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Literacy 7-12

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Literacy 7-12 > Strategies > Family Engagement

Family Engagement

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Overview

Students whose families are involved and feel valued within the school community are less likely to miss school, which research has shown can cause students to fall behind academically. Parental and family involvement in students' academics from early on and continuing into middle and high school can have positive effects on their reading achievement throughout their development. This strategy also supports the practice of culturally responsive teaching and can be used with other strategies that allow representation of all learners in the curriculum.

Use It in the Classroom

Starting at 1:29, watch how this high school has family-community resource centers that provide support and engagement opportunities for families to be part of the school environment. By bringing in students' families and culture, students feel a greater sense of belonging, which improves their Motivation to learn.

  • Actively involving families in decisions regarding their child encourages family engagement and can result in positive changes in their student's self-esteem. Collaborative and culturally sensitive communication between teachers and families also fosters a sense of inclusiveness, reducing Stereotype Threat for students and improving Motivation. Teachers can also benefit from more regular communication with families, fostering stronger relationships and building off of their community's funds of knowledge.

    • Design It into Your Product

    Videos are chosen as examples of strategies in action. These choices are not endorsements of the products or evidence of use of research to develop the feature.

    Watch how Remind provides a way for families, teachers, and students to communicate quickly and easily through a mobile app about student progress, assignments, and other school-related activities.

  • Developers can support this regular communication between teachers and families by making apps that are mobile and multilingual. Products can also include spaces for families to share their out of school literacies and encourage the incorporation of individual Background Knowledge, particularly for marginalized students.
    • View References

    Resources

    Below are additional examples, research, and professional development. These resources are possible representations of this strategy, not endorsements.
    Examples

    Connecting with Families

    Cooney Center report on using technology to better connect with Hispanic-Latino families

    Examples

    Family Engagement

    Research-based strategies from WestEd on engaging families

    Examples

    Five Ways

    Ideas for boosting parental involvement at low income schools

    Examples

    Toolkit of Resources

    Strategies from the Institute for Education Sciences on how to build relationships between schools and families

    Examples

    Families as Learning Partners

    Resource on The Learning Accelerator

    Professional Development

    The Importance of Working with Parents

    Module by Sanford Inspire

    Professional Development

    Strategies for Engaging Parents

    Module by Sanford Inspire

    Professional Development

    Strategies for Communicating with Parents

    Module by Sanford Inspire

    Research

    Parent Involvement

    Subtopic that includes research on the connection between parent/family involvement and student achievement on Digital Promise's Research Map

    Research

    Family Resources & Relationships

    Subtopic that explores research on the effects of parenting, SES, and stress on children's wellbeing and achievement on Digital Promise's Research Map

    Research

    Family Engagement

    Topic that includes research on how schools can improve their family engagement on Digital Promise's Research Map

    Factors Supported by this Strategy

    Student Background
    Adverse Experiences
    Safety
    Social Supports
    Socioeconomic Status
    Social and Emotional Learning
    Emotion
    Motivation
    Sense of Belonging
    Social Awareness & Relationship Skills
    Stereotype Threat
    Cognition
    Literacy
    Background Knowledge

    More Instructional Approaches Strategies

    Discipline-specific Writing

    Interpreting and composing discipline-specific texts requires tailoring literacy strategies, like annotating or asking questions, to the disciplinary goals and practices.

    Prompts & Questions

    Providing guiding prompts and questions for students to use when reading or participating in discussions deepens their understanding of texts and gives them space to question and grapple with issues of power, justice, and equity.

    Multiple Texts

    Providing multiple texts on the same topic or theme allows students to interact with multiple perspectives and develop their critical thinking skills.

    Direct Instruction: Vocabulary

    Seeing and using new words repeatedly and in many contexts is critical for Vocabulary acquisition.

    Mindfulness Activities

    Through short but regular mindfulness activities, students develop their awareness and ability to focus.

    Mentor Texts

    By observing, rereading, and closely analyzing published writing, students see examples and learn the strategies of good writing that they can integrate into their own Composition.

    Authentic Audiences & Purposes

    When adolescents can connect and communicate with authentic audiences about their interests and values, reading and writing become more personally meaningful and relevant.

    Direct Instruction: Comprehension Strategies

    As part of a varied curriculum, explicit instruction in reading comprehension strategies from teachers can help older students use strategies meaningfully and flexibly.

    Multimodal Instruction

    Instruction in multiple formats allows students to activate different cognitive skills and Background Knowledge that are necessary to remember procedural and content information.

    Guided Inquiry

    During guided inquiry, teachers foster student autonomy by designing lessons centered on meaningful questions in which students locate, analyze, and present relevant information on their own or in small groups.

    Provide Writing Models

    When teachers provide students with model texts for their writing, they learn to identify effective elements to incorporate into their own writing.

    Reading Conferences

    Teachers can provide individualized support through one-on-one conferences to assess reading comprehension, understanding of content, and spark further interest in reading.

    Independent Reading

    Independent reading promotes literacy by emphasizing student choice with teacher support in selecting books, as well as setting the expectations that everyone is a reader.

    Direct Instruction: Writing Strategies

    Explicitly teaching strategies for planning, writing, and revising texts improves students' writing quality.

    Pre-reading Questioning

    When teachers ask questions or have students create questions before introducing a text, they activate student interest and help them assess what they already know about a given topic.

    Direct Instruction: Web-based Reading Strategies

    Research shows that, along with traditional reading comprehension strategies, students use unique strategies to read the non-linear, hyperlinked structure of online texts.

    Direct Instruction: Internet Search

    Teaching students how to effectively search the internet is critical for helping them learn how to find accurate and relevant information and aids in developing information literacy.

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