Communicating Effectively with Parents

Activity 14.03

David Riddick

Stage Three

The three most important convictions I have about working with students’ families are:

It takes an entire village to raise a child.

Teachers and parents must act interdependent on one another to foster student success.

Parents must feel they are important and useful in the contribution of their child’s learning.

1.

2.

3.

My plan for initial home-school communication includes:

I send a first day letter with useful phone numbers and school procedures. The letter asks for feedback from the parents. I ask for students’ interests, favorite activities, and what the parents would like from me. My goal is to align our goals for the students.

I will utilize the following strategies for maintaining ongoing communication with families:

I will document home-school communications through:

I document communications. I keep a file folder to document each students’ progress and behavior. During parent conferences I share students’ progress and behavior with the documented information.

I will incorporate parents’ expertise in the following ways:

- Parents can serve as traditional homework monitors.

- Supervise home activities that connect school objectives to home experiences.

- Help students interview a family member about a topic under study at school.

- Take students to library for research assignments

- Read with and to children a story of interest.

• Parents as teachers at home:

• Parents as teachers at school: