by Michael Strickland
"If my kid can't read, you're not doing your job," a parent yelled at a teacher during a recent CNN Townhall meeting.
Her thought has some truth to it. But of course, there is more to the issue.
Why are parents so important in a child's schooling process? 25 years of teaching and providing staff development in urban areas and in rural areas with traditional low-income problems has allowed me to hear many concerns expressed by area teachers. Among them, there is talk of a critical need for more effective strategies to bring parents into the school environment in a positive, supportive way.
Welcome to Young People's Pavillion. Issues like those above will be discussed here frequently. I review multicultural literature and suggest uses for classrooms and homes.
I also look at academic texts on a variety of topics.
For example, in Improving Parental Involvement, Garry Hornby describes how schools can achieve this aim, and how to increase standards of achievement. His book covers the field from nursery to secondary schools, and is aimed at teachers, governors, welfare workers, advisers and PTAs.
Effective schools involve parents effectively.
The importance of parental involvement is reinforced by the considerable amount of research evidence which is now available to support the contention that improving poarental involvement increases the effectiveness of education that the children receive.
Teachers have mentioned to me, how parents from certain categories, including those
of bilingual, international, and ESL children, often feel left out of the mix. A certain sense of alienation from the overall process needs to be overcome. Time and again I have sat with a teacher or administrator who has mentioned how hard it can be can be to convince some local residents that parental involvement in the school and classroom is important, possible, and essential.
Our nation's rapidly changing ethnic diversity was highlighted in new figures recently released by the U.S. Census Bureau. Among other things, they show how the nation's Hispanic population grew by more than 15 million between 2000 and 2010, and accounted for more than half of the total U.S. population increase of 27.3 million.
The following "journey" of a Salt Lake City teacher speaks volumes about what is happening to the population in the Pacific Northwest. With our nations's growth, and much more on the way, our community may experience many of the dynamics described below:
Salt Lake's population has drastically changed in the last ten or eleven years. Our largest minority group was Pacific-Islanders (Tongan and Samoan). They spoke English. Parents both worked so the grandparents were “in charge”, but they only spoke their native islander language. Parents were too busy working to really help the struggling students. Most teachers tried to handle behavior at school instead. We struggled to meet their needs.
Next, we began getting large numbers of students from Mexico. Some had no schooling and hardly knew any English. Of course, nobody at our school was certified for TESOL or ESL, except for one teacher, Julia. She had her hands full. These were frightened students who had journeyed here from Mexico. Julia was the only teacher that even spoke Spanish. Then I was assigned to teach kindergarten. I was quite unhappy about this but I accepted the challenge. The curriculum for reading and writing had increased quite a lot. Learning letters and sounds by December and reading at Reading Recovery Level 5 by June was the goal.
The children were expected to write real words. This was also the year we started getting Somali, Sudanese, and Bosnian students. Parental attitude towards the importance of kindergarten frustrated me. (In Utah, kindergarten attendance is not mandated) Attendance was dismal, especially on Fridays. Home support just wasn’t there.
Parents should be invited and trained in ways that will enhance their children's educational experience. What are some ways that we can accomplish this end in Pocatello? Below are some strategies I have used in other districts. Many of these areas suffered from traditionally low parental involvement.
In my work with struggling schools, I've scheduled training sections for parents to demonstrate strategies that empower them. The majority of the parents were very excited and faithful participants. The students showed a lot of progress. Some schools I've worked with have sponsored Parents' Night. The parents are invited to the schools. Dinner has been served and the professional staff showcased the students' work.
At one school we had "Focus on the Arts." Everything was showcased. Students art work was on display. Children provided instrumental and vocal concerts. Students walked through the halls of school portraying historical characters whom they had done research on. There were a lot of parents and children present. Many schools across the country have a parent volunteer coordinator whose main job is to involve parents in the school. Their work is based on the requests and needs of the teachers and administrators. Newsletters can be used to communicate with parents about what is going on in the classroom, including topics to be read and discusssed.
Teachers should learn about students' backgrounds and cultural contexts through class discussions, talking with parents, and students' school journals. Choose tasks and literature that are relevant to the students' lives. Multicultural literature not only lets students connect to their own backgrounds, but can also serve as a stimulus for discussion about race, social class, and gender.
Connect experiences to literature by sharing your own personal stories and encouraging students to share theirs. Include journal response questions that deal with the students' own lives, especially regarding issues that have emerged in their reading. Use knowledge about the children (such as a trip they took or an interest they have) to bring them into a discussion and enable them to contribute their own experiences.
Muliticultural literature can be used to help students deepen their understanding of their own cultural backgrounds, as they connect to the backgrounds of others. Students and their families learn that people like themselves are found in print, presenting a new dimension for all involved.
Finally, parents might feel more comfortable talking to a teacher if the teacher gives them a phone call at the beginning of the year to tell them about some of their children's strengths.
Related Reading:
What Really Works in Special and Inclusive Education: Using Evidence-Based Teaching Strategies by David Mitchell
Parental Involvement in Childhood Education: Building Effective School-Family Partnerships by Garry Hornby