SCHOOLS AND PARENTS ACTIVELY REACHING KIDS FOR LITERACY EVERYDAY (SPARKLE): PROMOTING POSITIVE PARENTAL SELF PERCEPTIONS THROUGH THE USE OF INTERACTIVE STORYBOOK TECHNIQUES
Open Access
- Author:
- Nell, Marcia Lyn
- Graduate Program:
- Curriculum and Instruction
- Degree:
- Doctor of Philosophy
- Document Type:
- Dissertation
- Date of Defense:
- March 17, 2006
- Committee Members:
- James Ewald Johnson, Committee Chair/Co-Chair
Patrick Willard Shannon, Committee Member
Edgar Paul Yoder, Committee Member
Debra M Freedman, Committee Member - Keywords:
- parent involvement
family literacy
reading alouds
emergent literacy
interacitve reading
parental capabilities
parental responsibilities
parental efficacy
parental rrole construction - Abstract:
- ABSTRACT With the current federal educational legislation, No Child Left Behind (NCLB), state and local school districts are required to pass criterion in up to 40 different areas. Reading and mathematics are receiving major emphasis regarding prescribed levels of competency as measured by standardized test scores. As schools strive to meet the prescribed test score percentages in these two areas, schools are looking for analogous and complementary ways of producing positive academic achievement. Parent involvement again comes to the focal point in the educational arena. As was believed in the sixties, seventies, eighties, and nineties, parental involvement produces positive academic achievement in the child. Sometimes though, it is difficult for parents to be actively involved in their child’s education due to external and internal barriers. External barriers may include different goals set by the school and the parent. Language differences may also play a major role in preventing active involvement. Time constraints set by the parents’ work place may cause the parent to be unavailable during school hours. Lack of transportation to attend various functions at the school can be a major factor in parents’ involvement. Other family commitments such as elder care, babysitting, or sibling activities are also external barriers that prevent parent involvement. Internal barriers, personal psychological barriers, also prohibit parents from becoming involved in their child’s education. Parents’ personal school experiences can influence a parent’s involvement level. If a parent had a negative school experience as a child, that may influence the parent’s level of involvement. The parents’ perceptions of their responsibility toward educating their child can influence the amount of involvement. If a parent believes it is the school’s responsibility to educate the child, then the parent may take a much less active role in their child’s education. The parents’ perceptions as to their capability to affect change with their child can influence their involvement level. If a parent does not feel qualified, or lacks the skills needed to help their child, then that parent may not be actively involved in their child’s education. The purpose of this research study was to develop and evaluate an intervention program designed to increase parent involvement through the use of interactive storybook read aloud techniques. The Schools and Parents Actively Reaching Kids for Literacy Everyday (SPARKLE) program utilized these interactive techniques, along with support as the techniques were applied to target internal barriers to involvement. An underlying purpose was to develop a caring, trusting, and respectful program to help parents perceive themselves as capable and responsible in order for them to be actively involved in their child’s education. A mixed methods research design incorporating a randomly assigned sample was used to answer the following research questions. First, in what ways does an intervention program based on skill development in questioning and interactive techniques used during storybook read aloud sessions affect parental belief, attitudes, and perceptions? Specifically, in what ways does this intervention affect a parent’s affective memory perceptions (AMP), capability perceptions (CP), responsibility perceptions (RP), capability perceptions for literacy (CPL) and responsibility perceptions for literacy (RPL)? Second, does an intervention based on skill development in questioning and interaction techniques used during storybook read aloud sessions provide parents with new skills to use during and following the intervention? Third, how does an intervention based on skill development in questioning and interaction techniques used during storybook read aloud sessions change parents’ beliefs and attitudes about the importance of reading aloud, children’s learning, our school, and education in general? The data collection process included formative data collection methods as well as summative data collection methods. The Beliefs and Attitudes Instrument (BAI) was given as a pre-post test quantitative measure. Summative data were collected through the BAI, focus group meeting, and the Parent Improvement Instrument (PII). From a qualitative stance, data were generated formatively with open ended discussions during the parent discussion groups, audio/video taping the parent-child reading sessions, coding of reading sessions and journal writing. The formative and summative data were analyzed and interpreted to provide answers to the research questions. The parents were randomly placed into two groups: treatment or comparison group. The treatment group participated in the intervention program during the first four week session, while the comparison group participated in the intervention program during the second four week session. There were a total of 14 parent participants. The treatment group consisted of 8 parents while the comparison group consisted of 6 parents. The weekly one hour sessions provided parents with a storybook to read. The parents worked as a group to develop questions to use with their child while they read. The parents then paired up with their child to read and discuss the story. Finally, parents returned to the group to discuss their thoughts, perceptions, and impressions of the read aloud sessions. Story question development was guided by three main objectives. First, what important ideas did the parents want their child to get from reading the book, such as the themes, vocabulary, or special phrases. Second, questions were developed to stimulate discussion such as recall, prediction, or making connections between the text and the child’s personal experiences. Finally, questions were developed to find ways to revisit the book with the child such as extension activities or rereading. The questions developed by the parent group were typed onto 3 X5 cards and placed inside the book to use with the children at home. The qualitative and quantitative data collected from the BAI, PII, focus group, journals, interviews, and discussion groups revealed these parents valued several aspects of the SPARKLE program. First, the program provided the parents with a context in which to see their child’s ability to learn. This insight provided the parent with a new image of their child as being able to learn. Along with the new context the read aloud sessions provided, the parents also valued the affective side of the read aloud session. Parents discussed the importance of setting aside time to spend with their child reading and related this back to their own childhood memories of reading with their parents. Second, the treatment group of parents found value in participating in the parent discussion group format. They continued the use of this discussion group technique with eight other texts after the initial four week period. This is evidence of their commitment and value placed on the group format. Third, the parents also found the variety of the texts used in SPARKLE provided their children with a wider range of reading material. They felt this exposure to different types of text was important for their child to experience and enjoy. The data collected from the BAI suggested these two groups of parents perceived themselves to be active, responsible, and capable parents. The treatment group of parents in particular indicated a change in their responsibility perception levels in regards to the importance of talking with other parents and recognizing their child as a reader. This group of parents also revealed a change in their capability perception levels in identifying their attempts to work with their child as successful. They also expressed an increase in their capability perceptions of their skills in finding the themes and vocabulary in storybooks. This is a significant finding since the SPARKLE program directly targeted theme and vocabulary question development. This finding was also collaborated through the analysis of the focus group transcription coding and in the analysis of the journal entries. Data collected from the PII suggested these parents found three areas of improvement in their capability and responsibility perceptions for literacy. First, the parents believed their capabilities to make reading fun and to use reading to learn new things was improved. Second, the parents believed their responsibility to help their child read and to use literacy daily had improved. Third, the parents believed their capabilities to motivate and make connections between school and the child’s interests had improved. To conclude, these findings suggest these two groups of parents were able to find value in their participation in the SPARKLE program. The findings suggest that the program was able to provide a different and effective context in which the parents were able to witness their children as able learners as well as providing a positive context in which the affective side of the read aloud could be experienced between parent and child. Moreover, the parent discussion group format proved to be a valuable tool for the parents. The variety of text was also seen as a positive component of the program by these parents. Continued use of the SPARKLE program with a larger parent sample and alternative scheduling is recommended. Further research on this program may provide additional insight into how schools can address internal and external barriers to produce more parent involvement in education, more positive parental perceptions, and more effective parental teaching of their children from the start of their school careers. .