Building Bridges Between School and Home - Center for Literacy ...

worked in the classroom and how it factored intotheir grades. Then we let the parents and childrentake the AR assessment. Parents really liked the interactivesession. They loved working with the computers,they got hands-on experience,they received a free book, and theywere able to read together with theirchild. The children were so excited thatthey wanted to continue working withtheir parents on the AR activities. Theywanted to show their parents all aboutthe AR program.Although we considered the night asuccess, I was disappointed because we were tryingto present too much information in too little time.We felt like we weren’t able to adequately answer thequestions that the parents had because of the massiveamount of information we were trying to present. Wewere trying to do everything with this one DIBELSmeeting and we should have broken it down into severalsmaller sessions.In the past we weren’t happy with the grades wewere giving out because we kept saying we’re givingthem an ‘E,’ but these kids still have problems thatare not identified. So, when we sent out the firstprogress report, the teachers were apprehensive becausewe were being very honest with the parentsabout their child’s level of performance. However,after the reports went home the teachers began receivingnumerous phone calls from parents seekinghelp. They wanted to know how to help their child.The parents asked teachers what needed to be done“My project was reallyabout improvingcommunication with theparents so they wouldknow more than just aletter grade.”to help improve their child’s skills and performance.So providing this information really did cause parentsto become more involved. They asked for helpand the teachers were able to give it to them. Whenthe teachers saw the end result, theysaid that students were no longer fallingthrough the cracks. Problems wereidentified earlier on. This allowed us toindividualize our instruction and targetthe students’ weaknesses. Teachers wereable to work more closely with the lowperformance groups while the studentswho were performing on or abovegrade-level work independently.My project was really about improving communicationwith the parents so they would knowmore about their child’s performance than just aletter grade. Instead, they would know what theirchild was doing and learning and how well theywere actually performing. We developed a rubric(Appendix III) so parents could tell what theirchild’s needs were and how to help in areas wherethey struggled. The progress reports specify thestrengths and weaknesses of the student and giveparents strategies.When we do this again we will probably havegrade-level meetings. It’s hard to ask your teachersand parents to keep coming in after school, soyou have a large meeting but it’s not as effective.Our meeting would have been more effective if theteachers presented the information at grade-levelmeetings.BUILDING BRIDGES BETWEEN SCHOOL AND HOME: STORIES OF SUCCESS FROM LAWRENCE COUNTY, TENNESSEE8