Since 2007, nineteen Houston Independent School District (HISD) campuses have partnered with Literacy Now to offer the Reading Intervention program. The Reading Intervention program provides individualized, small group reading tutorials for at-risk students in kindergarten to second grade to create proficient readers by the end of third grade.…

Parents play a crucial role in shaping children's emergent literacy through shared book reading. Shared book reading can foster literacy acquisition, promote vocabulary development, and improve print awareness, phonological awareness, and story comprehension (e.g., Bus et al., 1995; De Temple & Snow, 2003; Mol et al., 2008; Snow et al., 1998).…

This title is an "IGI Global Core Reference for 2019" as it provides essential research on cooperation between parents and school personnel. Containing scholarly work from researchers across the U.S., this publication has been recognized by Scopus for its comprehensive coverage on cultural responsive practices, socioeconomic barriers to…

This empirical study explored the home environment literacy practices of young Latino English learners and their families. The participants were 217 incoming Kindergarten Latino EL students and parents. The data collection included a completed HLEQ by the parents. In addition, children were administered the PPVT, the preLAS, the PALS-K screening,…

This Kindergarten Teacher's Guide provides information for kindergarten teachers on how to support families as they practice foundational reading skills at home. It serves as a companion to the What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) Foundational Skills to Support Reading for Understanding in Kindergarten Through 3rd Grade. Both guides present four…

This chapter explores the relationship between literacy and health disparities, focusing on the concept of health literacy. Recommendations are provided for ways to bridge the health literacy gap for learners in adult basic education and family literacy programs.

This study examines the linguistic and cultural intersections of recently arrived Somali Bantu refugee students in South Texas through the lens of border theory. The use of Spanish in the homes of refugee families is explored in addition to ways in which an educator used testimonios to honor students' migration experiences. Findings show how…

Early linguistic competencies are necessary prerequisites for later reading and writing abilities and thus for a successful school career. Various child and family characteristics have been identified as important predictors of children's linguistic abilities, such as intelligence or the "home literacy environment" (HLE). Therefore, one…

In this article, the authors discuss how sharing time, a staple classroom practice in primary grade classrooms, was modified to increase involvement among parents of ELLs. The authors discuss the benefits of modifying sharing time to focus on specific cultural artifacts from ELLs' native culture. This modification allowed for meaningful…

Researchers have examined the impact of family on child literacy among low-income African American families and preschoolers considered to be at risk for not being ready for kindergarten. Quantitative studies identify family-parental variables associated with poorer literacy outcomes, whereas qualitative studies detail family practices that…

The aim of this study was to explore within-group patterns of variability in the home literacy environments (HLEs) of low-income Latino families using latent profile analysis. Participants were (N = 193) families of Latino preschoolers enrolled in a larger study. In the fall of 2012, mothers filled out a family literacy practices inventory, a…

Home literacy practices are extremely important in developing early language and literacy skills. Children from lower socioeconomic status (SES) backgrounds may be at risk, not because their family literacy practices are inferior, but because their culturally defined literacy practices may not be consistent with school literacy expectations. To…

Family socioeconomic status (SES) and home literacy practices impact upon children's early literacy development. The present study explored where current emergent literacy and home literacy differences lie in Australian preschoolers aged three to five years from lower SES (n = 49) and higher SES (n = 52) homes. Children were assessed on letter…

Bridging home literacy practices and school has been a key theme for many New Literacy Studies researchers, yet there is no clear consensus on the impact of multiple or new literacies in K-12 classrooms. American classrooms remain book-centric. Multiple literacies represent a fundamental paradigm shift in the ways we understand and enact literacy…

The purpose of this dissertation is to contextualize the measurement of the HLE for Spanish-speaking Latino families. This goal will be accomplished by using a series of HLE items to characterize the potential heterogeneity in the HLE of Spanish-speaking families as well as to examine differences in the HLE based on caregiver's language…