Week 5 Discussion 1 Welcome Informational Letter

PART III Building Family–School Relationships to Maximize Student Learning

Chapter 8	Getting Acquainted with Students’ Families Teresa N. Leibforth and Mary Ann Clark
Chapter 9	Using Families’ Ways of Knowing to Enhance Teaching and Student Learning Maria R. Coady
Chapter 10	Fostering Student and Family Engagement in Learning Through Student-Led Parent Conferences Ellen S. Amatea and Kelly L. Dolan

Educators need strategies for building effective partnerships with families, not only for the purpose of solving student problems, but also for maximizing student learning. In Chapters 8, 9, and 10, we describe strategies that educators use that focus on creating stronger connections with families to maximize student learning and development. In Chapter 8, we focus on the communication skills and practices that educators can use routinely to build a sense of connection with their students’ families. In Chapter 9, we examine the unique challenges faced by second language learners and their families and the instructional and noninstructional strategies that educators can use to build working relationships with families. In Chapter 10, we describe the use of student-led parent conferences as a powerful tool for establishing relationships with students and their families that give students a greater voice in their assessment of their learning.

CHAPTER 8 Getting Acquainted with Students’ Families

Teresa N. Leibforth and Mary Ann Clark

Learning Objectives

After reading this chapter, you will be able to:

■ Describe specific attitudes and communication skills needed to develop trusting relationships with students’ families.

■ Outline cultural differences in communication styles that influence family–school interaction.

■ Describe everyday routines by which you can become acquainted with students’ families and develop ongoing lines of communication.

Educators who take the time to get acquainted with parents, to listen to them, to empathize with their perspective, and to learn from them about their child and their home culture, promote the successful learning of all their students and enhance their own ability to reach and teach each of their students.

There is a growing recognition that teachers are the key agents for reaching out to par-ents/caregivers. The teacher’s attitude and practices—not the education, socioeconomic status, or marital status of the parent—have the strongest influence on whether parents become involved in their children’s schooling (Colbert, 1996; Epstein & Sheldon, 2002; Erford, 2010). Educators, who take the time to get acquainted with parents, to listen to them, to empathize with their perspective, and to learn from them about their child and their home culture promote the successful learning of all their students and enhance their own ability to reach and teach each of their students (Weiss, Caspe, & Lopez, 2006). Lawrence-Lightfoot (2003) makes a poignant and powerful point that no dialogue is more important than that between teachers and family members. She states:

If we think about families and their outside connections to physicians, pediatricians, lawyers, or other professionals, there’s absolutely no comparison in quantity and quality to the connections that parents have with teachers. With over 4 million teachers, there are approximately 100 million parent–teacher conferences a year, and that’s probably an underestimate. So quantitatively it’s just mind-boggling. And we haven’t paid much attention to this really important dialogue and to making it meaningful, productive, and informative. (p. 1)

As discussed in Chapters 1, 3 and 6, there is an increasing array of cultural differences in our students in today’s schools that may appear to present roadblocks to family–school communication. Factors, such as differences in SES and race/ethnicity, speaking English as a second language, and the past educational experiences of parents, can be potential barriers to communication. However, our job as educators is to understand and surmount these differences, find commonalities, and reach out to families in culturally responsive ways. Our experience has been that most families care a great deal about their children and their learning and school success. This attitude presents a natural opportunity for partnership. However, they may need encouragement and invitations from us to help them feel that they are a welcome and vital part of their children’s educational experience. We must begin relationships where the families are and build partnerships from that perspective. Doing so can allow engagement to increase and trust to build (Ocon, 2011). Family–school communication must become an integral and effective part of our professional practice; it should be second nature for who we are as people and professionals. Family, school, and community engagement should focus on enhancing parents’ strengths as partners in their child’s education. Doing so means a move from a deficit model, in which we focus on what families don’t know or do, to a strengths-based model, where we recognize that families want to help their students succeed academically and need targeted information and scaffolding in order to do so (Moore, 2011).

Although communication with families should be a school and district-wide initiative, in this chapter we focus on the communication that takes place between classroom teachers and families. Optimally, the strategies that we discuss can also be a part of a school-wide network of communication that takes place among the teachers and students in the classroom, the school as a whole, and families. In this chapter, we first describe the essential skills needed to become an effective communicator when you are interacting on a one-on-one basis with a student’s caregiver or family. Next, we discuss some of the differing communication patterns that may influence how you decide to structure your communication with families who differ from you in their cultural background. We then describe everyday routines by which you can become acquainted with students’ families as a group and develop ongoing lines of communication. Projecting a personal sense of warmth, welcoming, and caring is important in forging positive relationships. Being a good listener and having positive assumptions about families’ intentions and involvement pays dividends as you develop these important relationships. Being able to offer individual and specific feedback about your students to their family members in a constructive way helps establish and maintain positive lines of communication. Developing positive connections and building trust that teachers have their students’ best interest at heart are essential outcomes of this process.

8.1 Initial Considerations

Put yourself in the shoes of the caregivers of your students. What must it feel like to come to the school and meet with a variety of educational experts, particularly if your child is not doing as well as you would hope? What environment would you like to encounter: One that is characterized by one-way communication from teacher to parent, or one that invites shared participation and validates the parents’ perspective and issues and concerns? If your child is functioning well and has no particular problems, do you believe that you, as a parent, should still be given access and opportunities to talk with your child’s teacher about your child’s learning? Would you like to be invited to participate in your child’s learning without being made to feel like you are being intrusive?

Some family members may show reticence in speaking openly with teachers. Lawrence-Lightfoot (2003) points out that when teachers and parents come together, their conversations are often haunted by their own family and school experiences as children, resulting in feelings of vulnerability and insecurity. An important point to remember is that many family members feel very vulnerable about their children as well as their own educational experiences and may have intense feelings about them. As educators, we must remember that parents have a much more complex, holistic, and subtle view of their children (Lawrence-Lightfoot, 2003). Their knowledge can provide us with greater insight into our students and can be a very useful resource for us.

A first step in developing skills in communicating with family members is to develop and demonstrate empathy with families. Common denominators that help foster family–school communication and involvement are caregivers who feel comfortable in bringing up topics and feel invited, welcomed, and valued for contributions. Caregivers’ perceptions not only influence the way they see you as the teacher, but also how they view the classroom environment for their child. If you gain family support for your teaching efforts, it can assist in creating a more cohesive, caring, and respectful classroom environment, which can result in increased learning and academic achievement. Several researchers (Dodd, 2000; Elias, Bruene-Butler, Blum, & Schuyler, 1997; Zins, Bloodworth, Weissberg, & Walberg, 2004) present evidence that links school success to social and emotional learning and classroom climate.

A concern that most teachers express is that of the amount of time and effort it takes to create the necessary connections with families. Many educators believe that trying to connect is an additional burden to add to the many day-to-day responsibilities required in today’s schools. Our experiences have shown us that if we make such communication techniques a part of our teaching practice, many other aspects of teaching and learning fall into place. Conversely, if we do not take the time to nurture relationships, we find ourselves spending that same amount of time on dealing with problems and attempting to mend fences. The concept of “Dig the well before you are thirsty” is most applicable to the idea of establishing relationships from the beginning so that they are in place when most needed. An often unspoken truth is that, as educators, we feel much better about our jobs and students if the communication is going well, students and families are “on board,” and we receive support and positive feedback for the work we do. If these essential pieces are not in place, we can become fatigued and feel “burned out.”

8.2 Using Effective Relationship and Communication Skills

When working with families as well as students, keep in mind the importance to convey that you are interested in, and paying attention to, the information that they relay to you. The ability to show empathy is an essential first ingredient to showing students and their families that you value their input. Being able to put yourself in the shoes of others and attempting to understand their perspective, as mentioned earlier, can give a family member the sense that you understand their concerns, or at least are trying to hear their “story.” Also, of course, students are important family members, and we include them here. In fact, teaching and modeling these communication skills for your students and implementing them in the classroom are excellent ways to develop a caring and respectful classroom (Wittmer & Clark, 2002a; 2002b). A student’s perception of teacher support and school belonging is strongly related to increased academic self-efficacy, positive attitudes about school, and academic achievement (Roeser, Midgley, & Urdan, 1996).

At teachers’ requests, we helped design communication units on these very same skills for teachers to implement for the purpose of helping their students feel more like a family unit. The message is the same: The majority of students and families want to believe that they are welcome, that they belong, and feel accepted and cared about. The skills we discuss in this chapter include both relationship skills and communication skills. The relationship skills, which provide the base for effective communication, include the demonstration of caring, acceptance, respect, empathy, trust, understanding, and helping. The communication skills, which are the tools by which educators can relate to and connect with their students and families, include attentive listening, using encouragers, asking appropriate questions, paraphrasing, summarizing and clarifying what others have to say, focusing on and reflecting feelings, and giving and receiving feedback (Wittmer & Clark, 2002a; 2002b). Furthermore, specific communication skills that are modeled and practiced can be linked with corresponding relationship skills. For example, attentive listening is related to showing respect. Reflecting feelings results in greater empathy. Summarizing, clarifying, and asking appropriate questions demonstrates your understanding and interest in another. Giving and receiving facilitative feedback helps foster trust. Together, these skills can create both a caring and respectful family–school relationship and a classroom environment that promotes student learning (Wittmer & Clark, 2002a; 2002b).

We mentioned earlier the importance of conveying a caring and welcoming demeanor with families as well as establishing a base of trust. Showing respect, trying to understand others’ perspectives and issues by being empathic, and being known as a helper are all qualities that work well together to encourage trust and open communication. Equally important is for us to be perceived as being consistent and predictable in our relationships with family members; such consistency helps build trust and open communication. To demonstrate these qualities, we should understand the worldviews of the families with whom we interact without evaluating or judging them. With the increased diversity of our student bodies and their families, being able to enter the frame of reference of a family regarding their culture, creed, or race/ethnicity is a powerful way to show understanding and acceptance. In the next section, we discuss the skills of attentive listening, the use of “encouragers,” paraphrasing and summarizing, reflecting/ focusing on feelings, asking appropriate questions, and using facilitative feedback. Several authors in the fields of education and counseling write about these skills, and you may want to refer to their work for more specific details (see Ivey & Ivey, 2009; Wittmer & Clark, 2002a; 2002b).

8.3 Attentive Listening Skills

Christenson and Hirsch (1998) write, “Effective listening is dependent on the desire to listen, therefore, it is important for educators to create a context for conversation in which parents and educators feel relaxed, comfortable and prepared” (p. 319). In today’s busy world, many people feel “dismissed” because others do not take the time to hear their concerns, which is certainly true in many classrooms, because teachers struggle to accomplish many tasks in their tight schedules. Yet being attended to and having an opportunity to talk about an important matter is a very positive experience for most people. It helps them feel that the listener is interested in them, taking the time to listen to them, and is respectful of their point of view.

How can you tell if someone is truly listening to you? Often, the listener’s verbal as well as nonverbal behaviors let you know that they are paying attention (Ivey & Ivey, 2009; Wittmer & Clark, 2000a; 2000b). Some teachers make sure that the first conference of the year is a “listening” conference in which family members do most of the talking. The conference is a great time to ask questions, such as, “What is your child good at?” or “What does he or she enjoy?” Such questions are not just referring only to academic skills, but rather are asked to learn more about attributes and gifts that children bring to the classroom (Lawrence-Lightfoot, 2003).

Eye Contact

One way that we often recognize when someone else is paying attention to what we say is when the other person gives us eye contact. Making eye contact is a powerful and nonverbal cue that lets others know that we are giving them our attention. Note that looking directly into another’s eyes is often perceived differently by people from some cultural backgrounds (Ting-Toomey, 1999). As a result, we should be aware that not all people respond to focused eye contact in the same way.

Body Language

The way we present ourselves when speaking with others can also convey nonverbal messages about our interest in what they have to say. Speaking with someone who has an open and relaxed posture (i.e., the person is facing you, perhaps leaning toward you while seated in a chair) tends to be more inviting than speaking with someone who exhibits a “closed” posture (i.e., the person has crossed arms, back toward you, or is leaning back in chair). A person who is fidgety or restless gives the impression that the conversation is not important or that there are better things to be doing with his or her time. Interrupting the conversation to take phone calls or to speak with others who may drop in gives a similar impression about the priority of the conversation. In addition, such interactions are disruptive and do not encourage the flow of communication.

However, note that many people commonly “mirror” the speaker. For example, if you, the teacher, lean forward with a smile, the family member may respond in a similar way. If you appear to be relaxed with regard to body language and tone of voice, it helps the other person assume a similar demeanor.

Being a Careful Listener

There are four simple steps to attentive listening (Wittmer & Clark, 2002a; 2002b):

■ Look at the person who is talking, and keep good eye contact.

■ Pay attention to the person’s words. Tune in carefully to words as well as noting nonverbal cues, such as posture and facial expressions. Tune out distractions.

■ Be aware of the feelings that may accompany the words. Are the words conveying a pleasant or an unpleasant feeling? Examples of pleasant or positive feelings may include happy, interested, pleased, excited, delighted, accepted, cheerful, relieved, confident, and optimistic. Unpleasant feelings may include angry, sad, troubled, worried, irritated, fearful, offended, suspicious, and threatened. Note that many feeling words may be represented along a continuum representing a depth of feeling. For example, the feeling of anger could also be expressed as irritation or rage, depending on the degree to which that emotion is felt. The listener must think about the depth of the emotion being expressed.

■ Say something to the speaker to show that you have been listening. Use your own words and try to restate the message you have heard:

■ It sounds like you are really enthusiastic about Jared’s attitude in school this year.

■ You’re frustrated that Megan is not completing her homework.

■ You seem irritated that you haven’t heard about this assignment until now.

Using Encouragers

Encouragers (Ivey & Ivey, 2009) are the brief physical and verbal cues we give people to let them know that we are listening and that we would like them to continue talking. Examples of encouragers include nodding your head, saying “Yes,” “Okay,” or “Mm-hmm,” and are often used quite readily during casual conversations. Consider your use of encouragers is important, because using them too frequently may cause the person who is talking to feel rushed. Using an encouraging response acknowledges that you have heard the person and helps them know that you are listening.

Paraphrasing, Clarifying, and Summarizing

Paraphrasing is taking what the person has said to you and reiterating the highlights of what is said using some of your own words as well as the important main words of the speaker. You can shorten and clarify (Ivey & Ivey, 2009) what is said. Any response that is an attempt to acknowledge the content of what a person has said, or to identify the most significant points that have been stated, can be termed a summarizing response (Wittmer & Clark, 2002a; 2002b). Such responses are a way to focus the speaker’s words and to “check out” what the person is trying to say. Paraphrasing and clarifying are also ways to show that you are listening and the speaker has been heard. Such acknowledgment helps create a bond between the speaker and the listener, in this case, you and the family member(s). Such statements are attempts to simplify, restate, or focus on the main ideas being expressed. Certain “leads” can be used to make such statements, such as the following (Wittmer & Clark, 2002a; 2002b):

■ If I hear you correctly, you are telling me...

■ Let me see if I understand what you are saying. You said...

■ If I am following you, you’re saying...

■ It sounds to me as if.... (p. 112)

Such responses are conveying that you are trying your best to hear and understand the speaker’s message.

Summarizing is an extended paraphrase that is generally used less frequently and to clarify and reiterate larger chunks of information. Ivey and Ivey (2009) point out that summarizing can help organize thinking and is especially useful at the beginning or end of a conversation or conference, at transitions between topics, or to help clarify complex issues. For example, as a conference with family members ends, you can summarize the main points of the conversation you have just had. In addition, you can summarize any recommendations that have been made during the conference for future actions to be taken. Putting these summaries in writing as well can be helpful for your record keeping. Most schools provide forms on which you can summarize main points made at a conference. In Chapter 11, we describe a form that we use in family–school problem-solving meetings to summarize the main points and decisions we have made together.

Focusing on and Reflecting Feelings

Earlier in the chapter, we discuss the importance of empathy, or putting yourself in the shoes of another person to really understand them and their situation. Focusing on and reflecting their feelings can be a very powerful way to empathize with others. By tuning in and identifying the feelings that others are experiencing, we show empathy. This type of response, which identifies with the speaker’s emotions and perceptions, is a way to be sensitive to and understanding of another’s situation. It requires that we listen for the feelings that the other person is experiencing and mirror those feelings back so that person feels understood and affirmed (Wittmer & Clark, 2002a; 2002b). Timeliness of the use of focusing on feelings is very important. We must be careful not to rush into naming feelings without hearing the speaker out. Also, as mentioned previously, people from various cultural backgrounds may respond differently to this type of response. Some may believe that delving into feelings is intrusive. However, our experience is that most people really want to be heard and affirmed when they are having a conversation with us, and many people are glad to have their feelings validated.

Earlier, we gave examples of feeling words that were categorized as “pleasant” or “unpleasant.” Focusing on feelings is what you are doing when you think about what the speaker is feeling and try to identify the feeling. Reflecting the feeling back to them is what we do when we verbalize a word or words that we believe represents their experience accurately. A beginning step is to think about what type of feeling the speaker is conveying through words and nonverbal communication. The next step is to choose a word carefully that we want to relay to them. Note that many people may express mixed or ambivalent feelings. Also, there is the possibility that a person’s words may not match their nonverbal behavior or the overall content of what they are trying to say. In other words, there may be discrepancies in what they are telling you. If you are sensing such discrepant messages, sharing those perceptions is okay. The process may sound complex, but it becomes very much a part of who you are as a teacher as you tune in to your students and their families.

Following are some examples of a teacher’s focusing on and reflecting feelings of a parent/guardian:

■ It sounds like you are very disappointed in the school’s lack of communication with you about Amy’s progress in reading...

■ It seems that you are angry and frustrated that Garrett was retained this year because of failing the state mandated test...

■ On the one hand, you are saying you are unhappy about Joseph’s discipline referrals, but at the same time you are laughing about it...

■ Despite the hardships you have faced in making a major move this year, you seem to be upbeat and cheerful about being here....

Focusing on and reflecting feelings can be helpful for several reasons. As previously mentioned, it helps a person feel understood. Such responses can assist in going beyond the superficial to more basic concerns. It can be a relief for family members to talk about a situation with a child that may have been festering over time. In doing so, such responding can open up a conversation and can solicit the support of a teacher for generating ideas about possible solutions or resources. We must remember to not evaluate or judge feelings but to accept them as legitimate. Sometimes to hear and accept painful feelings is difficult; however, we should not shrug off or ignore such feelings. To do so is to dismiss them. Instead of attempting to reassure a person by saying, “You know you don’t really feel that way” or “You’ll feel better very soon,” identify the feeling and let the speaker talk about it. You might say, “It sounds like it has been agonizing for you to get Rico to settle down and do his homework.”

Asking Appropriate Questions

Asking appropriate questions helps show interest in others. Often, we would like to know more about family members of our students, and there may be information that is essential to the facilitation of student learning. Research shows that certain types of questions called open questions not only encourage the speaker to continue to talk, but also convey more respect and interest in the speaker than do closed questions. Also, we must balance the number of questions we ask with the other types of responses discussed in this chapter. No one wants to be barraged by a stream of questions. Being interrogated feels intrusive and can be difficult to continue to respond. As a teacher, you know that the art and skill of questioning is an essential part of the teaching process. Questions can be used to obtain information, to stimulate conversation, or to query an individual about a specific matter. All of these reasons can be valid in conversations with family members.

Open questions invite the speaker to share thoughts, ideas, and feelings. Open, or inviting, questions start with words such as “What” and “How.” Closed or non-inviting questions start with the word “Why” and can often be answered by “Yes” or “No.” The open or inviting question conveys our interest in the speaker’s perspective and therefore encourages the person to continue to expand on a response. The closed or non-inviting question tends to shut down a conversation and also may not call for more than a one-word response. Note the difference in the following two questions:

Closed: Why didn’t Jacob do his homework?

Open: What was it about the homework that kept Jacob from getting it done?

The first question puts the family member on the defensive, particularly if a lot of “why” questions have been previously asked. The second question sounds more objective, less accusatory, and gives room for explanation and possible help. Here are some other examples:

■ Why are your children always late to school? (Closed, non-inviting)

■ I’m wondering what keeps the children from arriving at school on time? Maybe we can talk about some strategies that may help out. (Open, inviting)

■ Didn’t you get the assignment sheet I sent home? (Closed, non-inviting)

■ How do Suki and you communicate about school assignments? If you are not receiving the assignment sheets, we can talk about how you can best obtain the information. (Open, inviting)

To stimulate a smooth flowing conversation, remember to use a combination of other responses, such as encouragers, paraphrasing, summarizing, and reflection of feelings in between your questions. For example:

■ It sounds like Suki isn’t checking her homework agenda with you and you’re feeling frustrated. (Summarizing, feeling focused)

Following up such a conversation with suggestions that are mutually agreeable can be very helpful. In Reflective Exercise 8.1, notice the teacher’s differential use of the communication skills we have been describing.

REFLECTIVE EXERCISE 8.1

Charles is a 4-year-old boy who has been having some difficulty during circle time at preschool. He often touches other children, pulls at their hair and clothes, and leans on his classmates rather than sitting upright. Charles’ parents have requested a meeting with his teacher to discuss his behavior. Following are two examples depicting the teacher’s use of the communication skills discussed in this chapter. Notice the variable effects of these skills on Charles’ parents.

Example 1 Parent–Teacher Meeting

TEACHER:	Hello, Mr. and Mrs. Evans. Why are you here today?
MRS. EVANS:	We would like to talk with you about Charles’ difficulty during circle time.
TEACHER:	Oh yes, I am concerned about the ways Charles interacts with the other children. He can’t keep his hands to himself. Have you noticed this?
MR. EVANS:	Yes, we have. We are wondering if there are other ways in which this situation can be addressed, rather than removing Charles from circle time. We are worried that he is missing important learning opportunities.
TEACHER:	Well, it is important that all of the children follow the classroom rules, which include sitting up straight and keeping your hands to yourself. I don’t want Charles to learn that he can get away with not following the rules. Do you?

In this example, the teacher’s responses and use of closed questions tend to shut down conversation rather than encourage the parents to share more information.

Example 2 Parent–Teacher Meeting

TEACHER:	Hello, Mr. and Mrs. Evans. What brings you in to meet with me today?
MRS. EVANS:	We would like to talk with you about Charles’ difficulty during circle time.
TEACHER:	Oh yes, I am concerned about the ways Charles interacts with the other children. I have noticed that he is having a hard time keeping his hands to himself, and he often leans on other children or lies on the floor during circle time. Have you noticed this?
MR. EVANS:	Yes, we have. We are wondering if there are other ways in which this situation can be addressed, rather than removing Charles from circle time. We are worried that he is missing important learning opportunities.
TEACHER:	How would you like to see this situation handled?
MR. EVANS:	Well, we notice that he does some of those same things during church, or when we go to the movies. It seems like they tend to occur when Charles is expected to sit still for long periods of time.
TEACHER:	I see. What are some things that seem to help Charles when you are in church or at the movies?
MRS. EVANS:	We have noticed that Charles seems to respond well to having a small object in his pocket to fidget with his hands. Also, he seems to have an easier time remaining seated if he has something to lean against for support, like a chair back or wall.
TEACHER:	Okay, that is helpful information. I can change his assigned area during circle time to a space near the wall so that he can lean against it if needed. What do you think would be an appropriate item for Charles to use as a fidget tool?

Questions to Consider

• How are the two conversations different with regard to the types of questions used?

• How is the tone of the first conversation different from the second conversation?

• As a future teacher, which conversation would you prefer? Why?

Using Facilitative Feedback

Most people are interested in knowing more about what others think and feel about them. Feedback is an important resource for learning about the impact of one’s behavior on another. Thus, a model for giving and receiving feedback can help teachers, family members, and students think more systematically about their relationships and interactions and give them a means by which they can organize their thoughts and verbal messages to others. The components of a feedback message include

1. Stating the other person’s specific behavior that you want to address

2. Telling how the person’s behavior makes you feel when it happens

3. Saying what these feelings make you want to do (Wittmer & Clark, 2002a; 2002b)

This three-step approach helps you focus on a person’s behavior rather than the person, avoiding name-calling and criticism. Feedback messages can be complimentary or confrontive. The first type of feedback is a positive message, whereas the second may focus on a behavior, attitude, or way of operating that is not desirable. The timing of a feedback message is important and should be specific to be most effective. Remember that feedback goes in both directions—from the teacher to the family and from the family to the teacher. It may even be shared from one family member to another within a family–school meeting or conference.

In a meeting with family members, whether requested or routine, feedback is an essential ingredient. Families want to know how their children are doing in school academically as well as socially. Parents and guardians are interested in specific information, such as grades, test scores, skill levels, and how their children are performing in comparison to the rest of the class. They also may want to know about their child’s friendships and deportment. In some cases, they may ask what they can do to help; in other cases, they may not know and may not ask. When children are having problems at school, family members may feel intimidated and defensive. You can help them feel as comfortable as possible by assisting in identifying strategies that help the child and to be receptive to feedback from them about their child’s experiences at school. For example, if a child is feeling lonely or intimidated in the classroom setting, we must know so we can be of assistance in changing the situation. Conversely, if a child is happy and thriving in your classroom, receiving that positive feedback and noting specifically what is contributing to that nurturing learning environment is advantageous. Being able to offer specific feedback in a constructive manner is a valuable skill and can be used to encourage positive behaviors as well as to discourage negative actions and attitudes. The use of constructive feedback, both complimentary and confronting, if done in a genuine and caring way, can help build trust between the teacher and the family. Examples of feedback messages are as follows:

■ Teacher to parent: “When Greg pays attention in class, and continues to turn in his work, I am encouraged by his change in attitude and it makes me want to congratulate him.” (Example of complimentary feedback)

■ Teacher to parent: “Mr. Washington, when Sherry failed to show up for the extra tutoring time we had set up after school, I felt ineffective as a teacher, and it made me want to figure out another strategy to get her here.” (Example of confrontive, constructive feedback)

Family members and students can also be taught how to give and receive feedback. Also, as teachers, we must be willing to receive feedback and respond to it in a non-defensive, effective way:

■ Parent to teacher: “When Aaron leaves the house in the morning, he does not look forward to coming to school. He says he feels discouraged, school is not a friendly place, he doesn’t do well on his reading tests, and he would rather be somewhere else.” (Example of confrontive feedback)

■ Parent to teacher: “When you praise Jackie and her group for their efforts on their science project, the kids feel happy and motivated to work together as a team, and we appreciate your encouragement.” (Example of complimentary feedback)

In the next section, we discuss some of the culturally based communication patterns that can make communication challenging between families and educators.

8.4 Communicating Across Cultures

Communicating with students’ families is made more complicated by differences in cultural background between teachers and caregivers. These differences are often difficult to evaluate because you may not notice them or recognize that accurate communication has not taken place. For example, cultural patterns often dictate such nonverbal behaviors as the appropriate distance between two persons, the meaning of eye contact, the appropriateness of touch, and respectful postures. Cultures may also dictate the structure of verbal exchanges, such as who should initiate conversation, whether interruption is acceptable, the expected time between a question and its answer, and whether and how to bring up problems. If these conversational rhythms are not automatically shared or communicated, participants may feel uncomfortable or alienated but not understand the source of their discomfort (Swap, 1993).

As a result, teachers who are able to interpret the verbal and nonverbal communication patterns of parents from diverse cultural backgrounds will be more effective in communicating with them. One way of understanding such communication patterns is to think of communication within the framework of the individualistic or collectivistic value orientations that we discussed in Chapter 6. As a result of research on cross-cultural communication patterns, Ting-Toomey (1999) distinguished between two broad groups that differed in their cultural norms, beliefs, knowledge, and communication patterns. Groups oriented toward individualistic values are characterized by low-context communication patterns, whereas collectivistic-oriented groups lean toward high-context communication. Much less is left to shared assumptions about beliefs, values, and norms within a low-context communication framework. Instead, meaning is expressed through explicit verbal messages. A preference for direct talk, verbal self-enhancement, talkativeness, and person-oriented verbal interaction (i.e., emphasis on unique personal identities, with less attention to formalities and roles or status of those communicating) predominates in low-context communication where individualistic values are the norm. In addition, speakers are expected to express clear verbal messages.

In contrast, nonverbal communication (e.g., pauses, silences) plays a much larger role in meaning making within a high-context communication framework, as do the respective roles and positions of the communicators during the communication episodes. For example, within high-context communication episodes, the listener is expected to interpret the meaning of the message from what is said as well as what is not said directly. The assumption is that the listener shares the values, norms, and beliefs of the speaker, so the speaker does not have to encode everything in the message itself. Speakers can get by with this because high-context cultures tend to have very clear expectations about how people should behave, what roles they should take, and the meaning of various social rituals; therefore, they do not need to explain everything to each other. As a result, in high-context communication situations in which collectivistic values predominate, there is often a preference for indirect talk, silence, and status-oriented verbal interaction (i.e., status or power associated with individual’s roles are important, with appropriate languages and nonverbal cues given the respective status of those who are in communication). Of course, these opposing communication patterns really exist along a continuum of communication preferences, with individuals from both value orientations incorporating some of each (Ting-Toomey, 1999). As a result, we believe that becoming alert to such possible communication differences is a part of careful listening by educators. If an educator’s background has not included the study of the cultures and communication patterns of the students in his or her classroom and school and their families, then that educator must learn more about these patterns, either on their own or in conjunction with other staff members through reading, consultation, and direct experience with students’ families. In Reflective Exercise 8.2, we ask you to identify the nature of the parent’s communication style and its impact on the parent–teacher conversation.

REFLECTIVE EXERCISE 8.2

Ms. Parks is a preschool teacher who has requested a meeting with Benji’s family to discuss some concerns she has about his behavior in the classroom. Although Ms. Parks finds Benji to be a bright and friendly child, he is mostly quiet and shies away from opportunities to answer questions in class or to take his turn as the “classroom leader” during morning circle activities. Benji’s mother and father attend the meeting, and shortly after it begins, Ms. Parks begins to wonder how well it is going. Benji’s parents are not making consistent eye contact, and their facial expressions remain neutral as Ms. Parks shares her concerns; it is hard for Ms. Parks to determine if Benji’s parents agree or disagree with her. Ms. Parks invites Benji’s parents to ask questions a few times during the meeting, but they do not. At the end of the meeting, Benji’s parents thank Ms. Parks for her time and her concern about Benji.

Questions to Consider

• Giving thought to possible cross-cultural communication patterns, what might the nonverbal communications Ms. Parks is observing (i.e., lack of eye contact, neutral facial expression, and lack of questions) mean?

• Would you describe Benji’s family as using predominately high- or low-context communication? How would you describe Ms. Parks’ context communication?

• As a future teacher, how do you envision yourself following up with Benji’s parents after this meeting?

In the next section, we describe some practical routines that you can develop to assist you in getting acquainted with the families of your students and in maintaining communication with them once you have established your initial relationship. These ideas are ones that we have tried out, modified when needed, and have been successful for us in our work with families. The routines we present take into consideration the school culture and climate. Having a framework from which to develop relationships and activities helps us become continually mindful of the specific population of families with whom we wish to work and helps us figure out how best to communicate with them. We encourage you to try out these strategies and adapt them to fit you and your students’ families personally.

8.5 Everyday Routines for Getting Acquainted with Students’ Families

As discussed in Chapters 1, 3, and 6, family members who have had negative experiences with schools or other institutions and agencies may be reluctant to come to school or communicate with the school staff. They may be wary of school staff and uncomfortable within the school environment (Finders & Lewis, 1994; Lott, 2001). At the same time, they are often willing to be a part of their child’s education, but unsure of how to go about it. Usually it is up to you, as a teacher and a representative of the school, to show family members that you desire to interact with them and that you value their contributions. Rather than crossing your fingers and hoping that families will initiate contact with you, it will benefit you to take the first step and reach out to make a connection with each student’s family. Frequently, when discussing the importance of building a collaborative relationship with families, teachers often express that they have the desire to build these relationships but lack the time. The next section describes a way to redesign existing school activities and routines so that they send the message that you wish to get acquainted with students’ families.

Rather than add new activities, we encourage you to think about how you might redesign existing school activities based on the approach proposed by Weiss and Edwards (1992) in Chapter 3. If you recall, Weiss and Edwards adapted Taguiri’s four aspects of the social climate of an organization to serve as a guide for designing group family–school activities. These four aspects of the social climate of an organization are its culture, milieu, social system, and ecology. Table 8.1 provides definitions and examples of these aspects of the social climate.

In this chapter, we use Weiss and Edwards’ (1992) framework to guide us as we design or redesign specific family–school activities to get acquainted with students’ families. You can also use this framework to determine whether your attempts to communicate with families are sending the messages that you intend.

Welcome Letters

Sending letters home is a convenient and popular method used by teachers to communicate with families. A “Welcome” letter sent to families at the beginning of the school year can be an effective way to begin to establish a connection with students and their families. Welcome letters can be sent just before the school year begins or during the first few days of school. However, letters have often been used as a one-way communication vehicle. In addition to using letters to give information to families, letters home can be used to receive useful information from families.

TABLE 8.1 Weiss and Edwards’ Aspects of School Climate

	Culture	Milieu	Social System	Ecology
Definition	The belief systems, values, general cognitive structure, and meanings characterizing the school	The characteristics of persons and groups involved with the school	The patterned ways in which school staff, family members, and students relate with one another	The physical and material aspects of the school
Examples	Beliefs on how children learn, the value of education, and theories on children’s problems and how to solve them	Racial and ethnic backgrounds, level of education, socioeconomic status, and level of achievement	Hierarchical, collaborative, adversarial, allied, task-focused, and emotionally focused	Design and condition of school building, quality and amount of educational materials, and tone of letters and messages

Source: Information from H. Weiss and M. Edwards, The Family–School Collaboration Project: Systemic Interventions for School Improvement, in S. Christenson and J. Conoley (Eds.), Home–School Collaboration: Enhancing Children’s Academic and Social Competence, 1992, Bethesda, MD: National Association of School Psychologists.

When writing a letter to send home, especially when it is the first letter you send, consider how it may be received. Remember that a letter sent home at the beginning of the school year sets the tone for your future interactions with families. How do you ensure that it has the desired effect? What is the message you are trying to send, and is it conveyed clearly? Considering factors such as the appearance of the letter, the language used, and the message sent can go a long way in helping you create an effective and inviting letter.

Appearance

Families are often flooded with paperwork during the first few weeks of school. Thus, it is important to think about what you can do to set your letter apart from the others. Consider using colored or patterned paper, or pictures or graphics to make your letter enticing. Sometimes it may be beneficial (or even required) to write letters on your school’s letterhead. However, letters received by families on formal or official school stationary may elicit unpleasant feelings, especially for families who have had negative school experiences in the past.

The length of your Welcome letter is also an important consideration. It may be best to keep your letter brief; no more than one page. You can always give more detailed information about events, requirements, and assignments at a later time. If your first letter is long and includes several details, families may just scan it rather than read it thoroughly.

Language

As you begin to write your Welcome letter, think about the characteristics of the families with whom you will be working to help guide you in your selection of the type of information that might be important to include in the letter. For example, a kindergarten teacher may include more information about school routines, the daily schedule, or what to expect during the first few weeks of school—issues that many families may understand more clearly by the time students reach 4th or 5th grade. A teacher who has learned that many of the students come from families with a low literacy level may want to write a letter using less complex language than a teacher who has learned that the majority of the students come from families in which the caregivers hold college degrees.

Try to consider how the language you use may be received by families. Even seemingly minor details, such as the greeting, can influence whether some families feel included or excluded. For example, beginning a letter with the traditional greeting “Dear Parent(s),” subtly excludes families that are headed by other adults, such as grandparents, aunts, or uncles. A greeting such as “Dear Caregiver” or “Dear Family” may be more inclusive.

Try to use clear and simple language to convey your ideas. Consider that your students’ families will, in all likelihood, come from a variety of educational and cultural backgrounds. Also remember that, for some families, English is not their native language. If you are aware of a family who is not yet proficient in English, or if you work in an area in which several of your students use English as a second language, it may be beneficial to have your letter translated into their primary language. Not only does this help ease their understanding of the information that you are providing, but also it shows that you are aware of and appreciate their particular cultural background.

Avoid using jargon or acronyms without taking the time to explain what they are, because many family members may not be familiar with terms educators take for granted that can create, or reinforce, communication barriers that exist between schools and families.

Style of Relating

The information you choose to include (and not to include) in your Welcome letter also contributes to the connection that you are trying to build with families. The Welcome letter is an opportunity for you to give families information about and a sense of your teaching style, your priorities, and your desire for family involvement. Think about how you want to structure your relationship with families. Do you want a hierarchical (teacher as expert) relationship or a collaborative partnership? Be sure that the message you send in your letter and your priorities and goals that you have established for your classroom match up. For example, writing that you welcome families in your classroom and value their input but then stating that families are not to be on campus during school hours sends a mixed message; the first part indicates that you desire a partnership with families, whereas the second part sounds more authoritative and hierarchical.

In addition, consider the tone of your letter. It may be tempting to make your letter sound formal, but it can be challenging to make a formal letter sound enthusiastic and welcoming to families. Often, formal letters send the message that the school is a powerful institution, and that those who work for the school are in control. A letter written in an informal tone, however, can convey a desire for a partnership or equal relationship between the teacher and the family. For example, although some teachers may feel the need to include extensive information concerning their education, preparation, and credentials in their Welcome letter, such information may be intimidating for some families. They may sense that you are establishing yourself as an “expert” with the expectation that they will follow your advice and direction, rather than share a collaborative relationship with them. This example reiterates the value and importance of learning the characteristics of your students’ families so that you can provide the most helpful information and foster the type of relationship you desire with them.

In keeping with the idea that the Welcome letter should convey your desire for family involvement, your Welcome letter is probably not the best place to make many requests of families before you know much about their particular situation and resources. Together with the language you use, the message you send influences whether families feel included or excluded. If your first letter home is filled with requests for supplies or time commitments, families with limited resources may get the feeling that they are going to be excluded or asked for more than they can provide. You can create other opportunities for these requests to be made at a later time.

In your Welcome letter, include information on how you plan to maintain communication with families throughout the school year. Will you be calling home? Sending a class newsletter? Using a school–home notebook or journal? What will be your next step? When and how should they plan to hear from you next? You may decide that you would like to send out a regular newsletter to families on a periodic basis that you could mention in the Welcome letter. That way, families know to expect a regular form of communication that is consistent with the format of that first letter home.

TABLE 8.2 Key Aspects to Consider When Creating a Welcome Letter

Milieu	Social System	Ecology
Consider what you know about the characteristics of the families. What information would be the most useful for them?	Consider the kind of relationship you want to establish with families and make sure that your words convey that. Notice the tone of your letter—is it formal or informal?	Consider what you can do to set your letter apart from all of the other forms sent home by the school. Keep your letter brief—no more than one page.
Use clear and simple language; avoid using jargon and acronyms.	Avoid making too many requests from families before knowing what resources they have. Include information on how you plan to maintain communication throughout the year.

In addition, let families know how they can contact you, and keep in mind that not all families have the opportunity to call or visit during school hours.

Although creating your first Welcome letter may take thought and time for beginning teachers, remember that once you have created the first letter successfully, you can save and modify it as needed in future years. Ultimately, the time and effort you put into developing methods for communication with families will pay off for you, your students, and their families. Table 8.2 provides a brief summary of the important qualities to attend to when writing a Welcome letter to families.

Now let us take these key concepts and apply them by looking at two different examples of Welcome letters in Reflective Exercises 8.3a and 8.3b.

REFLECTIVE EXERCISE 8.3A

Example 1 Welcome Letter

Imagine that you are the parent of an elementary school child. The new school year has begun, and you receive the following letter from your child’s teacher:

To the parent(s) of ___________________________:

Hello and welcome to the new school year! As your child’s teacher, I just wanted to take this opportunity to introduce myself and review some of the policies we have in place to make this year successful. Please be aware that your child should be in the classroom by 8:00 a.m., otherwise he or she will be considered tardy. If your child is late, he or she should obtain a pass from the front office before coming to my classroom.

We have an upcoming field trip planned! Our class will be going to the Science and Industry Museum next month. The cost of the field trip is $12.00 per child, which will cover transportation, admittance, and lunch. Please be sure to have your child bring in money by this Friday, otherwise he or she will not be allowed to attend.

Finally, I know that many of you may want to speak with me regarding your children and specific concerns you may have. Please schedule an appointment with me, as I am not able to answer your questions if you come to my classroom in the morning. My planning time is from 10:20 to 11:30 on school days, and I am usually available during that time.

I am looking forward to getting to know you and your children. Let’s work together to make this a great year!

Sincerely,

Ms. Jones

What is your reaction after reading this letter? What is the tone? Based on the information provided in the letter, how do you think this teacher believes the family–teacher roles should be structured? What paradigm might she be working from?

REFLECTIVE EXERCISE 8.3B

Example 2 Welcome Letter

Compare the first letter with the following one, written by a teacher working from a collaborative paradigm of family involvement:

Dear Families,

Hello and welcome to the new school year! My name is Kelly Jones, and I have the privilege of having your children in my class this year. I would like to take this opportunity to let you know that I value your involvement in your children’s education. As you are your children’s first teachers, I look forward to learning more about your families as the school year progresses.

I have many exciting things planned for the class this year! Next month we will be going on a field trip to the Science and Industry Museum. Also, during the year, we will be planning a class garden, taking a trip to the Recycling Plant, and preparing for Student-Led Conferences. I will send you more information about these activities in the next few weeks.

Our first event will be Back-to-School Night on September 15 at 6 p.m. Plan on having your children attend, too, as they have an important role! This will be an opportunity for all of us—students, families, and teachers—to share our hopes and goals for the year. There will be childcare provided (if you need it for your other children) by some of the high school students. I realize that it may be difficult for some of you to make it to the school at that time due to work or other commitments, so if you are not able to attend, I will contact you by phone or letter just to check in with you.

I like to use several ways to keep in touch with families, including newsletters, phone calls, e-mails, and meetings. I will be sending notebooks home with personal messages and reminders at least once a week. Please also feel welcome to contact me with any concerns or questions you may have. My phone number is (555) 555–5555, and there is a voicemail box where you can leave a message at any time. For those of you who have access to the Internet, my e-mail address is [email protected]. You can also contact me to set up an appointment; we can look at our schedules and arrange a time that works for both of us.

Again, I am looking forward to getting to know you and to work with you and your children!

Sincerely,

Kelly Jones

• How are the two Welcome letters different with regard to culture (the teachers’ beliefs)? With regard to milieu (the teachers’ assumptions about their audiences)? With regard to social systems (the teachers’ beliefs about how roles are to be structured)? With regard to ecology (the tone and language of the letters)?

• What is different about the second letter? How is a feeling of family–school collaboration conveyed?

• What changes might you make to the first letter? What changes might you make to the second letter?

Phone Calls to Families

For many teachers and families, the telephone is an excellent way to maintain ongoing communication and regular contact. Under the separation or remediation paradigms, however, phone calls to caregivers were made when only “bad news” was to be reported. For example, in these paradigms, teachers called only when they wanted to report problems with a student’s attendance, grades, or behavior. As a result, some families may be wary when you try to reach them by phone. When reaching out to establish connections with families, remember that you can use the phone to relay positive news—perhaps something the student did well that week, or information on upcoming class events. Doing so helps establish rapport with families and conveys an inviting school environment that welcomes family input and collaboration. You will be earning “chips in the bank” when you provide families with information about their students’ strengths and progress rather than reporting only on deficits or classroom problems. Using the Weiss and Edwards’ (1992) framework, this differing purpose for communication of helping establish a partnership rather than calling only when a problem exists depicts a collaborative school culture. Consider it an opportunity to build your foundation for future communication with the family. Table 8.3 depicts key aspects to consider when telephoning families.

TABLE 8.3 Key Aspects to Consider When Calling Families

Culture	Milieu	Social System
Consider your beliefs about family communication and involvement. Do you believe that families should be called only when a problem arises, or do you believe families should be called for both good and bad news?	Consider what you know about the characteristics of the families. Do they have a phone at home? What are the family’s routines? What time of day would be a good time to call?	Consider the kind of relationship you want to establish with families, and make sure that your words convey that. When you call, are you just relaying information (one-way, hierarchical), or are you actively involving the family in the conversation (two-way, parallel)? How are you inviting the family members to share their perspective?

Using Technology

Educators are using a variety of technological options to communicate with families: (a) the Internet, (b) videotapes or DVDs, and (c) audiotapes. The Internet offers a growing number of ways to communicate with families. As a result, many schools now provide each of their teachers with a computer and Internet access. Educators may create group e-mail messages to students’ families to notify them quickly of upcoming events or to survey them for input on a variety of topics. Some educators may also create Web sites where students and their families can get information about assignments and classroom or school policies and events. Some school districts have a system such as Infinite Campus, whereby parents can log on at any time with their username and password to access data such as class attendance, homework completion, quizzes, and test grades.

The use of the Internet in North America has increased by more than 150% since 2000–2001, resulting in 78% of the population using it (Internet World Stats, 2011). Although many caregivers appreciate the opportunity to communicate via e-mail, and an e-mail bulletin board system for all families or a restricted e-mail system for each family may be quite effective, some families have neither the access nor skills for communicating via e-mail (Madden & Rainie, 2003). Therefore, it is necessary for you to consider whether you wish to communicate with families without computers or Internet access in alternative ways of sending out information or to convey to them about other resources in your community (such as the public library) where they might gain Internet access.

E-mail messages serve many of the same purposes as other forms of written communication. In addition, e-mail messages can be distributed to family members at home or at work. One middle school in Florida e-mailed parents an initial summary of the semester assignments for each course and a weekly update of assignments and due dates. One hazard of using e-mail to communicate with families or other professionals is that your e-mail message to them may be read by an unintended audience; therefore, you must communicate confidential information using more secure communication methods. A second hazard of using e-mail we have noticed is that that some individuals do not think as carefully about the impact their message may have on their intended audience as when they are writing a letter or making a phone call.

Web sites are also becoming an increasingly popular way for educators to communicate with families and provide a location on the Internet for family members to visit, access information, and in some cases, communicate with each other. Family members or others can use Web sites to raise questions, share ideas, plan classroom activities, learn about school activities, express their concerns, ask questions, or organize their own meetings or activities (Beghetto, 2001). Web sites can also provide links to information to address specific childrearing issues or to describe recommended practices with children who have specific needs.

Videotapes/DVDs are a second technological medium for communicating with students’ caregivers. Videos of children’s behavior or of classroom activities can give caregivers an understanding of how a child is functioning socially in the classroom, with whom they are interacting, or what level of social skills they have developed. A study of video use with families of students in three early childhood classrooms found that both caregivers and teachers benefited from this means of communication (Hundt, 2002).

Videos can also be used to picture a child’s progress or to illustrate classroom instructional activities. Because they do not rely on reading or writing, videos can be a particularly effective method for communicating to families with limited English proficiency or low literacy In addition, videos allow families who cannot come into the classroom during the school day to learn what is going on.

Audio cassette/CD recorders/players are a third technological tool for communicating with families. Audio recordings allow students, family members, and school staff to exchange information and ideas. Students and other family members can listen at home to recorded messages from friends or teachers and can find out what happened during the school day. Because they do not rely on written communication, audio can be a quick and inexpensive way to communicate with families.

Back-to-School Night/Open House

Most schools host some type of back-to-school night or open house at the beginning of each school year. Often these events involve meeting the teachers, followed by the teachers shouldering much of the direction for the evening, explaining their hopes and plans for the school year. This way of managing open house is consistent with the remediation paradigm of family involvement. Although this method may be informative for some families, members of the family do not usually have an opportunity to actively participate in the event and share their knowledge of their students. In fact, at times family members are discouraged from making any personal contact with the teacher and instead asked to schedule a meeting at a later time if they have questions or information to share. In many cases, students do not attend the open house, and if they do happen to be there, they do not actively participate in the event.

Often, individual teachers do not have control over the scheduling of the date and time of back-to-school night or open house. In addition, the length of time parents are expected to spend in their students’ classrooms may be organized for them. Yet there is still the possibility to redesign your open house meeting format so as to create an event that is more meaningful and collaborative.

TABLE 8.4 Comparison of Traditional and Collaborative Back-to-School Night Programs Separation/Remediation Paradigm Collaborative Paradigm

	Separation/Remediation Paradigm	Collaborative Paradigm
Who is typically involved?	Teacher, caregivers	Teacher, caregivers, students
What kinds of activities are generally included?	Teacher-led presentation	Teacher introduces a meaningful activity that encourages active participation of all caregivers and students.
Who holds most of the control and responsibility for the program?	Teacher	Teacher, caregivers, and students share control and responsibility for the program.
How are caregivers and students involved in the program?	Passive involvement (if at all); communication is one-way, with caregivers and students listening to information presented by the teacher	Active involvement; communication is two-way, with caregivers and students sharing information with, as well as receiving information from, the teacher.
How is seating arranged in the classroom?	In a manner that is conducive for a teacher-led presentation/lecture (e.g., desks lined up in rows)	In a manner that is conducive for teacher/ caregiver/student interaction (e.g., desks in a circle or small clusters)

Weiss and Edwards (1992) provide a brief example of what an open house might look like when working from a collaborative paradigm with an activity that could be included in collaborative orientation programs: Parents and students could work together to create goals for the school year, take turns sharing their goals with the group, and then discuss their goals with the group. The teacher could work as the facilitator of the group discussion, asking open-ended questions and making sure all who want to share have the opportunity to do so. Then, the teacher can summarize the information shared by the students and caregivers and tie that in with his or her goals and plans for the class. Table 8.4 provides a comparison of a traditional or collaborative orientation. (Also, refer to Reflective Exercise 2.1 in Chapter 2, to read a parent’s description of and response to a collaborative fall orientation.)

When you create an open house experience under the collaborative paradigm, you send the message that you value family involvement. In addition, it takes some pressure off of you as the teacher. Under either the separation or the remediation paradigms of family–school relations, communication is one way, with the teacher being responsible for telling the parents how the school year is going to go. Such an experience can be quite intimidating, especially for a novice teacher who may feel responsible for everything that is said and for answering all of the questions asked! Under the collaborative paradigm, ideas, plans, and goals can be established collectively, with the caregivers, students, and teachers formulating answers together. In this model, communication is two-way, with teachers sharing information with families and families sharing information with teachers. Table 8.5 depicts some key dimensions of the collaborative climate that you hope to convey in your orientation.

Now, let’s take the key points and considerations depicted in Table 8.5 and evaluate two different back-to-school night scenarios in Case Study 8.1. Swap (1993) provides additional suggestions to help make such large group events with families more successful, and include using strategies for reaching parents, using strategies for making attendance easier, and planning events carefully to promote informal communication.

TABLE 8.5 Aspects to Consider in Designing Back-to-School Night Programs

Culture	Milieu	Social System	Ecology
Consider your beliefs about family communication and involvement.	Consider what you know about the characteristics of families. What kinds of activities would be meaningful for families? What kinds of activities would allow families to share their perspectives and funds of knowledge?	Consider the kind of relationship you want to establish with families. Will you include students? What kinds of interactions with students and caregivers do you want to have at Back-to-School Night? Wow do you see your role? Will you be the leader of the night? Will you be a guide-on-the-side? Will you be a member of the team? Will you be doing most of the talking? How will family participation and sharing be encouraged?	Consider how to set up your classroom, and how this encourages or discourages partnerships with families. What kinds of pictures, posters, and work are displayed on your classroom walls? Is this work inclusive of all students in your classroom? What are the seating arrangements in your classroom? Are the chairs in rows facing the teacher’s desk (set up for one-way communication), in a circle (promoting large-group interaction), or in clusters (small-group interaction)?

CASE STUDY 8.1

VARYING CHARACTERISTICS OF TWO BACK-TO-SCHOOL NIGHT PROGRAMS

Read the following scenarios describing two different Back-to-School Night programs, and think about what your expectations and feelings might be as a caregiver of an elementary school child.

Scenario One

Since the children would not be participating in Back-to-School Night, I had to drop them off at my mother’s house after work. I drove to my son Matthew’s elementary school for the Back-to-School Night program. I parked my car, and as I approached the school, I consulted the school map that was placed outside to find Matthew’s 2nd grade classroom. I had hoped to make it to the school a bit early so that I could talk with Matthew’s teacher, Ms. Jones, for a moment about Matthew’s performance in math. When I arrived at the classroom, I noticed that the walls were neatly decorated with the students’ classwork. Before I had a chance to find Matthew’s work, Ms. Jones introduced herself to me and asked me to have a seat at Matthew’s desk. Once all of the parents were seated, Ms. Jones welcomed us to her classroom and began her presentation. Ms. Jones briefly described her education and training, her classroom rules, and her hopes and goals for the school year. She also described how she would be helping to prepare our children for the annual standardized tests required by the state. Ms. Jones talked about the curriculum and books she would be using this year, and the field trips she was planning. She had arranged each child’s textbooks on their desks so we could scan through them as she talked. She also shared some photographs of various activities that her students participated in last year. Ms. Jones concluded her 25-minute presentation by thanking us all for attending and providing us with a handout of “Helpful Hints”—suggestions for activities we could do at home with our children to help supplement what they will be learning in the classroom. I tried to catch Ms. Jones to speak with her about Matthew, but I could see that other parents had the same idea. Ms. Jones explained to the parents that she was not able to talk with us individually about our children tonight, but that she would try to set up individual appointments with us if we contacted her. I decided to wait for my weekly work schedule to come out before trying to set up a time to meet with her.

Scenario Two

I arrived at the school for Back-to-School Night with my son Alan and his younger brother and sister. Although in previous years the students were not invited to Back-to-School Night, Alan’s current teacher, Ms. Stevens, encouraged the students to attend. Ms. Stevens also let us know that food would be provided (especially nice since I had to leave straight from work to get to the school on time) and that high school student volunteers would be available to provide childcare for Alan’s younger siblings. I parked the car, and the children and I approached the school. Older elementary school students and some parents were on hand as guides, and they first escorted the children and me to the childcare station and then to Alan’s 2nd grade classroom. One of the first things I noticed when I walked into the classroom was the photograph of each student’s family on the walls. Alan showed me the pictures of our family and led me to his desk. Ms. Stevens introduced herself and then told us that Back-to-School Night was going to look a little different from what many of us parents were used to seeing. First, Ms. Stevens had us move our chairs so that we were all seated in a big circle. Then she had each of us (parents and students) think of one word that came to mind when we thought of school. My word was learning, and Alan’s word was recess! Ms. Stevens had a “go around” where she asked us each to introduce ourselves and share our words. Next, Ms. Stevens told us that she found it to be very useful to begin the year by hearing what our goals were (both students’ and parents’) for the school year; that way, she could figure out what she could do as the classroom teacher to work toward them. Ms. Stevens gave us a few minutes to work together, and (following a short outline provided by Ms. Stevens) Alan and I talked about his goals for the school year, my goals for Alan for the school year, and what both of us could do to help Alan reach those goals. After talking with Alan, I was surprised to learn that he wanted to improve in reading. Then Ms. Stevens began another “go around” where each of us shared our goals and plans. As we shared, Ms. Stevens wrote down our key words and ideas on the board. After we all had the opportunity to share, Ms. Stevens looked over our list and began to talk about ways that she could help us reach those goals. For example, one parent said that he wanted his son to learn study skills this year; Ms. Stevens explained the different strategies she would be using to help students improve their planning and study habits. I noticed that Ms. Stevens made a point to hear from each of the parents and students and tried to address all of the key points and ideas shared. After this group discussion, the scheduled time for Back-to-School Night was almost over. Ms. Stevens thanked everyone for attending, and then she said that she would be available for the next 30 minutes to talk to families. She invited us to stay, eat, and mingle if we were able to do so. I had a chance to meet some of the families of the friends Alan had spoken about.

Questions to Consider

■ How are the two Back-to-School Night programs different with regard to culture? With regard to milieu? With regard to social systems? With regard to ecology?

■ If you were a parent, which Back-to-School Night program would you prefer to attend? Why?

■ What other kinds of activities or tasks could you use in planning a collaborative Back-to-School Night program?

■ As a future teacher, how do you envision your ideal Back-to-School Night program?

Swap’s (1993) strategies for reaching parents include providing advanced notice (2–4 weeks) for events, preparing personal invitations, and scheduling some events outside of regular school hours. We have found that invitations created by students are received positively by their families. To make attendance easier for parents, Swap suggests assisting with transportation and childcare needs and providing food. Although some may believe that offering food to families serves as a “bribe” to get them to attend various events, providing food is a practical way to make attendance easier for families—especially if caregivers must come to the school directly from work or other commitments. Also, food can serve as a point of connection between families and school staff. Gathering over food can make the atmosphere less formal and more welcoming.

Swap also offers suggestions regarding the ecology of the events. She encourages planning events carefully to promote informal communication by giving consideration to seating arrangements and activities. For example, Swap suggests having teachers and parents sit at tables together during a potluck dinner, rather than a more typical tendency to migrate toward “staff” and “parent” tables. Swap also suggests designing activities that encourage parents and teachers to interact informally or programs that ask for parents’ and teachers’ contributions. Although the interactions may appear rather informal, they are still meaningful in that they help build a positive relationship between school staff and families. We have found that any program or event that also features student and staff “performances” draws many family participants.

Family–School Conferences

In addition to open house, many schools require some type of parent–teacher conference at least once during the school year. Often, a conference is a time for families and teachers to meet briefly (sometimes for the first time) and discuss students’ progress in school. Again, teachers are often the ones who feel responsible for carrying the conferences, making sure that they have gathered all of the necessary student information to report to the families. This information may include scores, grades, and some work samples. Students do not generally attend these meetings. Although this type of parent–teacher meeting may be adequate for some families, other families may leave these brief interactions with unexpressed questions, feelings, and concerns. They may not have a clear understanding of what their student is learning and how their student is performing, especially because the student is not present to share his or her perspectives.

A more collaborative alternative to this traditional conference format is the student-led conference. This conference is an opportunity for families to develop a richer and more meaningful picture of what their children are learning at school, and, at the same time, this arrangement is an opportunity for students to actively participate and take ownership for their work. (Student-led conferences are described in detail in Chapter 10.)

Problem-Solving Meetings

At times, some of your students may experience difficulties at school, and it may be appropriate to arrange a meeting with family members to discuss how to help them. Such a meeting can be anxiety provoking, especially for novice teachers, and especially if there has not been ongoing communication with family members regarding their child’s progress. (A collaborative approach to conducting such meetings is described in Chapter 11.)

Family Visits

One way to get to know the families of the students in your classroom is to conduct visits to their home. Such a visit can serve multiple purposes: (a) It can help build rapport with the family; (b) it can help you as a teacher learn about the student’s personal characteristics from the family’s perspective (e.g., the student’s strengths, resources, areas of concern, and interests); and (c) it can help you learn about the family’s worldview and their funds of knowledge. This, in turn, can help you better contextualize instruction for the student, bridging the gap that often exists between home and school learning.

Kyle, McIntyre, Miller, and Moore (2002) promote the use of family visits as a way to get to know and to learn valuable information from families. They prefer to call their visits family visits rather than home visits. The latter term has a negative connotation to some because it has been used by different agencies, such as the Department of Children and Families. According to Kyle, McIntyre, Miller, and Moore:

We call our visits “family visits” instead of “home visits” to differentiate from traditional visits conducted because professionals believed something was wrong in the home. They visited homes to check them out or “fix” problems. Instead, we believe that our families hold information that could help us improve what we do in school. (p. 62; italics in original)

The practice of home visits seems fitting when working from the remediation paradigm, in which the purpose of the visit is for the teacher to take an “expert” role, figure out the deficits at home, and give strategies to improve them. However, the idea of the family visit is consistent with the goals of the collaboration paradigm. Kyle, McIntyre, Miller, and Moore (2002) provide the following recommendations when considering a family visit:

■ Check your assumptions about what you expect to find.

■ Keep an open mind before, during, and after the visit.

■ Know that your own beliefs may be challenged.

■ Go in with respect and appreciation that the family has opened their lives to you.

■ View the parents/guardians as the experts on their children, home, and community.

■ Go in with questions not answers. (p. 62)

By visiting a family’s home, teachers can work as ethnographers to discover information and better understand a family’s culture. McCaleb (1995) and McIntyre, Rosebery, and Gonzalez (2001) provide several examples of teachers who work as ethnographers and use the information that they learned to create contextualized instruction for their students. (Contextualized instruction is discussed further in Chapter 9.)

Some Practical Considerations

When introducing the idea of family visits to preservice teachers, we sometimes receive mixed reactions. Some preservice teachers express apprehension about the amount of time it will take to arrange interviews and visits with each family of the students in their classrooms. Time is a legitimate concern that can be managed in different ways. Although some teachers make the effort to participate in a family visit with each student’s family at some point during the school year, it may be more realistic for you to choose a few families to interview/visit. You may decide to choose particular families to interview/visit because they are quite different from your own, because you believe that those students are the ones who would most benefit from a stronger family–school link, or because you believe you already have some rapport with the family.

Another concern often raised by preservice teachers is that of safety. When first asked to conduct a caregiver interview and home visit, the preservice teachers often express discomfort with the thought of going to the students’ homes. This discomfort is often relieved, however, after the preservice teacher actually participates in the interview/visit, and the preservice teachers who make the effort to visit the families at their homes frequently find their experiences more rewarding than those who meet with the caregivers elsewhere. Kyle, McIntyre, Miller, and Moore (2002) note that the teachers involved with their family visits often have less fear and develop feelings of safety and security in their students’ neighborhoods with time and experience. They also point out that the attitude you go into the interview with can influence how you are received and how safe you feel, as a result:

We go into the communities seeking families’ expertise on their children. If we went into the homes as the experts, as if we had “truth” to share, or went to teach parents how to be with their children, we certainly would not feel welcome. (p. 68)

Being concerned about your safety is okay, and certainly, some situations warrant it. At the same time, it will benefit you to really consider what is holding you back from wanting to visit a student’s home—is it that the family is different from yours? Is it that they live in a neighborhood different from the one you grew up in? Distinguishing between legitimate safety concerns and unwarranted assumptions is important. As Kyle, McIntyre, Miller, and Moore (2002) note, concerns regarding personal safety are to be recognized, but should not be used as a blanket excuse to avoid family visits.

If you have concerns regarding safety, you have other options. You may feel more comfortable visiting families with a partner. There may be someone in your school who has had more experience with family visits and who would be willing to go with you, such as another teacher, a school counselor, or a school social worker. Note one caveat: If the person from your school is someone who visits families for remediation or only when problems arise, this will likely influence the tone or perception of the interview/ visit. Although you may be there out of genuine interest and a desire to learn from the family, the family may perceive the interaction differently. Although it is ideal to conduct a caregiver interview in the family’s home, there may be circumstances that prevent you from being able to do this. Perhaps you could conduct the interview at another location in the family’s community.

A third concern sometimes raised by preservice teachers is that caregivers may find the questions you ask to be too personal, especially those related to the caregivers’ memories of growing up and past learning experiences. There are several things you can do to prevent the caregivers from feeling this way. One suggestion is to explain to the caregiver, before the interview begins, the reasons for asking these questions and how the information you obtain will help you in teaching his or her child. Another suggestion is to state at the beginning of the interview that the caregiver does not have to answer any questions that he or she does not want to answer. A third suggestion is to use your communication skills during the interview to assess verbal and nonverbal cues. If you believe that a particular question would not be helpful, you can choose not to use it. If you observe that the caregiver does not appear to feel comfortable discussing certain topics, you can steer the interview away from them. You may even find that once you ask a couple of initial questions, the interview may go in an entirely different direction than you anticipate—and that’s okay! The information you obtain will still be very valuable.

Summary

In this chapter, we presented a variety of skills and routines to help you begin to establish relationships with and to learn from the families of your students. Relationship and communication skills were explained, including (a) active listening; (b) paraphrasing, clarifying, and summarizing; (c) focusing on and reflecting feelings; (d) asking appropriate questions; and (e) using facilitative feedback. Building on these basic relationship and communication skills, we then discussed communication patterns that differ among individualistic and col-lectivist cultural groups. Everyday routines to establish relationships with families were then described, with an emphasis on redesigning traditional family–school routines to enhance family–school collaboration that include (a) Welcome letters, (b) phone calls to the family, (c) back-to-school night, (d) family–school conferences, and (e) family visits. These skills and routines, when put into practice, can help teachers learn from families and create meaningful instruction to help bridge students’ school and home environments.

Activities and Questions

1. What are some benefits (to you as a teacher, to the student, to the family) in promoting family–teacher communication?

2. What are some cultural differences regarding communication patterns?

3. What are three ways in which teachers can adapt existing school activities to better connect with students’ families?

4. Ask two friends to think about a person they consider a good listener. Ask them to describe the qualities this person demonstrates as a good listener. Make a list of these qualities and compare them with what you know about yourself as a listener.

5. Interview three teachers. Ask them about the methods they use for communicating with parents. Where possible, obtain examples of written communications such as Welcome letters and newsletters. Analyze these documents in terms of the four aspects of climate described in this chapter. For example, what are the assumptions of each teacher as to the ethnic–cultural, socioeconomic, language, and educational level of families that make up the school community? What expectations about family–school roles (i.e., the social system) are conveyed by the content and style of the teacher’s communication? What message is conveyed by the physical characteristics of these communications (i.e., the ecology)? What philosophy is conveyed through these communications?

6. Gather the written communications sent by the school to students’ families. Analyze these documents in terms of the four aspects of climate described in this chapter. For example, what are the assumptions of the educators at the school as to the milieu they are addressing (i.e., the ethnic–cultural, socioeconomic, language, and educational level of families that make up the school community)? What expectations about family–school roles (i.e., the social system) are conveyed by the content and style of communication? What message is conveyed by the physical characteristics of these communications (i.e., the ecology)? What philosophy is conveyed through these communications?

7. Attend a back-to-school night or orientation arranged by your school. How were roles structured? Did students participate? Did parents have a meaningful role? What do you think were the results of this event?

Resources

National Parent Teacher Association 330 N. Wabash Ave., Suite 2100 Chicago, IL 60611 Phone: 800-307-4782 www.pta.org

The PTA has excellent materials on general topics related to education, parenting, and special education. The National Standards for Parent/Family Involvement, developed in collaboration with Dr. Joyce Epstein, are available on the National PTA Web site.

Scholastic: Many Ways to Reach Parents http://www.scholastic.com/parents/

The Scholastic Web site has resources, articles, and tips on connecting and communicating with parents. It includes practical suggestions for organizing conferences, open houses, and ideas that can be used throughout the school year to enhance communication between home and school. There are forms and templates that may be helpful and a class homepage builder to help teachers create their unique Web site.

CHAPTER 9 Using Families’ Ways of Knowing to Enhance Teaching and Student Learning

Maria R. Coady

Learning Objectives

After reading this chapter, you will be able to:

■ Describe the varying definitions of culture.

■ Explain how mainstream cultural expectations of learning and schooling influence our assumptions about family–school roles and relationships.

■ Describe the cultural ways of knowing of culturally and linguistically diverse students and families and contrast these with the dominant ways of knowing found in mainstream educational setting.

■ Describe the benefits of the multiliteracies paradigm.

■ Explain how family and community funds of knowledge can be used to contextualize instruction.

Watching Susana read in Spanish is like unearthing a gem buried deep in the clay. With a little encouragement, she sparkles and shines as her tongue rolls across the rr’s and her voice floats effortlessly over tildes and accent marks. Susana begins to read Alma Flor Ada’s story, Me Llamo María Isabel/My Name Is María Isabel, which describes the experiences of a newly arrived Spanish-speaking girl at a school in the United States. The real-life connections to María Isabel’s situation engage Susana more deeply in the story. She gazes up at me, and with a slight nod of reassurance, continues to read with delight.

Susana is a 4th-grade girl who has recently arrived in the United States from the state of Chiapas in Mexico. She traveled on foot through the desert with her mother and younger brother for 3 days, crossing into the United States to be reunited with her father, a migrant farm worker with 7 years’ experience cutting tobacco, harvesting blueberries, and tending young plants at a plant nursery. Susana enrolled at Carey Elementary School, the district’s English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) center school, where she works with a specially trained teacher. She also receives educational support through the Migrant Education Program. Despite being able to read and write in Spanish as a result of completing 3 years of schooling in Mexico, her linguistic and cultural resources are not tapped in any way to facilitate her learning or support her bilingual identity in this program.

How might a teacher discover Susana’s linguistic and cultural resources? What role might her family play in helping Susana’s teacher discover and use these resources for learning in the classroom? What is the relationship between home language and literacy practices and those used in school? This chapter focuses on language and literacy initiatives that challenge dominant or mainstream ideologies about what educators and families should do and offer alternative ways of building strong partnerships. First, I consider the construct of culture and illustrate how assumptions about education and family partnerships traditionally manifest in the culture of U.S. schools. I then describe the cultural ways of knowing of culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) students and families and contrast these with the dominant ways of knowing found in mainstream educational settings. Next, I examine alternative ways of conceptualizing literacy, with an emphasis on multiple literacies, and examine specific projects, initiatives, and practices that support CLD students and families, particularly those that foster the literacy development of linguistically diverse learners. Finally, I describe specific approaches to learning about and using the funds of knowledge of diverse families in educational settings.

9.1 Reexamining Culture

Educators, anthropologists, and other social scientists who focus on the study of human behavior have long contemplated the concept of culture and its role in human society. Culture has been defined in numerous ways, although definitions of culture typically include reference to objects, values, and beliefs shared by members of a particular group. Geertz (1973), for example, defines culture as “A historically transmitted pattern of meanings employed in symbols, a system of inherited conceptions expressed in symbolic form by means of which men [sic] communicate, perpetuate, and develop their knowledge about and attitudes towards life” (p. 89). Geertz’s definition emphasizes meanings that are created as a result of shared human experiences and interactions, and underscores the social construction of culture by use of symbols. Symbols, according to Geertz, include uses of language, as well as other means of communication that have been transmitted down through generations. In contrast to Geertz’s definition, Nieto and Bode (2011) define culture as “The values, traditions, worldview, and social and political relationships created, shared, and transformed by a group of people bound together by a common history, geographic location, language, social class, religion, or other shared identity” (p. 171). Nieto and Bode’s definition also underscores the social construction of culture (meaning that humans build, negotiate, and transmit culture), but their definition emphasizes the context of culture as being embedded in social and personal relationships and taking place within a given context (historical, geographic, social, and religious). Most important, Nieto and Bode note that culture is transformed by groups of people. In other words, she views culture not as static but rather as a dynamic, ever-changing web of shared understandings about the world and how it works.

Both definitions conceptualize culture as an “invisible web” of meanings and understandings rather than simply conceptualize culture as an array of static items or objects that can be experienced through the five senses. In fact, in these definitions culture is viewed as the lens through which we see and interpret the world. Yet it is difficult to recognize the influence of culture until we come into contact with a culture different from our own, especially one that challenges our beliefs, values, or worldview. Culture, then, is pervasive and shapes our actions and interactions in multiple ways. We may not all share a common definition of culture and may not fully understand the degree to which culture influences our actions and beliefs; however, when working with culturally and linguistically diverse families, confronting existing cultural assumptions and stereotypes to engage in mutually supportive partnerships is vital. By means of Reflective Exercise 9.1, consider the differences in the two definitions of culture discussed earlier, and then create your own definition.

REFLECTIVE EXERCISE 9.1

Defining Culture

Part A: In small groups, review the two definitions of culture discussed earlier. Note three ways in which these definitions are alike, then identify three ways in which the definitions differ. Which definition do you prefer? Why?

Part B: Using the group’s findings from Part A, write a new definition of culture based on your own personal experiences.

Influence of Culture in Educational Settings

Culture influences how we educate children and what we think of as education, as the vignettes in Reflective Exercise 9.2 demonstrate. Different cultural groups have distinctly different ways of conceptualizing education and how children should be educated.

REFLECTIVE EXERCISE 9.2

Cultural Assumptions in Education

Consider the following vignettes. Identify what is “observable” culture in these settings, as well as what invisible values and beliefs inform these behaviors, actions, and contexts.

A. In an office supply store, many parents and children are busy filling up their shopping carts with school supplies the night before the new school year begins.

B. A 3rd–grade classroom is arranged with the desks in small groups of four to six students. In the corner of the room is a bright, thick rug alongside bookshelves filled with novels and other free–reading materials. Two cozy chairs are also located in that corner.

What is culture in each vignette? In what ways is it visible and invisible? How does the setting or behavior reflect values and beliefs?

Thus, not all behaviors practiced in an educational setting are interpreted the same way across various cultural groups. For example, among certain Asian cultures, children are taught that looking teachers directly in the eye when being spoken to is a sign of disrespect (Bennett, 2010). To do so would be interpreted as a sign of challenging a teacher’s authority. In contrast, American students are taught to look teachers directly in the eye so as to indicate that they are paying attention and understanding what is being said. The gesture is also viewed as a sign of respect. These two different ways of understanding a student’s behavior can have important impacts on the ways in which teachers relate to students in the classroom and on the ways in which students from diverse backgrounds learn and participate in school.

How would you define a well-educated person? In mainstream U.S. settings, we typically think of a well-educated person as someone who has had access to and completed many years of education successfully. We might associate being bright or intelligent with someone who is well educated, and this might include having high grades in school. In addition, we might think of that person as having access to economic success and social mobility.

In contrast, the concept of education is defined differently across and among other cultural groups. In her work with newcomer Latino families settling into North Carolina, Villenas (2002) describes the significant conflict between Latino families and mainstream educators resulting from their differing conceptualizations of education. Latino parents were faced with negotiating the tensions of enacting una buena educación (a good education) for their children that included respect and good conduct against a perceived “morally lax U.S. society” (p. 18). Villenas describes how Latinos were often framed by educators in terms of deficits, specifically “what the parents didn’t do, didn’t have, or didn’t care about” (p. 21). Her work questioned the positioning of Latinos as needy clients and, instead, advocated for a “just vision of education that... requires the legitimate honoring of Latino parents’ human agency” (p. 31).

A study conducted by Coady (2001) investigated language policies and practices in bilingual (Irish Gaelic–English) schools in the Republic of Ireland. She also documented educators’ expectations about how families should participate in their children’s education and the actual ways in which parents participated. The study found that Irish parents were rarely present in schools during instruction times. In fact, participants in the study defined parental participation as acting on school committees outside of school hours. During school hours, parents could be present for events and activities (e.g., art, school assemblies) but were not permitted in the classroom when instruction or grading took place. These practices contrast with U.S. schools, where parents of children from middle-class backgrounds are frequently encouraged to work as volunteers in the classroom, to grade student work, and to assist the teacher in the classroom.

Taking a broader view, one set of researchers (Hoover-Dempsey, Battiato, Walker, Reed, DeJong, & Jones, 2001) investigated parental participation in children’s homework by analyzing 59 individual studies on parental participation in homework. Their findings showed that, in general, parental involvement reflected parents’ expectations and beliefs about what they believed they should do to support the education of their children. Moreover, the researchers found that parents who helped their children “believed that their help positively influenced student outcomes” (p. 201). In contrast, parents were less willing to engage in homework assistance when they did not view that help as beneficial to their children’s learning.

These studies illuminate how varying expectations about the roles families should play in their children’s schooling are constructed and reinforced by a particular cultural lens. Working with diverse families requires deconstructing dominant expectations and ideologies (i.e., what is valued and why) and recreating new relationships that reflect families’ cultural and linguistic resources and ways of knowing.

9.2 Challenging Unidirectional School–Family Relationships

Although families from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds may hold differing assumptions about the process of education and what their role is in their children’s education, unearthing the cultural assumptions embedded in school–family communication is not easy. Often, communication and information that comes from schools to families is unidirectional (i.e., flowing from one place—the school—to another place—the home). Moreover, interactions are frequently based on dominant and mainstream assumptions about what education is, what constitutes literacy, and what families should do to support the education of children. Unearthing those assumptions and challenging them requires reflection and insight into how relationships can be reconceptualized as working partnerships that are culturally and linguistically responsive and beneficial to children. Read the school letter in Figure 9.1 and then identify, by means of Reflective Exercise 9.3, the cultural values and assumptions about parental participation held by the educators who wrote this letter.

REFLECTIVE EXERCISE 9.3

Educators’ Cultural Assumptions about Parental Participation in Education

In local school districts, it is not uncommon for parents to receive information, materials, and suggestions about the ways in which families can support children’s education. Consider two documents. The first, in Figure 9.1, is a letter composed by educators at a local school and sent home to parents. It describes Four Key Principles for Parents. Embedded in that document are many assumptions about what is important for parents to know and to do. The following questions might help your analysis of the mainstream:

A. What values and beliefs does the school make about parental participation?

B. What cultural assumptions are embedded in the Four Key Principles for Parents?

C. What cultural values are associated with “winning” (i.e., gift certificates and a pizza party)?

D. What implicit message does this letter send to parents from different cultural backgrounds? Different linguistic backgrounds?

Figure 9.1 Letter to Parent: “A School for Every Child”

In Reflective Exercise 9.3, you probably identified the school’s emphasis on competition (and using games to encourage participation) in the family letter. The letter describes how classrooms compete with each other, with the winner receiving a pizza party. This emphasis on competition contrasts with a collaborative approach that is often found among other cultural groups (Gudykunst, 2004). A less competitive approach might seek to understand how the family environment and caregivers’ experience can support learning in the home. Another assumption implicit in the letter is that the schools determine what is “successful” in terms of parenting and academic achievement. Implicit in this letter is the message that diverse definitions and approaches to success are not valued.

Now look at the survey depicted as the Awesome Parent Report Card in Figure 9.2. What mainstream assumptions about education, literacy, and learning are reflected in it?

Figure 9.2 The Awesome Parent Report Card

By means of Reflective Exercise 9.4, identify the cultural values and assumptions about learning and education conveyed in this “report card.”

REFLECTIVE EXERCISE 9.4

Educators’ Cultural Expectations about Learning and School

Figure 9.2 is a parent self-administered survey that assesses the Four Key Principles mentioned in the letter in Figure 9.1. The survey also reflects expectations about learning and school. The following questions can guide your reflection:

A. What are the underlying values and beliefs associated with the Awesome Parent Report Card?

B. Who do you think determines what an Awesome Parent is? Who benefits from that definition? How? Who does not benefit?

C. Imagine you are a newcomer parent from a non-mainstream-U.S. background. What implicit messages are sent in the survey? What assumptions does the school make about what good parents do and how one “assesses” good parents?

D. How can this document be modified to reflect more collaborative school–family partnerships?

For example, Principle 1, Focus on Academics, reflects specific home literacy practices (i.e., reading together at bedtime and signing the child’s agenda) that may typically occur among many mainstream families but may be unusual among other groups. For example, among certain cultures, storytelling and oral communicative practices are the favored language development practices (Heath, 1983). Parents who have had limited formal schooling or who do not speak English may feel uncomfortable attending PTA meetings or school events. Single-parent families may have many life demands that preclude them from attending. The household functioning of diverse non-mainstream families contrasts with several of the assumptions delineated in this survey. Although well intended, documents such as these may do more damage than good to culturally or linguistically diverse families. Indeed, it would not be difficult to imagine parents or families who judged themselves as “not performing well” in their role as parents or as “first educators” of their children after reading such a survey.

Moreover, students’ home language and culture are frequently judged to be adequate only if they match the language and culture of the school (Cummins, 2001). When communication from the school is unidirectional, and assumptions about education (and what makes parents “good” participants in education) are left unexam-ined, there is little chance to create genuine and positive partnerships with families that support their children’s education. In other words, to create effective school–family partnerships, educators must begin with a genuine curiosity and willingness to learn about a student’s home language and family and community culture using a nonjudgmental stance, and then they must use that knowledge as a bridge into teaching school concepts and skills.

9.3 Using Families’ Funds of Knowledge to Support Learning

The seminal work of Moll, Amanti, Neff, and González (1992), described in Chapters 1 and 3, is an example of a way in which home “knowledges” can be used as resources for learning and engaging children in school. I use the word knowledges in the plural here to underscore the multiple dimensions of knowledge and that there is no single supreme knowledge. In their study, Moll et al. (1992) describe students’ home culture and identify their funds of knowledge or nonmainstream forms of knowledge that were used for home and family functioning and well-being. They define funds of knowledge as “historically accumulated and culturally developed bodies of knowledge and skills essential for household or individual functioning and well-being” (p. 133). Some of these skills include cooking, gardening, home construction, agriculture and mining, household management, folk medicines, and religious and moral knowledge.

In their project (Moll et al., 1992), teachers and university researchers visited families to learn about the culture, knowledge, and skills that Latino families in the Southwest possessed. To identify families’ funds of knowledge, Moll and his coworkers emphasize the importance of discovering the ways that the families operated and of appreciating their views, values, and beliefs. The primary method used to learn about families’ funds of knowledge was through home visits. However, the intention of the home visits was not to bring families news about the problems encountered in school with their child; rather, home visits were meant to be places of discovery, whereby teachers could learn about the skills and knowledge areas that families possess and the ways that families or households use these skills. Teachers then used this information to build classroom activities and curricular units around these skill and knowledge areas (McIntyre, Rosebery, & González, 2001; Moll & González, 1993).

Moll and González (1993) note three outcomes resulting from this project: First, teachers became skilled as qualitative researchers; second, new relationships were formed with families; and third, students’ households were redefined as containing deep social and intellectual resources that could be tapped for teaching and learning purposes. The third outcome had implications for working with children in schools and forming partnerships with families in the community. Rather than viewing families’ knowledge areas as deficits and barriers to learning, these knowledge areas were seen as resources for engaging children more fully in school learning.

The methods used by Moll et al. (1992) to understand families’ ways of knowing underscore the importance of educators’ efforts to understand the cultural background and ideologies of CLD students and to form partnerships with families that reflect and value their ways of knowing. In brief, the work by Moll et al. illuminates the ways in which home–school partnerships can work—as a two-way, symbiotic, or mutually beneficial partnership rather than a unidirectional, one-way relationship, in which the school asks students to leave their language, culture, and identity outside the school house door.

Expanding Notions of Literacy to Support Learning

One additional dimension of the project by Moll et al. (1992) was that teachers investigated the various languages and literacies used by families in the home. The participants in the early study (Moll et al., 1992) were Mexican and Yaqui families, and the teachers discovered that alternative literacies, such as numeracy, were part of the cultural and linguistic resources of these families. Similarly, other researchers have worked to expand and redefine traditional notions of literacy. In 1996, a group of international educators and scholars examined notions of literacy in education. The group, which initially met in New London, New Hampshire, was aptly named The New London Group (1996). The group recognized that literacy practices in a global world must include new technologies, multilingual abilities, and an appreciation of the alternative literacies practiced throughout the world. This meant moving beyond a narrowly defined construct of literacy to a more broadly defined conception of literacy.

Auerbach (1997) identifies three distinct paradigms of family literacy that have evolved since the late 1980s. Moll’s funds of knowledge project and other similar projects, including the work of Shockley, Michalove, and Allen (1995), reflect a “multiple literacies” paradigm (p. 156). For example, Shockley et al. sought to connect the home and school domains through the use of parent–teacher dialogue and home–school journals. In the multiple literacies paradigm, the starting point for literacy development is with students, and educators investigate the home language and cultural backgrounds of students to connect home literacies with school learning. This includes not only specific literacy practices, such as oral storytelling traditions and religious texts, but also various language varieties used in the home (Coady, 2009). Teachers assume that (a) every child is an individual with a wealth of cultural knowledge; (b) by using that knowledge to contextualize instruction, students become more fully engaged in learning; and (c) students’ families and communities can help teachers learn about that cultural knowledge.

A second paradigm discussed by Auerbach is intervention–prevention (similar to the remediation paradigm discussed in Chapter 2). In this paradigm, families from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds are viewed as lacking sufficient literacy practices. As a result, some form of intervention or remediation is provided to bring CLD children “up to speed.” Because parents are charged with being their children’s first teachers, programs shaped by the intervention–prevention paradigm typically include parenting classes and other skills-based interventions that target parents as well as children. Many of the current government-funded family literacy initiatives fall within this paradigm, such as the Parent and Child Together (PACT) program that sets specific guidelines for parent–child reading. Although well intentioned, these projects are based on a deficit view of nonmainstream families (Auerbach, 2001). This deficit view becomes more evident when educators begin to analyze and question basic school-to-home communications, such as the Awesome Parent Report Card and key principles presented earlier in this chapter.

The third paradigm proposed by Auerbach is that of social transformation. The purpose of the literacy projects in this paradigm is the resolution of societal inequities through teaching. These literacy projects are collaborative in that they do not proscribe skills or a unidirectional style of interaction from experts to learners. Auerbach (1997) cites McCaleb’s (1994) work in which parents discuss critical themes that are then used as a starting point for literacy with children. In addition, Freirean approaches to literacy, originally designed to teach literacy to poor adult learners in Brazil and addressed societal inequities (Freire, 1998), are illustrative of this paradigm.

9.4 Programs and Projects Using a Multiple Literacy Paradigm

The Multiliteracy Project

The work of Cummins et al. (2006) is one project that demonstrates the ways in which educators can work with multilingual children to engage them in cognitively challenging learning tasks in educational settings. Cummins, a university researcher, and his group sought to address two questions: (a) What forms of literacy should be used by teachers with multilingual children? and (b) Which pedagogical options are most appropriate for use with multilingual children in urban educational settings? The Multiliteracy Project challenged three assumptions that characterize instruction in education throughout North America: (a) Literacy equates to English literacy; (b) the cultural knowledges and language abilities that students bring to school have little relevance; and (c) culturally and linguistically diverse parents lack the skills to assist their children in their literacy development.

The Multiliteracy Project not only challenged those assumptions, but also was conceptualized to discover alternative methods that could be used with CLD children in educational settings. One teacher in the project, Lisa Leoni, engaged her students in a writing project in which students integrated children’s literature with academic content (in this case, social studies). Students then collaborated in small groups and created dual language identity texts, which were designed for younger children with whom they could later share the texts. As Cummins et al. (2006) reported, these texts became cognitively engaging and culturally reflective learning opportunities when

Students invest their identities in the creation of these texts, which can be written, spoken, visual, musical, dramatic, or combinations in multimodal form. The identity text then holds a mirror up to students in which their identities are reflected back in a positive light. When students share identity texts with multiple audiences (peers, teachers, parents, grandparents, sister classes, the media, etc.), they are likely to receive positive feedback and affirmation of self with these audiences. (pp. 6–7)

A key outcome of this work was the interaction that was fostered between the children and the families. Children, whose selected works can be viewed at www.multiliteracies.ca, were able to connect home language and culture with school learning. Sulmana, a 7th-grade Pakistani girl, noted:

I had forgotten many of the words in the last three years so my vocabulary improved a lot too. I had to ask my Mom a lot of words when we were writing it in Urdu but also before that, when I realized that we were going to be writing it in both languages, I went home from that day and started reading more books in Urdu because I hadn’t been doing that so much, so I had forgotten some words and I wanted my writing to make sense. (Cummins et al., 2006, p. 16)

The Multiliteracy Project exemplifies what educators can do with children academically while using their home knowledges (language and culture) as a resource that connects CLD students to the curriculum.

The Libros de Familia (Family Books) Project

Educators can foster collaboration with families in ways that nurture children’s cultural and linguistic identities and simultaneously enhance learning in the home. In the chapter’s opening vignette, I presented Susana, a newcomer migrant farm-working child in Florida. In fact, Susana is one of 51 children who participated in the Libros de Familia, or Family Books, project in 2005–2006. In this project, university student volunteers brought books into the homes of migrant families and engaged in reading with children (Coady, Davis, Flores, & Meckstroth, 2007). The project was a collaborative effort among the University of Florida, the Harvest of Hope Foundation, the Migrant Education Program, and the local library.

All of the children in the Libros project are Spanish-language-dominant, and most of the participants were recent arrivals to the United States. Although their situations were unique, these students were considered “migrant” under federal definitions—that is, they had parents who worked in agriculture and related industries and moved across district lines more frequently than once every 36 months (Pappamihiel, 2004). As we know, the migrant lifestyle brings unique challenges to educators, students, and families. Migrant families face numerous and difficult social realities, including poverty, mobility, housing, transportation, health care, and, of course, education (Riley, 2002).

Given the unique needs of migrant families, one of the objectives of the Libros project was to work with children and families in ways that were sensitive to the migrant lifestyle and that did not prescribe what families should do. We explicitly rejected mainstream assumptions about what families should do to foster language and literacy. Instead, we recognized the multiple ways in which literacy was interwoven into the lives of the participants (Taylor, 1983) and varied among different groups (Heath, 1983). In addition, the project attempted to foster first language (Spanish) literacy use. Unlike what occurs frequently in mainstream educational settings, in which instruction is monolingual and reflects the dominant U.S. culture, in the Libros project, migrant children’s language, culture, and life experiences informed the work and interactions of the participants. In short, the lives of the children were reflected in the pages of the books.

University student volunteers were grouped in pairs or small groups in which at least one member was Spanish–English bilingual and then matched with migrant families. Volunteers were introduced to families by the Migrant Education Program advocate. During weekly visits, the university volunteers brought bilingual and multicultural children’s literature to the homes during fall and spring semesters. During the visits, volunteers engaged in reading with children, translated school documents, and assisted children with homework when requested. Volunteers left books behind for children to read during the week and returned the following week with new books. The volunteers were encouraged to identify the interests and knowledge areas of the children and were taught how to use these to engage children in reading.

One unanticipated outcome of the project was that many families engaged in reading the books together, a reflection of Barrera’s (2005) finding that Latino families do enjoy and engage in reading. During the project, several of the families became engaged in reading. Ryan, a graduate student in ESOL and volunteer in the Libros project, described how one parent became engaged in reading and interacted with her daughter.

By the third week we were able to speak to Rosa, the mother, about the books we had been leaving, and were delighted to hear that she hadn’t known until recently that they were in Spanish and English but had begun to read each night with her daughter. Melissa had begun to put the books close to the door, next to other school supplies, and was constantly bugging her parents to read them to her. Rosa assumed they were only in English (as is most of the literature that Melissa brings home) but one night looked at them and saw that they were bilingual books that she could read to Melissa in Spanish. Not only did Rosa seem happy about this, but also Melissa. Even the father mentioned with a sly grin that he had been listening in on the readings. (Coady et al., 2007)

Another volunteer, Matt, noted that the father of two children listened in on his children’s reading and was especially intrigued by Joe Hayes’ bilingual book, A Spoon for Every Bite. The father enjoyed the cleverness of the main character and the cultural message that the story imparted. In fact, the father asked if he could keep a copy of the book.

A second unanticipated outcome of the Libros project was the spontaneous bilit-eracy development of preschool children (Coady & Moore, 2010). Coady and Moore looked at the emergent literacy development among seven preschool Spanish-speaking children. They specifically looked at the ways in which the Libros program engaged the children in reading and found two main outcomes: (a) the young children showed signs of emergent biliteracy development through the ability to compare and contrast across Spanish and English; and (b) a human relationship factor, in which volunteers and children built symbiotic relationships, emerged as being crucial to literacy engagement overall. Thus, the Libros project appeared to foster biliteracy among preschool Spanish-speaking children from nontraditional backgrounds.

We also recognized that student learning could be enhanced when teachers also have information about families’ cultural and linguistic resources. We arranged for several of the volunteers who were education majors to work with students in classrooms as tutors, aides, and researchers. Teachers in the ESOL center schools, where many of the migrant children were bused each day, were provided with some of the books used in the project so that they might keep them in the classroom. Several teachers subsequently made home visits to learn more about the children and communicated with us regarding upcoming events and information that could be conveyed to parents. From our side, we informed teachers of harvest season demands on families and what we learned about children’s interests that could further engage the children in the classroom.

Future efforts in the Libros project include distributing transportable home libraries to children using donated reading materials; training tutors on reading strategies and post-reading activities with bilingual children; and working with families to promote reading in the home using culturally and linguistically appropriate materials. Given the life demands on migrant parents, we aim to work with parents in ways that support their children’s learning.

Harrison Elementary School’s Bilingual/English as a Second Language Program

The front doors of Harrison Elementary School are adorned with welcome signs in three languages: English, Spanish, and Haitian Creole. At Harrison Elementary, located in Monroe, New Jersey, the student population is highly diverse, both culturally and linguistically. Forty-three percent of the students are Spanish-speakers, 10% are Haitian Creole-speakers, and 63% received free or reduced-price lunch, compared to 27% across New Jersey schools. Yet, educators working in the bilingual/English as a Second Language (ESL) program recognize and use students’ diverse backgrounds as a resource for learning; they further make great efforts to form partnerships with parents and caregivers in order to support students’ learning in school (Méndez Barletta, 2011). More recently, the school has experienced growth in number of Haitian Creole–speaking students. The principal, Ms. Tedesco, recognized the difficulty of speaking with parents and caregivers from Haitian backgrounds and subsequently wrote and received a grant so she could learn Haitian Creole and communicate more effectively with parents and caregivers in their home language.

The example of home–school communication by Ms. Tedesco underscores the core principles of the Harrison Elementary School Bilingual/ESL Program and serves as an exemplar for the National Center for Culturally Responsive Educational Systems (NC-CRESt) Web site (NCCRESt, 2011). In fact, the program is founded on six principles:

1. To have all English language learners (ELLs) acquire communication and academic English to succeed in general education classes

2. To provide native language support to develop cognitive skills and conceptual knowledge

3. To prepare students to succeed academically in all subject areas

4. To have all ELLs learn about their new [American] culture while continuing to take pride in their own cultural heritage

5. To continually involve parents in all aspects of their child’s academic program

6. To design each child’s program to fit the needs of that particular student (Méndez Barletta, 2011)

At Harrison Elementary, two projects foster parental/caregiver involvement. First is a Families and Schools Together (FAST) project, in which parents and caregivers are introduced to “MegaSkills” for learning. In the FAST project, workshops are offered to parents/caregivers on topics such as homework support and fostering positive student attitudes for academic success. A second outreach project, the Parent/Teacher Resource Room, is accessible to all family members to obtain resources and information; the resources include books, classroom activities, educational games, and videos. The open-door policy of the project underscores the welcoming environment of the school.

The three exemplars highlighted here—the Multiliteracies Project, the Libros de Familia project, and the Harrison Elementary School Bilingual/ESL Program—reveal multiple ways in which educators can engage CLD students in the classroom and at home. A key point of these projects was that students’ linguistic and cultural resources could be used as starting points for learning. In addition, students’ identities were valued and promoted in all of these initiatives. Other projects have demonstrated how similar strategies work. For example, in the Kamehameha Early Education Program (KEEP), Hawaiian students’ participation in school was enhanced when students were allowed to engage in “talk story,” or taking turns in story narration, a feature of Hawaiian storytelling. This structure differed from practices that favor a single narrator. The strategy encouraged collaboration among students and teacher and reflected a more appropriate and culturally relevant participation structure (Au & Jordan, 1981).

9.5 Using Family and Community Funds of Knowledge to Contextualize Instruction

In recent years, educators have recognized that students’ developing understanding of school concepts builds on two foundations: new academic material presented by the school, and what students bring to academic topics in terms of everyday experience and knowledge. Drawing on students’ life experiences and knowledges and connecting, or contextualizing, them to the school enhances student learning. As Tharp, Estrada, Dalton, and Yamauchi (2000) suggest, “Contextualized instruction motivates students and builds on what the children already know, increasing the likelihood that the children will learn” (p. 23).

As a result of this knowledge about how learning is most effective, educators have begun seeking out and including the contexts of students’ experiences and their local communities and incorporating those into the curriculum and their instruction. Specifically, teachers are exploring ways of using culturally and linguistically diverse students’ household-based funds of knowledge as resources or bridges for learning in school. Designing curriculum around compelling and practical problems provides opportunities for teachers alongside caregivers and students to work together in ways that have meaning at the personal, class, school, and community levels. In one example, Ayers, Fonseca, Andrade, and Civil (2001) describe how a middle school math teacher discovered the mathematical funds of knowledge of Latino students in working-class neighborhoods and used them to develop an architecture project called Build Your Dream House. The project engaged his students in a range of mathematical practices.

Three levels of contextualization have been described in the education literature. The first level is that of teaching, or pedagogical, strategy, which recognizes that “effective instructional strategy invokes children’s existing schema that has been developed in their own environment and experience and then relates it to the conceptual material being presented” (Tharp et al., 2000, p. 28). The second level is a curriculum level in which teachers use culturally relevant materials and skills to foster high degrees of literacy, numeracy, and science—that is, the curriculum is contextualized for CLD students such that it facilitates their learning. Tharp et al. note that “drawing on personal, community based experiences affords students opportunities to apply skills acquired in home and school contexts” (p. 28). The work of González and Moll (1995) in studying the funds of knowledge in students’ families and community is an excellent example of this form of contextualization.

Finally, a third level of contextualization, the policy level, has focused on contex-tualizing the school itself by recognizing that “school learning is a social process that affects and is affected by the entire community” (Tharp et al., 2000, p. 28). More long-lasting progress has been achieved with children whose learning has been explored, modified, and shaped in collaboration with their parents and communities. McCaleb’s (1994) work, mentioned earlier, is an example of contextualizing schooling at the policy level through involvement of families.

The Center for Research on Education, Diversity, and Excellence (CREDE) delineated guidelines that educators can use in attempting to contextualize instruction for CLD students. A teacher who contextualizes instruction

■ Begins activities with what students already know from home, community, and school

■ Designs instructional activities that are meaningful to students in terms of local norms and knowledge

■ Acquires knowledge of local norms and knowledge by talking to students, parents or family members, community members, and by reading pertinent documents

■ Assists students in connecting and applying their learning to home and community

■ Plans jointly with students to design community-based learning activities

■ Provides opportunities for parents or families to participate in classroom instructional activities

■ Varies activities to include students’ preference from collective and cooperative to individual and competitive learning activity formats

■ Varies style of conversation and participation to include students’ cultural preferences, such as co-narration, call-and-response, and choral (CREDE, 2011)

The projects presented in this chapter highlight several of the CREDE indicators for contextualizing instruction. For example, the Multiliteracy Project draws on what CLD students know, including home language and culture. Ms. Leoni, the students’ teacher, uses dual-language identity texts as an instructional activity that brings students’ backgrounds and life experiences directly into the classroom; this activity facilitates her students’ learning. The Libros de Familia project further demonstrates several CREDE indicators. The project brings together community organizations, educators, and university volunteers who engage in literacy development and reading with Spanish-speaking migrant children in the home. The project draws on students’ cultural and linguistic knowledges through the use of multicultural literature. As a collaborative effort, the project fosters mutual learning among the participants and bridges the home context with school learning. Finally, Harrison Elementary School’s bilingual/ESL program is grounded in building strong home–school partnerships, initiating school outreach efforts, and using their diverse students’ language and cultural backgrounds as a resource for student learning.

Educators can begin to learn about families’ funds of knowledge in several ways. First, teachers can be vigilant of students’ apparent learning styles and participation in educational settings. Often, keen observation of students’ engagement and participation in learning offers insight into home practices (Andrade, Carson, & González, 2001). In addition, teachers can carefully listen to and critically read students’ writing. Coady and coworkers (Coady & Ariza, 2010; Coady & Escamilla, 2005) describe how the writing of Spanish-speaking children about their life experiences demonstrates a sophisticated understanding of social realities and justice. What students write, therefore, reveals much about the lives of CLD children.

Educators can engage in a family interview of home funds of knowledge, adapting the work of Moll et al. (1992) to local settings. Andrade, Carson, & González (2001) advocate a multidimensional approach to funds of knowledge research, including a neighborhood observation, educational sessions, and home interviews. The interviews themselves focus on labor histories, regular household activities, and parental views about their roles as caregivers.

Amatea (2011) designed a family educational knowledge survey used to interview families and investigate funds of knowledge. She describes three phases of the interview: (a) learning about families’ history and labor history; (b) learning about families’ regular household activities; and (c) learning about the caregivers’ views of parenting and their own school experiences. Reflective Exercise 9.5 depicts some questions that you may find useful when gathering information about these three areas during a family visit.

REFLECTIVE EXERCISE 9.5

Learning about Families’ Funds of Knowledge from Parents and Caregivers

■ Tell me a little bit about your family. Is this your only child, or do you have other children? How old are they?

■ How long have you lived in this community? Did you move here, or have you always lived here? Do you have family living close by?

■ What are common careers or jobs, volunteer activities, or hobbies that members of your family engage in?

■ Are there household chores/activities that your child watches or assists you with (e.g., gardening, home/car repair, meal preparation, cleaning, taking care of younger children or older family members)?

■ What are recreational activities that you and your family engage in (e.g., swimming, boating, sports, arts and crafts)?

Questions to gain information about the caregivers’ learning experiences and expectations about family–school interactions:

■ What are some of your earliest memories of learning in your own family? How and what did the members of your family teach you?

■ Whom do you remember as a wise person in your family or community? What valuable knowledge did they possess? How did they share their knowledge with others?

■ What are your earliest memories of school? In your family, did school learning seem similar to or different from the kinds of learning you participated in before?

■ What was your family’s involvement in your school experience? How did the school expect parents to be involved in education? Looking back, do you think that was an appropriate expectation?

■ What are common languages used at home? What phrases or sayings does your family use to teach your child? What are some of the activities that you like to do together with your child?

■ In what ways do you believe that you teach your children? What and how do they teach you? What important things do you believe are your responsibility to teach them?

■ What do you believe your children learn from other members of your family? How do other members of your family teach your children?

Source: Amatea, E. A. (2011, January). Learning about Families’ Funds of Knowledge from Parents and Caregivers, a handout from a workshop on family and community involvement in education, held at the University of Florida.

If, as a teacher, you have been able to implement the communication strategies covered in Chapter 8, you will be well on your way to establishing a connection with the families of students in your classroom. It is important to promote two-way interaction with families before requesting to interview them or visit their home. If the proper foundation is not laid with your communication skills and your philosophy on family involvement has not been appropriately conveyed, these requests may be seen as invasive by some families. Your interview/visit should be scheduled in advance, during a time that is convenient for both you and the family. It may be beneficial to send a couple of casual reminders to the family confirming the day and time, so that they will not be surprised by your visit.

Although you do not want your visit with a family to feel scripted or rehearsed, it may be worthwhile to consider some questions to ask while you are getting to know the family at their home. This is an opportunity for you to use your communication skills to actively listen and reflect on what the family is sharing with you. In the process, you will discover the attributes that define each family and each family’s potential strengths and resources.

Potential Interview Questions

What do you want to learn about each family? What questions will help you gain a better understanding of the family so as to better connect home and school environments for the student? Not only do interview questions, such as the ones in Reflective Exercise 9.5, help you understand a family’s educational history, such questions can also be used to understand the local community and the labor history and family functioning patterns of CLD students. Educators who hope to unearth families’ funds of knowledge may seek to learn about the local industry and migration patterns as well as the history of the community. For example, in North Florida, the agricultural base includes hay baling, blueberries, plant nurseries, and peanuts. These industries attract migrant farm-working families, which are typically mobile, need to add for parallel construction: are economically disadvantaged, and have specific knowledge areas related to the work they do. Such knowledge about the community allows educators to connect family and local knowledge areas to school learning.

In addition, knowing about the cultural and linguistic diversity in the community as well as the background of the family should guide the interview process. For example, it may be culturally appropriate to ask families about household activities, but specific personal questions (e.g., marital status, income level) of a family or other topics may be considered taboo. Thus, for educators to engage in funds of knowledge interviews, it is important that they (a) understand the local community context, (b) learn about the cultural and linguistic background of families so that questions are culturally appropriate, and (c) approach the interview with genuine curiosity and a nonjudgmental stance. Culturally and linguistically diverse families may function in ways that are dissimilar from mainstream habits. Understanding those differences can become a rich source of information, one that educators can use.

9.6 Enhancing Student Learning Through Family–School Partnerships: What You Can Do

Learning about household functioning and families’ knowledge areas (including language and culture) is a first step that educators can take to bridge the home and school contexts and form partnerships with families. The next step is for educators to use this information in the school setting. Moll et al. (1992) describe how teachers use families’ household knowledges to create lessons that value diverse learners. The researchers also fostered parental participation by inviting parents to share their knowledge with the classroom, one example of how educators can build on home and enhance the home–school connection.

Language is another resource that teachers can tap into as a learning resource. English language learners have knowledge about how a language other than English works. Research has shown that using the first language to acquire English is a positive pedagogical practice that can support the acquisition of English (Krashen & McField, 2005). Thus, rather than limiting the use of the first language in school, educators can work with students to continue to develop the first language. Having access to multicultural and bilingual children’s literature, writing bilingual stories, and creating bilingual books are some ways that educators can take positive steps to supporting bilingual students’ identities (Cummins, 2001). Bilingual education programs, designed to develop both students’ first language and English, are another example of how first languages can support learning and the academic achievement of linguistically diverse learners (Krashen & McField, 2005).

Families’ knowledge areas are not only a source of inspiration and connection to classroom curriculum, but they also become a forum for children to converse about and demonstrate their preexisting competencies and knowledge. Moreover, this relationship can be a vehicle for modifying the perceptions that teachers may develop about families who come from marginalized cultural groups by creating a means for families to work as equal partners with teachers.

Finally, educators can challenge the existing deficit view of families and assumptions made about CLD children and families and work toward making the world more socially just and opportunities more equitable. “One-size-fits-all” curricula do little to support the unique and rich backgrounds of children and connect with families in educational partnerships; rather, they send implicit messages to children that their home language and culture are not valued or of use in school. Educators can work with colleagues and community members to (a) reflect on current practices that are inherently inequitable and that promote mainstream ideologies, (b) address negative and inaccurate views of diverse families, (c) challenge social and educational inequities, and (d) advocate for and implement programs and practices that promote diversity and support partnerships with families.

Summary

The chapter presented information about families’ ways of knowing, including notions about education, school learning, and literacy. Educators who work with CLD families and children can use numerous strategies and actions to enhance learning. First, however, educators must understand how culture shapes values and beliefs, education, and the process of educating children. Culture is socially constructed, and interacting with children from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds means challenging dominant ideologies that deny children the full development of their identities. In addition, schools often send implicit messages to families about what they should do and what parental participation in children’s education must look like. This deficit approach encourages culturally and linguistically diverse children and families to leave their identities outside the schoolhouse door. As educators, we must question and challenge deficit models of education and literacy programs that position families as lacking and limited. The rich cultural and linguistic resources that families possess are opportunities for student learning and cognitive engagement in schools.

In contrast to this deficit approach, an approach that uses families’ ways of knowing, including their linguistic and cultural knowledges, as a resource is more likely to engage children in learning and to foster partnerships with CLD families. The Multilit-eracy Project and the Libros de Familia initiative are recent examples of the ways in which educators can work with CLD children in classroom and home settings as we begin to foster a socially just and more equitable process of education. Partnerships with families require collaboration that is culturally and linguistically responsive and bidirectional in nature. Working with CLD families means providing translation and interpretation services to foster communication with families. It also requires learning about families’ ways of knowing using a nonjudgmental stance. Finally, we must begin to think about the ways in which social inequities manifest in schools and work toward schools that are more equitable and socially just.

Activities and Questions

1. What is culture, and how is it related to diverse students’ learning?

2. What are some examples of cultural and linguistic resources that students from diverse backgrounds bring to the school environment?

3. How can teachers, counselors, and school administrators identify and use students’ and families’ funds of knowledge in the teaching and learning process?

4. Recall one exemplar of home–school partnerships from the chapter (Multiliteracies Project, Libros de Familia, or Harrison Elementary Bilingual/ESL Program). How could you use the information from that exemplar and adapt it to your current (or future) school? What resources would you need to initiate such a project? Whom would you call on for support?

Resources

Center for Research on Education, Diversity and Excellence (CREDE) www.cal.org/crede

CREDE’s purpose is to improve communication through better understanding of language and culture. It funds research and develops and disseminates effective guidelines and practices that are responsive to the needs of children and families from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds.

The National Center for Culturally Responsive Educational Systems www.nccrest.org

The National Center for Culturally Responsive Educational Systems (NCCRESt), a project funded by the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Special Education Programs, provides technical assistance and professional development to close the achievement gap between students from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds and their peers and to reduce inappropriate referrals to special education. The project targets improvements in culturally responsive practices, early intervention, literacy, and positive behavioral supports.

CHAPTER 10 Fostering Student and Family Engagement in Learning Through Student-Led Parent Conferences

Ellen S. Amatea and Kelly L. Dolan

Learning Objectives

After reading this chapter, you will be able to:

■ Explain the purpose and benefits to students, parents, and teachers of having students lead a conference.

■ Describe the varying formats of student-led conferences and the changes in roles and responsibilities for students, parents, and teachers that are necessary for a successful conference experience.

■ Describe how to organize, schedule, and evaluate student-led conferences.

■ Discuss the steps involved in preparing students and parents to participate in student-led conferences.

As a 10-year veteran 4th-grade teacher, I thought back on my conference with Tim’s mother and father, the Winstons. They were the 11th family I had scheduled to meet with during the day set aside for conferences at our school. Although each conference was expected to take 15 minutes, I often had difficulty conveying the fine points I wanted to share about students’ work, their participation in class, and their progress in that period of time. In addition, I often felt there was little opportunity to deal with the feelings engendered in parents by my report or to make plans together to improve their children’s learning. The Winston family’s conference was a case in point.

Mr. and Mrs. Winston were both professionals in their early 40s who were very involved in the job of raising Tim, their only child. They had brought him to their conference, admitting that they had made no other childcare arrangements. I had welcomed Tim, but wondered how comfortable he was feeling about being there. Tim was a fragile-looking little boy who was quite intelligent but resisted getting involved in many classroom activities. Underneath his blasé exterior, Tim often seemed angry. It came out in lots of little ways. He dragged his feet in starting to do written assignments and often seemed irritable in dealing with the other kids. When the conference began, I invited Tim to join us, but he had gone over to his desk instead. Later, however, he drifted over to the table where the conference was being held. He listened intently to what was being said and moved toward and then away from the conference table, obviously unsure of what to do. I had wondered: “Why wouldn’t he join in?” When I described Tim’s classroom performance and his test scores (which were strong in some areas and weak in others), I asked him what his opinion was about his performance. But Tim had silently put his head down and moved away from the table when I questioned him. I noticed that Mrs. Winston had tears in her eyes and wondered how much pressure she was feeling. How discouraged or disappointed did she feel? None of these feelings were acknowledged; only evaluative information was shared.

Looking back, I could easily see that this had been a tension-filled time. Communication by all involved parties had been constrained. Tim’s actions showed that he was thinking, “I’m frightened. I’m not sure what they are going to say about me. I don’t know how to answer their questions about my performance at school!” Although Tim was there to hear my compliments and concerns, he was too anxious to take these in. Tim’s parents were probably feeling anxious as well. Surely they wanted to communicate how invested they were in their child’s education, but because Tim was shutting down and not talking, they were feeling frustrated as well. As I thought about this experience, I wondered, “How could I have made this a more positive experience for this family? What could I have done so that Tim would have believed he had something to say about his own learning? How could I have prepared him to share his perspective on his learning comfortably with his parents?”

Since that time, I have been introduced to a concept then new to me: the student-led conference, in which students are prepared to lead their parents through a discussion of their work collected over time and organized into a portfolio. Introducing this practice with my students has not only resulted in parents gaining a more extensive picture of what their child is learning, it has also become a powerful tool for fostering student and family engagement in my students’ learning.

Communicating to parents about what their children have been working on in school and what learning progress they have made is one of a teacher’s most challenging responsibilities. Although a number of time-honored procedures are established—such as the grade report card and the parent–teacher conference—for reporting student progress toward meeting classroom goals and standards, many teachers have begun to question the effectiveness of these traditional reporting procedures. The opening vignette is one author’s reflection that best describes how we began to reconsider our usual approach to conducting parent–teacher conferences.

A growing number of educators (Bailey & Guskey, 2001; Benson & Barnett, 2005; Ochoa, 2010; Picciotto, 1996) have begun to question the effectiveness of traditional conference formats as they have become aware that the most important person—the student—was missing from these conversations. These educators are experimenting with different approaches for including students in teachers’ conversations with parents as a result of believing that only by involving the student can there be an accurate, relevant, and meaningful conversation about student learning. The student-led parent conference is one such approach. As the name implies, student-led conferences are conferences held at traditional report card time, or other times during the year, which are led by students themselves. Parents come to the conferences to hear about their child’s progress. Through demonstration and discussion, students show their parents what they have been learning (Austin, 1994; Ochoa, 2010; Picciotto, 1996).

Such a conference can consist of a variety of different formats: (a) the student-involved conference, in which the teacher takes primary responsibility for directing the conversation, although the student is present to add comments or answer questions; (b) the presentation or showcase conference, in which the student presents a collection of work to a group or panel that includes teachers, parents, and other adults; (c) the portfolio night, in which an entire class of students showcases their portfolios at the same time for viewing by families; and (d) the simultaneous student-led conference, in which several family conferences conducted by students occur at one time (Jehlen, 2010).

We, a 4th-grade teacher (who is now teaching 1st grade) and a university professor of counselor education, decided to write about our experiences with the fourth type, the simultaneous student-led conference, because we discovered that this conference approach can be a powerful tool for engaging students and their families more fully in learning. We have now assisted other teachers in the 1st through 10th grades at our school in introducing this practice into their classrooms. As a result, we know that this practice can be modified successfully to serve the needs of students of differing ages. In this chapter, we describe our experiences with introducing the simultaneous student-led conference practice into our 4th-grade classroom and subsequently into our 1st-grade classroom. To address the practical issues involved in implementing a student-led conference, we first focus on the purpose and benefits to students, parents, and teachers of having students lead a conference. We then describe in great detail what our student-led conferences look like and discuss the change in roles and responsibilities necessary for a successful conference experience. We then discuss the logistics of preparing, organizing, scheduling, and evaluating such conferences both with 4th-grade and with 1st-grade students.

10.1 Purpose and Benefits of Student-Led Conferences

When we first embarked on the process of introducing student-led parent conferences to our 4th-grade students and parents, we assumed that the real value to be derived from students conducting conferences with their parents would be its communication value—that is, for parents to gain a fuller view of their child’s progress. We expected that when students were given a voice in the conference, parents would more fully understand and appreciate what their children were learning and achieving and thus could more adequately encourage them, and that students would feel heard and understood.

However, we soon found that the student-led conference was also a powerful motivational tool for fostering greater student engagement in learning because it heightened the personal relevance of learning for our students. Teachers know that for learning to be relevant, students must be able to (a) see the importance of the concepts they are learning and (b) connect those concepts to prior learning and to the world outside of the classroom. We discovered that our students could more easily see the relevance of their daily work when they knew that an audience beyond the walls of the classroom was going to see and review their work. Because students knew they would be reporting to parents or other significant adults about their learning, they began to see the relevance of completing work, keeping track of work, and making sure work was done well. Other practitioners (Belgrad, Burke, & Fogarty, 2008; Tuinstra & Hiatt-Michael, 2003) report similar impacts of student-led conferences on student learning habits.

Second, giving students control over the selection and discussion of their academic work gave our students a greater sense of personal agency or efficacy. Rather than merely be a “passenger” in an effort that a teacher exclusively directed (i.e., with the teacher making all the decisions about what students are to learn or how they are to be evaluated), we invited students to select the work they valued doing, to actively engage in reviewing and assessing their own learning, and to feel a sense of ownership of their portfolio. To do this, rather than have the portfolio of their work chosen and managed by us, we gave students an opportunity to select their own work. We used the portfolio development task as an opportunity to teach our students how to reflect on and describe their work, using questions such as the following:

How can you best show your parents what you are learning and how you are behaving in school?

How does your work show how you have improved?

What task or assignment was the most challenging, and why?

What do you think you need to work on and improve?

As Tollefson and Osborn (2007) suggest, as a result of engaging in such self-reflection, students can learn something important that is typically not an intentional part of the curriculum: how to assess for self-knowledge, learning what they do and do not understand about a given subject and what they might do to enhance that understanding. As a result of these activities, the process of selecting and discussing a collection of their work becomes a significant mastery experience for students. As Herbert (1998) notes:

What we didn’t know then (when we started this practice) was that the process of selecting samples of one’s own work and assembling them into a portfolio is profoundly important to children. We also learned that all children have a natural ability and desire to tell their story through the contents of a portfolio. Even now, we remain excited about capturing the individual voices of our students through portfolio collections. (p. 583)

A key ingredient essential to the cultivation of students’ sense of personal agency or efficacy is the tone of “celebration” of student work that must be infused into the student-led conference. Both through the message home to parents about the conference and through the student-led conference itself, parents and students learn that the conference is an opportunity to celebrate rather than just evaluate students’ learning progress. As Herbert (1998) describes, the conferences led by students in her building are “celebrations of student competence... opportunities for children to present their portfolios to their own parents... ways that children and parents hear that learning is worth celebrating, and that children can be competent participants in that celebration” (p. 585).

Finally, we found that student-led conferences were an excellent method for increasing parent engagement and participation in school. Several authors (Bailey & Guskey, 2001; Benson & Barnett, 2005) report that student-led conferences significantly increased parent attendance. Having now conducted student-led conferences in grades 1 through 10 at our school, we have also experienced a significant increase in parent participation, with 100% of our parents attending our 1st-, 2nd-, 3rd-, and 4th-grade conferences; 95% attending our 5th-, 6th-, and 7th-grade conferences; 85% participating in our 8th-grade conferences; and 80% attending our 9th- and 10th-grade student-led conferences (Amatea, Daniels, Bringman, & Vandiver, 2004).

Similar benefits of enhanced student and parent engagement in learning have been reported by a number of practitioners working with students enrolled in grades kindergarten through high school (Bailey & Guskey, 2001; Benson & Barnett, 2005; Ochoa, 2010; Tollefson & Osborn, 2007). For example, Bailey and Guskey note:

The real power of student-led conferences is that they require students to take most of the responsibility for reporting what they have learned. To do this, students must evaluate and reflect upon their work on a regular basis, organize their work into a thoughtful collection, and organize their thoughts about their learning well enough to articulate these thoughts to others. (p. 4)

10.2 The Student-Led Conference: A Change in Roles and Responsibilities

How exactly does a student-led conference differ from a traditional parent–teacher conference? What must teachers and students and parents do differently? How might these roles vary depending on the age of the student? To be successful, student-led conferences require teachers, students, and parents to change their usual conference roles. Teachers must become facilitators and coaches. Students must become leaders. Parents must become active listeners, questioners, encouragers, and supporters. Let’s first describe what our 4th-grade student-led conferences look like and then discuss the new roles and responsibilities necessary for a successful conference experience. We then describe our experience in working with 1st-grade students and note how we modified these roles and responsibilities.

Nature of the Student-Led Conference

Our 4th-grade conferences were designed both to showcase student work and progress and to help students and parents learn how to actively plan together for future student learning. We designed our student-led conferences based on the simultaneous student-led conference format described by Benson and Barnett (2005) in their book Student-Led Conferencing Using Showcase Portfolios. Each conference event consists of six steps: (a) a large-group introduction to the conference event conducted by the teacher, followed by (b) a large-group discussion and demonstration of parent and student conference roles, (c) the individual family discussion of student work conducted by the student, (d) the joint development by the student and parent(s) of a goal-setting plan, (e) the parent and student writing of personal feedback letters to each other and the parent completing a conference evaluation form, and finally, (f) family members exchanging letters and enjoying refreshments. We allocated 45 minutes for each conference session, expecting the first two steps to take approximately 10 minutes, the second two steps to take approximately 25 minutes, and the last two steps to take 10 minutes.

We scheduled our conferences at two different times during the school year—once in the fall and once in the late spring. For each conference event, we selected four 60-minute time periods in the afternoon, after school, or in the evening over a 2-day period. (Elementary teachers often scheduled 5 to 7 families at a time in each session, whereas secondary teachers often scheduled 40 to 50 students’ families at a time in each session and met in a large room, such as a school library or cafeteria.) Parents were sent a letter inviting them to choose a preferred time from one of the four sessions listed. Figure 10.1a offers a sample of the introductory letter, and Figure 10.1b provides a sample of the appointment letter.

At each of the conference sessions, the teacher or teaching team opens the conference event by introducing themselves to the families in attendance and explains the purpose of the conference, the agenda of activities, and the conference goal setting/action planning task that the student and parent would complete together. In addition, the teacher(s) discusses particular strategies parents might use to assist their children to be successful in their conference and gives them a handout that describes these strategies (Figure 10.2). A humorous role-play is then conducted, depicting how a parent might use these strategies effectively during the conference.

Figure 10.1a Letter Orienting Parents to Student-Led Conferences

Figure 10.1b Family Appointment Time Letter

Figure 10.2 Strategies for Helping Your Student Take Charge of His or Her Conference

Students then pick up their portfolios from a central location in the room and direct their parents to one of a series of tables that have been set up somewhat apart from one another to ensure some family privacy. Once they are at their table, each student then explains the purpose of the conference and proceeds through a conference agenda, showing, explaining, and demonstrating what they have learned in school through a discussion of their portfolio. (In addition to the portfolio, teachers and students often set up learning centers or displays of student work around the perimeter of the room before the conference so that students can show their parents examples of their classroom learning activities during the conference or point out their work on bulletin boards or other classroom displays.) Once they have reviewed their work, students and parents are asked to create a goal setting plan together, using a goal setting form as a guide (Figure 10.3) in which (a) they identify what they judge to be the student’s strengths and areas in need of further development, (b) together they set some specific goals for what students may want to work on learning, and (c) they decide on actions that the student and parent might take to advance those goals.

Figure 10.3 Conference Goal Setting/Planning Form

These four steps take approximately 35 minutes. At the end of these activities, students are directed to an adjoining classroom to write a thank-you note to their parents and to bring back refreshments for themselves and their parents. During this time, parents are invited to write a letter to their child, commenting on the student’s conference performance. To encourage parents to give constructive feedback to their child, we give parents a handout that lists some prompts and sentence starters they might use. Figure 10.4 provides a sample of the post-conference family feedback handout.

We also ask parents to complete a brief one-page questionnaire for evaluating the overall conference. Figure 10.5 offers a sample of the parent conference evaluation form.

Our student conferences end when students return to the room, exchange letters with their parents, and eat refreshments. During the next day at school, we ask our students to complete an evaluation of the conference and then discuss the conference experience with them (Figure 10.6).

Figure 10.4 Post-Conference Family Feedback

The Teacher’s Role

To implement this new conferencing practice successfully, teachers must help students take over the leadership of their conferences. To do this effectively, we learned that we had to give up some of the control that we were used to having. For example, in planning our first student-led conferences, we envisioned that we would either drop in on each student-led conference and answer parents’ questions or have the parent and child drop by a table for teacher input after the child’s presentation. However, in our reading of various authors (Austin, 1994; Benson & Barnett, 2005), they caution that such a role inadvertently organizes parents to continue to see the teacher as the real authority on their children’s learning. To avoid the authority during the conference automatically reverting to the teacher and away from student, these authors suggest that teachers play a more unobtrusive role when the individual family conferences are going on. As a result, although we would have an important role in helping students prepare for their conferences, our role at the event itself would be as stage managers who direct the action of the event from afar. We took that advice to heart, and on conference night we greeted parents, opened the conference event, describing the conference activities and the particular roles that student, parent, and teacher would play, and explained that, as teachers, we would be staying out of the individual conversations that students and parents would have about each student’s learning. (However, we stressed that we would be available for individual conferences if that need arose.)

Figure 10.5 Family Evaluation of Our Student Goal Setting Conference

Then, rather than participate in any of the individual student conferences, we stepped back, let our students conduct the conferences, and were amazed by the results!

We did, however, have a very important preconference role in preparing students, parents, and the conference environment to guarantee success. This entailed (a) orienting parents to the new conference format, (b) developing and implementing a series of lessons to introduce students to the idea of the student-led conference and portfolio development process, (c) guiding students’ portfolio development, (d) rehearsing with students, and (e) arranging the classroom space to accommodate families. We describe these responsibilities in greater detail next.

The Student’s Role

The student’s role changes dramatically in the student-led conference. Rather than function as a nonparticipant or passive observer (as we saw Tim do in the opening case of the Winston family), the student becomes an active leader and spokesperson. Rather than listen to the teacher’s view of what the student is learning, the student gives his or her views. To prepare for this new role, students must develop skills in talking about their work with their parents, describing their view of what they are learning, identifying their learning strengths and needs, collecting evidence illustrating their learning progress, and learning to set goals and make plans for their future learning. In addition, students often help with the many organizational details of the actual conference: inviting parents and scheduling their conference appointment, role-playing and rehearsing what they plan to say at their conference, preparing and arranging the physical space of the classroom for the conference, and taking home important information to parents, both before and during the conference.

Figure 10.6 Student Conference Feedback Form

We have found that students at all grade levels, 1st through 10th, reported increased self-confidence and pride, and some amount of surprise in their ability to explain their work, to set goals, and to express their ideas about school and learning to their parents. In gathering feedback from students after their conferences, we found that many students commented about the effects they observed of their conference on themselves and on their parents. One student said, “I liked the conference because I was not nervous talking about my work.” Another said, “I liked the conference because there were no distractions.” Another student noted, “My conference really went smoothly because I wasn’t trying to talk really fast or to race anybody.” Other students emphasized the benefits: “It gave me more confidence”; “I got closer to my mom about everything I’ve done in school. Now she doesn’t have to ask so many questions about school.” Another 4th grader noted how it has led to an increased focus on skill building: “I am trying to improve my reading skills with my mom now.” Students also reported effects the conference had on their parents. One 4th-grade student wrote, “My mom and dad were really excited and proud. They thought my portfolio was very organized and that I’ve been doing good work.” Another student said, “My parents got to understand what we do in class.” Other students noted, “I liked having my parents come and listen to stuff I’ve been doing”; “My parents found out how well I was doing in school”; and “My mom felt good when she heard about my work.”

The Parents’ Role

The parents’ role also changes dramatically in the student-led conference. Rather than just function as passive listeners or receivers of teachers’ expert advice, parents have an active role in encouraging their child to share their views about their learning and to help them make plans to improve their learning. To do this effectively, the parent must listen attentively, ask questions, provide encouragement, and jointly develop learning plans with their child. Often, the role of listening to their child and encouraging them to take the lead in managing the conversation is a new one for parents. Hence, we emphasize and model strategies of active listening, asking open-ended questions, and providing positive feedback.

Parents of our 4th-grade students consistently comment on the beneficial impact of the conference experience on their child and themselves. Many parents noted that the conference experience gave them a chance to see how their children operate in their classroom. Not only did they see the classroom materials (such as books) that were available, but also they learned about some of the learning routines their children engaged in, they saw their children interact with the teacher and classmates, and they heard what their children think about their learning. One parent reported, “This was a wonderful way for parents to see what their children are doing ‘in their own words.’” Another parent said, “The specific examples in my child’s portfolio helped me understand what my child is expected to learn.” The student-led conferences not only provided a context for parents to hear more about their children’s learning and classroom context, but they also allowed parents to see their children take responsibility for their learning. For example, one parent said, “This was great! Student-led conferences really gave my son a chance to show responsibility for his actions concerning this learning!” Another said, “Not only does the conferencing process encourage more responsibility for her work, it really contributed to my child’s sense of pride in and awareness of herself as a learner.” Many parents commented that their child displayed a sense of accomplishment and excitement about learning. One parent said, “The conferences were well rehearsed and presented. They gave the children a real sense of accomplishment.” Another parent said, “This is a great idea. It builds confidence and teaches organization.” Parents also commented on their child’s candor and directness in talking about their weaknesses and strengths. One parent said, “This was an important event for my child. Not only was she proud to show me what she was strong in, but she shyly showed me and talked to me about her weaknesses too.”

In addition, many parents reported valuing the time spent alone with their children at the student-led conference. Children loved the attention, of course, but parents also came to appreciate their child in a new way. One parent commented, “It was great to ‘slow down’ and talk with my child about their learning. This doesn’t usually take place in our busy life!” Finally, parents often come away from these conferences quite amazed by their children. Their children are not only able to do more than their parents had thought, but they are also able to articulate their progress quite clearly. As one parent noted, “I was astonished by the way my child took charge of his conference. I have not seen that side of him before.”

10.3 Preparing Students and Parents for Their New Roles

Preparing Students

As we thought more deeply about our conferencing and portfolio development plans for our students and the implicit judgment of performance inherent in them, we realized that our students would have an opportunity to assess themselves only in terms of a narrow range of traditional academic domains if we focused on school subjects only. As a result, they might develop a narrow and negative view of their own competencies and avoid becoming fully engaged in the conferencing process. We knew that students might be inspired to discuss their learning accomplishments more readily if they focused initially on their areas of strength, both in academic and in nonacademic areas. We decided to make the portfolio development and presentation process a vehicle for helping students develop confidence in their competencies and strengths in a variety of different nonacademic areas as well as showcase their academic accomplishments. We wanted students to conclude not whether they were smart, but where they were smart. Consequently, we designed a series of five lessons that introduces the conference idea and then focuses on students developing a portfolio that answers four questions: (a) What are you like? (b) What do you want to learn? (c) What have you been learning? (d) What do you plan to work on learning next?

Introducing the Idea of Student-Led Conferences

In our first lesson, we introduced the idea of student-led parent conferences and its potential benefits. Our goal was to help the students understand what it was like for parents who were curious about what their child did at school all day. The teacher simulated this idea by introducing a Teddy Bear as a “pretend child,” having it leave the classroom for part of the day, and then facilitating a classroom discussion of when the “child” was picked up. In the discussion, the teacher likened the children’s curiosity about their Teddy Bear child’s day to the feelings their parents have when their children return from school. The teacher then introduced the idea that student-led conferences and portfolios could be a means for helping their parents understand more about their own school-day experiences.

Exploring Multiple Intelligences

In our second lesson, we invited our students to see themselves as learners with unique abilities and skills. Because we wanted students to assess themselves in terms of a fuller range of competencies than just the traditional academic ones, in our second lesson we introduced the concept of multiple intelligences. Gardner (1983, 1999, 2006) developed a theory of multiple intelligences in which eight different intelligences account for the broad range of human potential in children and adults: linguistic intelligence (word smart), logical–mathematical intelligence (number/reasoning smart), spatial intelligence (picture smart), bodily–kinesthetic intelligence (body smart), musical intelligence (music smart), interpersonal intelligence (people smart), intrapersonal intelligence (self smart), and naturalist intelligence (nature smart). Gardner contends that our schools and culture typically focus most of their attention on two forms of intelligence—linguistic and logical–mathematical. However, he recommends that we place equal attention on individuals who show gifts in the other intelligences: artists, architects, naturalists, designers, dancers, entrepreneurs, and others who enrich the world in which we live.

In our classroom, we explained the eight established intelligences in a language that made it easy for our 4th-grade students to distinguish them and then assigned students to seek out a person high in one of these different intelligences. The students were then asked to identify an adult they knew (e.g., a parent) who had one of the eight intelligences and interview him or her in terms of their hobbies, their favorite school subjects, and the jobs they like. As students reported their interview findings back to the class, they developed a clearer picture of the distinctions between the different intelligences. Next, we asked students to assess themselves in terms of the different intelligences, identifying the intelligences in which they were strongest, those in which they would like to get better, and discussing what they might do to help themselves improve a particular intelligence. This lesson not only provided our students with a language for talking about differences in abilities without putting anybody down, but it also provided us with a greater awareness of the types of activities and styles of learning that our students valued.

Becoming Navigators

We also wanted to encourage our students to begin viewing themselves as active planners and observers of their own learning. Children often have few opportunities to set goals and make conscious choices themselves about what they will learn. Instead, they are expected to go along with their teachers’ decisions and plans. We wanted to encourage students to begin viewing themselves as active agents who can set their own learning goals, make plans for how they might work toward their goals, and assess their progress. To do this, we needed to have students notice whether they had goals for their learning and to show them how they might set goals and develop strategies to meet those goals. Intrinsic in this step was the message that goal setting is a responsibility of the student as a learner. If they did not set their own goals for learning, who would?

Thus, in our third lesson we introduced the idea of having students view themselves as navigators rather than passengers on the ship traveling through the learning experiences of 4th grade. We asked each student to develop a learner’s “passport” that would serve as the introduction to their conference portfolio. In this passport, students would describe their interests and “smarts,” set goals for their future learning, and develop plans for reaching those goals. We modeled the development of this passport by depicting how an imaginary 4th-grade student would assess his or her hobbies, interests, the school subjects he or she liked and those he or she found difficult, the types of skill areas (both in and out of school) in which he or she wanted to improve, and the personal learning goals he or she set and planned and developed. Figure 10.7 gives an example of a sample passport.

Figure 10.7 Fourth-Grade Sample Learning Passport

Selecting and Reflecting on Student Work

We introduced the idea that each student would develop a showcase portfolio called a learning album. We had the students include their learning passport that described their individual learning strengths and interests as one way to personalize their portfolios. Next came the task of deciding what types of work products would be included. To give our families a clearer picture of daily and weekly school life, we decided that we would have students showcase their performance on ordinary classroom learning activities—those routines already in place within the classroom structure. Examples include reading logs, fluency progress ratings, test scores in different subject areas, homework participation charts, writing samples, and journal entries. Because we were worried about the need to make sure that each student has a variety of work products for the portfolio that are worthy of review, deciding to report on learning activities that were already in place created a sense of relief for us. To further personalize their portfolios, we also gave our students an opportunity to select one or two particular projects to add to their portfolio and reflect on. Now the only new products that we needed to help students generate were ways of individually recording and analyzing progress in these class activities.

To help our students learn how to reflect on and assess their learning performance and progress and to make plans for their future learning, we introduced in our fourth lesson the use of a student commentary sheet, which we adapted from the commentary format described by Benson and Barnett (1999). Figure 10.8 offers samples of commentary sheets. By means of the commentary sheets, we established a general portfolio format for reporting the common events that students were involved in during each day. The sheets also became our way to help each child personalize his or her portfolio.

Students were asked to write commentaries about their accomplishments in each school subject. The commentary sheets allowed for individual student interpretation of (a) the requirements of their initial assignment, (b) their reflection of their effort and achievement, and (c) their opinion about the ways they might strengthen their performance. When asking the children to reflect on their performance on particular activities, we emphasized that the students might notice variations in their performance on school tasks based on their particular learning strengths and intelligences. Allowing for and encouraging students to talk about these differences in their commentaries further personalized each child’s portfolio. Thus, when a student completed a commentary for a particular assignment or subject, they revealed their individual attitudes, accomplishments, and goals.

Because we expected a thorough effort in each commentary, we carefully paced the development of the commentaries. We knew that if we wanted to obtain authentic and meaningful responses from the students, we had to allow adequate time to complete each commentary about the different activities they wished to showcase. Several days before the conferences, students sorted and organized their work samples and completed commentaries about them.

Rehearsing for the Conference

Our fifth lesson was focused on helping our students learn the skills necessary for presenting their work to their parents. We developed an agenda outlining a formal introduction and an arrangement of portfolio contents. Figure 10.9 shows a sample of this agenda.

We had our students organize the contents of their portfolio according to this agenda. We then modeled a student following this agenda as she talked with her “parent” about her portfolio. As students observed this demonstration, we asked them to take notes on statements that the student model made that they might like to use in their own conference. We arranged to have older students (e.g., 8th grade) from our school volunteer to serve as surrogate parents for our rehearsal session. The older students observed the model conference as well. Then each of our students was paired up with an 8th-grade student for about 20 to 25 minutes for a conference dress rehearsal. The older students, by means of asking questions and giving encouragement, guided the students through their conference presentation.

Figure 10.8 Sample Commentary Sheet for 4th-Grade Reading and for Behavior

Figure 10.9 4th-Grade Student’s Conference Agenda

Preparing Parents

We explained the benefits of this new conference format to parents through an announcement at our fall back-to-school night and in a series of letters sent home to parents over several months. Our first letter asked parents to (a) understand and support the idea that students can explain their learning progress, (b) recognize that this method of reporting seeks to put the child in a more active stance regarding accountability for his or her work, and (c) show belief in their child by their attendance at the conference. Although parents had received information about the student-led conference at the beginning of the year at the parents’ information meeting, they needed a formal invitation as the conference time drew near. The teachers sent home a letter restating the purpose and significance of the conference, informing parents of when and where the conference would be held and suggesting who should attend. The letter contained a response portion that offered parents a choice of one of four possible appointment times scheduled during after-school and after work hours. Parents returned the response portion to the teacher indicating whether they could come and choosing one of the four appointment times. Several days before the conference, the teacher followed up with phone calls to those parents who did not send in a response and encouraged them to attend or send someone else (e.g., an aunt, an older brother or sister) in their place if necessary.

We knew that parents would appreciate some tips on how to help their child conduct an effective conference. Our goal was to introduce parents to a more open-ended and reflexive style of questioning that might be more empowering for the student. We introduced parents to these new, more reflexive ways of talking with their children through discussion, role-playing, handouts, and letter-writing prompts.

10.4 Student-Led Parent Conferences with Younger Students

Simultaneous student-led conferences can also be conducted in primary classrooms. A change from teaching 4th grade to 1st grade prompted the second author (KD) to attempt the process of preparing for and leading conferences by younger children and to make several modifications to our approach. First, she decided to follow the same general format for the conference. This consisted of having the child direct their parent to a table and proceeding through an explanation of their learning using a conference agenda that would remind them what to show, explain, and demonstrate of what they had been learning in school. Once they had reviewed their work, students and parents were asked to create a goal setting plan together, using the same goal setting form we used with 4th-grade students (see Figure 10.3) in which (a) parent and child identify what they judge to be the student’s strengths and areas in need of further development, (b) together they set some specific goals for what students may want to work on learning, and (c) they decide on actions that the student and parent might take to advance those goals. At the end of these activities, students were directed to an adjoining classroom to write a thank-you note to their parents and to bring back refreshments for themselves and their parents. During this time, parents were invited to write a letter to their child commenting on the student’s conference performance. To encourage parents to give constructive feedback we used the same guide (see Figure 10.5) we had used with 4th-grade students.

However, we knew that we needed to consider how we might stimulate younger children to talk about their learning. We decided to take photos of class experiences and to modify the commentary sheets we had used with the 4th-grade students. Interestingly, it was the modified commentary sheets that motivated the children most. With guidance, these 6- and 7-year-old children were able to reflect on their classroom performance in meaningful ways. Besides the subject specific commentary sheets, the self-awareness section was also modified and then used to begin the conference. The self-awareness activities for the 1st-grade students were limited to reporting “about me” types of information focusing on their likes, dislikes, and other informal information. As with the self-awareness section of the 4th-grade conferences, this self-awareness activity seemed to put both student and parent at ease as the conference began.

The agenda proved to be instrumental in guiding the 1st-grade conference. Our agenda was a reflection of our daily schedule. When we prepared the children for their conference, we referred to the agenda as a “map.” Like a map, the agenda helped each child to get to the right place, the end of the conference. By following the items on the agenda, the child was assured of making the right stops along the way. First-grade students understood and embraced this concept. Parents were also able to guide their child by using the agenda as a prompt. Each item on the agenda had a matching commentary sheet. There were also materials listed in parenthesis that were supplements for the children to refer to as they covered the topics on their agenda. Figure 10.10 shows a copy of this agenda.

Figure 10.10 First Grader’s Conference Agenda

As with the 4th-grade students, rehearsal helped prepare the 1st-grade students for their conferences. We invited in children from our 4th- or 5th-grade classrooms who had experienced leading a parent conference to help them practice. While with their practice buddy, each child followed their agenda and shared from their portfolio and matching materials. The only part of the agenda omitted during the practice session was the goal-setting task that they were to complete with their parent (see Figure 10.3). When the students conducted their actual conference, they discussed their learning activities with their parents, completed the goal-setting tasks with them, and then students and parents wrote thank-you notes, which they shared with each other over refreshments (see Figure 10.4).

Benefits for Younger Students

We have met with great success in using student-led conferences in our 1st-grade classroom. The mutual pride felt by parents and children is captured in the feedback we requested from parents and students about the conference. Most parents were surprised and impressed that their young child could lead a conference and commented, “He was in charge,” or “I was actually surprised at how well he presented.” Several parents noted how the structure of the conference provided an effective scaffolding for their children, stating, “The agenda helped guide the students,” or “It [the format] allowed her to be the leader and forced me to listen to her,” or “I was so impressed that the students led this detailed agenda. I loved the photos of my student at work.” Moreover, a number of parents identified specific benefits for their children and for themselves from the new conference format, stating, “Running the conference really helps build confidence,” or “This was empowering for the kids and exciting for the parents,” or “This gave the parents a chance to see the child’s progress from the child’s perspective.”

Depicting this empowering effect, children’s comments seemed to demonstrate an awareness of how their learning efforts and their classroom behavior reaped personal benefits. One child noted, “I work hard at reading. I try to read chapter books. Ms. Dolan said I do my reading log more than anyone in the class. It is hard to do it. Now when my mom spells things I can guess it.” Another child noted, “I like spelling tests because it is quiet and warm. I study at my home before it is the day of the test. I also like spelling because we mostly write spelling words that have ‘t.’ Do you mostly write ‘t’ words?” Further, one child noted, “I looked at my report card. It said that I did not pay attention in class. I tried hard to pay attention in class. My next report card said that I did better at paying attention. I was happy and so were my parents.” Another child provided a window into her experience of the classroom social climate with the comment, “We speak well of everyone. Be nice to everyone. Help each other. These things matter in our classroom. And because these things matter, I have made lots of friends.”

It has been heartwarming and inspirational to see these young children use this model to share their learning experiences with their families. Although teachers might initially think that students in kindergarten and 1st grade are too young to participate effectively in such conferences, our experience and that of other teachers proved otherwise (Davies, Cameron, Politano, & Gregory, 1992). There are now a variety of online resources as well as text sources available describing how teachers of younger children have found student-led parent conferences to be a powerful way to celebrate the child as a learner (www.NellieEdge.com). You can also find a delightful video clip online created by Linda Young and her Title 1 kindergartners depicting the ways that kindergartners can celebrate their learning with their parents (Young, 2011). Moreover, a number of years ago, Picciotto (1996) described how she developed and managed student-led parent conferences with children in grades K–3.

Discussion

Each of our 4th-grade and 1st-grade students had parents or relatives who came for their conferences. After our students conducted their conferences, we noticed a curious phenomenon. Our students seemed to feel more confident about themselves and their learning. A number of them spoke more deliberately about their efforts to prepare themselves for a test or a project. Others seemed more ready to undertake an activity that was difficult for them rather than avoid it as they had done in the past. We began to realize that it was not just “doing the conference” that seemed to make the difference; instead, the experience of talking about themselves and their learning as they responded to our questions called a more confident student into being. What was different about these questions?

As we thought back over what we had done to help students prepare for the event, we realized that we often used (and coached parents to use) questions and other meta-cognitive strategies (Costa & Kallick, 2000; Tollefson & Osborn, 2007) that allowed the student to become an observer of their own experience. Becoming an observer of your own thoughts and behavior is a necessary first step toward teaching or changing a behavior. Asking certain types of reflection-enhancing questions can often open the eyes of students and facilitate the development of a new awareness of their competencies or of their situation by scaffolding particular metacognitive strategies. For instance, we often asked such questions as, “Just how did you go about doing this assignment? How did you feel about your effort?” This enhanced students’ awareness of how they went about their work. We also asked questions that helped our students develop a greater awareness of their previous successes, such as, “What kinds of things have you done in the past when you tackled something that was hard for you to do?” and “How were you able to stick with something that was hard for you to do and see it through to the end?” and “What might you have learned about yourself from doing something hard in the past that you can use here?” As our students worked with us, busily preparing their portfolios and rehearsing what they were going to say to their parents about their learning, we believed that they became more aware of their unique interests, their “smarts,” and their strengths and weaknesses. In addition, they became more skilled in thinking and talking about what they had learned, examining how they had progressed, and in thinking of themselves as self-directed learners—able to set their own learning goals, judge their own work, and determine what they must do to improve.

As we engaged in this process with our students, observing how actively they worked to develop their portfolios and to explain them to their parents, our views of our students and their parents changed. We began to look at our students more often in terms of their competencies and strengths rather than in terms of deficits we needed to address. As we did this, our own role changed. Rather than thinking that we had to make all of the decisions about our students’ learning goals, design the activities necessary to reach those goals, or supply what was needed to help orchestrate the conference experience, we realized that we could share the responsibility for goal setting and planning with our students and their parents.

Another benefit of using this conferencing practice is the opportunity it presents to assess your own practice and program carefully as you decide what to include in the conference and how to prepare your students for it. What is really important? What activities or work samples might you encourage students to present that help parents really see what we are doing in our classroom? How can you organize the conference activities so that students and parents are comfortable and confident in their new roles? What do you want students to learn from this experience? In addition, implementing this new conferencing practice provides a curricular benefit. Having students reflect on their learning activities provides important feedback to teachers. Do most students understand the objectives of your assignments? Do they understand how they can improve their work? How can you, as an educator, plan assignments that are useful measures of curricular objectives as well as meaningful experiences for children? By listening to the conversations that students have with their parents and observing their interactions, teachers can learn what a student is thinking about particular lessons. Does the student understand the goals of a lesson? How do they talk about their performance? Can they explain their performance to their parents? What are they learning from this?

A further benefit is that of seeing how particular students and parents interact. By observing their interactions, teachers can discern how parents interact with their children around school matters. Are they supportive and encouraging? Are they impatient? Are they controlling? Another benefit is seeing how much of a resource the parent can be to the child in completing school tasks. Does the parent understand the particular classroom activities and assignments? Do they understand the ways that the child is recording and gauging their progress? Observing parents’ reactions may influence us to adjust our cur-ricular program or to provide clearer information about particular instructional activities or routines.

A final benefit of such conferences is that teachers have an opportunity to interact with parents in a more relaxed and non-problematic context. Parents indicated that this new conference format felt more personal and engaging than the traditional teacher-centered conference. In addition, by asking parents to participate actively in helping their child assess their areas of strength, set goals, and make plans for future learning, we created a more visible role for them in their children’s learning process. We know that parents really are their children’s earliest and most enduring teachers. Educators cannot possibly give students the individual attention they need to help them realize their full potential. By involving parents in activities, such as student-led conferences, we help them become more aware of their children’s needs and signal the parents’ importance in this endeavor.

We do recognize that the impact of this type of conference may differ, depending on the ethnic–cultural background of the family. Although the development of children in leadership roles aligns very closely with individualistic value structures, this role may not be a role for children valued in families having more collectivistic values (Turner-Vorbeck & Marsh, 2008). In this latter group of families, children are expected to look to parents for leadership and guidance (Quiroz, Greenfield, & Altchech, 1999). We believe that these cultural traditions may be bridged so that dominant-cultural strategies are combined with those that are more familiar to parents of nondominant cultural traditions (Ramirez & Soto-Hinman, 2009). For example, at the elementary school level, we structured our conference format as a group conference in which the teacher first presented information and then allowed the children to share their work. We assumed that such a conference format might build on collectivist values and might be less threatening and allow parents to gain insights and information from one another as questions and discussions ensued during the conference. It is also important to address language differences by providing a translator for families if needed.

Summary

In conclusion, when we initially decided to introduce our students and their parents to student-led conference practices, we initially saw the conference as a reporting activity and language only as a tool through which our students would describe the external reality of their performance. As we helped our students generate new and different knowledge about themselves, we found our own role as educators changing as well. Not only were we concerned with helping students report on their learning, but also we invited students to think about themselves in new ways. As a result, we found the student-led conference to be a powerful learning strategy for helping students view themselves differently and engage more fully in their learning.

Activities and Questions

1. Imagine that you were teaching a particular grade level. What might be some types of activities that you would like for your students to showcase in their student-led parent conference? What types of questions might you ask that would help students to explain or demonstrate their thinking and skill development? How might you adapt your activities if the families of your students did not speak English?

2. Why have teachers moved toward use of student-led parent conferences? What do you see as the relative benefits of having a student-led parent conference? What might be the benefits of having a more traditional parent–teacher conference that the student does not attend?

Resources

Implementing Student-Led Conferences in Your School National Association of Secondary School Principals http://mlei.pbworks.com/f/SLCPP.pdf

Although this PowerPoint presentation was developed for use with secondary level teachers, it provides practical information useful to teachers of younger children.

Student-Led Parent Conferences Kansas Parent Information Resource Center Phone: 866-711-6711 www.kpirc.org/uploads/student_led.pdf

The Kansas Parent Information Resource Center (KPIRC) assembled this resource on student-led parent conferences to help teachers implement this conference format. The resource highlights the experience of teachers with student-led parent conferences.