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"Please remember to involve the parents of your students in balancing their read alouds. Informational texts generate wonderful conversations and help parents to enjoy being co-learners with their children."

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"Family literacy projects that encourage families to read to children and talk with them can have success. But helping families nurture their children's literacy is not a simple matter. Communication patterns within families are hard to change."

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Teacher Web Resource

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ReadWriteThink couldn't publish all of this great content without literacy experts to write and review for us. If you've got lessons plans, videos, activities, or other ideas you'd like to contribute, we'd love to hear from you.

Find the latest in professional publications, learn new techniques and strategies, and find out how you can connect with other literacy professionals.

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Lesson Plan

Grades

K - 2

Lesson Plan Type

Recurring Lesson

Estimated Time

5-7 minutes per session

Lesson Author

Publisher

Featured Resources From Theory to Practice
OVERVIEW

Students take turns taking home a book bag that includes a stuffed toy, a book to read with their families, art supplies, a topic to discuss, and a journal to complete as a family. The students then return the bag the following day and share their entries with the class. After every student has taken the bag home, the journal is bound into a book for the classroom library. The teacher then selects a new topic and book to start a second rotation. The goal is to invite parents to join their children in these literacy activities.
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FEATURED RESOURCES
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List of Suggested Books: This booklist includes tips for choosing quality books for a take-home literacy activity, as well as several examples of appropriate books.

Listening and Speaking Rubric: Students can use this rubric to self-assess any activity that requires speaking to the class and listening as classmates speak.

FROM THEORY TO PRACTICE

In her book Radical Reflections, Mem Fox states: "I'm certain that learning to read and learning to love reading owe a great deal (much more that we ever dreamed) to the nature of the human relationships that occur around and through books. If we could sneak into the homes of avid readers, I think we'd discover very often that the comfortable relationship between an older reader and a younger reader during the shared reading of a mutually loved book might be a key factor in the child's success." (136)

Engaging families in literacy activities can help foster this love of reading. Charlene Endrizzi urges, "When family-school partnerships are perceived as opportunities for families and teachers to learn together deliberately, they transform parent-teacher interactions. Each September, as teachers... recognize the need to respect a child's years of learning beyond their classroom, they intentionally set out to build bridges and work to unite community, home, and school learning experiences." (18)

This lesson offers one way to build a bridge between the home and school learning experience, through a fun, take-home literacy activity.

Further Reading
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Mem Fox. 1993. Radical Reflections: Passionate Opinions on Teaching, Learning, and Living. Harcourt Brace & Company.

Endrizzi, Charlene Klassen. 2008. Becoming Teammates: Teachers and Families as Literacy Partners. Urbana, IL: NCTE.

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Have Journal...Will Travel: Promoting Family Involvement in Literacy - ReadWriteThink

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ReadWriteThink couldn't publish all of this great content without literacy experts to write and review for us. If you've got lessons plans, videos, activities, or other ideas you'd like to contribute, we'd love to hear from you. Find the latest in professional publications, learn new techniques and strategies, and find out how you can connect with other literacy professionals.

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Take Home Buddy Bag/Literacy Bag Note to Parents

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Take Home Buddy Bag/Literacy Bag Note to Parents

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Pinterest

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Thematic bags are a unique alternative to homework. Inside each one are book suggestions, writing journals, games, fun family experience ideas and an activity sheet, all centered around one topic or author. They not only encourage reading at home, but also allow for

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Literacy Bag Topics:
What is a favorite memory that you have as a family? A special holiday? A vacation? A new baby? Write and tell us about it. Draw a picture to go with your story.

What is a special tradition in your family? Do you celebrate a special holiday or does your family get together on a certain day for a special meal? Some traditions come down to us through our families and represent traditions from other countries or cultures. Tell us about one of your family traditions and draw pictures or send photographs to help us learn about your tradition. Maybe some of the people from your family would like to come to school with you to help you tell about your special tradition!

What is your favorite season and what makes it special for you?

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Family, School & Community Partnerships: Supporting Student Success

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Family, School & Community Partnerships: Supporting Student Success

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=45F5WfCqD08

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Family, School & Community Partnerships: Supporting Student Success

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Standards

Standard - CC.1.1.K.E

Read emergent-reader text with purpose and understanding.

Standard - CC.1.2.PREK.C

With prompting and support, make connections between information in a text and personal experiences.

Standard - CC.1.1.K.E

Read emergent-reader text with purpose and understanding.

Standard - CC.1.2.PREK.B

Answer questions about a text.

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Children’s Book
Whoever You Are by Mem Fox My Family Tree by Joan Sweeney Not Your Typical Dragon by Dan Bar-el, Time Bowers

Books about families K-2:
Families are Different by Nina Pellegrini
One Family by George Shannon

Poetry Month K-12:

Round is a Mooncake by Grace Lin, Roseanne Thong

Harlem by Walter Dean Myers