A significant amount of research shows that students whose families are involved in their education tend to have a higher level of success in school. This lesson outlines strategies to help engage families in their child’s education and in the school.
Activities
Learn About Families' Perceptions of Engagement in Your School
1) Survey the families in your classroom about their opinions of school quality, principal leadership and parent involvement. A survey template can be found at the following link:
https://www.surveymonkey.com/mp/harvard-education-surveys/
(Module 3, Lesson 1 – What You Don’t Know About Family Engagement: Gather information about the needs of your families and involve them in planning)
2) Review teacher, parent and student responses to the HIDOE School Quality Survey to learn more about their perspectives on family engagement at your school.
http://arch.k12.hi.us/school/sqs/sqs.html
(Module 3, Lesson 1 – What You Don’t Know About Family Engagement: Analyzing your school’s vision of family engagement – “Suggested Procedures”)
3) Attend a PTSA meeting and observe the dynamics among parents and between parents, teachers and administrators.
(Module 3, Lesson 1 – What You Don’t Know About Family Engagement: Analyzing your school’s vision of family engagement – “Suggested Procedures”)
4) Talk to parents about the extent to which the school has been responsive to their needs and their children’s needs.
(Module 3, Lesson 1 – What You Don’t Know About Family Engagement: Analyzing your school’s vision of family engagement – “Suggested Procedures”)
Invite Parents and extended families to be involved with daily activities
1) Invite families to eat lunch with their children
http://www.sedl.org/connections/resources/rb/rb5-diverse.pdf
(Module 2, Lesson 3 – Strategies to Improve Communication with Families: Welcoming Strategies)
2) Invite family members to visit their children’s classrooms during instructional time when a new concept or resource is introduced so that they can experience what the children are doing firsthand
http://www.sedl.org/connections/resources/rb/rb5-diverse.pdf
(Module 2, Lesson 3 – Strategies to Improve Communication with Families: Welcoming Strategies)
Invite parents and extended families to share about their culture(s)
1) Ask parents/grandparents/aunties/uncles to come into the classroom and share about their cultures, language, experiences, skills, stories, songs, dances, and art with the students.
http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/article/many-languages-many-cultures
(Module 1, Lesson 1 – What happens when you don’t know your families: The importance of student and family background)
https://www.naeyc.org/sites/default/files/globally-shared/downloads/PDFs/resources/position-statements/PSDIV98.PDF (p. 4)
- After the visitor(s) have left, remind students what they learned in the following days, such as new words, ideas and activities. (Module 1, Lesson 2 – How Diverse are We?: Experiencing the challenges of linguistic diversity)
2) Ask parents and grandparents what aspects of their culture that they would like to share.
https://www.scholastic.com/teachers/articles/teaching-content/teaching-diversity-place-begin-0/
(Module 1, Lesson 1 – What Happens When You Don’t Know Your Students: The importance of family background)
3) Ask parents/grandparents to bring a special item from home that they can share with the class alongside their child so the class can learn more about everyone’s background(s) .
(Module 1, Lesson 3 – Culturally Responsive Curriculum Ideas: Show and tell using cultural and linguistic artifacts – AFFECT Strategy)
Volunteer Opportunities
1) Design a plan to recruit family volunteers in your classroom by following the “suggested procedures” in Module 3, Lesson 4 – Ways to Engage Families at School: Family volunteers.
2) Encourage parents to volunteer in the classroom as a way to help improve their child’s education. This page provides project and activity suggestions to get and keep parents involved in the classroom parents.
https://www.teachervision.com/getting-parents-involved
(Module 2, Lesson 3 – Strategies to Improve Communication with Families: Open House)
3) Tell parents specific ways they can help. Many want to help but as especially as kids get older, parents aren’t asked for help as often and do not know what to do. https://www.edutopia.org/blog/20-tips-developing-positive-relationships-parents-elena-aguilar
(Module 2, Lesson 3 – Strategies to Improve Communication with Families: How Positive is My Communication with Families?)
4) If needed, consider developing a branch of the PTA for ELL parents, organized by language. Once parents become more familiar with each other and the school, bring them together with the larger PTA on a regular basis.
http://www.colorincolorado.org/article/engaging-ell-parents-leaders
(Module 2, Lesson 5 – Ways to Familiarize Families with the School System: Learn About Others Strategies to Help Families Gain a Better Understanding of the School System)
5) To avoid reliance on the same group of parents, ask those who have volunteered to “bring a friend” from the whole group of classroom parents.
http://www.sedl.org/connections/resources/rb/rb5-diverse.pdf
(Module 2, Lesson 3 – Strategies to Improve Communication with Families: Welcoming Strategies)
Events: Open house
1) Hosting an open house is a great way to meet students’ parents for the first time and introduce them to ways to engage with the classroom and the school. The pages provides tips on hosting successful open houses for grades K-6.
https://www.teachervision.com/teaching-strategies/open-house-resources
(Module 2, Lesson 3 – Strategies to Improve Communication with Families: Open House)
2) This resource provides five creative ideas for creating a personal connection with parents at an open house – Photo Op, Team PowerPoint, Writer’s Workshop, Tour Guides, and Themed Open House.
https://www.scholastic.com/teachers/articles/teaching-content/top-5-ideas-your-open-house/
(Module 2, Lesson 3 – Strategies to Improve Communication with Families: Open House)
3) The PTO providing food/beverages can be a great way to engage parents in conversation and encourage them to want to join the PTO and SIC, which establishes and builds a positive parent and school relationships.
(Module 2, Lesson 3 – Strategies to Improve Communication with Families: How Positive is My Communication with Families?)
4) Present and explain aspects of the classroom, such as the purpose and use of homework folders. More information can be found under the “suggested procedures” in Module 3, Lesson 3 – Ways to Engage Families at Home: Homework Planner.
Events: Open class
1) Plan an “open class” where family members can visit your classroom during designated times and observe a typical day in the life of their child by following the “suggested procedures” in Module 3, Lesson 4 – Ways to Engage Families at School: Open Class.
Social Events
1) Social events, such as a breakfast event, provide creative opportunities for families and school personnel to get to know each other. Providing food and childcare can help increase parent attendance.
http://www.earlychildhoodnews.com/earlychildhood/article_view.aspx?ArticleID=359
(Module 2, Lesson 3 – Strategies to Improve Communication with Families: How Positive is My Communication with Families?)
2) Start the school year with a potluck to help families bond as they share stories and food.
https://www.edutopia.org/blog/20-tips-developing-positive-relationships-parents-elena-aguilar
(Module 2, Lesson 3 – Strategies to Improve Communication with Families: How Positive is My Communication with Families?)
3) Have students design and send invitations to their families, and prepare some games/activities for those who attend.
(Module 2, Lesson 5 – Ways to Familiarize Families with the School System: Learn About Others Strategies to Help Families Gain a Better Understanding of the School System)
Extra-curricular activities
1) Plan extra-curricular activities that can be implemented with your students and their families such as family game nights, family literacy nights or family crafts nights by following the “suggested procedures” in Module 3, Lesson 4 – Ways to Engage Families at School: Extra-curricular Activities.
2) After-school All-stars Hawaii offers extracurricular activities for low-income, at-risk students in various middle schools across the state.
(Module 3, Lesson 4 – Ways to Engage Families at School: Extra-curricular Activities)
3) Plan a writing night as a fun way to share your curriculum with parents and have writing activities for parents and children to do together.
(Module 2, Lesson 3 – Strategies to Improve Communication with Families: How Positive is My Communication with Families?)
4) Consider using this resource to help plan different parent nights.
https://www.scholastic.com/teachers/lesson-plans/teaching-content/bringing-home-school/
(Module 1, Lesson 1 – Culturally Responsive Curriculum Ideas: Greetings in many languages and ways)
5) Consider using this template for event planning.
https://affect.coe.hawaii.edu/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/Special-events.pdf
(Module 3, Lesson 4 – Ways to Engage Families at School: Special Events)
5) This website lists several ideas for school events and celebrations.
https://www.ptotoday.com/events-and-programs
(Module 3, Lesson 4 – Ways to Engage Families at School: Special Events)
6) This website can help you plan which event you want to host and how to organize it.
https://www.pta.org/home/events/PTA-Take-Your-Family-to-School-Week
(Module 3, Lesson 4 – Ways to Engage Families at School: Special Events)
7) Consider including elders from students’ community/culture(s) in school events.
https://www.scholastic.com/teachers/lesson-plans/teaching-content/bringing-home-school/
(Module 1, Lesson 1 – Culturally Responsive Curriculum Ideas: Greetings in many languages and ways)
Family-teacher workshops
1) Provide a few family-teacher workshops throughout the year from the list of possible topics in Module 2, Lesson 5.
(Module 2, Lesson 5 – Ways to Familiarize Families with the School System: Learn About Others Strategies to Help Families Gain a Better Understanding of the School System)
2) Additional information on how to organize family-teacher workshops can be found under the “suggested procedures” in Module 3, Lesson 4 – Ways to Engage Families at School: Family-Teacher Workshops.
Family job shadow
1) Ask parents to have their child job shadow them for a day to learn their work. For example, Lopez (2011) wrote about a Mexican family who brought their children to work in their farm fields to teach them about working on the farm, and also encouraged them to appreciate the importance of a good education in terms of quality of their future life. (Lopez, 2001).
(Module 2, Lesson 7 – Ways to Overcome Cultural Barriers – Acknowledge the Unique Ways that Minority Families are Involved in Their Children’s Education. AFFECT Activity #4)
Special programs
1) Create a “Homework Hotline” by following the “suggested procedures” in Module 3, Lesson 3 – Ways to Engage Families at Home – Homework Hotline.
2) Create a classroom “Lending Library” by following the “suggested procedures” in Module 3, Lesson 3 – Ways to Engage Families at Home – Lending Library.
- This resource provide suggestions for how to arrange you classroom library https://www.scholastic.com/teachers/articles/teaching-content/creating-your-own-classroom-library-set/ (Module 3, Lesson 3 – Ways to Engage Families at Home: Lending Library)