Reading Adventure Packs: A Pilot Program Promoting Family Involvement in Children's Literacy Attitudinal Development

This pilot study explored the effectiveness of the Reading Adventure Pack (RAP) with students from classes K to 3. The RAP contained books and a variety of activities that promote the skills of literacy. It involved a pre-RAP and post-RAP student and carer questionnaire. The children’s questionnaires revealed positive attitudes towards the RAP while the carer’s reports were ambivalent. The study found that the mother was the carer most involved in the literacy development of the children in the home. Introduction Research shows that literacy development commences well before children start school (Neuman et al. 2003). Family literacy involves the extended family and encompasses the ways that reading materials are used in the home (Mayfield 1999). The early literacy skills that are learnt by a child in the home environment are carried with him/her to school and may partially predict the success that he/she will have in learning to read (Rush 1999). In general it has been found that class and family may be a stronger predictor of general school achievement than measures of differences of the school environment (Cairney 1998). Specifically, children from low-income families tend to achieve lower scores on tests of reading comprehension than do the children from higher socio-economic families (Nixon & Comber cited in Carrington 2001) and children from lower socio-economic homes tend to fall into lower reading age-levels than do the children from upper socio-economic homes (Rush 1999). Australian Literacy Educators’ Association & The University of New England Multiliteracies & English Teaching K-12 in the Age of Information & Communication Technologies 2004 Multiliteracies & English Teaching K-12 in the Age of Information & Communication Technologies Reading Adventure Packs Page 2 of 19 These findings suggest that the economic conditions of the home could influence the kind of reading materials in the home and the manner of usage of that material. In other words, the economic conditions of the home could influence the nature of the reading environment that shapes both the development of children’s early attitudes toward reading and the early prereading literacy skills that children carry with them to their first years of schooling. This suggestion is reinforced by a recent study from New Zealand which suggests that children’s reading achievements are strongly influenced by a combination of home factors that include the reading resources of the home, parental education level and parental involvement (or non-involvement) in the children’s home reading (Gerritsen 2003). It could be argued that all three factors involve an economic component. A number of research studies suggest that it is extremely difficult for some low-income families to resource their children’s early literacy needs (Comber et al. 2002). While it appears that most families are aware of the importance of the home literacy environment (Makin & McNaught 2001) and the need for reading resources, too many homes with children are without books and in too many homes adults do not read to children (Minkel 2002). With the realisation that family members can positively contribute to early literacy development there has been a plethora of programs and initiatives in recent years designed to support and encourage family participation in children’s literacy education (Cairney & Ruge 1998). There are many pamphlets, booklets, and family information programs, both charitable and commercial, which are readily available to inform parents of the necessity of a print rich environment (see for example Cairney 1998, Mcfann 2001, Minkel 2002, Rolton 2001, Neuman & Celano 2001). Australian government agencies also have policies and programs to educate and inform parents about early literacy development. However it would appear that all these initiatives, including the government programs, are largely dependent upon homes having their own access to reading resources (NSW Dept of Education and Training 2003). Unfortunately it would also appear that, for a variety of reasons, sections of the community lack access to home literary resources (Comber et al. 2002). In part, this pilot study is an attempt to explore what happens in the home when resource materials are supplied. Multiliteracies & English Teaching K-12 in the Age of Information & Communication Technologies Reading Adventure Packs Page 3 of 19 In the USA some early literacy initiatives and programs failed because of the lack of available support services that provided take-home books or home educational resources (Cairney et al. 1995). However there were some programs that did provide a range of literacy materials such as tote bags, books and story tapes (Mayfield 1999, Farris 1987) and anecdotal evidence seemed to indicate that these programs were effective (Barbour 1999). Currently within Australia, at least one program has provided take home educational literacy resources for kindergarten children (Victoria Teachers Credit Union 2002). Developed at the Allansford and District Kindergarten it included a plastic box containing a storybook, a taped version of that book and other activities related to the theme of the story. While there is anecdotal evidence about the effectiveness of reading packs (Barbour 1999), research examining the effectiveness of the reading backpacks could not be found. Since reading attitudes can affect reading performance (Garrett 2002), one means by which reading packs could influence reading development is to enhance their enjoyment of reading and the sense of achievement in reading. However, it has been suggested that the study of children’s attitudes to reading in their early years has received little attention (Wang 2000). Wang (2000) found that a child ’s personal experience, confidence and success (or otherwise) with books and reading, particularly at the initial stages, were directly related to his/her attitude towards reading. The present pilot study (described below) is an attempt to support and improve children’s attitudes to reading and involve members of the family in the children’s reading by supplying reading resource material. It was developed after a visit by one of the authors, Gill, to the USA where she saw an early literacy program in action. On her return, and with the assistance of Fisher, they set up a literacy program, similar to that of Barbour (1999), using packs of stimulus material that they entitled Reading Adventure Packs (RAP). As there was only anecdotal evidence available outlining the results of the Barbour program (1999), this pilot study was set up to ascertain the effectiveness of the literacy pack approach within the Australian environment. The RAP program involved the collection and organisation of literacy and educational resources for the children. Students borrowed the resources from the school to take home on a rotational basis. Before the system was set in place, parents were invited to participate and given information about how they might assist their children with the program. The resources within the packs (listed below) were meant to provide a positive literacy experience for the children and to contribute positively toward them developing attitudes towards reading. The RAP was designed to involve family members in the child’s home reading experience as well as to provide Multiliteracies & English Teaching K-12 in the Age of Information & Communication Technologies Reading Adventure Packs Page 4 of 19 enrichment for the classroom literacy program. It was not meant to replace teacher organised homework reading. The following research questions guided the study. Research Questions: 1. Who within the family is involved in the children’s home reading? 2. What is the children’s attitude to reading before the implementation of RAP? 3. What is the children’s attitude to RAP? 4. What is the carers’ attitude to RAP? 5. What is the carers’ perception of the children’s response to RAP? Research Method Subjects The subjects in this study constituted a cohort of thirty-three students from two primary classrooms, a K-3 class of thirteen students from a NSW School and a Grade One class of twenty students from a Victorian School. The first school is small and located in a semi-rural area, though a variety of socioeconomic levels were represented within the student body and most students came from middle-class homes. Almost a quarter of the second school’s population received the Education Maintenance Allowance (EMA) and approximately the same proportion were English as Second Language (ESL) students. Reading Adventure Packs A total of six Reading Adventure Packs were made, each pack based on a particular but different theme. Following is a list of contents for each Reading Adventure Pack: • a soft toy indicating the theme of the Reading Adventure Pack • a ‘Note of Explanation to Carers’ about the Reading Adventure Pack • a ‘