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Tribal Child Care Technical Assistance Center (TriTAC)
Effective Program Strategies

Literacy Outreach to Families Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde Community of Oregon

Type of Program:
Grand Ronde’s Early Childhood Education (ECE) Program operates a child care center funded through Head Start and CCDF. The year-round program serves up to 37 families a year, including tribal and non-tribal children. The Head Start portion of the program operates from 7:30 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. Monday to Friday. The child care portion of the program continues until 5:30 p.m. The ECE program serves 3- and 4-year-olds.

Grand Ronde also offers CCDF-funded school-age care for children from kindergarten through grade 5.  Based in a two-room modular building located at Grand Ronde Elementary School, the program can serve up to 30 students daily during the regular school year and up to 32 students per day during the summer months. The program also provides one-on-one and group tutoring to Native American students in the Willamina School District. During times when the public schools are shut down due to weather, vacations, or in-service days, the K-5 program offers a full-day schedule for the students.

Effective Program Strategy:
What began as a program’s attempt to increase parent involvement has evolved into a comprehensive approach to promoting early literacy inside the classroom and beyond. Several years ago, staff from the ECE program began to notice that turnout was very low at events for parents despite the fact that the program was providing food and child care. After brainstorming ways to increase parent participation, child care staff decided to plan a monthly get-together focused on literacy. The event, known as Literacy Night, had two goals: to attract and hold the interest of parents and children by providing a variety of educational activities, and to address the literacy needs of families, many of whom lacked books in their homes.

A typical Literacy Night includes a nutritious family-style dinner served at 5:30 p.m. followed by story time. During story time, families come together in a circle for a reading of a selected story, usually one with a native theme. Families then work together on three or more activities related to the story. Hardcover copies of the chosen story are distributed to each preschool child; parents receive tips on encouraging literacy at home.

The books selected for literacy night are often based on a special theme. For example, disaster preparedness, nutrition, mental health issues, and Chinuk, the tribal language, have all served as theme topics. Requests for certain topics are typically identified during family partnership meetings and are used to plan literacy night themes in the first part of the school year. As the year goes on and child care staff get to know the families better, they take the lead in selecting themes and books for the rest of the year. When a family makes a request during the year for a certain topic, however, staff work hard to incorporate it into the schedule.

Examples of the books that have been suggested by parents, staff, and community members include:

• On Mother’s Lap, chosen by a parent who participated in a local training. This story has become a program favorite.
• Jingle Dancer, selected by the program’s nutritionist, who came across it at a conference.  This book has a contemporary native theme.
• The Sly Fox and the Chicks, chosen after the program’s family partnership coordinator learned that parents were concerned about strangers abducting their children. Several young girls had been kidnapped in the area and parents were fearful for their children’s safety.  Staff researched a number of book options and designed a Literacy Night around this theme.
• Less Than Half, More Than Whole, picked after ECE Director Vikki Bishop met the author, Michael Lacapa, at a training. Mr. Lacapa autographed the books that were distributed to the children and also joined the local schools for a motivational session.
• Pipaluk and the Whales, recommended by staff from the local B. Dalton bookstore. They order the Literacy Night books, which they sell to the program at a 20 percent discount, and stay connected to the project by keeping an eye out for books that may be of interest.
• Raven, selected by the Chinuk immersion classroom staff as a Northwest Legend that could be translated into Chinuk for one of the Literacy Nights.
• The Legend of Sleeping Bear, chosen after September 11^th as part of the program’s disaster preparedness kit. While the story was very sad, it was appropriate at the time and reflected the mood of the nation.
• Eagle Boy, chosen when a staff member noticed a review of the book in the local paper.

Since the initiation of the Literacy Nights, a parent committee has been formed to help with planning efforts. They recently organized a Luau Literacy Night, complete with books, activities, food, and special decorations. Related literacy initiatives that tie in with the project include the Library Readers program, in which volunteers read to children each Monday morning, extended tribal library hours, and efforts program-wide to encourage families to sign up for library cards.

The Chinuk Immersion Classroom also plays a role in literacy outreach.  It provides intensive language instruction to children in both oral and written language, translates one book per year into Chinuk and plans a literacy night around the book, and works with the ECE program’s disabilities coordinator and educational service staff to ensure that children with communication needs are also able to access their native language.

Resources:
CCDF quality set-aside dollars and Head Start funds are used to fund this initiative.

Results:
Literacy Night has become an expansion of how the ECE program promotes literacy on a daily basis in the classroom. Literacy concepts that are woven into the project include environmental print (labels, names, and authentic print); phonemic awareness (rhyming, repetition, songs, and fingerplays); and books (reading, storytelling, and child-made books).

Literacy Night has resulted in a number of positive outcomes:

• Families enjoy spending quality time together after being separated all day;
• Parent participation in the event has soared over the past fours years; more families attend Literacy Night throughout the year than field trips;
• Community partners of the preschool program have also participated in Literacy Nights; and
• Children and families want so much to attend each month’s Literacy Nights, that extended family members are often asked to join the child if parents are unable to attend. 

In addition to the participation of parents and community partners, the program has benefited immensely from the involvement of ECE staff, including the chef/nutrition coordinator and bus driver/classroom aide, who actively participate in all of the program’s activities, including Literacy Night. The gentlemen work along with the classroom teachers and program staff to develop and staff the events, and they serve as male role models for the children.

Lessons Learned:
The organizers of Grand Ronde’s Literacy Night programs have identified several keys to successful literacy outreach to families:

• Try to leverage opportunities such as regular meetings and events to provide specialized training to parents and community members.
• Look to program staff and community members for input on the type of content to feature during events such as “literacy nights.”
• Plan and talk about the events well ahead of time. Set dates and topics in advance and publicize them through flyers, monthly calendars, phone calls, and e-mail. Involve children by encouraging them to make and deliver personal event invitations to their families.

Contact Information
Vikki Bishop
Director, Preschool and Head Start

Address:
Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde
Education Division
9615 Grand Ronde Road
Grand Ronde, OR 97347

Phone: 503-879-2287
Fax: 503-879-2279
E-mail: vikki.bishop@grandronde.org

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This page was last updated May 18, 2005.