books with their children. Generally then, children who are read to become readers. In today’s information-rich society, good reading and writing skills are vital. Low literacy skills have a direct impact on socio-economic conditions, health, safety, crime and general quality of life. If reading in the home environment can be encouraged and supported through a Family Literacy program, two generations can be assisted immediately, and future generations stand a much better chance of developing better literacy skills.

What do Family Literacy programs do?

Family Literacy programs promote and encourage reading and writing in the home
environment. They provide support and instruction for parents to read and work with their children. Each program, of course, has its own methods and/or curriculum. Many programs base activities around issues that will come up for the parents around school, like learning how to read using children’s stories or school notices or report cards, and learning to write by writing notes to the teacher, or filling out permission slips.

Kingston Literacy’s Family Literacy program is outlined in the next section.

What impact can Family Literacy programs have?

Family Literacy programs can have a tremendous impact by improving literacy
levels, and therefore future opportunities, for both parents and children.

They can help to foster a positive attitude towards life-long learning.

Family Literacy programs can strengthen bonds within families by providing
opportunities for positive interactions, and opening doors to discussion and
communication.

They are cost-effective in the long run because the inter-generational transition of low literacy skills has been halted so that future generations of participating families stand a much better chance of having stronger literacy skills.

How are they funded?

At this time, no program in Ontario receives ongoing operating funding specifically for
Family Literacy. Project funding is available through the National Literacy Secretariat and from various foundations, but it is not stable or continuous.

What Family Literacy and related resources are available in Kingston?

The earliest years of life are critical to language development. Indeed, research shows that this vital aspect of brain development, which requires environmental stimulation to flourish, takes place before 5 years of age. Good language development is critical to the process of learning how to read. The future strength of a community is served well by providing strong language and emergent literacy support for families with young children. Good communication skills, both spoken and written, provide the foundation for an individual’s community involvement, and ability to succeed in a changing economy.

Family literacy supports can be found in direct service programs, such as Family Literacy programs, agency-organized parent/child groups and language development programs. Other supports are part of everyday community life, and include libraries, bookstores, schools, nursery schools, day cares and television.

Here are just some of the resources available in Kingston.

Kingston Literacy

Kingston Literacy has the only dedicated family literacy program in the area. We have one main family literacy site, the Family Literacy Centre, based in Rideau Heights Public School, but we also deliver services at our Reading Routes centre in Napanee, and at a number of other sites in the area, including in Verona, Amherstview and Bayridge. We provide direct support on-site and at other community locations through:

a) The Reading and Parents Program (RAPP) for parents with young children
b) The Parent Kit for parents with school-aged children
c) Helping Parents, Helping Children training series
d) Tutor training for school volunteers who want to tutor
e) Small-group training programs, when funding is available
f) Learning resource development
g) Talks to community groups about the benefits of reading with children
h) Bookmaking workshops
i) ELFS (Early Literacy Family Support) Program

a) R.A.P.P.
Developed in 1990, the Reading and Parents Program provides quality children’s books, theme- based activities and crafts to families with young children. The RAPP packs can be provided for lending on a one-to-one basis or in a parent/child group. We help parents become form-confident and fluent readers, and give ideas on extending the reading into other learning activities.

b) The Parent Kit
The Parent Kit is a package of information for parents whose children are beginning to learn how to read, or who are worried that their children are having difficulty learning how to read. The package includes sections with tips on reading with your child as they learn, the techniques called paired reading and language experience, and where to turn in the community if a problem arises.

c) Helping Parents, Helping Children
We have been holding training programs called Helping Parents, Helping Children, funded by a grant from the Community Foundation of Greater Kingston. This program provides parents with some tools and support in helping their children with reading and writing.

d) School Volunteer Training
The school volunteer tutor training provides an in-depth program in which volunteers learn how to help poor beginning readers become good readers. The program includes discussions about what good readers do, how to make reading easier, word-attack strategies, learning styles, etc…

e) Family Literacy Small Group Training
Because our Family Literacy Program receives no ongoing funding for its work, we can’t offer small group Family Literacy training on an ongoing basis. This last year, however, we did have funding for a pilot project from the National Literacy Secretariat to create a model for delivering family literacy training in an adult literacy centre. Parents were able to upgrade their literacy skills while their children received a quality child development program at the same site (in a separate room). A portion of the training provided for the parents focused on how they could work with their children to enhance their early literacy development.

f) Learning Resource Development
In addition to our direct-support programs, we are always at work on a number of special projects to improve the delivery of family literacy services, both within our community and further afield. Three years ago, we published Family Literacy Today, A Manual for Community-Based Literacy Programs. Last year, we were hard at work on a project called Integration of Family Literacy Demonstrations (funded by the National Literacy Secretariat), which continued the work started in the aforementioned book, putting the work of family literacy programs into a Learning Outcomes’ framework. When this project ended, Family Literacy Today was reissued, with new material added, developed during the Integration project.

In the summer of 2001, we released a series of four books of RAPP Collections, each containing ten reproducible RAPP packs. Both the RAPP books and Family Literacy Today are available to purchase through Kingston Literacy. We have sold copies to a number of programs around the country already.

We are currently in the process of creating four parent-oriented booklets suitable for literacy students, covering such topics as: physical developments, language development and early literacy skills, self-esteem and nutrition.

g) Talks in the Community
Presentations to community groups show the importance of language and reading for babies and children. We talk about the importance of using nursery rhymes and songs. We bring lots of quality children’s books and show what children can learn from them.

h) Bookmaking Workshops
This series of ten workshops is designed for low income parents with young children, to help them create a small collection of books for their young children, learn about their child’s development, and learn more about Kingston Literacy and other upgrading and training programs in Kingston and area. The 2-hour workshops include lessons on book formats like: a predictable book, a flap book, a learning portfolio, an interactive book, an all about me book, and a touch and feel book.

We have found that this series also acts as a gentle introduction to literacy training. Participants who may never have ended up in adult upgrading programs on their own actually began considering upgrading their skills. We will be posting a guide for this model on our website in the spring.

i) ELFS (Early Literacy Family Support) Program
This weekly 2-hour program is broken down into three parts. The first part is a play-group format with parents and children together in the room. The parents then leave the children in a quality child development program, while they are coached on reading and introducing books, learning about language and how to incorporate learning into everyday life in things like shopping and cooking. Then the parents are given the opportunity to plan something, and when they rejoin their kids, they get to try out a new skill or idea associated with everyday learning and literature. At the end of the program, each family is given a RAPP pack, containing a book, and related paper and pencil exercises, poetry and finger plays. Barriers to the program are addressed through the provision of food gift certificates, and transportation if required.

For more information, call Susan Barry at our Family Literacy Centre, at 546-2580.

Family Literacy at Kingston Literacy