Research by Doug Griffin on our potential Read Lear Dream Participants.
Recently I've been researching the factors underlying the differences in literacy competency between children in economically struggling families, and those in more affluent families. The factors are widely recognized:
1. Early and ongoing exposure to spoken language and books by parents and caregivers.2. Access to age appropriate books in the home with active parent participation.3. Continuity of literacy activity during school breaks, especially during the summer break for children in school.
Nothing new here, except that the juried journal articles I've found, provide quantitative results of formal studies that illustrate, in numbers, the importance of each of these factors. The studies support the sad conclusion that children from any economic background who do not receive positive literacy support in the three areas noted above, will start behind - and continuously fall behind - the children in their peer group who do receive ongoing literacy support. One article went so far as to report that the focus on teacher quality is misplaced; that elementary school teachers are broadly successful in advancing students' literacy skills during the school year but cannot readily compensate for the home environment, and any lack of reading opportunity during the summer breaks.
The Read Learn Dream Sarasota program began 3-years ago with the intent of increasing access to age appropriate books in the home for PreK children. Early on, the importance and potential of the County Libraries to support and enhance our program's objectives became clear. I believe the resulting partnership between the Library and the RLDS program is furthering both our missions. I'd like to suggest, however, that more can be done. Here's my thinking:
While it is true that the RLDS target demographic is PreK children (some 3 and largely 4-year olds) from economically disadvantaged households, the materials we distribute reach many homes where the children have siblings - some perhaps younger, some older. The opportunity here is to provide visibility to specific library resources applicable to younger siblings - story time is an example - and older siblings - book titles for early / advanced readers (Pete the Cat series, Harry Potter, etc.). The Library has programs where children can read to visiting "dogs who are good listeners", something that might especially appeal to our PreK children. My thinking is that we work with Katherine Dow to develop promotional material for parents of very young children through the early elementary years to be included in RLDS distributions beginning in March. Including visibility to both the Library's and Patterson Foundation's summer reading programs would be appropriate for our final distribution in May.
Looking for your thoughts and comments, as well as input from those on the CC list,
Doug
Douglas D. Griffin
5062 Timber Chase Way, Sarasota FL 34238
H: (941) 363-0543 C: (610) 360-2599