Family Literacies

This book provides a systematic exploration of family literacy, including its historic origins, theoretical expansion, practical applications within the field, and focused topics within family literacy. Grounded in sociocultural approaches to learning and literacy, the book covers research on how families use literacy in their daily lives as well as different models of family literacy programs and interventions that provide opportunities for parent-child literacy interactions and that support the needs of children and parents as adult learners. Chapters discuss key topics, including the roles of race, ethnicity, culture, and social class in family literacy; digital family literacies; family-school relationships and parental engagement in schools; fathers’ involvement in family literacy; accountability and employment; and more. Throughout the book, Lynch and Prins share evidence-based literacy practices and highlight examples of successful family literacy programs. Acknowledging lingering concerns, challenges, and critiques of family literacy, the book also offers recommendations for research, policy, and practice. Accessible and thorough, this book comprehensively addresses family literacies and is relevant for researchers, scholars, graduate students, and instructors and practitioners in language and literacy programs.

Lack of knowledge about immigrant and minority students’ learning outside school has contributed to the difficulties educators encounter when trying to embrace cultural diversity. Many educators do not have the knowledge base about immigrant and minority children’s culturally-specific ways of learning in nonschool settings. Given the changing cultural landscapes in today’s schools, we have an imperative to develop more situated understandings of immigrant and minority children’s literacy learning experiences embedded in the social and cultural fabrics of their everyday lives outside school. This volume of research meets this important need in the field. It not only focuses on the complexity of literacy learning in diverse home contexts, but also examines how literacy is practiced and lived in multiple ways within families of various backgrounds including those of Asian, African and African-American, Hispanic, White European and mixed heritages. In addition, it explores how these various culturally embedded home practices will inform school education and policy making in a larger socio-political context. The book makes an original and significant contribution to the fields of literacy education and school, home, and community partnerships. Since immigrant and minority families’ literacy activities and the cultural contexts of their practices at home are not readily accessible to school personnel, program developers, policy makers or even researchers and educators, this book will serve as an important resource for teachers, practitioners, undergraduate and graduate students, teacher educators, and university researchers who are in the fields of literacy education, family literacy and new literacy studies, minority and/or immigrant education, and second language education.

Family Literacies demonstrates, through reference to empirical research, how shared reading practices operate in a wide range of families, with a view to supporting families in reading with their pre-school children. At the heart of this book, written by two highly experienced experts in the field, is a fascinating project that captured diverse voices, and experiences by parents, children and other family members. Rachael Levy and Mel Hall deploy a rich and distinctive theoretical framework, drawing on insights from literacy studies, education and sociology. Family Literacies presents an account of shared reading practices in homes, focusing attention on what motivates parents to read with their children as well as revealing what parents may need if they are to begin and sustain shared reading activity. The authors show the many ways in which reading is centrally embedded in many aspects of family life, arguing that this has particular implications for children as they start school. Situated within a socio-cultural discourse, this book explains why it is important to understand how and why shared reading takes place in homes so that all families can be supported in reading with their children. Family Literacies is essential reading for all those who are studying and researching literacy practices, especially those involving young children. The book will also be of value to students, practitioners and researchers in education and applied linguistics who are working with families and have an interest in the study of family practices. The authors’ findings have major implications for how parents can be encouraged to develop positive reading relationships with their children.

The Handbook of Family Literacy, 2e, provides the most comprehensive, up-to-date coverage of family literacy of any available book. It documents the need for literacy education for children and parents, describes early literacy and math development within the home, analyses interventions in home and center settings, and examines the issues faced by fathers and women with low literacy skills. Cultural issues are examined especially those for Hispanic, African American, American Indian, Alaskan Native, and migrant populations. Noted experts throughout the United States, Canada, England, the Netherlands, Germany, New Zealand, and South Africa analyze the commonalities and differences of family literacy across cultures and families. Key features include the following. Comprehensive - Provides updated information on the relation between early childhood literacy development, parenting education, and intervention services. Research Focus - Provides an extensive review of experimental studies, including national reviews and meta-analyses on family literacy. Practice Focus - Provides a comprehensive treatment of family literacy interventions necessary for program developers, policy makers, and researchers. Diversity Focus - Provides detailed information on cultural and diversity issues for guiding interventions, policy, and research. International Focus - Provides an international perspective on family literacy services that informs program developers, researchers, and policy makers across countries. Evaluation Focus - Provides detailed guidelines for ensuring program quality and fidelity and a valuable new evaluation perspective based on implementation science. This book is essential reading for anyone - researchers, program developers, students, practitioners, and policy makers - who needs to be knowledgeable about intervention issues, family needs, program developments, and research outcomes in family literacy.

Comprehensive listing and discussion of family literacy programs and practices.

Provides a comprehensive, reader-friendly introduction to literacy teaching and learning, exploring both theoretical underpinnings and practical strategies.

This Reader considers the complexity of literacy difficulties, showing how research into literacy difficulties has to be multi-faceted and multi-disciplinary and involve a range of research approaches and methods. The chapters show that this is necessary to accommodate the wide range of issues that can, potentially, explain literacy difficulties and suggest strategies and interventions to ease those difficulties. Starting from the point that literacy is a contested concept and that acquiring literacy is a complex process, this Reader goes on to consider literacy development in relation to: - Theoretical understandings, implications for practice - Assessing literacy difficulties - Pedagogy and planning - Interventions in different contexts This Reader is relevant to all postgraduate students of Literacy, as well as educators, professionals and policy makers.