Publication: Translations and Transformations: From Training to Implementation

• Goldsmith, Ellen

Teachers from eight East Harlem (New York) day care centers
were trained in a program called Literacy Through Love,
that was designed to prepare day care center teachers to
initiate family reading workshops at their centers. The
five-session training program focused on stories,
folktales, nonfiction, wordless picture books, and poetry.
Each session dealt with a different kind of book, a
different reading strategy, and a reading from an adult
selection. Teachers were asked to "try out" workshop books
at home with one child and in their classes with their
students. Records were kept about the readings and
children's reactions to them, both at home and in class.
Participants reported on their at-home reading experiences
during the training sessions. The participants felt that
they benefitted from learning the reading strategies,
discovering new books, and becoming aware of different
genres and their value. To investigate how teachers adapted
and implemented the training model and materials in their
own workshops, observers attended two of the four workshops
subsequently offered at each day care site. They found that
teachers did an excellent job with introductory activities
and reporting on the reading at home, but underplayed the
presentation of reading strategies and practice for
parents. The workshops led parents and teachers to view
each other in new ways. Teachers noted a variety of factors
that affected their implementation of the workshops.

ERIC #:	ED351108