[MOSAIC] Creating a plan for family involvement in literacy

[Eunice Zepeda]

Good afternoon,
 
My name is Eunice and I am a graduate student at the College of New Rochelle in New York. Currently I work in HR but I am working towards my degree in early childhood education. When I was five my family moved from Mexico City to New York. I attended a Catholic elementary and high school and graduated from IONA College. 
 
I am lucky to have parents who know the importance of education and a nurturing environment, but I know that there are many children who are not as lucky. My dream is to open a daycare center that gives pre-school children who come from low-income families the chance to prepare for school. I would love to provide an environment where children can play, socialize and learn to love learning! 
 
I am taking LIT 501- Introduction to Literacy, and one of our assignments is to create a plan for family involvement in literacy. I need to make a plan to reach out to two different types of families (i.e., working class families who are literate but may not value books or may not have time to read with their children/families whose first language may not be English). I must include how to communicate, what I will ask the family to do to support the child's literacy, what will I do to make/print/send home in order to make this work, and how will I follow up to make this a year-long connection.
 
Because I am currently not in a school environment, I am looking for what some of your experiences have been with families who may have the needs but not the desire or time to read with their children, and families who are immigrants and sending their children (whose primary language may not be English) to school for the first time.
 
Any advice/ideas are greatly appreciated!!!
 
~ Eunice