School-Home Links Trainer of Trainers

Effectively Engaging Parents in Their Children’s Education

Developed by the Colorado Statewide Parent Coalition in Collaboration with the Colorado Department of Education

Colorado School-Home Links

Objectives:

To understand the correlation between effective parent engagement and increased student achievement

To understand and effectively use the School-Home Links to support standards-based instruction

To give participants the skills to facilitate training to parents on the School-Home Links and how to use the activities as a way to effectively support at home what their children are learning in school

Ice-Breaker

By the time the school year is over, I want my son or daughter to be

able to…

According to the U.S. Department of Education: Family

Involvement in Children’s Education, 1998

Thirty years of research confirms that when parents are involved in their children’s education, children:

earn higher grades and receive higher scores on tests

attend school more regularly

complete more homework

When Parents Are Involved, Children:

demonstrate more positive attitudes and behaviors

graduate from high school at higher rates

and are more likely to enroll in higher education than students with less involved families.

Effective Parent Engagement Occurs When Parents Support the Education of Their Children Both at Home and at School

How can parents support at home what their sons and daughters are learning in school?

Why is it so important that your sons and daughters

read every day?

Before your child starts school!

The difference reading aloud to a child for 30 minutes A DAY can make:By age 5 900 hours of “brain food”(experiential input into brain so it can process it and store

it)

Reading aloud for 30 minutes WEEKLY:

By age 5 130 hours of “brain food”

Reading aloud for LESS than 30 minutes WEEKLY: By age 5 60 hours of “brain

food”

Home Reading and Reading Achievement

Home Reading -- Minutes Per Day

Words Read Per Year

Reading Percentile

65.0 4,358,000 98%

21.1 1,823,000 90%

14.2 1,146,000 80%

9.6 622,000 70%

6.5 432,000 60%

4.6 282,000 50%

3.2 200,000 40%

1.3 106,000 30%

.7 21,000 20%

.1 8,000 10%

0.0 0 2%

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“Parents and families are the first and most important teachers. If families teach a love of learning, it can make all the difference in the world to our children.”(Richard Riley)

Colorado Model Content Standards

House Bill 93-1313

Standards = Specific skills that children need to know at each grade level

CSAPThe Colorado Student Assessment Program

CSAP = The assessment Colorado uses to determine whether or not a student has learned the specific skills for his or her grade level.

Reading and Writing Standards

How can parents support at home what their children are learning in the classroom?

One answer: School-Home Links

School-Home Links

Provide 100 reading activities per grade for children in kindergarten through third grade.

Encourage greater family involvement in helping children improve reading skills and achievement.

School-Home LinksAre available for grades kindergarten through third in English and Spanish

Have been aligned with the Colorado Model Content Standards for Reading and Writing

Dear family, your child is learning to remember what happens in a book.

• Read the chapter(s) of your book with your family. Write the title, author,

and chapter(s) below.

Title:________________________________________________________________

Author: ______________________________________________________________

Chapter(s): ___________________________________________________________

• How does the author begin the chapter(s)? What is happening at the beginning of the chapter(s)?

_____________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________

• What happens next?

_____________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________

• Then what happens?

______________________________________________________________________

• What happens at the end of the chapter(s)?

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

3/Reading Process 1.3: Adjusts reading strategies for different purposes

Dear family, your child is learning to tell the difference

between fiction and nonfiction.

Fiction is a story that is about make-believe people and animals.

Nonfiction is writing that is about true people and true events.

• Write an X on the correct line for each book.

Fiction Nonfiction Other

1. Frogs and Toads ______ ______ ______

2. Moon Monsters ______ ______ ______

3. Rocks and Minerals ______ ______ ______

4. The Kids’ Cookbook ______ ______ ______

5. My First Dictionary ______ ______ ______

6. The Adventures of ______ ______ ______ Pirate Pete

3/Reading Process 1.3: Adjusts reading strategies for different purposes

Reading and Writing Standards

Standard #1: Read and understand a variety of materials

What other kinds of materials can you make available to your children at home to help them achieve this standard?

Dear family, your child is learning to remember what happens in a book.

• Read the chapter(s) of your book with your family. Write the title, author,

and chapter(s) below.

Title:________________________________________________________________

Author: ______________________________________________________________

Chapter(s): ___________________________________________________________

• How does the author begin the chapter(s)? What is happening at the beginning of the chapter(s)?

_____________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________

• What happens next?

_____________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________

• Then what happens?

______________________________________________________________________

• What happens at the end of the chapter(s)?

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

3/Reading Process 1.3: Adjusts reading strategies for different purposes

Reading and Writing Standards

Standard #2: Write and speak for a variety of purposes and audiences.

Dear family, your child is learning to keep a writer’s notebook. Here are

some ways to use a writer’s notebook.

• Look for and write down ideas for writing on the way home from school, at home,

or in places you visit.

• Look for interesting topics as you read books.

• Write down your reactions to books or stories you read.

• Copy favorite parts from a book you are reading or the words to a favorite poem or song.

• Write down interesting words and expressions you hear.

• Write family stories.

• Describe things you notice during the day.

• Write down memories you have.

• Make lists of things (birds, trees, kinds of stories, etc).

• Express your opinions about something important to you.

• Write down plans you have.

• Write down questions you have or things you wonder about.

3/Writing and Speaking 2.1: Writes and speaks for a variety of purposes

Reading and Writing Standards

Standard #3: Write and speak using formal grammar, usage, sentence structure, punctuation, capitalization and spelling.

Reading and Writing Standards

Standard #4: Apply thinking skills to reading, writing and speaking, listening and viewing.

Dear family, your child is learning to draw conclusions about a

book or story.

• Read the chapter(s) of your book with your family. Write the title, author, and chapter(s) below.Title: ___________________________________________________________Author: _________________________________________________________Chapter(s): ______________________________________________________

• What important information did the author tell you in the chapter(s)?_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

• Given this information, what do you think will happen in the rest of the book?______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

• What makes you think so?_______________________________________________________________

3/Cognitive Thinking 4.1: Makes predictions, analyzes, draws conclusions, and discriminates

Reading and Writing Standards

Standard #5: Read to locate, select, evaluate and make use of a variety of sources.

Reading and Writing Standards

Standard #6:Read and recognize literature as a record of human experience.

Dear family, your child is learning to make connections between books

and real life.

• Read the chapter(s) of your book with your family. Write the title, author,

and chapter(s) below.

Title: ___________________________________________________________

Author: _________________________________________________________

Chapter(s): ______________________________________________________

• What problems does the author present in the chapter(s) that are like real-life

problems you have thought about or lived through?

________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________

• If the setting were changed to your neighborhood and the characters were your

family and friends, how would the events in the chapter(s) have to change?

________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________

3/Reading Literature 6.2: Reads literature to investigate

common issues and interests

Outreach Strategies

How do we get parents to attend the School-Home Links workshops?