Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Chapter 8: "Engaging Families"
Parents, teachers, what aspects of "engaging families" would be beneficial to your children? What are the opportunities for ongoing communication during the year that focus on the child's learning? How could families be involved in assessment in ways that help the student as a learner? What kind of forum would facilitate sharing family stories? Dream, create, risk, revise. Make it your own. pg. 115
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The notebook that goes back & forth between school & home is a great idea. I use the kids journals in a similiar way. I jot notes to the parents or staple 1 in if I need more room to write. I encourage the parents to write me a note back or email me. I am alwys telling the parents in the newsletters to please contact with me with any questions or comments. Through notebooks the parents can tell you about their children & what they like or how they seem to learn best. I also think that when the kids complete a project at home it is a good time for the parents to complete an assesment on how well the child did the project. Their assesment could be used as part of the grade. They have seen what their child has done at home, so they can assess that part. It would make them a part of the project. Michelle
ReplyDeleteI also liked the notebook that goes back and forth. I like how the parents told how the kids were doing, how many words they got right, what their child learned from this book ,and the positive effects this time was having not only with their child's learning, but the closest it was bring the families together. It's a simple type of homework assignment that could be done nightly- and probably a lot less stressful time for the parents trying to get the child to do homework- it's an activity the child is looking forward to doing! I really would like to try this idea in my room next year. The kids could practice finding sight words, sentences, periods, where the sentence begins, and is their a picture of something or a word in their book that begins with the letter we are studying this week. It will be interesting to compare this type of homework style to the style I currently use- right now they receive activities to complete at home and turn in on Friday. I might even try it with a few of my students now.
ReplyDeleteDawn Bradberry
Any involvement by family members with the student's learning process encourages the student and reinforces the teacher's efforts. Tena Miller
ReplyDeleteAll aspects of "engaging families" would be beneficial to our children. Letters to & from parents, home reading journals, oral & written family stories, learning albums, and adult literacy conversations all encourage the student's learning. One opportunity that focuses on the childs learning is a home reading journal because families are directly invovled when they are reading together. Families could be more invovled & help the student as a learner by helping assess their childs reading comprehension by reading together & asking question on the material. Using the classroom as a forum would be a wonderful place to share home cultures and stories.
ReplyDeleteAngela Verdetto / Yargo
Like the others…I really like the notebook going back and forth. When I was in the classroom, I called it a “Boomerang Book.” I mostly used it for behavior. It never occurred to me to open it up as a personal dialog between the parents and me by asking questions, stating concerns, explaining ideas…mine was more of a log. How ingenious this was! I love gathering new ways to make good ideas, great!
ReplyDeleteI to enjoyed the notebook. I feel you can find a lot about families this way. I wish we did it here. With a journal to keep helps parents and children and teacher get answers to questions they would not normally ask.
ReplyDeleteWhen my son was in 1st grade his teacher sent home their writting journals every Friday. In that journal was the assignment: The student wrote about the subject and then the parent had to write a paragraph or two on the same subject as well. Since they were in 1st grade the kids stories were short and simple. It was a great thing for us to do together and his stories got more interesting as the year went on. I know that he wanted to write something that would be entertianing for me to read and for the teacher to read. I think having mine made him want to do better and it wasn't just 'his' homework it was ours. I had forgotten all about the writting journal until I read this chapter. It was fun and I felt connected to the class and a special bond with my son over 'our stories'. The journal could be used in many ways to unite PT&S.
ReplyDeleteI like the idea of writing about your child at the beginning of the year. It lets the teacher know what they can expect, somewhat, from the child and parent. It gives some insight into the character of the child and how he/she might react in certain situations. I also like the journals going back and forth. It could be a great communication tool adn would be a way for the parent to make the teacher aware of any issues or achievements that happen outside of the school.
ReplyDelete