Parents Make the Difference: An Update from the
Texas Family Literacy Resource Center
The 2007-2008 year was an exciting one for the Texas Family Literacy Resource Center (TFLRC). Attendance at our events was gratifying and evaluations continued to reflect the family literacy field’s appreciation for professional development.
Training in required assessments is provided to Even Start Family Literacy projects each year as a strategy for assuring that Texas gathers the best data possible. TFLRC training on required early childhood and parent education assessments was consolidated to a single location in 07-08. TFLRC conducted assessment training at Texas State University on September 20-21, 2007. Kathy Hughes, a certified Denver II trainer for Parents as Teachers, provided training for developmental screening of Even Start children ages birth through two and all newly enrolled three-year-olds. Debra Coe provided training on using the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT) for assessing English vocabulary of Even Start three-to-five-year olds. Ysabel Ramirez presented training on using the Brigance Screens, another developmental screening option for birth to three, and Deborah Stedman provided training on using the HOME Inventory, a pre/post measure used in Texas Even Start for assessing parenting skills. Training in the use of the PALS PreK phonological awareness assessment had been previously provided online by TFLRC to Even Start early childhood practitioners during summer, 2007.
Report Cards have become a vital part of the operation of a family literacy project and are being used to provide information about family literacy outcomes for both children and parents and to maintain and build support among school and community constituents. TFLRC produced a second year of Report Card Training during the annual fall ‘07 Even Start meeting in Fredericksburg. Denise Guckert, TFLRC’s own Technology Guru, designed and presented this update training. Each coordinator developed his/her own project Report Card using TESPIRS and TEAMS data and took the product home on a CD.
TFLRC also provided training to Even Start Coordinators who were newly hired for 07-08. TFLRC has developed a comprehensive approach to assisting new coordinators with programmatic and compliance knowledge. A one and a half day face-to-face workshop was held at Texas State University in December of 2007. The balance of the New Coordinator training was delivered through the Internet and Texas State’s distance learning platform. New Coordinator Training topics included Even Start legislation and requirements, adult education, early childhood education, orientation and goal setting for parents, parent education and home visiting, program design, program sustainability and local evaluation.
TFLRC and Texas LEARNS collaboratively reviewed professional development needs assessment and program needs data to identify parent education as the primary topic for the Spring ‘08 initiative. TFLRC staff conducted a literature search which indicated the need for several parent education themes in order to provide Even Start family literacy staff with research-based information that had instructional implications without duplicating the parent education programs that are already in place in Even Start (e.g., Parents as Teachers, Family Frameworks).
Using the literature search data, TFLRC developed the three-day Parents Make The Difference (PMTD) initiative. The initial day focused on parents as first teachers, a primary tenet of Even Start. A curriculum entitled You Make The Difference was identified as providing a framework for positive everyday interactions that supports the language, social and emergent literacy development of very young children in low income, vulnerable families with limited literacy and English skills. Participants spent the day exploring this curriculum and planning for its use and each project received a bilingual set of the curriculum books and an accompanying DVD for use as they integrated the curriculum at home.
A second theme that emerged was clearly connected with the first: promoting simple, inexpensive but powerful activities for parent-child interactions that supported social development and emergent literacy throughout early childhood and could be used easily by parents at home and in center-based Even Start components. Participants explored the use of Learningames, an outgrowth of the ground-breaking Abecedarian Project research, in all components in Even Start. A bilingual set of the Learningames manuals and handouts were provided to each participating family literacy project.
The third theme that emerged was the importance of recent research on dialogic reading, a strategy that promotes language development that can be used by virtually any parent or caregiver. Dialogic reading is essentially “book sharing” and research has consistently demonstrated that simple book sharing steps can accelerate language development particularly in children ages 18 months to three years. Participants examined the research and practiced book sharing using bilingual children’s books.
Then the fun really began. Because children love to talk about themselves and things they have done, Denise Guckert showed participants how to incorporate photos of children into Personal Picture Books. Participants then were able to teach parents how to make their own Personal Picture Books for their children to use in book sharing.
The Parents Make The Difference themes were initially presented as pilots to participants at the El Paso Adult Learning and Literacy conference sponsored by the Far West GREAT Center in El Paso in November 2007. Using feedback from these family literacy educators, subsequent Parents Make The Difference initiatives were presented to the Coastal and East regions at Cy-Fair College in February of 2008, to the Central, South Central and South regions at Texas State University in early April 2008, and to the North and East regions in late April 2008.
About the Author
Deborah Stedman has been the director of the Texas Family Literacy Resource Center at Texas State University since July 2004. Beginning in 2000, Deborah spent six years as an external Even Start evaluator. Prior to that experience Deborah worked for the Texas Education Agency for 18 years. During that time she was responsible for adult education state leadership projects in addition to general adult education and family literacy administrative duties. Deborah lives in San Marcos with her husband Ken and her three furry children, Elle, Ms. Kitty and Tuxie.
