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

More documents

Recommendations

Info

ate how much information parents are given. Especiallyif you are trying to help parents developnew understanding or new skills, you may want toschedule several events and break up the contentinto manageable chunks.• Communication is key. Parents want to knowwhat is happening with their children. They wantto know how their children are progressing. Oftenthey want to understand the expectations for children,and how their children compare with othersat each grade level.• It’s important to be honest with parents abouthow their children are doing. At the same time,recognize that the child is more than just his or heracademic performance. Every child is a whole personwith many gifts, and helping parents put thingsin perspective is important. A child may strugglein one area, but perform beautifully in another.Whatever a teacher’s message is to parents, it mustbe truthful, sincere, and caring.• When you ask for parents to help children, bespecific. “Emma needs help with her reading” isn’tas useful to parents as “Please go with Emma to thelibrary each week this summer, check out a bookshe likes and take turns reading with her for 30minutes every day”.What did we learn about how schooladministrators and others can supporteducators who are trying to increaseparent involvement?Principals, district personnel, university faculty andothers working with educators to increase familyinvolvement can really make a difference with theirsupport. We’ve learned that there are specific andpowerful ways that administrators and others canhelp teachers move forward with family involvement.• Let teachers know you value family involvement.Talk about family involvement and encourageteachers to share success stories, as well as challenges.• Look for places where several interested educatorscould come together on a regular basis tolearn more about parent involvement. Invite auniversity to host a class for teachers on the topic,or find a teacher with experience to lead a studygroup.• Be flexible and recognize that teachers will takedifferent approaches to family involvement. Familyinvolvement includes a lot — and teachers cancome up with their own ideas. Support them intheir chosen projects. Help them learn and growin expertise.• Support teachers as they take risks to involveparents more deeply. Notice their efforts. Talkwith them about it, and let them know you supportthem.BUILDING BRIDGES BETWEEN SCHOOL AND HOME: STORIES OF SUCCESS FROM LAWRENCE COUNTY, TENNESSEE12
• Provide resources. Help teachers find the timeand money to carry out family involvement work.Resources are vital — whether it’s supporting trainingand professional development, or finding fundsto help with projects.• Encourage educators to plan specific familyinvolvement projects, and to document whathappens and share with others. It’s respectful ofteacher’s expertise to ask them to share what theyknow with others. Recognize educators who aretrying things — get them to talk in staff meetingsand mentor and collaborate with other teacherswho are trying for more parent involvement.• Recognize that learning the knowledge andskills needed to be good facilitators of familyinvolvement takes time. Be patient and keep offeringyour support. Build on the foundation thatteachers create, and continue moving forward.You just may be surprised at the results family involvementbrings!BUILDING BRIDGES BETWEEN SCHOOL AND HOME: STORIES OF SUCCESS FROM LAWRENCE COUNTY, TENNESSEE13
Page 3: Building BridgesBetween Schooland H
Page 7 and 8: u Surveying to Invite Parent Involv
Page 9 and 10: u Grade-level MeetingsHelp Parent-T
Page 11 and 12: have the turnout I expected, I woul
Page 13: u Helping Parents SupportTheir Chil
Page 19 and 20: Appendix ILeoma Elementary School20
Page 21 and 22: Working With Teachers and SchoolsHe
Page 23 and 24: Appendix III1st Grade Progress Repo
Page 25 and 26: Reasearch Supports• Reading probl

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

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?