Family Literacy Project

Larger, More In-Depth Description

The Family Literacy Project (FLP) is a program for Boston Public Elementary School children in grades K0 – 5 that encourages children to read for pleasure and aims to involve parents in their child’s education. The main components of the program include: creating a classroom-based home lending library, hiring a parent liaison at each school to oversee the program, tracking student reading rates, and conducting twice-yearly parent-teacher conferences to discuss each child’s progress. Pending successful execution of project goals, the Family Literacy Project works with a school for three years.

Classroom teachers choose books for home-lending libraries based on students’ interests and abilities. After three years of partnering with FLP, most teachers will have 7 books per child in their library. Experts agree that this is a good minimum number of books per child to have in a classroom library.

FLP staff members train, support and mentor “Parent Liaisons” to coordinate the home reading program within the schools. The Parent Liaisons, along with the teachers, track student participation. Teachers provide students with reading logs to take home weekly, and Parent Liaisons report school-wide tracking results monthly. A number of documents distributed by the Parent Liasions are in multiple languages.

All Boston Public Elementary Schools are required to have one parent-teacher conference; to participate in the Family Literacy Project our schools agree to hold two conferences per year. Parent Liaisons are trained to help schedule these conferences and to follow-up with families.

The Family Literacy Project supports family engagement on the school-level by offering workshops at school-based Family Fun Nights and by setting up informational tables at seasonal Open Houses. FLP is frequently asked to do its “Puppet Making Workshop” at a Family Fun Night. This entails giving a short presentation about how puppets support literacy, reading aloud an engaging story, and making puppets for participants to take home. At an Open House, FLP staff are available to talk about the home reading program with families and provide materials such as booklists and handouts on reading at home.

Five Program Goals

• Teachers establish classroom-based home lending libraries;
• Teachers (with the assistance of the Parent Liaison) track student participation;
• Students read at least 20 minutes a day, 4 times a week, for 4 weeks a month;
• Teachers (with the support of the Principal and assistance of the Parent Liaison) conduct 20-minute, appointment-based, private, individual conferences with families twice a year;
• A majority of families attend Parent-Teacher Conferences.

Major Program Accomplishments:

• FLP has been in 72 of the 89 Boston Public Elementary Schools;
• FLP purchased 8,000 books for classroom-based home lending libraries in 2007-2008;
• Teachers at Family Literacy Project schools met with 7,850 families for Parent-Teacher Conferences during the 2006-2007 school year;
• In November 2006, participating children read for at least 1,780,480 minutes!.

Key Partnerships

• The Boston Public Schools
• Office of Family and Community Engagement
• The Boston Celtics/ Read to Achieve
• Reading is Fundamental

Current Sites

•  Dante Alighieri Elementary School - East Boston
• William Blackstone Elementary School – South End
• Roger Clap Elementary School - Dorchester
• Eliot K-8 School – North End
• David A. Ellis Elementary School - Roxbury
• Henry Grew Elementary School – Hyde Park
• Oliver Wendell Holmes Elementary School - Dorchester
• Horace-Mann School for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing – Allston
• Jackson-Mann K-8 School - Allston
• John F. Kennedy Elementary School – Jamaica Plain
• Mary Lyon K-8 School – Brighton
•  McKay – East Boston
• Mission Hill K-8 – Mission Hill
• Young Achievers – Jamaica Plain

Application Process

Request for Proposals go out in the spring for the following school year. All schools that have not previously participated in the Family Literacy Project are invited to apply. Family Literacy Project Staff will visit schools and make presentations if requested. Schools are selected based on their desire to carry out all project goals.
Documents to Include:

• Reading Logs
•  Monthly Tracking Sheet
•  Home Reading Participation Data
• Parent Liaison Timesheet
• Workshops Flyer