Table of Contents

1. Introduction
2. Defining Family Literacy
   1. Definition of Terms
3. KEY THEMES AND ISSUES
   
   
   1. Family literacy programs
      1. What qualifies as a family literacy program?
      2. Categorizing family literacy programs
      3. USA Legislated Program model
      4. Call for flexible and responsive models
         
         
   2. Understanding family literacy as social practice
      1. How do families acquire, use and value literacy?
      2. Literacy practices and power relations
      3. Dominant literacies and power imbalances
      
      
   3. Teaching methods and program content
      1. Domestication of women
      2. Family literacy as part of the social change paradigm
      3. It’s more than simply telling a parent to read to a child
      4. Library trends
      5. Media technology reshapes literacy practices
      6. Importance of the early years
         
         
   4. Deficit discourse
      1. Family as the site for literacy education
      2. Are standardized tests of literacy skills culturally biased?
      3. Family literacy and the pressure for “school readiness”
         
         
   5. Impact of school literacy on home literacy
      1. Children create a third space between home and school
      2. Partnerships and power imbalances
         
         
      Influence of experience upon the early development of the brain
      
      “Best Practices” in family literacy education
      1. Staff qualifications and training
      2. Position of family literacy in adult education
      3. The gap between “best practices” and actual practices
      4. “Best practices” in early literacy education
      5. Government response to research on the teaching of reading
      6. Building on real-life literacy activities
      7. Program evaluation
      
      
4. POINTS FOR CONSIDERATION
5. BIBLIOGRAPHY