Our Family Success Programs have varied ages of children.  I agree the
older children must be involved.
I try to set up Family Learning Community Activities.  When one member
of the family learns something, it benefits the whole family community. 
I encourage pride in the family product, therefore building self
esteem.
One activity that we found successful was based on Dr. Seuss' Green
Eggs and Ham.  Dr. Seuss took a bet that he could not write a book using
only 50 words.  Nine months later Green Eggs and Ham was published.  I
gave each family unit a list of first grade sight words (I obtained from
a first grade teacher) and a Reading Link magnet with other vocabulary
words.  I told them they could add proper nouns of names, places, etc.
but only use these words. Their task was to write a story using only
these words.  After families were done, an older child read the story to
the other families.  They were received with applause.

Another PACT activity that families enjoyed as a learning community was
making an invention.  I prefaced the activity by explaining my
invention:  an automatic de-dirt system, so your house and family stay
clean. Next, families wrote a description of their invention, decided on
a price and children drew a picture of the invention.  Again share time
was important with the children being in the spot light.  

I try to give the children "time to shine" at Family Success.  The
family unit benefits by increasing their pride and self esteem. 
Positive encouragement goes far.

Judy Luer
Kaskaskia College
Child Coordinator


>>> AleciaD at lacnyc.org 9/12/2006 9:04 am >>>

Hi all,
Thank you for these wonderful suggestions for effective PACT time
activities. I'm wondering if any of you have suggestions for
activities
that have worked well for families with older children (8 and
up)participating in PACT? 
 
Alecia
 
Alecia D'Angelo 
Special Projects Coordinator 
Literacy Assistance Center 
32 Broadway, 10th floor 
New York, NY 10004 
(212) 803-3349 
www.lacnyc.org 



 

________________________________

From: familyliteracy-bounces at nifl.gov 
[mailto:familyliteracy-bounces at nifl.gov] On Behalf Of Gail Price
Sent: Tuesday, September 12, 2006 8:12 AM
To: The Family Literacy Discussion List
Subject: [FamilyLiteracy 375] Re: Scenario - Parent Child Activities


An additional resource for using wordless pictures books can be found
on
the National Center for Family Literacy Website. NCFL has developed a
toolkit, with funding from UPS, that includes a publication entitled
Talking About Wordless Picture Books. Designed to be used by tutors or
volunteers with low level English Language Learners, the booklet
provides activities that help ELL parents build and practice English
conversation skills through the use of wordless picture books. Parents
are then encouraged to use these strategies at home with their
children.
The activities in the booklet certainly can be used in a PACT setting
for very low level learners whether ESL or ABE.

The materials in the UPS Toolkit are available free in PDF form for
download from the NCFL Website. -- http://www.famlit.org 
<http://www.famlit.org/>    Click on the UPS Toolkit icon on the right
sidebar. 

On Sep 11, 2006, at 4:31 PM, Colletti, Cyndy wrote:


	Dahlia has suggested that using wordless books is an effective
way to work with very low level learners whether ESL or ABE.  Wordless
books can also meet the challenge of designing PACT for multilingual
groups in ESL settings. Wordless books can help learners develop and
verbalize the story together.  Wordless books also help learners, both
adults and children, recognize contextual clues about the story's
events
and characters from the book's pictures that will also lead to growth
in
language skills.
	 
	The Allen County (Fort Wayne, Indiana) Public Library has a
great list of wordless books at this web site
--http://www.acpl.lib.in.us/children/wordless.html

		-----Original Message-----
		From: familyliteracy-bounces at nifl.gov 
[mailto:familyliteracy-bounces at nifl.gov]On Behalf Of Shaewitz, Dahlia
		Sent: Monday, September 11, 2006 2:38 PM
		To: The Family Literacy Discussion List
		Subject: [FamilyLiteracy 366] Re: Scenario - Parent
Child Activities
		
		
		Hello Cyndy:
		 
		When you mentioned parents at a low reading level, I
was
reminded of a literacy program that I volunteered for in Washington,
DC
a few years back.  In this program (not a family literacy program per
se) the director had planned eight weekly "classes" with women who
were
in halfway houses transitioning from incarceration to permanent
residences. Not all of the women were mothers, but most of them did
have
small children.
		 
		The program began with wordless books, i.e., pictorial
books/stories that may contain words such as items in a recipe, but no
words to read, and progressed steadily up to books by the final week
that required reading. Each book was accompanied by an activity that
was
related to the book, e.g., the first wordless book described cooking a
meal so the activity used measuring cups, mixes, etc. related to
cooking
a simple dish. 
		 
		The wordless books were a big hit and allowed the
parent
to tell a story to their child without having any basic reading or
English language skills. The activities were simple and both the books
and materials were provided to the participants so they could
replicate
the activity at home with their children.  
		 
		In an ABE or ESOL program, these activities may also
serve as a learning opportunity around the activity, e.g., vocabulary
&
reading a recipe to follow directions, etc. For children, the
activities
can be as simple as looking at the measuring cups and filling them up
with water, or actually cooking at home using a recipe with mom or
dad.
Interestingly, the participants who were not mothers found the
activities to be just as interesting and fun as the moms did.
		 
		Best,
		Dahlia Shaewitz

________________________________

		From: familyliteracy-bounces at nifl.gov 
[mailto:familyliteracy-bounces at nifl.gov] On Behalf Of Colletti, Cyndy
		Sent: Monday, September 11, 2006 2:15 PM
		To: The Family Literacy Discussion List
		Subject: [FamilyLiteracy 364] Scenario - Parent Child
Activities
		
		
		Last week I attended a meeting where an experienced
family literacy practitioner asked for assistance in designing and
implementing PACT for her group.  She is having difficulty engaging
the
parents who are at a very low level reading.  She questions what would
be appropriate activities for children who are very young and whose
ages
span a wide developmental range.  This is her scenario, does anyone
have
suggestions for her?
		 
		This is a newly formed project in an urban area. The
family literacy parents are in an ABE class.  Their average reading
level is between second and fourth grade levels. Not surprisingly,
they
are quiet and shy during both class and PACT.  The children range in
age
between 2 months to 4 years old with several being about 18 months
old.
		 
		Cyndy Colletti
		 

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Gail J. Price
Multimedia Specialist
National Center for Family Literacy
325 West Main Street, Suite 300
Louisville, KY 40205


Phone: 502 584-1133, ext. 112
Fax: 502 584-0172