nwpam10 Inviting Families into Literacy Partnerships

JoBeth Allen, Red Clay Writing Project and Katherine McKay, Heart of Texas Writing Project presented on Literacy Partnerships with families.

The big idea was that we do a lot of things which include family, but are they for literacy or educational purposes? The group began by listing things we do at our schools that include parents. After we made our lists we numbered the list from 1-3 to show the level of educational purpose. Some of the things I listed were:

• 1Partners in Print
• 1Parent Conferences
• 2Parent Club
• 2Parent Volunteers
• 2Open House
• 2Back to School
• 3Sporting Events
• 3Awards Assembly
• 3Carnivals

***The point made was that parental involvement does not always affect student achievement. Family involvement that is linked to student learning matters. Student achievement increases when families are involved in the academic aspect of their schooling. When parents are engaged in student academics at home students achieve at a higher rate.

Teachers need to build trust with families. Some examples of family involvement presented were:

• Poetry Slam - Have families meet at a coffee shop to read their poetry.
• WORDLE - Families again can meet at a coffee shop to read their WORDLEs. The parents can write their own and participate in the reading.
• PhOLKS - Funds of knowledge photograph out of school life. Parents and students write an essay about a photograph taken by the student. Students can write about their picture. They write a caption for the picture. Then the parents write about the picture. Bring the picture and the two writings together.
• Photo Poetry - Parents and students write a poem about something and books can be made from their writings. Ex. Alphabet book
• Home School Journals
• Family Dialogue Journals
• Book Journal - A journal is passed from home to school. Students and parents read books together. They have a conversation about the book and note their conversation in the journal. The teacher responds to each entry.
• Weekend Journals - What are the important things we learned this week. Students and parents write down what they learned for the week.

Suggested reading/site: Damion Frye - Home Journals
ABCya Kids Education and Technology Meet