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Why is it that California has the 5th largest economy in the world, yet we are ranked 37th out of 50 in the US for pre K-12 education?  While population, legislation, and many other factors surely contribute to this dire situation, it's up to all of us to identify where we can make a difference for the benefit of an educated society.  Working together might be one of the best chances we have.  

When our Kindergarten students enter school without the skills they need to become good readers, they are more likely to struggle academically for years to come (Foster & Miller, 2007).  We do the best we can in the classroom to help students make growth, but sometimes it isn't enough to get them caught up.  Where can we turn for support?  Calling on families and community organizations to help our students do their best could be one approach to closing the achievement gap early on.  

As an educator with a background in social work, it seems natural to work closely with families and the community for the benefit of students.  However, many teachers and administrators don't know where to begin.  The Innovative Learning Masters Program at Touro University has allowed me to explore this path to working with families and the community to improve the early literacy skills of our youngest students, and now I can share the steps with you.  
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Super Siblings Aiden & Aerich enjoy swag at our last meeting.
Here is a summary of the 3 programs I developed as action research:
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Parent Intervention Program
By engaging Kindergarten parents in a series of home literacy activities with their children and enhancing participation with technology (home-school communication app), this study sought to find gains in student achievement in the area of early literacy skills. 
Parents were offered an in-person workshop that described and demonstrated how these literacy activities should be done at home, and documented. Digital support was offered via a home-school communication app  that is supported by the school district called ParentSquare. Videos, resources, and reminders were sent via email or text to participating parents. 

At the end of five weeks, children were reassessed on their literacy skills to determine any relationships between level of parent participation, parent perception of program efficacy,  and changes in student performance. Findings indicated a positive relationship between higher parent/child literacy activity sessions and increased student scores in letter sound fluency skills in just five weeks (see my Assessment Page for data). Furthermore, parents and students alike found the program to be enjoyable and effective.
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Community After School Tutoring Program
After approaching our community after school program director, I was able to implement a four week cross-age tutoring program with the help of staff and volunteer middle schoolers.  I met with the director and staff to pitch my ideas, and followed up with the middle schoolers to demonstrate activities.  They coined the term "Kinder Buddies," and provided weekly tutoring sessions including simple alphabet letter and sound recognition games. 

Since there were more middle schoolers than Kindergartners, many were assigned leadership and organizational roles in the tutoring program.  Some assigned buddies weekly, others managed the game distribution, and participation logs.  While kindergartners demonstrated clear growth in letter-sound skills in the post assessment (see my Assessment Page for data), there may have also been unmeasured benefits to the middle schoolers as well.
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"Super Siblings" Home Program
Kindergarten students and their siblings in grades 3-5 were invited to participate in a four week home program.  They assembled weekly to receive program instructions and demonstrations for alphabet letter and sound games such as memory and matching, CVC bingo, beginning sound board games, and specific approved online alphabet games and videos.

Students who played together 3 times per week or more were invited to a popcorn movie party at lunchtime on Fridays.  Parent reminders were sent out on ParentSquare (home-school communication app), and participation logs were collected from classroom teachers weekly.  Participating kindergartners grew in their letter and letter-sound recognition (see my Assessment Page for data), and all students reported enjoying the activities.

What's on My Site?

Want to engage family and community partners to improve the early literacy skills of your primary students?  Below you will find a guide to the elements on this site that will get you going.

Lessons

  • Sample parent intervention program presentation
  • Community partner based activities for tutoring
  • Sample lesson for sibling program
  • Games and activities

How-Tos

Step-by-step instructions to develop a partnership program including:
  • Sample program components for:
    • Parent intervention program
    • Community after-school tutoring program
    • Sibling tutoring program
  • Sample parent communications
  • Ideas for Early Literacy Assessments
  • Sample parent, student, and community organization questionnaires and surveys

References

  • Apps to support parent-school communication
  • Books about family, community, and school partnerships
  • Online tutoring and partnership resources 
  • Research papers and online articles

Assessment

  • Student data and graphs from my research
  • Participant results from questionnaires & surveys:
    • Parents
    • Community after-school program employees
    • Siblings
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Click on this image for a printable PDF version.
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LESSONS
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HOW-TOs
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REFERENCES
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ASSESSMENT