Background:

 

The purpose of the Smart Start Family Literacy Program is to help break the cycle of poverty and illiteracy by improving the educational opportunities of single parent families through the integration of four components into a family literacy program for parents and children ages birth to grade 4.

 

• Childhood Education (age-appropriate education to prepare children for success in school and life experiences),

• Parent Literacy  Training

• Parenting Education (training for parents regarding how to be the primary teacher for their children and full partners in the education of their children), and

• Interactive family literacy activities between parents and their children.

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Program Description:

The Smart Start Family Literacy program consists of:

• Targeting families of 2nd, 3rd, and 4th grade students who desire/need additional assistance in Reading , but open to children Pre-K to 5th grade.

• Quarterly Bookworm Family Nights that foster a love for reading and cultivates family fun with reading through activities and learning strategies.

• Access to Smart Start Family Literacy resources and tools to use within the home designed to improve sight word recognition, reading fluency and comprehension.

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Rationale for Program:

• Students not performing and reading proficiently by the 3rd grade are four times as likely to leave school without a diploma when compared to proficient readers.

• Third grade has proven to be a vital year for a student shifting from learning to read to reading to learn.

• Interventions for struggling readers after 3rd grade are seldom as effective as those in early years.