AleFamilyLiteracyIdeas

From LiteracyTentWiki

• Back to Family Literacy

(from Kate Nonesuch, Victoria, BC kate.nonesuch@viu.ca on the NIFL Family Literacy Discussion List <familyliteracy@nifl.gov>), May 13, 2009.

Family Math Groups: An Exploration of Content and Style reports on a project in which Kate Nonesuch worked with parents to develop a manual of math activities for parents and kids to do together. This report outlines the project and discusses the effects of the group: parents had fun, grew more interested and less frustrated with math, and learned specific strategies to help their kids with math, which often resulted in improved communication and smoother relationships with their kids. The report finishes with recommendations for facilitating family math groups.

The manual, called Family Math Fun! is full of family math activities, ready to use in early literacy programs, day care centres, primary grades and Adult Basic Education/Literacy programs. Patterns, recipes, and hand-outs all included (109 pages). http://www.nald.ca/library/learning/familymath/familymath.pdf For more information: Kate.Nonesuch@viu.ca <mailto:Kate.Nonesuch@viu.ca> . This project was undertaken by Vancouver Island University, and funded by The Office of Literacy and Essential Skills, Human Resources and Skills Development Canada.

Stories from the Parents Write their Worlds (Padres como escritores) Project: The Joys of Reading, Writing, and Childhood Pranks (go to page 11)- what good things happen when parents are welcomed into schools to produce their own work and when their children read what their parents have written?

Good ideas, ideas that seem to work: theory and practice, best practices, and exemplary practices are all terms that may or may not describe good work that teachers and students are undertaking in progams around the world.

These resources represent good work:

Supporting Literacy Within Families,

and the Providence Public Library's Rhode Island Family Literacy Initiative;

both resources compiled by the New England Literacy Resource Center

Family Literacy in Canada: Profiles of Effective Practices edited by Adele Thomas

Intergenerational Literacy Programs for Incarcerated Parents and Their Families: A Review of the Literature (word document) William R. Muth. Kent, OH: Ohio Literacy Resource Center, 2006. Muth reports on what we know about the effects of prison-based family literacy programs and argues for their careful expansion.

Please add to the list, and please add your own suggestions - how do we describe work that works?

Janet Isserlis, May 10, 2009