As we begin our school year and start
working with our Reading Recovery students, we not only start to establish and
foster relationships with our students, but also with their families. As we
consider those initial conversations and meetings with our families, we invite
you to think about how we build relationships of reciprocity and trust. Research
demonstrates that when strong, consistent, and reciprocal linkages exist
between home and school, it has a positive impact on the developing student’s
well-being and subsequent academic achievement (Garbarino: 1992, 27).
Furthermore, when we reach out to our students’ families we learn so much more
about the little person who is sitting beside us for 30 minutes every day!
Debbie Pushor, Professor from the University
of Saskatchewan, considers the optimal relationship between home and school to
be bidirectional; she considers it to be mutually beneficial and for
information and communication to flow freely between home and school. In her
article, “Looking In, Looking Out,” Pushor discourages educators from adopting
the stance of “If only these parents
would…..” or “These parents just
don't care enough” (Pushor: 2011, 1) Instead of “looking out” and focusing on the challenges in our families and
communities, Pushor encourages us to be “looking
in” and to learn about our families and community and appreciate the “richness and complexity” of their daily
lives (2). Therefore, when you meet with your Reading Recovery families, it is
helpful to not only share information about Reading Recovery and how they can
support home learning, but to also learn about what home literacy practices
their family might engage in at home and about their child’s strengths and
interests. For example, by communicating closely with families, the Reading
Recovery teacher might learn that the family approaches literacy by engaging in
an oral tradition of story-telling rather than a traditional format of reading
story books aloud. This discovery allows teachers to recognize the rich
resource that the student can draw from.
We can celebrate and honour the student’s sense of story and oral
language as a starting point to build upon.
Accessing parent knowledge and getting
to know children and families at the onset of the lesson series further
supports a successful Roaming Around the
Known period during which the teacher and student transition into lessons
and “get to know one another and develop useful ways of interacting” (Clay:
2005a, 32). This will support the development of what Clay refers to as the
“keynote” of Roaming Around the Known: “confidence,
ease, flexibility, and with luck, discovery (32).” Parent knowledge is such rich resource
for us to help us glean more information about our students while fostering
that relationship between home and school!
What might we do to foster parent engagement and support
our Reading Recovery families?
Oftentimes, we become frustrated when
we learn that families aren’t engaging in the home-school practice as we had
hoped. Instead of considering this as a
contributing factor to the student’s lack of accelerated progress, we might
consider thinking outside the box to encourage other ways in which to support
families for whom home practice is a challenge. When Clay talks about home and
school practice, she states that “[s]chools
may sometimes need to ensure in some way that someone listens to the Reading
Recovery child read his take-home book, even providing for this to happen at
school” (Clay; 2005b, 99). Perhaps we
can take Clay’s statement as an invitation to set up alternate supports for
children at school such as reading with an older student, a support staff
member, or perhaps a volunteer. Questioning children if they have read their
stories at home when we suspect they have not, may cause undue stress for students
that will get in the way of their learning. The reason for which home practice
is not occurring is oftentimes outside the control of the family and we need to
support families rather than contribute to their stress.
Comparably, some families may find it
difficult to come into the school to observe a Reading Recovery lessons during
the instructional day. This might present another opportunity to think outside
the box and think of alternate ways for a parent to view a lesson. Instead, a
lesson observation might occur after school, or during a Meet the Family
Evening, or perhaps the Reading Recovery teacher might videotape a lesson to
share with the family.
Thinking about this important topic and
writing this post has helped me consider the importance of what we can learn
from families, and not just what we can “teach” them. It is my hope that you
might be inspired to consider parent engagement through this revised lens in
order to best support our learners and their families.
References:
Clay, Marie.
(2005a) Literacy Lessons Designed for
Individuals: Part One, Why? When? And How? Heinemann, Portsmouth, New
Hampshire.
Clay, Marie.
(2005b) Literacy Lessons Designed for Individuals:
Part Two, Teaching Procedures. Heinemann, Portsmouth, New Hampshire.
Garbarino,
James. (1992) Children and Families in the Social Environment. Hawthorne,
NY Walter de Gruyter Inc. 1992.
Pushor,
Debbie. (Sept 2011) Looking Out, Looking In. Educational Leadership. Vol 69,
Issue 1, pp. 65-68.
Further
Reading:
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