How do families participate in Motheread/Fatheread®?
Families in Wisconsin can access Motheread/Fatheread® classes through a variety of organizations, including social service agencies, schools, literacy councils, libraries, technical colleges and other educational organizations. The Wisconsin Humanities Council and Motheread®Inc. train these class instructors, who are staff members at these organizations.
For more information, contact Dena Wortzel at the WHC: 608-263-5593, dwortzel@wisc.edu.
Who are Motheread/Fatheread® instructors and how are they trained?
Motheread/Fatheread® instructors are staff members of libraries, schools, technical colleges, literacy councils, Head Start, Even Start Family Literacy, and other social service and education agencies. To become a trained Motheread/Fatheread® instructor an individual must complete twenty-four hours of instruction at a Motheread/Fatheread® Family Literacy Training Institute. The Institute prepares them to teach Motheread/Fatheread® classes for adults and to lead "storysharing" sessions for children using the Motheread/Fatheread® curriculum and approach to instruction.
WHC Motheread/Fatheread® Family Literacy Training Institutes teach literacy instructors how to:
- Improve parents' own literacy skills
- Help parents become reading role models for their children
- Increase parents' ability to use children's books as a means of introducing issues for family discussion
- Teach parents specific methods for sharing books with children
- Improve children's academic skills in listening, speaking, reading, writing, comprehension, and critical thinking
- Strengthen family bonds of communication and relationships
- Increase parents' patience with their children
- Help parents value and establish reading as a family activity
How do I become a Motheread/Fatheread® instructor?
The Wisconsin Humanities Council offers at least one Motheread/Fatheread® Family Literacy Training Institute per year, in Madison, at which twenty people become certified instructors. To be eligible for training, you must be a paid staff member of a Wisconsin nonprofit with a demonstrated commitment to literacy programming.
Tuition for this instruction is $650 per person. Partial scholarships may be available.
The WHC also offers training institutes when a specific organization, such as the Department of Public Instruction's Even Start Family Literacy program, contracts with the WHC to train its staff members. Timing and location of such institutes depend upon the sponsor's needs.
For information on the training schedule and to receive an application, contact Dena Wortzel at the WHC: 608-263-5593, dwortzel@wisc.edu.
What success has Motheread/Fatheread® had?
In addition to ongoing and enthusiastic praise from participants, Motheread/Fatheread® has received numerous national awards, including:
- International Reading Association Award for Services in the Promotion of Literacy
- Selection by Laubach Literacy International as one of eight exemplary family literacy programs nationally
- Selection by Barbara Bush Foundation as one of ten model literacy programs nationally
- Featured in The Read Aloud Handbook, Revised Edition by Jim Trelease
- James B. Hunt, Jr. Literacy Award from the North Carolina Reading Association
- Nancye Gaj, the founder of Motheread®Inc. received the National Humanities Medal from the President in 1999
Read professional evaluations by education researchers.
How do I support literacy in Wisconsin?
Your contribution can help us cover some of the costs of the training institutes—and even offer partial scholarships to literacy professionals who might otherwise not be able to afford Motheread/Fatheread® Family Literacy training.
Each year, newly-trained Motheread/Fatheread® instructors touch the lives of hundreds of people living in Wisconsin. Your tax-deductible contribution can help us introduce to parents the power of literacy and the pleasure of reading with their children.
For more information on supporting Motheread/Fatheread® in Wisconsin, please contact Dena Wortzel, dwortzel@wisc.edu, 608-263-5593