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  • The Home-School Connection To Language and Literacy Development

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    The document discusses strategies for fostering family engagement to support language and literacy development. It describes the hallway workshop strategy, where teachers provide families with literacy toolkits including books and materials to use at home. Teachers have casual conversations with families to discuss the importance of home literacy and demonstrate how to use the materials. The hallway workshops increased conversations between families and teachers and engagement in literacy activities at home. Families reported that the materials helped motivate their children to read more at home.

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    2016-04 Family Engagement

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    The document discusses strategies for fostering family engagement to support language and literacy development. It describes the hallway workshop strategy, where teachers provide families with literacy toolkits including books and materials to use at home. Teachers have casual conversations with families to discuss the importance of home literacy and demonstrate how to use the materials. The hallway workshops increased conversations between families and teachers and engagement in literacy activities at home. Families reported that the materials helped motivate their children to read more at home.

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    32 views4 pages

    The Home-School Connection To Language and Literacy Development

    Uploaded by

    hania
    The document discusses strategies for fostering family engagement to support language and literacy development. It describes the hallway workshop strategy, where teachers provide families with literacy toolkits including books and materials to use at home. Teachers have casual conversations with families to discuss the importance of home literacy and demonstrate how to use the materials. The hallway workshops increased conversations between families and teachers and engagement in literacy activities at home. Families reported that the materials helped motivate their children to read more at home.

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    of 4

    Fostering High-Leverage Family Engagement in Pre-K–5

    by Teresita Galarza and Sheldon Watson

    The Home-School Connection to Language and Literacy Development


    The nature of home literacy practices can be drastically different depending on a variety of home
    and family characteristics, including sociolinguistic context. Variation in home literacy practices
    may have even more impact on children when the language spoken at home differs from the
    language of instruction at school. Students learning English have additional needs when it comes
    to support of language and literacy development in the home. Given that a child’s oral language
    development and literacy interest increases when literacy support is a mutual effort between
    family and school (Frijters, Barron, & Brunello, 2000) it is vital to build mutually-supportive
    relationships with families. This can be achieved when educators make family literacy a priority
    in their curricular models and pay careful attention to the needs of both students and families.
    The hallway workshop is an example of one strategy for family literacy that is consistent with
    this vision.

    Family Literacy
    Most parents are very interested in supporting their children’s skills in reading and writing at
    home. If parents know the advantages of particular activities for their children, they may be more
    likely to facilitate those experiences (Edwards, 1995). The significance of home literacy
    practices cannot be understated (Payne, Whitehurst, & Angell, 1994). One study of Mexican
    American preschoolers found that the home literacy environment had a greater impact on literacy
    skills than many other factors, such as the home-school relationship, family composition, and
    family history (Ezell, Gonzalez, & Randolph, 2000). A number of specific activities have been
    found to contribute to a child’s home literacy environment. These include

    • frequency of shared picture-book reading,


    • age of onset of picture book reading,
    • duration of shared picture-book reading at one sitting,
    • number of picture books in the home, and
    • frequency of caregiver’s personal reading time.

    We often find, however, that the culture of educators and the school is different from that of the
    family. Sociolinguistic context can include different ideas and values related to how children
    learn, relationships between families and educators, and home literacy practices. In these cases,
    educators need to make a conscious effort to engage families in ways that do not communicate
    messages that parenting skills are judged negatively or perceived as inadequate. Perceptions by
    families that they are being judged negatively may simply be the result of divergent perspectives
    emerging from interactions with educators, but these perceptions can quickly become reality for
    families. The following are conversational tips to help avoid the potential alienation of adult
    family members:

    ● Limit use of school jargon and acronyms (e.g., IEP, SAT, SBAC, CCSS).

    Fostering High-Leverage Family Engagement 1 TESOL Connections: April 2016


    ● Don’t begin the relationship, or most interactions, with a focus on problems about the
    children.
    ● Avoid negative language, like “Your child does not/cannot/needs to…”
    ● Focus on assets of the child, such as “Your child is able to/good at…”
    ● Seek their input, such as “How do you feel about...?” and “What happens when…?”

    Approaching conversations with family members in this way will contribute to more positive
    feelings toward the school and educators, and helps reduce negative or adversarial perceptions.
    The whole point is creating a partnership to support children based upon mutual respect between
    family and school. How we talk and interact with families is where this begins.

    Case Study: The Hallway Workshop


    Fostering family involvement requires more than requesting adult attendance at school meetings
    and teachers disseminating information. It is about engaging families in authentic conversations
    concerning language and literacy development. These conversations should include suggestions
    and supports for what they can do with their children. However, these strategies for home
    literacy must be practices that family members are (1) able to do, and (2) feel comfortable
    implementing independently at home with their children. An engagement strategy that we call
    the hallway workshop is an example of one such experience that promotes language and literacy
    practices at home. It has proven highly effective in positively engaging increased numbers of
    kindergarten families in home literacy behaviors in the Pre-K–8 urban school where it has been
    developed.

    At many schools, families are present and bustling throughout the building at the beginning and
    end of every school day. This is even more true in urban environments where young children
    frequently walk to school. The hallway workshop is a family engagement experience that
    strategically occurs directly when and where families are most likely to be found. The hallway
    workshop is designed to be a brief 10–15 minute conversation. Adults are individually invited to
    participate in a manner that is intentionally planned as nonthreatening and low stakes.
    Disseminating information is not the primary purpose of the conversation, rather it is to promote
    a personal connection. The educator’s conversational role is that of advocate and active listener
    in an interaction framed from this perspective. Developing the capacity of families to support
    home literacy will hopefully be an associated outcome of this interpersonal exchange.

    The invitation comes in the form of a complimentary gift offered as adults pass the teacher’s
    table in the hallway. The gift is a book available for them to take home and share with their
    child. It is inside a folder that contains an assortment of materials to use with the text. These
    Family Literacy Toolkits each contain: the book, a dry erase marker, highlighter, and laminated
    worksheets that include an alphabet chart, basic sight word lists, and lined paper. The teacher has
    a casual conversation with the adults about how they can use these resources to read with their
    child at home. The importance of language and literacy at home is discussed as well as the
    principle that they are their child's first teacher. This principle is particularly important for
    families of English language learners because we want to promote the native language as an
    essential resource in the academic growth of the child. Native language exchanges between
    parent and child: (1) extend dialogue, (2) prompt questioning, and (3) expand vocabulary, which

    Fostering High-Leverage Family Engagement 2 TESOL Connections: April 2016


    is then transferred to English. Basic steps and strategies are demonstrated for how to teach their
    child with a focus on developing language and literacy skills using the book as the foundation for
    conversation in the home environment.

    Impact
    The hallway workshops had an immediate impact on all stakeholders. They increased the
    frequency and quality of conversations between family members and teachers. More adults are
    now engaged in positive interactions with the school and are supporting literacy behaviors at
    home with their children. As a result of the hallway workshops, adults that participated in
    previous weeks now take the initiative of bringing other adults to the table. The unsolicited
    feedback from families has been extremely positive.

    The toolkit materials are presented as simple tools that families can use to teach their children at
    home just like teachers do at school. Family members confirm the success of this objective. They
    note how they use the materials with their children, that their child wants to “play” like they do
    in school, and that the activities motivate their child to want to read books at home. These first
    steps, established in the context of warm and supportive conversations at school, hold the
    promise of developing even stronger home literacy practices over time.

    References

    Edwards, P. A. (1995). Combining parents’ and teachers’ thoughts about storybook reading at
    home and school. In L. M. Morrow (Ed.), Family literacy: Connections in schools and
    communities (pp. 54–69). New Brunswick, NJ: International Reading Association.

    Ezell, H. K., Gonzales, M. D., & Randolph, E. (2000). Emergent literacy skills of migrant
    Mexican American preschoolers. Communication Disorders Quarterly, 21(3), 147–153.

    Frijters, J. C., Barron, R. W., & Brunello, M. (2000). Direct and mediated influences of home
    literacy and literacy interest on prereaders’ oral vocabulary and early written language skill.
    Journal of Educational Psychology, 92, 466–477.

    Payne, A. C., Whitehurst, G. J., & Angell, A. L. (1994). The role of home literacy environment
    in the development of language ability in preschool children from low-income families.
    Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 9(3-4), 427–440.

    ___________________________________

    Dr. Teresita Galarza is a veteran educator in the Hartford Public Schools, a former principal
    and district administrator, and a specialist in second language acquisition and bilingual
    education. Her doctoral research focused on classroom conversational interactions and their
    impact on language development and academic performance. Current research focuses on
    literacy and family engagement. Dr. Galarza facilitates professional learning on language and
    literacy development for educators in Connecticut and Massachusetts.

    Fostering High-Leverage Family Engagement 3 TESOL Connections: April 2016


    Dr. Sheldon Watson is an associate professor in the Department of Educational Leadership,
    Policy, and Instructional Technology at Central Connecticut State University. He has developed
    graduate courses in sheltered English instruction and program administration for English
    language learners. Dr. Watson has facilitated professional learning on language and literacy
    development for both teachers and administrators in Massachusetts. His research focuses on
    educational policy, professional collaboration, and family engagement.

    Fostering High-Leverage Family Engagement 4 TESOL Connections: April 2016

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