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What are some ways that we as teachers can connect and develop relationships with our ELL students and their families, considering language barriers?
How can we make them feel welcomed and respected?
What supports and resources are out there that we can offer ELL families to help them transition into their new school, and how do we ensure that they have access to them?

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Communicating Important Information with ELL Families: Strategies for Success

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Communicating Important Information with ELL Families: Strategies for Success

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It is critical for schools to understand the rights that English language learners (ELLs), immigrant students, and their families have regarding access to schooling and information in their home languages. Learn more about those rights below, as well as some best practices for not only meeting those obligations but building positive partnerships with ELL families in support of their children.

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Strategies for Engaging ELL Families

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Imagine that a new immigrant family has moved into the neighborhood your school serves. What is already in place to make this family feel welcome? What programs does the school offer that would inspire and challenge their children? What still needs some work?

If you feel there is a lot of room for improvement in meeting the needs of your English language learner (ELL) students and their families, you're not alone! With more than 5.3 million ELLs in U.S. schools who make up roughly ten percent of the PreK-12 population (NCELA, 2011), numerous school leaders around the country are, as Buffalo principal Kevin Eberle puts it, " flying the plane while building it." It's never too late to start engaging your ELL families, however, no matter how limited or ineffective those efforts have been in the past.

Getting Started

Making ELL Success a Priority

This guide is also available as a PDF.

School leaders are in a unique position to create a culture of success within their school community. As with other students, an important aspect of ELL success is family engagement. While you may be fortunate to have an energetic and passionate ELL teacher or bilingual liaison who has worked successfully with ELL families in the past, this is not the job of a single person. Engaging ELL families can only work if all members of the community (including administrators, staff, parents, and students) are committed to the broader mission.

The road will probably be bumpy at first and will most certainly require you to think outside of the box - the keys to your success may surprise you! In the end, though, the result is the same: parents, students, and educators working together towards a brighter future.

When you find what works for your ELL families (which may or may not be the same as what works for the ELL families at a neighboring school), you will feel as though you have won the lottery. Engaged ELL parents possess depths of dedication and wisdom regarding their children that will take your breath away. They have so much to offer - if the community is ready to embrace them and listen to what they have to say.

This is where you, as a school leader, can make important strides in changing the conversation from "What can they learn from us?" to "What can we learn from each other?"

"Parent Involvement" vs. "Parent Engagement"

In their book Building Parent Engagement in Schools, Larry Ferlazzo and Lorie Hammond explore a distinction between parent involvement and parent engagement. Parent involvement, as they define it, starts with the school: "The ideas and energy come from the schools and government mandates. Schools try to 'sell' their ideas to parents. School staff and public institutions might feel they know what the problems are and how to fix them, and determine the criteria to use in evaluating success."

Parent engagement, however, begins with the parents: "Ideas are elicited from parents by school staff in the context of developing trusting relationships. They emerge from parent/community needs and priorities. More parent energy drives the efforts (6)." This approach is more sustainable than asking your busy staff to plan numerous parent activities, take on extra responsibilities, and dig even deeper into their energy reserves (2). In addition, the more parents have the opportunity to shape activities and programs that help their families, the more invested they will be in seeing those efforts succeed.

Think of your ELL parents as a team waiting to be mobilized; while it will take some time and energy to get the team up and running (and to help them understand how valuable their contributions are), once everything is working, you will wonder how you ever got along without them!

Using This Guide

This guide offers twenty big ideas to help you create a new ELL family engagement plan. These ideas are designed to help you:

Strengthen home-school partnerships on behalf of ELL students

Recognize and build upon your ELL parents' strengths

Harness the energy and ideas of staff, parents, and students in shaping those partnerships

Mobilize and empower staff to become teacher leaders

Engage school-wide staff members beyond the ELL/bilingual departments

Create a culture of respect throughout the school community

Learn how to advocate for and allocate resources on behalf of ELL families

Encourage all participants to keep trying new, creative approaches until they find what works

Implement the changes needed to make your new plan successful.

The ideas are organized around six major themes:

Each idea has four components:

What you need to know: Background information and context

Reflection: Questions about your own school setting that can be used for professional development activities with individuals or groups

Strategies: Specific, concrete strategies targeted for an audience of PreK-12 administrators

Examples: Stories shared by educators and administrators around the country

As you get started, we recommend that you look for the ideas that best fit your population rather than trying to absorb all of the strategies at once. You will most likely need to try different approaches in order to find what works best for your families - but the important thing is to keep trying until you do.

Note: Links to additional resources on Colorín Colorado and other ELL websites are included in each section, as well as highlighted notes and recommended resources in the appendices at the end of the guide. If you have additional ideas or resources that you would like to recommend, feel free to share them in an e-mail to [email protected] !

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Introduction: Strategies for Engaging ELL Families

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Imagine that a new immigrant family has moved into the neighborhood your school serves. What is already in place to make this family feel welcome? What programs does the school offer that would inspire and challenge their children? What still needs some work?

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Five Ways to Engage Parents of ELL Students

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Engaging with the parents of ELL students, also known as English Language Learners, is vital to helping these pupils succeed.

Parental involvement is the backbone of a child's education, and this is especially true of ELL students who are challenged by language barriers. These five suggestions should smooth the process:

1. Connect with ELL students' families

One important key to success with ELL programs is actively connecting with families. Waiting around for them to connect with your program will not work. Put in the time to learn about parents' cultural traditions and educational characteristics. Work on developing a personal, one-on-one approach with each family.

You'll need creativity and ingenuity to strengthen the relationship between the school and home environments of ELL students. Work on building a partnership based on mutual respect that empowers parents to contribute their talents and experience to their children's education.

If you become involved in ELL students' neighborhood activities, you may meet unexpected contacts like community leaders who can then put you in touch with more parents of ELL students.

2. Ensure the effective communication of important school information

Make certain that ELL families receive all of the school's scheduling and other important information in their native language-not just in English-to ensure they "get the message."

Some people mistakenly believe that using the family's native language does them a disservice because they really need to learn English. But studies confirm that strong native-language skills actually contribute to the academic success of an ELL student.

When parents understand the school's information, they can more effectively support their children's understanding of it.

3. Tailor your approach to the family's cultural traditions

Use what you learned when you established contact with the family to embrace their cultural norms. For instance, people of Hispanic heritage might have a slightly different interpretation of the role of school.

For example, at teacher conferences, Hispanic parents might seem more interested in their child's behavior than in his or her grades. Don't worry, they are not being insensitive to the child's needs; they are simply expressing their social customs- that education is more about teaching moral and behavioral controls than it is about achieving academic milestone requirements.

The key is seeing that this is a two-way street where both viewpoints are valid. Do whatever it takes to empower them to participate in their child's education.

4. Get parents involved in school activities

For starters, all parents can monitor the completion of their children's homework. But they can also be encouraged to visit the classroom and perhaps even to speak to the class.

They also can volunteer in the lunchroom, the office, the library or wherever there is a need. Involving a child's parents in the school's activities is the clearest message of all that parents are expected to have a large role in their children's education.

5. Formulate a plan to encourage parental engagement

Think about alternative scheduling. Sometimes families of ELL students (and the students for that matter) are subject to scheduling limitations that are not immediately apparent or common to other populations. Students may be working jobs for several hours after class. Parents may be working multiple jobs. Guidelines to keep in mind:

Meet the people. Learn their heritage, their problems, and their strengths.

Schedule conferences and meetings according to the family's available time.

Solicit the ideas of the ELL community.

While you are at it, don't forget to ask the students what their parents need most to become more involved.

Research your community for translation possibilities and input from community leaders.

Formulate your plan around identified strengths as well as needs.

Education is everyone's business, not just that of educators. Encouraging the contributions of ELL families is one more way to help schools work for the betterment of the entire community.
Want to learn more ways to have a successful ELL program? Our ESOL MEd degree concentration gives you the knowledge and best practices to develop helpful instructional strategies for ELL students.

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Five Ways to Engage Parents of ELL Students | Resilient Educator

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Engaging with the parents of ELL students, also known as English Language Learners, is vital to helping these pupils succeed. Parental involvement is the backbone of a child's education, and this is especially true of ELL students who are challenged by language barriers.

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Supporting English Language Learners: A practical guide for Ontario educators, Grades 1 to 8

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Engaging Parents of English-Language Learners:

See how a kindergarten teacher with a large population of English-language learners builds community by inviting parents into his classroom.

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While filming in an elementary school in Richmond, California, earlier this year, we saw a clever idea in a kindergarten class. The teacher was building an inclusive community in his classroom of English-language learners by encouraging parents to come to his class and participate directly in their kids' learning.

While not every parent is able to volunteer time during the school day, for those that are able, it can be incredibly rewarding for everyone involved. In the video above, teacher Douglas Wheeler of Bayview Elementary explains why it's a win-win situation when parents are able to come to school -- the parents feel connected to what's happening in the classroom, and the learning gets extended beyond the school day.

Since Wheeler is fluent in Spanish, there is no language barrier in communicating with his students' parents.

If you're looking for more resources for supporting English-language learners, start with our ELL topic page. Here are three of our favorites:

Want to learn more about the best ways to stay connected with parents? Check out our Home-to-School Connections topic page. Here are three great starting points:

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Engaging Parents of English-Language Learners

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While filming in an elementary school in Richmond, California, earlier this year, we saw a clever idea in a kindergarten class. The teacher was building an inclusive community in his classroom of English-language learners by encouraging parents to come to his class and participate directly in their kids' learning.

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Links to tips, strategies, and resources:

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Links to tips, strategies, and resources:

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Family Engagement: Resource Roundup-

Explore tips, strategies, and resources to help improve the connection from home to school and expand parent involvement.

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Explore tips, strategies, and resources to help improve the connection from home to school and expand parent involvement.

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Family Engagement

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As children's first teachers, parents play important roles in supporting academic learning at home and at school. Parents and other adult caregivers are important resources and allies for educators as they help students navigate through the schooling process and reinforce classroom lessons and good study habits at home.

The National Parent Teacher Association gives five reasons to renew the push to engage parents before, during and after "Bring Your Family to School Week":

Higher grades, test scores, and graduation rates

Better attendance at school

Fewer suspensions and incidents of violent behavior

Increased motivation and self-esteem

Decreased drug and alcohol use

Research has identified several essential components of successful parent engagement programs: a foundation of mutual respect and trust, connection of parent engagement strategies to student learning objectives, and reaching out to engage parents beyond the school, particularly in linguistically and culturally diverse communities.

Initiating Contact

How do you welcome parents and families into your classroom? Most teachers have a back-to-school protocol that includes some type of outreach to parents and families. Inevitably, some families don't engage in the ways teachers desire. The video and reading selections here will help you discover or rediscover ways to involve children's caregivers in the learning process - and help you check assumptions about class, culture or language that might undercut well-intentioned strategies for family engagement.

High school creative writing teacher, Foster Dickson, shares his strategies for initiating contact with parents.

Look for:

What does Foster do that's different from your practice? The same as your practice?

What constraints, as Foster articulates them, do the families of his students have that may inhibit parent/teacher engagement?

Go Deeper:

In The Question of Class, Paul Gorski calls on fellow educators to examine the classist assumptions infiltrating classrooms and schools. Read what he has to say about parent engagement.

Reflect on:

List constraints that may interfere with the ability (not willingness) of students' families to participate in traditional parent engagement practices, such as back-to-school nights, open houses or PTA committee meetings.

How might I incorporate additional engagement strategies to work through some of these constraints? How might I (and my school) address access to transportation, childcare, English-language proficiency and non-traditional work hours, for example?

Ready Resources
Parent Surveys: Home Visit Information: Postcards, Letters and Other Ways to Say "Hey":
Inviting Engagement

U.S. classrooms are growing more diverse - ethnically, culturally and linguistically. In response, teachers and educational advocates are employing new strategies, and adapting tried-and-true strategies, to better serve diverse parent populations.

In May 2005, Hyundai Motor Company opened a $1 billion automotive assembly and manufacturing plant in Montgomery, Ala., bringing with it thousands of jobs and a new community of Korean-speaking school children and their families. Elementary school teacher Diane Holtam talks about how she welcomes such linguistically and culturally diverse parents into her classroom.

Look for:

What efforts does Diane make to ensure that all parents feel welcome?

How does she use parent resources to augment student learning?

Go Deeper:

In an interview with Teaching Tolerance, Dr. Alvin Poussaint, a professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and Director of the Media Center for Children at the Judge Baker Children's Center in Boston, explores ways teachers can overcome cultural barriers to connect with parents and increase student learning.

Reflect On:

How does my approach to parents and families encourage or discourage their continued participation in the classroom? Are there cross-cultural communication or language considerations?

How can I use my students' families and cultural backgrounds to enrich the classroom and instruction?

Ready Resources:

Overcoming Language Barriers

Many U.S. cities with large, established ethnic enclaves have long sought to welcome newly arrived immigrants and their children. Yet, small towns and cities have less experience identifying and meeting the needs and interests of new immigrants. How can you make inroads when the path to much-needed community assets and resources isn't so well worn - or when it is well worn, but not so well traveled?

Hear elementary school teacher, Diane Holtam, talk about how her school overcame cultural and linguistic barriers to engage parents in the school. In May 2005, Hyundai Motor Company, Korea's largest automotive manufacturer, opened a $1 billion automotive assembly and manufacturing plant in Montgomery, Ala., bringing with it thousands of jobs and a new community of Korean-speaking school children and their families.

Look for:

What external resources did Diane's school use to reach out to parents?

What are some of the volunteer opportunities mentioned for parents whose first language is not English? Can you think of any others?

Go Deeper:

In Opening Doors on the Border, Teaching Tolerance magazine showcases effective parental engagement strategies that center on students' homes, communities and schools.

Reflect On:

What role might parent volunteers play in enhancing community connectedness and responsiveness at your school or in your classroom?

How might parent voice factor into decisions about instruction? Extracurricular activities? Support services - tutoring, transportation, nutrition, etc.?

Ready Resources:

Using Plain Terms

Beyond the language we speak, the words we choose can help or hinder the effectiveness of communication with parents and guardians. How do our word choices assist or prevent necessary interaction? How might our communication practices reflect power, instead of partnership?

High school creative writing teacher, Foster Dickson, talks about how the use of jargon and unidentified acronyms can impede effective teacher/parent communication.

Look For:

What education-specific knowledge and terminology do I take for granted when speaking with parents?

How might even the inadvertent use of such language hinder parent engagement strategies?

Go Deeper:

In this interview, education reformer Lisa Delpit encourages teachers to discover who their students are outside the classroom by engaging parents in authentic, meaningful ways and introduces her conceptions of culture and power.

Reflect on:

What is the implicit message that the use of jargon and unidentified acronyms sends to parents?

Are there unwritten or unspoken cultural codes in play when I communicate with parents?

How does my communication strategy reinforce or reconstruct the teacher/parent power dynamic?

Ready Resources:

Recommended Resources

The following resources are recommended for personal reflection and learning and for use by teacher work groups and other professional development endeavors.

Short Briefs:

" A New Wave of Evidence: The Impact of School, Family and Community Connections on Student Achievement", a research synthesis by Anne T. Henderson & Karen L. Mapp, published by Southwest Educational Development Laboratory

Papers:

" The Effects of Comprehensive Parent Engagement on Student Learning Outcomes" by Sam Redding, Janis Langdon, Joseph Meyer, and Pamela Shelly for Academic Development Institute at Harvard University Graduate School of Education

" Parent Engagement Information and Tools: Moving Beyond Parent Involvement to Parent Engagement" from the Michigan Department of Education

" Readiness: School, Family, and Community Connections", a research synthesis by the Southwest Educational Development Laboratory, 2004

" Diversity: School, Family, and Community Connections", research synthesis by the Southwest Educational Development Laboratory, 2003

Books:

Halmoni & the Picnic. By Sook Nyul Choi and Karen Dugan. ($10) Houghton Mifflin, 1993. In the story, a student worries that her classmates will make fun of her Korean grandmother who has agreed to chaperone the class at a picnic in Central Park in New York City. ISBN-10: 0395616263, ISBN-13: 978-0395616260

School, Family, and Community Partnerships: Your Handbook for Action, Second Edition. ($30) by Joyce L. Eptein, Mavis G. Sanders, Beth S. Simon and Karen Clark Salinas. Corwin Press; Second Edition, 2002. ISBN-10: 0761976663, ISBN-13: 978-0761976660

School, Family, and Community Partnerships: Preparing Educators and Improving Schools ($45) by Joyce L. Epstein. Westview Press, 2001. ISBN-10: 0813387558, ISBN-13: 978-0813387550

Beyond the Bake Sale: The Essential Guide to Family/School Partnerships. ($17) By Ann T. Henderson, Vivian Johnson, Karen L. Mapp, and Don Davies. New Press. ISBN-10: 1565848888, ISBN-13: 978-1565848887

Doing Multicultural Education for Achievement and Equity. ($35) By Carl A. Grant and Christine E. Sleeter. Routledge, 2007. ISBN-10: 041595184, IBSN-13: 978-0415951845

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Most teachers have a technique or two in their back-to-school tool kits for introducing themselves to families and taking those first steps to engage parents and other caregivers in the classroom and the student learning process. And yet, family engagement is a year-long process.

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Building Parent-Teacher Relationships

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You are welcome to print copies for non-commercial use, or a limited number for educational purposes, as long as credit is given to Reading Rockets and the author(s). For commercial use, please contact the author or publisher listed.

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Effective communication is essential for building school-family partnerships. It constitutes the foundation for all other forms of family involvement in education.

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A Guide for Engaging ELL Families:
Twenty Strategies for School Leaders

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Promising Practices for Teachers to Engage with Families of English Language

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Promising Practices for Teachers to Engage with Families of English Language Learners

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The monograph Promising Practices for Teachers to Engage with Families of English Language Learners provides practical activities, communication skills, events, resources, and policies to work with families who are English language learners. This book is primarily targeted toward preservice and novice teachers who are searching for ways to connect with families from diverse cultures and varying proficiency levels in English.