Amatea (2013) suggests that socioeconomic status, cultural group membership, and family structure do not determine a child’s academic success or failure. Instead, it is family engagement that is essen

Week 1 Discussion 1 Family Support

Amatea (2013) suggests that socioeconomic status, cultural group membership, and family structure do not determine a child’s academic success or failure. Instead, it is family engagement that is essential for learning and development (p.7-8). Review the Parental Involvement Report Card (Links to an external site.) quiz to help you obtain the perspective of a parent. Using one source, in addition to the text, list 3 different ways you will implement year-long family involvement in your classroom. Explain how these 3 ideas will encourage parent consistency in regards to involvement. Respond to at least two of your classmates’ postings.

Instructor Guidance

Week 1

Welcome to week 1 of our course. In this course we are considering the variety of ways in which schools collaborate with the family of the student in attendance. If we think about our experience we may remember that our schools contacted our parents with report cards and, perhaps, when we misbehaved. Otherwise, there may not have been a lot of interaction. In this first week, our learning outcomes ask us to summarize the impact that families have on the children’s academic success, to analyze the collaboration between school and family, and to begin developing a plan to solve an issue using a collaborative approach.
If you are wondering whether or not families can, should, and do have an impact on student performance at school, please read chapter 1 of the textbook. The author (Amatea, 2013) makes it clear that collaboration is not just something to be desired, but it is a need. The author goes on in chapter 2 to present three different paradigms, or frameworks, of how schools and families interact. She discusses a paradigm of separation, one of remediation, and one of collaboration. We will discuss these paradigms in week one.
In looking at the first discussion for this week, we are considering the level of the family’s impact on student performance. If you stop and think about that, you would come to the conclusion that learning is social. That is to say, learning occurs when we interact with others. The interaction that we have with our family, and the total interaction of the family with the school, both lead to improvement. The author (Amatea, 2013) of the textbook suggests that family engagement is essential for learning. Please be sure to read chapter 1 carefully as it will provide a lot of support to your own ideas of how family support is important.
In the second discussion for this week, you are asked to consider table 2.1 the text. This table shows us, first, a more traditional approach to certain issues in school and a more collaborative approach. Take some time to review and consider the differences in the two columns of the table. Then, identify a situation at school that can be better addressed by a collaborative approach.
For the written assignment this week, please review the reflective exercise 2.5 in the text (Amatea, 2013). There are descriptions of three different teachers that you will see. Pick one to whom you would wish to respond. In the first part of your paper you will respond as if you were a parent of a student in that class. You are asked to summarize what you hope to see from the teacher. In the second part of the paper, you are to write as if you were the principal of the teacher and describe the bullet points listed. You should provide suggestions for positive change, provide a list of resources for the teacher, and identify ways you will support the teacher as principal. For this paper, be sure that you use and cite the appropriate number of scholarly resources to support your ideas.

References

Amatea, E. S. (2013). Building culturally responsive family-school relationships (2nd ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc.

Readings

1. Read from your text, Building culturally responsive family-school relationships: 

   • Chapter 1: Connecting with Families: A Nice or Necessary Practice?

   • Chapter 2: From Separation to Collaboration: The Changing Paradigms of Family-School Relations
      

2.  The parental involvement report card. (Links to an external site.) (2008). Project Appleseed. Retrieved from https://www.projectappleseed.org/reportcard

   • • The questions are intended to help parents rate their contributions to their child's success at school. Research indicates that students are more successful when parents are involved in their child's education. Use these 30 questions as a guide to discover some of the ways that you can help you’re your parents help their children at home and at school.