Lorena:  Anytime we try to evaluate interactions between parents and children, we have to know what outcomes are expected.  For example, I assume the parents have been provided some guidance or instruction as to what they should do, i.e., read something to the child, ask specific questions about the content to foster conversation from the child, teach the child some specific thing, or whatever.  Then, Ann and/or I look for evidence that whatever behavior is desired has occurred.  

One of the recent national efforts to foster certain behaviors in ILA used video taping with follow-up to assess, with the parent, what happened during the activity.  That is one good way to determine if the behavior occurred, but it can become expensive and time-consuming.  Another is to talk to the parent, or small group of parents , to determine if "they" believe the behavior happened, and if not, what are some reasons it may not have occurred.  Remember, sometimes the parents become so much engaged in the activity they may miss something that actually occurred and the observer can share it with the parent.  That is why observers can be so important in evaluation activities.

ILA is not always easy to measure nor document.  It is one of those things that "we know it when we see it happen".  However, it is an important component of family literacy and we need to document it whenever possible.  If you know exactly what you want to happen, develop a checklist with the behaviors indicated and then follow-up to determine if they occurred.  Checklists can be a good way to assess what did or did not occur in a proposed learning situation and by using them, you can record and document what occurred and share that with parents.  I hope this has been helpful.

Don Seaman
acs8716 at suddenlink.net
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://www.nifl.gov/pipermail/familyliteracy/attachments/20070227/b3eb25de/attachment.html