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Areas of Interest

• Family literacy
• Socio-cultural aspects of literacy
• Parents and literacy
• Emergining/early literacy
• Literacy
• Reading

Research Activities

• Parents As Literacy Supporters (PALS) PALS is a culturally responsive family literacy program for parents and their four- and five-year-old children developed by Jim Anderson, UBC and Fiona Morrison, Primary Consultant, Langley School District. PALS is currently in operation in 11 school districts in British Columbia, in the Northwest Territories and in Toronto. To ensure that the program meets the needs of families and the community, parents and teachers were involved in conceptualizing the program and in identifying topics about which they wanted to learn more. PALS consists of 10 to 12, two and one-half hour sessions which occur approximately every two weeks. Topics include "Learning to Read", "Learning the ABCs", "Riddles, Raps and Rhymes". Each session begins with participants and facilitators sharing a light breakfast or lunch. The topic of the session is then introduced and parents share their knowledge and insights. Then, parents proceed to the kindergarten (or preschool) classroom where they work with their children for about an hour on activities related to the topic of the day. Afterward while the children are at recess, parents are provided with an opportunity to discuss what they observed as they worked with the children. They are then provided with a high-quality children's book and, on occasion, they make an educational game or activity to take home.

Further information about PALS is found at http://www.lerc.educ.ubc.ca/fac/anderson/pals/

• Intergenerational Literacy Project (Literacy for Life)

Recent Publications

Anderson, J., Morrison, F., & Hayden, R. (2009).Family literacy goes to school: Perspectives, programs, possibilities. In M. Sanders & J. Shively (Eds.), Inter-provincial/territorial training for family literacy, Module V (pp. 1-49). Edmonton, AB: Center for Family Literacy.

Moffatt, L., Anderson, A., Anderson, J., & Shapiro, J. (2009). Gender and mathematics at play: Parents’ constructions of their pre-schoolers’ mathematical capabilities. Investigations in Mathematics Learning, 2, 1-25.

Anderson, J., Norman, P, & Anderson, A. (2008). Family literacy at St. Mark’s School: Enhancing student achievement, building capacity, and developing social and cultural capital in rural Newfoundland. In D. Dibbon & G. Galway (Eds.), Proceedings of Symposium 2008: Post-confederation educational reform- From rhetoric to reality (pp. 1-9). St. John’s, NL: Memorial University of Newfoundland. A version of this chapter is available at: http://www.mun.ca/educ/symposium2008/Anderson,_Norman__Anderson.pdf

Anderson, J., Lenters, K., & Mctavish, M. (2008). Constructing families, constructing literacy: A critical analysis of family literacy websites. The School Community Journal, 18, 61-78. Available at http://www.adi.org/journal/ss08%5CAndersonLentersMcTavishSpring2008.pdf

Anderson, A., Anderson, J., & Thauberger, C. (2008) Mathematics learning and teaching in the early years. In O. Saracho & B. Spodek (Eds.), Contemporary Perspectives in Early Childhood Mathematics (pp. 95-132). Greenwich, CT: Information age Publishing.

Kim, J., & Anderson, J. (2008). Mother-child shared reading in print and digital texts. Journal of Early Childhood Literacy, 8, 213-245.

Lynch, J., Anderson, J., Anderson, J., & Shapiro, J. (2008). Preschool children's interacting with storybooks: Children's literacy achievement. Reading Horizons, 48, 227-242.

Mui, S., & Anderson, J. (2008). At home with the Johars: Another look at family literacy. The Reading Teacher, 62, 234-243.

Phillips, L.M., Norris, S.P., & Anderson, J. (2008). Unlocking the Door: Is Parents' Reading to Children the Key to Early Literacy Development? Canadian Psychology, 49(2), 82-88.

Anderson, J., & Morrison, F. (2007). "A great program . . . for me as a Gramma": Caregivers evaluate a family literacy initiative. Canadian Journal of Education, 30, 68-89. Available at: http://www.csse.ca/CJE/Articles/FullText/CJE30-1/CJE30-1-AndersonMorrison.pdf

Anderson, J., Streelasky, J., & Anderson, T. (2007). Representing and promoting family literacy on the WWW: A critical analysis. Alberta Journal of Educational Research, 53, 143-156.

Lynch, J., Anderson, J., Anderson, A., & Shapiro, J. (2006). Parents' beliefs about young children's literacy development and parents' literacy behaviors. Reading Psychology, 27, 1-20.

Anderson, J., Moffatt, L., & Shapiro, J. (2006). Reconceptualizing language education in early childhood: Socio-cultural perspectives. In B. Spodek & O. Saracho (Eds.), Handbook of research on the education of young children (pp. 135-151). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Anderson, J., Kendrick, M., Rogers, T., & Smythe, S. (2005). Portraits of literacy across families, communities and schools: Intersections and tensions. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Anderson, J., Smythe, S., & Shapiro, J. (2005). Working with families, communities and schools: A critical case study. In J. Anderson, M. Kendrick, T. Rogers & S. Smythe (Eds.), Portraits of literacy across families, communities and schools: Intersections and tensions (pp. 63-85). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Anderson, A., Anderson, J., & Shapiro, J. (2005). Supporting multiliteracies: Parents' and children's talk within shared storybook reading. Mathematics Education Research Journal, 16, 5-26.

Kendrick, M., Rogers, T., Smythe, S., & Anderson, J. (2005). Portraits of literacy across families, communities and schools: An introduction. In J. Anderson, M. Kendrick, T. Rogers, & S. Smuthe (Eds.), Portraits of Literacy across families, communities and schools: Intersections and tensions (pp. 1-17). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Anderson, A., Anderson, J. & Shapiro, J. (2004). Mathematical discourse in storybook reading. Journal for research in mathematics education, 35, 5-33.

Anderson, J., Anderson, A., Lynch, J., Shapiro, J. (2004). Examining the effects of gender and genre on interactions in shared book reading. Reading Research and Instruction, 43, 1-24.

Anderson, J., Kendrick, M., Rogers, T., Smythe, S., & Pirbhai-Illich, F. (2003). Proceedings of the Portraits of Literacy Conference: Critical Issues in Family, Community, and School Literacy. http://pkp.ubc.ca/ocs/literacyproceedings/index.php

Kendrick, M. Anderson, J., M., Smythe, S., & MacKay, R. (2003). What images of family literacy reveal about family literacy practices and family literacy programs. In C. Fairbanks, J. Worthy, B. Maloch, J. Hoffman & D. Schallert (Eds.), 52nd Yearbook of the National Reading Conference (pp. 245-258). Oak Creek, WI: National Reading Conference.

Anderson, J., Anderson, A., Lynch, J., & Shapiro, J. (2003). Storybook reading in a multicultural society: Critical perspectives. In A. van Kleeck, S.A. Stahl, & E.B. Bauer (Eds.), On reading books to children: Parents and teachers (pp. 203-230). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.

Anderson, J., Smythe, S., and Lynch, J. (2003). Family literacy. In J. Ponzetti (Ed.), The international encyclopedia of marriage and family relationships, 2nd Edition (pp.601-605). New York: MacMillan Reference USA.

Anderson, J., Smythe, S., Shapiro, J., & Morrison, F. (2003). Issues in family literacy programs in inner city communities. In G. Shiel & U. Dhalaigh (Eds.), Other Ways of Seeing: Diversity in Language and Literacy: Proceedings of the 12th European Conference on Reading (pp. 119-124). Dublin: Reading Association of Ireland.

Goelman, H., Andersen, C., Anderson, J., Gouzouasis, P., Kendrick, M., Kindler, A., Porath, M., & Young-Koh, J. (2003). Early Childhood Education . In W.M. Reynolds & G.E. Miller (Eds.), Comprehensive Handbook of Psychology Volume Seven: Educational Psychology (pp. 285-331). New York: John Wiley & Sons.

Gunderson, L., & Anderson, J. (2003). Multicultural views of literacy learning and teaching. In A. Willis, G. Garcia, R. Barrera, & V. Harris (Eds.), Multicultural Issues in Literacy Research and Practice (pp.123-144). Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Regush, N., Anderson, J., & Lee, E. (2002) Using play to support the development of kindergarten children's phonemic awareness. In P. Linder, M.B. Sampson, J. Duggan, & B. Brancatta (Eds.), Celebrating the faces of literacy (pp. 234-246). Commerce, Tx: College Reading Association.

Shapiro, J., Anderson, J., & Anderson, A. (2002). Storybook reading: What we know and what we should consider. In O. Saracho & B. Spodek (Eds.), Contemporary perspectives in early literacy (pp. 77-97). Greenwich, CT: Information Age Publishing.

Anderson, J., Anderson, A., Shapiro, J., & Lynch, J. (2001). Fathers' and mothers' book selection preferences for their four-year-old children. Reading Horizons, 41, 189-210.

Anderson, J., & Gunderson, L. (2001, February). "You don't read a science book, you study it": Exploring cultural concepts of reading. Reading Online, 4(7). Available: http://www.readingonline.org/electronic/elec_index.asp?HREF=/electronic/anderson/index.html

Updated November 2009