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Tech night with the grandparents.

Invite grandparents and their grandchildren to the library to work through any technology issues one or the other may be experiencing. Additional support is available from library staff.

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Connect with the community to see if there is a want/need for a bilingual storytime at the library. If the community is in need, either brush up your Spanish skills and have a hard focus on Spanish/bilingual programming, and/or see if someone from the community can volunteer and assist.

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Compentcies for Youth Services Professionals...

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What types of competencies do youth services professionals need for initiating, creating, hosting, and sustaining effective, systemic family engagement in a library

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The Influence of Reading on Vocabulary Growth: A Case for a Matthew Effect

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Individual differences in vocabulary development may affect academic or social opportunities. It has been proposed that individual differences in word reading could affect the rate of vocabulary growth, mediated by the amount of reading experience,…

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Why 1000 Books Before Kindergarten is so Important? Depending upon where you live, public education is only provided over an age range starting...

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Who are the people involved in early childhood literacy?

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Who are the people involved in early childhood literacy?

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The main groups are preschool teachers, speech language pathologists, children's books authors, developmental psychologists, and parents!

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Who Are The People Involved In Early Childhood Literacy – 1000 Books Before Kindergarten

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"We don't have to see it as a choice between play or academics, play should be academics for preschoolers," said Alissa Mwenelupembe, the senior director for early learning program accreditation at the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) .

But what does that look like? Experts and educators generally agree on a few main principles when it comes to quality play for young kids: It should be a defining feature of the day and not just a brief diversion, like recess; there should be some element of choice - allowing kids to pick an activity and decide how to pursue it; it should be enjoyable and spontaneous; and in most cases, a supportive adult should provide at least some guidance and help reinforce academic and social emotional concepts.

Beyond those tenets, what learning through play looks like on the ground - or playground, as the case may be - can vary greatly based on a program's approach or philosophy. Play in early ed settings is more deliberate and nuanced - not to mention important - than the casual observer realizes.

"When you're actually really being intentional with how they're going to play, they do pick up a lot more and they understand a lot more," said DeLeon.

At Impact Salish Sea Elementary, one of three elementary charter schools in the Seattle area run by Impact Public Schools, educators focus on "imaginary play," like pretending to run a restaurant or hospital, as a tool to teach young children self-regulation and cognitive skills. The approach is partially inspired by Russian developmental psychologist Lev Vygotsky, who saw imaginative play as a critical activity to support a child's development. This differs from "immature play," where children "don't interact with each other and flit from thing to thing," said Deborah Leong, co-founder and president of Tools of the Mind, the organization behind the curriculum used by Impact and dozens of other school districts and charter schools nationwide.

Teachers act as "play mentors" to help children develop and create a scenario, build props, and plan out their play. Classrooms embrace themes - like grocery store or home - and transform their space accordingly. Children have around 90 minutes each day for this play time.

This daily experience ultimately supports the development of "mature" play, where children are able to stay in pretend roles for a longer period of time, Leong said. "It's the foundation for being able to imagine a world that's different from what you're living in," she said.

Just a few weeks into the school year, the students at Impact Salish Sea were still learning the routines of their transitional kindergarten classroom, a year meant to prepare 4- and 5-year-olds for kindergarten. Play period began one mid-October morning with students picking a colorful clothespin from a board and affixing it to their shirt. The different colors of the clothespins corresponded to various play centers in the classroom. As children fanned out across the room, the classroom's two teachers circulated. They stopped to watch various students, asking questions about their play, and encouraging them to count as they used blocks to build rocket ships or problem solve when the water in the sink became too cold. When a young charge approached DeLeon after the doll she wanted was taken by another student, DeLeon encouraged her to go talk to her peer and try to work it out.

While such classrooms can look different from traditional elementary classrooms, and even appear chaotic at times, students are indeed learning how to interact with their peers and solidifying early math, science and literacy skills. "It's not just play for play's sake," said Lauren Ellis, senior director of programs at Impact Public Schools, though free play is also important, she added. Students at Impact also receive nearly an hour of recess a day, play games throughout the day and have a block of free play near the end of the day.

Having frequent opportunities to play is something experts with NAEYC look for when assessing the quality of preschools. Regardless of the school's curriculum or approach, NAEYC evaluators want children to be engaged in play and have some choice about their activities for a "substantial" part of the day, said Mwenelupembe.

One sign of quality play is when children are interacting with materials and peers, she added. Teachers should be asking questions that "stretch" emerging knowledge, and helping children navigate conflicts.

Play can be seen as a spectrum, ranging from direct, teacher-led instruction on one end, to free play on the other, said Kathy Hirsh-Pasek, a professor of psychology at Temple University and senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. While there are benefits to other types of play, the sweet spot for classrooms is in the middle at "guided play," she added, where children play with a learning goal in mind and educators provide gentle guidance. That does not, however, include activities that some teachers may view as play, she added, like making letters out of Play-Doh. "That is direct instruction in play clothes," she said, since children are being told exactly what to do with their materials.

Yet some play advocates lean more toward a form of free play that includes no adult-directed learning goal or teacher direction. AnjiPlay, a philosophy that originated in the Zhejiang Province of China about 20 years ago and has pilot programs around the world, provides children with at least two hours of uninterrupted outdoor play each day using materials like ladders, barrels and climbing cubes . Children have additional play time inside, read daily and spend time reflecting on their play through drawings and discussion.

The goal, as stated on the organization's website, is to enable " deep and uninterrupted engagement " in a chosen play activity. While teachers are on hand, they do not steer or guide students at all.

"Children make the distinction between play that belongs to them, and play that is coming from somebody else," said Jesse Coffino, CEO of Anji Education, Inc. and chair of the True Play Foundation. "I don't see guided play as play," he said. "There's specific learning outcomes that an adult has decided are important."

This type of child-led, free play is beneficial and all too often lacking, said Doris Bergen, a distinguished professor emeritus at Miami University of Ohio's Department of Educational Psychology whose research has focused on child development and play. Bergen finds it worrisome when "children have too much structured time when they're young," adding that they should be permitted to make up their own rules and pursue their own interests at least part of the time. "They need to have some control, and some time where they are deciding what to do ... and where to be, and what to use."

The obstacles to introducing more play opportunities can be formidable: academic concepts are sliding down to the preschool years as kids are prepped for more challenging early elementary grades. In addition, research shows teachers may not have support for play-based learning from some school principals who don't understand that young children learn most readily through play, or teachers may get pushback from parents who fear children won't be prepared for kindergarten. Play and free-choice time can be even more restricted in classrooms that serve high rates of low-income, Black or Hispanic children , research shows.

Given the constraints many teachers are under when introducing or expanding play time , some experts try not to get consumed in debates over approach. Instead, they say, they advise educators to get going however they can.

"Any amount of play someone brings, we should be celebrating it," said Sally Haughey, a former early childhood educator who taught in public and private settings for nearly 20 years before founding an organization that trains educators in play-based learning. Teachers who want to include more play can start simply by adding some student-led play time in their day, she added.

"Start with what's freely chosen and just keep expanding it."

Even if teachers have a strict curriculum to teach, it's possible to infuse more play, said Temple's Hirsh-Pasek. "It's redoing the mindset of how you teach the curriculum," she added, like swapping out a worksheet about numbers with a physical activity where kids can jump, run and compare distances to learn about counting, adding and subtracting. More training and support could help. "It's imperative that we start putting it in teacher preparation right now," she said.

Amber Unger, a pre-K teacher in Milwaukee who has been teaching for 14 years, encourages teachers to look at their schedules to find a few minutes a day to add or expand free-choice play. If teachers typically start the day with desk work, for example, she suggests swapping that out with play time, even just once a week to start. Unger's efforts are supported by her district, which has embraced a play-based approach to pre-K, but she knows other teachers who don't have that support. "We all have different situations," she said. "You just need to do the best you can with the knowledge and experience you have."

Unger, who also runs a which helps teachers incorporate play-based learning strategies, slots a "play workshop" into her longest, uninterrupted block of time each day. During that time, children are free to play at 17 different centers around her classroom. Over the past few years, she has increased the amount of play in her room by looking for opportunities to make moments "playful" during the day: encouraging students to pretend to be butterflies while walking down the hallway or using playful activities to reinforce skills taught during brief periods of direct instruction, like making patterns out of shells and corks. "Play is the vehicle to make that happen," she said. "I 100 percent, confidently believe that play allows our students to practice what we are teaching them."

Still, Unger said it's taken years of research and practice to nurture her approach to play-based learning, and she is still learning and finding what works best for her students. "I definitely see more opportunities for play than what I did five years ago," she said. "I was so hung up on doing play 'right' ... There isn't a right way and a wrong way to do play."
This story about learning through play was produced by The Hechinger Report , a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation. Sign up for Hechinger Report newsletters.

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Young kids benefit from play. But what should it look like? - MindShift

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Experts and educators agree that play should be central to pre-K. It should also involve choice and reinforcement of learning by adults.

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This was an interesting read about parents and how they assessed their parenting. This could be helpful to understand where some parents may feel like they're struggling. 

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This was an interesting read about parents and how they assessed their parenting. This could be helpful to understand where some parents may feel like they're struggling. 

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Parenting in America (2015 Survey Report)

For some parents, good after-school programs can be hard to find.

Half of parents read to their young children daily.

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Pew Research Center's Social & Demographic Trends Project

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Contemporary debates about parenthood often focus on parenting philosophies: Are kids better off with helicopter parents or a free-range approach? What's more beneficial in the long run, the high expectations of a tiger mom or the nurturing environment where every child is a winner? Is overscheduling going to damage a child or help the child get into a good college? While these debates may resonate with some parents, they often overlook the more basic, fundamental challenges many parents face - particularly those with lower incomes. A broad, demographically based look at the landscape of American families reveals stark parenting divides linked less to philosophies or values and more to economic circumstances and changing family structure.

A new Pew Research Center survey conducted Sept. 15-Oct. 13, 2015, among 1,807 U.S. parents with children younger than 18 finds that for lower-income parents, financial instability can limit their children's access to a safe environment and to the kinds of enrichment activities that affluent parents may take for granted. For example, higher-income parents are nearly twice as likely as lower-income parents to rate their neighborhood as an "excellent" or "very good" place to raise kids (78% vs. 42%). On the flip side, a third of parents with annual family incomes less than $30,000 say that their neighborhood is only a "fair" or "poor" place to raise kids; just 7% of parents with incomes in excess of $75,000 give their neighborhood similarly low ratings.

Along with more negative ratings of their neighborhoods, lower-income parents are more likely than those with higher incomes to express concerns about their children being victims of violence. At least half of parents with family incomes less than $30,000 say they worry that their child or children might be kidnapped (59%) or get beat up or attacked (55%), shares that are at least 15 percentage points higher than among parents with incomes above $75,000. And about half (47%) of these lower-income parents worry that their children might be shot at some point, more than double the share among higher-income parents.

Concerns about teenage pregnancy and legal trouble are also more prevalent among lower-income parents. Half of lower-income parents worry that their child or one of their children will get pregnant or get a girl pregnant as a teenager, compared with 43% of higher-income parents. And, by a margin of 2-to-1, more lower-income than higher-income parents (40% vs. 21%) say they worry that their children will get in trouble with the law at some point.

There are some worries, though, that are shared across income groups. At least half of all parents, regardless of income, worry that their children might be bullied or struggle with anxiety or depression at some point. For parents with annual family incomes of $75,000 or higher, these concerns trump all others tested in the survey.

The survey also finds that lower-income parents with school-age children face more challenges than those with higher incomes when it comes to finding affordable, high-quality after-school activities and programs. About half (52%) of those with annual family incomes less than $30,000 say these programs are hard to find in their community, compared with 29% of those with incomes of $75,000 or higher. And when it comes to the extracurricular activities in which their children participate after school or on weekends, far more higher-income parents than lower-income parents say their children are engaged in sports or organizations such as the scouts or take lessons in music, dance or art. For example, among high-income parents, 84% say their children have participated in sports in the 12 months prior to the survey; this compares with 59% among lower-income parents.

The dramatic changes that have taken place in family living arrangements have no doubt contributed to the growing share of children living at the economic margins. In 2014, 62% of children younger than 18 lived in a household with two married parents - a historic low, according to a new Pew Research Center analysis of data from the U.S. Census Bureau. The share of U.S. kids living with only one parent stood at 26% in 2014. And the share in households with two parents who are living together but not married (7%) has risen steadily in recent years.

These patterns differ sharply across racial and ethnic groups. Large majorities of white (72%) and Asian-American (82%) children are living with two married parents, as are 55% of Hispanic children. By contrast only 31% of black children are living with two married parents, while more than half (54%) are living in a single-parent household.

The economic outcomes for these different types of families vary dramatically. In 2014, 31% of children living in single-parent households were living below the poverty line, as were 21% of children living with two cohabiting parents. By contrast, only one-in-ten children living with two married parents were in this circumstance. In fact, more than half (57%) of those living with married parents were in households with incomes at least 200% above the poverty line, compared with just 21% of those living in single-parent households.

Most parents say they're doing a good job raising their kids

Across income groups, however, parents agree on one thing: They're doing a fine job raising their children. Nearly identical shares of parents with incomes of $75,000 or higher (46%), $30,000 to $74,999 (44%) and less than $30,000 (46%) say they are doing a very good job as parents, and similar shares say they are doing a good job.

Though parental scorecards don't differ by income, they do vary across other demographic divides, such as gender and generation. Among all parents, more mothers than fathers say they are doing a very good job raising their children (51% vs. 39%), and Millennial mothers are particularly inclined to rate themselves positively. Nearly six-in-ten (57%) moms ages 18 to 34 say they are doing a very good job as a parent, a higher share than Millennial dads (43%) or any other generational group.

Regardless of how they see themselves, parents care a lot about how others perceive their parenting skills. For married or cohabiting parents, the opinion of their spouse or partner matters the most: 93% of these parents say it matters a lot to them that their spouse or partner sees them as a good parent. But most single parents (56%) also say they care a lot that their child's other parent sees them as a good parent.

About seven-in-ten (72%) parents want their own parents to think they are doing a good job raising their children, and smaller but substantive shares care a lot that their friends (52%) and people in their community (45%) see them as good parents.

Parents are nearly evenly divided about whether their children's successes and failures are more a reflection of how they are doing as parents (46%) or of their children's own strengths and weaknesses (42%). Parents of younger children feel more personally responsible for their children's achievements or lack thereof, while parents of teenagers are much more likely to say that it's their children who are mainly responsible for their own successes and failures.

There are significant differences along racial lines as well, with black and Hispanic parents much more likely than whites to say their children's successes and failures are mainly a reflection of the job they are doing as parents.

Mothers are more overprotective than fathers

About six-in-ten parents (62%) say they can sometimes be overprotective, while just a quarter say they tend to give their children too much freedom. More also say they criticize their kids too much than say they offer too much praise (44% vs. 33%). American parents are more divided on whether they sometimes "stick to their guns" too much or give in too quickly (43% each).

In several key ways, mothers and fathers approach parenting differently. Mothers are more likely than fathers to say that they sometimes are overprotective of their children, give in too quickly and praise their children too much.

Mothers also have more extensive support networks that they rely on for advice about parenting. They're much more likely than fathers to turn to family members and friends and to take advantage of parenting resources such as books, magazines and online sources. For example, while 43% of moms say they turn to parenting websites, books or magazines at least sometimes for parenting advice, about a quarter (23%) of dads do the same. And moms are more than twice as likely as dads to say they at least occasionally turn to online message boards, listservs or social media for advice on parenting (21% vs. 9%).

In at least one key area gender does not make a difference: mothers and fathers are equally likely to say that being a parent is extremely important to their overall identity. About six-in-ten moms (58%) and dads (57%) say this, and an additional 35% and 37%, respectively, say being a parent is very important to their overall identity.

Parental involvement - how much is too much?

The survey findings, which touch on different aspects of parenting and family life, paint a mixed portrait of American parents when it comes to their involvement in their children's education. About half (53%) of those with school-age children say they are satisfied with their level of engagement, but a substantial share (46%) wish they could be doing more. And while parents generally don't think children should feel badly about getting poor grades as long as they try hard, about half (52%) say they would be very disappointed if their children were average students.

A narrow majority of parents (54%) say parents can never be too involved in their children's education. But about four-in-ten (43%) say too much parental involvement in a child's education can be a bad thing, a view that is particularly common among parents with more education and higher incomes. For example, while majorities of parents with a post-graduate (65%) or a bachelor's (57%) degree say too much involvement could have negative consequences, just 38% of those with some college and 28% with no college experience say the same.

Black and Hispanic parents have a much different reaction to this question than do white parents, even after controlling for differences in educational attainment. Fully 75% of black and 67% of Hispanic parents say a parent can never be too involved in a child's education. About half of white parents (47%) agree.

Whether or not they feel too much involvement can be a bad thing, a majority of parents are involved - at least to some extent - in their children's education. Among parents with school-age children, 85% say they have talked to a teacher about their children's progress in school over the 12 months leading up to the survey. Roughly two-thirds (64%) say they have attended a PTA meeting or other special school meeting. And 60% have helped out with a special project or class trip at their children's school. Parents' level of engagement in these activities is fairly consistent across income groups.

Reading aloud is one way parents can get involved in their children's education even before formal schooling begins. Among parents with children under the age of 6, about half (51%) say they read aloud to their children every day, and those who have graduated from college are far more likely than those who have not to say this is the case. About seven-in-ten (71%) parents with a bachelor's degree say they read to their young children every day, compared with 47% of those with some college and 33% of those with a high school diploma or less.

Kids are busy, and so are their parents

American children - including preschoolers - participate in a variety of extracurricular activities. At least half of parents with school-age children say their kids have played sports (73%), participated in religious instruction or youth groups (60%), taken lessons in music, dance or art (54%) or done volunteer work (53%) after school or on the weekends in the 12 months preceding the survey.

Among those with children younger than 6, four-in-ten say their young children have participated in sports, and about as many say they have been part of an organized play group; one-third say their children have taken music, dance or art lessons.

Parents with annual family incomes of $75,000 or higher are far more likely than those with lower incomes to say their children have participated in extracurricular activities. For parents with school-age children, the difference is particularly pronounced when it comes to doing volunteer work (a 27 percentage point difference between those with incomes of $75,000 or higher and those with incomes less than $30,000), participating in sports (25 points), and taking music, dance or art lessons (21 points). Similarly, by double-digit margins, higher-income parents with children younger than 6 are more likely than those with lower incomes to say their young children have participated in sports or taken dance, music or art lessons in the 12 months prior to the survey.

Parents with higher incomes are also more likely to say their children's day-to-day schedules are too hectic with too many things to do. Overall, 15% of parents with children between ages 6 and 17 describe their kids' schedules this way. Among those with incomes of $75,000 or higher, one-in-five say their children's schedules are too hectic, compared with 8% of those who earn less than $30,000.

But if kids are busy, their parents are even busier. About three-in-ten (31%) parents say they always feel rushed, even to do the things they have to do, and an additional 53% say they sometimes feel rushed. Not surprisingly, parents who feel rushed at least sometimes are more likely than those who almost never feel rushed to see parenting as tiring and stressful and less likely to see it as enjoyable all of the time.

Spanking is an unpopular form of discipline, but one-in-six use it at least sometimes

Parents employ many methods to discipline their children. The most popular is explaining why a child's behavior is inappropriate: three-quarters say they do this often. About four-in-ten (43%) say they frequently take away privileges, such as time with friends or use of TV or other electronic devices, and a roughly equal share say they give a "timeout" (41% of parents with children younger than 6) as a form of discipline, while about one-in-five (22%) say they often resort to raising their voice or yelling.

Spanking is the least commonly used method of discipline - just 4% of parents say they do it often. But one-in-six parents say they spank their children at least some of the time as a way to discipline them. Black parents (32%) are more likely than white (14%) and Hispanic (19%) parents to say they sometimes spank their children and are far less likely to say they never resort to spanking (31% vs. 55% and 58%, respectively).

Spanking is also correlated with educational attainment. About one-in-five (22%) parents with a high school diploma or less say they use spanking as a method of discipline at least some of the time, as do 18% of parents with some college and 15% of parents with a bachelor's degree. In contrast, just 8% of parents with a post-graduate degree say they often or sometimes spank their children.

Parental worries differ sharply by race, ethnicity

In addition to the economic gaps that underlie parents' worries about the safety and well-being of their children, wide racial gaps exist on a few key items. White parents are far more likely than black parents to worry that their kids might struggle with anxiety or depression (58% vs. 35%) or that they might have problems with drugs or alcohol (40% vs. 23%). Black parents, in turn, worry more than white parents do that their children might get shot at some point. About four-in-ten (39%) black parents say this is a concern, compared with about one-in-five (22%) white parents. And this difference persists even when looking at white and black parents who live in urban areas, where there is more concern about shootings.

On each of these items and others tested in the survey, Hispanic parents are more likely than white and black parents to express concern. These differences are driven, at least in part, by high levels of concern among foreign-born Hispanics, who tend to have lower household incomes and lower levels of educational attainment than native-born Hispanics.

The remainder of this report includes an examination of changing family structures in the U.S. as well as detailed analyses of findings from the new Pew Research Center survey. Chapter 1 looks at the changing circumstances in which children are raised, drawing on demographic data, largely from U.S. government sources. This analysis highlights the extent to which parents' changing marital and relationship status affects overall family makeup, and it also includes detailed breakdowns by key demographic characteristics such as race, education and household income. Chapters 2 through 5 explore findings from the new survey, with Chapter 2 focusing on parents' assessments of the job they are doing raising their children and their families' living circumstances. Chapter 3 looks at parenting values and philosophies. Chapter 4 examines child care arrangements and parents' involvement in their children's education. And Chapter 5 looks at extracurricular activities.

Other key findings

About six-in-ten (62%) parents with infants or preschool-age children say that it's hard to find child care in their community that is both affordable and high quality, and this is true across income groups. Most working parents with annual family incomes of $75,000 or higher (66%) say their young children are cared for in day care centers or preschools, while those earning less than $30,000 rely more heavily on care by family members (57%).

On average, parents say children should be at least 10 years old before they should be allowed to play in front of their house unsupervised while an adult is inside. Parents say children should be even older before they are allowed to stay home alone for about an hour (12 years old) or to spend time at a public park unsupervised (14 years old).

Roughly a third of parents (31%) with children ages 6 to 17 say they have helped coach their child in a sport or athletic activity in the past year. Fathers (37%) are more likely than mothers (27%) to say they have done this.

Nine-in-ten parents with children ages 6 to 17 say their kids watch TV, movies or videos on a typical day, and 79% say they play video games. Parents whose children get daily screen time are split about whether their children spend too much time on these activities (47%) or about the right amount of time (50%).

Eight-in-ten (81%) parents with children younger than 6 say that their young children watch videos or play games on an electronic device on a daily basis. Roughly a third (32%) of these parents say their kids spend too much time on these activities; 65% say the amount of time is about right.

Throughout this report, references to college graduates or parents with a college degree comprise those with a bachelor's degree or more. "Some college" refers to those with a two-year degree or those who attended college but did not obtain a degree. "High school" refers to those who have attained a high school diploma or its equivalent, such as a General Education Development (GED) certificate.

Mentions of "school-age" children refer to those ages 6 to 17. "Teenagers" include children ages 13 to 17.

References to white and black parents include only those who are non-Hispanic. Hispanics are of any race.

Mentions of Millennials include those who were ages 18 to 34 at the time of the survey. Gen Xers are ages 35 to 50. Baby Boomers are ages 51 to 69.

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Contemporary debates about parenthood often focus on parenting philosophies: Are kids better off with helicopter parents or a free-range approach? What's more beneficial in the long run, the high expectations of a tiger mom or the nurturing environment where every child is a winner?

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This focuses on dads and their involvement with their children.

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This focuses on dads and their involvement with their children.

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Engaging parents in their children's education is one of the keys to unlocking academic success and overall development. Fathers often remain an untapped resource in the parent-school partnership, according to certified parenting coach and trainer Dion Chavis . "I've seen the low turnout when it comes to [educators] trying to get fathers engaged in the education of their kids," Chavis said during a session at the 2024 National Community Schools and Family Engagement Conference . "Dads are needed. We need dads to make a difference not just in school, but in our societies."

"We have to take steps to ensure that dads are being seen and heard," said Chavis. A simple solution is to send all school correspondence to both parents. Chavis noted that accurately communicating with a child's caregivers can be harder with divorced parents or blended families because it's challenging to avoid making assumptions about the family structure.

Schools can go further by tailoring some outreach directly to dads. For example, a class newsletter could include a section specifically for dads, or the school can have father-focused events and programs. During Chavis's talk, a teacher from Baltimore shared one such activity from her school: one day early in the year, dads and male caregivers are invited to line the halls and welcome kids to school. Encouraging students to invite other male role models such as uncles, big brothers, mentors and pastors makes this activity more inclusive for varied family structures .

Leverage pop culture

According to Chavis, pop culture is rich with low stakes ways for dads to interact with their kids' learning. Many educators have found that incorporating pop culture into academics increases student engagement.

During Chavis' session, an educator from Buffalo, New York, shared an idea called a "reverse gift card." Parents are asked to write their interests, hobbies and skills - such as favorite TV shows, movies, sports or music - on a small card with their availability. Parents are called on to volunteer for specific activities according to their interests as their "gift" to the school. For example, if a dad says he's a fan of superhero movies, he might be asked to chaperone a school visit to a museum exhibit on the history and impact of comic books. "It shows that we pay attention and we're asking things instead of just blanket messages all the time," said the educator.

Pop culture can also offer a way for dads to connect with each other. Chavis mentioned an event for dads and their kids at a school in Bakersfield, California, where they broadcasted Monday Night Football and provided food. While s ports events can be a great way to bring dads together, connections can be formed around a range of interests.

Chavis likened engaging fathers to a dance, with the school taking the lead. Schools will likely need to initiate changes to jumpstart dads' engagement. "Let them know how important they are, how needed they are, how valued they are, and create that space where you begin to lift up the importance of dads being engaged," Chavis said.

Research shows that when fathers are actively involved in their children's education, students experience higher academic achievement and fewer behavioral problems . Nearly half of dads wish they were more involved in their kids' education, according to a 2015 Pew Research Center survey. Oftentimes dads need support navigating the school system, Chavis said, but they "might not even know how to ask for that help." By implementing strategies that cater to the needs and interests of fathers, schools can foster stronger school-family connections. In his presentation, Chavis shared best practices to boost fathers' engagement.

Address bias and stereotypes about fathers

Common stereotypes about dads include that they are always working, unnurturing and uninterested in their child's education and. As a result, dads often feel judged, said Chavis. For instance, Chavis recalled that his daughter's teacher was surprised to learn he was the one who taught her double-digit multiplication before she learned it at school. To him, this interaction was a prime example of how stereotypes can affect educators' perceptions of and interactions with fathers. "That was an opportunity for her to uplift me and to create a space for me to feel appreciated for the work that I've done in my child's life," said Chavis. "Instead, she took the opportunity to embed her notions and her thoughts about fathers' engagement into that conversation."

Over time, dads may internalize these stereotypes, a phenomenon known as stereotype threat . "That's going to cause them to withdraw," Chavis said. "We have to ensure that we are making that father feel like he has a place in that classroom."

Tailor communication and outreach

Recently, Chavis attended a meeting at his son's school without his wife . He asked for extra resources to support his son, and when he followed up later, he was told the resources had been sent to his wife, despite him providing his contact information. Other dads who Chavis has worked with have had similar experiences where materials sent home were automatically addressed to a mom. A 2023 study found that mothers were 1.4 times more likely to receive a call from their child's school than fathers.

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3 Strategies for Encouraging Dads' Involvement in Schools | KQED

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Boosting dads' engagement in schools can improve student outcomes. A parenting coach shares strategies to involve fathers.

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Creating family communities instead of family trees to respect that not all families are the same.

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Creating family communities instead of family trees to respect that not all families are the same.

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From Nourishing Caregiver Collaborations: Elevating Home Experiences and Classroom Practices for Collective Care by Nawal Qarooni © 2024 by Stenhouse Publishers/Taylor & Francis. Reproduced with permission.

I imagine the objective of the original family tree exercise was never to fill in box after box in rote fashion but to foster curiosity among children and conversation with their elders around history, connection and contribution. An alternative that acknowledges a more nuanced reality of family structures, while, at the same time, speaking to a broader collective behind every child, would be a free-form community map, taking the same concept of illustrating connections between the child and those who have an impact on their lives, while still eliciting conversation between the students and adults around the history of connections. Community maps can thoughtfully tease out a literacy ideal we all appreciate, weaving a textured tapestry of unique individuals with myriad experiences toward a greater collective that is inherently beautiful because of its nuances.
Nawal Qarooni is a Jersey City-based educator, writer and adjunct professor who supports a holistic approach to literacy instruction and family experiences in schools across the country. Drawing on her work as an inquiry-based leader, mother and proud daughter of immigrants, Nawal's pedagogy is centered in the rich and authentic learning all families gift their children every day. She and her team of coaches at NQC Literacy work with schools and districts to collectively grow teacher practice and children's literacy lives. In addition, she is a member of the National Council for Teachers of English Committee Against Racism and Bias in the Teaching of English; she evaluates manuscripts for Reese Witherspoon's LitUp program, which platforms historically underrepresented voices in publishing; and she serves on the Library of Congress Literacy Awards Advisory Board, which funds powerful literacy programming across the country. Nawal holds a Bachelor of English from the University of Michigan, a Master of Teaching from Brooklyn College and a Master of Journalism from Syracuse University's Newhouse School. She won a New Jersey Press Association Award for her international reporting and transitioned into education as a New York City Teaching Fellow.
Some people who have played an enormous role in raising me would never have shown up on a traditional family tree graphic organizer. Amu Hamid, with his ceaseless guidance, unending support and unconditional love, wouldn't have had a place on a simple stencil, because he was my father's sister's husband. But the reality is, he was one of the people who raised me. I was one of his daughters. He piloted my daily decision making with compassion, care, and experience. If I were a student able to design the outline of my adult community, he would've shown up as the family giant.

To get started with community map projects, you might offer students and their caregivers an open-ended set of ideas along with a few quick parameters and find this is plenty to inspire a variety of individual products. Leaving the process open allows for families to cocreate and coimagine with their children. And, when they share their final projects, I often marvel at folks' oohing and ahhing, which almost always results in an even greater degree of imaginative iterating and dreaming of interesting projects further down the line. I generally make the following suggestions and leave the rest to them:

Visually represent the people in your collective who support you.

You're welcome to use a tree form to guide you, but feel free to diverge from that template to represent your loved ones in the way that makes most sense to you.

Draw connections between the people in your life using visuals.

Just as my Amu Hamid had superhero-like individual strengths that contributed to our family collective as a whole, as students and their caregivers work on this project, invite them to highlight how different individuals have made them stronger together with prompts like:

Who is this person to me?

What makes them unique?

What talents do they bring to our family/group/community?

How does having them with us bring us closer and make us stronger?

What might our collective look like if we were missing this person's contributions?

How did our loved ones who have passed contribute meaning to our family? How did they shape us? How might we keep their legacies alive?

How do we ensure their memories are a continued blessing?

Dream big here. Read aloud from books where families look different. Prompt children to share with peers before brainstorming on paper. In one second-grade Chicago classroom, students discarded the tree image altogether and, instead, talked about who grows in their hearts after their teacher mentioned all the different contributors to her garden: bees, flowers, weeds, birds. All of those elements contribute to and nurture the garden's vibrancy, just like all of the people in our hearts.

These community maps can even be co-constructed with caregivers or orchestrated as a collaborative family project in schools, which is particularly impactful with siblings in multiple grades. They can begin on family literacy nights and end in a cumulative showcase, or they can be smaller-scale and more personal in nature. Either way, the conversations that ensue as a result of creating community maps are invaluable representations of a literacy ideal that ultimately frames much of what we aim to accomplish as teachers.

No doubt, you're familiar with the traditional family tree project. My own kids come home with these year after year, a stenciled outline that they need to fill in with great-grandparents, grandparents, parents, and siblings. For my children, being raised in a two-parent household with strong connections to both sets of grandparents, this has been a fine project that goes fairly smoothly in each instance. A few phone calls to Mama Mahnaz and Abuelo get them the names of family members from Iran and Puerto Rico that they need. But as we know, all families are different. These family tree projects have the potential to be both frustrating for students and alienating to their caregivers. When I spoke with longtime educator and school leader Nefertari Nkenge, she shared such an example of frustration about her daughter's experience, particularly around a "normed expectation of who lives in the house."

"It would have just been Mom and her. But she made it about 12 brothers and sisters, and that made me grin. The teacher interrogated her and made her feel some kind of way. Jendayi considered her godsiblings who spend the night; I'm Mama Nefertari to all these children; my daughter calls their mothers Aunties - so she's listing names. The teacher says, these are your siblings? The teacher just couldn't understand."

A more inclusive and culturally sustaining approach would replace these experiences of othering and frustration. Nefertari contended: "Our family experiences - verbal tradition as an African people - it's not something that's going to be captured in a paper-and-pencil family tree. Nor is the respect we give our non-blood relatives, many of whom are elders we learn from. It would never get the depth of what I shared now, or what my daughter understood in the third grade. To visualize and draw illustrations of experiences with this large family - even though it's just the two of us - it needs the narrative for us. For Black and Brown people, for you to see the depth of what we're describing . . . in the end, I wanted to communicate: see how rich the narrative is in who we are? That is never captured in literacy assignments in schools, nor is it captured in the ways we give credence to it in our own traditional way."

Black, Brown and Indigenous communities, especially, have longstanding and deep understandings of the importance of the collective and, furthermore, the far-reaching relational ties that shape knowledge of ourselves and who we are. Indigenous scholar Shelbi Nahwilet Meissner writes, "Kinship, as conceived of by Indigenous scholars, does not refer merely to hetero-nuclear families or biological relatives ( TallBear 2018; Whyte 2021). Rather, 'kinship' is used to describe the relationships between all entities that share responsibilities for one another." And also, "Indigenous conceptions of kinship expand beyond Western conceptions of family and include relationships among humans, non-humans, animals, plants and spirits - these relationships inform Indigenous knowledge systems." We can learn from these deeply rooted ways of being. If we are to honor all families and their ways of being, we must design curricular activities with collective inclusivity in mind.
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When family tree projects frustrate students, community maps are an inclusive alternative | KQED

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Family tree projects can alienate students from diverse family structures. Nawal Qarooni offers a more inclusive and culturally sustaining approach.