Extension to Families
Success Stories
Family Storyteller
Problem:
Children who begin school without basic language and literacy skills have difficulty learning to read. They can experience reading and learning problems throughout school. Some parents do not know how to nurture the language and literacy skills of young children. In addition, some families may not have books in the home.
Response:
FACT Empowerment Board and Prevent Child Abuse Iowa provided funding for the Family Storyteller in Adair County. The Family Storyteller is a family literacy program for parents and preschool age children. Children's books, video tapes and home activity packets are used to teach 12 reading techniques and provide enriching language activities.
Adair County Extension partnered with Growing Strong Families in Greenfield and Orient-Macksburg School in Orient to provide the Family Storyteller program during fall 2008. Trained facilitators worked with 19 families (25 adults and 22 children) for the 6 weekly 1-1/2 hour meetings.
Impact:
Pre/post evaluations completed by the adults showed the following behavioral change on the reading techniques. They indicate they do this either quite a bit or most of the time. Those with the highest degree of change are listed first.
| Techniques | Pre-evaluation change | Post-evaluation change |
|---|---|---|
| At the end of the book ask the child what happened. | 36% |
100% |
| Let the child tell the story or pretend to read. | 36% |
100% |
| Talk about the book cover with the child. | 27% |
91% |
| Ask the child to guess what happens next. | 27% |
91% |
| Read slowly enough for the child to ask questions and chime in. | 45% |
91% |
| Help the child connect things in the story to real life. | 55% |
100% |
| Let the child help pick out the book to read. | 73% |
100% |
| Change your voice while reading, like soft or loud. | 73% |
100% |
| Help the child learn new words or names for things. | 73% |
100% |
| Have a regular time to read books with the child. | 73% |
100% |
| Ask the child to name or point to something on the page. | 91% |
100% |
| Have the child sit close to you. | 100% |
100% |
Families received a home activity packet at the end of each class with language enriching activities. Evaluations indicate families completed most of the activities.
At the beginning of the series, parents responded that their children asked to be read to on the average of 4 days during the past week. This increased to an average of 5 days by the completion of the series. Parents and children read an average of 5 different books or magazines together during the past week at the beginning of the series. The average increased to 8 different books or magazines by the completion of the series. The parent and child looked at or read books or magazines together an average of 6 times during the past week at the beginning of the series and an average of 8 times at the completion of the series.
Additional ISUE Extension Staff:
Deb Hall, Adair County Extension Education Director
641-743-8412
debhall@iastate.edu
Contact:
Donna Donald
Decatur County Extension
309 North Main
Leon, Iowa 50144
641-446-4723
ddonald@iastate.edu