Promoting Comprehension Through Parent Involvement
by V. Susan Bennett-Armistead
Your assignment is to read chapter 11 on parent support in your selected reading section of your reading packet.
Please reflect on the following key questions:
1. How might parent involvement efforts improve achievements in reading comprehension?
2. What are the barriers to parent involvement in your community?
3. What are your ideas that would involve parents who traditionally do not get involved at school?
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8 comments:
I think parents are vitally important to the success of our students. They are their first role models. We know that kids who read more do better in school. Parents need to realize the importance of reading at an early age, and they also need to understand the importance of ongoing reading. This past year, I spent a little more time during our parent orientation talking about the importance of reading at home. I also brought it up at every parent-teacher conference. I think it really helped. I had many more parents talking to me about what their kids were reading. I also sent home a letter in the students' last report card reminding kids and parents that it is important to continue reading over the summer. Our Reading Teacher also has informational articles in each school newsletter.
I think another barrier is scheduling. Parents have very busy lives, and it is difficult for them to get in the schools. Every year I have several volunteers in my room during my Reading Workshop. The parents who do get involved always mention how much they enjoy reading what the kids are reading and discussing the books with the kids. I also think these parents also look at reading at home a little differently. They start to ask better questions and have discussions about books at home.
I like the idea of a Family Reading Night. At another school that I taught in, we always had a Reading Night. I really enjoyed participating in it as a teacher. I think it is a great way to get families involved. Currently, we have a science night and a math night. I would like to eventually see a reading night at our school. However, it does seem as if it is always the same families who participate in these events. As a school, we have to find ways to bring in more parents. I like the idea of the kids inviting their parents. The parents are more apt to participate if the kids are excited about the event.
Getting parents involved is an ongoing process that is truly important. It is important to have open communication throughout the year. Ultimately, kids will learn better when they have positive role models all around them.
I am looking for ideas from others about keeping track of "at home reading." Do others have kids keep a reading log? Do you have parents sign the logs? How often do you have the kids turn a new log? What have you found to be the most successful? Thanks
Parent involvement efforts can improve achievements in reading comprehension by modeling to students that their parents believe that reading is important.
Some of the barriers to overcome to get parents better involved within the community is schedule, transpertation, care of younger children, overcoming the concepts that it is more work for teachers and parents or that they are not welcome or have nothing to offer.
Some of the ways that I involve parents is to have an at home reading calendar that tracks what is read with parents and how many minutes are spent reading. This is rewarded at the end of each month. Also, I give the parents a book mark that has some general reading comprehension questions on it, so parents can talk to their children about what they are reading and help them develop good comprehension skills. Also, we hold a Parents in Education Night at my school that is used to teach them what to do when they come into the class to read with students and what to do at home.
1) "Meaningfully connecting with families", is the component to student success, as stated by Susan Bennett-Armistead. Parents form children's habits. If parents read, and talk about reading, regularity, children copy this. I think that children will copy reading to some extent even if they do not care for reading. I feel as a teacher, my job is to promote the love of reading and if parents model reading we are the village educating the child. And, yes, it is more work involving parents but the rewards to the work are great for the student and teacher success! Studies show that higher scoring children come from homes where there is greater parent involvement.
I also think parent involvement improves student success because parents do know their children well and communication with parents can only help to understand, assist and teach. "Every parent is an expert on his or her own child," as cited by the Williamson Project.
And, I would add, if they are not an expert, talking with their teacher can only improve the child's success.
2) Some barrilers in parent involvement include time. Parents schedules are compacted by more than one working parent, blended families and sports after school for more than one child. Another barrier to paent involvement is parent's negative eperiences in their own education as well as their childrens'. Some parents have some big hurdels to overcome. Their children have had some negative experiences. As their resource teacher overcoming these barriers is continuous.
3) Prior to sharing the ways I involve my families, I must say: I found the "Parent tips for Nurturing Readers" to be perfect! Also, perfect - "The Recipe for Literacy." And so, in sharing what I do - these two pieces
I will be sharing with the parents of my students.
I attempt to "connect" by posting sayings in my classroom that revolve around parents and children working together. I also talk about working with parents. When students enter my resource program, parents meet with me so that they can question and I can explain the resource program. I e-mail parents discussing the time I spend on particular subjects. Together we decide if my focus should be more on other areas, thus involving parents in educational decisions. I have regularily scheduled parent volunteers. Typically, these parents are either teachers or have a college degree in the area we are teaching. I connect with public schools utilizing their resources and inservices. I design "parent packets" for parents to work with their children at home for guided study -especially for during the summer. In reviewing Joyce Epstien's six areas of involvement, I can see that I can do more to work on collaorating with the community and I think there is always room for increased parent communication.
I’ve always said that involved parents help a struggling child achieve more even if that child has less ability than the struggling child without involved parents. Reinforcement and modeling are essential in a child’s education. Parents who show a desire to help their child regardless of their own ability show the child the importance of education and learning.
It seems a big barrier to parent involvement is work. Some parents work second shift and leave their child with an older sibling or one parent and there is more than one child in the house needing attention. Others work until dinner time, and by the time dinner is done it’s time for bed, and then the kids and parents are too tired to sit and read. Several, if not 90% of the students I work with have working parents and a good portion of the parents were also once struggling learners. The parents may not feel equipped to work with their child at night. Or, several children I work with also are identified with ADHD and their medication is out of the system by dinner. And, then the cyclical problem of Mom and Dad being tired after a long day and not wanting to put up the fight to sit and work with their child.
To involve the parents, I try to minimize the sitting time it takes to read. If reading is truly a struggle for the child or even sitting and listening to a story is, I ask five to eight minutes as a goal. That is the starting goal. Often five to eight will stretch longer, but it does not seem as daunting to a parent. Another strategy is discussing things as dinner is being prepared. This is not only reading related, but math with clocks, money, following directions when setting the table, etc. Reading logs seem to work well for the younger primary kids.
I do like the idea of a reading night like math and science night. Would the parents who would really benefit come?
1) Parents have the ability to enrich their child's life by just talking with them. As mentioned in Anne Ketch's article Conversation: The comprehension connection, communicating with children helps them make sense of their world. They become more mindful of their environment and build a broader background of knowledge that enables them to create connections with new information. These extentions can better support their reading comprehension.
2) Generally speaking the barriers in our school are related to time constraints with working, daycare issues, language,previous unpleasant experiences with school, and the perspective that it's the school's responsibility to educate their child. The latter is the most disappointing. It has been a struggle to help those families who won't see they are the most important teacher their child will ever have.
3) Parents cannot always be involved at school however, parents are still a vital component to their child's education. My students take home a nightly planner in which I can communicate with parents. There they can jot down what when well or not during homework. I also encourage parents to write down special notes to their child. Children take pride in their work knowing they are being recognized. Parents often include notes on how their child may be feeling emotionally whether home/school related.For those students who attend Homework Club I ask parents to look over their child's work to keep them up to date on what their child is learning.
As much as I would enjoy having more parent volunteers in my classroom, I still believe that following through in the evening when their child comes home is as important if not more because of the individual time they spend together.
1. I think parent involvement will help reading comprehension in the following ways:
-Parents modeling reading and their use of reading strategies will promote more and better reading among kids, which will improve comprehension.
-Kids will see the importance of reading when it is emphasized at home.
-Parents will start to see that they have much to offer to their kids, and this will only help the kids more.
-Ultimately, kids will read more or be read to more, and all the research out there says this is what kids need most to improve comprehension.
2. Here are the following barriers in our community:
-some parents just are not involved in their child's education.
-parents who feel it is our job to exclusively teach the kids.
-parents who feel somewhat helpless and feel they cannot make a difference.
-parents who are negative about school because of bad experiences
-both parents working long hours and feeling they cannot spend their time reading with their child.
-distorted priorities: sports and other extra-curriculars being more important.
3. Here are some ideas for involving reluctant parents:
-weekly e-mail communications that highlight class activities and suggest at-home reading materials and strategies parents can use with their child.
-simply ask parents to spend at least 15 minutes a day/night reading with their children - even have the kids log the minutes and have parents sign to verify.
-provide some evidence for parents from research that supports that kids whose parents read with them show greater gains in comprehension than those who do not.
-visit the public library with classes and be sure that they have library cards and know how to find materials appropriate for them.
-we also have all the parents come to school with the kids on the first day for an hour or two -- this would be a great opportunity to share reading materials and strategies that parents could utilize at home.
I feel parent involvement is a very important key to children reading. Children model what they see. If they see their parents reading, they will be more likely to read. If a child's parents are positive and excited about them reading, the child will become excited too. I see a lot of parents with the "it's the schools responsibility" approach. They want the teachers and specialists to do the work because that is our job. But I feel the true "love" for reading needs to be fostered at home as well as a school. Plus children love to spend quality, one on one time with their parents, and what better way then to read with them!
The barriers to parent involvement that I see in the community I work in include time, effort and attitude. Parents always use the excuse that they are too busy or don't have enough time to read with their children. While I understand the chaos of family life it is my responsibility to carve out that 10-15 minutes everyday. I even admit there are days when the reading does not get done, but luckily there are weekends when you can spend a little more time reading with your child. This last statement ties in with the effort barrier. Parents need to make the effort and read with or to their children. It is easy to make excuses but it will only hurt your child in the long run. The final barrier I see is attitude. I can't believe the number of time I have sat in special ed meetings and listened to parents tell us it is not their job to read to their child, that is what we get paid for. Every time I hear that comment it is hard to bite my tongue. What parent does not want the best for their child/ children? Reading is so important in everyday life...why not strengthen that skill?
I try and get parents involved by sending out monthly/ bi-monthly newsletters about what we are working on in my at-risk groups. I always include with those all my contact info and encourage them to contact me with any questions or concerns. Rarely do I ever get contacted so I have been brainstorming ways to increase parent contact.
Parental involvement efforts can improve achievement in reading comprehension when parents display a passion for reading and share their newly gleaned knowledge with their teenager. This is especially true when parents share books with their teenagers that they’ve felt passionate about. This was true growing up in my home. I always wondered why my mother would read while she was curling her hair, brushing her teeth, eating breakfast, or every other free chance she had. She noticed that this made me curious and I asked her a lot of questions about reading, so she started to give me sets of books that she loved to read when she was younger. I didn’t take to reading immediately, but I didn’t give up because I new it must be very important to read often if I saw my mother doing it all of the time.
The main barrier to parental involvement in my community is the parental perception that a teenager’s schooling is his/her own responsibility and business. The thought seems to be, “My child is old enough to handle his own affairs.” This is evident on parent/teacher conference nights. Out of the hundred or so parents that I should talk to during these conferences, I end up seeing about five or six parents per conference. Some parents have given up on their teenagers and ask for my guidance. Probably the saddest parental barrier is when parents have had a history of negative school dealings regarding their child, so they decide to distance themselves entirely from talking to teachers.
To involve parents of high school-aged students who normally don’t get involved, I could do the following:
*Sponsor a parent/teen night at a local bookstore or Barnes and Noble. Ask some teenagers to give a short talk on their favorite books to the parent/teen group. Have new titles presented to teens, especially high-interest titles. Ask the manager of the store to give a discount for books bought by the parent/teen group. Also serve free refreshments to the group.
*Ask parents to read the same book as their teenager. They can either buy two copies and read simultaneously, or they can take turns reading the same copy. Then have the teenager interview his/her parent on the book.
*Have the teenager assign a book for his/her parent to read and then the parent can assign his/her child to read a book of the parent’s choice.
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