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it is important to know a students native language to be able to use it to help them learn english.

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The difference and similarities between first language and second language acquisition

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Scaffolding is a technique that aids in the growth of ELLs by starting at their level and appropriately challenging them to grow.

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This is how to create a beneficial learning environment for EL students.

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In Part 1 of this article, we discussed the numerous issues that impact classroom management skills, in general terms, but also when working with students who are English learners or who come from diverse cultural backgrounds.

Classroom management is a phrase and concept all teachers are familiar with and know intimately.

There are numerous classroom management strategies that benefit all students, but that may be especially beneficial for culturally and linguistically diverse students. This population in particular requires additional considerations as we work to develop a classroom culture of learning and mutual respect.

Consider the following concepts and strategies as you reflect on your own classroom management style and classroom culture.

Interest in students

Carl Rogers, a humanistic psychologist is thought to be the first to discuss the unconditional positive regard for patients. In teaching, we can apply the concept as having an unconditional positive regard for children. This includes taking interest in our students, including their interests, hobbies and cultural norms and backgrounds.

Just as parents love their children unconditionally, when we view students with a positive regard, we do everything we can for them to improve their social and emotional health, including using discipline and classroom management strategies that help them to see what appropriate behavior looks, sounds and feels like.

Celebrating students' languages and cultures

Celebrating that students speak other languages and have culturally diverse backgrounds is as easy as encouraging students to speak their native language at home with their families, or in class as appropriate.

Students may be encouraged to speak in their native language when discussion a topic with a partner or clarifying instructions or concepts, for example. Ask students if they are familiar with vocabulary words or concepts in their native languages, and if they are comfortable, ask them to share those words.

Examining our cultural lens

As we celebrate students' cultures and linguistic backgrounds, it is important that we also begin to think about our own cultural norms and biases. How we understand the world and students can lead to misunderstandings of behavior displayed by students.

One way to consider this is to question if what we expect a classroom to look like is the same or different from what our students believe and expect. Do our practices align with what students are used to and believe school should be? While we do not necessarily need to completely change our system, it is important that we begin to recognize how our own cultural lens can cause misunderstandings.

Creating a culture of learning

Keep the affective filter low by encouraging risk-taking in the classroom. Celebrate when students make attempts at applying concepts or language skills, even if these attempts come at inopportune times.

Keep it positive

Perhaps the most important strategy teachers can use to effectively manage classrooms is the notion of public praise and private conversations. This refers to publicly recognizing students who are behaving appropriately, rather than students who are behaving in undesirable or disruptive ways.

The adage "what you permit, you promote" holds true in that teachers can and should make explicit the kids of behaviors they expect to see in class, and publicly acknowledge those behaviors. Phrases such as "thank you for staying quiet while others are speaking" and the like show students what you expect from them.

This does not mean that unacceptable behavior is ignored. But rather when the redirection of students by pointing out positive behavior does not work, a private conversation with the student is necessary.

Some students only know how to gain attention from the teacher by acting in disruptive ways. When we shift the paradigm and publicly acknowledge students when they are doing something correctly - especially recognizing positive behavior in students who have behavior challenges - we can begin to shift the paradigm of negative attention seeking behaviors.

Developing norms or agreements

In a positive classroom community, students and teachers can work together to collaboratively develop norms for behavior. Students at all levels know the types of behaviors that are helpful or harmful in learning and working with others. Students from diverse cultural backgrounds may have differing perspectives that will enrich the discussions.

If students are a part of developing the norms of behavior and agreements in the classroom, they are more likely to follow the norms as they had a hand in creating them.

Explicit teaching of social skills

Students from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds may have differing expectations on how to behave in the classroom, as we have previously mentioned. Behavioral expectations should be explicitly taught to students so that they understand what the behaviors are, what the behaviors look like and sound like.

One way to explicitly teach this is by using a three-column chart. The behavioral norm or social skill is listed at the top of the chart. In each column, list - with the input of the students - what the skill looks like, sounds like and feels like.

While this may seem tedious, students may not be able to immediately articulate what empathy, listening, respect, collaboration, perseverance or other skills actually look like. Specific examples of what a particular skill looks like, sounds like, or feels like can be added over time.

The second column, "sounds like," is especially important for English learners. These students may need explicit instruction in the words and phrases that help demonstrate the social skill or behavior being taught.

Social objectives

Many teachers are familiar with writing instructional objectives and sharing those objectives with students. When working with English learners, the addition of language objectives is a widely accepted practice to help students develop academic language skills.

Social objectives that focus on the behavior students will engage in during the lesson are another way to make explicit the types of behavior students should engage in. For example, a social objective may focus on nonverbal cues speakers give when listening to a partner, such as nodding, asking clarifying questions or appropriate eye contact.

Active student participation

Effective instructional techniques will assist in keeping students engaged, thereby minimizing behavior issues. When scaffolding is used appropriately, students are met at their instructional level and supported to meet the objectives for the lesson.

Using techniques such as choral calling, frequent student conversations on academic topics, hands-on activities, and getting students up and moving around, students will be more highly engaged and less likely to behave in disruptive ways.

Implementing these strategies and concepts will likely not eliminate all behavioral issues in the classroom. However, as we strive to meet the needs of all students in the classroom, careful consideration of how we manage student behavior and carefully considering our students' experiences and cultural backgrounds will help us to ever move in the direction of helping each child to excel.

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MultiBrief: Transforming classroom management for ELLs: Strategies for success

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Classroom management is a phrase and concept all teachers are familiar with and know intimately. ​There are numerous classroom management strategies that benefit all students, but that may be especially beneficial for culturally and linguistically diverse students.

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English Language Proficiency Standards - these are important to include in the language objectives when lesson planning and for determining which language domains are begin addressed with the lesson.

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Proficiency Level Descriptors - these are important to refer to when monitoring the progress of the English learners. They also serve as reminders of what students can do at each level of proficiency within each domain of language.

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The ELPS-TELPAS for listening shows the levels of what English learners can comprehend and be able to grasp when listening to a teacher.

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The ELPS-TELPS for speaking can be a great way to see what level of proficiency a student is at.

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It is important for all students especially EL students to have structure when writing. This model is easy to follow and is a good way to provide structure for ELLs when writing.

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these test can be used to see the improvement and the level of proficiency a student is on.

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The Texas Education Agency (TEA) releases previously administered tests for the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness (STAAR ®), STAAR Alternate 2, and the Texas English Language Proficiency Assessment System (TELPAS). Some released tests are available in the online testing environment as practice tests, some released tests are available in a printable PDF format, and some are available in both.

Online Practice Tests

The online practice tests are designed to familiarize students with the online testing environment, the available tools, and the various types of test questions. These tests provide students with an opportunity to interact with the test interface, respond to questions, and locate and use available tools.

Practice tests are released tests that have been previously administered and are available for STAAR and TELPAS. The online practice tests provide students with an opportunity to interact with the online testing environment, locate and use the available tools, and respond to the various types of questions. In addition, small sets of test questions are available as practice sets. These practice sets are used to introduce students to new types of test questions.

Access the online practice tests and practice sets by clicking the Practice Tests Login card below.

Printable PDF Released Tests

Printable PDF versions of released tests for STAAR through spring 2022 and STAAR Alternate 2 are available on the TEA website. Access PDF versions of the released STAAR tests by clicking the STAAR Released Tests card below. Access PDF versions of the released STAAR Alternate 2 tests by clicking the STAAR Alternate 2 Released Tests card.

Local education agencies may order printed versions of the STAAR braille released tests. Use the online order form below to order printed STAAR braille released tests.

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The Texas Education Agency (TEA) releases previously administered tests for the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness (STAAR ®), STAAR Alternate 2, and the Texas English Language Proficiency Assessment System (TELPAS). Some released tests are available in the online testing environment as practice tests, some released tests are available in a printable PDF format, and some are available in both.

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this method provides authentic learning experiences by having relatable meaningful communication.

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when working with a ELL students it is important to know who needs to be involved in their learning experiences.

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Transforming classroom management for ELLs: The issues

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For successful EL students, there needs to be structure in the classroom. Having structure provides comfort and in turn, creates a good learning environment.

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Classroom management is a phrase and concept all teachers are familiar with and know intimately.

The concept can be defined in several ways, but essentially refers to the actions a teacher uses to create an environment and climate where effective teaching and learning can take place. If students are not engaged in instruction and are off-task, even the most exciting concepts or topics and the most dynamic instructional techniques will fall short, as students are concentrating on something else or behaving inappropriately.

Teachers get into the business of teaching because they want to help people learn to develop new skills and knowledge, and ultimately to make the world a better place. When asked what the purpose of education is, teachers often report they want to help students become life-long learners and productive members of society.

Employers are seeking students who ...

are self-regulated learners and are motivated to learn about the world

want to improve on their own work in the workplace and learn how to more efficiently implement a process

are creative and critical thinkers

know how to communicate well and collaborate with others

But when inappropriate or disruptive behavior interrupts the process of helping students to develop these skills, frustration may ensue for the teacher and other students.

There are numerous issues that impact classroom management skills, in general terms, but also when working with students who are English learners or who come from diverse cultural backgrounds.

Issues of bullying and lack of empathy impact many students in schools today. Prejudice and perceptions of race or social class can impact student dynamics among students and teachers.

Students from differing cultures may have different experiences and notions of how school works, what the expectations of school are, and how to behave appropriately in school. When to address a teacher, when to talk to other students, gender roles in communication in the classroom, eye contact, and the concept of discipline vary from culture to culture.

As we learn about students' cultural backgrounds and norms, our perspective and strategies to manage the classroom should change to respond to student behavior in a more culturally appropriate way.

When students feel threatened, humiliated, ridiculed or even disliked by the teacher or other students, learning is negatively impacted. When working with students who have experienced some form of trauma in their lives, the "fight or flight" instinct may take over when a student feels as though they are threatened in some way.

For students who have experienced being in war-torn countries or have been refugees, or students who have had harrowing experiences coming to this country, the instinct to initially resist against authority or to rebel when being confronted may stem from past experiences outside of school. It is important that as teachers we recognize that these negative experiences may impact students' negative behavior.

In second-language acquisition theory, the concept of the affective filter states that language learning can be facilitated or hindered based on the emotional variables experienced by the student.

When the student feels stress, anxiety, a fear of failure or embarrassment, the affective filter is "high" and does not allow language (and potentially content) to come through. When individuals feel comfortable and risk-taking is encouraged and celebrated in learning a new language (or content), learning is facilitated.

The affective filter can be raised or lowered depending on the actions of the teacher and other students in the class. Classroom management, in part, plays a part in the facilitation or hindrance of language and content learning.

In Part 2 of this article, we will explore some effective classroom management strategies for working with culturally and linguistically diverse students.

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MultiBrief: Transforming classroom management for ELLs: The issues

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Classroom management is a phrase and concept all teachers are familiar with and know intimately. There are numerous issues that impact classroom management skills, in general terms, but also when working with students who are English learners or who come from diverse cultural backgrounds.

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This is another method to help EL students grow in the academic language.

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Having clear language and content objectives, ensures the students are working on a firm language foundation and know what they are expected to do during the lesson.

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This shows how to create a meaningful language objective for ELLs from a content objective.

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LO 1 Steps for Developing Language Objectives

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It is important to ensure the students knows that there can be multiple words for one meaning and that they can be interchangeable.

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Problem solving can be a long difficult process so it is important that there is a guiding structure for the students to go through when problem solving.

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Using these strategies can ensure that students are not having more of a hard time when they are reading already confusing/new texts in science.

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This is a step by step way to teach new science concepts while engaging the students and their ideas.

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this gives the steps to prepare ELL students to learn social studies. activate prior knowledge, look at different perspectives, and discuss academic language and vocab.

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Consider the following scenario:

A fifth-grade teacher was preparing her class to learn about the American Revolution. She enlisted the students' help in acting out the events that led to the Revolution with elaborate props and exercises. When the class ended, the students were told they would read more about the Revolution the following day. As they left the room, an ESL student stopped and asked urgently, "But who won?"

This situation highlights some of the challenges that teachers face when helping English language learners, or ELLs, master social studies content:

Background knowledge
ELLs may not have the same background knowledge that their peers have or that textbook authors take for granted, as explained in this video clip with ELL teacher Amber Prentice.

Different perspectives
ELLs bring their own valuable and important experiences to the classroom. Often those experiences can be connected to the content in meaningful ways; however, if different points of view or ideas aren't expressed or identified, students may miss key concepts and ideas in the lesson.

Academic language and vocabulary
ELLs must learn the academic language and vocabulary needed to comprehend and produce new content - all while learning the new content and concepts at the same time!

For content-area teachers with limited experience working with ELLs, planning a lesson that engages them and helps them learn new material may seem daunting. The good news is that there are a number of ways to engage ELLs with social studies content and draw on their own unique background knowledge and perspectives. This article will describe some strategies for planning social studies lessons with ELLs in mind.

In addition, I recommend taking a look at the following resources:

Note: Lesson Planning to Ensure Optimal Engagement of ELLs (Chapter 2 of Teaching English Language Learners Across the Content Areas), is available online and provides a number of helpful resources, including a checklist for modifying lesson plans for ELLs. In addition, Appendix Two of the book (not available online) provides a lesson modification worksheet.

Lesson Planning Strategies

Identify key concepts necessary for understanding the lesson

When choosing your key concepts, keep in mind the following:

Background knowledge
ELLs with limited or interrupted schooling may not have that same level of knowledge as their peers, especially when it comes to historical or cultural topics. When starting a new lesson, look for references or concepts that may need to be explicitly explained.

Language proficiency
Students may already possess content knowledge that they cannot yet demonstrate in English. Look for opportunities to make associations between students' experiences and new content.

Perspective
Students may have a different perspective on the content than their peers. These differences provide an important opportunity for class discussion and learning as long as they are handled in a sensitive and respectful ways.

In addition, plan to find out what students know about the topic you are teaching before getting started. This will help you fill in gaps and build on prior knowledge. A great tool for this activity is a Circle Map, in which you place the main topic in a small circle and add student ideas in a bigger circle around the topic. You may wish to allow ELLs to use their native language with peers for a quick brainstorm before presenting their ideas to the whole class.

Identify content and language objectives

These objectives are a great way to focus on the most important information and language structures you want your students to master. Content objectives focus on the material while language objectives focus on vocabulary or language structures that students should be able to use throughout the lesson (Haynes and Zacarian, 28).

Think about how you are going to:

introduce these concepts using simple language,

break the concepts down into the most basic elements,

keep the objectives visible to students during the unit (i.e., post them on the board or provide a simple outline to keep in binders).

Identify key vocabulary and academic vocabulary

Identify key terms, words, idioms and phrases - TWIPS, according to Dr. Zacarian (19). Choose the vocabulary that your students need to know in order to support their reading development and content-area learning, in addition to key content vocabulary. Remember to prepare student-friendly definitions for TWIPS ahead of time. It may be helpful to look at other social studies vocabulary lists as well.

In addition:

Look for problem areas
Clarify potential areas of confusion, such as homonyms or words with more than one meaning.

Include signal and directional words
Remember that students may also need explicit instruction in signal or directional words ("because" and "explain"), especially those words that are likely to appear frequently in the content materials or activities.

Don't overlook the basic words
There may be many words used through a lesson that native English-speaking students will understand but that ELLs don't know. Keep an eye out for these words, no matter how basic, and make a list of words that your students have questions about so that you can refer back to it when teaching the lesson in the future.

Use visuals and manipulatives when possible
Having a visual reference for new words is particularly helpful for ELLs.

Keep words visible and accessible to students
Post words on a word wall, or try using a "portable word wall" chart that students can put in their binder. The chart might include categories such as new words, old words, people, everyday words, words to review, etc. (Haynes and Zacarian, 59-60).

Remember to include lots of student practice
For students to really know a word, they must use it - or they will lose it. Use new words in class discussions or outside of class in other contexts if appropriate, such as on field trips. Give the students as many opportunities to use and master the new vocabulary as possible, both in writing and speaking activities. You may find this six-step process for teaching academic vocabulary from Dr. Robert Marzano helpful.

Prepare to preview the text

One strategy is a "chapter walk", where students predict what the chapter will be about based on pictures and highlighted features of the textbook.

An activity like this may take some time at first because it's time-consuming to teach. If you use it with regularity, however, it will become easier and quicker, and students will be able to do this on their own at the beginning of a new chapter.

You can also use the "BIG FOX" strategy, published by McGraw-Hill. This graphic organizer helps students pick out important terms and pieces of information before reading. I recommend practicing this strategy with some simple readings about familiar topics before jumping in with the textbook. The students will understand the strategy better if they start out with concepts that they understand.

Prepare multimedia, visuals, and related readings

These resources can be used to build background knowledge and provide context for ELLs, especially when students are learning new concepts and words. Ideas include:

Using photos from books, magazines, or the Internet to supplement textbooks.

Showing brief, focused video clips of history or social studies programs.

Listening to a short podcast or radio clip of an interview or speech.

Discussing additional readings such as related articles, poems, letters, and graphic novels.

Enlist native language support when possible

These strategies can help students identify content they already know, or master new concepts before transferring those ideas and learning how to express them in English:

Collaborate with a bilingual paraprofessional and identify areas where bilingual language support will be most helpful.

Look for related content materials in the students' native language from publishers like Scholastic or National Geographic/Cengage.

Plan group work in which students can use their native language with peers to discuss main ideas or vocabulary words.

Plan to include group work throughout the unit

Peer learning activities such as Reciprocal Teaching and Think-Pair-Share can be powerful tools for engaging ELLs with content learning.

Use modeling and clear instructions to ensure students understand:

how the activity works

their role in group work

the objective of the activity

any key vocabulary or phrases they should be using.

Here are some other tips on group work for ELLs from Haynes and Zacarian:

Assign students group roles that match their language ability (37).

Promote students to new roles as their language skills improve (42).

Make sure that mainstream students understand that they will be working in diverse groups, and that everyone's contributions are important (41).

Keep an eye on the balance of student participation; if some students are speaking more than others, ask them to think of some ways to even participation out (42).

Ask students to reflect on their group work after they have finished an activity. Haynes and Zacarian include a chart in their book with some guiding statements for student reflection (48).

Plan plenty of opportunities for students to interact with the content

Give students lots of opportunities to engage with and review the material in different ways:

Graphic organizers
Use graphic organizers to review key concepts and vocabulary words.

Flash cards
Have students make their own flash cards with pictures, definitions, key facts, etc.

Working with the text
Teach students to underline, highlight, and make notes. You may also find that sticky notes, Wikki Stix, and highlighting tape are a big hit with students (68). According to Haynes, some school districts order extra textbooks for their ELL classes so that teachers can keep a highlighted copy on hand as a student reference.

Use acting
Have the students write skits about the material they are learning, or create an activity in which students provide a physical representation of a particular event or vocabulary word.

Be creative and flexible with writing assignments

Writing can be an important way for students to show what they've learned:

Be creative and flexible
When choosing writing activities for students, be creative and open to different ways for students to express their new knowledge. I have seen students successfully convey what they learned by writing letters, poems, news articles and mosaics with vocabulary key points. Writing an essay may be more difficult for ELLs, and although they need to learn how to write a good essay eventually, they should be allowed to demonstrate their learning through a variety of writing activities.

Look for writing exercises that relate to the topic at hand
This may include a biography or autobiography, a letter from the point of view of a historical figure, or a short news article about a famous event.

Provide models
Give ELLs explicit structures and sentence frames to follow. Frames may vary in complexity and specificity, but they will help students to model correct structures and usage from the beginning.

Plan to adapt homework and assessment as needed

While it's important to have high expectations of ELLs, it is also important to have realistic expectations of the amount of work they can do. Haynes and Zacarian note, "The teacher's goal should be to making learning accessible and meaningful for every student without lowering expectations or sacrificing rigor" (104-105).

They continue in Chapter 7 of their book to provide a number of helpful rubrics and step-by-step procedures for evaluating your homework and assessment activities with ELLs in mind. In Twenty-Five Quick Tips for Classroom Teachers, Haynes suggests that teachers "adjust homework assignment to your ELLs' English language proficiency (and) modify assessment so that your ELLs have an opportunity to show what they have learned."

As you look for ways to help your students learn this new content, remember that you aren't just teaching them required social studies standards - you are helping your students adjust to a new life and country. That preparation has a potentially significant ripple effect because your students may be helping their own parents navigate this new country as well, and they may need to prepare for a U.S. Citizenship exam one day in the future.

Through social studies lessons, you also can prepare your students to be engaged and well-informed participants in our society and democracy, an opportunity they might not have had in their own country due to their religion, gender, or ethnicity. When you think about it that way, teaching ELLs to master new social studies content is so much more than adapting a lesson plan - it's a chance to prepare a new generation of young people to lead us into the future.

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Preparing an Engaging Social Studies Lesson for English Language Learners

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Consider the following scenario: A fifth-grade teacher was preparing her class to learn about the American Revolution. She enlisted the students' help in acting out the events that led to the Revolution with elaborate props and exercises. When the class ended, the students were told they would read more about the Revolution the following day.

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this is a chart that shows how you can engage higher-order thinking for EL students learning SS. This allows students to go beyond what they are being taught and think deeper.

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This shows teachers how assessments should look and how they are beneficial to an EL student.

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This shows how simple a summative test is. It is just what the student knows after a lesson not their growth of knowledge over the year.

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This shows why we use formative assessments. I can show us student progress which helps us determine their growth and what they may need help with.

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this is showing the LPT all ELL students have to take in order to place them correctly, see their progress, and eventually have them go out of ELL instruction.

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Sometimes it is hard to distinguish if an EL student is struggling in English or if they have a deeper issue. this can help distinguish the difference.

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Being an ELL and having a disability makes it twice as hard to learn. These tools can help these students be successful in the classroom. It is important to know what works with each student and to try multiple until you see results.

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Ted talks can provide ELL students a greater understanding of a topic by going more in-depth auditorily so that they do not have to struggle with reading to learn.

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TED Talks are influential videos from expert speakers on education, business, science, tech and creativity, with subtitles in 100+ languages. Ideas free to stream and download.

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By showing ELL videos covering academic topics, they are not only getting to hear the explanation but also seeing what they are explaining. Using more than one way of explaining something, deepens the understanding of the topic and shows the students what they are learning about.

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You can also directly get the source code.

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Official download of VLC media player, the best Open Source player

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this article shows the importance of parental involvement in ELL student's lives and the classroom.

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Find Expert-Led Strategies That Work for Your School

Visit the Waterford webinars page to learn from educational experts like Candra Morris, Dr. Jenni Torres, Julie Christensen, and others on topics that include:

Fostering Family Engagement

Teaching with the Science of Reading

Understanding the Six Literacy Strands

And more!

On both the classroom and schoolwide level, family involvement in education can make a profound difference in early learning outcomes. When educators build strong relationships, families can reinforce what their students are learning in the classroom as they set their own routines and expectations at home.

As an educator, it's important to remember that all families are different. While they may face barriers to their involvement, such as scheduling or transportation needs, always assume that families are eager to support their children however they can.

Focus on getting to know families so you have a solid understanding of their needs and what is going on in their lives. Use that knowledge and work with families to find ways to support their students at home and, if desired, in your school. Read on to learn what family engagement includes and how you can build a community where families are valued at your school.

What Is Family Engagement?

Family engagement is when families and educators, including teachers and administrators, partner together to share the responsibility of supporting a student's learning.

Educators can connect families with opportunities to actively contribute to the school community, set student goals, and create strong home learning environments. Families understand their child's needs, strengths, and areas of growth and use that understanding to inform the strategies educators use.

Engagement can involve a variety of opportunities depending on the individual family. Some families may want to take an active role in the classroom by volunteering or joining parent-teacher organizations. Others may prefer at-home options in which they stay connected with teachers through digital communication and help students build the skills they're learning in class from home.

Family Engagement Leads to Mutual Respect and Student Success

The importance of family involvement in education is clear, and the benefits profound. In a retrospective looking at 50 different studies, researchers found strong connections between family involvement and academic achievement.[1] Support and involvement from educators and families are crucial to a student's academic performance. This is one reason administrators must value families as a crucial part of their school environment.

By engaging families, educators can create partnerships founded on respect. Educators recognize the valuable understanding families have of their child's learning needs. As they build trust over time, families likewise come to recognize the expertise and training educators have to help students learn.

Remember that there is no way to know a student's full history and needs without connecting with their family. Likewise, educators can't effectively involve a child's caregivers without understanding events and communication options that interest the family most. In the most effective partnerships, educators work with families to determine the individual and school-wide strategies that will best involve caregivers and meet each student's needs.. .

As Candra Morris, Waterford's Director of Family Partnerships, notes in a recent article, "We must include opportunities to elevate family voices and to involve them in the process to ensure they get what they need."

Recognizing and Addressing Barriers to Engagement

Teachers and administrators must be aware of significant barriers as they determine how to involve families in the classroom. Many families face structural barriers like a busy work schedule or a lack of transportation that make in-person options challenging. Other families may encounter societal barriers that discourage them from working with educators, especially if schools do not actively make sure families feel respected.

As you address structural barriers, get to know the families in your school and find ways they can get involved in their child's education that work with their needs. If a family is facing transportation issues or a busy work schedule, for example, advise teachers to consider virtual calls or provide flexible meeting times if they can.

To address societal barriers that alienate families, create a school-wide culture that values diversity and embraces every family's voice. Offer professional development opportunities to your teachers that include strategies for creating inclusive classrooms and recognizing implicit biases. Additionally, seek anonymous family feedback (e.g.,through surveys) to learn specific areas where your school can improve and determine ways to reach those goals.

The more you connect with families in your school, the better you will understand the barriers they face. No matter how you respond to these issues, the key is this: by definition, your strategies cannot follow a universal template. Instead, adjust them to meet the circumstances of the families you serve.

How Administrators Can Support and Engage Families

Because family engagement is so essential to a learning environment, it's never too early in the school year to start building connections. "[Back to school events] are great opportunities to meet families and let them know right off the bat that they can speak on behalf of their child," says Candra Morris, "and that you're eager to listen."

As teachers open their classroom doors for back to school nights, consider leaving your office door open or spending time in the front lobby. Start conversations with families and learn the names of people you haven't met before. Give them your contact information so they know how to reach you if any questions or concerns arise.

Through the school year, administrators play a crucial role in assisting and advising teachers as they build relationships with families. Establish yourself as a trusted leader for teachers to voice the barriers to engagement they come up against and ask for insight. As you model open communication and a willingness to listen with your teachers, you also encourage them to do the same with families.

To promote classroom engagement plans on a larger scale, consider offering professional development opportunities to teachers. Independent options like online courses, webinars, or in-person training sessions can give teachers fresh ideas to connect with families through the school year.
Sources:
1. Hill, N. E., & Tyson, D. F. "Parental involvement in middle school: a meta-analytic assessment of the strategies that promote achievement." Developmental psychology, 2009, 45(3), 740-63.

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How Parent Involvement Leads to Student Success | Waterford.org

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Learn how you can improve family involvement in your schools, and the significant impact it can have on academic achievement and student success.

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This article gives ideas on how to involve you students parents in their education (can be applied to ELL students)

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Susan TerLouw takes a proactive approach to fostering collaboration with her students' parents.

"I have found texting to be an amazing way to get connected with parents," says the high school special education teacher. "After not having calls returned, I tried texting and got immediate responses."

Texting parents allows TerLouw to update them on their child's progress before waiting for an issue to arise. It's quick and easy, and TerLouw says the constant flow of contact with parents has done wonders for her own parent-teacher relationships.

"I have been able to move past it to actual conversations, face-to-face meetings, and a trusting relationship."

It's that communication and trust that are key to fostering student success, yet connecting with parents still remains a challenge for many educators. Fortunately, savvy teachers are always discovering ways of creating meaningful parent-teacher relationships, from opening a clear channel of communication with their household to drawing parents into the school community through events and programs. Here are some other ideas gathered from your colleagues about how they engage parents.

Focus on the Positive

Middle school teacher Maxine Taylor says that a great way to build a successful parent-teacher relationship is to contact parents before there's a problem.

"I call or email parents whenever a student does a particularly nice job or has been exceptionally helpful in class," she says.

The extra effort only takes her a few minutes and does wonders for her relationship with parents. By focusing on their child's successes, Taylor is able to equate parental interaction with positive news, ensuring that parents will be more willing to hear her out when there's an issue.

"It helps the parents not cringe when we come into contact because they don't just expect to hear bad things."

Jenna Bower, a middle school teacher who's in her first year teaching, also stresses the positives with the negatives when it comes to contacting parents.

"As a new teacher I've begun sending out 'HI-LO' notes on my students' homework packets," Bower says. "The weekly note begins with 'Your Student's Success,' and I include two things in this section. The next section is 'Still Working On,' and one item goes here."

By emphasizing successes, Bower is able to get students to willingly share their school experiences with their parents.

"The best part is I have the students read to their parents, so they get to share their successes with parents," says Bower. "Many times the parents send it back with a thank you note attached. I send out 30 notes a week and it only adds 20 minutes to my Tuesday evenings."

Share School Experiences

"How was school today?"

"Fine."

Too often, this is the extent of the conversation students have with their parents about school, so parents love it when teachers go out of their way to fill in the missing experiences.

"In order to keep parents current on classroom milestones, activities and events, and to meet the technology goals of my students, I have my students create a classroom newspaper," says high school special education teacher Heather Vanover says. "It consists of topics such as sports schedules, upcoming events like picture day and prom, school news, and classroom topics."

And, because students write the columns and help produce the newspaper, Vanover doesn't have to spend much time working on it outside the classroom. The end result is a successful product for parents that shows off their children's skills while keeping them up-to-date on school happenings.

"Each edition has my contact information and a current report of any classroom issues or rewards," Vanover says. "It's a fun way to communicate with parents and publish students' writing."

Kindergarten teacher Martha Richardson uses disposable cameras (yes, they still exist!) to share experiences with parents.

"I have my kids bring in a disposable camera with their school supplies," Richardson says. "I snap special moments that happen during the school year (things that parents miss). When it's filled, I send it home. Parents can have it developed and send in another if they wish. It's a great way to capture school experiences."

Find Common Ground

If you show a willingness to learn more about your students from their parents, then they'll be more willing to work with you throughout the school year. To accomplish this, you need to be ready to open up to parents and listen to what they have to say. Show an interest in them, and they'll return the favor.

Mellanay Auman, a middle school language arts teacher, uses the beginning of the year as a time to get to know both parent and student better.

"The first week of school, I send home a fill-in-the-blank letter in English and Spanish for the parents to write to me about their son/daughter," says Auman. "They get a chance to tell me about what they want their child to accomplish in my class, and about their child's strengths, hobbies and interests."

Since you're asking the parents for input about their children-treating them as partners-they'll be more willing to communicate with you throughout the year.

"The parents love bragging about their child, and this letter opens the lines of communication for the rest of the year."

Many educators also find it helpful to include students in parent conferences.

L. Cavel Wilson, a middle school geography teacher, says that parents often bring their child with them to school conferences, so Wilson uses the opportunity to have the student discuss their class behavior and performance.

"During the conference, I ask the student direct questions, leading him to explain to his own parents what he is doing in the class," Wilson says. "This takes the focus off teaching styles, content, or even communication issues and puts it squarely on the shoulders of the student, who has ultimate responsibility for his own success."

And, more often than not, Wilson says the approach allows him to find some common ground with the parents.

"Unless there is a major behavioral problem or a moral issue at stake, you should be able to find common ground with parents - if nothing else, there is always your concern and caring for their child and your desire to help him succeed in your class and in life."

Entice Parents into School

Retired teacher Karen Clark works as a Parent Educator in one of the Atlantic City School District's 9 Parent Resource Centers, where she helps organize a number of district-wide programs designed to draw in and support the entire family unit.

"The goal is to try and provide a link between the school and home," Clark says. "We really want to provide parents a place where they can feel comfortable going. We have workshops and classes for the parents, computers and fax machines they can use to apply to jobs or check their email, resources for families who have lost their homes or are in danger or losing them, and a whole bunch of other programs to support families."

While the Parent Resource Centers are funded through Title-1 funding, there are many ways teachers can use the same basic principle in their own schools. Delynn McCash uses an informal after-school ESL course to bring students and parents into the classroom.

"Every Tuesday Night, I invite my students and their parents into my room," McCash says. "To prepare, I borrow all the iPads I can. Students sit on one end of the room using iPads and parents are on the other side learning English on the Smartboard. They have increased PTO attendance and the students are participating in more school functions. I am out a few hours of personal time, but I gain an immensely rewarding true teaching experience and personal satisfaction."

Visit Parents Directly

If all else fails, sometimes the best approach is to offer parents the option of meeting with you in their home. Not only will most parents appreciate the effort, but you might even learn a bit more about the lives of your students and their families.

"Home visits are the best thing I ever did," says elementary school teacher Kathy Dowd. "I am humbled by how hard our families work, and how little they have to show for it. It makes me realize why involvement is so hard for so many of them."

When it comes to interacting and working with parents, always consider how you would respond in their situation. Understanding is one of the keys to unlocking a successful relationship with your students' parents.

"Think of every kid as if they were your own child," teacher Tanya Wilson-Smith says. "What would you want for your child if he or she were facing a particular situation? Every parent loves their child, but not every parent knows how to be a parent. Be gentle, be caring, be honest, but do what you do best and educate the parent too."

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Educators share their best ideas for communicating and partnering with parents.