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Parent Involvement

Greetings to you all. I am Bruce A. Dexter, instructor for Honors Italian V here at A.P. Leto Sr. High School. I am elated to have this opportunity to facility learning this term for your sons and daughters.  I am always at your disposal as the academic experience that we will enjoy will entail cooperative in put from us all. My Home Phone is 813-304-0389 and Cell Phone is 813-538-2879. I can be reached via email at either brucedexter1@gmail.com, brucdex@aol.com, or bruce.dexter01@sfhcfl.edu. I always accept text communication and can normally respond to such within 24 hours. While my specific conference periods are 5 and 7 during the school day, I realize that in most cases your business workday aligns with mine. Consequently, I am able to meet with you, in person or via Teams or Zoom, any and all evening and weekend hours. If possible, please contact me within 48 hours of the time that you wish to meet.

My plan is to invite all of you to a general Teams Meeting that I will hold twice a month to discuss generally how our class is progressing and the types of content that we are learning.

I am sure that you will concur that parental involvement in the educational sphere is vital. Students who enjoy strong parental involvement are more focused on studies and prioritize them more. They perform better academically, make wiser social choices, are generally happier and raise satisfaction levels of teachers as well as parents themselves.  Grace Chen tells us that “parental involvement not only enhances academic performance, but it also has a positive influence on student attitude and behavior” (Chen, 2022).

Parents can be a viable presence in their sons’ and daughter’s learning by familiarizing themselves with posted curriculum syllabi that I will make available on line, attending the general Teams or Zooms sessions I will host monthly, participating in opportunities to volunteer at the school site in any capacity, attend open house events at school, attend athletic events for all of the school’s sports and supporting community events which seek to support students of our school.

Some of my recommended school and community resource contacts include: A.P. Leto Sr. High School Athletics, 813-754-5400. The Police Athletic League of Tampa, 813-876-9363. Redefiners World Languages, Inc and Support for English Language Learners, 813-530-2313 and Catholic Charities of Tampa, 813-631-4370

Please view the following perspective of Dr. Eleni Katsarou. Parental involvement can take many forms and is not “one size fits all”. Involvement can entail any communication with youth about their school day and experiences.

https://youtu.be/0973bx1bA8Y. Parent Involvement in Education.

Check out these positives incumbered by Parental Involvement

https://youtu.be/-PZyeecFLEE. Parent Involvement Makes a Difference to School Kids.

A succinct and complete consideration of Parent-Student Involvement is presented on the following.

https://youtu.be/22kX3zK6XTE. The Importance of Parent Involvement.

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It has long been said that reading is fundamental, and society has largely agreed. At times, however, writing is left out of the equation. It has been thought of as something that will simply come with time or will develop at an appropriate time and place based on the student’s choice of academic track. Writing, however, goes hand in hand with reading and forms the total package of salient literacy. Students should, of course, know how to read and interpret communicative information before them. They , in turn, have to know how to transmit communicative information and not just be recipients. Writing, then, is an endeavor that should begin early in the education process.

The readings this week highlight that we may all be familiar with the basics of capitalization, punctuation and parts of speech shown in simple sentence structure.  Text gains richness, however, once ideas are formed, expressed on paper, revised and perfected. The Reading Rockets videos highlighting 3rd grade students at Springhill Lake Elementary School in Greenbelt, MD was quite impressive. Instructor Sterkin showed how writing instruction and implementation of writing activities form strong literacy attainment at an early age. Such will, consequently, ensure that writing will be easier and of higher caliber for the students portrayed as they move to higher grade levels.

This writer is impressed that the curriculum revealed acknowledges technological innovation in the classroom as an additional tool, but not replacement, for writing instruction. Students lean to physically use pencil and paper and be engaged in letter and sentence structure formation. The instructor has an active role in modeling such.

Note the suggested 6 Strategies for Teaching Writing to Elementary Students exhibit on the following video and its parallel to the example in MD.

https://youtu.be/stbQMM4ie5k. Institute of Education Sciences.

The following Susan Jones video offers an interesting variance to the afore referenced ones as she shares her strategies as a K-2 instructor on teaching writing to first and second grade students.

https://youtu.be/gP3XOJih31g. How to Teach Paragraph Writing for 1rst and 2nd Grade Students.

Interesting points are shared on the following video by a second-grade teacher on format on paper, not writing content. His point is that format must be grasped first.  The points are clear but we may tend to take them for granted and forget that they must be taught to youngsters.

https://youtu.be/C_NlESF9Us4. Writing Basics in 2nd Grade.

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Vocabulary development is absolutely fundamental in learning to read and comprehend written information. Most would recognize that vocabulary composes the words and structure that make up language , establish meaning and actualize true communication. Natural language acquisition of the children is ,for this writer, phenomenal. It consists of an abundance of indirect vocabulary learning from contact with language speakers be such via commercial communication (media such as television and radio), daily ordinary exchange within the family household or natural association with youths in the neighborhood or at school.

Direct vocabulary instruction  may manifest itself within the home environment , depending on the skills and educational mindedness of parents or guardians. Some religious circles engender vocabulary development in the church environment, albeit from denominational and biblical views. The strongest direct vocabulary development probably begins with formal schooling.

Please listen to the below video with Dr. Isabel Beck and great examples of Vocabulary use and one wonderful example of correct usage associating situational context.

https://youtu.be/ltSJtcoOLf0. Vocabulary Instruction. Reading Rockets.

Please watch the following video with Susan Jones and her discussion of best ways to teach vocabulary in the K-2 environment. Take notes on word tiers. Note the steps on introduction of new words with accompanying questions that help to engage primary students.

https://youtu.be/ztW-vXuO6bo. Susan Jones. Effective Vocabulary Instruction. How to Teach Vocabulary in Kindergarten. First and Second Grade.

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Comprehension is at the core of effective reading and knowledge gain from that reading. Word identification within a text is virtually meaningless unless one knows what the words mean and what the overall arching idea is being conveyed in the passage at hand. Highly effective readers make use of their linguistic abilities in the target language as well as life experience that allows association with elements of the reading. They know how to position themselves such that the content at hand makes sense for them. They watch for sentence structure, word choice variety and morphological clues that engender optimal meaning.

Comprehension is the product of the combined efforts of students and teachers. Students have more prior knowledge that aids in processing new material than they sometimes realize. The teacher, as facilitator, serves to awaken such by pointing out parallel situations presented in readings with contemporary world events and elements of popular culture.  They teach students to “read between the lines” and do original thinking about when is read. For this writer, such is the definition of drawing inferences. This allows students to form “mental images” of what is being read. Mental visualization adds meaning to text and aids in concept retention.

This writer is a fan of the “Summarize and retell” process. Identification of main ideas, connection with the  writing, Distinction between extraneous components of the text and those more pivotal, and recounting by memory of what was largely presented cements understanding.

Please see the below video buy Bow Tie Guy as he discusses obtaining contextual clues, word segmentation and deriving significance from text using prior knowledge.

https://youtu.be/E82FnJa2Vfo. Improving Reading Comprehension Skills .

The following video drives home the importance of using inferences from elements of the text in order to aid in reading comprehension.

https://youtu.be/g2G-MaIxjBI. Inferring. Reading Strategies. Easy Teaching.

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Phonics is centered around written expression and its' relationship to spoken language. Decoding occurs when one makes use of prior linguistic knowledge and sound awareness to discern whole word pronunciation. In essence, one attempts to isolate segmented sounds of words and combine them in order to form sometimes predictable or probable complete and correct sentences.  Instruction in this realm among young pre and early readers is effective when it is done purposefully with a plan that is consistent and systematic.

Please view the following short video on the "Phonics First" method. It demonstrates the effectiveness of physical cues and body movement, similar to the methodology presented by Reading Expert Linda Ferrell (readingrockets.org). Lake Orion school instructors tout its' efficacy in engendering phonetic learning by allowing students to use tools in their daily environments.
https://youtu.be/p66feAAueBE. Phonics First.

Ten Frames are symbolic tools using color coded blocks or tabs that represent letter sounds. Some students learn which colors represent individual vowel and consonant sounds relatively quickly. The idea is to get students to not concentrate on the Letters themselves, rather, how they are pronounced. The following video will show that they are effective . Students equate sounds supplied by instructors with appropriate colors. They place the correct color frames in position but indeed do write, in spaces under them, the printed letter. Many of them display correct spelling on the first attempt.

This writer, however, would not chose this method because ultimately students must learn phonics and spelling without the aid of colors. This type of prompting will not be present outside of the environment in which it is used so a child, in this writer's view, should learn to not rely on it.  Please see the following video, however, for a demonstration of it.

https://youtu.be/7XcpMQhGI5I. Word Chains using Ten Frames.

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Phonics First® Orton-Gillingham in Action

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Phonological Awareness , Phonemic Awareness and Phonics

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Phonological Awareness , Phonemic Awareness and Phonics

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Phonological Awareness, Phonemic Awareness and Phonics address matters of word formation , sound and systematic appreciation of elements of language structure.
Phonological Awareness entails learning how to make sense, if one wills, of the sound system of language. One begins to recognize individual syllables, can identify rhyme and segment sentences in to individual words.
Phonemic Awareness takes such to the next level. One not only recognizes parts of the language sound system but can now apply them. He or she can can recognize certain consonant sounds, for example, and supply varied examples of words with like sounds. One learns to combine sounds to form words and sentences.
Phonics, however, is about written formation of the above referenced sounds. It is about expression on paper or in print form of sounds one has learned. Such can be very different from , employing use of consonants and vowels that do not normally exhibit expected pronunciation.
The following is a great video on Early Learning Phonological Awareness
https://youtu.be/0NjVIgkNtRg
Please see also the following summation by Peggy Semingson
https://youtu.be/McJldIFIpC8