Cultivating Home and School

Partnerships

Kelly Champ
ESL-433N
February 18, 2018
Dr. Oren Cox
 What is a home and school partnership?
 Home and school partnerships are collaborative relationships
built off of mutual trust and respect amongst students’
parents and/or family members and teachers/staff of the
school.
 With the child in mind, these adults communicate about,
support and share responsibility for his/her education.
 Why are partnerships important?
 These partnerships are important because:
- it builds stronger relationships with students
- motivates parental cooperation and volunteering
- leads to higher academic achievement, attendance rates, and
assignment completion
- develops understanding of cultural influences, background
experiences, and environment
- offers insight and different perspective about individual child’s
strengths, challenges, and abilities
- creates a line of open communication for all
- parent-child relationship is strengthened through quality time
spent together
 Statistics in California
From Reading and Beyond’s (2011) “ELL Parent Involvement” video:
 Latino students have become more than 50% of the total population in
California schools.
 Every 26 seconds a Latino student drops out of high school in the United
States.
 In 2008, only 23% of Latino high school graduates met A-G course
requirements.
 In 2008, only 61% of Latino students graduated high school in California.

 These prove that parent involvement and building of partnerships is a

necessity that will support all students and encourage success, not just in
an academic setting, but promote life skills and values, independence,
and higher self-confidence over time.
 Multi-ethnicity in Los Angeles
 Los Angeles, California is the ethnic core of the Pacific Rim region:
• There are people from more than 140 countries living in this area
• 224 different identified languages are spoken
 The city is made up of at least 48.1% Hispanic or Latino descendants or immigrants.
 The most common Hispanic/Latino community members come from: Mexico, Puerto Rico,
Spain, Cuba, El Salvador, Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Colombia, Honduras, Ecuador,
and Peru.
 According to the California Department of Education (2017):
• In the 2016–17 school year, there were approximately 1.332 million English learners in
California public schools
• 83.10% speak Spanish
• The 1,332,405 English learners constitute 21.4 percent of the total enrollment in California
public schools.
• The majority of English learners (72 percent) are enrolled in the elementary
grades, kindergarten through grade six. The rest (28 percent) are enrolled in the secondary
grades, seven through twelve, and in the ungraded category.
 Cultural Factors Affecting Native English
Speakers
 Individual and family morals and values about education
 Background experiences
 Social norms established in society and/or as a nation; can vary with each
generation
 Cultural expectations for learning, behaviors, and establishing student-teacher
relationships
 Preferred learning styles
 A teacher’s philosophy surrounding education and his/her teaching style

 Even for native English-speaking students, there are many different cultural
implications that can both help and hinder a student’s educational experiences.
 It is important for a teacher to be able to directly recognize the needs of ALL of
his/her students and understand their experiences in order to create relevance of
the curriculum and explicitly connect in diversified and meaningful ways.
 Cultural Factors Influencing Non-native
English-speaking Students
 Some of the cultural factors may be both similar and different that those of native
English speakers. These include:
• Family perspective and possibly, uncertainty, about learning the English language
• Established social norms in home country may not be as common as in United
States
• Ideas surrounding body language, eye contact, and other behaviors may differ
• Communication styles (formal/informal, academic and conversational)
• Background experiences
• Cultural expectations for learning, behaviors, and establishing respect and
student-teacher relationships
• Preferred learning styles
• A teacher’s philosophy surrounding education and his/her teaching style
 Instructional Issues to Consider
 According to Echevarría, Vogt, and Short (2017), they write,
“Accomplished SIOP teachers determine students’ baseline
understandings in their subject area and move them forward, both in
their content knowledge and in their language skills through a variety
of techniques” (Echevarría, Vogt, and Short, 2017, p. 21)
 Predictability of routines and signals to ease anxieties
 Common Core and other standard requirements
 Students’ prior knowledge and background experiences
 ESL/ELL delivery techniques and strategies (i.e. modeling, step-by-step,
written instruction, repeating and responding, etc.)
 Differentiated instruction
 Current Reading and Writing Initiatives
 Lecture vs. hands-on instruction
 Instructional Strategies to Overcome
Instructional Issues

 Although there are a wide variety of best practices, instructional techniques,

and strategies to support learners, these are a few significant ones that I find
most meaningful and relevant to my my own teaching experiences and
philosophy:
 Modeled Talk
• “The concurrent verbal explanation and physical demonstration of directions or
concepts, is one of the simplest and most powerful strategies to use with English
language learners” (Herrell & Jordan, 2015, p. 33)
 Realia Strategies
• ”Used to provide students with opportunities to build on their learning using all
their senses” (Herrell & Jordan, 2015, p. 42)
 Instructional Strategies to Overcome
Instructional Issues (continued)
 Graphic Organizers
• Students are better able to jot down their thoughts and ideas, label, use visuals,
represent text connections, vocabulary, and concepts in an organized way.
 Read, Pair, Share
• In partners, individuals work together to read a text, discuss, and support one
another, while encouraging and reinforcing language acquisition,
development, and interaction.
 KWL Charts
• Students and teacher have an opportunity to explore what they know (K), what
they wonder or want(W) to know about, and what they wish to learn (L). This is a
very helpful way for teachers to gather information and understand prior
knowledge to set-up the foundation of a topic.
 Classroom Environmental Issues to
Reflect Upon

 Flexibility of the space for students to move around

 Defined learning centers and organization
 Visuals and charts related to curriculum are posted
 Temperature, lighting, and sounds of the classroom; affects
learning styles
 Seating arrangements
 Teacher and student energy during instructional times and
activities
 Techniques and Strategies to Support
Environmental Issues
 Visual Scaffolding
• “An approach in which the language used in instruction is made more
understandable by displaying drawings or photographs that allow students to
connect spoken English words to visual images being displayed” (Herrell & Jordan,
2015, p. 38)
 Creating Learning Centers
• A wonderful way for students to practice academic knowledge and life skills, while
strengthening interactions and socialization amongst peers in more unstructured
setting.
 Implementing Hands-on Learning
• Students engage in kinesthetic and sensory learning experiences and are able to
create direct connections and meaning relevant to self in those tangible
opportunities
 Using Flexible Seating Arrangements
• Students are able to be better learners and use their learning styles to the best of
their abilities when there is flexible seating and space to move. It promotes student
engagement, positive peer interactions, and ultimately, give them choice for how
they wish to learn.
 Facilitating Learning Through Home and
School Partnerships
 When there is a strong connection between the teacher and parents/family, a
student is more likely to feel supported in both settings, increasing their overall
motivation to learn and succeed.
 Mutual respect and trust is established and communication is open, allowing for
constant discussion about progress, issues, etc. and being on the same page at
all times.
 Creating a positive attitude about learning and education begins in the home
and is carried over into the classroom.
 When students genuinely know that they are loved and supported by all of the
adults in their life, they know that people care about them, their feelings of
competency and dignity are held to be significant, and they develop meaning
for the world in which they live in and how they fit into the structure.
 When all is balanced at home and at school, students are able to focus
wholeheartedly on their learning and not have to worry about larger issues,
similar to Maslow’s Hiearchy of Needs.
 Cultivating Home and School
Partnerships
 Teachers can invite parents and family members into the classroom to
volunteer, share their expertise, read a book, chaperone a field trip, etc.
 According to Echevarria and Graves (2014),”It is designed to bring parents and
community members into the class on a regular basis to provide a multiplicity of
cultural leadership. For example, any parent could be asked to share life
experiences or job- related experiences” (Echevarria & Graves, 2014, p. 98).
 Teachers can plan special events to bring students and families together (i.e.
pizza at the park, book club at local library, family game night, etc.)
 When parents/family members drop-off in person, the teachers should make a
point to talk, even if it is casually, to them to build parent-teacher relationship.
 Make regular phone calls or send emails, just to touch base about student
accomplishments and progress.
 Teachers can have an ‘open-door’ policy.
 The school can arrange parent education evenings regarding various topics
and common issues related to that educational community to support the
needs of families and students.
 References
 California Department of Education. (2017). Facts about English learners in
California-CalEdFacts. Retrieved from
https://www.cde.ca.gov/ds/sd/cb/cefelfacts.asp
 Echevarria, J. and Graves, A. (2014). Sheltered Content Instruction: Teaching
English Learners with Diverse Abilities. 5th ed. Pearson Education, Inc.
 Echevarria, J., Vogt, M. and Short, D. (2017). Introducing the SIOP model. In
Making content comprehensible for English learners: the SIOP model. Available
from https://viewer.gcu.edu/ervngR
 Herrell, A. and Jordan, M. (2015). 50 Strategies for Teaching English Language
Learners. Pearson Education, Inc.
 Reading and Beyond. (2011). “ELL Parent Involvement”. Retrieved from
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3_-aLWOk9Og