Family Literacy at Home: Workshop Ideas

Planning an Event

Before scheduling a family event:

• Enlist a few bilingual staff members or volunteers who speak families’ languages to help.
• Ask family liaisons to brainstorm well-known songs and stories from families’ cultures.
• Consider inviting the school librarian or public librarian to the event.
• Find some bilingual books in families’ languages to bring to the session.
• Find some common household objects and toys you can bring as props.
• If your families speak languages other than Spanish, you can ask a bilingual staff member to translate the content of the English videos for families during the event.

For additional suggestions on planning events with multilingual families, see our related guide!

Sharing the Video with Families

1. Ask families to sit in small groups. (Group families by language if possible.)
2. Assign a bilingual staff member or parent volunteer to each group to facilitate.
3. Pass out the literacy tip sheet in families’ languages.  
4. Show families the video or videos in their languages. (You may wish to use laptops in the small groups so that you can show the video in multiple languages simultaneously.)

Activities 

The following activities are designed to encourage discussion. You may wish to show all 6 videos in one event, or plan a series of events around the different videos.

Keep in mind that:

• Families may have varying levels of literacy. The activities below focus on ideas that families can try regardless of literacy level.
• Families may be hesitant to speak about their language and culture, especially if they have faced discrimination in the past. Keep a warm, encouraging, and patient tone to build trust and foster engagement!
• You may wish to ask families to share ideas from their small groups with the bigger group after each activity or at the closing of the event.

Activity #1: Family Literacy Tips for Babies: Singing Songs and Nursery Rhymes

• Ask families what songs, rhymes, or games are common in their culture, especially for babies.
• If needed, ask your bilingual volunteers to jump in with ideas!

For example, in Spanish, you can find common songs and rhymes in these books and collections such as “Los pollitos.”

Going deeper: Have families compare the lyrics from the different versions of popular songs. See if there are any differences! Librarian Lucía Gonzalez notes that families can get pretty animated about which version is the “right” one! And you might want to see if a brave participant would like to sing one of these songs for the group – or lead a sing-a-along!

Activity #2: Family Literacy Tips for Young Children: Talking Together 

• Ask families what are some activities they do together each day (eating, bath, etc).
• Demonstrate how they might talk about some common objects with a child. Use common props such as socks, a plastic cup, or a small group of toys.
• Demonstrate guessing or matching games that focus on color, size, counting, etc.

Going deeper: Ask families to try coming up with a game with some common objects in their small groups and then share their ideas with the larger group.

Activity #3: Family Literacy Tips for Older Children and Teens: A Lifelong Love of Reading 

• Ask families about their children’s favorite activities and interests.
• Pass out some different kinds of books for families to see.
• Tell families about the kinds of books they can find at the school or public library, including books they can download on their phone.

Going deeper: If the librarian is attending the event, ask them to share some book titles related to the interests and activities that families mentioned.

Activity #4: Family Literacy Tips: Talking About Picture Books 

• Demonstrate how to talk about the illustrations together in a picture book. (“What is the girl doing in this picture? What is she wearing?”
• Holding up a book, ask families the kinds of questions about the illustrations they might use with a child.

Going deeper: Put your attendees into pairs and ask them to take turns looking and talking about a book together.

Activity #5: Family Literacy Tips: Reading to Your Children in Your Home Language 

Share some bilingual books with your families. If possible, look for culturally responsive titles that reflect families’ cultures and experiences. Try the following: 

• Model a read-aloud in families’ home languages.
• Encourage families to listen to their children reading out loud. 
• Talk with families about the benefits of learning to read in your first language.

Going deeper: If a librarian is at the event, ask them to talk about the kinds of books at the library, how to sign up for a library card, and how to download books on their phone. 

Activity #6: Family Literacy Tips: Early Print Awareness 

• Point out print on common household objects such as cereal boxes or shampoo bottles.
• Ask families for ideas on where they might see some print out in the community, like on signs.

Going deeper: Share some ideas of games that children can play, such as looking for the letters in the alphabet or in their name around the house. For more literacy games you can share, see these ideas from PBS Parents!

At the End 

• Ask families what they have learned from the session and which ideas they might try.  Which ideas in the video are they already doing?
• Let them know that there are many ways they can support their child’s education, even if they are still learning to read and still learning English.  
• Encourage them to keep their language and culture strong at home and ask the school for support where needed! 
• Ask families where they might share this video series with their own networks.