(music)
- [Narrator] Collaboration between teachers and families
supports children's literacy development.
In these classrooms, teachers help families
add to the repertoire of strategies
for promoting literacy at home,
and also invite families into their classrooms
to support literacy learning at school.
- I think it's really important to have families come in
as early as possible, and share what they know.
- Growing up as a Spanish speaker at home,
it was always really interesting to see
my parents interact with the school,
because they really just viewed the school as the experts,
and they viewed themselves as someone prepping me
to get to school by clothing me, feeding me,
making sure I slept, and was present, right?
But they didn't know that there were so many other things
that they could actually be doing to help me in school.
- I'm very passionate about literacy development,
obviously, being a kindergarten teacher.
And I know that without parents,
it's not the best it can be, and so,
I love having parents come in
and I know that that's the bridge
between school and home, we need those parents
making that connection with us, and being partners with us.
It just helps us to get the most out of the kids.
- I teach first grade, and of our earlier units
in the year is called story tellers.
And in story tellers, students learn about
why we tell stories, what's the point of a story,
what can we learn from stories?
And we invite families to come in
and tell us their favorite stories.
Sometimes these stories are in their native language,
so not necessarily English,
and sometimes it can be really personal,
and sometimes it can be a little more abstract.
But these kids really value learning about each other
in this way, and then thinking about,
well what kinda story do I want to share and write about?
I think, first of all, their kids are really proud
that their parents are there, and then
it boosts their confidence, as a reader, as a writer.
So then after we have all written our stories,
we have a publication party and families are invited
to come back again and see the stories that their child
has written, and we share it with each other.
So that's one way we have families come in.
- There's been times where families
have been invited to come into the classroom
and read aloud in their native language
and bring in their expertise.
I had a family, for instance, that was
really into music and playing guitars,
and the family asked if they could come in
and sing their favorite folk song in Spanish,
and actually brought in a story
that was connected to that song,
and why that song was important to their family.
And so it's so fascinating to see, not only parents
coming in into that leadership role in the classroom,
but also seeing the kids' faces
when they hear their native language
kind of coming to the forefront
from peers and their families,
and it's such a great opportunity to make connections
and really see themselves in our curriculum
and in the ways that we teach,
that we really value their language,
and their histories, and their stories,
and that that's a way that we can all learn from each other,
not just culturally, but also through literacy.
Just teaching families how to
incorporate literacy into daily activities.
For example, one of the times,
I actually recorded myself and my toddler
with just a story book, and families were able to view me
reading to my son, as a toddler, in Spanish and English
and seeing that that's just a really natural way
to engage your child really early on in literacy.
And we also showed examples of a student
that was already fluently reading,
where their parent was reading to them, again aloud,
but perhaps it was a chapter book.
And showing families how you can
incorporate literacy during cooking,
and reading some recipes, and following directions,
and writing with your students, making lists and to-dos.
So I think it's just really finding the ways
to help families find the strategies
that are natural to them at home,
not necessarily what they look like at school,
but really helping them understand that
there's so many things that you can do
throughout your day with your child
that really helps them become literate
and better readers and writers.
- A lot of it is me, in the beginning, just really
figuring out my parents and figuring out my families,
and building relationships with 'em,
so, like just now I walked my kids to the door.
Talking with families, just finding out
what their strengths are, what their interests are,
and how we could capitalize on what they have
and bring it into the classroom.
So, last year I just happened to be talking to a parent
who said, oh yeah, I write books, I'm an author.
So we brought him in when we were starting our narratives,
and he came in, we started a class story,
and he was in telling us how he jots his ideas down,
what it looks like at home when he's doing his writing.
And he was with us during our brainstorming sessions,
and some of our writing sessions,
and then another parent said, oh, I'm an editor.
It was just an amazing, it was very fortuitous. (laughs)
And so she came in and did some of the editing.
We had a parent who was a cook in a local restaurant,
and so that parent came in and we read recipes,
they brought some recipes, they brought some food,
and then the kids got all excited,
so we ended up making a family favorites cookbook,
and some of it was in Spanish, some was in English,
and we had it translated and every kid got a copy.
But it was this parent coming in and sharing what they have.
I try to make it seamless, so when they're in here
it doesn't feel like this awkward new space to them.
They know that we honor what they have to bring.
- In terms of outside of the classroom,
I have been involved with a writing workshop.
We have parents and children coming together at our school,
and we have rotations, or centers,
where they get to do a different writing activity,
a different style of writing, at each rotation.
It's writing a grocery list,
or writing the lyrics to their favorite song,
or singing some poems, or singing other songs
that they might know in a different language.
So that's all part of literacy,
and having parents understand that it's not a book report,
and it's not necessarily paragraph writing,
'cause that's different, and that's something
that we can do at school, but at home,
it can look different and it's okay
that it looks different and that it feels different.
- We're designing a literacy event where
families are able to come in
and we're choosing culturally relevant texts,
and creating workshops around them
using their native languages along with English,
and having texts that reflect both of those languages,
and then also gifting those books to families.
Typically, they happen after school
and we try to have literacy events
at least two or three times of year.
And those events look differently.
We invite families in to do some center type activities,
where families engage with their students
in different activities that promote independent reading.
So for example, one center might be having
a set of technology tools, like desktops or iPads,
where families can interact with their students
and look at technology that helps students with reading
and gives them access to programs
that they may not know about.
And we also might have another center
where kids are creating book boxes
that are libraries just to show families
ways they can organize books in their homes
and give access to kids on a daily basis.
One of the other centers that was a great success
was just creating a journal.
Kids were so excited to create a journal
where they could jot down lists, or ideas,
throughout the summer and so that helped families see
a really natural way that kids could
continue writing over the summer.
- I do an after-school program which is,
the parents come in and work with the kids,
and I set my room up, it's one day a week for four weeks,
after school for about an hour and a half,
and I'll set my room up like different rooms in the house.
So I'll set up like a little living room,
and I'll invite the parents in with the kids
and we'll do things that they could possibly do
in the living room at home that would be natural and simple,
and they may not think of as something that's actually
helping their kids' literacy development.
So for example, we'll watch a little TV clip,
and then we'll have a conversation,
I'll model a conversation with the parents and the kids,
like how to talk about that TV show.
So, it's something that they could do at home.
We'll also
set up a little basket for them,
and have a journal in it, and offer suggestions
on things that they could write about.
Almost scrapbook-y kinds of ideas,
just a quick thing, something that they did during the day,
and then draw a picture and have a conversation about it.
So then the next week we will move to the kitchen.
We give them magnetic letters,
and we'll go down to the actual kitchen here,
show 'em how to build words on the refrigerator,
show 'em how to read recipes and follow recipes.
So it's just, basically, that program is set up
to already use what they have at home
and to have a conversation with their kids at home
at natural moments in the day.
So the purpose of it is for them to find natural ways
to develop literacy at home,
and find those opportunities as they appear
in their daily setting.
In our weekly newsletter,
we'll try to use language
so as we are thinking about our interactive read-alouds
in the classroom, maybe this week I'm focusing on
readers notice how characters change in a story.
So, in the newsletter, I'll put that exact language
and then say, as you're reading stories at home,
see if your child can notice how
the characters change in the story.
So we're giving them our school language to use at home.
So we try to do,
just be on the same page.
- One of the things that we really value at this school
is literacy, and in order to ensure that kids are reading,
we've made it a point to make sure
that we give kids books to take home.
Another thing that our school community has done
is we've created a grant.
And with that grant, we've been able
to purchase new books for all of our students,
K through five, and they get these new books
at the end of the year.
Our school community has connected
with our outside community, and we are able to get
gently-used books that the kids are then able to take home
just before winter break and just before spring break.
And at that giveaway, which is just before summer vacation,
they get eight books that they have picked out themselves.
I want them to be avid, voracious readers.
I want them to read something
and then be curious and ask questions.
I want them to be very passionate about reading.
- For me, it's so important to be able
to reach out to families in ways that aren't typical, right?
In ways that aren't just, here's a note, sign it,
this is what I want you to do.
But in really relevant, responsive ways
that help them feel welcome, and help them see themselves
as partners in their children's literacy development.
Schools need to value diversity in languages,
and that we also need to make an effort
to communicate to families in their native languages
and also recognize the value in that,
as schools and as parents, and allow the parents
to see the value in that diversity of language.
I think, often, families view a second language
as a deficit, and often tell their students,
you know, learn English, speak in English.
And they really, honestly, some don't understand
that there's such great power in knowing two languages
that permeates through literacy on such a deep level.
- Some of it is just empowering the parents
to see that they do these great things,
and when do these things and have these conversations
and capitalize on these moments at home,
that they are the ones who are helping their child
be a better reader and writer and become more literate.
It's not just from me.
- I want to demystify what happens at school.
I know for some parents, they're not quite sure
what exactly goes on.
And so, by having them come to the classroom,
they can see firsthand the kids of activities
that we're working on.
And then they're armed with things that they can do at home
to help their child succeed at school.
- At school, it's just a natural part of being a teacher.
That's what we do all day, I mean,
we're prompting kids, we're teaching,
we're just thinking about what needs students have,
and partnering with parents allows them
to see parenting as an opportunity to teach them,
and so many ways at home too,
just in everyday activities or life.
- [Narrator] Learn more at LiteracyEssentials.org.
(light piano music)