Free Article - Family Literacy: Home and school working togetherby Lesley Mandell Morrow, Ph.D., Professor of Reading, Rutgers UniversityExcerpted from an article published in Reading Today (December 2003 / January 2004 edition) Tips for Teachers Teachers should help promote parental involvement in children's education. Teachers should inform families on a regular basis about what is happening in school and how they can help their children. Teachers need to involve families in school activities during the day and provide activities for families to do at home. Families need to feel that they are welcome in the classroom.
Here are some specific suggestions - At the beginning of the school year, send home the literacy development goals to be achieved for the grade level you teach in a format that can be understood by all.
- With each new unit of instruction or concept being taught in literacy, send home a letter to let families know what you are studying and what they can do to help.
- Invite families to school for parent conferences and school programs.
- 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 independent activities while teachers work with small groups and individual children.
- Send home activities for families and children to do together. Require some feedback from the parents or child about working together. Include activities such as writing in journals together, reading together, visiting the library, recording print in the environment that they see, writing notes to each other, cooking together and following recipes, following directions to put together toys or household items, and watching and talking about specific programs on television. Participating in homework assignments in extremely important.
- Invite families to school to share special skills they may have, to talk about their cultural heritage, etc.
- Send home notes when a child is doing well. Do not wait to send notes only for problems.
- Provide lists of literature for families to share with their children.
- Invite families to school to participate with their children in literacy activities. During center time, for example, family members can help to supervise independent activities, see what the literacy environment is like at school, and become a more integral part of their child's literacy development.
- Hold meetings for family members and children about progress and projects.
For more information, please visit the homepage of the International Reading Association, www.reading.org
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. All rights reserved.
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