Using thematic backpacks to encourage family literacy

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Abstract

The Schools of Hope Project in Madison, Wisconsin, has implemented a program to promote family literacy in the home. Students take home backpacks filled with books and related activity supplies to share with the whole family. The purpose of the Schools, Parents and Reading Connection (SPARC) backpacks is to provide families with quality books and activities to support and share in their child's interest in reading. Based on survey results, parents reported the SPARC bags encouraged families to read more and do activities together, helped parents build their child's reading skills, and exposed families to new books.

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Issue

Education research recognizes higher literacy rates for children who have families that support and share their reading interests.

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Action

SPARC programs consist of thematic backpacks (for example: space, animals, food, sports and culture) that children take home to share with their families. Students are encouraged to involve their parents, siblings, or any other relatives or friends with the backpack. The backpacks are rotated through a classroom. Students are responsible for taking the bags home and bringing them back in working order the following week on a regularly scheduled day, so they can be used again by other students.

What is in a SPARC bag?

  • The backpacks always include several different books from different genres around a common theme --often in several ability ranges with some for the children to read to younger siblings and some to encourage someone else to read to them.
  • Manipulatives, or activities, that are as creative as their themes, which can include items such as puzzles, games, art projects and supplies, models, costumes to create a play, recipes (and often the supplies needed).
  • Journal or Family Response log
  • A parent folder consisting of informational articles for parents (tips on helping children read, parenting advice, an article relating to the bag's theme or community parenting resources), a detailed inventory sheet, an application for a public library card, and a sheet with suggested further activities.
  • A thematic item for the child to keep to remind them of their bag (e.g., stickers, snack, pencils, or toothbrushes).
    • AmeriCorps*VISTA members help raise funds for the maintenance and expansion of the program, organize volunteers to help run the weekly maintenance of the program, and work to integrate the program into the schools to make them sustainable after the AmeriCorps*VISTA members are gone. There is an effort to make the bags multilingual, with all forms and activities provided in the main languages spoken by school families, and with copies of the same book in several languages in the same backpack.

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    Context

    The Schools of Hope project is a partnership between the United Way of Dane County Volunteer Center and the Madison Metropolitan School District in the state of Wisconsin.

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    Outcome

    The SPARC backpacks encouraged families to read more and do literacy activities together at home.

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    Evidence

    At the end of each school year, all of the families who use SPARC backpacks are surveyed. The following results from Spring 2000, with 485 families in the county reporting, reflect the success of the school-family connection made through SPARC.

    (The following results include families who responded "almost always" or "sometimes" to the questions in the questionnaire.)

  • 83 percent of families responded that when they have a SPARC backpack in their home, their family reads more.
  • 82 percent of families responded that, as a family, they do the activities together.
  • 65 percent of families responded that they feel a stronger connection to the child's school because of SPARC.
  • 94 percent of families responded that the SPARC backpack exposes their family to books they haven't discovered yet.
  • 86 percent of families responded that the information in the SPARC backpack gives them ideas to help their child with building his or her reading skills.
  • 59 percent of families responded that they spend 2-3 hours with the backpack, and 20 percent spend more than four hours.
  • 59 percent of families responded that their whole family uses the SPARC backpack.
  • 24 percent of families responded that since they have used the SPARC backpacks, their family watches less TV than before.

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    Posted On

    June 6, 2001

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