Family Storyteller for Hispanic Families

Opportunity:
In April we received the good news that we obtained the SHIP mini grant. We were already considering offering the Family Storyteller program for Hispanic families at Woodbury County Extension. Why Family Storyteller? It is a program that teaches families to share the joys of reading. Regular story teller time is always offered at the library where the parents participate as listeners, and everything is in English. Why Hispanic Families? Because this minority group is one that is facing many problems--both parents working outside home, many have dropped out of high school, and low literacy levels are common. One cultural difference is that Hispanic parents tell stories or make up stories, but typically do not read to their children. For fun, children must read books on their own.

Response:
Woodbury County Extension decided to use part of the grant to offer the Family Storyteller program for Hispanic Families at the Extension office. We bought books and craft materials, provided child care and gave refreshments at our 10-minute break. The program was developed with 12 classes meeting once a week for 2 hours. The first 15 minutes were used to watch the video. The next 45 minutes, the ESL class reviewed the vocabulary that we were going to use and a short grammar lesson. The next half hour we read the book, applying the reading techniques such as previewing the book, reading with expression, etc. in both English and Spanish. The last half hour we worked with the children, read the book all together, and parents and children made a craft related to the book. At the end of the class parents and children received the book of that day, copies of the vocabulary, and a craft to make at home. We had 6 adults and 10 children, pre-school age and younger.

Impact:
Participants were happy and thankful. Most of them say they are closer to their children, have learned new vocabulary and take care of the books. Ninety-five percent of the parents showed in their evaluations that they have never talked with their children about the book cover before taking the course. Now all of them start the book talking about the cover and guessing what is inside.

Most of them have a time during the day to read a book together and say “this is good because now kids watch less television and good for the adults because now we visit the library once or twice a month with our children."

Contact:
Nancy Nicho – Field Specialist/Families
Iowa State University, Woodbury County
4301 Sergeant Road, Suite 213
Sioux City, Iowa 51106
Phone 712-276-2157
E-mail nicho@iastate.edu

..........more stories....................!