Family Engagement Plan
A home-school partnership guide for Kindergarten families
Family Engagement Belief Statement
Dear families,
We are excited to have you and your son/daughter be part of my wonderful Kindergarten class. You may be wondering why we have decided to create an eFlyer dedicated to YOU. Well, if you are thinking partnering with families is important for Kindergarten teachers, you are 100% correct!
One of our goals every year is to build a partnership with each of our student’s families, because we believe parents are the most important people in their children’s lives. Children learn about the world and their place in it through their conversations, play activities, and routines with parents. We tend to think that schools should stick to teaching academics and that home is the place where children's moral and emotional development should take place. However, children don't stop learning about values and relationships when they enter the classroom, nor do they cease learning academics--and attitudes about learning--when they are at home. They constantly observe how the significant adults in their lives treat one another, how decisions are made and executed, and how problems are solved. Therefore, it is OUR job to work together and support each other for the betterment of your son or daughter’s academic performance, social development, and emotional well-being.
According to the National Center of Family Professional Partnerships, a partnership is a relationship between individuals that is characterized by mutual cooperation and a responsibility for the achievement of a specified goal. In a partnership, the people involved recognize, respect and value what other does and says. This basic definition should be the guiding principle as we think about how our classrooms should be organized.
The meaningful involvement and support from you are essential. Participation in classroom and school activities gives you a chance to learn about the professional side of schooling--to understand the workings of the curriculum and the instruction. It also allows me to learn about each individual family. Working together as full partners can create an educational program that meets the needs of the classroom community, and can foster a caring and sensitive classroom climate that respects and responds to each student's uniqueness.
Our goal throughout the year will be to open the line of communication to effectively discuss any goal that you would like your child to achieve, or any concern relevant to your child's academic success or well-being. Constant communication helps ensure that both schools and homes are responsive to student's individual and unique needs and therefore support children's overall development. Through building a collaboration network where we can support each other, I hope to enhance lifelong learning so your child can success. When we work together, we can help your child overcome school/home challenges and thus realize their full potential.
Thank you for being part of our class!
Sincerely,
The Kindergarten Teachers
References
National Center for Family Professional Partnerships, 2016, Web.
Strategy for getting to know families
Understanding my students is very important to teaching, in order to plan how to teach our students, or to know ways to present a subject in an interesting manner, a teacher needs to know what motivates students, what background the students are bringing to the classroom, as well as the students’ interests. As we have learned being pre-service teachers, students have cognitive skills, social beliefs, and physical abilities that they bring from home to their classroom. Knowing a little of this home background helps us understand our students, and in turn we can answer questions, such as “How can we help this student learn better?” and “What can we learn from the family about their child to help him/her succeed?
Empirical research has suggested that “meaningful family engagement in children’s early learning supports school readiness and later academic success” (Moodie & Stark, 2009). Therefore, parental involvement is a critical element of high-quality early in education. In order to create rapport with each of my student’s families, and promote family engagement, we have decided to send home a set of surveys to get to know every one of you at a personal level. To establish a connection with you, and learn about your family’s priorities, strengths, and needs, and your talents and how you can share them in order to contribute to the learning experience of our Kindergarteners. We will also ask some questions about you (as parents) and about your child that address the following areas:
- Parental Support--How much help are students getting at home?
- Child Behaviors--What habits have students developed that shape their success?
- Parent Engagement--How engaged are you in your child’s schooling, and what potential barriers exist?
- Parent Self-Efficacy--How confident are you in supporting their child’s schooling?
- School Climate--How do parents view their school regarding academic and social standards?
- School Program Fit--How well do a school’s academic program, social climate, and organizational structure match a student’s needs?
- Parent Roles and Responsibilities– How do you view their roles as well as teachers’ roles in different aspects of their child’s schooling?
The overall purpose behind these surveys (and their subsequent importance in the learning environment) is very relevant. The National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) has established that through family surveys schools can: “promote shared decision making by asking for family input on program-specific practices and policies; assess family needs, wants, and program satisfaction to guide program quality improvements; learn about family expectations for their child’s learning, for parent-teacher conferences, and other aspects of the of the program; and learn whether families are taking advantage of the opportunities the program provides” (Nank, 2012). We believe that recognizing each family’s diverse needs and expectations calls for me to use that information to develop goals, and to establish a comprehensive approach of involvement based on Epstein’s Model of Family Engagement (2001) in the following elements: Parenting, communicating, volunteering opportunities for parents, learning at home, decision making, and collaborating with community (Moodie & Stark, 2009).
In addition to the parent survey, we will send home a student survey, which will require you and your child to work together towards the same goal. This will further communicate to your child your involvement in his/her educational experiences. The time that you spend together could be a learning time for your child as they get to know theirselves better, for you as you get to know them better, and for us to start building a relationship with your child from the start!
Each survey will be available in both electronic and printed form.
References
Halgunseth, L.C., Peterson, A. (2009) https://www.naeyc.org/files/naeyc/file/research/FamEngage.pdf
Nank, Jack (2012) https://www.naeyc.org/familyengagement/resources/conducting-family-survey
Sample of Parent Survey https://www.surveymonkey.com/mp/harvard-education-surveys/
parent-teacher communication
We all know that keeping parents in the loop is a top priority when establishing strong home-school partnerships. Throughout the year we will try to invite you as often as we can to participate in classroom activities so that you can have an active role in your child's education. However, to further increase rapport, we have decided to create two ways we will communicate with you throughout the year. In this sections we will include the frequency and timeframe for the communication, as well as a draft template
Weekly Newsletters
Surveys of parents consistently prove that they read school newsletters and consider them a useful source of information. Parents indicate that classroom newsletters are even more helpful.
Following are some things of what we will include in these newsletters:
- Announcement of upcoming events
- Invitations to class activities or open house
- Reminders
- Lists of items parents could collect or save for class projects
- Thank you notes to families who help out
- Descriptions of study units and suggestions of ways to supplement units at home
- Library schedule
- Explanations of grades and behavior standards and consequences of misbehavior
- Highlights of community resources such as a museum exhibit, play, concert, or television show
- Bulletin board updates on children's work
- News about classroom pets, trips, celebrations
Other points we will consider when developing our newsletter, include:
- Length: We will keep newsletters brief and to the point! We will keep the newsletter to one-page long.
- Tone: The newsletter projects an image will vary according to holidays, special events at school, etc.
- Frequency: The newsletters will be sent on a weekly basis, to update you on the items previously mentioned. We strongly encourage you to read the weekly newsletter, which will be sent in both English and Spanish (depending on the language of your preference), so you can expect it every Monday and look for it!
- Format: The format will be simple but professional-looking, with clearly labeled sections to help you locate topics easily. We will make the newsletter available in both paper and electronic copies (to further conserve paper!). In the parent survey we will ask what is your preferred format.
Communication Logs
Another means of more personal communication will be sending personal notes to you on your child's success, special anecdotes/news about him/her, or areas of improvement. We believe that with positive first contacts with parents, we are able to gain parents' trust and confidence before we have to enlist your help if a problem should develop.
We feel sharing good news about individual children with their parents are warm touches on paper which go a long way in cultivating good relationships with both parents and students. When sending these notes we will be asking ourselves the following questions: Has a child accomplished an academic goal? Helped you or someone else? Finished her or his homework on time? Tutored a younger child? Led a group?
Good-news notes allow us to recognize and reward the efforts of individual students, and, if areas of improvement need to be addressed, know that we do so to best serve the needs of your child to the best of our abilities.
We would like to give you two words of caution:
- As requested per school administration, we are required to keep track of the good-news notes you send out so every student occasionally receives one (we have been told some teachers routinely write several a week, so we will try to do the same as well!)
- We never distribute the notes en masse. They are not special if everyone gets one!
Keep in mind that sometimes (unfortunately) not all your personal notes will be good news! Perhaps we notice that a child seems sick, or constantly tired. Perhaps a shy student seems to be withdrawing more every day. We care about every student, and we need to tell parents! However, no matter what the nature of our personal note, we always invite a response from the parents. We urge you to call your corresponding teacher, schedule an appointment, or write back. If you don't, we can get your permission to call you, because we want to show you that WE CARE.
We would also love to hear from you from time to time to listen to any questions or concerns. Please know that each of us is registered in ClassDojo and that you are more than welcome to write us ANYTIME! We will be using this app daily to share with you pictures of the classroom activities, individual work, classroom updates/news, volunteer opportunities, etc. As each teacher has her own account, the information that you or I share is private and only meant to be seen by our class (if it is a public announcement) or me (if it is a more private matter). We will providing a ClassDojo instructions sheet the first week of class for you to know how it works and how to set up an account.
Below you will find the format of the Communication Log we will be sending home in your child's Take-Home folder.
Classroom Newsletter
Communication Log
ClassDojo
Kindergarten Family Literacy Night
Rationale and Goals
Family Literacy Night is held every year at our school, and it gives parents and their children a time, a place, and some helpful guidelines from experienced teachers to write, read, and share their ideas. Its purpose is to write and read for individual enjoyment and build a stronger sense of writing as a benefit to the family and to the school community. Kindergarteners and their families can learn to enjoy reading early in life by listening to storybooks read by parents or other caregivers (and in their preferred language). By participating in storybook reading, they learn a variety of literacy skills that prepare them for learning to read. For example, they begin to become familiar with typical story elements and with print concepts, such as directionality and how it works in our culture. Yet one of the most heartfelt rewards when sharing reading with children is to see them begin to express their reactions and show their curiosity about things that are read to them. Having access to a variety of literacy experiences during childhood helps children begin to build interest in reading. For this reason, when parents and educator become role models and read to children, they are helping them discover the love for reading.
Event Details
- Roles of participants: teachers and administrators will be in charge of running the camp providing parents support and interact with parents and other caregivers as they carry out each station. Parents will be in charge of guiding their child’s learning as they collaborate to play games and do each activity. Each group of adult participants will work together to assist children’s learning. As teachers and administrators make themselves available, and approach parents at each station, they are being co-supporters and co-learners Families/parents and teachers can show support to children by providing positive encouragement for learning as they are responsive to everyone’s questions and show support in the learning experience. At the same time, teachers and parents are sharing knowledge on each topic to enhance each activity’s instructional effectiveness. They are collaborating in an informal instructional setting to accomplish the same goal: involvement with the child’s educational experience. The Literacy Night aligns with the collaborative paradigm of family-professional partnerships because the event: 1. Provides opportunities for informal communication between parents and school staff; 2. It provides meaningful instructional and social activities for everyone; 3. School staff can show parents that they can rely on them to bridge the gap between home and school; 4. Parents can sense that school staff value their role in their child’s learning; and 5. Parents can sense that their involvement makes a difference in their child’s educational experience and can see the direct benefits of their involvement through interactive and engaging activities.
- Physical and material aspects: The classrooms and school facilities will be arranged according to the activity/station that is carried out in that particular location. For example, the Sight Word Twister station is an activity that requires a lot of space; the classroom therefore will have to be conditioned in a way that facilitates constant movement. On the other hand, the board games station will be set in the cafeteria, which is perfectly conditioned for these type of activities. The school will be decorated according to the event’s theme. Therefore, all kindergarten bulletin boards will be decorated accordingly, and will display students’ English Language Arts work. Also, signs will be placed at specific locations with directions, stations name and location, event agenda/schedule, etc. The quality of education materials will be informal games and activities, yet that addressed state standards covered throughout the year and specific ELA objectives previously selected by the teachers.
- Means of communicating the event: parents will be sent the invitation letter (attached below) via email and printed copy. They will be further sent a flyer with event details, such as activities and the agenda, and will be notified through Class Dojo the day before the event, with a few important reminders, such as the start/end time.
- Ensuring family participation: Parents will receive one raffle ticket per family member at each station, which will be required to fill out with the student's name. At the end of the event, parents and children will gather to talk about what they learned from this experience, and will participate in a "Literacy Raffle." The prizes will include family games with modified instructions to play with ELA concepts, books on a variety of topics and languages, tickets to museums and local/community literacy programs, etc.
- Strategies for families: parents will receive a packet with instructions at each station on how to modify family games, ELA web sources and games, and a variety of engaging strategies parents can implement to further reinforce ELA concepts at home.
- Goals of the event achieved: depending on the feedback from parents at the end of the event, the teachers will determine whether the goals of the event have been accomplished. Teachers will be asking parents questions such as “what strategies did you find helpful to assist your child at home?”, or “what did you find valuable about tonight?” Receiving parent feedback will be an important aspect of the event because it will help the school improve future events. Teachers will create a survey for parents to provide further feedback on their overall thoughts on the event.
- Questions to reflect on after the event: Did the event promote an open and honest exchange of ideas? What did parents and students seem most engaged on during the event? Were the stations rich in ELA content? To what extent were parents involved in each activity? Did parents and children seem enthusiastic about each activity? How did this event promote social and emotional support for children? Did we address the appropriate content objectives? How can we better include the entire school community in future literacy nights? Were there enough resources for culturally diverse families? How can we include parents in the organization of future literacy nights?
Tentative Activities/Stations
- Scavenger Hunt
- Sight Word Twister
- Reading Under the Starts
- Crossing The River
- Fishing for Rhymes
- Game Station: Don't Spill the Beans (Alphabet Sound Game), Alphabet Bingo, Rhyming Words Jenga
- Art Station
- Reading by the fireside
(Activities retrieved from http://seusstastic.blogspot.com/2015_01_01_archive.html)
*All stations are in both English and Spanish
Tentative agenda
Kindergarten Family Literacy Night
Friday, Feb 24, 2017, 06:00 PM
Lily B Clayton Elementary School, Park Place Avenue, Fort Worth, TX, United States
Resources for parents
Parent rights to their child's education
- The Center for Parent Information and Resources (CPIR) serves as a central resource of information and products to the community of Parent Training Information (PTI) Centers and the Community Parent Resource Centers (CPRCs), so that they can focus their efforts on serving families of children with disabilities. The Parental Rights Under IDEA is a subsection within the website that outlines as discusses the Procedural safeguards designed to protect the rights of parents and their child with a disability and, at the same time, give families and school systems several mechanisms by which to resolve their disputes. The site provides a direct link to the 8 procedural safeguards, in both English and Spanish. (Follow the link to access the CPIR contact information)
- The Families Reading Together program was initiated by the Fort Worth Public Library system to bring families together through literacy and literature. The purpose of the program is to promote a love of reading and family quality time while enhancing reading comprehension and early learning skills in children from ages 3-10. In this program, adult caregivers and pre-school and elementary school children participate together in reading stories aloud and having fun! Older children participate in discussions to help develop critical skills, enhance reading comprehension and promote reading together as a family. The FREE program is available at different FW library locations. (Follow the link to access the program locations and contact information)
- The Parents as Teachers is an international, non-profit organization that promotes optimal early development, learning and health of young children by supporting and engaging their parents and caregivers. The organization promotes the delivery of high quality services for families through developing quality research-based and evidence-informed curricula and trainings for early childhood family support professionals. The website has allocated a program locator section that will provide access to contact information of every Parents as Teachers program in the U.S. Locally, the Fort Worth ISD has affiliated to this program to help ensure Fort Worth ISD children are healthy and ready to succeed in school and life. (Follow the link to find the FWISD contact of Parents as Teachers)
Children with Disabilities
- The Division for Early Childhood (DEC) promotes policies and advances evidence-based practices that support families and enhance the optimal development of young children who have or are at risk for developmental delays and disabilities. The website has allocated a section for Recommended Practices which were developed to provide guidance to practitioners and families about the most effective ways to improve the learning outcomes and promote the development of young children, birth through age 5, who have or are at-risk for developmental delays or disabilities. The purpose is to help bridge the gap between research and practice by highlighting those practices that have been shown to result in better outcomes for young children with disabilities, their families, and the personnel who serve them. (Follow the link to access the DEC contact information and direct contact form)
- Colorin Colorado is a national project that offers a wealth of information, activities, and advice for educators and families of English language learners (ELLs). The website provides a variety of multimedia resources, articles, research-based practices, bilingual books and authors, and school and family support to address and meet the needs of the English Language Learner population in the U.S. The website has allocated a section for families of ELLs to find bilingual parent resources offering tips on helping their child learn to read, succeed in school, and learn a new language. The website also provides information about the U.S. school system and share ideas on how to build a relationship with your child’s teacher and school. In addition, parents can find fun reading tips and games, bilingual booklists, ideas for using the public library, and videos of children’s authors, illustrators, and musicians. Resources are organized by topic. (Follow the link to access Colorin Colorado's contact information)
Policies on family engagement
Policy Statement on Family engagement
The Policy Statement on Family engagement was outlined by the U.S. Department of Education, and provides recommendations to early childhood systems and programs on family engagement. Family engagement refers to the systematic inclusion of families in activities and programs that promote children’s development, learning, and wellness, including in the planning, development, and evaluation of such activities, programs, and systems. For family engagement to be integrated throughout early childhood systems and programs, providers and schools must engage families as essential partners when providing services that promote children’s learning and development, nurture positive relationships between families and staff, and support families.
Texas Parent/Family Involvement Plan
The Texas Parent/Family Involvement Plan was outlined by the Texas Education Agency to encourage all community members, parents, families, and educators to participate and be active members of their child's academic life in and out of the school climate. The TEA holds adults accountable for improving student achievement by supporting parent/family involvement stating that it is a shared responsibility to meet the following goals: communication, accountability, partnership, active involvement, training, and community resources.
Fort Worth ISD Student Code of Conduct
The Fort Worth ISD Student Code of Conduct is located in the Fort Worth ISD website in both English and Spanish. On page 12, the district has outlined the parents/legal guardians expectations in their children's education. The district has also allocated a Families Home Page on their website which further communicates to parents their expectations to be actively involved in their children's education as a variety of resources have been made available to them. Such resources include: a parent portal, an easy tool to interact with the child's campus in a two-way communication manner; reference guides for families; special education policies and support guidelines from campuses/district to parents; and student and family resources for college and career readiness, guidance and counseling, and student engagement.