Week 6 Discussion 1 Family School Problem Solving

Week 6 Discussion 1 Family School Problem Solving

Summarize the 6 steps involved in conducting family-school problem solving meetings. Explain why this process is ideal when dealing with culturally diverse families. Include why the listening and communications skills discussed in earlier assignments and specifically mentioned in Chapters 8 and 11, are key to successful problem solving. Respond to at least two of your classmates’ postings.

Readings

1. Read from your text, Building culturally responsive family-school relationships :

· Chapter 11: Engaging in Collaborative Problem Solving with Families

· Chapter 12: Family-Centered Parent Involvement and Shared Decisions Making in Special Education Classrooms

· Chapter 14: Seeing the Big Picture: Creating a School Climate that Strengthens Family-School Connections 

Recommended Resources

1. IRIS Center. (2018). The pre-referral process (Links to an external site.) . Retrieved from https://iris.peabody.vanderbilt.edu/module/preref/

· Explanation of the pre-referral process, includes information on how to involve parents in the process.  

2. IRIS Center. (2018). Outline: The pre-referral process (Links to an external site.) . Retrieved from https://iris.peabody.vanderbilt.edu/wp-content/uploads/pdf_module_outlines/preref.pdf

· Description of the purpose of the pre-referral process and explanation of the six stages of the pre-referral process.

Instructor Guidance

Week 6

In the last week of our class together, we are putting together the pieces that we have studied so far into a comprehensive, collaborative environment. This week’s learning outcomes include that you will summarize the steps in conducting a problem-solving meeting and explaining the steps teachers may want to take in order to understand the cultural views of a family that has a student with a learning disability. Do you feel prepared, as a teacher, to build collaborative approaches to family and school relationships? Do you feel prepared to deal with the range of diversity in your classrooms and to work with students who have special needs? Maybe you do; maybe you don’t. It is not easy to do these things, but that does not mean we should not try. Hopefully, after completing this week’s work, you will be better prepared to go to your school and work with the range of students in the classrooms. In the first discussion for the week you should summarize the steps that are involved in conducting a problem-solving meeting. Go on to explain why these steps work well when faced with culturally diverse families. Chapters 8 and 11 will be very helpful for this discussion.  In the second discussion for this week, you are asked to explain three suggestions that a teacher might want to use in an IEP meeting, particularly when working with cultural diversity in the family. Ideally you will focus on the teacher’s need to understand the family’s cultural view regarding the disability and then make connections between the policy of your school and the family’s views. For the final project, you have been asked to develop a presentation and supporting paper for the staff at your school. You must provide to the staff the information they need in order to understand the collaborative paradigm and the need for change at your school. As you look at the outline for this paper, you will see that you will want to address family needs and how to understand them, summarize the definition and understanding of culturally responsive teaching, and present an approach to link your school and families with the community. You will create two files for this project. The first is a presentation of approximately 10 to 15 slides, and the second is a 7 to 10 page paper that accompanies the presentation. Remember, you are attempting to persuade your coworkers of the need for change and that you have an outline for how to make it happen. Please be sure to review all requirements and the grading rubric as you build your presentation and write your paper.

References

Amatea, E. S. (2013). Building culturally responsive family-school relationships (2nd ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc.

Discussion 1: Family-School Problem Solving

Chapter 11:  Engaging in Collaborative Problem Solving with Families

In this chapter, you will find the 6 steps to a Family-School Meeting.  On page 282 of your textbook, there are 6 simple steps in conducting a family-school problem-solving meeting.

Step 1:             S            Set up the meeting.

Step 2:             O           Open the meeting.  Explain the purpose and introduce participants.

Step 3:             L            Listen to concerns of families and participants.

Step 4:             V            Validate their concerns.  Create a sense of being on the same page                                                                   and having similar goals.

Step 5:             E           Expand solution ideas.  Get ideas from families and school participants.

Step 6:             S           Set up and Implement the Action Plan

Following this course as well as other courses in multicultural education you may have taken in the past, do you feel prepared to conduct a meeting that both validates as well as creates common solutions?    Are you better equipped to work with families of multicultural backgrounds?  Are you prepared to help create solutions in which families and school participants share power?