While reading Chapter 10 I kept recalling many of the
literary experiences I had as a kid. In
a way, I was using the text to “grade” how well my parents included literature
throughout a typical day at our household.
I found that my mom did an excellent job exposing me to literature. Everyday, she read books before nap time and
before bedtime and throughout the day did an okay job pointing out
environmental print. According to the
text, I grew up in a literature rich environment. I began pondering what it would be like to
grow up in an environment in which my mom was not there exposing me to
literature. According to the text, 75%
of families have both parents working.
Many of these families think they do not have enough time to focus on
incorporating literature with their children throughout the day. Therefore, it is our job as teachers to put
forth the effort to develop and advocate for the importance of exposing
literature to children at a young age.
Page 436 displays a list to show how we as teachers can make
families an integral part of the school.
This list can be used to develop programs that connect families, who may
not be exposing their children with enough literature, with opportunities to do
so. There is a total of 12 different
bullet points corresponding with 12 different ways you as a teacher can
advocate for the importance of incorporating family life within and outside of
school. My top two ideas that I would
use in my classroom include:
Bullet point 2: With each new unit of instruction or concept
being taught in literacy, send a newsletter to let family members know what you
are studying and what they can do to help.
Bullet point 6: Send home activities for parents and
children to do together and require feedback about working together. Include activities such as writing in
journals together, reading together, visiting the library, reading print in the
environment, writing notes to each other, and watching and talking about
programs on television. Participating in
homework assignments is extremely important.
I choose these two bulleted points because I realize that
families that have both parents working realistically are going to have a
difficult time making it into school.
What I can do is keep them updated on what we are doing and send home
pre-made activities that require the parents to follow simple step-by-step
instructions. These activities will not
take that much time out of their busy days and will give their child the
exposure to literature that they would have been missing out on. From this list what would your top 2 bulleted
items be for connecting families with the school? And most importantly why do you feel this
way? If you have to, you can choose your
top three!
This is a great question Jacob. All points would be great to include in your teaching but a couple stood out to me. You made a good point that most families have both parents working so i took that into account when picking out the two that i thought would be the most important. I chose bullet point 2: With each new unit of instruction or concept being taught in literacy, send a newsletter to let family members know what you are studying and what they can do to help.
ReplyDeleteI chose this to start with because if both parents are at work during school hours they can still be an involved parent when at home. I also chose bullet point 11: Be in touch with families often through phone calls, messages sent, and conferences. Try to focus on happy news, not only bad news. I chose this point because once again this could happen if a parent could not make it to school to help out. I think setting conferences or calling home is a great way to get parents involved in their child's educational life. It made a good point that i complete agree with. Try to focus on happy new, not only bad news. It is encouraging to tell parents that their child is expectational in many areas, then ease into suggesting things that would push their child forward in their education.
I strongly agree with your statement about how it is our job as teachers to promote the importance of exposing literature to the families within our classrooms! Unfortunately it is true that many parents feel as if they do not have enough time to focus on literature throughout a regular day, but if we give them some simple ideas of how they could incorporate literature into their everyday lives hopefully they will catch on! I found the list on page 436 to be interesting because the majority of the bullet points have to do with inviting the parents into the classroom, but like we have said before this is not always feasible for many parents. The two bullet points that did stick out to me were #2 and #8. #2 – “With each new unit of instruction or concept being taught in literacy, send a newsletter to let family members know what you are studying and what they can do to help.” I really liked this concept as well because many parents do not know where to begin when it comes to helping their children with schoolwork. So by sending home some information and ideas hopefully they can build off of those. #8 – “Send home notes when a child is doing well. Don’t wait to send notes just for problems.” This concept is huge; parents do not want to only be informed when their child is misbehaving. If this is the case the parents will probably fear talking to you. But by communicating with the parents more often they will feel at ease when it does come time to talk to you.
ReplyDeleteGreat post Jacob! I would have to say that bullet point six and eight stood out the most to me. I loved the idea of sending activities home with the students. Many of these families may not be meaning to have a lack of literacy in the household, they may just simply not know how to incorporate it. By giving the families activities, this can be a great start to equipping the children's parents to be literacy advocates for their children. I also thought that it is vital to have open communication with the family. This shows that you are strongly invested in their child and helping them to learn. I loved how the book brought up the idea of focusing on the positive. When thinking of our students it is important that we focus on what they can do versus what they cannot. Family literacy is key to students future success and equipping the parents to provide this will give our students an even brighter future.
ReplyDeleteLoved reading this post it caused me to look back on my life and think of times that my family was involved in my literacy development. I really like that you used the word “think” when you said, “Many of these families think they do not have enough time to focus on incorporating literature with their children throughout the day.” Many families think that literacy education needs to come from direct instruction and if the guardians of the child are always working they may feel like they do not have time for this type of enrichment. It think that every one of the bullet point was important but my top two ideas I would use in my classroom would be: bullet point 4 and bullet point 8. Bullet point 4: Invite families to help with literacy activities in the classroom, such as reading to children, helping with bookbinding, taking written dictation of stories, and supervising independ activities while teachers work with small groups and individual students. This may be difficult for some families because they cannot always be there during the day but I believe this is an important practice to set up in my classroom. Setting up a classroom environment that is family friendly will make the families feel like they are contributing to the child’s literacy development. I would use caution with this one because many families cannot always come to activities that meet during the day. Bullet point 8: Send home notes when a child is doing well. Don’t wait to send notes just for problems. This is such an important point because many parents only receive notes home to tell them what their child did wrong. A good note home would allow the students to bring home something positive instead of negative. Its always encouraging being able to tell parents how proud you are of their child.
ReplyDeleteI loved this chapter because I think it is very important to have a positive relationship with the families of your students. I believe you should use as many of the suggestions on page 436 as you can in your classroom. I feel as if all of them are important in their own way! The two that I would use to help connect families and the school is bullet point 4 and 11. I feel it is important to create a classroom environment that welcomes families in the school. I want volunteers in my classroom as much as they would like to be. Inviting families into the classroom not only assists you as the teacher, but also shows the students and families that you care about them. I also feel it is important to keep in contact with the families about your students' progress. It is important to tell parents about their improvements and things they are doing well in the classroom and not just when something wrong occurs. Creating a positive bond with families is so important to show how much you care about everyone! Great question, Jacob!
ReplyDelete