Contact Name and Title:
Organization:
Contact Information:
Specific Amount of Funds: $22.00 per child
                                                ( 7 storybooks, 1 musical CD)

Desired Impact of Contribution: To promote early literacy for children.

Plan of Using Charitable Funds:
Recently, research has shown that music accelerates learning. Young children love singing and listening to songs. Now there is a literacy program that combines music and literature to promote early literacy called The Sing to Read Adventure.

The co-author and creator of The Sing to Read Adventure is Lorraine Long. She has been a public school kindergarten teacher for many years. Most of her teaching years were in an inner-city school in Nashville, Tennessee, Caldwell Early Childhood Center.

The Sing to Read Adventure is a series of thematic, easy-to-read predictable books with sing-alongs. The program integrates literacy concepts, language, science and math with the book's themes. The early literacy program is currently being implemented in Family Literacy Programs, Public and Private School Systems of 43 states.

The Sing to Read Adventure is a series of easy-to-read, thematic predictable storybooks with sing-alongs that follow the text of the book promoting literacy success for children ages 3 to 6. Each storybook has a different theme and incorporates early childhood curriculum such as color, rhyme, numbers and days of the week. The illustrations in the books are black and white for the children to color, serving as an interactive learning tool for the child. The child will also take ownership for the book having colored the illustrations.

The books and songs can be a successful literacy experience for parent and child. Parents who may have difficulty reading can share in reading these books with their children due to the fact that the sing-along follows the text of the book.

The parents will be invited to attend a Family Literacy Workshop at the school to learn how to teach their children early literacy concepts by using The Sing to Read Adventure program. After the training, the parents receive a package of 7 books, crayons and a musical CD of The Sing to Read Adventure program to take home. The books and music can then be used effectively in the home to teach young children early literacy concepts.

Methods of Evaluating the Early Literacy Project:

Several weeks following the parent training, the participating parents will fill out an evaluation form pertaining to the training session and the children's response to the storybooks and music in the home. Therefore receiving feedback on the parent training and The Sing to Read Adventure for suggestions, improvements and the level of success.

Background Information on The Sing to Read Adventure:

Written by the co-author, Lorraine Long
A subject near and dear to my heart is early literacy. I would like to get a message out to parents that it is vitally important for them to read to their children as early as birth and continue reading to their children. It is parents and childcare givers that can lay the foundation of literacy and language development for our children.

I have taught kindergarten for many years. Most of my teaching years were in an inner-city school, Caldwell Early Childhood Center in Nashville, Tennessee. Many of my students did not have books in the home, so they were literally learning how to hold a book at the age of 5 years old. Some of the children had a limited speaking vocabulary and were learning at that time to form full sentences and questions. From birth to age 5 is a crucial time for the brain development of young children. The children need language and literacy opportunities daily during that 5-year span to develop their brains, language and thinking skills. Many of our children are entering school at the age of 5 with little or no experiences with books, literacy and language. According to current teachers at Caldwell Early Childhood Center the language and literacy skills of inner-city children are at an all time low. I decided to become a full time children's author, educational presenter and Family Literacy Advocate to promote successful early literacy experiences for young children and parents. As a teacher, I could teach 27 children in one school year, or I could train hundreds of teachers and parents how to increase the literacy rate with successful literacy and language strategies by using easy-to-read, predictable books combined with music.

The Sing to Read Adventure is an early literacy storybook series that is now being used in Public and Private School Systems in the pre-school, kindergarten, Head Start, Title I and Family Literacy classrooms of 43 states, Canada and Hong Kong. The International Reading Association and State Early Childhood Associations have recognized a need for this type of program. My goal is to reach out to as many children, parents and teachers as possible.

I included some research information on the importance of early literacy experiences.

Research:
Parents and adults that understand that play is the work of children can use the arts to help develop early language and literacy skills. Music and other language-rich creative arts can stimulate a young child's language and literacy development through one-on-one interaction with a caring adult. Don Campbell, author of The Mozart Effect, says that studies have shown that areas of the brain in musicians are thicker and more fully developed that in other people. Reinforcing the idea that music enlarges existing neural pathways and stimulates learning and creativity. One of the more developed areas is the planum temporal. This area of the brain is associated with language processing, suggesting a perceptual link between language and music. The more music children are exposed to from birth to 7 years old, the more deeply this stage of neural coding will assist them throughout their lives. (Campbell, 1997)

Parents and early caregivers play an essential role in laying the foundations for literacy by talking and reading daily to babies and toddlers. As parents talk, sing, and read to children, the children's brain cells are literally turned on (Shore, 1997). Existing links among brain cells are strengthened and new cells and links are formed. Just as a child develops language skills long before being able to speak, the child also develops literacy skills long before being able to read (National Research Council, 1998).

Positive parental attitudes toward literacy can also help children become more successful readers (Baker et al., 1995). Enthusiasm about books and reading can be shared between parent and child and deepen the child's interest in learning to read (Snow & Tabors, 1996). Parents serve both as teachers and role models in reading (National Research Council, 1998) Adults pass on to children their own expectations about education and achievement, both positive and negative (Fingeret, 1990). Parents who value reading are more likely to turn off the television, visit the library, and give books as gifts. (Fletcher & Lyon, 1998).

Without direct teaching, a child absorbs this knowledge by sitting next to a parent and observing his reading. I remember reading The Blanket (Burningham, 1976) to an eighteen-month-old toddler. After we had read it three times, she wanted to hear it again. So I gave her the book upside down with the back cover facing up and said, "all right, only you tell me where to begin." She turned the book right side up, opened the pages, went past the title page, and pointed to the first word in the text! She knew all those concepts of print at eighteen months. And she certainly understood something about the ability of print to give her the same pleasure in a story that she asked to hear four times! (Huck, C.S., 1994)

Predictable books give our children an opportunity to experience hearing rhyming words. The children are fine-tuning their hearing for "words" that sound the same. This provides an essential base for later when our children are hearing and discriminating individual phonics "sounds" that sound the same. (Long, 1998)

Children's vocabulary can be greatly enhanced by talking and reading with parents. In fact, the vocabulary of the average children's book is greater than that found on prime-time television (Hayes & Ahrens, 1988). A child may be on a first grade reading level but have a fourth grade listening level. Reading to children is a great opportunity to increase vocabulary as well as listening and comprehension skills. (Long, 1998)

Given what we know about brain development, it is clear that parents should not leave to schools alone the important tasks of language and literacy development. Elementary school teachers do not even meet children until well after key periods have passed for cognitive and language development. We must do more to enable and encourage parents to talk with their children and invest 30 minutes daily for reading. When parents are unable, grandparents, neighbors, babysitters, siblings, and other adults should step in to serve as the child's designated reader for the day. It is an experience that children will remember for a lifetime, and one that will form the foundation for all later learning. If daily reading begins in infancy, (15-30 minutes a day) by the time the child is 5 years old, he or she has been fed roughly 900 hours of brain food! (U.S. Department of Education, America Reads Challenge)

References:

Baker, C., Serpell, R., & Sonnenschen, S. (1995). Opportunities for Literacy Learning in the Homes of Urban Preschoolers. In Family Literacy: Connections in Schools and Communities, ed. C.M. Morrow, Newark, DE: International Reading Association.

Campbell, D.G. (1997). The Mozart Effect: Tapping the Power of Music to Heal the Body, Strengthen the Mind, and Unlock the Creative Spirit. New York: Avon Books.

Fingeret, H.A., (1990). Let Us Gather Blossoms Under Fire? Paper presented at a conference on literacy for a global economy: A Multicultural Perspective. El Paso, TX, February 21.

Fletcher, J.M. & Lyon, G.R. (1998). A Research-Based Approach. In What's gone Wrong in America's Classrooms, ed. W.M. Evers, 49-90. Stanford, CA: Hoover Institution Press.

Hayes, D.P. & Ahrens, M.G. (1998). Vocabulary Simplification for Children: A Special Case of 'Motherese'? Journal of Child Language, 15(2):395-410.

Huck, C. ET AL. 1997. Children's Literature in the Elementary School. 6th ed. New York: McGraw-Hill.

Long, L. (1998). The Sing to Read Adventure Professional Book: Original Predictable Books and Integrated Activities. Woodstock, GA: Periwinkle Park Educational Productions.

National Research Council. (1998). Preventing Reading Difficulties in Young Children. Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press.

Shore, R. (1997). Rethinking the Brain: New Insights into Early Development. New York City: Families and Work Institute.

Snow, C. & Tabors, P. (1996). Intergenerational Transfer of Literacy in Family Literacy: Directions in Research and Implications for Practice, eds. LA. Benjamin and J. Lords. Washington, D.C.: Office of Educational Research and Improvement, U.S. Department of Education.

U.S. Department of Education, Office of Educational Research and Improvement, National Center for Education Statistics. (1999). Teacher quality: A Report on the Preparation and Qualifications of Public School Teachers, NCES 1999-080, by Lewis, L., Parsad, B., Carey, N., Bartfai, N., Farris, E., Smerdon, B., and Greene B., project officer. Washington, D.C.