A Collaborative Literacy Project
William T. Fagan, Jim Anderson, Mary Cronin

The importance of the home on school reaming has been well documented through research, with some researchers describing the home as the most powerful institution influencing early literacy. There is no doubt that partnerships between home and school are the key to the success of young children, especially children of low-income, low-education parents. However, an effective partnership must recognize both sides as being essential. An effective home-school partnership is not formed if the school tends to "tell" the parents what to do. Both teachers and parents must both contribute to the literacy development of the children. This was a key goal of the PRINTS program which was initiated in MacMorran and Rabbittown Community Centres, and St. Pius X Primary School, St. John's in 1997.

A Collaborative Approach
Any project is more likely to be successful if it operates within a collaborative framework. This involves capitalizing on what is currently available, on involving various stakeholders, and on providing for the continuance of the project in other settings. PRINTS was successful on all three accounts. The model on which the PRINTS program was developed was based on the work done by Dr. W. T. Fagan, both from a research angle and from a partnership project which he implemented at St. Teresa's School, St. John's, two years ago, and on work done by Peter Hannan and Cathy Nutbrown in Britain. Parents, teachers, children, principal, volunteers, and community centre directors were involved. A plan for the continuance of the project was to develop a handbook containing procedures for implementing the program, details of all session plans and activities, evaluation activities, etc. A first draft (not ready for distribution) has been completed.

The PRINTS Model
The PRINTS model consists of eve strands or contexts in which early literacy develops (talk, play, environmental print, reading materials, drawing/writing materials), each of which encompasses five roles of parents or teachers (providing opportunity, recognizing, interacting, modelling, and setting guidelines). Sessions for each strand involve providing an overview of the strand, providing time for parents and teachers to share what that strand means to them, and how they operationalize it, providing lots of positive reinforcement, discussing implications of certain home-based activities for school learning, sharing a range of activities in each of the five strands for literacy development. Children's "small books" and educational toys were distributed periodically. The teachers and parents initially met separately but the facilitator was able to share information from one group to the other.

There were 13 two-hour sessions for the parents: an introductory session, 2 sessions each for each of the five strands (10), two wrap-up sessions, involving parents and teachers. For the teachers, there was one session per strand. In all, there were 10 parents and 10 children who ranged from age 2 to 6.

Outcomes
Outcomes were assessed in formal and informal ways. Opinionnaires were given to parents who also evaluated all the activities shared during the sessions. The facilitators and the teachers kept journals or logs. Within session there was a sharing of information about the parents' and their children's involvement in the literacy development activities.

The program was overwhelmingly successful from the following perspectives.

Parent commitment
Attendance was high. Parents took responsibility whenever possible for Running the project. They developed insights into the many activities in which they were already engaging their children in terms of how they affected literacy development. They became familiar with a range of other literacy development activities.

Parent literacy awareness
An opinionnaire administered to the parents prior to and at the end of the program showed that their views on literacy development changed more towards a holistic perspective, in which children are more likely to develop literacy expertise if they are immersed in meaningful reading, writing, and oral language experiences. The parents became more aware of how stories are meaningfully read with children, and how children learn from books.

Parent Self-Confidence
Parents became more confident in their knowledge of literacy development and felt secure in discussing literacy issues with teachers. Technical literacy terms (e.g. scaffolding, invented spelling) were introduced when an appropriate occasion arose. Parents no longer felt excluded from the "language of literacy" common among educators.

Child literacy development
The children developed more facility over language, including letters and words. They developed meaningful concepts of reading and writing, as exemplified in their engaging in, and/or modelling these activities. The latter was especially evident when they "read" to their friends.

Parent directed/child focussed
The program was aimed at empowering parents as teachers/facilitators of literacy. The facilitators did not work directly with the children, the parents did. This seemed to be a more effective model for literacy development. Work with the children by the facilitators would only last for a certain period of time. By providing the parents with the necessary literacy skills, they could work with their children as long as there was a need. Perhaps the best indicators of the effectiveness of this approach, were comments contributed by the parents. One such comment by a parent with respect to a literacy activity that had been discussed was, "She'll grow into it."

After an activity was shared, parents were always asked how this might be modified for their children's level of development. This parent explained that her daughter (age 3) would not be able to participate in the activity now, but when she was mature enough, she (the parent) was ready as she knew how to involve the child. This summarizes the role of parents as collaborators in literacy development - as having the knowledge, and being ready to facilitate literacy development when their children can benefit most from involvement in literacy and literacy related activities.

Reference

Hannan, P., & Nutbrown, C. (April, 1996). Teachers' use of a theoretical framework for preschool literacy intervention for parents. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Education Research Association.

Council Announces Temporary Appointment
The Literacy Development Council is pleased to announce the temporary appointment of Judy Anderson as Executive Director, effective October 27, 1997.

Ms. Anderson will be replacing David Gale, who has been seconded to Treasury Board, until August 31, 1998. Ms. Anderson can be reached at our St. John's office.

Provincial Literacy Resource Collection
Nears Completion
The Provincial Public Libraries Board is putting the finishing touches to a newly compiled literacy collection. This compilation is the end result of the study carried out by the Board to determine the need for a provincial literacy resource centre. While the recommendations of that feasibility study are still under review, the Literacy Resource Collection is catalogued, organized and ready for circulation. A total of over 500 items, including books, videos and tapes, are now housed in a newly created Literacy Resource Room at the Gander Public Library. The room has been made available to allow tutors, reamers, practitioners and researchers use of the facility as needed, and have the entire collection at their fingertips. Plans are under way to link an annotated list of the holding to the Public Libraries homepage, and a printed catalogue for those in the field without Internet access. For further information about the collection, call Pat Parsons at 651-2781.

Survey Enclosed
The Literacy Development Council is evaluating First-Time Readers. Part of this evaluation includes input from practitioners and tutors. We would appreciate you taking the time to complete the enclosed survey.

Evaluation forms, designed with reamers in mind, have been distributed through the September issue of First-Time Readers. If you have completed one of these surveys please disregard the enclosed survey.

The purpose of the survey is to give the Literacy Development Council an understanding of the need and future direction of First-Time Readers.