2. Intoduction
We don’t have lectures in this course, but this
week we have this slide show.
Chapter 7 marks a big shift in the course –
moving from theory to practice. If you’ve been
skimming the text, I hope this wakes you up
and gets you to look more closely at this
chapter
3. Know Your Families: Home Visits
In Chapter 7, there is a discussion of home
visits starting on page 178.
I point this out because it comes up often as a
discussion topic.
Professionals who have the luxury of home
visits don’t understand how others survive
without doing them.
4. Getting Parents Interested
Chapter 7 reframes the idea of “parent education”
to that of building partnerships and presenting
opportunities for parents to share their
strengths. These are discussions about changing
both practices and attitudes.
The PTA family involvement website (
http://www.pta.org/family_school_partnerships)
mentions four key frameworks:
- overlapping spheres of influence
- social capital
- empowerment
- cultural competence
I encourage you to visit the website!
5. A video resource:
Eastern Connecticut State University produced this video on
parent involvement:
http://www.easternct.edu/cece/e-clips_involving_families.html
It encourages you to think about:
How do we build trusting relationships with families?
What do we currently do to keep families informed
about what their children are learning in the
classroom? What other strategies might we try?
How can we encourage families to get involved in
classroom or program activities?
What strategies can we use to extend classroom
learning to the home?
What materials might we share with families to
support learning at home?
6. The Anti-Bias Curriculum
One more great resource in this chapter is The
Anti-Bias Curriculum (Derman-Sparks NAEYC)
mentioned on page 180.
It has just been re-issued with a new title,
Anti-Bias Education for Young Children and
Ourselves. It reflects on attitudes of children
about such topics as homelessness. A
thoughtful reading of the section: “Positive
Relationships with and Among Families would
really help you put many of the ideas in this
course into practice.” (The 1989 version of the
Book is in the HCC library)
7. Figure 7-11
Look at page 191 in the Chapter for some parent generated
ideas about “reaching out to reticent parents.”
Do you ever do any of these things?
It’s not enough to say that parents “aren’t interested” or are
“too busy” or “leave the teaching to the teachers.” Your
partnership is a critical component of the development of
their child.
8. Also –
Check out the many
web-links that are a
part of this unit!
