Altering the Home Literacy Environment: A Look into How Teachers are Supporting Families Through Home Literacy Interventions

Abstract

This empirical research study investigated the following two research questions: what are kindergarten, first and second-grade teachers currently using to make improvements to the home literacy environments of their students and what supports are teachers providing to families of their students to make these improvements successful. In this study, nine elementary teachers were surveyed. An online survey containing qualitative and quantitative questions was used. The first finding from this research study was that teachers are currently provided families with literacy resources/activities to complete at home with their child/children. The second finding for this research study was that teachers stated that it would be possible to positively influence the home literacy environments of their students but they needed more literacy resources in order to adequately support their students’ literacy learning at home. The third finding was that the participants were confident in their ability to support families with home literacy practices and were knowledgeable about the most effective home literacy practices that families could use. The findings from this research study showed that kindergarten, first and second-grade teachers were supporting the home literacy environments and the families of their students by sending home literacy resources.