Family Literacy: A Case for Collaboration between Public and School Libraries

A project compiled by Jennifer Peterson, Michael Holte and Blythe Summers

Resources

Organizations:

Most of this section was compiled from the Reading Promotion Partners page at The Library of Congress, Center for the Book
Artists for Literacy (The SIBL [Songs Inspired By Literature] Project) 2601 Mariposa St. San Francisco, CA 94110 phone: 415-553-3330 e-mail:
The Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy 1201 15th St., NW, Ste. 420 Washington, DC 20005 phone: 202-955-6183 / fax: 202-955-5492 e-mail:
International Literacy Network 444 North Capitol St., Suite 422 Washington, DC 20001-1512
International Reading Association 800 Barksdale Rd. P.O. Box 8139 Newark, DE 19714-8139 phone: 302-731-1600 / fax: 302-731-1057 e-mail:
National Center for ESL Literacy Education 4646 40th St., NW Washington, DC 20016-1859 phone: 202-362-0700, ext. 200 / fax: 202-363-7204 e-mail:
National Center for Family Literacy 325 W. Main St., Ste. 300 Louisville, KY 40202-4237 phone: 502-584-1133 / fax: 502-584-0172 Family Literacy Info Line: 1-877-FAMLIT-1 e-mail:
National Coalition for Literacy c/o American Library Association 50 E. Huron Chicago, IL 60611 phone: 1-800-228-8813
National Education Association Read Across America 1201 16th St., NW Washington, DC 20036 phone: 202-822-SEUS fax on demand: 1-888-2 GET NEA
National Institute for Literacy 1775 I St., NW, Ste. 730 Washington, DC 20006-2401 phone: 202-233-2025/ fax: 202-233-2050
ProLiteracy Worldwide 1320 Jamesville Ave. Syracuse, NY 13210 phone: 315-422-9121 or toll free: 1-888-528-2224 fax: 315-422-6369 e-mail:
Reading Is Fundamental, Inc. 1825 Connecticut Ave., NW, Ste. 400 Washington, DC 20009 phone: 1-877- RIF-READ (toll-free) or 202-287-3220 fax: 202-287-3196
Reading Rockets WETA-TV-FM 2775 Quincy St. Arlington, VA 22206 phone: 703-998-2600

Articles and Documents:

Family Literacy: It Takes a Village by Pam Reeder and Karen Sowers. Library Talk, November/December, 2002
Parental Involvement and Family Literacy: a Bibliography of article titles (1990-Present) from the National Literacy Trust in the United Kingdom.
Integrated Services, Cross-Agency Collaboration, and Family Literacy by Judith Alamprese.
Family Literacy: A Strategy for Educational Improvement, an issue brief for the National Governors Association prepared by staff from the NationalCenter for Family Literacy. A useful summary of family literacy, programming needs, and funding advocacy.
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.
Perspectives on Family Literacy, A joint publication of Family Literacy Forum & Literacy Harvest Fall 2003. Edited by Marguerite Lukes and Claudia M. Ullman. The articles in this collection explore a number of themes related to innovative program practices. In addition, this issue critically examines some assumptions about literacy in general as well as the roles of specific family members within the family literacy framework.
Creating Programs for Language Minority Families by Margaret Mulhern, Flora V. Rodriguez-Brown, & Timothy Shanahan. This article provides 8 steps to designing a family literacy program which begins to address the need to look for “new ways to provide useful and appropriate information about children's learning to parents who were not educated in this country, and we must learn to draw on the resources that families can offer to help bridge the home-school gap.”
Rhetoric and Research in Family Literacy by Peter Hannon. British Educational Research Journal, Vol. 26, No. 1, 1999. (Accessed through ERIC) A critical analysis of 1) the usage of the term “family literacy”, 2) targeting programs for selected families, 3) the presumptions made about participants and their willingness to be involved, 4) how programs are evaluated for their effectiveness, and 5) the claims made for the socio-economic benefits of restricted programs.
Educating and Learning Collaboratively- Schools and Their Communities presented by Lyn Tett, Ian Martin, Pamela Munn, Jane Martin and Stewart Ranson at the Second European Conference on Lifelong Learning held at the University of Bremen, 25-27 February 1999. A report on a study of collaborative initiatives in Scotland, between schools and other organizations both non-profit and governmental. The report enriches the dialogue about the potential which arises out of collaboration and highlights the need for creating comprehensive community education systems.
School and Public Library Relationships: Essential Ingredients in Implementing Educational Reforms and Improving Student Learning by Shirley A. Fitzgibbons, School Library Media Research, Vol 3, 2002. A comprehensive state of the art review on school and public library cooperation, describing historical trends, types of cooperative programs and reasons why they succeed or fail.
School Library Media Programs and Family Literacy by Eleanor R. Kulleseid. The Bookmark, Spring 1992.
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: NationalCenter for Family and Community Connections with Schools.

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. CambridgeMA: 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.

Web Resources:

LINCS (Literacy Information aNd Communications) a service of the National Institute for Literacy. This is an amazing resource overall, but the specific place to go is: Midwest Regional LINCSFamily Literacy Special Collection.
LINCS listserv/online discussion:
From the Virginia Adult Learning Resource Center comes a compendium of Family Literacy links including information on research, statistics, funding, programming, collaboration, and evaluation.
One of the best is Family Literacy Starter Kit published by the VirginiaAdultLearningResourceCenter, January 2002
Librarians Toolkit for Family Literacy from the State Library of Ohio. This comprehensive list of linked resources includes information on collaboration, funding, statistics and programming.
Public/School Library Planning Project of the Multnomah County Library. While some links are broken, many live links from the project research are available including a survey of PublicSchoolMediaCenters as well as principal, teacher, and media specialist focus groups and an additional annotated bibliography for Public and School Library Cooperation.
The FamilyCenter page of resources for PACT time. Many links to great resources for family literacy activities.
Ideas for National Family Literacy Day
Family Literacy for Linguistic Minority Populations. A large list of resources assembled from the World Wide Web, ERIC Database, and a variety of other bibliographic resources by the Clearinghouse on Reading, English, and Communication, an information repository of the Indiana University School of Education.
America's Literacy Directory. Search by literacy resources by zip code.
Connecting Learners to Libraries Initiative - Washington State
K-12 Library Initiative - Washington State

Statistics:

National:

State:

Regional:
(select state, and then type of region)
Library Research Service - School Library Information

Evaluation Tools:

Collaborative Evaluation Led by Local Educators: A Practical, Print- and Web-Based Guide created by NEIRTEC (Northeast and the Islands regional Technology in Education Consortium). This evaluation guide provides tips on planning, collecting, and analyzing data, and knowing how to present the information to the various stakeholders.
The Outcomes Toolkit 2.0. Durrance, J. C., & Fisher, K. E. (2002). Ann Arbor, MI and Seattle, WA: University of Michigan and University of Washington.
Resources for Outcome Based Evaluation from the Texas State Library. In this era of accountability, we are becoming increasingly obligated to provide outcome measurements for our services. This excellent list of resources and links explains how evaluation is changing and how to implement and benefit from Outcome Based Evaluation.

Funding:

AASL Resource Guides for School Library Media Program Development. The best of the lot. Provides information on the who, how, and where of funding a School Library and its programs.

The Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy. Around since 1989, this foundation is probably one of the biggest and best literacy advocates around.
Family Literacy Resource Notebook published by The Ohio Literacy Resource Center. This book is a PDF file freely available on the web. Printed in 1998, it has the goods on how to get a literacy program started and how to fund it.
NationalCenter for Family Literacy. Doesn’t fund literacy programs directly but offers training and information.

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). See also for the Intergenerational Culture Project.
  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. This link shows samples of authors and questions and provides links to author web sites:
  5. PRIME TIME FAMILY READING TIME is a unique intergenerational six- or eight- week program of reading, discussion and storytelling held in public libraries, community centers and other public venues. The program features award-winning children's books from around the world that stimulate discussion about themes and problems encountered in everyday life. PRIME TIME aims to assist parents with low literacy skills in order to build their confidence in helping their children learn to read.
  6. 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. A Tall Tree initiative minigrant.
  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. A Tall Tree initiative minigrant.
  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 PublicLibrarianSchool 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.