Thesis on family literacy with LEP adults and reflective journal keeping

Although some literature exists supporting the use of picture books with ESL adults, it is not yet prolific. This idea has yet to be put into practice in a large number of settings, which would give it more credibility and its critics less to speculate about. Skeptics worry about how to present children’s literature to adults without offending them or losing interest, and this concern is partly due to misunderstanding the definition of what a picture book is. These worries are valid only until one begins researching criteria for picture book use with adults. Smallwood (1992) claims, “Adult learners can benefit in many ways from reading children’s literature. The stories are contextually whole and inherently meaningful. They provide an authentic source of comprehensible English language input and can lower inhibitions” (p. 1).

Some sample guideline questions that are appropriate to ask while choosing literature to use with adults include how the book relates to your objectives, who the main characters are, which universal themes are included, how well the illustrations help tell the story, and how much predictable and repeated language appears in the text (Smallwood, 1992). Additional criteria from Smallwood (1991) include having a straightforward plot, rhyming, repetition, realistic dialogue, limited references to things unfamiliar, the ability to be read aloud successfully, and being a single volume as opposed to an anthology.

Flickinger (1984) also shared some similar criteria in a paper presented to the Texas State Council of the International Reading Association and came to this conclusion, “Familiarity with good children’s literature selections gives the ESOL learner the opportunity for sharing these stories with family and friends” (p. 8). Sharp further supports this idea and proposes that a strong motivation for adult ESL learners is their children, or their future children. Sharp (1991) suggests, “The powerful concern that these adults have for their children can be used to further their own literacy development. An adult literacy program based on the reading of children’s picture books can emphasize learners’ roles as competent parents” (p. 216). Also advantageous in this parent/child dyad is the relationship itself. “Parents are the most powerful influences on children’s reading because they can provide regular practice, feedback, and reinforcement… Helping children to read provides an important motivation for parents themselves to learn to read” (Sharp, p. 217).

One example of a parent-child literacy program found in the literature described a course developed in the Pajaro Valley School District in California. After successfully increasing student interest in reading and writing, the program director decided to use the students’ enthusiasm to develop better, more structured interaction between them and their parents. “This would strengthen the co-operation between home and school, and in turn contribute to strengthening the reading and writing skills which are essential for all schooling” (Ada, 1987, p. 225). The main thrust of this program involved educating Latino parents about their role in their child’s educational success. They were encouraged and taught how to share children’s literature, in Spanish, with their children. One mother expressed, after participation in the program’s introductory meeting, “What is happening is that no one has ever told us that our children are worth something. And no one has ever told us that we are worth something” (Ada, p. 227). Parents participated enthusiastically in this program; they began to read with their children, their children began to bring home books from the school library, and parents took their children to the public library to look at and checkout books (Ada). Attitudes and actions were changed for the better.

While implementing the Partnership for Family Reading, an intergenerational literacy program between Montclair State University and the Newark, New Jersey public schools, Handel (1999) discovered, along with the parents, that the curriculum they were following was failing to meet their needs.

Many students were passive and uninvolved during the class sessions. After class, however, they would cluster around to ask questions. What they asked was how they could help their children. What was my opinion of a certain children’s book or what books would I recommend for them to read aloud. (p. 43)

Ironically, Handel discovered that the most effective way to both teach and reach these students, ranging from ages 18 to 50, was through the use of children’s literature. She used this student interest as a springboard into developing workshops for parents and caretakers of young children. Other supporters of the use of children’s literature with adults include Sharp, Silverman, Smallwood, Coonrod, and Hughes. Each one is a university professor with ESL teaching experience. Smallwood (1992) claims:

Children’s literature can be one of the most effective teaching materials available for students of all ages. Using it to develop literacy is a well documented approach for elementary students, both native and nonnative speakers. It is newer, but increasingly popular, with adult ESL learners, especially in ESL family literacy programs. (p. 3)

Silverman (1990), specifically, promotes the idea that children’s literature does not have to be viewed as babyish or condescending. Certainly, the language and plots are less complex in these books, because their main audience processes ideas on a simpler level. Yet, as a result of her classroom experiences, she shares that her students found children’s literature to be very interesting:

They seemed not the least concerned that these works might be construed as condescending. When I introduced the collection to one class by pointing out that younger members of their families might like the books, one student interrupted me by saying very excitedly, ‘these books are good for us, too!’ (p. 204)

As Paratore (2001) states, “Programs that instruct parents in sharing storybooks with children introduce them, and subsequently their children, to a discourse that is important for children’s success in early literacy” (p. 23). The class that I implemented was based, in part, on the premises supported by the literature cited above.

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