Bridging the home-school gap : the relationship between young children's home and school reading experiences

Abstract

This study was conducted to examine the reading experiences young children engage with at home and at school. This investigation was based on the reading experiences of three, five-year old children who attended the same Year 1 class. The aim of the research was to find out if there was a relationship between the reading practices and resources used in the home and school settings. The data was collected by conducting six classroom observations and separate interviews with the classroom teacher and the parents. Photographs were a very important tool during the study. They served as a great data collection resource to view the reading materials and practices in both settings. Different findings were established during the study. The findings illustrated how children shared similar reading resources and experiences both at home and at school but there still was a gap between the two environments. The home environment promoted both texts related to popular culture with reading material and experiences that met the children's interests and basal readers whereas the school experiences were more limited to basal reading texts only. Children's interest and motivation proved to be important aspects that affected the children's attitude towards reading.