EDE 4943 Blog 4

Weekly Readings:

Family Partnerships (Allen, 2008)

-The article identified three important approaches to increasing student achievement through family involvement. These are building respectul relationships, engaging families in supporting learning at home, and addressing cultural differences. A great way to build relationships with your students is through home visits. However, it might not be possible to conduct a home visit for every student so another option would be getting to know their home and neighborhood through photography. One way to engage families in supporting learning at home is by having a reading journal that is exchanged by the teacher and family. A couple of ways to address cultural differences is to read and discuss cultural memoirs, gather photographs and other cultural artifacts, and to share cultural memoirs.

Why some parents don't come to school (Finders and Lewis)

-This article addressed the reasons some parents don't come to school. Some may believe it to be a lack of concern for the education of their children but there are a plethora of reasons such as: diverse school experiences among parents, diverse economic and time restraints, and diverse linguistic and cultural practices. There may be parents who were school dropouts and do not feel comfortable in school setting because they think that their child will be treated the way they were treated in school. Others may have only went up to fifth or sixth grade and do not feel competent enough to help with homework or go to meetings. Then there are parents who work everyday and have to take care of their children and may not have the time to attend meetings. Lastly, there may be a linguistic barrier and having the child translate for the parents may be against a cultural norm.

Artifact:

This is an image of work done by one of my students for the seed activity titled "Squiggle Compositions."

Reflection:

Though I have not had the chance to meet the parents of my kids at the Boys and Girls Club, I have questioned them about their home lives. Some live with mom and dad and other lives with mom and step-dad. One of them has one brother and is lucky enough to have a mother who helps her with homework and who reads with her at home. Another child has three brothers and a sister. The articles got me thinking about why some parents don't come to school and knowing information about the kids' home lives put it into perspective for me. I do not know the participation levels of the parents but keeping in mind the factors, the mom who has four children might not be able to because she has to care for her other children or might be working. Keeping an open mind as to why some parents do not participate in their children's school is important because we might not know the things they have been through or are going through.