Since literature supports the need for a young child's early home literacy environment and reading skills, this research study is designed to investigate what researchers and educators and parents proclaim belongs in a home-based literacy program. Specifically the appropriate activities for the building of home literacy and how parents can learn how to implement these activities are explored with a critical analysis of the literature. In addition, a quantitative and qualitative questionnaire will be developed to survey parents and teachers of students pre-kindergarten through first grade at a local elementary school and resulting data will be statistically analyzed. This chapter presents a detailed description of the methodology and procedures used for this study.
Critical literature analysis and quantitative and qualitative survey research will be used for this study. The critical analysis of the literature will include a critical analysis of the existing problem of what must be included in a home-based literacy program. The theories and findings from other researchers will be analyzed by reviewing the literature and conclusions will be drawn to help answer the research questions. Survey research will also be used to gather scientific information related to the topic and parents and teachers will report their perceptions of what is needed in this type of program. Thus, the research design will allow for collection of data related to home-based literacy programs, home-based literacy components, home-based literacy activities, and home-based literacy skills. While the current study does not allow for the control over variables and threats to validity, it will yield empirical results, since empirical research includes the collection of data and the analysis of the data to answer research questions.
For this study a quantitative and qualitative questionnaire will be used to determine what parents perceive belongs in a ...