The Study
Concern for the poor literacy performance of young children led researcher Dr. Patricia A. Edwards and doctoral student Heather M. Pleasants of MSU's College of Education to examine the use of parent stories as a tool to help teachers learn more about home literacy environments and better understand the child's learning needs. Historically, parent/teacher discussions concerning the literacy environment of the home have focused on literacy activities, experiences and artifacts. Parental answers to questions raised in these discourses have often been one-word responses and tended to be those they thought teachers would like to hear. This study focused on parental literacy stories shared with 12 experienced first grade teachers by parents of children perceived to be at-risk during the year- long investigation.

The Findings
The sharing of parents' stories provided teachers with a wealth of information about their families' home literacy environments and added a broader perspective on the child's physical environment, interpersonal interactions with family members and the emotional and motivational climates that condition the child's experiences with literacy. With the help of parent stories, teachers may begin to reflectively build a knowledge of their students which will ultimately help them to teach all students more effectively, especially at-risk students. The study suggested that the sharing of stories can help to bridge the gap between home and school and lead to "participatory roles" for parents, who have often felt they have had little or no voice in facilitating their children's learning. The approach, however, is not without its thorny issue, the school's need to know and the parents' right to privacy.

What it Means to You
If you are concerned about the literacy levels of children in the lower grades, you may want to explore ways to develop stronger collaboration between home and school. Making greater use of parents' stories to enhance dialogue between parents and teachers may be one approach to consider. If students are to be served well by their teachers, teachers must have more information than what current student records allow, however, there must be a clear understanding between the teachers and parents about how personal information is to be used. Parent stories enable teachers to look at specific issues, problems and strengths of homes which influence the literacy development of their students; but additional staff development experiences for teachers may be indicated.

For More Information
To learn more about using parent stories to assess home literacy environments, please review Edwards, P. A., and Pleasants, H.M., "Uncloseting Home Literacy Environments: Issues Raised through the Telling of Parent Stories," 1997, Early Child Development and Care, Vols. 127-128, pp. 27-46.

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