The article, Family Partnership, really made me think about all the ways we can include families into their students learning. There are three important approaches discussed in this article. They are building respectful relationships, engaging families in supporting learning at home and addressing cultural differences (Allen, 2008). Home visits are a good way to build trust and a healthy partnership with the families of the students in your class. If this is something that is not possible, then one idea the author suggested is to allow the students to bring home a camera and take pictures. This activity is something that students and parents can do together. One way the author suggested to help engage families in supporting learning at home is a school-home reading journal. The parents, student and teacher can all communicate about what the child is reading at home. One very important thing to remember is as a teacher, take the time to read and respond to the journals. By doing something like this, the parents have become part of the classroom community without even stepping foot in the classroom (Allen,2008). The last approach discussed is to address cultural differences. This can be done by creating a cultural memoir. In the classroom, read and discuss cultural memoirs such as The House On Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros (Allen,2008). For busy parents and teacher, there are shorter memoirs such as in popular magazines and radio broadcasts. Also the teacher can show the students photos of different cultures. The questions at the end make me think more about my future in the classroom. “How will you create opportunities with families that really improve and deepen students learning (Allen, 2008)?”
In the article, Why Some Parents Don’t Come to School, it says that as teachers, we need to understand the barriers to family involvement from their vantage point (Finders & Lewis, 1994). The author’s talked to parents about why some of them do not go to school. One reason could be that they did not have a good experience with school. One parent said they did not want to hear about how “bad” their child was (Finder & Lewis, 1994). Another reason parents gave is that there is diverse economic and time constraints. Some families only have one car and students in three different schools make it hard for them to stop by at any time. Other families based on culture tend to the husband and children first then if there is time they can attend meetings at the school. Some parents and students do not speak English as a first language, so going to the school is hard for them because they often feel inadequate in school context (Finder & Lewis, 1994). The article gives suggestions from parents about how to get them involved. In the beginning of the school year clarify how parents can help but in an out of the classroom. One Latina mother explains that most of the parents she knows thinks that school involvement means attending school parties (Finder & Lewis, 1994). One big way to help get parents involved it to develop trust and let parents know it is ok to drop by anytime.
These articles really helped my thinking about how to include parents in the education of their students. I have noticed that at the Boys and Girls club, they do events at night for the families. The other night they did a “creative night” and parents and students got to come in a paint together. I talked to some of the students that went and they really enjoyed themselves. I liked the idea of using a reading journal, not only in school, but at home with the parents as well. I saw a parent at the club on Wednesday and she was very excited for her kids to be there and wanted to take pictures of her daughter with her coach. This showed me that this parent trusted the people at the Boys and Girls club to take care of her children while she was working. I want to have that kind of trust with my parents in my future classroom. After getting to know my students from the Boys and Girls club, I learned that a lot of them enjoy spending time with their families. For example, one student they have family dinners where the parents ask them about their day. Another student said that their mother is always working and they don’t spend much time together. This reminded me about how the article stated that sometime parents have to work long hours or even more than one job. I need to find way to include these families in their child’s education. One way I can do that is have conference with them after hours or when it is convent time for them.