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You
are here: Motheread/Fatheread:
A Family Literacy Program of Humanities WashingtonMotheread/Fatheread, administered in Washington State by Humanities Washington, is part of a national, non-profit literacy development organization. In 1987, North Carolina educator Nancye Gaj developed Motheread®, Inc., an award winning multicultural family literacy program, which uses quality children's literature to help parents read effectively with their children, initiate discussions of the books, improve their parenting and literacy skills, and increase family communication.
Gaj, who won the National Endowment for the Humanities Medal from the President of the United States in 1998, initially started Motheread®, Inc. to serve prison inmates at a female prison in Raleigh, North Carolina. Since then, Motheread has grown into one of the most widely used and effective reading programs in the country, garnering accolades from the Barbara Bush Foundation, Laubach Literacy, Jim Trelease's Read Aloud Handbook, as well as People, Parenting, and Book Magazines. Washington State is one of 13 state affiliates of Motheread®, Inc., and offers classes throughout the state by partnering with schools, community colleges, and social service agencies such as Head Start and Even Start.
Approach
Humanities Washington, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization formerly known as Washington Commission for the Humanities, began Motheread/Fatheread in 1996. At the heart of MR/FR is the conviction that the desire to strengthen the parent-child relationship is profoundly motivating. Parents who participate in the classes want to improve their reading skills in order to help their children become better readers and thinkers and to improve family communication. In MR/FR classes, parents gather in small groups with trained discussion leaders to read children's books and then talk about the images, feelings, and ideas conveyed in these stories. After the classes, parents are encouraged to take the books home, read the stories to their children, and talk with them about the themes of the books. In addition to making books important in the home, the program helps to create strong family bonds.The MR/FR literacy development model is based on the following principles:
· Learner-centered instruction: the context of the students' lives determines the content of the class
· Holistic approach: the class incorporates several language skills, including reading, writing, speaking, and listening
· Non-deficit, strength-based perspective: learning is based on strengths the participant already has, rather than focusing on weaknesses
· Social network: the class provides a vehicle for social support of learning.
In MR/FR training institutes, held over 4 days, these components are built into the structure of the curriculum and participants – many of whom may be familiar with these concepts already, especially if they come from social service agencies such as Head Start – learn how to incorporate them into their MR/FR classes.Curriculum
Motheread/Fatheread: A Parent Curriculum
One of the greatest attributes of the MR/FR curriculum is its diversity and flexibility. Once trained, instructors are able to assess the needs of each particular class group, and structure the class accordingly. Since many of the stories in the curriculum are selected from African American, Native American, Latino, Asian and other ethnic traditions, there are stories that resonate with particular populations, although all of the books in the curriculum are chosen with child and family development themes in mind, and not all are culturally specific. Many of the titles in the MR/FR curriculum are offered in other languages, including Hmong, Russian, Somali, and Chinese, and there is a special section of the curriculum, known as Angel's Kite, which is bilingual (English/Spanish).The MR/FR curriculum is comprised of two components: one for use with adults, and one for children. Since MR/FR parent classes seek to involve participants in the experience of literacy, all classes involve in-depth discussion of an award winning children's story by relating it to individual experiences and memories. This gives all participants a chance to contribute as much or as little as he or she feels comfortable with. A portion of each class is devoted to literacy as art, which can include dramatizations and projects which parents are then encouraged to share with their children. The final component of a MR/FR class emphasizes literacy as process. During this portion of the class, other writings may be introduced, or parents may be encouraged to write something of their own. At the end of each class, all parents in attendance are given a copy of the book, which they can then share with their children at home, using the same techniques they learned in class.
Storysharing: For Use by Parents, Children, and Childcare Providers
The Storysharing curriculum, designed for use by both parents and their children, includes 127 books for children ages 2-11, grouped by levels of difficulty. Each book is accompanied by a Storysharing Plan, which ensures that each story is used to its full potential. Plans include:
· Themes: Every book has several themes. The Storysharing plans focus on one theme, which help participants in Storysharing sessions work out problems in their lives, such as sibling rivalry, feelings of difference, alienation, jealousy, or anger.
· Discussion Questions: Open-ended discussion questions encourage different ways of thinking about a particular book. Sometimes the discussion questions are not even necessary, if a particular group takes off in a different direction. Discussion questions have no "right" or "wrong" answers, and everyone's opinion is valid when the story is being discussed, regardless of age, educational background, ethnicity, or level of English.
· Props: Props used in Storysharing are small and simple – a piece of yarn, a jar of pennies, a cut-out construction paper – yet emphasize the importance of the book and involve participants of Storysharing sessions in the creative and imaginative process of enjoying the book. Suggestions for activities are included, and these activities are usually popular with both children and their parents.
· Games, Songs, Dramatic Play: These elements of Storysharing actively engage children in the experience of the story, and teach them that reading written language can be unpredictable, colorful, and fun.
All of the Storysharing Plans are available in both English and Spanish, and Storysharing is also a built in component of MR/FR classes for parents. Parents attending MR/FR classes are given copies of Storysharing Plans, along with the book, so that they can do the activities and initiate discussions at home with their children.Storysharing training institutes take place in one day, and are usually done on a contract basis. For example, Humanities Washington has contracted with Junior League organizations to hold Storysharing trainings, after which trained Junior League volunteers have visited libraries, schools, and pre-schools to conduct Storysharing sessions with children.
Related Curricula for Specific Populations
The basic tenets of both the MR/FR and Storysharing curricula are carried throughout related, supplementary curricula offered by Motheread®, Inc. and Humanities Washington. These include B.A.B.Y., an acronym for Birth and Beginning Years, which is aimed at teen parents and pre-natal women; the Infant Toddler Literacy Unit, designed for childcare providers and pre-school teachers working with infants and toddlers (like Early Head Start or Even Start); and My United States, a curriculum specifically designed for immigrants to the United States, which uses the MR/FR curriculum to teach U.S. History and Civics, as well as to prepare students for the naturalization exam.The B.A.B.Y. training, which takes place over two days, is a 21-lesson curriculum that uses carefully selected multicultural children's books to initiate discussion and health information sessions for new and expectant parents. Lessons cover pre-natal issues such as what to expect during labor and delivery, nutrition, safety, and emotional risks of pregnancy and parenthood such as depression and alienation. Supplemental units address issues of substance abuse and teen pregnancy and parenthood. Humanities Washington has conducted two B.A.B.Y. training institutes, with plans for a third one in the fall of 2004. B.A.B.Y. instructors hold classes in alternative high schools, through community colleges, and in partnership with agencies such as Head Start and Even Start.
Unlike MR/FR and B.A.B.Y., the Infant Toddler Literacy Unit is specifically designed for childcare providers, rather than parents. The two-day training seeks to examine connections between the social/emotional, physical, language, and cognitive development of infants and toddlers and emergent literacy. Additionally, it looks at different ways to encourage literacy through the classroom and home environments, and gives childcare providers hints on how to better experience sharing books with infants and toddlers through a Storysharing guide built completely around age-appropriate board books and cloth books. The unit teaches childhood educators how to recognize key behaviors that show infants and toddlers are becoming talkers, listeners, readers, writers, thinkers and solvers. Specific information about brain development is included in the Infant Toddler Literacy training, and music is an integral part of the process. Humanities Washington will offer its first Infant Toddler Literacy training in conjunction with the B.A.B.Y. training scheduled in fall of 2004.
Motheread/Fatheread Washington
MR/FR Washington has grown steadily since its inception in 1996. To date, Humanities Washington has held 38 MR/FR training institutes and two B.A.B.Y. training institutes, with a total of 315 trained MR/FR instructors and 39 B.A.B.Y. instructors throughout the state of Washington. Humanities Washington has partnered with 171 agencies to offer over 550 MR/FR classes serving over 4,000 parents around the state. Until 2003, Humanities Washington was able to purchase books for all families enrolled in MR/FR classes due to grants and contributions from foundations and individuals. Recent funding cutbacks have impacted this policy, and the organization is no longer able to promise books for all class participants. However, Humanities Washington still purchases books for each newly trained MR/FR instructor's first two class cycles, and has supplied over 30,000 books for families attending MR/FR classes in Washington.
Individual stories help to put a face on the program. MR/FR was founded on the premise that with the proper introduction, good literature can be life-changing. In Wenatchee, instructor Judy Trefethen has been teaching MR/FR classes for over 5 years. In one of her earliest classes, Judy met Nicholas Jimenez, his wife Martha, and young daughter, Brenda. Even though MR/FR classes are designed for adults, five year old Brenda wanted to stay with her parents and hear the stories. Judy adapted the class to include Brenda, but told her she would have to participate as well. The Jimenez family loved the classes so much that they attended multiple series and made them a family event.
The Jimenez family with Judy Trefethen
Two years ago, after moving back to Mexico and having a second child, Abraham, the Jimenez family returned to Wenatchee and looked up Judy to see if she was still teaching MR/FR classes. Because she had other requests for more classes from MR/FR alumni, Judy began facilitating Storysharing sessions in the evenings for parents and their children.
At a recent Storysharing evening, Nicholas, Martha, Brenda and Abraham read The Bossy Gallito, a bilingual book, aloud in both English and Spanish. Martha, who speaks little English, is embarrassed to read aloud to her children. Yet Brenda – now age eleven – speaks both languages fluently and claims to love the Storysharing sessions. Brenda is now encouraging her mother to read more in English, and Martha is getting more confident. Abraham also attends the Storysharing sessions, and enjoys both the crafts and activities structured around the stories. Nicholas, who is now a banker at Wells Fargo, claims that he reads more and enjoys it more because of the MR/FR classes and Storysharing evenings. Nicholas and Brenda credit MR/FR with providing the family with a love of books and literature, as well as providing opportunities for quality family time and bonding over the stories.
In yet another of Judy Trefethen's Storysharing sessions, MR/FR instructor Maria Williams, a native Spanish speaker who also translates books in the curriculum into Spanish, now attends with her granddaughter. In Wenatchee, which has a large migrant population, offering bilingual books is important to classes with ELL and ESL students. Maria, who loves teaching MR/FR, says her granddaughter enjoys the evening Storysharing, as well as hearing the stories in both English and Spanish. And, as with Abraham Jimenez, she also loves the crafts and activities which are structured around the themes in the books. One of the premises the MR/FR family literacy program is that, when parents (and grandparents!) become more confident about reading, their children will follow suit. The positive effects of this type of literacy program are truly inter-generational.
Lydia Bassett joined Humanities Washington in February 2003 after serving as a community, pre-school and elementary school volunteer for the previous five years. She earned a BA in Communications from the University of Washington. She splits her time between work and her two daughters, ages 6 and 8.
Contact information:
Lydia Bassett, Program Officer
Literacy and Community Programs
Humanities Washington
615 Second Avenue, Suite 300
Seattle, WA 98104-2200
lydia@humanities.org
©June 2004 New Horizons for Learning
http://www.newhorizons.org
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