SECTION A - OVERVIEW

The Parents-as-Partners-as-Learners project is designed to encourage a love of reading in children and to increase communication between the home and school.

The project consists of several phases initiated by an adult literacy animator in a primary school with the following specific short term goals:

1. To improve the children's reading levels and their attitude toward school in general and reading in particular.

2. To open an avenue to discover illiterate adults and invite them into an educational process.

While a "Parents-as-Partners-as-Learners" project can be done in any of the early elementary grades, it is best started in kindergarten so that children and parents establish or reinforce the habit of reading together from the beginning.

PHASE I - NEGOTIATING WITH THE SCHOOLS

There has been a general lack of attention paid to adult illiteracy by the school system which has resulted in the staff not always understanding the effect this problem has on their work. Parents who are poor or non readers cannot establish a good reading environment. Their children start school at a disadvantage compared to other youngsters where there is a strong reading culture in the home. It is, therefore, important to begin with presentations and discussions on adult literacy and on the "Parents-as-Partners-as-Learners" project to the following groups in order to elicit their support and co-operation:

• The Council of Commissioners
• The Director of Education and the Elementary School Principals
• The staff in the school(s)
• The School Committee

Results of previous "Parents-as-Partners-as-Learners" projects will make the proposal more interesting (see Section B, I-Beginnings, and Annex 1). Teachers have consistently seen an increase in the children's reading levels and a dramatic improvement in the children's attitude towards school and towards reading. Parents who have been frustrated by their own lack of skills have gone back to school.

Phase one ends with a commitment from the teacher(s) to implement a "Parents-as-Partners-as-Learners" project with the backing of the principal and school committee.