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Welcome, Honor, Connect

Welcome, Honor, Connect. Conferences: Building Relationships with Families. Successful Schools Intentionally Build Connections with Families. They purposefully: Invite involvement, are welcoming, and identify specific parental and community strengths and needs.

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Welcome, Honor, Connect

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  1. Welcome, Honor, Connect Conferences: Building Relationships with Families

  2. Successful Schools Intentionally Build Connections with Families • They purposefully: • Invite involvement, are welcoming, and identify specific parental and community strengths and needs. • Recognize, respect, and address cultural and class differences in the community. • Create thoughtful, purposeful plans that focus on student achievement and whole school improvement.

  3. Welcome, Honor, ConnectDr. Karen Mapp, Harvard Family Engagement Project Get to know families, appreciate their participation, help them feel comfortable. Ask families, how can we be helpful to you? Express the belief that all families want their children to be successful. Invite families’ questions, stories, observations, and definitions of success. Respect their cultural beliefs, practices, and values. Explain learning. Show families what children are learning in school, ask what they are learning at home, and plan next steps to collaboratively support learning. Honor Welcome Connect

  4. Presentation Purpose: • Explore how conferences help us welcome, honor, and connect with families. • Brainstorm barriers and solutions for typical parent conferences. • Consider strategies that explicitly involve families in school success.

  5. Welcome How can we ensure that ALL families feel welcomed to conferences?

  6. How do we ensure that all families feel welcome to attend conferences? • Brainstorm strategies that reduce these barriers • Who will be in charge of removing each barrier? • How will you do it? • Identifying barriers to family engagement • Translation availability • Work schedule • Negative past experiences • Transportation • Frazzled school staff • Childcare • Other?

  7. Charting Our Ideas Determine roles: Recorder, Facilitator, Speakers Create 3-Column Notes: Welcome, Honor, Connect List Ideas Post for Later Step 1 Step 2 Step 3 Step 4

  8. Honor How do we show families that we honor their contributions, stories, cultural beliefs and values?

  9. Honor • Focus on: • Two-way sharing of information about the child. What are the family’s hopes and dreams for their child? • Listen to and celebrate student strengths, beliefs, and cultural practices both at school and at home. Involve the student in these conversations if possible. • Help adults understand and know the importance of their involvement in their child’s learning.

  10. Connect • Focus on: • Problem-solving around the needs of the student. • Offering practical, at-home learning strategies based on skill levels and interests. • Connecting the family to school and community resources .

  11. What strategies have you seen thatconnect home with school? Share ideas with a partner Turn to your group Paraphrase your partner for the group: 1 minute each Capture ideas on the chart

  12. Looking at Student Work Together “When the teacher and parent look at a child’s work together, the parent is no longer just listening – the parent is learning, analyzing, and seeing the rationale behind the teacher’s instructional decisions.” *From “Sharing Data with Families at Parent-Teacher Conferences” http://www.choiceliteracy.com/articles-detail-view.php?id=490

  13. Connect • Ask student and family members how they feel things are going at school and how school work in classroom and at home is going. • Use student work to show family members: • In Reading: sample books at student’s independent level, genre-based reading logs, purposes for repeated oral reading, and fun writing activities. • In Math: student’s developmental level, next steps in learning progression, examples of thinking games that support conceptual development, and fun ways to practice facts. • Review the student’s achievement test scores and grade level expectations. Explain the benefits and limitations of these tests. • Share homework completion and classroom participation data.

  14. Seek Solutions CollaborativelyAction Planning • Student Input • Ask the student to set an academic goal. • Include the student in planning reasonable and specific action steps. • Ask the student where they might need help. • Be specific about time, check-in dates, and who is responsible. • Parent/Family Input • Ask parent to share ideas about reasonable goals. • Include parents in action step planning. • Clarify their role. • Be specific regarding parent-teacher-child check-ins. • Teacher Input • Guide the conversation toward reasonable home expectations. • Provide step by step instructions. • Make actions fun and easy. • Determine when and where the work will occur.

  15. Thank parents who attended the conference and ask if they have further questions or concerns about how to support learning at home. • Personally invite parents you met to serve on school committees or in other volunteer capacities. • Contact parents who did not attend, and offer alternative ways/locations to communicate about their child. • Schedule check-ins and plan details for ongoing contact (e-mail, phone call, home visit, etc.). Follow-Up with Families

  16. Connect How do you see these Connect strategies being implemented in your district, school, or classroom?

  17. Taking Action Pick one action from each: Welcome, Honor, Connect 2. Describe how it will look 3. Plan steps to implementation 4. Determine who will help

  18. Contacts and Resources • 51 Study Synthesis: Popping the question: How can schools engage families in education? http://www.uknow.gse.harvard.edu/community/CF5-3-207.html • Parent-Teacher Conference Tip Sheets from Harvard Family Research Project • http://www.hfrp.org/publications-resources/browse-our-publications/parent-teacher-conference-tip-sheets-hojas-de-consejos-para-las-reuniones-de-padres-y-maestros • Tips for Successful Parent-Teacher Conferences with Bilingual Families http://www.colorincolorado.org/article/19382/ • Student-Led Parent-Teacher Conferences • http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/classroom_solutions/2010/11/student-led-parent-teacher-conferences • There’s No Place Like Home…Visitshttp://www.nea.org/home/32719.htm • Image: • http://www.google.com/imgres?hl=en&biw=1246&bih=895&tbm=isch&tbnid=zPL0mwLk6h_RkM:&imgrefurl=http://www.maine.gov/education/communication.htm&docid=jWdmMVjO3qxsNM&imgurl=http://www.maine.gov/education/images/parent%252520teacher.jpg&w=462&h=369&ei=Qi9xUuGcJsag2gX964GACw&zoom=1&ved=1t:3588,r:0,s:0,i:81&iact=rc&page=1&tbnh=175&tbnw=198&start=0&ndsp=22&tx=156&ty=57 • Department of Public Instruction • Title I and School Support • Ruth Anne Landsverk • ruthanne.landsverk@dpi.wi.gov • Mary Jo Ziegler • mary.ziegler@dpi.wi.gov • Shari Bernstein • shari.bernstein@dpi.wi.gov

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