Collaborating with Families: Partnering for Success

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Collaborating with Families Partnering for
Success
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Why are Family Partnerships Important to You?

• Engage group in open discussion

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What does the Research Say about Collaborating
with Families??

• Related to school readiness, we know
• When parents are actively engaged in their
  childs learning and schooling, there are
  important benefits for children, families, and
  schools
• Parent-professional partnerships are predictive
  of increased academic performance, socioemotional
  benefits, better work habits, more consistent
  school attendance, school completion, and greater
  connections between home and school

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What Do You Want From Families?

• Brainstorming activity, in dyads
• Go around room until all ideas are on the table

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We Need to

• Help parents recognize that they are essential in
  their childs learning and schooling early on,
  and continuing into preschool, elementary school
  and beyond
• Help parents define a role for themselves as
  supporter, advocate, facilitator for their child
• Help parents believe in their ability to be a
  meaningful contributor in their childs education
  
• Promote the notion of the curriculum of the home

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What is the Curriculum of the Home?

• Home support for learning
• Actions, beliefs, communications to the child
  that support the childs learning and emerging
  autonomy
• Support of the home environment as a learning
  environment
• Emphasis on family/parental influence on students
  academic, motivational, behavioral, and social
  growth and performance

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What Makes Up the Curriculum of the Home?

• Home Expectations and Attributions
• Set realistic expectations
• Attribute child success to effort, practice, hard
  work
• Discipline Orientation
• Authoritative child management style
• Rules and consequences for behavior

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What Makes Up the Curriculum of the Home?

• Home-Affective Environment
• Warmth and sensitivity
• Attached relationships
• Strength-building affirmative
• Parent Participation
• School activities
• Reading
• Communication with educators
• Open family discussions
• Coordination of activities and tasks with
  teachers
• Discussion and dialogue language-rich
  environment
• Everyday experiences for learning

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What Makes Up the Curriculum of the Home?

• Structure and Learning
• Provide time, space, materials
• Limit certain activities, such as TV viewing
• Establish regular routines
• Monitor homework completion
• Examine leisure time

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Remember

• Of all the things parents can do to support their
  childs learning, four are considered especially
  important
• 1. Setting educational expectations
• 2. Talking with their child about school
• 3. Providing learning materials at home
• 4. Providing learning opportunities

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How Do We Encourage the Curriculum of the Home
for All Students?

• Remember the 4 As
• Approach, Atmosphere, Attitude are prerequisite
  to Actions
• Collaboration and Partnering for Success

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The 4 As Developing Pathways to Partnerships
Prerequisite Conditions These 3 As must be
in place for Actions to be accepted and effective
Approach
Actions Communicating a tone of partnership
through two-way home-school communication and
fostering family involvement in learning at
home Family involvement at school Childrens
learning at school
Successful Learning Experiences Outcomes for
Students
Attitudes
Atmosphere
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Atmosphere

• What do you already do to create an atmosphere
  that is family-friendly, open, and inviting?
• Get list on board

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Attitudes

• Youve already described why parents are
  important to you
• How do you convey this attitude to parents?
• Brainstorming activity

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To What Extent Do You Convey the Attitude That

• All families have strengths
• Parents can learn ways to help their children if
  they are provided with the opportunity and
  necessary support
• Parents have important information and
  perspectives that we need
• Schools and families influence each other
• No one is at fault if a child is not
  succeeding, the partnership has not been utilized
  to its potential

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Actions for Achieving Engaged Partnerships
Communication andCollaboration
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Engaged Partnerships

• Empower both families and schools
• Are ongoing, mutual, reciprocal
• Are coordinated interventions across home and
  school
• Send congruent messages across home and school
• Require shared information and resources
• Require open communication and dialogue
• Promote collaboration and joint decision making
  in planning for the child Collaborative
  Planning

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The Importance of Communication and Trust

• How do you communicate a tone of partnership?
• What are some effective communication practices?
• What strategies can be used when communication is
  difficult?
• How can we build trust to engage unengaged
  parents?
• Self-reflection activity

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The Importance of Collaboration

• What do we mean by Collaborate?
• What do we mean by Partner?
• What do we mean by Partnership?

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Definitions

• Collaborate to work jointly with others or
  together to cooperate with or willingly assist
• Partner one who shares
• Partnership a relationship involving close
  cooperation between parties having specified and
  joint rights and responsibilities

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What is a Collaborative Partnership?

• A process wherein teachers and parents work
  together to meet a childs developmental needs,
  address concerns, and achieve success by
  promoting the competencies of all parties

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Goals of Family-School Collaboration

• Determine the desires/needs that family members
  and teachers share for a child make decisions
  jointly
• Provide a context for families to feel empowered
• Actively invite and use parents ideas and
  strengths to address concerns and goals
• Establish collaborative partnerships

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How Does It Look? Steps of Home-School
Collaboration

• 1. Discuss child strengths and needs
• 2. Prioritize desires and needs
• 3. Define goals
• 4. Discuss whats been tried -- What works? What
  doesnt?
• 5. Brainstorm strategies and develop home-school
  plan to meet goals
• 6. Observe and reflect assess progress toward
  goal
• 7. Follow up- recycle promote linkages across
  time and setting

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• Insert flowchart??

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Discuss Childs Strengths and Needs

• Parents and teachers focus discussion on
  observations that are most relevant to facilitate
  the childs individualized learning and
  development
• Strengthen parents confidence in their ability
  to note child strengths, preferences, and needs
• Focus attention on what child is doing now,
  comment on observations, suggest areas that might
  be important for the childs continued
  development

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Prioritize Desires and Needs

• Parents can discuss what is most important to
  them at home
• Teachers can use school-based information to
  communicate about age-appropriate expectations,
  suggest areas for focus
• Parents and professionals agree on priorities
  that make sense for the childs ongoing
  development

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Define Goals

• Mutually decide on short term goals to facilitate
  the childs ongoing learning and development
• Start with a goal that the child is capable of
  achieving, or one that is slightly beyond where
  the child is at

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Discuss What Has Been Tried

• Discuss activities or strategies already
  attempted and their outcomes (Did it work well?
  Somewhat well? Not at all?)
• Determine what has or has not worked, and why
• Emphasize practices and strengths already brought
  to bear on the solution

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Brainstorm Strategies and Develop Home-School Plan

• Parents are encouraged to think about and
  describe what is appropriate and possible in
  their own home, including daily activities that
  can be embellished or strengthened to support new
  learning
• Professionals can provide information about
  strategies, activities, and alternatives for
  teaching new skills
• Parents and professionals select strategies that
  are acceptable and effective in helping the child
  meet the goal
• A consistent plan is developed that supports
  child at home and at school
• Emphasis is placed on strategies that can be used
  to promote continuity across home and school,
  including ways to enhance the curriculum of the
  home

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Develop Home-School Plan

• Discuss when, where, and who will be responsible
• Encourage continued observations of childs
  responsiveness and progress toward goals

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Observe and Reflect Assess Progress Toward Goal

• Parents and teachers can assess childs ongoing
  progress, including his/her response to selected
  strategies and implemented plan
• Professionals can
• affirm competencies in parent related to
  parent-child interactions
• elicit parent perceptions about comfort,
  confidence, competence in using strategies at
  home
• Discuss modifications and ideas for strategy use
  at home and school

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Follow Up and Form Linkages

• Reflect on plan put into place at home and school
  
• Ask What did we do? How did it go?
• Jointly decide whether to continue with the same
  goal and/or strategies, or select new ones
• Plan for continuation
• Continue with goal
• Establish new goal
• Brainstorm strategies and continue cycle
• Promote continued linkages over time and settings

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