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This article describes how young children and their families and community members came together with researchers to co‐create books in children's languages about their worlds in Fiji, to foster children's multilingual literacies. The co‐creation of these books in children's and families' Fijian homes and community settings connected with their voices, languages, and literacies, to ensure both the books and the processes for co‐creating them would be culturally sustaining and effective for children's multilingual literacy growth. Among the research team here, two were based in Fiji and the rest were based in Australia. We learned many lessons in our journey from preschools and classrooms in Australia to children's homes and communities in Fiji, which we bring back to share with teachers internationally through The Reading Teacher. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this Teaching Tips article, we discuss our efforts to create and utilize translanguaging interactive read‐aloud videos as part of a community‐wide reading program focused on the reading and discussing of a shared book. Offering translanguaging spaces for bilingual readers in area elementary classrooms and the community, these videos were designed to help readers develop their literacy skills by encouraging them to engage with the chosen book's content by drawing on their full linguistic repertoires. After introducing our project, we outline the translanguaging theoretical framework guiding our read‐aloud videos and offer suggestions for teachers interested in exploring ways to create translanguaging spaces in their classrooms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article features the literacy practices, resources, and strategies reported and observed in two households, by Latina mothers and their children in elementary school. Drawing on asset‐based frameworks (funds of knowledge, transnational literacies, and family language policies), the analysis presents case studies of two households, featuring the perspectives and practices of mothers and children who participated in a community‐based family literacy program. Findings center on issues of access to texts and technology, views on academic literacy practices, and selection of educational resources that promote bilingualism, biliteracy, and transnational understandings of culture and inequality. Implications for text selection, inclusion of bilingual language practices, and collaboration with families in equitable home‐school partnerships are described. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is little research on effective educational experiences for deaf and hard‐of‐hearing (d/hh) children in Jamaica. Using a formative and design experiment framework, in this project we explored the potential efficacy of an intensive literacy camp that provided professional development for d/hh adults working in classrooms with d/hh children, and provided literacy instruction for elementary‐age campers. We found that the children improved in all tested areas, and observations of d/hh adults provided evidence that with minimal training they were able to implement important facets of literacy instruction with the campers. Further research on these types of experiences and their potential for lasting impact after the camp is necessary. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article shares a monthly curricular model that can help teachers and families bridge the gap between home and school by using literature and response inspired from the cultures in the classroom. Integrating culturally responsive texts and family response journals into the classroom and the home can help children, their families, and peers make critical connections to the literature as well as understand diversity as a productive resource. This yearlong curriculum model took place in a diverse kindergarten classroom that included children and families representing a wide range of socioeconomic and cultural backgrounds. This article focuses on three months of the curricular structure where families engaged in literature focused on adoption. Findings demonstrated that families' responses led to expanded views of family structures and cultures and provided space for critical conversations around texts in the home and school. Authentic family and child responses are included in the article. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Canine-assisted reading programs show promise as an innovative method for engaging reluctant readers and motivating them to practice. In such programs, specially trained dogs visit classrooms and libraries, and children read to them. Children who struggle with reading may be motivated to read more because they find dogs to be calming and non-judgmental. This paper outlines the research that supports the use of canine-assisted reading programs and provides examples of successful implementation in schools and public libraries. Steps for implementing a canine-assisted reading program are provided, along with resources for teachers or others who are interested in starting their own program. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article features a multilingual family literacy project to enhance family engagement in children's literacy development. First, the authors expand the emerging framework of translanguaging beyond the individual competency toward a collaborative practice across family/community members and diverse sign systems. Then, the authors describe how a multilingual family literacy project created a community translanguaging space that maximized leveraging of family funds of knowledge: collective community semiotic repertoires. Participating families (parents, children, and extended family/community members) collectively built larger communicative repertoires by connecting across individual linguistic, multimodal, and cultural capacities and experiences to create each unique family storybook. Finally, the authors provide suggestions on designing and implementing community‐based family literacy projects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Underresourced communities often have limited access to print and materials to promote children's early literacy development. Recognizing that the neighborhood is a unit of social change, organizations that engage families in early reading and learning with their children, therefore, have increasingly become part of the community landscape. Recently, efforts to promote early literacy have found families in a less conventional place: the local laundromat. The authors report on a study of six laundromats in low‐income communities, three of which were transformed to include literacy‐related play centers and three of which remained business as usual. Results indicated dramatic increases in literacy‐related activity among young children as compared with control sites, demonstrating the potential of these sites to enhance children's opportunity to learn. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To positively influence students' behavior and social relationships in the school and community settings, teachers can support students during early interventions and active conversations. Conversations held during class time that use picturebooks and restorative practice activities can be an appropriate way to support student learning and engagement. Lessons and activities can be implemented through any subject and integrated into classroom discussions to support students' relationships, personal growth, well‐being, and behaviors. Incorporating discussions surrounding picturebooks with specific messages relating to social skills or situations in the classroom or community can support a restorative justice framework. The authors present ideas and activities relating to using picturebooks while upholding a restorative environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The authors explore the intriguing transnational awareness demonstrated by young students from immigrant families. The authors argue that awareness is an important fund of knowledge and the foundation on which some students build an inclusive view of the world, a view that honors the humanity of people around the world. After exploring the transnational awareness of young students, the authors follow one student from first grade into high school. Adam is Muslim American, bilingual in Arabic and English, and learning French. He is an avid soccer player, but most of all, he has a perspective on the world that is expansive, inclusive, and curious. Adam has lessons to teach not only his peers but also his teachers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Family literacy programs can be effective for supporting the literacy learning of both parents and children. Educators and community members can be constructive in establishing family literacy programs in their school and in the community. Having knowledge of successful family literacy programs is important for both initiating and continuing with family literacy engagement. In this article, we describe aspects of successful family literacy programs, including attention to the diversity of families. We begin with an overview of the changing definitions of literacy and common structures of family literacy programs and complete this review with areas for further research in family literacy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Current standards and assessments emphasize the importance of a variety of genres in students' literacy diets, which has placed increased attention on informational texts. Unfortunately, young students' current exposure to and experiences with informational texts are often limited by the texts' availability, quality, and relevance to children's lives. One way to address these issues of access and relevance is to create and use informational texts in more authentic, culturally sustaining, and productive ways. This article draws on a research study to outline suggestions for making and using culturally sustaining informational texts with young students. In this research, culturally sustaining informational texts of two genres (procedural and informative/explanatory) were developed, read, and written with standard 2 (second year of formal schooling) students in Botswana. Students who used these texts in reading and writing lessons showed increases in abilities to read and write both genres. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Much attention has been paid to storybook reading as a context for supporting preschoolers' emergent language and literacy. Inferential thinking is essential to listening comprehension and to reading comprehension. Understanding the story deeply and reasoning about events and characters are central to children's enjoyment and to comprehension skills needed for later reading. Preschoolers have capacities for inferential thinking, but little practice‐based instruction, except for asking questions, has resulted from the few studies that have explored inferential talk in teacher–child language interactions. We undertook a pilot project with teachers in economically and racially diverse urban classrooms to examine the effects and components of a professional learning experience to support inferential thinking and story comprehension. The article explains important instructional opportunities for fostering story meaning and inferential thinking by leveraging components before, during, and after a read‐aloud and demonstrates practice‐based examples using children's literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many of our children continue to live in book deserts, neighborhoods bereft of reading materials. It is an educational problem that, at times, may seem unsolvable. In this article, my colleagues and I approach the problem from a perspective of a small win, a term first coined by organizational theorist Karl Weik. Small wins act like micro‐innovations, tackling big problems by breaking them down into smaller, more manageable projects which can demonstrate promise. The article describes an innovative book distribution program through vending machines in a neighborhood, and provides examples of the ways in which a small win can lead to progress in our understanding of reading and its importance in a community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explains how the speaking and listening practice of yarning circles can be used in the literacy classroom. The article opens with an account of a live enactment of yarning circles with elementary students in a mainstream classroom in Australia. It explains the purpose and origin of yarning circles in Indigenous communities, and provides steps for establishing and implementing the practice in classrooms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dual‐language books (DLBs) are often seen as positive resources for biliteracy development, but most contain implicit messages about the status of the languages used. Through a large content analysis of 100 dual‐language children's books (DLCBs), across 10 publishing companies, the authors developed a linguistic typology of DLBs in order to expose messages of linguistic hierarchy. In this article, educators are provided a lens for understanding the hegemony of English in DLBs, provided with exemplars of community‐based biliteracy development via holistic language use and translanguaging in DLCBs, and invited into a discussion on the vulnerability and compassion that would be required for creating more equity and effectiveness in biliteracy development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Amid the COVID‐19 pandemic, students, families, and educators have faced unprecedented challenges. These challenges have disproportionately impacted racially/ethnically diverse, low‐income communities because of long‐standing health system, socioeconomic, and educational inequities. With closures of schools, libraries, and childcare centers, many students were disconnected from their community and did not have access to books. Parents' and educators' concerns centered around students falling behind academically and socially. In this article, we explain the motivation and rationale for a social justice initiative to provide students of color from low‐poverty areas with access to high‐quality multicultural children's literature at home. We describe our literacy partnership with a local after‐school program serving participant students and families, research underpinning the initiative, and our process for selecting high‐quality multicultural literature book sets and offer suggestions about how to facilitate comprehension and motivational support for home‐based reading. We also offer a list of recommended literature and discuss outcomes and implications of this project. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study introduces parents' roles in the community Korean–English bilingual family literacy program named Family Storytime. It was offered at the Korean church for 30 minutes during lunch time on Sundays over 3 months. The Korean parents played two major roles: facilitators and participants. As facilitators, the parents advertised the literacy program to other Korean families, set up the room, managed children's behaviors, and assisted bookplay activities. The Korean parents were active participants who responded to the book, interacted with children, and gave positive feedback to children. The parents' heritage–language skills and funds of knowledge were valuable resources at the Family Storytime sessions. This study offers an example for how bilingual parents can be involved in family literacy in schools and communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Teaching is a profession that requires ongoing professional development and learning. This ongoing learning can take place in professional learning communities, in structured professional development settings, and in literacy coaching contexts. This department highlights the ongoing professional development of literacy teachers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fathers' engagement in their children's education has increased over the years, yet we know less about fathers' perspectives and engagement in children's literacy development. The authors focused on a fatherhood reading program that was initiated in several Title 1 schools in a large school district in the Southeastern United States. Findings are based on fathers' reading in classrooms in one elementary school. Based on interviews with teachers, a focus group with fathers, and observations of fathers' reading in the classroom, several themes were found: a positive male role model for students, a reported increase in student motivation for reading, fathers' confidence in their parenting role, and fathers' respect for volunteer reading at school. Ways that teachers can organize a similar program at their schools are presented, along with implications of the findings for teaching practice and research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this qualitative case study, the authors explored the responses of seven Mexican American mothers during a bilingual (Spanish–English) parent book club with a chapter book from their children's elementary school literacy curriculum. The authors sought to better understand the findings of a previous study in which parents expressed new learning during comprehension‐related activities. Specifically, the authors examined how these women came to better understand their identities as literate individuals capable of assisting peers and their children's literacy learning. Analysis of interviews and book club session transcripts, written and artistic artifacts, and researcher reflective journal entries revealed that during reflective dialogue, participants assumed all of Brooks and Browne's (2012) homeplace reader positions (ethnic group, community, family, and peers) and the additional positions of empowerment and action. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The International Literacy Association is a global advocacy organization, and literacy is viewed as a human right worldwide. This department highlights research and research‐to‐practice at the international level to bring global best teaching practices to the forefront. Topics may include best practices for literacy instruction in Europe or other continents/countries, partnership and collaborative projects between international schools/teachers, and advocacy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A university's literacy festival can promote reading and foster the idea that books make a difference, especially to undersupported students from Title I schools. A literacy festival featuring a variety of diverse authors presenting hands‐on workshops showcasing their literary craft can enable students from Title I schools to engage with the authors and can motivate students from diverse backgrounds to develop an excitement for reading. It can also motivate teachers and librarians to use literature that reflects their population to engage students in reading and can transform teacher candidates' understanding of students from diverse backgrounds. The authors describe how a university College of Education's literacy festival was implemented and explore how it provided an opportunity for children in low‐socioeconomic‐status communities to be exposed to books and authors of quality children's literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Literature circles, or book clubs, are a long‐standing pedagogical tradition designed to support students' reading and response to literature. However, critics of these student‐led literature discussions have argued that this format can limit opportunities for students to engage meaningfully with political, social, and cultural issues. The purpose of this article is to provide readers with a framework for designing critical book clubs that support students' development as empowered readers and writers who critique the world around them and advocate for social change. Drawing on findings from a yearlong study in which third‐grade students interrogated representations of disability, difference, and stereotypes, the authors describe a four‐phase model for scaffolding critical book clubs, as well as instructional strategies for supporting students' navigation of new forms of critical interactions with texts and their peers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is far more to the digital divide than meets the eye. In this article, the authors consolidate existing research on the digital divide to offer some tangible ways for educators to bridge the gap between the haves and have-nots, or the cans and cannots. Drawing on Aldous Huxley's notion of a 'brave new world,' some digital divide approaches and frameworks require debunking and are strongly associated with first-world nations that fail to account for the differential access to technologies that people who live in poverty have. Taking a closer look at current realities, the authors send out a call to teachers, administrators, and researchers to think more seriously and consequentially about the effect the widespread adoption of technologies has had on younger generations and the role of the digital on knowledge creation and on imagined futures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An interview with vice president Mark W.F. Condon of Colorado-based social enterprise Unite for Literacy, is presented. Condon discusses the beginning of the Unite for Literacy in 2013, his vision when he began his work at Literacy, and the reflections of his accomplishment. He says that business challenge and word out of the services of Literacy to every family as the biggest challenge he encountered.

This Teaching Tip will explain an initiative, Global Book Hour, that engages families in a global literature read aloud. GBH integrates social studies, the visual and performing arts, healthy eating, and vocabulary development as children travel the world through high quality global children's literature. The program is a non-traditional, rich literacy experience, and has multiple, strong community partners that include a grocery store and a laundromat. Because many of the children who attend GBH are immigrants and refugees, an added benefit of the read aloud and discussions is helping the children identify with characters in the story. Though this program is located in the community, it can be easily replicated in a school setting. In this article, the program is described, connections to the Common Core State Standards are identified, and suggestions for starting a GBH are included. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The primary focus of this piece is the fundamental need to read to children to set the scene for their literacy development. It is asserted, reading to all children should happen daily for the first three years of their schooling. The reasons for this assertion are explored and explained: a vast vocabulary is gleaned, learned and used; the simple and complex grammar of language is absorbed, understood, and later used correctly; the ideas embedded in every story, every sentence and every phrase become familiar and comfortable; and all these aspects of hearing language lead to a heightened ability to predict what comes next, thereby assisting children to learn to read far more easily, quickly and happily. The secondary focus of the article is an expression of dismay that so many educators regard reading to children as an expendable part of the literacy curriculum. Nothing could be further from the truth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We now have an evidence base that documents that we could teach every child by the end of first grade. However, most schools have almost none of the key aspects of instruction that have been available in the research to ensure we achieve this goal. In this paper I argue that this failure is not the result of inadequate funding but rather primarily results from an aged system of beliefs about the inevitability that some students will always fail to learn to read. That belief system along with a lack of familiarity with what researchers have demonstrated in the past decade perpetuate schooling where far too many children fail to thrive as readers. In the end, it is up to us, the adults in the school system, to alter our efforts such that every child becomes a reader. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents an overview of a framework for robust literacy instruction for English learners (ELs). The framework consists of four complementary elements namely explicit code and comprehension instruction, language-rich instruction, socioculturally informed instruction, and additive literacy instruction. According to research, explicit instruction in phonemic awareness and phonics is beneficial for ELs learning to read English. The aim of language-rich instruction is to accelerate ELs' academic vocabulary and oral language development in English.

This Teaching Tip will explain an initiative, Global Book Hour, that engages families in a global literature read aloud. GBH integrates social studies, the visual and performing arts, healthy eating, and vocabulary development as children travel the world through high quality global children's literature. The program is a non-traditional, rich literacy experience, and has multiple, strong community partners that include a grocery store and a laundromat. Because many of the children who attend GBH are immigrants and refugees, an added benefit of the read aloud and discussions is helping the children identify with characters in the story. Though this program is located in the community, it can be easily replicated in a school setting. In this article, the program is described, connections to the Common Core State Standards are identified, and suggestions for starting a GBH are included. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]