Family Reading Project: Description of the proposed activity
Family involvement in activities that support a child’s emerging literacy skills is critical to parents’ understanding of a child’s intellectual, language and literacy development. By providing literacy activities that families can do at home, we are helping to establish a pro-literacy culture in the lives of our children and are working toward these family literacy goals.
Development of the Family Literacy Activity Concept (Due July 31) (30 points)
The student will conceptualize an activity that begins with a children’s book reading by a parent or family member. The activity or game needs to reinforce vocabulary and concepts in the story book, while incorporating family routines or experiences and materials from home, as well as the involvement of family members. The student will submit the following to the professor for input and approval:
- book title and author
- a paragraph description of the proposed activity
- goal for the family and how different family members will be included in the activity
Write-Up of Family Literacy Activity Plan (Due August 5) (100 points)
The student will develop a written plan for introducing the activity to the child and family, with:
- Name of the activity
- Name and author of the book and age of the intended child audience
- Brief parental guidelines/suggestions for reading the book
- Vocabulary and concepts from the book being reinforced by the activity
- Goal for the family in participating in this activity
- DC Early Learning Standards being met by this activity
- Instructions/script for the activity/game
- Materials needed for the activity/game (including items from home)
- Roles of different family members in carrying-out the activity
- Analysis of how these elements support family literacy
Presentation of Family Literacy Activity (August 7) (70 points)
Bring 18 copies of the parent handout for your activity which should include:
- Goal for the family
- Children’s book and author
- Book reading guidelines for parents
- Activity instructions
Each student will distribute the handout to classmates and will describe the Family Literacy Activity you have created.
Student:
Professor:
Course title:
Date:
Family reading project
In this essay, a reading project that comprises a literacy activity is described for what a family can do at home to help establish a pro-literacy culture in the lives of children. The literacy activity conceptualized for this project starts with a children’s book reading by a parent or member of the family, and it reinforces concepts and vocabularies in the storybook. The title and writer of the storybook are provided in addition to a description of the proposed activity. Furthermore, the goal for the family and how different members of the family will be included in the activity is described in detail. Epstein (2009) stated that family literacy is understood as home literacy activities which provide young children with literacy skill-building opportunities whilst enhancing literacy skill development in every member of the family. Some of the important components for promoting family literacy activities at home and bringing up ready readers include family-focused reading, having literacy-rich homes, and home-school communication.
The storybook to be used
Title: Who Will Hug the Sun
Author: Ey Wade
This storybook is relevant and appropriate for 3-5 year olds. In this book, Mhia loves to give hugs and receive hugs from other people and she longed to one day hug the sun. Upon learning that she actually cannot complete her wish of hugging the sun, she gets disappointed. In order to cheer her up, her mother tells her about the sun’s antics to get a hug of her own, along with the chaos that it brings about. At long last, she gets to learn the meaning of a solar system (Wade, 2011). In essence, this story smartly gets around to explaining a total solar eclipse in a way that young children can easily comprehend. It offers a simple and useful snippet to young children. It is noteworthy that drawings inside the storybook are well executed and they match nicely with the narrative. The narrative itself is engaging, charming, and to a certain extent moving and, as the main character Mhia states, everybody needs a hug. This storybook is enjoyable and well-written and is suitable for parents to utilize as a read-aloud storybook for their young children (Wade, 2011).
Description of the proposed activity
In this activity, the parent or a family member will read stories in the storybook and then ask the child about the story. For instance, the parent can ask: what was the narrative about? or who was the most important character in the narrative? Did you like the story’s main character? Why or why not? In essence, the parent or an older member in the family can start to develop literacy of the child essentially by reading with the child at home. The parent will read aloud and this may look like a conversation between the child and the parent regarding the storybook. These conversations would allow the child or the children at home to explore new sounds and gain new vocabulary, and build the children’s phonological awareness (Honig, Diamond & Gutlohn, 2013). As the parent reads the storybook, the child might ask questions, identify objects in the picture, and share a personal story. The parent can welcome such interjections as a good way of gauging how well the child or children actually understand the narrative. In case a child seems not to be following the story, parents could utilize a number of strategies in clarifying the narrative. For instance, the parent may back-up and read the story again or direct the child to utilize the images as context cues in building understanding (Epstein, 2009).
It is of note that how parents read to their child could influence the development of literacy skills in their children. In shared reading, parents basically read a storybook loudly without purposefully engaging in conversations regarding the story or with the print. The frequency of shared reading improves language skills such as vocabulary. Dialogic reading is the other type of reading, and this is more interactive given that it will engage the interest of the child through open-ended questions, for instance by asking: what would you have done if you were t...