How can you involve families with limited English language skills, who are unfamiliar with schools and curricula, who are employed during the day, or who are otherwise “hard to reach?” One strategy that many schools use to involve families – including those who were not engaged before – is to conduct a Family Reading Night. These events, when well-designed and well-implemented, can help support excellent teaching and provide opportunities for students to improve their literacy skills with support from family members.
Schools implement family reading nights to address different goals, including celebrating students’ work, providing information to parents, and helping parents gain confidence in engaging in reading activities with their children. In their upcoming book, Family Reading Night (Eye on Education, 2007), Darcy Hutchins, Marsha Greenfeld, and Joyce Epstein describe how to conduct well-organized family reading nights. The chapters are based on monthly literacy themes. Each one includes a whole group activity, activities for the primary and intermediate grades, and ideas to connect school, and home, and the community.
Themes for Reading Nights
Ten themes are featured that schools may choose throughout the year, coordinated with units of work and reading genres. They include: Reading Olympics, Biographies, Scary Stories, Funny Reading, Celebrations and Traditions, Dr. Seuss, Poetry, Summer Reading, and more.
At the Reading Olympics Family Night, for example, families create a family flag and participate in a series of events that reinforce literacy skills. The night ends with a closing ceremony, where students and their families are awarded medals for their participation in events. On Biography Family Reading Night, students and families read about the contributions of famous people in science, sports, and other fields. Activities include “Who am I?” in which families guess who the student read about. Also, students and families design a cereal box that features a person whose biography they read, and they discuss how the student is similar to or different from that person. Teachers may ask students to connect home and school by interviewing a family member or community mentor and writing their biography.
NNPS Schools’ Reading Nights
In NNPS, many schools’ Action Teams for Partnerships shared their designs for family reading nights in Promising Partnership Practices 2007. For example, Rains Centenary Elementary School in Mullins, South Carolina, featured local stars in Celebrity Reading Night. Local news anchors, college basketball players, disk jockeys, judges, pastors, and others read books aloud to students while parents attend workshops on reading at home.
At Riverview Elementary West Side School of Excellence in Saint Paul, Minnesota, the Family Literacy Night Kickoff guided students through interesting activities in stations that encouraged “Reading Anytime…Anywhere.” Liaisons from Hmong and Latino communities served as interpreters to help non-English speaking families throughout the evening. Parents gained read-aloud and discussion skills to use at home. Dinner, crafts, and sing-alongs enriched the experience for students and families. See other ideas for involving families with students in reading and literacy on the NNPS website, www.partnershipschools.org. Click on Success Stories and Promising Partnership Practices.
MEET THIS CHALLENGE!
with the New NNPS Book!
FAMILY READING NIGHT
Darcy J. Hutchins, Marsha D. Greenfeld,
and Joyce L. Epstein
150 pages, $29.95, Eye on Education,
2007 (available November 30) 10% Discount ($26.95) and Free Shipping for NNPS Members Advance Order at: www.eyeoneducation.com
NNPS members enter code: FAM1-7063-1