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

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could be expected in each session. During the finalface-to-face session, educators reflected on andsummarized their learning.Course ContentThe course included two on-site sessions and threeonline sessions. Each session had specific topics, including:Science of Family Involvement and Communication;Promoting Positive Parenting; EnhancingStudent Learning; Celebrating Diversity:and Tying it all Together. Activities for each sessionincluded a pre-test to evaluate prior knowledge, articlesabout family involvement, discussions, casestudies, self-reflections, and a post-test to evaluatelearning, as well as handouts that could be copiedand distributed to teachers and to parents. The firstsession took place on-site at Lawrenceburg ElementarySchool in August, 2007, with on-line sessions inSeptember, October, and November. Our final session,held in December 2007, pulled together theacademic content and teachers’ experiences.Components of the course included:• An overview of parent/family involvement research• Individual and small group work in a variety ofactivities to provide self-assessment and pinpointwhere individual improvements could be made infamily/school partnerships• Discussion of expectations for family involvementin school and classroom activities• Creation of a plan for a family involvement projectin each teacher’s school, with subsequent reportson actions taken during the semesterCourse ParticipantsThe participants in this course included teachersand instructional coaches from six different schools,with an average of 20 years of teaching experience.The participants became involved in this coursebecause they wanted to reach out to the parents ofLawrence County and improve parent involvementin the schools. The participants knew that a relationshipbetween parents and teachers was crucialto the success of the students and the schools. Althougheach of the participants had taken steps tomake parents a top priority in their schools, they feltthey could benefit from additional training and informationabout parent involvement.At the first session, each participant selected aproject that she wanted to develop at her own schoolduring this time period. These plans became actionresearch projects that could be discussed and updatedduring the course timeline. The following storieschronicle the challenges, successes, and lessonslearned that each participant encountered whilecompleting their action research project.BUILDING BRIDGES BETWEEN SCHOOL AND HOME: STORIES OF SUCCESS FROM LAWRENCE COUNTY, TENNESSEE2
u Surveying to Invite Parent Involvement uWhen I began thisstarted the year before. So,job as the FamilyEngagement(See Appendix I) to againI sent out a shorter surveycoordinator three years ago,I conducted a survey of theparents because I wantedto know how comfortableparents were inside ourschool. I wanted to knowthe comfort level of theparents when they enteredthe office, our cafeteria,our classrooms, and our library.gather volunteer information.I processed the surveys,and I arranged the resultsby who was willing towork in various areas — forexample, who was willing towork in the library and whowas willing to work with thePTO. I even had “landscaping”on the survey. I had aThe survey asked how often theyplace for stay-at-home moms whoJamie Glass,volunteered. Had they offered to volunteer?Did the school call after they vol-were willing to do whatever was neededand the days they were willing toInstructional Coachunteered? I wanted to know what theyhad to offer. I gave a three page survey,which I found out very quickly was toolong and not well written. I spent hoursfor Leoma ElementarySchool, has over 20 yearsexperience as an educator.Leoma Elementary servesvolunteer.My original idea was to put thisinformation on the school’s websiteso teachers could easily pull up the listtallying the results.Pre-K through 8th gradeto see who had volunteered for what.The next year I decided to give aHowever, I was unable to do this duewith over 550 students.different survey. This time the surveyto security concerns. Instead, I createdwas much shorter and focusedmore toward parent volunteering. I decided to focusthis survey on volunteering because I saw thesame parents being utilized over and over again.I was beginning to hear animosity from parentswho wanted to be involved, but said they weren’tcalled. So my goal was to figure out how to takecare of that problem. I sent the survey out to allthe parents asking what skills they had to shareand what days they could volunteer. After theparents returned the surveys, I had a nice, overwhelmingstack of surveys but wasn’t able to doanything with them because other projects cameup. So this year I gave yet another survey, and myaction project became a project to finish what Ia master list for the teachers that includedthe parents of their classrooms. I gave copiesto the library, the PTO, and the office — essentiallyone for all the different areas for when I asked volunteers.I sent a list to the teachers, along with a noteencouraging them to utilize each parent volunteerinstead of calling on the same ones over and over.Continually using the same parents is understandablebecause it is easier for the teachers if the parentsalready know how to do what it is they are beingasked to do. It is easier to call them and ask them tocome in than to have a trainer or a mentor to comein to mentor another volunteer. It’s just easier to callthe same ones. So I encouraged teachers to utilizeeach volunteer even though it might mean a little ex-BUILDING BRIDGES BETWEEN SCHOOL AND HOME: STORIES OF SUCCESS FROM LAWRENCE COUNTY, TENNESSEE3
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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 17 and 18: • Provide resources. Help teacher
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

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