My Thesis

Developing Strong Family School Partnerships within Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Communities

Why Family Involvement?

-›Families are influential

›-Students benefit academically, socially, emotionally, and culturally

-Students are more likely to graduate and pursue higher education

-Families and schools must work together to create strong partnerships that foster respect, understanding, and cultural validation.

›-Schools should work to adopt an asset-based approach.

Rationale

-No typical Family

-Move beyond the School-centric lens

-Validate how families are already involved

-Funds of Knowledge

-Based upon the framework designed by Epstein (2001)

A Teachers Guide To Facilitating Involvement

Includes sections:

Introduction

Care-taking

Communicating

Volunteering

Learning at Home

Shared Decision Making and Collaborating with the Community

Final Reflection and Goal Setting

Each section includes statistics and information regarding diverse families, opportunities for teachers to reflect, assess, and brainstorm about family involvement, as well as a variety of activities to complete!

Sample Activities

Community Resource Treasure Hunt

The best way to learn about your students and their families is to visit the communities they live in. Every community, regardless of cultural and linguistic diversity, has a unique set of resources to offer. In order to learn about these resources, your students and their families, take a walk around the community. Look for businesses and housing surrounding the school, demographics, community activities geared towards students, and potential community issues. As you take photos, think about how the students at your school and within your classroom are positively or negatively affected. What do students see everyday on their way to school? How might the environment of the community influence the school environment? Reflect on the assets or resources you see in the community, and how you might integrate the community into your classroom practices.

Family Picnic Day

Hosting a family picnic day at your school is a great way to get diverse families involved without needing additional resources or funding. The event can take place on a minimum day, after school dismissal. Families can pack their lunches together, bringing their favorite foods representative of their culture, and eat at the school.Because some families may not be able to pack their own lunch, talk to the administrators at your school to see if a reduced school lunch can be provided to families. After eating together, families will have the opportunity to visit with teachers, tour classrooms, and spend quality time together. Families that are unable to attend the picnic at the school site are easily able to host their own picnic at home. They can take photographs or draw pictures to represent and share their experiences with others. Use the following letter to invite families to a family picnic day at your school.

Teachers Guide to Hosting Family Picnic Day

Food: 

-Have families pack their own lunches to bring to the family picnic day. 

-Collect donations to provide food for families that are unable to bring their own lunch. 

-Talk to administrators to see if it is possible to offer free or reduced lunches to families that are unable to purchase or bring their own food. 

-Ask the local grocery store if they would be willing to donate food for the Family Picnic Day.

Games: 

-Relay Race

-Basketball 

-Soccer 

-Football

Amenities: 

-Speak to maintenance ahead of time to have restrooms and the MPR open for families to use 

-Have families remove their own waste to keep the school clean and cut down on maintenance costs. Make sure trashcans are visible throughout the campus.

Staff: 

-Have a maintenance worker on site 

-Teachers should be present during the school picnic day. Once they finish eating with families, they should return to their classroom for families to drop in. 

-The principal and other school administrators should be present throughout the family picnic day. They should interact with families as much as possible, opening lines of communication and future participation. 

-If families are unable to attend, encourage them to have a picnic with their families at home. They can take pictures, draw their own, bring in a menu, or other artifacts sharing their day.

Family Art Night

A family art night is a great way to engage diverse families while making your school site or classroom a more beautiful place. Look around your classroom for any empty wall space. Your classroom may have an available bulletin board, or you may need to make use of your ceiling space. Regardless of the space, invite families into the classroom to create “tiles” representative of their family, language, culture, and community. The tiles can be simple, pieces of construction paper for each family member or family to decorate with markers, colored pencils, or paint. The finished tiles can then be hung in your designated space around the classroom. Other students, families, and teachers will be able to view the tiles and get to know the students and their families better.

What is needed for Family Art Night?

-Ask families prior to Family Art Night what they need in order to attend (Child care, dinner, time, etc) -Construction paper or paper used to make tiles. 

-Empty wall space in the classroom, school hallway, multipurpose room, etc. 

-Families to participate and decorate a tile.

-Crayons, markers, or paint to decorate the construction paper with.

-MPR or classroom set up for families to decorate construction paper tiles.

Funds of Knowledge

Cultural Food Night

Experiment with food and cook a traditional meal in another country like Italy, Japan or Spain. Research the location in order to determine how geography and climate affect the foods individuals eats.

Family Cooking Night

Have everyone join you in the kitchen as you cook a meal together. Have your student read the recipe, giving them an opportunity to practice their reading skills. Students can also practice measuring out the ingredients, focusing on math skills. If your recipe calls for more or less, have your student divide or double the recipe. Here are some FUN recipes to try with your family!

Family Home Tour

Have students shadow a family member around as they complete their daily housework. Students can make a list of the activities they are watching and calculate the time it takes to complete an activity. Not only will this enhance students’ math and writing, but also students will gain an appreciation for every day duties.

Build it

Students can watch and assist a family member build or put together a household item (dresser, fix a car part, etc). Students will need to make detailed observations. Once finished, the student and family member will create a how-to list, stating the steps they took to complete the project.

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