Transcript The Ties That Bind: Building and Strengthening the School

The Ties That Bind:
Building and Strengthening the
School-Home-Community
Connection for
English Language Learners
Robin Adamopoulos
EDUC 591: School in a Diverse Society
Independent Graduate Study Project
Spring, 2004
Challenges to Education in the
21st Century
• The United States has
experienced the largest
wave of immigration
since the last turn of the
century.
• More than 9 million
immigrants entered the
U.S. between 1991-2000.
• U.S. Census Data
Growing Population of Non-Native
English Speakers
• According to the U.S.
Department of Education:
In 1992, approximately
2.3 million children were
living in households where
English was not a first
language.
• It is estimated that 3 out of
every 10 Hispanics between
the ages of 16 and 24 are
without a high school
credential.
Implications for the Schools
“In particular, language minority students,
including immigrants and the U.S.-born children
of immigrants, may not receive appropriate
educational services due to a mismatch between
the languages and cultures of the schools and
those of their communities.”
Carolyn Temple Adger (2000)
School/Community Partnerships to
Support Language Minority Student Success
Benefits of School-HomeCommunity Partnerships
• Improved academic
achievement
• Increased language
achievement
• Improved overall school
behavior
• Sustained achievement gains
• Improved parent-child
relationships
• Gains in parental selfconfidence and expertise
• Improved Home-School
relations.
Barriers to Parental Involvement
• Feelings of low self-worth and alienation from a system that
does not understand them.
• Cultural values: Parents view the teacher as the authority on
learning and do not question the policies of the school, the
teacher, and the academic programs. Parents blame themselves
for their children’s problems instead of seeking support.
• Lack of English language skills make it difficult to communicate
with school and teachers.
• Lack of trust in the school system: English-only policies,
meeting schedules that are inconvenient for working parents.
• Negative past experiences with school and educational
environments.
Welcome and Communicate
“It is incumbent upon schools to create a welcoming
environment for the parents and families of ESOL
Students, and also to communicate with them in a
meaningful way about academic programs, services, and
their children’s progress.”
Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages
TESOL (June, 2000)
How Can We Help?
The role of Administrators and
School Personnel
Create a Culture of Caring
•
According to Beck (1995) a
definition of a caring paradigm
involves three activities:
1. Empathy --“receiving the other’s
perspective.”
2. Response— “responding
appropriately to the awareness
that comes from this reception,”
and
3. Commitment— “Remaining
committed to others and to the
relationship.”
(Casbon,Schirmer and Twiss, 1997)
Collaborative Models of Leadership
• “Horizontal” management– based on
collaboration and cooperation works best in
multicultural environments.
• The administrator is in a collaborative, consensus-building
relationship with teachers, staff, community and parents.
• Collaborative organizations tend to be “more caring, to
affirm diversity,” and “to be more successful in generating
literacy among their multicultural students.”
(Casbon, Schirmer and Twiss, 1997)
Practical Adaptations for School
Management
• Welcome multicultural parents by providing for
their basic needs:
– Vary meeting times to accommodate the schedules of working
parents.
– Provide Child Care at meetings and Transportation to meetings,
if necessary.
– Provide food and refreshments – creates a welcoming
atmosphere.
– Provide for sharing times when family members and children
work together.
– Consider the entire family. Provide activities for extended family
to come into the school: Family Reading Night, International
Night, Grandparents and Special Friends days, for example.
Communicate
• Develop bilingual resources for parents: forms, newsletters,
school communications.
• Provide an orientation to the school specifically for newcomer
parents.
• Develop an “intake” process. Ask parents for information about
their family’s educational history; special talents and abilities they
could contribute; and their weekly schedule—times that they
could be available for meetings or volunteer projects.
• Provide support groups for newcomer parents; ideally, these
groups will be coordinated by other immigrant parents who are
already established in the school and community.
Staff Development
• Provide translation and interpretation services,
drawing on the school’s population of
immigrant parents – parents helping parents.
• Train staff specifically on issues of cultural
sensitivity. Ideal– bilingual staff members;
Reality – staff that can accommodate the needs
of non-native speakers in non-judgmental, nonthreatening ways.
• RESPECT cultural values and beliefs.
How Can We Help?
The role of Teachers
T.I.E.S.
T—Teachers
I—Involving
E—Everyone
In
S—School
B.I.N.D.
• B is for Background Knowledge—
Teachers become “ethnographers” of their
students and communities.
B.I.N.D.
I is for Initiate, Invite and Inform:
• Initiate -- Contact parents frequently to check on their needs.
Teachers need to meet more often with multicultural parents in
face-to-face settings. Immigrant parents may not always get the
information they need from once-a-month PTA meetings.
• Invite—Ask the parents to come into the classroom to volunteer,
and to share their stories, recipes, careers, or a special talent.
• Inform– Always keep parents informed of their child’s progress.
In addition: communicate with parents on instructional goals and
objectives and special programs of interest to them – ESL for
adults, vocational programs, and for high-school aged children—
workshops on preparation for college.
B.I.N.D.
• N is for newer approaches to literacy:
– Immigrant parents are not only reluctant to participate in
school because of language barriers, but also, many
immigrants have limited experience with formal education
and are in need of literacy instruction themselves.
– Family Literacy programs are an essential part of developing
a love of reading and writing in young children from
multicultural backgrounds.
– Family Literacy involves both parents and children in the
language learning process.
B.I.N.D.
• D is for Develop:
• Develop relationships with parents and the
community to support education and literacy.
• How do we do this?
– One answer is Family Literacy Programs
• The Even Start Family Literacy Program is one example
of such programs that is funded by the federal
government under Title I legislation.
• There are many models of Family Literacy Programs, but
all involve some of the same basic principles.
What is family literacy?
Family Literacy is:
• Intergenerational and
bi-directional: Children
teaching parents and
parents teaching
children— the
community teaching each
other.
Family Literacy
• Family Literacy is integrative, communicative
instruction in all language skills: reading,
writing, listening and speaking. Family Literacy
programs provide opportunities to exercise all
of these literacy skills.
• Reading aloud together
• Writing and illustrating personal narratives or a history of
the family.
• Developing oral language skills through storytelling.
Family Literacy
• Family Literacy is multicultural.
– It embraces diversity and the culture of all learners.
– It allows students to learn about themselves and
each other.
Family Literacy
• Family Literacy is socially-constructed
learning—
– Students use authentic materials; share from their
background experiences, and add to their learning
through interaction with others.
– The activities are creative, meaningful and fun!
Students and family members create a meaningful
product that can be shared with future generations.
Family Literacy
• Family Literacy is Critical Pedagogy:
– Learners achieve literacy skills which can help them to
participate in American culture and society.
How Can We Help?
The role of Parents and
Community Based Organizations
We can’t do it alone
• The school needs the support of parents and the
community in order to function.
• Parents can organize groups to discuss issues of
concern to immigrant parents. These groups should be
led by members of the same language/ethnic heritage.
Parents helping parents models work best.
• Community-based organizations can provide a wealth
of resources: much needed funding for programs;
bilingual materials and human resources—translators
and interpreters; and support services—homework
helpers, mentoring, before and after school care,
transportation, health and social services.
PTA Standards
• The national organization of the Parent Teacher
Association (PTA) has recently published
standards for parent involvement in the schools.
Available at the PTA website:
www.pta.org/programs/pfistand.htm
“…our fears, our hopes, our aims are
one, our comforts and our cares.”
Blest Be the Tie That Binds
John Fawcett 1740-1817