Creating Welcoming Schools: A Practical Guide to Home-School Partners with Diverse Families / Edition 1

by JoBeth Allen, Concha Delgado-Gaitan

Overview

This engaging and rich resource details how schools and diverse families throughout the country have formed partnerships that support and enhance student learning. It is designed for teachers who care deeply about students and welcome diverse families as partners; for parents who want to be active partners in educating their children; and for administrators in diverse schools or districts who know there is no quick fix for building lasting partnerships among families, schools, and the community. Going far beyond traditional “parent involvement programs,” this essential volume:

• Offers exciting ways teachers and parents together can explore their rich and diverse cultural perspectives through social justice education;.
• Shows how to establish and sustain genuine dialogue at school conferences, open houses, and through classroom projects such as home–school journals.
• Suggests ways families, schools, and communities can collaborate for democratic schools and a more democratic society.
• Includes “Action Opportunities” throughout for readers to actively engage with the ideas and make them their own.
• Links these partnerships with research demonstrating that building respectful and trusting relationships leads to increased student achievement.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780807747896
Publisher:	Teachers College Press
Publication date:	05/19/2007
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	192
Product dimensions:	6.12(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.48(d)

About the Author

JoBeth Allen is a professor of Language and Literacy Education at the University of Georgia.

Table of Contents

Foreword   Concha Delgado-Gaitan     ix
Acknowledgments     xi
Introduction: Welcoming All Families     1
If You Are Reading This Book     2
Examining Family-School Relationships     3
Family-School Partnerships That Make a Difference     6
Reading This Book Together     9
Exploring Memories of School     11
A School Story     12
Exploring School Stories Together     14
Considering Cultural Differences     17
Using the Past to Understand the Present     20
Writing Cultural Memoirs     23
Reading Cultural Memoirs     25
Gathering Photographs     26
Talking About Cultural Influences     27
Writing and Sharing Cultural Memoirs     29
Variations on Cultural Memoir     31
Reflecting on Our Cultural Influences     35
Learning With and From Families     39
Culturally Relevant Teaching     41
Family Funds of Knowledge     42
Developing Photography and Other Avenues to Learning with Families     52
Photographs of Local Knowledge Sources (PhOLKS)     53
Valuing Family Differences     56
Learningfrom Other Cultural Informants     58
Solo Snapshots: Learning One Child, One Family, One Teacher at a Time     60
Engaging in Genuine Dialogue     65
Creating and Sustaining Dialogue     66
Creating Opportunities for Dialogue     71
Damaging or Destroying Dialogue     74
Learning Through Dialogue     79
Inviting Dialogue at the Conference Table     82
Parent and Teacher Conferences-Ghosts at the Table     83
Let the Learner Lead Parent-Teacher-Student Conferences     86
Let Evidence Support Dialogue     87
Creating Dialogue Throughout the Year     93
Open House: What Do Our Words Say?     94
School-Based Family Involvement Projects     96
Dialogue About Student Learning     101
Cultural Understanding, Cross-Cultural Dialogue     103
Engaging Families     106
"Tell Me About Your Child"     107
Home Reading Journals     108
Oral and Written Family Stories     112
Learning Albums for Family, Child, and Teacher Reflections     113
Literacy Conversations at Parent Meetings     114
Engaging Families in Classroom Projects     116
Writing Your Heritage      117
Creating Family Keepsakes     120
Authors in the Classroom     122
Collaborating for a More Just Society     125
Collaborating for Democratic Schools     127
Collaborating for a Democratic Society     131
From Cities to Single Classrooms     134
Advocating and Teaching Together     139
Parent Partnerships     140
Parent-School-Community Partnerships     143
Focused Partnerships-Math and Special Learning Needs     148
Transforming Schools Through "True Partnerships"     151
Transforming Schools for Student Achievement     152
Transforming Schools Through Culturally Grounded Partnerships     155
A School That Became a Family     160
Creating Welcoming Schools-How Will You?     161
Additional Resources for Families and Educators     163
References     167
Index     173
About the Author     180

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

“Allen’s uniqueness is in the integrity with which she walks us into everyday settings where diversity thrives.”
—From the Foreword by Concha Delgado-Gaitan, author of The Power of Community and Involving Latino Families in the Schools

“After reading this book, teachers and administrators will understand why they must seek more genuine home-school partnerships, and they will know how to get started. This is a wonderful book and one that should make a difference in the learning lives of children.”
—Jeanne Paratore, Boston University

Editorial Reviews

Highly recommended.”

—The Midwest Book Review

“A comprehensive resource that shows how diverse families and the schools that their children attend can form partnerships that enhance student learning. It goes far and above the call of duty.”

—The Bookwatch

From the Publisher