Bilingual Family Literacy Programs: Strengthening Literacy Practices between Homes and Schools
Location
Hager-Lubbers Exhibition Hall
Description
PURPOSE: Developing literacy skills is a sociocultural phenomenon, based on interactions with others. Parents are their child’s first teachers, and they hold a critical role in developing their child’s literacy. Often, cultural and language barriers inhibit parents from feeling capable of supporting school learning at home. English language learners (ELLs) come from diverse academic, cultural, and socioeconomic backgrounds; however, all ELLs face the challenge of mastering social and academic language simultaneously. PROCEDURES: This project explores the use the home language to model engaging and interactive best practice literacy strategies with ELLs and their families. OUTCOME: As a result, families will feel empowered to participate in literacy activities at home with their children. This family literacy program is designed to support K-5 students in developing and strengthening their literacy skills in the areas of phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension. IMPACT: Research suggests that literacy skills in the home language can transfer to support language acquisition and literacy in the target language, in the case of the United States, English.
Bilingual Family Literacy Programs: Strengthening Literacy Practices between Homes and Schools
Hager-Lubbers Exhibition Hall
PURPOSE: Developing literacy skills is a sociocultural phenomenon, based on interactions with others. Parents are their child’s first teachers, and they hold a critical role in developing their child’s literacy. Often, cultural and language barriers inhibit parents from feeling capable of supporting school learning at home. English language learners (ELLs) come from diverse academic, cultural, and socioeconomic backgrounds; however, all ELLs face the challenge of mastering social and academic language simultaneously. PROCEDURES: This project explores the use the home language to model engaging and interactive best practice literacy strategies with ELLs and their families. OUTCOME: As a result, families will feel empowered to participate in literacy activities at home with their children. This family literacy program is designed to support K-5 students in developing and strengthening their literacy skills in the areas of phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension. IMPACT: Research suggests that literacy skills in the home language can transfer to support language acquisition and literacy in the target language, in the case of the United States, English.