INVOLVING PARENTS AND THE COMMUNITY

District Activities

Assessing parent and family needs. The district leadership team needed to know what families in the community wanted to learn. To get to know the community, the school staff gathered information about the parents and families of ELLs at a parent meeting at the beginning of the school year using two Spanish-language questionnaires.

One questionnaire was designed to gather basic information, such as where the family was from originally, how long they had lived in the United States (and in the local area), and what academic expectations the parents had for their children. The other questionnaire was designed to determine what the parents knew about school systems in the United States. It measured the extent of their knowledge on topics such as No Child Left Behind (NCLB) and standards-based education and whether they had previously had opportunities to learn how to communicate with their children’s teachers and help their children with assignments. Staff used the results of both questionnaires to outline the content of parent meetings for the rest of the year.

Developing parents’ understanding. After completing the needs assessment, McREL took a number of steps to ensure parent participation. Intensive outreach was conducted: Flyers were sent home and follow-up phone calls were made (both in Spanish) to ensure that a reasonable number of parents participated in scheduled meetings. McREL staff conducted monthly on-site family meetings, with all training and activities conducted in Spanish.

To develop the necessary knowledge and skills to help their children, parents are encouraged to actively participate in the decision-making aspect of schooling. To aid in this area, McREL offered training on the following topics:

• Parent rights and responsibilities under NCLB. Parents learned that they can expect to have their children taught by a highly qualified teacher, become proficient in English while learning academic content, and be tested annually for their English language proficiency. Parents can expect to know if their children have been identified and recommended for placement in an ESL program and learned that they have the right to accept or refuse these services. They can also expect to receive information on their children’s performance on tests of academic achievement.

• Standards-based education. Staff shared the Wyoming standards for language development with parents. Parents learned that their children’s proficiency in personal, social, and academic uses of English would be expected to increase with these standards.

• Communicating effectively at parent–teacher conferences. McREL based its training on this topic on Southwest Educational Development Laboratory’s (2003) advice for parents on preparing and participating actively in parent–teacher conferences. Parents were encouraged to ask the teacher what strategies will be used to help their children gain knowledge and skills in content areas, how their children’s performance will be assessed, and what they can do at home to help their children learn. Parents were also advised to plan a follow-up conference with the teacher to stay abreast of their children’s progress.

• Availability of ESL classes and other services in the community. The district formed a partnership with the local community college, whereby college staff attended a parent meeting and invited the adults to attend ESL classes in the evening. The teachers of the ESL classes distributed brochures explaining the courses and indicating the community centers where they would be held. At the end of the year, the college’s ESL teachers presented the parents with awards for hours of coursework completed. Parents also learned about additional community resources, such as summer reading programs at the library, year-round activities at the town recreation center, summer school, community agencies that assist with health issues, and summer employment opportunities for teens.

Encouraging parent involvement. Parents from other cultures may view their role in their children’s education differently than U.S. parents. For example, instead of asking their children questions about a story—asking them to predict the outcome, for instance, or having them interpret the story based on their own experiences—immigrant parents from rural areas of Mexico and Central America are more likely to use the story to teach a moral lesson (Valdes, 1996).

To help the parents in the Wyoming district contribute more actively to the education of their children, McREL offered training at the monthly meetings on increasing the knowledge and skills parents need to help their children with the acquisition of English, literacy development, and academic proficiency in different content areas. McREL also offered training on increasing the knowledge and skills parents need to effectively collaborate with their children’s teachers, specialists, and paraprofessionals.

اخر الاخبار

اخبار العتبة العباسية المقدسة

قسم التطوير والتنمية المستدامة يبحث آفاق التعاون المشترك مع معهد التطوير النيابي

المشاركون في مشروع دار علوم نهج البلاغة يشيدون بمحاضراته وقيمه التربوية والعقائدية

قسم الشؤون الفكرية يقيم ندوة تثقيفية لفريق صناعة المحتوى الهادف في جمعية كشافة الكفيل

المجمع العلمي يقيم المرحلة الثانية لاختبار المتقدمين لقناة حفظة القرآن الكريم في النجف الأشرف

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المزيد

مواضيع ذات صلة

APPENDIX C EXAMPLE OF A THREE-YEAR PARENT AND COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT PLAN

Classroom Instruction with that works English Language Learners APPENDIX B TYPES OF SUMMARY FRAMES

Classroom Instruction with that works English Language Learners APPENDIX A TYPES OF GRAPHIC ORGANIZERS

Classroom Instruction with that works English Language Learners CONCLUSION

INVOLVING PARENTS AND THE COMMUNITY Summary

INVOLVING PARENTS AND THE COMMUNITY Recommendations

How One District Engaged the Families of ELLs and Members of the Local Community

Epstein’s Model of Parent and Community Involvement

INVOLVING PARENTS AND THE COMMUNITY

IDENTIFYING SIMILARITIES AND DIFFERENCES Summary

IDENTIFYING SIMILARITIES AND DIFFERENCES Classroom Example

Adapting Identification of Similarities and Differences to the Stages of Language Acquisition