CCL Home > Research Activities > Funded Research
Summary (PDF 36 KB)
Full Report (PDF 484 KB)
Handbook (PDF, 655 KB)
The purpose of this study was to document the implementation of an intergenerational literacy program (Literacy for Life) that incorporated authentic literacy activity with the goal of raising low-English literacy levels of the parent and the English emergent literacy levels of their non-English speaking young children.
This handbook is a tool created to assist literacy practitioners, such as tutors, teachers, and those who administer and develop literacy programs and policy. The suggested activities it contains aim at providing starting points or ideas.
Download Handbook (PDF, 655 KB)
Literacy for Life was designed for low literate adults and their three- to five-year-old children. It ran for about two hours per day, two days per week from February 2007 to May 2007 in Year 1 and from October 2007 to May 2008 in Year 2. Two, two-hour sessions were provided each week, and each session had three components: adult literacy, early childhood literacy and family together time. The program was based on a model that focused on authentic literacy instruction. Authentic literacy is the reading and writing of real-life texts for real-life purposes in the literacy learning classroom (e.g., reading recipes for the purpose of preparing a food dish, writing greeting cards to send to friends or family, or reading stories to enjoy and sometimes to discuss with friends). We also employed direct skill instruction to meet the needs of the participants as they engaged in authentic literacy activities. In the early literacy program, we embedded the literacy instruction in developmentally appropriate early childhood activities such as painting, playing games, making art projects, and listening to stories.
This is the first study that we know of that documented the development and implementation of an intergenerational program with immigrant and refugee families (adults and their pre-school children) using a model of authentic literacy instruction (i.e., reading real-life texts for real-life purposes). This study indicates both the effectiveness of this model and ways to implement it in culturally responsive ways with immigrant and refugee families.
Top