Deandra Henderson Seminar in Applied Theory & Research 1

Ed. 702.22 – Fall 2009

Introduction

Statement of the Problem

Review of the Literature

Statement of the Hypothesis

Ask one of your close adult friends…”Hey what book are you reading?” You will be surprised at the answer. “Reading?…I don’t read, I don’t have time”. This is always troubling for me, especially when the person is a parent. If you don’t even read yourself as a parent, its highly unlikely you are reading with your child. After volunteering to read to my daughter’s Kindergarten class recently, and witnessing their overwhelming excitement and response to it, I am determined to promote and encourage parents to get involved in early childhood literacy with their children, in and out the classroom. Parents being Active in Literacy Development.

Reading is supposed to be Fun and Celebrated. I see less and less involvement and concern from parents promoting and engaging their children in literacy. Teachers send home scholastic, and other reading materials and it is tossed to the side. How can you tell, because the students are not excited about it when they come to class. Parents and Guardians, need to show excitement and enthusiasm for reading for their young learners, because this will set the tone and foundation for their attitudes towards reading.

Theorist POV: Lev Vygotsky - The major theme of Vygotsky's theoretical framework is that social interaction plays a fundamental role in the development of cognition.- Children learn through their interactions with surrounding culture.- According to Vygotsky’s theory, children can do more with the help and guidance of an adult or other person more experienced, than they can do by themselves. (Vygotsky, L.S. (1978). Mind in Society. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press)

- “…the amount of talk and the guidance style that parents use with their children have also been related to later language and cognitive development. (Hart & Risley, 1995; Walker, Greenwood, Hart, & Carta, 1994).

- “Parent –child storybook interactions have long been recognized as a positive influence on children’s reading development (Bus, van Ijzendoorn, & Pellegrini, 1995; Scarborough & Dobrich, 1994; Snow, Burns, & Griffin, 1998).

- “informal teaching activities (e.g., teaching reading, letters, or printing) taking place at home were significantly associated with better letter-name and letter-sound knowledge (Evans et al., 2000)

- “Generally when parents participate in their children’s education, both at home and at school, and experience relationships with teachers characterized by mutuality, warmth, and respect, students achieve more, demonstrate increased achievement motivation, and exhibit higher

levels of emotional, social, and behavioral adjustment”. (Fan & Chen, 2001; Henderson & Mapp, 2002; Marcon, 1999; Reynolds, 1991)

- “As parents read books with their children, they introduce conventions governing reading, (Snow & Nino, 1986), specialized ways language is used in books (Pappas & Brown, 1987; Purcell-Gates, 1998), and varied ways books organize and present information”.

- “Home literacy contributes to children’s vocabulary growth” (Senechal 1996)

HR1: 24 Students at P.S. ABC will demonstrate excitement and enthusiasm towards literacy once they witness their parents take part in the “Mystery Reader” literacy program that takes place over 3 months. This will encourage parents to be more engaged and take a more hands on approach with their children when it comes to literacy in and outside the classroom.

1- Dodici, B., Draper, D., & Peterson, C. (2003). Early Parent-Child Interactions and Early Literacy Development. Topics in Early Childhood Special Education, 23(3), 124-136. http://search.ebscohost.com, doi:10.1177/02711214030230030301

2- Reutzel, D., Fawson, P., & Smith, J. (2006). Words to Go!: Evaluating a First-Grade Parent Involvement Program for 'Making' Words at Home. Reading Research and Instruction, 45(2), 119-159. http://search.ebscohost.com

3- Sénéchal, M. (2006). Testing the Home Literacy Model: Parent Involvement in Kindergarten is Differentially Related to Grade 4 Reading Comprehension, Fluency, Spelling, and Reading for Pleasure. Scientific Studies of Reading, 10(1), 59-87. http://search.ebscohost.com, doi:10.1207/s1532799xssr1001_4

4- Doreen J. Mattingly, Radmila Prislin, Thomas L. McKenzie, James L. Rodriguez and Brenda Kayzar (Winter, 2002), Evaluating Evaluations: The Case of Parent Involvement Programs. Review of Educational Research, Vol. 72, No. 4 (Winter, 2002), pp. 549-576 American Educational Research Association

5- - Dickinson, D., & DeTemple, J. (1998). Putting parents in the picture: Maternal reports of preschool literacy as a prediction of early reading. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 13(2), 241-261. http://search.ebscohost.com, doi:10.1016/S0885-2006(99)80037-4

6- Hughes, J., & Kwok, O. (2007). Influence of student-teacher and parent-teacher relationships on lower achieving readers' engagement and achievement in the primary grades. Journal of Educational Psychology, 99(1), 39-51. http://search.ebscohost.com, doi:10.1037/0022-0663.99.1.39

7- Audet, D., Evans, M., Williamson, K., & Reynolds, K. (2008). Shared book reading: Parental goals across the primary grades and goal-behavior relationships in junior kindergarten. Early Education and Development, 19(1), 112-137. http://search.ebscohost.com

8- Kelly-Vance, L., & Schreck, D. (2002). The impact of a collaborative family/school reading programme on student reading rate. Journal of Research in Reading, 25(1), 43-53. http://search.ebscohost.com, doi:10.1111/1467-9817.00157

9- Stephenson, K., Parrila, R., Georgiou, G., & Kirby, J. (2008). Effects of home literacy, parents' beliefs, and children's task-focused behavior on emergent literacy and word reading skills. Scientific Studies of Reading, 12(1), 24-50. http://search.ebscohost.com, doi:10.1080/10888430701746864

10- Baker, L., Mackler, K., Sonnenschein, S., & Serpell, R. (2001). Parents' interactions with their first-grade children during storybook reading and relations with subsequent home reading activity and reading achievement. Journal of School Psychology, 39(5), 415-438. http://search.ebscohost.com, doi:10.1016/S0022-4405(01)00082-6