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___Objectives________________________________
- The 2-8 year old
children of limited English proficient (LEP) parents will realize improved
achievement in school, particularly in reading and writing tasks as a
result of their parents' knowledge about literacy and enhanced
opportunities for learning at home.
- LEP parents will have greater confidence in
their ability to share their literacy with their children.
- LEP parents will increase their literacy
knowledge and acquire strategies to provide literacy opportunities at
home.
- LEP parents will
improve their own literacy in both native language and
English.
___Results__________________________________
Annual evaluation results show that children of
participating families show significant gains. These gains are evident in
cognitive development, pre-literacy and literacy skills, and vocabulary
development in both Spanish and English. Results further show that parents
change their attitudes towards teaching their children and also become
more proficient in English as shown by significant gains in English
proficiency as measured by the Language Assessment Scales (LAS). (Specific evaluation
results are available upon request).
After one year of participation in
the FLAME program, language minority parents will:
have more
books, magazines, newspapers, and tools for reading and writing in
the home
interactmore frequently with their children using reading and
writing
read and write more frequently themselves in
English and in the native language
understandthat they are their children's
first and most important teachers and they will be
able to explain why this is so
increaseliteracy opportunities for their
children at home and in the community
understand the parents' role in supporting their children's
learning even when they don't speak English
understandwhy it is important to know
their children's teachers and participate in parent-teacher
conference
feel
more comfortable interacting with teachers
and school personnel and understand how parent involvement is
expected in the U.S. school system
___Dimensions of
Literacy Learning_____________
FLAME activities arise from four
essential, research based, dimensions of literacy
learning:
Literacy Opportunity
A supportive home environment provides children with
opportunities to use literacy. Parents and children must have access to
adequate amounts and types of reading materials for
children.
Literacy Modeling
A literacy model is a significant person
in the child's environment, such as a parent or sibling, who uses literacy
in an open and obvious manner. Children who have appropriate models
attempt to imitate their behaviors. When children pretend to read and
write they are attempting to assimilate the external behaviors that they
have observed and that support their literacy
development.
Literacy Interaction
Literacy
interaction refers to any direct interchange between parents and their
children that is intended to enhance the children's literacy knowledge. It
may include direct instruction (reading and writing skills), as well as
less formal activities such as reading to children and playing with songs
and rhymes that encourage them to read and write.
Home School Relations
Home-school connections involve all
interactions between the parents and the school. Parents need to
understand what their children's teachers are trying to accomplish, and
teachers need to be aware of the parents' concerns and aspirations. It has
been shown that cultural and social discontinuity between home and school
can interfere with literacy learning. Good home-school connections lessen
this discontinuity.
___Core Components &
Family Literacy Curriculum
The core components of the FLAME program
are the
Family
Literacy Sessions and ESL
Classes . These session
and classes are taught utilizing the following 12 topics that comprise the
curriculum: (click here for annotated
descriptions
)
- Book Sharing
- Book Selection
- Book Fairs and Using the Library
- Teaching the ABC's
- Creating Home Literacy Centers
- Math at Home
- Children's Writing
- Homework Help
- Classroom Observations
- Parent-Teacher Get-Togethers
- Community Literacy
(Field Trip - i.e. museum, zoo, etc.)
- Songs, Games, and Language
___History___________________________________
Project FLAME was first designed by Professors Flora Rodriguez-Brown and
Timothy Shanahan of the University of Illinois at Chicago College of
Education in 1989, as part of a request for funding from the US Department of Education (USDE). The purpose of the program was to support parents of preschoolers and primary grade students by providing information and sharing knowledge about ways to provide a home environment rich in literacy learning opportunities for their children.
Project FLAME began as a three-year partnership with the Chicago Public
Schools focusing on the predominately Mexican-American, low-income Pilsen
neighborhood. It later spread to Wicker Park, another Chicago Latino
neighborhood.
In 1995, Project FLAME made claims supported by data to show the effectiveness of program to the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE). Those claims were validated by the Offices of Bilingual Education, Community Affairs and Early Childhood of ISBE. That validation allowed FLAME to qualify for a dissemination grant from USDE in order to carry the program model nationally as a family literacy adoption model.
In 1996, the U.S. Department of Education awarded Project FLAME a five-year
Academic Excellence Grant to export the FLAME family literacy model to other
communities and school districts throughout the United States. Through that grant we were able to train over 50 adoption sites, which have used FLAME as their family literacy model. FLAME adoption sites exist or have existed in California, Florida, Illinois, Kansas, Nebraska, New Mexico South Carolina and Texas, and elsewhere.
Although the original program, which includes 14 parent’ workshops is still the center of program activities, we currently offer other components such as a training of trainers program. We keep the program relevant to different populations by encouraging community input into the planning of sessions. We also use a theory-based sociocultural framework which takes into account multiple cultural ways of learning, literacies and discourses in our planning and implementation activities.
Currently, through gifts from private foundations and corporations, Project FLAME has five demonstration centers in schools and park districts in Chicago which serve twelve schools or park districts. While Spanish-speaking families make up most of the FLAME constituencies in those programs, the FLAME model is also used in African American and multicultural settings around the U.S.A. Materials produced by FLAME Staff in Spanish and English have been translated into Chinese, Korean, and Vietnamese by other organizations.
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