Creating Welcoming Schools

In Literacy Collaborative Classrooms

JoBeth Allen, University of Georgia

October 23, 2012

How are families involved at your school?

Together, list everything you do - formally or informally, individually or collectively - to invite parents/family members to participate in their kids’ education.

What does the research say?

Mattingly, Radmila, McKenzie, Rodriguez, and Kayzar (2002) analyzed the evaluations of 41 “parental involvement programs.” They concluded that what the programs counted as parental involvement didn’t necessarily improve student achievement.

Why do you think that is? What do we usually “counts” as parental involvement?

What does better research say?

Anne Henderson and Karen Mapp (2002) – 80 studies on parental involvement,

PreK through HS, throughout US– “The evidence is consistent, positive,

and convincing: many forms of family and community involvement influence student achievement at all ages” and across economic and cultural groups.

Shared Vision of Family Engagement

Home/School Partnership (Boucher) - “The best approach to communication between home and school is a two-way conversation in which the differing cultures merge to positively influence student learning. It is best to provide a variety of options for parents to participate in their children’s education where parents become partners with the school.”

Partnerships that Matter

Family involvement that is linked to student learning has a greater effect on student achievement than more general forms of involvement.

Partnerships that Matter

Practices that engage families in supporting their children’s learning at home are more likely to improve student achievement.

Partnerships that Matter

The most successful initiatives “focus on building respectful and trusting relationships among school staff, families, and community members”

(Henderson & Mapp, 2002)

Framework for Family-School Partnerships

Educators build respectful relationships with all families

Family involvement invitations are linked to student learning

Family involvement invitations support student learning at home

Analysis of Current Efforts

Leads to increased student learning

Deepens relationship between teacher and parents or guardians

Does neither but we keep doing it anyway

Learning Together at Home

Invitations that extend classroom literacy practices – how might families be involved at home?– Interactive Read Aloud– Writing Workshop– Book Clubs or Literature Circles– Word Study

Family stories…

Learning Together at Home: Writing Projects

Creating Family Keepsakes – students and parents write about family treasures

Authors in the Classroom – teachers, students, and parents write about various topics (could be genres) based on a piece of shared literature

Reading Together,Reading Forever

A Qualitative Action Research

Supporting Home and School Literacy

Margaret Dawson BakerKennesaw State University

Spring, 2009

Problem

High number of elementary school English Language Learners (ELLs) Young ELLs haven’t learned first language completelyTeachers feel unprepared to meet the diverse needs of their students (Merino, 2007)

Parents of ELLs a marginalized group (Arias & Morillo-Campbell, 2008)

Purpose

Support young ELLs’ literacy in both L1 & L2 (Ballantyne, 2008)

Support linguistically diverse parents

Listen to parent and student voices

Storybook Reading Program

Teachers read one English storybook per week at schoolParents read the same storybook that week in Spanish at home157 books checked out by 26 families

Parents’ Perspectives

Grateful for the opportunity to…

teach child home language

maintain linguistic and cultural roots

share in child’s school experience

emotionally bond with child

A few feared Spanish literacy might negatively affect child’s English literacy (O’Donnell, 2008)

Students’ Perspectives

Interested in stories

Enjoyed reading in both languages

Felt special

Liked sibling involvement

For a few, Spanish reading caused frustration

Teachers’ Perspectives

ELLs were more engaged with stories ELLs understood the English stories better Hispanic parents value reading

Meaningful Homework: Students Teaching at Home“Should parents help with homework?” Students can teach someone at home what they are learning at school (Stephen Covey)

Rather than practicing for the sake of practice, students might teach someone in the family the new poem, or big ideas of a historical figure they are studying

Help kids plan their teaching!

Learning Together at Home

LC: “What can I do to support my child’s language and literacy learning?”“Talking helps children learn to think and express themselves in ways that carry over into reading and writing. You can help by making time to talk with your child and by being a good audience for your child’s experiences, including his or her efforts in reading and writing. Sharing stories and experiences of your own will encourage your child to talk about his or her stories.”

Learning Together at Home

Talk to family members with different jobs about the ways they use reading and writing in their work at home or at another place of work.

Family Funds of Knowledge: Shared Theory Foundation

Incorporating family funds of knowledge and ways of learning can lead to culturally relevant teaching - and avoid stereotyping or ignoring cultures

Funds of Knowledge: Theorizing Practices in Households, Communities, and Classrooms, edited by Gonzáles, Moll, and Amanti (2005) is a must read!

Family Funds of Knowledge

Primarily a shift from what parents and families “don’t/can’t/won’t do” to what families do, how they do it, and how kids learn from their families

Funds of knowledge include work in and out of the home, religious and cultural traditions, home and vehicle repair, child care, medicine, language and knowledge of home country, musical ability, entrepreneurial ventures…

Family Funds of Knowledge

Teachers learn family funds of knowledge through out-of-school relationships (at home, ballgames, religious and family events) - and primarily through family (home) visits How do you learn family funds of knowledge?

Family Visits

Do you visit with families in their homes or other out-of-school place?

What are the benefits?

What are the challenges?

How can you maximize the benefits and address the challenges?

Arranging the Visit

Your goals, their goals, a partner relationship to support learning

Mutually convenient time and place

Create school visit partners, teachers and support teachers

Funds of Knowledge

What funds of knowledge have you learned when you visited your students’ homes and communities?

How might you use these funds of knowledge to guide teaching and learning at your school? In invitations to families to help students learn at home?

Learning Together at Home Family Dialogue Journals

Start by asking families, “Please tell me about your child”

Reading focus: Invite families to read, talk about, and write about books with their child (LC: Reading at Home, Reading Notebooks)

Respond to each entry

Family Dialogue Journals

• Janice: [Lakendra] read the words real good but it is so hard for her to tell me what she read. I really don’t know what to do now. If you have any suggestions of what I can do next I am willing to listen.

• Barbara: Maybe try reading her stories and then discussing them together. Perhaps she is concentrating so hard on reading the words that she can’t comprehend the whole story. Let me know if this helps – Thanks for being concerned and helping Lakendra! (Shockley, Michalove, & Allen, 1995)

Family Dialogue Journals

When Amy Kay wrote in one dialogue journal, “Tasha is so excited about learning to read. What are you doing to encourage her at home?”, Tasha’s mom wrote, “Our favorite hobby is collecting movies. So whatever family title she can read, sometimes with some help, she can watch before bedtime. Now we rent more subtitle movies, and she tries to keep up with each dialogue. I also ask her about hair products. Reading the labels are becoming more common now than just grabbing a familiar bottle.” (Kay, Neher, & Lush)

Home Reading Journals

Families who don’t read or write in English (or in any language) can participate by having an English speaker (e.g., older sibling, family friend) read or translate, creating stories from the pictures, having the child read in English and explain the story in her home language, etc. E.g., early in the year Pakaysanh’s father copied parts of books into the journal. By mid-first grade Pakaysanh did most of the writing; he reported that he often read the books to his parents.

Family Dialogue Journals

Teachers from K to AP English in diverse schools

Fridays, kids wrote about what they learned, asked parents a related question

Read parent’s response during Monday meeting

Teachers responded to both student and parent writing in the journal during the week

Family Dialogue Journals

After a field trip where Andrea’s students learned about solar energy, they wrote about the trip and asked parents how they were saving energy at home. One parent responded:

You asked me how we save electricity at home. Funny you should ask that. Our bill is the highest it’s ever been so since it’s cooler outside I’ve been cutting the air off at night and raising the windows. You have been helping me by not running in and out the front door and by keeping the lights off. Thank you. Your Mama

Home Journals with Secondary Students

Damion Frye, 9th grade required World Lit course in culturally diverse school

Fridays students wrote 10 minutes, e.g., “define tragedy,” “respond to a poem,” “extend a storyline”

Home Journals with Secondary Students

Students took journals home, discussed assignment with parents

Parent or another adult responded on the same topic, or respond to their child’s writing

Damion responded to each by Friday (100 students!)

Home Journals withSecondary Students

85% responded almost every week, 13% responded at least once Damion: “This was an arduous task, but certainly one of the most fruitful and rewarding of my career.” Student: “I like the parent journal because it is the only time my father and I talk.”

Results

“Parents have been much more involved with their child’s education and subsequently almost all of the students’ academic performances dramatically increased”

Especially valued by parents who spoke English as a second language, and parents of “under-skilled” students

Family Dialogue Journals

How does the dialogue journal process support student learning?

How does the dialogue build deeper relationships?

How might you make the process work as a new teacher?

PhOLKS Funds of Knowledge

Photographs of Local Knowledge Sources (PhOLKS), preK-8th grade Ts

Preparation - photo essays, photo practice, parents at home and school

Writing from photos - children & families

Learning from photos - group mediation

Multicultural Family PhotoPoetry Project

Monira Silk’s students in ESOL collaborative class

Each picked a letter

They talked with their families to decide on 1-2 words that were important to their family for their letter

Multicultural Family PhotoPoetry Project

Teachers worked with students on poetry unit to write about their word in home language and in English

Students worked with families on poems at home

Monira worked with students to craft photographs that represented their poems

The story of X…