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If trips to the library or printing resources for your student isn't an option for your family, check out these digital readers for students.

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Instantly access over 40,000 of the best books & videos for kids on Epic

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Check out this website for some free great activities and games that can be used by teachers and parents to help support their child's early literacy skills.

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Browse Kindergarten Educational Resources | Education.com

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Browse Kindergarten Educational Resources. Award winning educational materials designed to help kids succeed. Start for free now!

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Check out this post for some fast facts and additional family and student  resources from your teacher. These resources are also available in Google Classroom. Feel free to reach out to your classroom teacher if you have questions or need additional support.

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When the bell rings and the school day is finished, educators hope their students' education and growth continue in their home environment. Regretfully, many teachers know that for some students, once they leave the classroom much of the curriculum they work on during the day stays in their bookbag. It's a question that reading teachers face every year: how can we open lines of communication with families and increase their involvement in literacy to help students keep exploring, discovering, and obtaining knowledge at home?

Families are a student's first teachers and they remain central to the learning experience throughout their child's school years. Indeed, it is widely acknowledged that family involvement is crucial to student success. Students whose parents remain involved been shown to maintain higher levels of academic achievement (11). These students also develop more realistic plans for the future and are more likely to graduate from high school (3). For many students, their first encounter with literacy education starts at home - such as being read a book, told a story, or learning to communicate. In seeking to retain this involvement, many educators and district leaders are actively looking for ways to further engage and empower families to be partners in literacy. Below, we've gathered insight and background into opening lines of communication with parents and families, providing parents with instructional practice tools, teaming up with community, and instilling a growth mindset in students and their parents.

Opening Lines of Communication

Opening lines of communication with parents and families is a critical first step in increasing at-home literacy involvement. Developing effective communication patterns with students' parents or guardians can ultimately impact their cognitive and socio-behavioral development as well as emergent literacy skills (4). To build continuous communication with families, teachers can use several strategies, such as parent-teacher conferences, phone calls home, and literacy nights. All of which help to open lines of communication and encourage at-home involvement.

Parent-Teacher Conferences: One of the more mainstream or traditional forms of communication with parents, parent-teacher conferences can be a simple way to meet elementary parents. Teachers may choose to utilize conference time to provide families with easy-to-implement tools and ideas for at-home involvement. It is not uncommon for parents to be overwhelmed or quite simply not know what to ask during parent-teacher conferences. A week prior to conferences, parents may benefit from a teachers sending out a " Questions to Ask " sheet, similar to the one provided by the Michigan Department of Education (3). Providing parents with general questions, or literacy specific questions to ask during the conference, can prepare them to ask questions that will guide their learning about their students' achievements as well as how to be involved at-home.

Phone Calls Home: Calls home to parents are another traditional method of communication, but unfortunately are often associated with negative student behaviors, or "getting in trouble." This is an opportunity to change that perception and demonstrate that a phone call home can be a positive experience. In fact, research suggests providing parents with information about their child's classroom performance between report cards can make parents more likely to remain involved in their student's work (5). While emails are quick and efficient, they can be easily overlooked or be deemed impersonal. Taking time to call and discuss a students' achievement can be a great tool for opening up communication lines, as well as checking in on their at-home engagement.

Host a Literacy Night: Hosting a literacy night, whether it takes form in person or as a webinar parents can watch from home, is an emerging way of opening lines of communication. Through providing space for parents to learn about their students' literacy education, ask questions, and develop at-home involvement practices, parents and teachers become partners for student success (1). Literacy nights present an opportunity to talk about expectations, both parent expectations for their student and student's teacher as well as teacher expectations for students and parents. In order to increase attendance at such events, the Ohio Department of Education suggests that during literacy nights providing prize incentives such as books, journals or other literacy tools can be used for at-home literacy engagement (5).

Providing Parents with Instructional Practice Tools

In addition to considering methods or tools for communicating with parents, it's also important to consider why parents may be less involved or visible to educators. For many parents, the new methods of instruction they see in their student's homework can be overwhelming when they don't match the methods they used in school. Research suggests many parents believe they are not competent enough to adequately instruct their student (1). There are several simple ways to teach parents how to be successful in their at-home learning role.

Interactive Homework: In today's digital age, utilization of social media can be a beneficial way for teachers to keep parents up-to-date and involved on their students' literacy learning. One study suggests using Facebook as a communication tool (6). Creating a class Facebook page for parents to join can be useful in engaging them in what their student is learning. The platform can also be used to provide parents with book suggestions, at-home work, class participation opportunities, and keeping them in the know about what their student is working on and has due (6). In combination with online supplements, assigning students interactive homework in which they must read to a family member, go over vocabulary or spelling terms, or discuss comprehension can be excellent ways of creating at-home engagement opportunities.

Workshops: Creating Youtube videos and online documents that can be shared with your students' families can not only help build a school-home connection, but can also help both students and their caregivers better understand the specific literacy content and skills that are being covered at school. This content should "help families understand academic content standards and literacy-related benchmarks appropriate to their child's age (5)." Research has shown that children show greater progress when parents learn specific methods for literacy improvement (4).

Instilling Growth Mindset in Parents: Growth mindset assumes the position that ability can be developed and continually improved through dedication and hard work (7). Parents and caregivers can have a powerful impact on their students' mindset. While emerging research encourages teachers to integrate growth mindset in their classroom and with their students, instilling a growth mindset in parents is less frequently discussed. Through using positive, encouraging language that encourages growth and accepts failure, parents set the tone for their students' learning (8). The mindset changes parents' perceptions from fixed:

"My student can't read or write like that,"

to one of growth:

"My student can't read or write like that, yet!"

Research suggests when teachers instill a growth mindset in parents, it has two effects:

It shows parents they can make a difference in their child's literary achievements, and

It has a large potential to positively impact classroom performance through giving parents the confidence to supplement school efforts and help their student read and express themselves well in writing (9).

When families offer concrete praise focused on specific literacy-related skills, students not only gain confidence, but also build metacognitive skills. For instance, rather than saying, "you are so smart," replace it with pointed positive feedback about the students work, "I was proud that when you weren't sure about how to find the main idea, you decided to go back to the story and re-read it" (8). To help parents familiarize themselves with this language shift, develop a list of "Say This, Not That" examples to provide students' parents and class volunteers.

Utilize Family & Community Support

Students are often encouraged to use their resources to make finding solutions easier, however, it can be easy for teacher to forget to do the same. Communities and families are excellent resources waiting to be explored in order to solve concerns with parent engagement and communication. Through tapping into the resources below, teachers are likely to increase parent engagement and student learning.

Volunteers: When we think of classroom volunteers, we often tend to only think about parents and caregivers. What if we extended our definition? Volunteers could include older siblings, extended relatives, and grandparents and community members (5). In fact, one study suggests that bringing in retired community members as classroom volunteers may be the most beneficial for students.

"The teaming of senior citizens and children is proving to be a natural and effective combination. Schools get free, reliable, dedicated assistance at a time when pressure to boost low-achieving students' performance is growing, and shrinking budgets are resulting in fewer classroom aides. And the volunteers dispense grandparent-levels of love that many of the children crave" (2).

However, if securing volunteers proves to be challenging, consider eliminating the travel and offer a pen pal option instead. Pen pals can help build students reading, writing, and comprehension skills while also incorporating SEL in their instruction (5). Partnering with a local retirement homes in the community can be a great place to find volunteer pen pals.

Available After-School Resources: While teachers do their best to serve every student and family well, some students require extra assistance. One solution is proactively locating community programs and after-school assistance locations to provide for parents and students (5). Providing a list on your class website or in a hand-out could be greatly beneficial to students success or parents struggling to provide at-home assistance.

An Overall Look

How does it all tie together? Providing parents with a road map at the beginning of each year can be an excellent way to plan and communicate a home-school literacy connection all year round (10). Your road map, such as the above example provided by the Council of Great City Schools, might include resources such as a short letter to parents, what their student will be learning, objectives for their students, a guide to helping their child learn outside of the classroom, and a volunteer sign up sheet. Providing this type of resource sets a tone for communication throughout the school year.

Want to learn more about engagement, growth mindset, or SEL? Check out the resources below:

References

(1)Plevyak, L. H. (2003, 10). Parent involvement in education: Who decides? The Education Digest, 69, 32-38. Retrieved from http://libproxy.highpoint.edu/login?url=https://search.proquest.com/docview/218174097?accountid=11411

(2)Calling All Grandparents: Senior Volunteers Transform Schools. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.educationworld.com/a_admin/admin/admin355.shtml

(3)M. (2011). "Collaborating for Success" Parent Engagement Toolkit. Retrieved from https://d1e2bohyu2u2w9.cloudfront.net/sites/default/files/tlr-asset/4a._final_toolkit_without_bookmarks_370151_7.pdf

(4)Swain, J., & Cara, O. (2017). Changing the home literacy environment through participation in family literacy programmes. Journal of Early Childhood Literacy, (2017). doi:10.1177/1468798417745118

(5) https://education.ohio.gov/getattachment/Topics/Other-Resources/Family-and-Community-Engagement/Framework-for-Building-Partnerships-Among-Schools/Literacy.pdf.aspx

(6)Thompson, B. C., Mazer, J. P., & Flood Grady, E. (2015). The Changing Nature of Parent-Teacher Communication: Mode Selection in the Smartphone Era. Communication Education, 64(2), 187-207. https://doi.org.libproxy.highpoint.edu/10.1080/03634523.2015.1014382

(7)MINDSET. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://mindsetonline.com/whatisit/about/index.html

(8)How Parents Can Instill a Growth Mindset at Home. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.mindsetworks.com/parents/growth-mindset-parenting

(9)Andersen, S. C., & Nielsen, H. S. (2016). Reading intervention with a growth mindset approach improves children's skills. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 113(43), 12111-12113. doi:10.1073/pnas.1607946113

(10) https://www.lake.k12.fl.us/cms/lib/FL01000799/Centricity/Domain/17/ParentGuide_ELA_K_v2r3_newfont.pdf

(11)Yurtoğlu, N. (2018). Http://www.historystudies.net/dergi//birinci-dunya-savasinda-bir-asayis-sorunu-sebinkarahisar-ermeni-isyani20181092a4a8f.pdf. History Studies International Journal of History,10(7), 241-264. doi:10.9737/hist.2018.658

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How to Promote Family Involvement in Literacy Education

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When the bell rings and the school day is finished, educators hope their students' education and growth continue in their home environment. Regretfully, many teachers know that for some students, once they leave the classroom much of the curriculum they work on during the day stays in their bookbag.

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There are many things that you can do to help support your student while they are learning from home. It is important that students have support both from home and the school to help them develop their early literacy skills. These skills are crucial in helping students be successful readers. So how can you support your student with early literacy skills? Check out this link for some great tips.

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You have an important role in helping develop your child's literacy skills. You can increase the literacy learning opportunities offered by the school and set the foundation for remote and online learning at home.

What is Remote Literacy Learning?

Remote literacy learning includes a mixture of experiences that are teacher-led, family-led, and student-led. It is a collaboration among you, your child, and schools. Remote literacy learning will likely be different than the traditional school day. Typically, this is more flexible than the in-person school schedule. It often combines online and offline literacy learning opportunities.

Online literacy learning relies on learning management systems to deliver virtual literacy lessons or assignments to your child. It also may include live video chats, recorded videos, literacy apps, virtual literacy games, and e-books. Offline literacy learning usually involves print materials and educational television that promotes the development of literacy skills.

What is My Role?

You can coach your child's literacy learning at home. This means guiding your child so he or she grows and succeeds. While it's important for your child to focus on school lessons and assignments, literacy learning can happen anywhere, anytime. You can turn everyday experiences into literacy learning opportunities using household items. But, you should not feel that you need to take the place of teachers. Remote learning will look different for every family.

Families say the most helpful resources for learning at home are personal technology, personal guidance for how to best support their child, regular access to their child's teacher, and options for remote one-on-one time/tutoring with a teacher.

What is the Role of the School?

Your child's teacher will provide your family with information and materials for remote literacy learning. Your child's teacher may include information on how to access and use technology, like apps, online games, or programs, to support your child's literacy learning. Teachers often use these technologies to enhance, not replace, what they are already doing. If your child receives literacy intervention, it should continue during remote learning, but it may not look the same as it did during in-person instruction. Schools providing literacy instruction remotely must make the instruction accessible to students with disabilities and follow the goals and supports identified on a student's Individualized Education Program (IEP). The school's remote learning model may not be perfect. Schools often face challenges when creating differentiated remote learning plans to reach all students. Your child's school will likely make changes to make it better over time. Your input will help the school to know what is working and what can be improved.

GET READY

Set up workspaces.

Think about workspaces that will enable your child's literacy learning. Workspaces prepared with the materials and tools your child needs encourage independence and success. You can create both indoor and outdoor places to do schoolwork. Ask your child for suggestions. If possible, find spaces that limit distractions and interruptions.

Follow a schedule.

Remote literacy learning will likely require your child to have more ownership over tasks and assignments. This responsibility can bring challenges. Having consistent routines can be helpful and comforting to your child. For example, find a regular time to read books together. Setting a schedule helps your child to know what to expect. Try to have some flexibility in the schedule and allow your child to make some choices. More structure may be needed if your child has trouble organizing time, staying organized, remaining on task, or finishing tasks. Adjust the schedule based on your child's needs. Remote literacy learning does not need to mirror the traditional school day.

Set up a positive reinforcement system.

Address any behavioral or social-emotional needs so your child can fully engage in school literacy tasks and assignments. Identify the learning behaviors you want your child to display and use positive feedback or rewards for motivation. This can also help increase your child's on-task behavior during remote literacy learning. Celebrate and reward progress toward goals. Having choices in literacy activities or making some decisions in remote learning can encourage and motivate your child.

GET SET

Don't do too much at once.

Take one step at a time. Start slow, with literacy tasks or activities your child is interested in and go from there. Try to keep an open mind and be patient. It's OK if your child is challenged at some point. Encourage and support your child as he or she tries to work through an issue independently. That's part of the learning process. Intervene when you think it's needed.

Set learning goals.

Work with your child's teacher to set and check literacy learning goals for home. For example, you can determine together the number of minutes to read with your child per week and and jointly track progress. The teacher will also have school literacy goals for your child. You can share any literacy goals you may have for your child too. Talking together helps the teacher better target instruction and tasks to your child's literacy goals. It also helps if you track your child's literacy learning progress and provide feedback to the teacher.

GO

Tap into your child's interests.

Find reading material on topics your child enjoys or is curious about. Your child's teacher may have suggestions too, including things available at the local library or online. Look for opportunities to read around the house. If your child wants to watch a movie based on a book, try reading the book with your child first and then watch the movie as a reward. Discuss the differences or similarities between the book and the movie together.

Guide your child's literacy learning.

Your child learns best when you guide his or her learning and understanding of reading material and activities. You can help your child in all foundational reading skills - phonological awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension - needed to read and write well. Talk with your child's teacher about which literacy skills are most pressing to support now and what to do. Listen to your child read and note which sounds, letters, and words seem hard and what it sounds like when your child reads aloud. Help by pausing and giving your child a chance to correct a mistake. Then, try giving your child a hint or prompt to figure it out. Encourage your child by talking together about the book or literacy task. Offer praise when successful and reassure your child when difficulties arise. Look for the literacy skills or tasks that appear difficult for your child. See if they improve with practice.

You can ask your child questions before, during, and after reading to check for understanding, summarize what is read, and re-read hard to read passages. You can do these things together, or have your child try them on his or her own. Keeping the literacy learning interactive is key. For example, you can use online tools and technology to start conversations with your child and extend literacy learning beyond the screen.

Read different types of materials.

Selecting informational material to read together can build your child's knowledge of topics. This is especially helpful for your child's learning in other content areas, like science and social studies. Articles, magazines, to-do lists, manuals, e-books, audio books, blogs, and other online information make good reading material too. You can help your child be a careful user of what is read online by checking the source of information and seeing if its credible.

Talk about what is being learned.

Your child doesn't need to be reading independently to talk together about reading material. You can read aloud as your child listens. You can each take turns reading paragraphs or pages. Or, you and your child can read the same book on your own. The key is talking together about what is being read and what your child is learning through literacy lessons and assignments. When you talk and interact with your child, you promote your child's language development, learning of how the world works, and understanding. This happens when using technology and other media for literacy learning too. For example, you can use video communication to hold virtual story time or book clubs with family and friends.

Write about what is being learned.

Writing is a way of developing your child's reading skills as well. Tap into your child's interests, infuse writing into daily activities, and set a purpose for writing. Most importantly, have fun. Besides paper and pencil, try using posters, slideshows, and online tools. Turn it into a blog, research project, or performance if your child wishes.

Take breaks and switch it up.

It's important to stop and adjust the schedule when necessary based on your child's literacy learning needs. Return to a literacy task or assignment later if needed. Build in breaks, unstructured time, and exercise each day. Everyday events at home can be opportunities for informal literacy learning. Consider what's best for your child's overall health and well-being, not only for literacy learning.

Give feedback to your child's school.

Provide feedback to the school on your child's challenges and successes in literacy learning at home. Also, give input on the information or resources you need to support your child's literacy learning. Communicate often with teachers. Ask questions and inform them of what's working and what's not.

Reach out to others.

You may want to connect with other families to share tips and learn more about what's going on. There may be family organizations or online communities in your area. If you're feeling overwhelmed or confused, these groups may be useful.

Infographic

Click to Enlarge

Suggested Citation

Sayko, S. (2020). Remote Literacy Learning - Families as Partners. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Education, Office of Elementary and Secondary Education, Office of Special Education Programs, National Center on Improving Literacy. Retrieved from improving literacy.org

References

Learning Heroes. (2020, May). Parents 2020: COVID-19 closures a redefining moment for students, parents, & schools. Retrieved from https://r50gh2ss1ic2mww8s3uvjvq1-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uplo...

Abstract

Remote literacy learning includes a mixture of literacy learning experiences that are teacher-led, family-led, and student-led. It is a collaboration among schools, families, and students. Parents have an important role in helping develop your child's literacy skills.

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Remote Literacy Learning: Families as Partners

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Remote literacy learning includes a mixture of literacy learning experiences that are teacher-led, family-led, and student-led. It is a collaboration among schools, families, and students. Parents have an important role in helping develop your child's literacy skills and can increase the literacy learning opportunities offered by the school and set the foundation for remote and online learning at home.

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Keeping your child engaged during virtual learning.

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Keeping your child engaged during virtual learning.

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Keeping a child engaged during distance learning can be challenging. Check out this short article for some tips on how to keep your child engaged during virtual learning.

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Distance learning imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic can be challenging, but it also can bring different opportunities for family engagement under Section 1116(a)(2)(C) of the Every Student Succeeds Act, Pub. L. No. 114-95.

The National Center for Families Learning developed a tool called 30 Days of Families Learning Together that has been successfully used by the Statewide Family Engagement Center in Arizona as a set of strategies parents can use with their families to increase literacy.

Kim Whitley, site coordinator with Arizona's Statewide Family Engagement Center, which serves parents from Blue Ridge Elementary School in Pinetop-Lakeside, Ariz., says the 30 Days of Families Learning Together tool has helped students perform better at school, improve their attendance, and be more excited about being at school. The tool provides a month's worth of fun literacy activities and practices designed to involve families. The tool is free and can be printed or used via smartphone and tablet.

During Parent Time, one of the programs offered by the Statewide Family Engagement Center, Whitley uses the tool to promote family literacy and family engagement outside the school. "We talk about good strategies for engaging children at home, and the 30 Days of Families Learning Together gives them concrete tools they can take home and use to help support the topics we are talking about in Parent Time," she says.

Some of the strategies from the 30 Days of Families Learning Together include, for example:

* Making good nutrition decisions. Create an imaginary restaurant where the family discusses and makes decisions together about the menu.

* Reading at home. Flip through a dictionary to write down new words and their definitions, and collect those words in a word jar. At dinner, use those words to create sentences.

* Including social-emotional learning. Make gratitude posters to say thank you to the people who make a difference.

* Keeping kids active. Spend time relaxing together as a family before bedtime (or any other time) and try out a few beginner yoga poses or deep stretching.

The Family Resource Center targets underserved families at Blue Ridge Elementary, which is a Title I school located in a rural area next to an Apache reservation. The NCFL participates in the U.S. Education Department grant program's Statewide Family Engagement Center, which is funded with ESSA Title IV, Part E funds. Section 4501 through Section 4506.

Section 4501 of ESSA provides funding for statewide training centers that provide technical assistance and training to states and local educational agencies in the implementation and enhancement of systemic and effective family engagement policies, programs, and activities that lead to improvements in student development and academic achievement.

According to Whitley, the 30 Days of Families Learning Together is helping not only the students, but their parents as well. "I had parents telling me that using this tool made them feel like better parents and that they were more confident going to the school to talk to their children's teacher," she says, "because they knew they were doing the right thing at home."
Claude Bornel covers ELs and other Title I issues for ESEA Now, a DA sister publication. Documents noted above are available to ESEA Now subscribers.

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family engagement during distance learning

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How to promote family engagement during distance learning

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Distance learning imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic can be challenging, but it also can bring different opportunities for family engagement under Section 1116(a)(2)(C) of the Every Student Succeeds Act, Pub. L. No. 114-95.