Partnering With Parents Wrap-Up

            

            For the last month and a half, we have been sharing guest posts about how teachers and (a) principal involve parents in student’s literacy development. I love all the ideas that have been shared and have gained so much from them myself.

            The term “lifelong learner” seems to come up again and again but I really do believe that it’s true or should be true for educators. It helps me to see what others are doing and to take those ideas and see how they can fit into what I do. It is so valuable to share with others and to reflect and rethink what we do so we are striving towards doing the best that we can.

            After going through process of National Board certification, I realized that working with parents is something I needed to improve upon. That year I reached out to parents and set up mini-conferences outside of conference time to survey parents about how they support their child with reading. Based on the surveys, I presented them with some ideas for how they could do more to help their child.

            Anything teachers can do to get to know families or what a student’s home life is like will help in working with students and with understanding what we can ask of parents. As a mother of two sons, I have gained some perspective as to how hard it can be to manage everything at home and work while still trying to help my kids play and learn. (It's completely different when you are the parent instead of the teacher!!!)

            Learning what each parent does really helped me to realize how different their thinking is from mine. Sometimes it’s hard to remember that not everyone is as crazy about reading as I am. And even if they do read at home, they might still benefit from my expertise as a teacher.

            Here are the three biggest things I discovered from surveying and meeting with parents that I would not have known otherwise:

1.     A mom of a 7^th grade student was sneaking in to her son’s room at night to find what book he was reading in his backpack. She would read the book and then slip it back into his backpack without his knowing.

*When I met with this student’s mom I suggested she actually talk to her son about what he was reading. She could ask him questions about what he was thinking about the book or give her opinion of what was happening or what would happen next. My focus was to get her talking to her son about what he was reading to help check his comprehension and give him her thoughts about the reading.

2.     Parents of a kindergartener had never ever taken him to their public library and little reading was done at home because his grandmother was taking care of him while parents were at work. His grandmother only spoke Spanish and was not literate in English to help him.

*I explained to the parents that the library is free and that all they need is a Driver’s License or other form of proof of the residency to get a library card. I explained that the library has books, books on CD, DVDs, CDs and other resources all totally free.

3.     A mom of a 5^th grade student wasn’t reading with her daughter because she only completed school through 4^th grade in Mexico and couldn’t read with her daughter in English at home.

 

*When I realized asking this mother to read with her daughter was unrealistic, I started downloading audiobooks to an iPod so the student could listen while reading the words along with the book. I suggested that the mom could sit with her and listen and maybe understand some of the story in English or possibly learn more English by listening along with her daughter.

What I took away from sitting down and talking to parents about what reading is like in their home is that if I do learn about a student’s home life it helps me to be able to know how to best help parents work with their child at home. If I can show parents that I care and take into consideration what is happening in their homes, then I can make suggestions that they can actually carry out. Communicating with parents allows me to better empathize and work with families to help their children love reading outside of school. 

I haven’t called parents in for mini-conferences since two years ago but I do survey my students and talk to parents on the phone or through e-mail more than I ever did before. It amazes me how much we can learn from letting parents talk to us about what they are dong and what works and doesn’t work for them. Developing effective two-way communication makes a huge difference compared to just sending home notes or handouts with ideas but not getting feedback from parents.

Thank you for reading our series on working with parents! We are always learning and I hope that between our guest bloggers and myself you found something worthwhile that you can implement or coordinate with what you are already doing in partnering with parents. The main tenet that seems to run through all of our posts in this series seems to be getting parents involved and sharing our ideas about what we do to encourage students to read.

Please share what works for you in partnering with parents or what idea you think you would like to try! Thanks again to all our guest bloggers! We appreciate their ideas!

  

Partnering with Parents - Week 5

Our final Partnering with Parents guest blog post is by Stephanie and Erin. They are both early childhood teachers together at a public school early childhood center in Illinois. They both have classroom blogs where they share early education ideas and stories: Stephanie's Classroom Blog & Erin's Classroom Blog.  


They are going to focus on tips for parents of young children. Because they both work in special education, they are also including tips for reading with children with special needs. Between the two of them, they work with children of a variety of cognitive levels, special needs, school readiness, and development. Erin is the mama of twin 1 year olds, so the topic of reading with young children is near and dear to her heart personally as well as professionally. Stephanie doesn't have children of her own, however, the 29 she does have M-F and the young ones in her personal life have caused her to have a  great interest in helping parents.

In education, but especially in early childhood, it is the belief that parents are a child's first and most important teacher. When we meet out students, they have spent the last 3 years learning and growing because of the education they have received from their caregivers. We know that the parents of our students are trying their best to raise their children in the best way they know how. It is, however, important to us to help them along the way. We both believe strongly in communication and community with parents. A child's day in preschool is only 2 and a half hours long. We do the best we can to impact our students in those 150 minutes, but one of the most important things we can do is to be part of the team that is with the child the rest of the day. 

It is important to us to develop trusting relationships with families. Our classrooms are open and we believe that the parents of our students are just as important to their child's education as anyone at school with a specialized degree. Because we develop these relationships with our parents, they are open to the tips and ideas we share with them. 

Through our classroom blogs, notes, and weekly newsletters, we share with parents tips to help them interact with and promote literacy in their children. Our classroom blogs are an especially useful tool for reaching many parents. Our trick to get parents to regularly read our blogs? Post lots of pictures of their kids! Parents love to see pictures of their kids! And we love to share pictures with them (of course after getting permission signed at the beginning of the year). While we have the parents hooked in with the classroom blog, we use that opportunity to share what we have been doing in the room and tips for extending that learning at home. Though some of the families we serve do not have computers at home, many of the families are so motivated by seeing pictures of their children, they make an effort to use computers at the library or at houses of friends and family members. 

Another motivator for the parents is their kids! We share the slideshows at school with our students. In turn, they get excited to watch them and ask their parents to see them again at home. One student even said to Stephanie, "I know what you are going to do with those pictures! Put them on my computer!". By reminding the students we are going to post pictures on the computer, we are encouraging the students to encourage their parents to check it out at home on a regular basis.

When we are focusing on a specific book as a theme in the classroom, we will post literacy activities that can be done with their children at home. We also post ideas for discussion and expansion questions and topics. The internet is an amazing place and we often share relevant links with families to help them expand their knowledge base and ability to help their child develop literacy skills. In addition to books, songs and fingerplays are great early childhood literacy activities. We encourage this to be continued at home by videotaping the kids singing songs, posting videos of songs or fingerplays found on youtube, or sending home lyrics in our newsletters. Young children love to sing and by giving the parents the words, they can become active participants in this aspect of their child's learning.

Some of the tips that we share with parents about encouraging literacy skills:

• It all starts with TALKING. Talk to your child as much as you can. The more you talk to your child, the more access to language he/she has. Talking about the mundane parts of everyday life gives your child more education than you can even imagine.
• Point out words everywhere you go: grocery store, driving, watching TV, going for a walk. When you are driving, point out the letters in the McDonald's sign. When you are eating breakfast talk about the words on the Cheerios box. 
• Teach kids the love of reading through example. Let them see you reading your own book. When you go to the doctor's office, bring a book for you and a book for your child. Or pick up a magazine and go through it together. 
• Purposefully share with your child information you have learned from reading. "I read in the newspaper that it will be chilly today, let's find our coats" or "I read on the Walgreens sign that milk is on sale. We should stop there today and buy some."
• Let your child experience all different types of reading: print, electronic, books, magazines, newspapers, signs, flyers, food boxes.
• If your child isn't interested in books, find books about something your child is interested in. It is OK to read many books on one subject.

Some of the tips that we share with parents about reading with their children:

• You should read with your child sitting in your lap at times and other times where he/she can see your face. It is important for children to see facial expressions and lip movement while reading. Reading is also a great time to bond with your child. You can do both!
• Expand on the story when you are reading it. Point out things that you see while reading the book and relate them to your own experience. Ask open ended questions that get your child thinking. 
• It is OK to read the same book over and over. Children like repetition and predictability. Through this children learn that words always say the same thing. No matter how many times you read them. They learn to connect the written word with spoken language. If you try to cheat, they may notice! That is a great developing skill!
• Younger children may prefer books with rhyme and repetition. As they get older, they will start to sit longer and enjoy picture books with more of a plot.
• Looking at photo albums can be a great literacy experience for toddlers or kids with special needs. Books don't have to have written words to encourage language. 
• Write books about things you have done together. They can be simple words and drawings or include photographs. It can be as simple as a trip to the grocery store or as exciting as a trip to the zoo!

Some of the tips that we share with parents of children with special needs:

• If your child isn't able to sit and attend to an activity, feel free to read to your child while he/she is swinging on a swing or moving around the room. 
• It is great for them to hear the same story over and over if that is what they enjoy. You can expand on the stories by asking different questions or branching off into different topics each time. 
• If a child becomes obsessed with a book, you can encourage expanding his/her reading by setting a first/then rule. "First we will read 5 Little Pumpkins, THEN we will read Brown Bear Brown Bear"
• Add clipart of 1 important theme of the page to each page of the book to give your child a concrete idea of the point of the page. You can print off two of the same picture and as you read the book your child can match the pictures to participate in the reading process. 
• With deaf and hard of hearing children, it is important that they can see your face and/or hands while you are reading to them. It does not mean, however, that if they occasionally want to sit in your lap while reading that they can't.

One of our new favorite websites that has digital picture books for free!

WeGiveBooks.org 

Keep reading and connecting with families!

Thank you so much Stephanie and Erin for your wonderful ideas! We loved getting an early educators perspective.  I, personally, loved how they showed how important it is to start literacy education as early as you can.  They also showed how easy it is to help your child from a very young age.  What a great way to finish our Partnering with Parents feature!


Have a good weekend!

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Partnering with Parents - Week 4

It's Friday! You know what that means around here at Teach Mentor Texts- another insightful look at what some of our colleagues do to involve parents in supporting literacy at school!! Today we are thrilled to bring you some ideas from Donalyn Miller, author of The Book Whisperer. Donalyn is a 6th grade teacher in Texas.  She also blogs at The Book Whisperer blog and tweets at @donalynbooks. Kellee and I are extremely honored to have her guest post for us today because she is such a strong promoter of literacy and a role model for both of us. 

Donalyn outlines some key points that she shares with parents every week in an e-mail or a letter. She shares only one tip at a time allowing parents a learning curve and time to acclimate themselves to being a more active member of their child's reading lives. She describes each tip and provides resources that will support them, such as addresses, hours, and websites to local public libraries when she suggests visiting the library or websites when she encourages finding book recommendations. 

The Importance of Choice in Fostering Independent Reading

People who lose the ability to make choices become disempowered. This is true for adults and it is true for young readers.  When every book a child reads is chosen for them—by parents or teachers—children lose self-motivation to read and interest in reading. Children should choose their own reading material most of the time, but they need exposure to a book flood in order to determine what books they like and learn how to choose their own books. You can support your child by:

Introducing authors and books through read alouds. Select books by prolific authors or the first book in a series and read these books with your child. When your child enjoys the read aloud, locate another book or two by the same author, follow a series together, or read another book in the same genre. With older children, visit authors’ websites and book review sites like kidsreads.com. Take children to authors’ visits at the bookstore, library, or local university. Develop reading fans and you will develop readers.

Creating frequent opportunities for children to preview, share, and select books. Children need to become comfortable with books and feel growing proficiency in choosing books for themselves. Take children to the library or bookstore and discuss books that you might read. Talk about books that you read as a child and explain what you enjoyed about these books. Build anticipation for new books by counting down new book releases by your favorite authors or the newest book in a series.

Increasing children’s access to books by building a home library. The more books children own, the more they read, and the more comfortable they feel choosing books away from home. Visit e-bay, garage sales, book swaps, and library sales to locate low-cost books for your child. Give books as presents for holidays and birthdays, and encourage relatives to do the same. Purchase gift cards for bookstores and invite your child to choose a new book.

Above all, validate your child’s book choices even when you wish he/she would choose another book. We often complain that children do not read, and bemoan their less than high-brow choices when they do choose their own books. It is OK for your child to read comics, read the same book over and over, or prefer fantasy books. After all, adult readers have strong preferences in what they choose to read, too!

As a parent with two kiddos, one who is four and in preschool now, I am gaining some perspective into what it means to be a parent who gets notes from school and (so far) simple projects to do with my son. As a teacher, it's easy to send information home and expect students and parents to follow through. As a parent, it's tricky to keep track of where that letter is and to find time to fill it out while making dinner, giving baths, and folding laundry.  So, I love Donalyn's idea to share these great ideas one at a time and to provide as much scaffolding to parents by providing the resources to make it as easy as possible for them to follow through with our suggestions.  

A giant thank you to Donalyn for sharing her thoughts on working with parents with us today! If you don't own a copy of The Book Whisperer, you should take care of that right now because it is a great book that rewired my entire philosophy of teaching. Don't forget to come back next week for more ideas for working with parents!   

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Partnering With Parents - Week 3

It's time for another guest post in our series about working with parents! We have already had some great ideas! I love reading about what others are doing to get parents involved with reading in their classrooms. This week, we have a little different perspective. Our guest blogger is Alyson Beecher, she is a principal in Calfornia. I love reading Alyson's tweets about how involved she is in supporting literacy at her school. Alyson tweets at @alybee930 and blogs at Kid Lit Frenzy. Thanks you for these great ideas, Allyson!!

Helping Parents Connect with their Children’s Reading

When I think back on my childhood, I don’t ever remember my parents reading aloud to me.  They must have at some point when I was small, but I just don’t have any childhood memory of it.  What I do have are two memories that significantly impacted me as a reader.  First, my parents communicated to me that reading was important by allowing me the time and space to read, as well as, as much access to books as a limited budget would allow.  Second, my father – who was not a fast reader – read every book that I asked him to read when I was finished reading it.  Never once did he complain about reading probably 30 something Nancy Drew books.  (The man deserves sainthood.)  My father wasn’t much of a conversationalist and I don’t remember any in-depth discussions afterwards, but it still created a connection between us.  One that has lasted for decades and one where we still share books; pulling aside a favorite mystery to give to one another. 

As educators, finding the right way to engage parents in their child’s reading is critical but also a challenge.  But how do we do this effectively.  Here are a few ways of engaging families in reading with their child.

Teaching Parents to Read Aloud to Their Child

Early on in my career, I was naïve enough to think – “Of course, everyone knows how to read to their child.”  Then one day, while trying to do a literacy activity with a group of parents of young children, I realized they had no idea of how to sit with their child, or read the book in an engaging manner, or to ask questions of their child about the book.  Storytelling, oral storytelling, was a part of their culture but sitting down to read a book was not something they were comfortable with.  If I wanted parents to read with their child, I had to model for them as well as help them understand the importance of this particular activity.   

Family Storytimes

Every year, our Parent-Teacher Association (PTA) sponsors an evening storytime complete with pajamas and milk & cookies.  Sometimes teachers lead the evening and other times we have brought in local booksellers to book talk to parents and do oral storytelling.   This evening event is always successful.  Families who might never come out for any other meeting seem to show up dressed in pajamas and ready to read.

School-wide Literacy Events

Each year, our school looks for several literacy activities that we can do with all students and encourage our families to come and participate. Each year, we have held an annual celebration for Dr. Seuss’ Read Across America Day.  Last year, we did a school-wide Chalk festival inspired by the book CHALK by Bill Thomson.  This year, we are partnering with our local Children’s Museum during Art Night (a city-wide event) to promote literacy and a new favorite picture book, STARS by Mary Lyn Ray and Marla Frazee.  We also eliminated our annual catalog fund-raiser and replaced it with a Read-a-thon (structured carefully to allow for all children to participate).   This year we are also considering having children dress up as their favorite literary character as part of our Halloween Parade.

Mother & Daughter/Father & Son Book clubs

Any and all kinds of book clubs can be successful with families.  I have partnered with parents to lead small book clubs for 4 to 6 children, as well as, holding a summer reading club at a local park.  We have also explored ways to do a parent/child book club.  This seems to work quite well with tweens and teens. 

Guest Mystery Reader

At a friend’s child’s school, they ask parents to come in and read aloud to the class.  Each week, the children try to guess which parent is coming through the use of some clues and hints. 

Literacy Cafés

At our school, one of my parents (a former teacher) and I developed a program we call Literacy Cafés.  In order to make them successful, we need the support and help of parents.  Some parents make donations of materials and others have time to help set-up or participate in the Cafés.  The children’s enthusiasm for these Cafés has prompted further parent support. 

  

Wrapping Up

I realize that all of this can be overwhelming and I don’t recommend trying them all at once.  Start with something simple – one or two activities that seem manageable – and then grow into more activities or bigger things.  The critical thing is that you start somewhere and that you seek to create a culture or community of readers at your school.  Your enthusiasm for books will be contagious.   

Can you believe all these great ideas!?! I love the idea of organizing an event that brings students and their families together to celebrate reading. I'm doing an event for the first time this year and hoping to bring my students who are in seven different schools together. Has anyone else tried events like this? I would love to hear what you have done that works at your school!  Thanks again, Alyson!

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Partnering with Parents - Week 2

We're continuing our guests posts about partnering with parents that we are hosting here at Teach Mentor Texts. Kellee and I are ecstatic to get some ideas for our own teaching as well as to share ideas from some of our most respected colleagues with you. Today's guest post comes from Haley, am 8th grade English teacher from Ohio! A big round of applause for Haley! Haley tweets at @hale27storm. Thanks for sharing your ideas with us!

       I recently had open house at my middle school. When I passed out my supply list, my parents commented on how little they needed to purchase.

“We don’t need glue sticks? Or markers?  Or a three-ring binder with 5 pocket dividers, each in a different color?”

Nope. I don’t require any of those items.  For my class, the only tools necessary are what students need to read and write: pencils, paper, and a public library card.

The supply list initiates a conversation about how parents can help their students with reading and writing.  The first thing I introduce is the classroom blog. When I got the idea to blog about books four years ago, it started as a tool for posting book reviews. It quickly evolved into so much more. Before I knew it, students were posting links to articles about books, pictures of newly released book covers, and interviews conducted with their favorite authors. I knew I needed to capitalize on this enthusiasm. I sent out an email to parents, inviting them to also join our blog. Soon, parents were posting book recommendations! This began a dialogue between parents and students. I loved that the parents would comment on students’ posts, even if they had never met face-to-face.  I leave all my old blogs up, and students have continued to post on them, years after they’ve left my classroom.

An added bonus to the blog was an increased interest in the books students were choosing. As parents began to see and hear what their students were reading, they started wanting to read the same books.  This presented a problem because I generally have only one copy of a book in my classroom library. So, working with the librarian, I started to send two books home-one for the student to read, and one for their parent to read.  Organic conversations about books began to occur at home because parents and children were reading the same book.

One sign-up sheet at my open house that almost always gets filled is the one for guest book talkers.   I ask each parent to commit to a one minute book talk. Their book talk could be recorded, given live in class, or via Skype. The students’ reactions were priceless when they discovered their best friend’s mom was reading Divergent.

In addition to the strategies above, I occasionally form book groups because some of the most popular books in my classroom library have been made into movies. As trailers started to appear on television, students wanted to check out books like The City of Ember, Hoot, Twilight, or more recently, The Notebook and I Am Number Four. If I had a large group of students reading the same book, I organized a Family Book Night. Parents and students (and sometimes, aunts, siblings, and grandparents) who read the book would meet at the school. We would discuss the book, play some trivia games, then go to the movie theater together, to see if we liked the movie just as much as the book.

       I’ve learned the more social I make reading, the more parents and students become involved in reading.  

Thanks, Haley! I agree that reading itself is a social activity! While it doesn't always seem that way, it's true that readers seem to enjoy sharing books and connecting through books. What a great idea to capitalize on this and to give your students some different opportunities to share books with others. I love how you include not only parents but other family members! Stop back next week for more awesome ideas for partnering with parents!

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Partnering With Parents - Week 1

This week is the first of a series of guest posts about partnering with parents that we'll be hosting here at Teach Mentor Texts. Kellee and I are ecstatic to get some ideas for our own teaching as well as to share ideas from some of our most respected colleagues with you. Today's guest post comes from Mindi Rench, a 7th grade English teacher who loves books! (I know, duh! Of course she loves books...) She blogs at Next Best Book. Welcome Mindi and thanks for sharing your thoughts with us!

As a teacher, I have to read a wide variety of books written for children and teens. As a parent, I want to read the books my daughters read so I can have conversations with them about books. As a “grown-up” who reads (a lot!), I love the great writing that can be found in young adult books!

Parents are their kids’ first teachers, and as such, have a great deal of influence when it comes to encouraging kids to read. Even though parents may feel their influence lessens as their children become teens and grow more independent, the reverse may actually be true. The teen years can be the perfect time to talk books; in fact, talking about a shared book can actually open the door to conversations teens might otherwise be reluctant to have.

So... how can you get parents to read, if not TO their children, then WITH them? Show them first hand how great these books can be:

• If you have a classroom website, include a page with recommended reading. Include pictures of book covers and a short summary of the book to entice the parents to pick it up at their local book store or library. If you’re really tech-savvy, make videos of yourself doing book talks that parents can watch.
• Include a “Book of the Week” in your weekly newsletters.
• Utilize the new features of the Scholastic Book Clubs. The Online Parent Ordering feature allows teachers to mark books as “Recommended by your teacher.” Not only will parents be able to get great books that you recommend, but you will be able to enhance your classroom library with free books and bonus points.
• Start your own book blog. This is much easier than it sounds, using a free blogging service. The hardest part is making yourself sit down and write the reviews. If you’re not sure where to start, read blogs written by other teachers, and take what you like about their blogs and incorporate those things into your own. Provide parents with the link to your blog! Take a look at my blog to see what’s possible if you just put yourself out there.
• Talk books! Whenever and wherever you can, talk about the books you’ve read and loved and think parents would enjoy reading. The power of word-of-mouth should never be underestimated.

Luckily for us, the stigma attached to adults reading children’s and young adult literature is disappearing. More and more you see people on the train or at the library reading titles such as The Hunger Games and the Harry Potter books. Not only are those moms, dads, aunts, cousins, Scout leaders and teachers models of great reading, they are also inspiration to the kids whose lives they touch.

Read on!

Seventh Graders Recommend Books!

Thanks again Mindi for sharing some of your ideas. I know I am going to be trying to do more vlogs this year of my own and with my students. I can't wait! Stop back next week for more ideas for partnering with parents.

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