Part 1 of a two-part handbook presents course information, reading materials, and sample exercises for a distance education course designed to enhance an understanding of the nature of family literacy needs and to show how to develop and teach in family literacy programs. The first section discusses the structure of the course, the assessment scheme, texts, and assignments. The second section presents a required reading for the course, "Family and Intergenerational Literacy Programs: An Update of 'The Noises of Literacy'" (Ruth S. Nickse). The third section contains readings for the two required modules of the course, which address the need for family literacy and planning issues. The fourth section consists of an introduction to the six elective modules. The fifth section presents reading materials and a sample exercise related to the third module (an elective module) of the course--proposal writing. Some modules contain selected abstracts from the ERIC database. (RS)