As a working parent, I often wish for a glimpse into the school lives of my two elementary school children – the rare opportunity to be a part of their learning. And I’m not alone. Many parents crave this connection to their children and to their schools.
Typically though, opportunities for families to engage with their children in reading and writing at school are few and far between. A parent may volunteer as the “mystery reader” and read aloud to the class once or twice. Or, families may be invited to a poetry celebration at the tail end of the school year. However, not often are families involved in meaningful, sustained ways that can really impact and motivate students.
When we engage with families in literacy education, we send a message to students and parents alike that this learning matters.
There is no shortage of rituals that educators can put in place to help rally the community and support important home and school connections. As a general matter, these rituals fall into three categories: correspondence with families; writing celebrations; and literacy-themed events.
Correspond Routinely
We urge you to connect often with families, and there are a variety of different ways to do this:
Send home a letter at the start of every unit to keep parents in the know about the current work. (If you are using Units of Study, we have sample caregiver letters available in both English and Spanish.)
Share small copies of anchor charts from the current unit. This is very useful, because it not only reminds students of the strategies they can practice at home, but it also contains the language that parents or caregivers can echo when they're helping their children read and write.
Outline a menu of simple ways families can read and talk about books at home. You might lean on high-leverage teaching resources to do this. For example, if you are using the Units of Study, you might print copies of word-solving, vocabulary, or comprehension strategy charts. You can also lift a few transferable discussion questions from the Let's Gather plans and share them alongside partner talk charts. It may also be beneficial to outline a handful of simple prompts from the Coaching Guides that parents can borrow to support decoding, fluency and meaning-making with their kids.
Everyone loves a good game, so select a few fun phonological awareness or grammar extensions from the units (or elsewhere) and turn them into games that families can play anytime – whether in the car or at the dinner table.
Celebrate Writing
Anytime is a good time to celebrate kids’ writing. No need to wait until the end of a unit to celebrate or, worse yet, the end of the year. Celebrate well and often!
Invite parents into the classroom at the start of a unit to serve as storytelling partners as kids rehearse their ideas. Parents can serve as real audiences, as students practice how their personal narratives, ‘how-to’ books, or argument essays might go.
Midway through a unit, parents can be revision partners by listening to initial drafts and asking probing questions. These questions can spark writers to revise and add more detail. In turn, kids can show off how they use all kinds of revision tools to develop their writing.
In effect, parents can better understand the entire writing process, rather than only joining in to celebrate the polished pieces they see at the very end of a unit.
Host Literacy Themed Events
As a working parent, I know firsthand how difficult it can be to volunteer time in the classroom during school hours. With this challenge in mind, consider hosting a literacy-themed event outside of school hours.
Although these events can be trickier to pull off, the possibilities are endless. Here are a few examples:
Host a literacy showcase where teachers across grade levels display and celebrate kids’ writing. Think of a schoolwide art show, but instead, exhibit writing across genres.
Invite families to come into classrooms in the evening and serve as a reading buddy. For extra fun, you might invite kids to arrive in their pajamas. Then, shut off the lights for some cozy flashlight reading!
Initiate a schoolwide book club. You might partner with programs like One School, One Book. Later, you might invite the community to a movie night based on the chosen book. Afterward, spark a lively discussion comparing the two!
Invite families for a game night where you offer a variety of phonics, grammar or vocabulary games at different tables for families to play together.
Lead parent workshops. Ask colleagues to help you plan and lead brief, focused workshops that inform caregivers about reading and writing development, as well as the research that informs your instruction, and suggests simple ways to help at home. For example, you might explain how phonemic awareness supports decoding and spelling for beginning readers and writers. Or, you might explain the upper strands of Scarborough’s Rope and how it informs your work with comprehension and vocabulary.
Of course, any of these activities would be just as valuable and effective during the school day. Even so, occasionally offering an event after school or on the weekend would be such a gift to working families!
Establishing rituals like these can go such a long way. Partnering with families and nurturing teacher-parent-child relationships can leave a lasting impression that can shape learning experiences for years to come.
Interested in related literacy professional development opportunities? Browse our event calendar here.
