This resource explores the importance of parental involvement in the educational setting and how it directly relates to student success and achievement. Educators must recognize that each child that enters the classroom is a unique individual that comes from a different cultural background then their own. The first step is to build a caring and respectful relationship with the families. Create a warm environment, make personal contact, and use effective communication methods for the families. Develop an understanding of the families and communities by building connections and familiarizing yourself with the demographics of the area. Reach out to the families and bring them into the school setting through open houses and events. Make them aware that their efforts are critical to academic success of their student. Last but not least make the classroom parent-friendly and offer culturally sensitive parent education programs. 

The book focuses on seven broad categories on how to engage the families of English Language Learners. Within the broad categories are specific examples of how to engage the families and provide support. The resource focuses on educators and families working together as a team to better benefit the academic success of the student. The resource views the families as leaders and the educators as advocates.   

I chose this resource because it offered the best practices for working with ELL families. The book highlights effective ways to create an open door policy for the families of ELL students. It also suggested different ways that teachers can help families feel welcome, appreciated, and respected for their home culture. The book discusses how to build a personal relationship with the families and make them feel like leaders in their child’s education. It also discusses how to point different families in the community towards resources such as a parent educational program. It offers ways to engage parents and respect them as part of the decision making team.  

This article was geared towards school administrators (although teacher can also use it as a guide) as to how schools can meet the needs of ELL students and families. The article provides best practices that covers three categories that usually are major concerns when working with ELL families. The article explains that if schools do not effectively communicate, provide an inclusive school climate, and properly inform families about student registration, then tension and worry can arise in ELL families in regards to being involved. The best practices that are provided include translated materials, hosting informational sessions for families about student registrations, and inviting families to share their cultures. The article even provides links to resources that schools can use to make communication with ELL families better (such as translated school forms or readings on how to enhance teachers’ cross-cultural communication skills.

This article did a fantastic job with highlighting major concerns in ELL families first. Typically, teachers may not focus on stressors that these families can face that causes them to be unable to engage in their child’s education. A major issues is lack of communication. This article explained that parents depend on communication from schools, wither its relying a message on busing and safety or on grades, but when the school does not provide the proper support for ELL families to communicate effectively, the line of communication is lost right away. The article suggested that teachers provide translated materials to ensure effective communication with parents, and to provide the proper resources that the school offers for language assistance for families. This article also talks about school climate and how creating a positive school community is crucial because ELL parents need to feel just as much a part of the school community as the English-speaking parents. Lastly, providing a smooth student registration process can help ELL families feel at ease and ensure them that school policies, practices, and procedures are equal for all parents. Focusing on these three areas can help ELL parents feel more comfortable about the school and more open to communicating if they know that there are supports in place.

I chose this article because of the practices that it provided. I believe that parents are essential in the learning process, and that schools should work accordingly to ensure that the parents feel they have support when they need it. ELL families may not speak much English or any English at all, and this article provides many opportunities to ensure that language does not stand in the way of communication. I love that this article mentioned that teachers should organize themselves by having a list of all the ELL parents, if they speak a language other than English, and if so what is that language and how much assistance do they require. This may be more work, however, once teachers know this, they can provide essential materials (such as change of address forms, reason for absences, early dismissal, or request for conferences forms) in the parents’ native language. I also chose this article because it stresses the importance of helping ELL families feel like they are a part of the school community. Providing services such as translators at informational session, or even inviting families in to share their cultures with students can help them feel welcome. It is our goal to help all of our parents feel as comfortable as possible to continue to create a positive learning and school environment for students and their families. 

After reading and evaluating this article I find that it is a great source for educators to use to find further information about their students lives outside of the classroom. While this article works great for English language learners it can work for the rest of the students as well. It takes the teacher out of her fairy tale of how their stories go. Throughout the article there was little stories or student’s perspectives on a specific subject. This lets us look through their eyes and see what they wanted to be able to tell us. Overall, I found this article helpful and I believe it has many variables that we need to think about. 

I would definitely use and recommend this source to other educators. I chose their source because it offered many other stressors that we don’t think our students and their families face. It is our job as a teacher to create a warm and welcoming classroom but how do you do that if you don’t know who is walking in your room everyday. This article connected to me personally because I know my family means a lot to me, and I have often went to school with my family on my mind all day. It was hard for me a native speaker of English to focus on school, so how do we expect an ELL child that had to leave their family in another country to sit and focus. At the end of the day we as educators need to take the initial step in learning our student. 

Retrieved From: journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0013161X11401616

The article I selected is about how the leadership roles can create better social just schools for ELL families. It addresses two main questions. They are as follows: "In what ways do principals create asset-based, collaborative, and inclusive learning opportunities and services for ELLs?" and "What do varying approaches of these services and the leadership necessary look like in practice?". The article reflects off of two important case studies. They were based on two urban elementary schools. This article is geared more towards higher up administration such as principals. 

I feel that this article did a fantastic job going over what principles can do to help get their teachers involved with ELL families. It explained how the principal adopted a dual certification program. This made the staff engage in a sort of seminar based around professional development around ELL families. They combined federal, state, and local resources to eliminate ELL pull out and reduce the class sizes. So that the elementary teachers would start taking sole responsibility of both ELL and non-ELL students. This made them build a stronger community with both families and studies showed it turned out very well. 

I chose this article because I one day plan to become a principal in a school district. So I took the responsibility to research the roles I would need to take to build a better community for my ELL families and students. I like the whole idea of not pulling out the ELL students as much. This stood out to me because if we are constantly taking them away form their pets how are they going to be able to get involved like the other students and their families. If they are being pulled out they may be missing the information they need to relay to their families to get involved in after school activities. I would recommend this to other fellow future principals because this is reliable source and idea we can use to keep our school a close knit family for everyone!

              This guide presents twenty ways in which school officials and teachers can create a welcoming culture for ELL students and their families.  The guide contains several sections of importance that are necessary to make ELL families feel welcome in their new school.  Each section describes the reasons why these changes are important, a reflection section for the reader to think about their own school setting, and strategies to make the necessary changes.  This guide is an important tool to assist in the transition into an ELL-friendly environment, and contain strategies that are easy to implement.

Ash, Donald. (nd).  My First Elementary School Undokai.  The Japan Guy.  Retrieved from https://www.thejapanguy.com/my-first-elementary-school-undokai/.

              This is an article describing a traditional Japanese event known as “Undokai”, or “Sports Day”.  It is a school-wide event held on a Saturday or Sunday in both Elementary and Junior High Schools in Japan.  This article describes an event that is inclusive for families in which students, teachers, and parents compete across all grades in two teams.  This event typically draws numerous family members, and is an all-day event around building camaraderie through the students and parents.  

These two sources work to serve as a single example of how to develop an environment where all families can feel like they are a part of something, which allows easy involvement for ELL families.  The guide specifically outlines the importance of developing personal connections with ELL families, which Undokai could easily do.  While the original format of Undokai is very formal, it can be relaxed to make the event an all-day celebration of the school.  It encourages teamwork from the youngest to the oldest, and helps new students feel at home.  Since it is held on a Saturday or Sunday, it would provide a greater opportunity for all families to participate.  Having attended such an event when my daughter was in school, I can attest to the fact that it was an enjoyable day for all.  Despite my limited ability to speak Japanese, I did not feel like I was not a part of the school.

These types of events are a fun means to bring the school together in the form of a community.  Unlike the typical field days here in the US, this event focusses on the teams and not the individuals.  It encourages older children to help the younger children, and each student feels like they are contributing.  Since it is an informal event, it eliminates the perception of superiority of the school administrators over the students and families.  This could reduce anxiety that ELL families experience in dealing with the schools.  The Undokai event could be altered to include a community-style barbecue at the end, which would allow teachers to meet parents in an informal setting.  The key to this idea is to make families feel welcome.  Any kind of event that gives families and teachers an opportunity to talk in an informal and fun environment increases the feeling of belonging for the family.  By feeling a sense of belonging, families would feel more inclined to participate, or be involved, in school-wide activities.  This also allows teachers to find out more about families by talking with parents in an informal setting.  

This article was a great article that discussed how parental 
involvement is very important in a child's life, especially an english language learner. All children need to have support from their families.The population of children from immigrant families is growing faster than any other group of children in the United States. In some cultures, parents believe that the teachers know it all and that they parents have no say in a child's academic life. It is very important for the ELL teacher to push families to be involved.
 
There were many different examples for how to involve parents of ELL's. This article also showed different scenarios and charts further explaining more depth details. The parents can also try to learn english so they can help their children and understand what the teacher is saying. Parents can help their students with their homework as best as they can.  

I will reflect back on this article for when I become a teacher incase there is a ELL in my classroom. I think that all teachers need to become familiar with ELL students and their cultures. When they are familiar with their students, they will understand how each and every one of them learn. I recommend all of my classmates to read this article. It is a great article to do a review on. 

The article I found to be very beneficial is called Involving the Parents of English Language Learners in a Rural Area: Focus on the Dynamics of Teacher-Parent Interactions , by Jenna M. Shim. The article basically discusses and suggest that the current ELL parental involvement model often overlooks that structural aspects and power asymmetry of parent-teacher relationships that can hinder productive collaboration. The article also touches base on different types of challenges that educators face when teaching English Language Learners. The article gives information on three broad themes that emerged as obstacles that inhibit productive ELL parent-teacher interactions. These themes are (1) teachers judgments toward ELL students and their parents, (2) ELL parents frustration about their inability to influence a teachers decision making and (3) ELL parents fear of repercussions for speaking up. The article is targeted towards readers  in other English-speaking environments, educators, parents of ELL students, as well as those concerned with second-language speakers. The article addresses a variety of different types of challenges and methods that can be used by the teacher and parents to help distinguish the difficulties that are faced each day by the teacher as well as the ELL's and their families. 

In the article, Shim elaborates on how ELL's are the fastest growing population among the school-age group in the nation and that it will continue to grow. ELL's and their families tend to settle in geographical locations that are rural, therefore schools in rural states are facing unique educational challenges in meeting the needs of diverse student populations, including ELL's. Shim then goes on to say that research in the field of education is constantly striving to improve student learning, and the importance of parental involvement in student success at school now seems obvious. Unfortunately, educators face different challenges when it comes to getting the ELL's parents and families involved in their learning. Barriers that may prevent involvement of parents of ELL's have been identified as 'language, cultural differences, work schedules, and transportation'. Shim also includes that 'parental involvement in school activities alone will not increase student achievement; rather it is the quality of interactions and communication between teachers and parents that has s significant impact on student achievement. 

Overall, I enjoyed this article and found it to be very informative on ELL's and family/parent interaction. I would use this resource because it gives valuable information on why ELL families and parents may not want to be as involved as well as gives information on how educators can attempt to get the families and parents actively participating in their child's education. Shim includes techniques and scenarios that describe different ways to get families and parents involved. She includes things such as an ELL parent night that allows the parents to come in twice a year to spend time with the student and the teacher. After, the parent night, the parents get a chance to speak out on how they feel about their child's teacher as well as how they felt about the parent night itself. I would highly recommend this article to others because it teaches one how to better interact with ELL families and ways that they can better interact as well.

 

This resource discusses the challenges that ELLs and their families face in the education system. It starts with providing the reader with some facts about the increasing number of English language learners in public schools. It comes to the conclusion that 1 in 10 students in public schools is an English language learner. It also suggests six insights for parents to assist their children with learning the new language and the content. They are strategies that parents can use easily with their children and they seem to have fantastic results in enhancing their language literacy. 

I believe this resource is useful for many reasons. First, it provides simply explained techniques for improving the parents’ participation in their children’s academic life. Consequently, the resource can be handy for both educators and parents as it doesn’t need special major to understand. Second, Teachers can use this resource to find useful ideas and advice to tell the parents of their students. In addition, the author uses a very convincing way to illustrate the problem of ELLs before providing the solution which creates the need for the solution. The author also refers the reader for other “related to the topic” articles for more in-depth research. 

I’d recommend the resource to educators and parents who are looking for strategies to assist ELLs. The reasons behind this is that I feel the complicatedness of many resources dealing with this problem which makes them impossible for parents to use without educational knowledge. However, this resource skims the research about language development at home and academic literacy into six specific strategies. It provides clear instructions to implement these ideas. It can be very useful for somebody who seeks for information about the ELL parent involvement problem without the need for reading through unnecessary statistics , experiential procedures and complicated language. 

This website I selected has some very helpful tips and tricks to use when coming in contact with an ELL’s families. The website is up to date, easy to read, and visually pleasing to the eye. The website is set-up with questions and answers from teachers in regards to ELL students and their families. After the questions on the website, there are articles and tips that teachers can use. There are a few tools that teachers can use when communicating to ELL parents; Google Translate if it used to simple words and sentences, Remind a free and simple way to send texts to parts, and Class Dojo which sents texts to parts when their child is having a behavior problem in the class. 

I would definitely recommend this site to my friends that are going to be teachers and current classroom teachers. All of the information on this site is beneficial and be used in a future classroom. I will use the information on this site in my future classroom, because the information on the website is everything that we talked about in class plus more information. Before I was on this website, I would have never thought to use a tool like Class Dojo or Remind. I did not know these tools were available to use for teachers. There is a quote on this site that I felt was very true and accurate about ELL families, “To successfully connect with parents of English learners, school make a whole-school effort to establish a welcoming environment and built bridges that go both ways.”- Judie Haynes in Education Week Teacher

 

The name of the article I selected for this Padlet is “8 Ways to Engage English Language Learner Families in Their Child’s Education.”  The article states that English Language Learners (ELLs) are the fastest growing population in public schools.  Studies have shown that students with parents who are involved in their child’s education earn higher grades and test scores, demonstrate better social skills, and graduate high school.  The article provides tips for teachers to use to help ELL parents feel comfortable participating in school events and activities. The eight tips the article suggests are: do the research on students and families history, learn about the student’s culture, ask the school to host a family event, invite parents and caregivers into the school and classroom, send home updates and materials, communicate directly with parents, encourage families to support the student in the home setting, and get help if there is a language barrier. 

 

I feel like this resource would be beneficial for teachers to use when trying to include ELL parents in the school setting. The resource provides the teacher with solid tips to help make ELL parents feel more comfortable volunteering and participating in school activities.  This article not only helps teachers with ELL parent inclusion in school, but it also helps teachers form better relationships with parents. This resource provides suggestions to improve communication between school and parents of the ELL student.  For example, the resource suggests using an interpreter if there is one available to the school.

 

I could definitely see myself in the future using the tips provided in this resource to help get ELL parental involvement in school.  The one tip that sticks out the most to me is to let ELL parents know about volunteer opportunities and how they can help with parties, field trips, and other school or classroom events.  Another reason I would use this resource is that the suggested tips are not too complicated for the teacher to implement.  I would recommend this resource to others who are struggling getting parental involvement in school, because it provides multiple tips that are not difficult to implement.  I would also recommend this resource because I truly believe that the information could be beneficial for educators and school personnel.

Epstein, J. L. (n.d.). Epstein's Framework of Six Types of Involvement (Including: Sample
Practices, Challenges, Redefinitions, and Expected Results) . Retrieved December 6, 2017, from https://www.sps186.org/downloads/table/13040/6TypesJ.Epstien.pdf

This article explains the types of parental involvement, examples of them, challenges with them,definititions, and expected results. The six types of parental involvement are parenting, communicating, volunteering, learning at home, decision making, and collaborating with community. For each type of involvement, Epstein explains sample practices, or situations where that involvement would take place. She then addresses challenges that arise in each type of involvement. For example, in communicating, the challenges may lie in the readability, clarity, form, and frequency of communication with the parents. The author also clarifies the meaning of words and phrases related to the types of parent involvement. Moreover, the article lists the results of each type of involvement for students, parents, and teachers. 

This resource is organized, clear, concise, and seemingly comprehensive. It provides practical examples of different types of involvement, their challenges, and the results one would expect from them. The author is a renowned, well published professor at Johns Hopkins University, who researches leadership in schools and family and community involvement’s effect’s on students. Authors have frequently cited this framework and researchers have used it in many peer reviewed publications. Therefore, due to the authority of its author and the quality of its content, the article is a worthy resource for increasing family involvement. 

For families and teachers of English language learners(ELLs), this resource would be useful in identifying the types, challenges, and results of increasing parent involvement. Some types and levels of involvement may be better than others for ELL students. This determination between types to increase could be made with the use of this resource and knowledge of the ELL student and their family. Furthermore, this framework would be helpful in identifying and addressing the common challenges in parent involvement. The challenges it lists may often be greater for the teachers and families working with an ELL student, and thus even more important to recognize and address. Likewise, the results of parent involvement are significant for the students, families, and teachers of ELL students. The listed outcomes in this resource could serve as a motivator for all parties to become more engaged in the ELL students’ education.

 

Arias, B. (2008, January). Promoting ELL Parental Involvement: Challenges in Contested Time. Retrieved from https://greatlakescenter.org/docs/Policy_Briefs/Arias_ELL.pdf 

This resource talks analyzes effective practices of ELL family involvement in the classroom. It affirms that the population of English language learners is growing rapidly. Parents of these students struggle to find ways to get involved in their child’s learning. Some challenges consist of not being able to speak English and being unfamiliar with the school system. The article also discusses that parental involvement leads to higher attendance rates and higher graduation rates. Through this study, they found that if teachers implement certain practices of parental involvement into their policies, their students are more likely to succeed. These policies include things like supporting community-based education programs that inform parents about school values and expectations and work with parents to help them become advocates for their children. 

I found the information in this resource to be extremely helpful in my building knowledge about English language learners and their families. A lot of what the article was analyzing was things that we have already gone over in class. However, it was extra helpful to have the most effective practices in writing. It was filled with ways to continuously get families involved in their child’s education. I found the article to be filled with information. It was also very easy to read and understand. 

I would absolutely use pieces of this article in my future classroom. It supported what we have been talking about this semester. It would help someone who isn’t familiar with this topic understand what specific barriers that families face when it comes to being involved in their child’s education. I would recommend teachers use this resource to understand the specific practices that could be implemented to make it easier to involve families. I thought it was a valuable tool, and I would like to take this information and implement it into my future classroom. 

Dr. Rutledge

EDU 350 001

December 6, 2017

 

Connecting with ELL Families. (n.d.) Retrieved December 05, 2017, from 

 

                This resource is about ELL families and how to create better communication and interaction with them. One of the main points of the article is that creating a basis of knowledge about your ELL student and their family will help you to further provide services and programs for them. It’s important to understand their culture, ethnic and linguistic backgrounds, and situations from which the students come from. Additionally, the article discusses the importance of finding out which resources are available for the ELL student within the district. Each student has unique circumstances in which they have various educational backgrounds and needs. Also, the teacher should integrate their culture into the classroom in order to make a more welcoming environment for the ELL students and their families. Coming to a new country is difficult enough, so the teacher should do everything they can to create a positive learning environment for the student. Having a personal connection with the families and showing that you are willing to learn more about the ELL student and their native language, culture, and customs will cause the ELL student and family to have better communication with the teacher.

                I think the article did a great job explaining small things the teacher can do to create a positive learning experience for the ELL student. It is so easy for teachers to simply “pass them off” for other personnel and staff to deal with, but that shouldn’t be the case. This article shows strategies teachers can use to foster communication with the ELL student and his/her parents. Also, it explains how to make the ELL student feel welcome, and it demonstrates the importance of learning the background and culture of each individual student. Overall, this is a wonderful article with great tips on how to connect with ELL students and their families, no matter what their situation is.

                I would use this resource because it not only tells what the teacher should do, but it explains why each of these strategies is important, how to use and implement it in the classroom, and what the effects are of each strategy. For example, the article explains the significance of having familiarity with the cultural traditions of the ELL students. The benefits of this are so that you are able to schedule school events without certain students having to miss class, you will be able to create educational opportunities for the other students, and you will have improved communication and a good relationship with the parents of the ELL student. I recommend the use of this article to others because it is full of information, as well as real life/real world examples that also contain citations. Overall, this article is factual, relevant, and extremely beneficial for any teacher who may potentially have ELL students in their classrooms.

The name of the article is Involving the Parents of English Language Learners in a Rural Area: Focus on the Dynamics of Teacher-Parent Interaction. This article is focusing on the interaction between the parents and the families of an ELL. The main purpose of this article is to shine a light of the rapid growth of ELL and the teacher's who are unprepared for the rapid growth.

The article believes that trying to get ELL parents to be involved in their students school lives tend to be a difficult thing to do. There might be a lack of communication and there might be a cultural difference. Although this may be an obstacle, the benefits can make the students experience a better place.

The setting and the procedure of the classroom make it a better place for a welcoming community. Although the setting is not a thing that most people can change, making the classroom welcoming is a start. The procedures of the school can benefit. A school hosts two parent teacher nights for the ELL and this gives the parents an opportunity to speak to the teachers.