Parental Involvement

The Teachers in my school have enormous challenges to face regarding many issues, one of which is parent participation. Parent participation has been steadily decreasing at this school. In 2005 and 2006 about 40% of parents filled out the "salt” survey questionnaire compared to only 25% in 2007 and 2008; this percentage is greatly below the average of all Rhode Island's elementary schools, which has consistently stayed at about 55%. Only 9% of parents attended a school workshop in 2008. And only 60% of parents are said to be involved in their children's learning.
Teachers at this school are quite dissatisfied with parental involvement as shown on the “Teacher Satisfaction Rating Scale,” (According to teachers, only 17% of parents are supportive of the school and its programs.) but teachers are not doing anything about it. When teachers filled out the salt survey in 2008 on "Parental Contact," the report showed that teachers are doing even less to contact parents today, compared to 2005 and 2006, and 70% of parents who filled out the "salt” survey said that the school has involved them less this year, than they did last year.
Many questions need to be asked to regarding these issues one question is; why are parents not involved? Many parents must be struggling financially if 93% of children are eligible for free or subsidized lunch programs at the school, and many parents must not speak English if 43% of the students are English as a second language learners. There are many things to take into account as to why parents are not involved.
If I were a teacher in the school I would struggle just like all of the other teachers are at getting parents involved, but I would try my hardest to change this. One thing I would do to hopefully increase parental involvement is; start the year off right in September with a "Meet your Teacher’s Night."
Parents would come to school in the evening with their children (so no babysitters are required) and do an activity or two to get to know other parents, students, and the teacher. Then students will go to the gym (ex.) together and play tag or watch a movie, while parents learn valuable information about the year, what their children will be learning, what parents need to know, and how parents can get involved.
To make this event even more accommodating, have refreshments or do a fundraiser trying to have a free dinner afterwards for all families. Ask a parent who is bilingual if they would be willing to translate what is being said, to parents who do not speak English, and if no parents are willing, try to find someone who is (a teacher, a friend, etc.). Also have the same paperwork to give to parents who need it, in languages other than English.
To get parents to come to this event the teacher should personally call each and every parent and let them know about it. (Parents are very busy, papers go home, and parents don't pay much attention to them or sometimes they get lost on the bus by the student, and never end up coming home). Make this a night to remember, even though it is very time-consuming and hard work for the teacher, in the end your hard work may really pay off. Remember that it's a one-time a year event (you can do more in the future once you have a rhythm to the "beginning event") and first impressions can really make all the difference. If parents hear the teachers say why they need parents to be involved, how important it is, and how much fun it can be, parents might really be motivated to do more, because pretty much all parents want the best for their child! Parental involvement can really help children to succeed on various levels!

*all information was taken from the "SALT" survey from: infoworks.com

Student Involvement

I have found that thanks to all of the required testing and standards, that there is no time for real student involvement, questioning, and problem posing in my school. Teachers don't have the time for student connection (being open to the needs of students) or as Ira Shor would say teachers are not practicing "Unilateral Authority." Students are participating, by answering basic questions when called on, but students do not have the chance to interact with other students, they do not have the chance to question, and they do not have the chance to experiment. I am finding that students don't have the chance to express themselves, and all the classroom activities I have seen, have been totally teacher directed, except for the reading buddies program.

As a reading buddy, I have found that students are getting more time to "show what they know" and this can potentially be a fabulous way to get students involved in problem posing situations (where students are able to question, discuss, and solve problems).

One of the games I played with the students in the first few weeks of the program, was where Students took a dice and rolled a number, the number they rolled corresponded to 1 of 6 words that were on a piece of paper and the students had to say the word that went with their number, make a sentence that included that word, and then rewrite the word on top of the other word. We took turns and kept doing this until one of the words was rolled four times and reached the top. At the very end we all made a sentence with that word. The kids had a lot of fun, and enjoyed this activity.

But as the program has progressed throughout the semester, it has become more and more teacher directed. Each week now, I must spend the first 15 minutes doing a repetitive sound activity (which don't get me wrong, I think it is important to some degree, but before reading buddies, the teacher was just doing the same repetitive activities for 30 minutes with all the students). I have about 10 words that I practice repeating the sounds to (ex. /R/, /A/, /T/) for 15 minutes, then I spend the last 10 minutes doing an activity with the students that gets them involved, but it seems that we just get started and into it, and it's time to go.

Just yesterday, the teacher in my first grade class was very, very frustrated about reading buddies. She told me that the reading buddies program was taking valuable time away from her teaching, and her students were not getting equal opportunity with the her. She said "Children who are below grade level, and are at the lower level of the spectrum are getting small-group time with me, but the children performing at or above grade level are not. Usually the children who perform at or above grade level get one, 30 minute group period with me each week (which is not enough), but for the past two weeks now, I have had to tell very disappointed students that I had to help another group this week, because the literacy coach told me I needed to be spending more time with the lower-level students. It is not fair!”

The teacher also showed me some student exam scores for literacy that she did the first two weeks of the semester, and is now repeating the exact same exams to see how the students are doing two months later. She has completed half of the class (about 12 students), and five students scored significantly lower on the most recent exam given compared to the exam given the first week of class. For example, one child received a 9/10 for "word sounds" on the exam given the first week of class, and just last week the same activity was given to this child and they received a 2/10. The teacher is extremely frustrated, and feels as though she has not been able to be a successful teacher this year, because she is teaching other teachers students and other teachers have her students all the time (no time for teacher-student bonding, and connection).

It is too bad that once something is put into place at this school, every classroom teacher, whether it is successful or not successful in helping the students succeed, must abide by the same rules and do the same activities. Another thing the teacher told me was that she does think the reading buddies program can do good(so do I), but it's not doing good now. She said that last year, when tutors came in and took a small group of students outside the class the kids had more fun, learned more, and in the end were a lot more successful!