Bill receiving the Award from Mr. Randy Snow, Canada Post

PRINTS Family Literacy Network was a recipient of the Canada Post Community Leadership Award for 2004. The Award was presented at the Delta Hotel, St. John's, NL, the event being co-sponsored by the Literacy Development Council of Newfoundland and Labrador, and Canada Post.

PRINTS Family Literacy Network is a volunteer, not-for-profit organization which makes it difficult at times to operate. Its goals are to provide literacy resources, the key one being the PRINTS Program, publish 2 Newsletters annually, maintain a web site, provide training for parent facilitators, and conduct research on the effectiveness of PRINTS and on early literacy in general. Many people have made PRINTS successful by promoting and directing PRINTS activities, especially, Mary Cronin, Gilles Chabot, Una Hynes, Barb Marshall, Hope Colbourne, Martina Green, and Karen Nakogee. In addition there are many people who are implementing the PRINTS Program at many different sites in and outside the province. My sincere appreciation to Canada Post for this recognition. It is recognition like this that gives us the "boost" we sometimes need to continue our work

REVISION OF PRINTS PROGRAM

During the past year PRINTS Family Network received a grant from the National Literacy Secretariat to revise the PRINTS Program. Not to get upset - the overall framework will remain the same. Research and feedback have shown that STEPS and ROLES make PRINTS unique. Early literacy permeates and integrates into all aspects of a child's life: books and book sharing, talk/oral language, play, environmental print, and scribbling/drawing, and writing. In order for the Activities to be effective, parents and caregivers must take seriously their ROLES. Opportunity, feedback, and modeling are key factors that make an activity effective. The steps or procedures a parent or caregiver uses to guide a child through an activity is the key to success.

What is exciting about the revision is that Activities are now being grouped for children ages 0-2 years, and 3-5/6 years. There will be over 30 activities in each age category across the five STEPS. About 20% of the Activities for each group will have a health focus - in other words, children will develop literacy development skills and health habits simultaneously. Also, in five of the sessions (the second general Session Plan for each STEP) there will be a discussion with parents on health issues - from maintaining good communication skills to stress. As I have been revising PRINTS, one thing stood out that I had not noticed in that way before. Parents and caregivers acquire lots of information about child and literacy development, but this is not "told" to the parents. Instead they learn this information as part of the rationales for each of the Activities. Their learning is integrated with their doing.

While good progress is being made on the revision, I don't want to overestimate release date, but hoping about late winter / early spring. Anyone on my mailing list who is offering PRINTS, let me know and I will send you a complimentary copy of the revised Facilitator Handbook and Parent Handbook. Also let me know a little about your program that I can use for an upcoming Newsletter.