Chapter Two
Review of Literature
Introduction | Definition of Terms
| Brief Overview of Some Family Literacy Programs | Children’s Literature and the Adult ESL Learner
| Two Diverging Perspectives on Family Literacy Program Development | Parents and Other Influential Adults as Program Participants | Curriculum and Development Within Family Literacy Programs
| The Case for Reflective Journals | How Journal Writing Relates to the Final Product | Summary
Summary
Laced
throughout the literature related to family literacy, curriculum development,
and the participants involved in these realms, a strong theme of the importance
of knowing is communicated. Developers must know the resources they have
to utilize. Teachers must know their student participants. Participants
must learn to identify and know what they want to learn. Developers must
know where their personal views of family literacy place them on that
“invisible continuum” of which Auerbach teaches. Teachers must know how
to find that balance between teaching what they want parents to know and what parents
want to know themselves. Participants must know how to make their voices
heard most effectively. Developers must know the resources they have to
utilize, and who their sponsors are. Teachers must know what objectives
will be accomplished as a result of their family literacy programs.
Participants must know that those implementing family literacy programs
value them. And both developers and teachers must realize and know the
potential that reflective journals have to allow for capturing growth and learning
and responding to those elements. Although different views prevail concerning
how to go about program implementation, the programs that will be most
effective are those that consider its participants and their needs in every
step of development; perhaps these programs will also include an element of
recording experiences that allows for reflection and learning to be ongoing and
available for later reference to these pertinent past teaching experiences.
