Teachers in a multicultural, inner-city elementary school in Vancouver designed a series of family literacy initiatives to encourage parents to interact with the school in ways that would support their involvement with their children's literacy learning. These activities ranged from school-based programs of one or two days such as Family Literacy Day and Book Fairs to longer programs such as a nutrition program, the use of dual language books with parents and an ongoing Library Kit initiative. This case study report describes the impetus for the projects, the process of implementation and the extent to which the original goals were achieved. It highlights some of the issues faced by both teachers and parents as they struggle to find a way to work together. These initiatives resulted from teachers in the school understanding that parents wanted to help their children learn and that they were looking for additional ways to achieve this. As one parent had commented to the teacher, "I read with my child, what else can I do?"
The teacher researchers wanted to examine the claim that the provision of school-based family literacy initiatives that address the issues faced by families in a multicultural setting would encourage greater parental involvement in children's early literacy development. They hoped that by modeling strategies to support parent and child interactions designed to encourage literacy learning, in ways consistent with Canadian school practices, the parents would increase their repertoire of skills to support their children's literacy learning in the home. To achieve this the teacher researchers invited parents to participate in a variety of school-based initiatives that demonstrated different ways of encouraging early literacy development.
The definition of Family Literacy used in this study is taken from Strickland (1996) and "encompasses both the research and implementation of programs involving parents, children, and extended family members and the ways in which they are supported and use literacy in their homes and communities".
Admiral Seymour Elementary School is situated between the Chinatown district of the city and Commercial Drive, a multicultural shopping and recreation area in a residential area several light industrial businesses including a printing shop, a wholesaler and a juice maker. There is also arguably the best ice cream shop in Vancouver two blocks from the school. The school site consists of two buildings built between 1900 and 1907. The older wooden structure is the original school building with the adjoining brick building added later. The school celebrated its centenary in 2000. The older building has classrooms on the ground floor with the upper floor being used as office space for district programs. The newer building has classrooms on two floors and a cafeteria and library in the basement. The history of the school reflects the changes in the area. At one time the records show that the school enrolled over 800 students and must have been bursting at the seams. A gradual drop in enrolments to its current level of 211 took place over the years, as the area changed from being primarily residential to more mixed usage has allowed classrooms to be used as computer rooms, parent rooms and offices for support personnel.
Many of the students come from a large social housing development that was built nearby in the 1960's. The children walk across an overpass, built when the parents petitioned then local government for safe access for their children. A significant number of students live in individual houses or apartments outside the regular catchment area and are driven to school.
At the time of this study the school population of 211 students (122 males, 89 females) represented a cross section of the multicultural society in the area. There are 19 different first languages represented in the school with Vietnamese (52), Chinese (28), Cantonese (27) and Spanish (18) being the major first languages with representation from Baluchi (1), Croatian (1) and Malay-Basa (1). Most of the children were born in Canada (175) with ten coming from China and seven from Pakistan. There are also 31 children of First Nations ancestry in the school. Of the 211, 26 children are designated as having special needs.
In order to meet the needs of this diverse population the school has instigated several special programs. Eighty-five children receive ESL support and 31 receive support from the First Nations School Support Worker. The school has an "inner-city" designation that provides extra staffing as well as a half-day junior kindergarten program that prepares four-year-olds to meet the challenges of school. The school provides breakfast and hot lunch programs.
The school is proud of its social responsibility initiatives, which include "bully proofing" and the "Catch them being good" social responsibility partnership between the Vancouver School Board and the University of British Columbia that teach students how to take care of themselves as well as other people and the places in their lives. The Reading Mastery Program, the Family Literacy program and the "One to One" volunteer program enhance literacy learning in the school.
The local community is very well served by the RayCam Community Centre where there are after school and summer programs, many of them subsidized, that are available to all the students. The Principal reports that many of the students go to the center after school. For these students their life experiences are bounded by the triangle of home, school and center Often it is extended family and older siblings who provide care for students as parents may work at one or more low-paying occupations.
Mrs. Lee has taught Vancouver children for more than thirty years. She speaks Cantonese and English and finds this very useful when working in a multicultural inner city school. Any time parents have a question about the school or their children they go to her for help.
Ms Ting been teaching for four years, speaks Cantonese and English and is interested in family literacy because she believes parents are the most important teachers that a child has. She has a science degree, education degree and a diploma in ESL.
Mrs. Tsoukalas, the teacher-librarian and main researcher, has taught for more than thirty years in a variety of capacities. She has a Master's Degree in reading and language education and a Diploma in English as a second language and literacy. Her interest in teacher action research and Family Literacy led to her involvement inn this project
Mrs. Marjorie Lam - Neighborhood Assistant
Mrs. Lam, a graduate of an early Childhood Education course, speaks English and Cantonese and is described as a "life saver" by her colleagues. She is the person parents first make contact with if they have questions about the school system. She is welcoming to new parents and tries to match the needs of the parents and students to the educational goals of the school by introducing community resources to the school and often introduces them to ESL and "Moms and Tots" programs. She works extensively with parent volunteers.
The school has adopted an approach to parental involvement that tries to reflect the cultural and language diversity of the population it serves. Despite the best efforts of the staff the number of parents who participate in school activities is low. As the Principal readily admits, parents are not always involved in the school and are not always asking for information about their children's progress. This, he explains, does not mean that they are not interested in how their children are doing in school but the pressure of work, often at more than one job, prevents them from having the time to visit the school on a regular basis. He reports that the parents trust the staff of the school to take care of the safety and learning needs of their children. The parents are very friendly and supportive of the school.
Tea and coffee are always made available in the parent room in the main school building. This room is a welcome addition to the school. The multicultural workers use it on Mondays to run workshops and information sessions for Vietnamese and Cantonese parents. On Fridays, a First Nations School Support Worker and Neighborhood Assistant use it for a Parenting Group. The rest of the weekday mornings it is available to parents to come and practice English through Conversation, Novel Study, and Computer Use. Parents seem very interested in the computer access and the school is trying to provide them with three computers with Internet access.
At present there is one computer solely for the use of the parents, and the principal reported that it had been used regularly by a mother with the equivalent of a Grade 9 education from Pakistan to teach herself to type, as she wants to return to work. This indicates the need to support the parents' vocational and academic skills in order for them to be more able to support their children. As the school does not have an active Parent Advisory Council, parent participation in school governance is limited, however the fact that parents were interested in their children's education was demonstrated when four parents approached the principal and asked him to set up a meeting in which they could find out more about how the school was run. This request resulted in meetings being scheduled throughout the year. There were twelve parents at the first meeting asking questions about school issues. The principal reported that the parents and teachers had different goals for the meeting. The teachers wanted to ensure that parents understood how teachers assessed the students, the use of performance standards and the Ministry of Education's Instructional Resource Packages; parents were more interested in the practicalities of school life, they wanted to know why the cost of the lunch program had increased and how split grade classes functioned. The two multilingual workers attached to the school who were "great at communicating with parents" were asked to hold workshops on the school system including issues related to multi-grade classes and on the reporting system, how to read a report card. Parents were sent a program of events translated into their first language and asked what topics they were interested in. The teacher-librarian reports that more parents participated in the sessions that included a craft or other cultural activity where they could share their expertise.
The teachers attributed low parental attendance to practical issues parents faced, "The school has had good parental involvement in the past but now, because many parents drive their children to school, they do not necessarily live in the area, and it is more difficult for them to come to the school", or "They have busy schedules and often it is the grandparent who is looking after the child". Marjory Lam, the neighborhood worker, spoke about the cultural issues that could affect a parent's attendance, "Parents are not comfortable coming to school because parents with an Asian background are not accustomed to volunteering in schools. When they come to school and meet the teacher it is not always a positive thing, parents might be told that their child doesn't listen or something like that". Their efforts to encourage parental involvement have had varied results. The Lunar New Year events put on by the school attracted over two hundred parents yet the Junior Kindergarten teacher reported being disappointed in the number parents that attended from her class, "We have been trying to get parents to come in but have not been very successful "only two parents came to out Lunar New Year Pot Luck".
Literacy development is a primary goal of the school and teachers spend a large part of each day on developing the students' literacy skills using the Reading Mastery program. The development of decoding skills is a major part of this program in the early grades. It was decided that this program would be used throughout the school to develop specific skills of decoding as the Principal stated that the philosophy behind using this program was that "no child can read until they can de-code". While many teachers were involved in this program several teachers, understanding the importance of the home literacy experiences, wanted to encourage parents to spend time with their children in a way that would further develop children's literacy skills. The teachers of the students in the junior kindergarten and kindergarten class were particularly cognizant of the impact of families on early learning. Teachers wanted to provide ways in which parents could share their expertise. They wanted to provide parents with strategies and resources that would enhance their involvement in their children's early learning. As the development of literacy is such an important part of a young child's education this is the area in which they directed their effort. The researchers had different reasons for being involved in this project depending on their individual concepts of literacy and literacy development.
The junior kindergarten teacher cited her understanding of the research on parental involvement as her main reason for being involved in the project. "Because there is so much research on parental involvement, and these kids (whose parents support their learning) seem to have a bit of an advantage". She understood that the parents lack of involvement in the school was often due to family and work pressures, "No matter how busy a parent they are they all want their kid to do well and I wanted to support them" and lack of information about the school system, "The education system they come from is totally different from what is offered here in Canada so they need some guidelines so they can understand how they can help their children learn". She felt that if she could encourage parents to interact with their children in a way that supported the child's learning this would lead to increased literacy development. Her idea was not to "bring school to the home" but to provide practical resources that the parent and child could use together and in this way create a learning bond between parent and child. The suggestions on how to use the resources were meant as guidelines rather than as prescriptive instructions. In this way she hoped to enhance the skills the parents already possessed rather than teaching them new ways of helping their children learn.
The kindergarten teacher wanted to address her students' nutritional needs, and hoped to involve the children and their parents in informative discussions about this. Her emphasis on vocabulary development and the parents visiting the school to participate in cooking activities made this a teacher directed activity in which she was hoping to develop new skills - that of good nutritional choices in the parents. Most of this took place with English as the language of instruction. The nutrition teacher has taught the program Food For families for many years and parents are familiar with her approach.
The teacher-librarian spoke of the need for the school to develop a more equal relationships with parents, "We want more parents to come in as partners, to see us as partners in children's learning", and to find ways to capitalize on the cultural capital parents bring to the school context, "We want parents to see that they can come in and work with their child and talk with their child about school, that they do have background and experience, that school is more than just reading and learning English, it can be a variety of other things, bringing babies, talking to siblings and having conversations around music and games". She thought that the process of involving parents would also contribute to the home situation, "If we can give them the information they need they feel more confident in answering any questions children have". She understood that the relationship between parents and teachers had to be fostered and that there was a need to bring the activities of the home into the school setting in a way that developed mutual trust and understanding and that this would create the basis for the development of programs to support the parents develop their children's learning.
The Neighborhood Assistant explained her involvement in the project as a need to find ways of supporting the teachers and parents in developing a common ground on which to communicate, "If you don't have a base for understanding each other, where families are coming from and what the child represents it is very difficult in a multicultural society to help both the student and the family progress to a more positive learning situation".
All the researchers wanted to provide parents with support to help their children learn and each had an approach to this issue that they wanted to explore.
This group of researchers came together as a result of their involvement in the library where parents are invited to volunteer or visit throughout the day. The teachers saw the opportunity to work collaboratively with parents.
In order to implement and evaluate the goals that lay behind their literacy claims for parental involvement, the teachers and Home School worker initiated three distinct programs within the school. These programs included the encouragement of student and parent language development and interaction around healthy eating; the development of literacy-based library kits that the parent could borrow for home use; and the provision of opportunities for parents to visit the school in order to learn more about the teaching and learning in the school and to share opportunities to read with their young children.
This project was undertaken in a class of 20 kindergarten children, most of who spoke English as a second language. There was a teaching assistant in the class to provide help with a child who has special needs. The teacher, Mrs. Lee, spoke Cantonese and although she did most of her teaching using English, she would use Cantonese occasionally when a child was struggling to understand. The children had a snack together each morning and she was concerned about its nutritional value. She suspected that the parents and the children had limited awareness of the range of produce available in the city and wanted to increase the children and parent's awareness of different fruits and vegetables and how they could be used to create snacks. She also hoped that the children and parents would develop a new vocabulary about different kinds of produce and share this with their parents. In this way she hoped to link a specific concern about the children's nutrition to the vocabulary development of both parent and child. Mrs. Lee had access to the parents during her few moments they were in the school to drop off and pick up their children and had developed some acquaintance with them. She used this time to give parents information about the healthy snack sessions that were planned.
The teacher used several class lessons to introduce the children to aspect of good nutrition using the Canadian Food Guide as her main source of information. This was translated for use by the parents. The children were encouraged to think about the food they ate and participated in a series of activities around the concept of healthy food. An initial survey was sent to the parents asking them to record the number of times they ate certain fruits and vegetables during the course of one week. During this time she sent out letters of invitation in English and Cantonese to the parents at the beginning of each week. These invitations gave details of the time and place of the upcoming cooking sessions and were given to the parents as they picked up their children at the end of the school day. At this time the teacher also spoke to some of the parents reminding them of the cooking sessions and encouraging them to attend. While she did not expect all the parents to be able to attend, she did expect several of them to be at each session.
A series of four lessons was created in collaboration with a nutritionist from the "Cooking Food for Families" program who taught the four lessons to which the parents were invited. Each lesson was based on a recipe provided by the nutritionist using fruits, vegetables and other foods that were considered to be readily available to the parents. The recipes included vegetable dips, oatmeal and raisin cookies, fruit salad and wraps. The aim was to introduce the children to a wider variety of foods than they might experience at home. While these recipes were based on the Canadian Food Guide the teacher and nutritionist did try to include some vegetables that could be purchased in the local produce market that specialized in Chinese foods. Some of the children did not want to eat the fruit and vegetables provided for them at snack time unless they had tasted them previously. The teacher also wanted the children to remember to bring a snack to school and to provide the children with the means of making their own snack. These lessons were held in the school dining room where there was access to utensils and sinks. These are the sessions to which parents were invited. These lessons were scheduled in the last hour of the school day in order to make it as easy as possible for parents to attend. Parents pick up their children after school and it was hoped that they might arrive a little early and take part in the lessons.
Eight mothers attended at least one of the cooking lessons. All of the mothers that attended these sessions spoke English as a second language. Two mothers came to three of the four sessions and one mother came to two of the sessions. Five mothers were able to attend one of the four sessions. The mothers participated by assisting the classroom teacher and nutritionist to cut up fruit and vegetables for the children to taste and in encouraging the children to taste food that was unfamiliar to them as they sat with the children and encouraged them to pay attention.
The parents had very little opportunity to practice new vocabulary other than encouraging their children to answer questions. While the parents had been invited to attend the lessons there was no attempt to provide them with a specific task or role. They became "helpers" by default and were spectators rather than participants in any language process. However, the researchers had collaborated on providing a song relevant to each session. This provided continuity between these sessions and the library sessions.
When asked to reflect on this level of parental involvement Mrs. Lee provided one possible reason for the relatively poor numbers and discovered that the parents who did attend the sessions already had a history of involvement with their child's education in some way, "We have not been able to involve Kindergarten parents in the Healthy Foods and Activities classes as much as we had originally predicted. Even though we made invitations and reminded parents, it seems that many are working. For most sessions between 2-4 parents participated. We noticed, however that the parents who did participate were some of those who had been involved with the Junior Kindergarten Family Literacy sessions last year. Some of our Kindergarten parents do attend the after school Food for Families program". She concluded that the program had been successful in part but the low number of parents who participated in the sessions disappointed her. It appeared that this teacher's goal had changed from that of encouraging vocabulary development to that of getting the parents to attend the cooking sessions. The teacher did not report noticing any significant changes in the types of snacks the children brought to school.
Ms. Ting, the teacher of the Junior Kindergarten class had tried several ways of getting parents involved in her classroom activities. She regularly sent out newsletters translated into Cantonese about what was happening in the class with invitations to parents to join in the activities. She also understood the importance of having a range of role models for the children and invited other adults into the classroom to read to the children. To encourage parental involvement in children's learning she decided to provide parents with materials they could use at home as she said, "Trying to get parents to come to school has not been very successful so I wanted to make something they could take home and use with their child". In doing this she wanted to provide the parents with resources that would develop "a lot of rich language and a lot of fun!"
She believed that the key to literacy development for the children in her class was for the parents to spend time interacting with their children around a range of resources chosen for their potential to be of value educationally. She wanted parents to use their first language and to "have fun" with their children. She was concerned that parents were too busy to spend "quality time" with their children and in their eagerness to help their children learn English did not understand the importance of first language development. By providing parents with resources to use with their children and introducing them to ways of using the resources she hoped to help them understand the importance of language development in either first or second language. Despite her efforts she was not able to do this in the way she hoped and it was the children themselves who showed the parents how to use the materials. She saw the library kits as a way to involve parents in non-threatening, fun activities at home that would develop the children's language and literacy skills and facilitate parents and children working together confidently.
The teacher designed a set of kits that parents could borrow to use at home with their children. Each kit contained a selection of games and activities on a particular theme and included instructions, in English, on the different ways the materials could be used. "I picked themes I thought were suitable for Junior Kindergarten and Kindergarten children, areas where there is the possibility of a lot of rich language and a lot of fun!" She worked with the school librarian to create a set of kits that parents could borrow on a weekly basis and use with their children at home.
Each kit contained five or six items related to a particular topic; for example a kit with the title "Music" contained a plastic tambourine, two plastic shakers, a book by Robert Munsch titled "Mortimer" (about a boy who makes a lot of noise), a tape of the book and a toy xylophone. The idea cards included with the kit suggest that parents use the tambourine and shakers during the story of Mortimer; read Mortimer to your child; listen to Mortimer on tape; talk about different kinds of music and teach you child a song you learned when you were younger; use the shakers to shake the number of syllables is words -- such as apple = two shakes, sun = one shake; play the songs listed on a song card; make up a tune on the xylophone and ask your child to teach you a song from school. Other kits contain items such as Jigsaw puzzles, art activities and toys that encourage First Language use. Currently the students in the after-school Chinese Language Class are translating the idea cards in the kits into Chinese.
She hoped that using the materials in the kits would increase the time parents spent interacting with their children at home and encourage parents to use more language with their children. The use of teacher designed materials would also introduce the parents to the minds of activities their children were participating in during the school day and act as a bridge between the teacher and parent when discussing the child's progress in school. She also hoped that by having the parents borrow the kits from the school library they would become more comfortable with the school surroundings and may even borrow other resources from the library.
After creating the kits the teacher intended to invite the parents to the classroom to introduce the kits to the parents and to explain their purpose and how they might be used. This process did not happen in the way she had expected, it took time to win the confidence of the parents and she had to use a series of strategies in order to get the parents involved. Letters of invitation, in both English, Cantonese and Vietnamese did not work and in the end she had to insist that parents picked their children up from the library where she had the kits on display and had talked with the children about the possibility of them being borrowed for use at home. As the parents came into the library they were individually introduced to the kits by the class teacher and the librarian and encouraged to borrow them by the children. Once a few parents had been introduced to the system of borrowing the kits, other parents followed and over the three weeks of the project kits were borrowed on an increasing basis
The preparation of the library kits took longer than expected and as a result the program was only active for three weeks near end of the research project. It proved difficult to get the parents to a meeting to introduce the program, "I sent (the parents) a note saying 'please come, I have these exciting new kits and I'll tell you all about them', and in the end one parent came with her younger son". After this initial disappointment the teacher tried a more direct approach. She arranged for the parents to pick up their children from the library at the end of the day and in this way ensured that she had a captive audience, "We made them come in (to the library) and the kits were all over the table and I gave them the spiel in about ninety seconds before I let them pick up their kids so they had to listen! They were ready to borrow the kits right away but we weren't ready to let them go yet."
The following week, several of the parents with the help of the librarian and the classroom teacher, chose a kit to take home. Once a few parents had been introduced to the system of borrowing the kits other parents followed suit and over the three weeks of the project kits were borrowed thirty times. The teacher-librarian also took the opportunity to show the parents more bout their children's schooling, "Usually about 5-8 Jr. K. parents borrow 'take home kits' every week. They often come into the Jr. K. library time and help us sing the 'Goodbye Song'. If they come earlier, they participate in the activities."
The school library is situated in the basement of the school and consists of two adjacent spaces. As well as the bookshelves that line the walls there is a table with puzzles and Lego and shelves of stuffed animals that the children can cuddle and read with. The library has a variety of reading materials in many languages, magazines, books and tapes. There are displays of books and children's pictures cover the walls.
The teacher-librarian saw the library as a "neutral space" in which parents and teachers could interact in ways that would increase two-way communication. She wanted parents to feel that the library was a safe, friendly place in which they could share ideas, borrow materials and learn more about how to help their young children develop early literacy skills. She also saw the need to help parents understand more about the reading program used in the school so that they could be involved in their children's reading progress. Throughout the school year the teacher-librarian worked with other staff members on several projects that were aimed at involving parents in their children's education. These included inviting parents to the library to read dual language books with their children; inviting them to participate in a regular Reading Mastery lesson to see what their children were learning in the classrooms; creating a display of children's work in the library as part of Family Literacy day.
While the school uses the Reading Mastery Program this is seen as only one component of the total literacy program within the school. Teachers extend this structured, skills-based program into other ways of developing literacy skills. For example, the teacher-researchers felt that the early years of schooling "set the stage" for later success in school. They believe that parents and children can work together to develop a sound base for the children in their care. They want parents to understand that early schooling is more than play and that play itself is a way to learn.
As many of the Family Literacy programs were held at specific times during the school year it was decided for this project to concentrate on. Use of dual-language books and Family Literacy day Activities including the Spring Fling show of students writing and art work.
On Family Literacy Day the teacher-librarian reports that twenty-nine parents came to the school to observe or be involved in literacy activities. Fifteen parents participated in watching a Reading Mastery lesson held in the library. There were six parents who visited the junior kindergarten and kindergarten classes to participate in activities and eight parents who observed Buddy Reading in the library when children from two Intermediate classes read books to younger students. The Book Fair was held over two days and was well attended because students were invited to bring their parents and to meet the teacher-librarian and classroom teachers. The teacher-librarian noted that the parents and children have lots of experience with Book fairs and love books.
Students from grades 1-7 were recruited as helpers for the day and Jr. K and K students attended throughout the day. This event was linked to parent- teacher evening and parents would visit the book fair while waiting to see their child's teacher. When the school combined Parent-Teacher Interviews, Book Fair and Spring Fling display of student work, plus prize draws at a two-day (both afternoon and evening) event there were 68 visitors to the library. These included moms, dads, grandparents, aunts, uncles, college aged siblings, babysitters, who came into the library and filled in prize draw survey forms.
"We had more parents when the event was over two days rather than one day and offered flexibility of scheduling. Parent-Teacher conferences are a big draw and provide opportunities to include parents in other events at the same time. Many of these activities include parents and children in multilingual and multicultural activities around literacy. It becomes apparent that everyone can make a contribution and all contributions are appreciated. We tried hard to tell parents that they are welcome to visit the library at any time and that they can either can observe what is happening or take part in the activities. The display of children's work was a good way to get parents to visit the library as all children were keen to show their parents what they had done and knew that their parents would be pleased to see the student work. They were also very proud to show the parents how they took leadership roles during Buddy Reading, running the Book Fair and teaching computer skills and being successful. All these activities helped children and their parents see that we think they and their families are important."
Family Literacy Day: On Tuesday January 27th the school celebrated Family Literacy Day. This was an opportunity to invite parents into the school to celebrate the importance of literacy development in the home. Parent-teacher interviews and a Book Fair were held at the same time. Volunteers were invited into school to read to the children and parents were invited to be part of the proceedings. The local community donated prizes and refreshments for the day. The occasion was used as a way of inviting parents to other school activities and to survey teachers' perceptions of parental involvement opportunities. A Book-Fair was held during Parent-Teacher Interviews. Parents were invited to the library to purchase books for their children. The students made a bargain bin containing books at $0.25 and book companies added bargain packages of books. All the parents who visited the fair, regardless of whether they bought anything were given a family book prize. This took place over three days and was organized by the students in the school.
Spring Fling Show of student work: This project was to serve the dual purposes of involving parents and teachers in the work of the library by asking the teachers to present the work of their students for the parents to see. Every class in the school was invited to present their work on a side of one of several large notice boards placed in the library for this purpose. Most classes presented the children's written work. Parents were invited to look at their children's work as well as the work of all the children in the school. The librarian created a comment sheet for each visitor to complete and enter for a prize draw and children were invited and encouraged to bring their parents to meet the teacher-librarian and to see the work on display. The children often translated for their parents.
In order to show the parents how to share books with their children and to show that it is important to read in any language the librarian invited parents into the library to share dual language books with their children. The use of books containing more than one language allows parents to read in their first language and children to follow in either language. The use of the books also encourages parents to be involved with the school and provides them with new skills of sharing books. As the teacher-librarian states, "parents who can't read English cannot fully share books written only in English with their children". Parents are invited into the library twice a week before school starts to share dual language books with their children. These are books that are printed in English but to which translations in other languages have been added. These translations are provided by the School Board Family Literacy project in the form of sheets of stick-on translations in several languages for several books. The Vancouver School Board had obtained permission to adapt several books and sent sets of stickers in different languages to any school that requested them. The schools were responsible for purchasing the actual books and applying the translated stickers to the correct pages. Parents and older students helped with this task.
The teacher-librarian sets out the books in the library and reads the book in English as the parents follow along in their own language. While doing this she models different techniques of reading with children. The books were reading books that had been adapted by the addition of stickers in other languages placed close the English words. In this way one title might be translated into several languages.
Junior Kindergarten parents were invited into the school library Tuesday and Thursday mornings from 8:50-9:10 to read books containing more than one language with their children, their teacher, the classroom assistant and the teacher-librarian. After the initial invitations news of then program spread by word of mouth and a group of six or eight parents would attend each session.
The teacher-librarian, in collaboration with teachers and students, organized several events during the year that were designed to emphasize the importance of literacy development while highlighting the work of the school. Two of the most important events are detailed here.
These sessions last for fifteen to twenty minutes before school starts and are held in the library several times a week. Five or six mothers attended on a regular basis and occasionally there was a father or grandparent present. The parents brought their pre-school children as well as school-aged children and many of the parents had become friends as a result of attending these sessions.
The teacher-librarian reported that parents ask to borrow the books for use at home and that she hears first languages being used to translate and to share what is happening. The parents are very shy and need encouragement to participate in the process.
The teaching assistant acted as interpreter during the interviews with eight mothers - Cantonese, Vietnamese and Spanish speaking - who had been participating in a session using dual language books. The mothers were very shy and reticent about sharing their thoughts and experiences and it was difficult to get them to expand on their brief comments but of the mothers that did responded three said they came to the sessions to learn how to help their children learn, one said she came to learn to speak English and two said they came because they had a nice time. As one mother put it, "we got over our fear; we want to learn."
When asked what they liked about using the books they all said that having two languages in the books allowed them to understand the stories and when encouraged to discuss how they used the two languages they all said that they like to read in English if they can and only when they cannot do this do they read in their own language. Several of the mothers said they liked using the books because it helped their children to learn to read their first language, "I like to translate and (the books) and my son can learn Spanish too" said one Spanish speaking mother; "I want my son to learn to read and write Chinese", from a Chinese speaking mother whose son is six years old and she says he can read and write a little Chinese already. Mothers appreciated being able to join in the songs their children brought home from school and being able to respond to their comments about what happened in school. While they did not actually state that this was because they had a better understanding of the school day this was implied. The Chinese parents reported that they try to sing the songs in English so that their children will learn English and that even though they know Chinese children's songs they do not use them. A Spanish-speaking mother said she sang in both English and Spanish to her children.
The dual language books were creating a direct link between home literacy practices of the home and school and providing parents with the means of respecting both practices. It is interesting to note that the mothers want their children to learn to read and write their first language but only want them to use English when singing. They have a dilemma in wanting to preserve their own language and culture and yet wanting their children to learn English so they can succeed at school.
Several issues became apparent in relation to the research process for all four of the projects.
The first, and perhaps the most significant, was that there were very different notions operating among the researchers around what counted as "parent participation." At different times it was taken to mean parents working with their children at home; parents participating in lessons in the school; parents attending meetings called by the school; parents responding to invitations, both written and verbal, from the teachers and parents attending programs to encourage their involvement in literacy learning. There was an assumption that "parent participation" might be any of these at any time as a need arose. However the goal of the program should determine the type of participation required. Are parents to be informed of some aspect of school life, to develop their own skills in some way or to develop the skills of their children? Is their first language to be respected and used or is the aim of their participation to develop their or their children's use of English? What do teachers expect of parents and what do parents expect of teachers? It is perhaps this lack of detailed definition of goal and how goals are linked to practice that accounts for some of the frustrations felt by both teachers and parents. As the researchers were in the initial stages of encouraging parent participation they might have tried to achieve too much.
The main frustration teachers expressed was the difficulty of getting the parents to attend the programs. The school-based researchers spoke of two reasons why this was proving to be difficult. The first was practical, the parents having no time or living outside the area, and the second cultural, "Parents are not comfortable coming to school because parents from other countries may not usually volunteer in schools (they may not have this experience or be aware that it is something they can do, when they come to school and meet the teacher it might not always be a positive thing, parents might be told that their child doesn't listen or something like that". It was interesting to note that language difference was not considered a major factor in preventing parents being involved in the programs by the school-based researchers. Three of the researchers spoke Cantonese and were therefore able to communicate with many of the parents, the fourth researcher mentioned other ways to communicate, and "we can all smile and communicate through pictures, through drawings, through holding hands, through singing It doesn't matter what the language is". The researchers spoke of the need to build a trusting relationship with the parents before expecting them to be involved with the school and that this takes time, patience and the provision of continuous creative opportunities. In order to build trust these is a need to know more about the other person, this need has implications when considering the type of program to set up in the school.
While the three programs discussed in this research report had the same goal of providing parents with the support they needed to help their children learn they each took a different approach to the problem. The nutrition program stemmed from a need perceived by the teacher and consisted of a program devised by her; the library programs, although teacher-led moved towards meeting the perceived needs of the parents; the Library Kits program provided parents with resources to use at home in their own way. This move from formal to informal connections was seen as positive despite the difficulties of achieving it, "it is hard because it is easier just to concentrate on doing a good parent conference" those are the things we do fairly well, but you have to take a risk and try to do something that you think a parent would like and sometimes they can't tell you that, perhaps they haven't had the chances to shape their own education as they come from a system that is rigid, it is so hard". However, understanding the difficulties of involving these parents does not prevent this teacher from having a vision of how it could be achieved,
"Schools probably have to have a center where parents can come and see all the great things happening, to see younger kids working with older kids, to see the art work, the music and the computers and all kinds of things and yet you might start with one place and they might come and feel safe but then you really have to work at expanding so parents can come into other areas of the school and not just for "school', they could come at lunch time and have lunch, they could come in an art class and do some of then project work, they could come in for work experience, the school has to be a place of multiple things happening and multiple invitations for parents. I just wish school was more open, it is hard to work within the constraints of timetables and report cards and tests'.
There was a growing understanding that in order to meet the needs of the parents in helping their children develop literacy skills the teachers had to 'beyond the books' and incorporate a range of activities in the programs. The school provides the students with the ability to decode through its literacy program and yet this concept of literacy needs expanding to incorporate the kinds of home literacy practices of parents and children. The library kits allowed the children to draw, make music, dance and sing while interacting with their parents. The researcher also understood the issue literacy as contextually based, 'There is a lot of vocabulary they can use, the can sing a song. I think we also need to look at literacy not just as print but also what we say, the kind of language that you use when you are playing a game or language that you use when you are giving instructions or playing outside". The teacher-librarian understood the need to expand her program, "(the use of) dual language books every time was boring, it was really powerful but it was limited in the sense that it is artificial; it is "doing school". We need a change, we had a project that works a bit and we wanted it to be more involving, more dynamic and changing, that is what multi literacy is all about, reminding yourself to go beyond the book".
The researchers were aware of the importance of the home literacy practices and that parents had a lot to offer their children, "they do have a background in (helping their children develop literacy skills), and they do have experience" and "we wanted more parents to see us as partners in their children's learning" . Although the library kits contained ideas for the parents on how to use the resources they were non-prescriptive allowing the parents to supplement the home literacy practices. The aim of the nutrition program was to develop the vocabulary around food that could be used in the home.
The teachers in the school worked hard to create an environment in which parents could learn how to support their young children's literacy development and are slowly increasing the numbers of parents actually involved with the school. However, as their research highlights, this is a slow and time-consuming process. Their research points to several interesting issues and indicates the need for support to continue this work. The parents that participated in the programs were motivated to help their children learn. New information about and awareness of their children's school experiences would only add to their ability to do this. In this was the programs would have influenced the way parents were involved in their children's learning and can be expected to lead to more early literacy development. However, as the teachers tried to create a bridge between the literacy practices of the home and the school they realized that they needed to adapt their programs to meet more of the specific needs of the parents and that there were difficulties in finding out what these needs were. They were spending large amounts of time and energy creating programs they thought would help parents while not being in a position to actually find out what the parents needed. The programs that appeared to come closest to meeting the needs of the parents and the ones with greatest parent participation were those programs that allowed
Teachers need help in finding ways to understand both parents' needs and the expertise they can bring to the learning situation. Parents and teachers need to work together to set goals for family literacy programs in order to make them more effective, and schools need support in developing structures that allow this to happen.
Strickland, D. Meeting the Needs of Families in Family Literacy Programs. Paper presented at Rutgers University conference "Family Literacy: Directions in Research and Implications for Practice" 1996.