Parenting for a Literate Community: Moving Toward National Dissemination

by Pam Whitty, Ed. D., University of New Brunswick

Just a few short months ago before winter set in, Fredericton, New Brunswick was the site of a Parenting for a Literate Community National Train the Trainer Pilot. From November 16-19, literacy educators from across Canada gathered in this capital city to take part in a project entitled E/Merging Literacies: Parents Learn as They Teach Their Children. The Early Childhood Research and Development Centre at the University of New Brunswick co-ordinated a three and one half day national train the trainer pilot. The aim of the pilot was to deliver Parenting for a Literate Community on a national scale and then to develop a national dissemination plan for the program. The project was funded in part by the National Literacy Secretariat, Human Resources Development Canada.

Parenting for a Literate Community Train the Trainer Program was developed in 1998-99, with and, for Early Intervention (EI) and Family Resource Centre (FRC) staff throughout the province of New Brunswick. The literacy principles, processes, and products involved can be applied by those of you working in this growing field of family and community literacy.

Parenting for a Literate Community: A Bit of Background

At the UNB Early Childhood Centre, we recognized that early intervention and family resource centre staff, as well as others more directly involved in community literacy, were taking on greater responsibility for creating, locating and/or facilitating the implementation of literacy programs for preschool children and their parents. With this recognition in mind, we entered a partnership with the Fredericton Regional Family Resource Centre and set up a family literacy program for parents and children for two mornings a week. This program consisted of three components; one for parents, one for children and the final component was a time for parents and children to come together. The focus in all components was on literacy in its multiple forms.

We ran the parents' and children's program for an eight month period. During that time we also worked with approximately fifty anglophone EI and FRC staff to develop the Parenting for a Literate Family Literacy Training Program. Running the family literacy program for children and parents at the same time as we ran training sessions for the EI and FRC staff was both ambitious and yet integral to the development of our training principles, processes and products. Our early childhood classroom provided a site for parents and EI and FRC staff to directly engage with children and to see good literacy practices in action. The critical conversations which ensued, particularly in the parent group afforded us the possibility of working with parents in a supportive manner, and developing family literacy materials that respect their interests and needs, and those of their children.

Critical Conversations with Books at the Centre: A Process

The materials we developed, as well as our principles and what we call a principled approach to literacy learning and teaching can be viewed our website in the Parenting for a Literate Community Section. Our eight booklets and video provide our readers and viewers with a detailed description of how our principles were applied. These materials clearly reveal the process through which we worked with parents and children, and they serve as program guides. The materials are important, however, the process through which our principles and products emerged is equally as important. In our pilot training sessions in November, we used critical conversations, the main process feature of the Parenting for a Literate Community (PLC) program, to learn with and from each other. And in the context of critical conversations, children's books became the focal and vocal point for discussions.

What made us choose children's books as a vehicle for approaching the literacy needs of parents and children, when as early childhood educators and advocates we know that there is much more to literacy then the book? It is fair to say that we know books, we know how to run good programs for children, and we have extensive experience and expertise in working with adults who work with young children. We also were aware of the apparent polarity that can frame literacy issues between home and school. An often repeated school phrase, read to your child is countered by another phrase from homes wait 'til they get to school, then they will get books and reading.

As educators, we all know that success at school is more complicated than read to your child. We also know that children who engage in peer group activities prior to school, who have extensive literacy experiences with drama, play, and books, for example, are more successful when they enter school situations. And we know that most parents are highly motivated to make their children's lives better than their own.

This take us right back to books, our question became - how do we hook parents on books? We did this in three ways:
i) we engaged parents with ourselves in conversations with a variety of books including fairy tales, predictable books, alphabet books,
ii) we linked children's play interests observed in the classroom to books, and
iii) we provided opportunities for parents and children to interact together with books.

The overlapping nature of adult literacy with children emerging literacies, the motivational power of parents who become incited to read with their own children, and our excitement working with parents birthed a process and set of products that aim to be reciprocal and pleasurable.