Shirley mentions an important point - connecting with parents at their development as well. When I was teaching spec ed I had a parent who wanted to work with his child on her spelling, but he could not read her homework. His reading skills were below hers; she was in grade 2.5 when she joined me, functioning at about a 1.0-1.5. Long story short, I tape recorded the activities - not just instructions, but as if I were there - and the two of them worked together to help each other. This would be alot to do 1:1 for many, but with technology one could burn cd's and perhaps find a way to negotiate a donation of cd players to the school if needed. This way 'lists of tips' becomes a different form of mediation that takes the pressure off the parent to be the 'knower'. I'd include personal things as well, the odd joke, etc to facilitate the relationship and to keep interest. Ultimately, for the family I worked with, the tape also became a way to send information back and forth to me: feedback on activity, updates on the homefront, etc.
Another program that might be successful with parents is bringing them into the school and instructing them, briefly, and then having them participate with their children at the school. However, this requires that parents be available to come into the school and that child care for other children be available.
~ Emily
---- Shirley Franklin <s.franklin@dsl.pipex.com> wrote:
> In the UK we have multilingual classrooms, so finding our about home
> literacy practices would take forever.
>
> I really do think that parents need to know how they can help to
> access their kids into the dominant literacy required for learning in
> school. It is their right to know, it is the right of their kids to
> have the means for learning - ie the development of academic literacy.
>
> So the question is how, what do we say to them, especially if they dont
> have it themselves.
>
> Schools need to hold a meeting, or even weekly/monthly support
> meetings. I suppose you can explore home literacy practices there, but
> is would also be important to encourage home lit support -
> ie the kids reading their school books to the parents and talking about
> what they are/have read,
> 'reading' the illustrations,
> reading the 'teletext ' of what they watch on tv,
> looking at football (or whatever) results - they usualy recognise their
> team names,
> etc, etc.
>
> I am sure other people have got loads of ideas. I would love to see
> them as I am writing a booklet for teachers and parents in response to
> the horrible focus on phonics that is dominating education back her in
> the UK.
>
> Shirley
>
> On 27 Sep 2006, at 23:04, Cristine Carrier wrote:
>
> > I have to agree with Carol McDonald's comments.
> >
> > First, and most obvious, if the parents have low literacy rates, then
> > how useful is a printed tip list, which I assume is what is mean by
> > "mass distribution" ? If not printed, how will the information be
> > distributed and accessed?
> >
> > Second, anytime a "tip list" is being used to address longstanding
> > cultural, educational, religious and/or class differences among groups
> > of people, you're in a bit of hot water. I encounter the same thing in
> > my field, when occupational and phyiscal therapists frequently request
> > some kind of checklist or tip list to make them better at "cultural
> > competence." Thinking this kind of issue can be solved by a checklist
> > demonstrates a deep misunderstanding in my field as to what cultural
> > competence is in the first place.
> >
> > I don't know what kind of resources you have at your disposal, but as
> > I'm sure we would all agree, in an ideal world it would be nice to
> > actually do some participant observation and interviewing, as a
> > foundation for a needs assessment to get at some of the key issues
> > here, like :
> > 1) what skills/qualities/abilities do these parents think is important
> > for their children to make a place for themselves in the world (if
> > formal education isn't one of them, you'll have a tough sell here)
> > 2) what are their views of the meaning, purpose and utility of
> > education
> > 3) what are they currently doing, able to do, and/or not doing or not
> > able to do to support their children's schooling
> >
> > In the case that you have no resources at your disposal at this time,
> > then information from organizations like the previously recommended
> > international reading association are probably your best bet.
> >
> > Hope this is helpful in some way, and not just a sad reiteration of
> > what we'd all like to do vs. are able to do.
> >
> > Cristine Carrier, MA OTR/L
> > Ph.D. Student in Occupational Science
> > University of Southern California
> >
> >
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: Carol Macdonald <carolmacdon@gmail.com>
> > Date: Wednesday, September 27, 2006 10:10 am
> > Subject: Re: [xmca] Help needed from XMCArs
> > To: "eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity" <xmca@weber.ucsd.edu>
> >
> >> David, we need a bit more information in order to help you. What
> >> kind of
> >> communities are you talking about: anglo-working class; immigrant L2
> >> speakers; alienated subcultures? My first response is that giving
> >> parentsinformation can result in no action whatsoever, because
> >> there may be a clash
> >> of values, down to the fact that there is not a library at the
> >> school or
> >> nearby in the community, whether books speak into their situation
> >> and so
> >> on. If I am borig the group, please feel free to write to me
> >> individually.But other folk may want to pick this up.
> >> Carol
> >>
> >>
> >> On 9/27/06, David Preiss <davidpreiss@uc.cl> wrote:
> >>>
> >>> Dear colleagues,
> >>>
> >>> I need to develop a number of tips for parents from students which
> >>> come from environments possessing low rates of literacy and
> >> numeracy.> The goal of these tips is to provide the parents of
> >> these kids with
> >>> strategies that help to advance the schooling of their kids. These
> >>> tips will be distributed in a massive manner by an official
> >> entity. I
> >>> wonder whether there exist some research on how to elaborate these
> >>> tips, which is the best way to communicate them and what kind of
> >> tips> are indeed effective and have some sociocognitive positive
> >> consequences.>
> >>> Your wisdom is needed and your sharing it will be welcomed.
> >>>
> >>> David
> >>>
> >>> _______________________________________________
> >>> xmca mailing list
> >>> xmca@weber.ucsd.edu
> >>> http://dss.ucsd.edu/mailman/listinfo/xmca
> >>>
> >> _______________________________________________
> >> xmca mailing list
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> >>
> > _______________________________________________
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> >
> >
> Shirley Franklin
> 5 Hartham Close,
> Hartham Road,
> London,
> N7 9JH
> Tel: 020 7700 4975
> Mob: 07958 745802
>
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