Family Involvement
Students in the middle grades are experiencing a very tumultuous time of life. Between the physical, emotional, and mental development adolescents experience during the middle grades, they need to know that they have support from the adults in their life, even when they choose not to use it. For this reason (and others), it is essential for schools and parents to be on the same page. Family involvement in the middle grades is an important first step in developing healthy relations between schools and families.
According to Epstein’s Framework of Six Types of (Family) Involvement, the six essential elements of family involvement are parenting, communicating, volunteering, learning at home, decision making, and collaborating with community. Each type of involvement seeks to build understanding and breakdown the distance between schools and families. In doing so, family involvement makes families support of students’ education more effective while helping educators to better understand their students. Two of the types that most stand out to me from Epstein’s framework are parenting and learning at home.
Parenting
The goal of parenting as a form of family involvement is to “help all families establish home environments to support children as students”. While it is clearly the opportunity of a child’s guardian to determine the parenting that a child will receive, there is a lot schools can do to help parents be effective.
In assisting with parenting, schools may provide formal education or training for parents such as GED, college courses, or family literacy. Schools might supply information (in a variety of mediums) on age appropriate parenting or home conditions to support learning. They may provide family support programs to assist families with health or nutrition. Home visit are yet another potential way educators can assist in parenting.
Cooperation in parenting helps students, parents, and educators alike alike. For students, this assistance can facilitate a better balance between homework, chores, and other activities while revealing an importance for education and improving attendance in school. School assistance in parenting gives parents a sense of support from the school and other parents while helping provide a better understanding of their child’s developmental needs and of why changes in the home could help student learning. Providing these resources for families can help educators better understand and appreciate the diverse backgrounds, upbringings, and goals students have entering the classroom.
Despite all these benefits, there are some challenges with parenting as a form of family involvement. Information for family needs to be clear, concise, and readily applicable. Additionally, the information and resources need to be available for all families, not just the families who are readily available, which can mean that educators must get creative when sharing information with families. Providing opportunities to hear from every student’s family can also be a challenge that prevents educators from hearing the student’s culture, needs, and goals.
Providing written resources for parents on topics such as adolescent development and effective home support in the middle grades would be a great first step in helping parents assist their child. The simple act of giving parents a weekly newsletter with parenting tips and suggestions could help support them in doing the best they can as parents. As an educator, providing a list of resources on relevant topics about parenting on my website and cooperating with my team of colleagues to produce a weekly newsletter would help to support parents support their children as students.
Learning At Home
Learning at home involves providing information and ideas to families about how to help at home with homework and curriculum. It expands upon the definition of “homework” by making it a shareable activity that parents can help with by providing support, guidance, and encouragement (without needing to teach the subject itself).
In practice, family involvement through learning at home makes the home environment look a little more like school. It can involve summer assignments, activities for at home, and family participation in goal setting and planning for college. Additional family involvement can be in the form of information about homework skills and policies so that they can support student’s learning.
Effective design of learning at home provides a more efficient scaffold for student and parent interactions after school, while enhancing student performance and disposition in school. Teacher implementing learning at home are more aware of family time and structure the assignments more thoughtfully, which improves family involvement and support. For parents, this form of family involvement facilitates an opportunity to discuss student’s learning and growth while gaining an insight into the curriculum they are learning. It also provides parents the chance to demonstrate an understanding of the content students are learning helping students to view them as a teacher. Students benefit the most in their academic performance and impression of school. Learning at home is linked with better homework completion and significant growth in skills and abilities, which results in a better overall impression of school.
Learning at home does come with a handful of challenges. Providing homework that is interactive and requires family involvement can be a burden to families (especially if given from multiple teachers at the same time), but effective coordination within a teaching team can help alleviate this. Keeping families involved in all important curriculum-related decisions can also be challenging because of the sheer magnitude of decisions that educators make related to curriculum. Additionally producing assignments which makes students responsible for sharing their learning and keeps parents aware of their student’s classwork.
As a future math educator, I know that many parents will be particularly uncomfortable with my subject. I need to find creative ways to connect with parents and reshape the way they interact with their child about the mathematics their student is learning. One quick way to help parents (and students) make sense of expectations for homework would be to include a short review of class notes and content along with an example on each homework assignment they take home to complete. An additional strategy to help students communicate their learning at home may include having students review, discuss, and fix graded summative assignments at home with their parents.
According to Epstein’s Framework of Six Types of (Family) Involvement, the six essential elements of family involvement are parenting, communicating, volunteering, learning at home, decision making, and collaborating with community. Each type of involvement seeks to build understanding and breakdown the distance between schools and families. In doing so, family involvement makes families support of students’ education more effective while helping educators to better understand their students. Two of the types that most stand out to me from Epstein’s framework are parenting and learning at home.
Parenting
The goal of parenting as a form of family involvement is to “help all families establish home environments to support children as students”. While it is clearly the opportunity of a child’s guardian to determine the parenting that a child will receive, there is a lot schools can do to help parents be effective.
In assisting with parenting, schools may provide formal education or training for parents such as GED, college courses, or family literacy. Schools might supply information (in a variety of mediums) on age appropriate parenting or home conditions to support learning. They may provide family support programs to assist families with health or nutrition. Home visit are yet another potential way educators can assist in parenting.
Cooperation in parenting helps students, parents, and educators alike alike. For students, this assistance can facilitate a better balance between homework, chores, and other activities while revealing an importance for education and improving attendance in school. School assistance in parenting gives parents a sense of support from the school and other parents while helping provide a better understanding of their child’s developmental needs and of why changes in the home could help student learning. Providing these resources for families can help educators better understand and appreciate the diverse backgrounds, upbringings, and goals students have entering the classroom.
Despite all these benefits, there are some challenges with parenting as a form of family involvement. Information for family needs to be clear, concise, and readily applicable. Additionally, the information and resources need to be available for all families, not just the families who are readily available, which can mean that educators must get creative when sharing information with families. Providing opportunities to hear from every student’s family can also be a challenge that prevents educators from hearing the student’s culture, needs, and goals.
Providing written resources for parents on topics such as adolescent development and effective home support in the middle grades would be a great first step in helping parents assist their child. The simple act of giving parents a weekly newsletter with parenting tips and suggestions could help support them in doing the best they can as parents. As an educator, providing a list of resources on relevant topics about parenting on my website and cooperating with my team of colleagues to produce a weekly newsletter would help to support parents support their children as students.
Learning At Home
Learning at home involves providing information and ideas to families about how to help at home with homework and curriculum. It expands upon the definition of “homework” by making it a shareable activity that parents can help with by providing support, guidance, and encouragement (without needing to teach the subject itself).
In practice, family involvement through learning at home makes the home environment look a little more like school. It can involve summer assignments, activities for at home, and family participation in goal setting and planning for college. Additional family involvement can be in the form of information about homework skills and policies so that they can support student’s learning.
Effective design of learning at home provides a more efficient scaffold for student and parent interactions after school, while enhancing student performance and disposition in school. Teacher implementing learning at home are more aware of family time and structure the assignments more thoughtfully, which improves family involvement and support. For parents, this form of family involvement facilitates an opportunity to discuss student’s learning and growth while gaining an insight into the curriculum they are learning. It also provides parents the chance to demonstrate an understanding of the content students are learning helping students to view them as a teacher. Students benefit the most in their academic performance and impression of school. Learning at home is linked with better homework completion and significant growth in skills and abilities, which results in a better overall impression of school.
Learning at home does come with a handful of challenges. Providing homework that is interactive and requires family involvement can be a burden to families (especially if given from multiple teachers at the same time), but effective coordination within a teaching team can help alleviate this. Keeping families involved in all important curriculum-related decisions can also be challenging because of the sheer magnitude of decisions that educators make related to curriculum. Additionally producing assignments which makes students responsible for sharing their learning and keeps parents aware of their student’s classwork.
As a future math educator, I know that many parents will be particularly uncomfortable with my subject. I need to find creative ways to connect with parents and reshape the way they interact with their child about the mathematics their student is learning. One quick way to help parents (and students) make sense of expectations for homework would be to include a short review of class notes and content along with an example on each homework assignment they take home to complete. An additional strategy to help students communicate their learning at home may include having students review, discuss, and fix graded summative assignments at home with their parents.
I appreciate that you highlight the issue of equity when it comes to supporting families with parenting. This can be a challenge, but it allows the school to truly become a community "center". I also appreciate your thinking around the learning at home and the challenges that could potentially occur. Your provide concrete ideas to ensure that families can all be engaged.
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