Family Engagement

One of the things I really encourage in my classroom is family engagement. This could be volunteering in school, attending events at school, but really what I want the, to do is work with their child at home. I've seen students make a tremendous amount of growth in all areas when families are engaged in their child's education and work with them at home, and I just wish they all knew how important it is! Do you scare them into helping? Gently encourage them to take a greater interest? Bribe them? #justkidding

What I've found from teaching in a Title 1 school with a high percentage of poverty is that families don't know what to do to help, and don't have the self confidence to do anything either. Regardless of the reason, things army getting done at home. So how do we change that?

This picture does not reflect the time and energy invested in this event. I was running super behind setting everything up, and this was the only picture I managed to take of the evening. I guess it shows that these things are time consuming, but absolutely worth it!

I've decided to host little "parent nights" to bring parents together and hold a class to teach them different ways to work with their child at home. I'm going to give you a list of tips to get the most out of your parent night, and if you have any other ideas leave them in the comments below!

Getting parents to attend the event:

1. Sending home flyers is great, but to get even more success I recommend calling parents to personally invite them. You might not have to do this for all parents, but this is a good idea to get the parents that really need to come nut are reluctant for whatever reason.

2. Send home reminders on the date of the event! Tie the note to a backpack, make  a paper bracelet, write it in permanent marker on their child's forehead, whatever you have to do to remind them to show up!

3. People love food, especially if your holding the event during dinner hours. Don't spend your own money - get the food donated! I've held several of these events and we've had donations from Macayos and Little Caesers with plenty of food.

4. Parents are motivated to do things that are important for their child. So, get the kiddos really invested in bringing their parents to the event! Entice them with a little reward such as lunch with the teacher the next day, or my personal favorite - door prizes!

5. Raffle off door prizes. Again, don't spend your own money! Reach out to local businesses and see what donations they would be willing to contribute! I reached out to our church contact at school and asked if she could assist with getting donations, and wow she is amazing! She was able to get 10 $25 gift certificates to Bookmans, so we were able to put together a ton of gift baskets, as well as raffle off gift cards at the end of the event!

Getting the most bang for your buck at the event:

1. Prepare resources. Parents are much more likely to use resources with their child if they have experience using the resources themselves. You can't have experience using something if it isn't prepared, so enlist the help of as many people as you can get to help get everything ready. I would check with the PTA, local church groups, any helpful parents, or student organizations like Student Council or NJHS.

Sample resources:

1st grade to 2nd grade

1st grade to 2nd grade resource bag. 

Sight word game. 

Addition flash cards

Money game

Fluency practice passages - both groups received this, just different leveled passages.

2nd to 3rd grade resources

2nd to 3rd grade resource bag.

A peek inside 

Math games

Place value cards for games

Multisyllabic word game

2. Do the activities and give parents feedback. It can feel strange teaching parents and adults when we're used to working with young ones, but if they've done the activity before there is a greater chance that they will do it again with their child at home. We followed an I do, you do format. My team mate and I would model how to do a running record or play a math or reading game, and then we set the parents free to do the activity with their children. We had a lot of positive feedback with this because parents were able to ask questions if they didn't understand and they could see how the activity was supposed to go.

3. Set a SMART goal. Encourage parents to set a SMART goal for using the resources with their child, or for their child's performance. SMART goals should be Short, Measurable, Academic, Realistic, and Timely. Take fluency for example. If a child is reading 10 words a minute, in 6 weeks it's unlikely that they will be reading 100 words a minute. Something more realistic would be 30 words a minute. You don't want them to set a goal too high because they'll likely be discouraged when their child doesn't reach it and may not be as willing to help again in the future. Which leads to...

4. Follow up with families to see if they met their goal. Following up with families at a later date is another critical part of successful parent nights. Depending on the time of year, it can be a little tricky to do. I did a night for my students going into the next grade, and I probably won't follow up with them since they will no longer by my students next year. However, I will tell the 3rd grade teachers to follow up with the families so they can share successes or concerns they still have.

What should I add to my list? Share your ideas in the comments!