“When Parents are Engaged, the Schools Get Better!”

This article, written by CABE CEO Maria S. Quezada, offers insight on the successful outreach methods that the organization has implemented. I was surprised when the article states, “The program also has provided over 150,000 pieces of informational brochures and handouts yearly and reached over 3,000,000 parents and others through radio and television programs where staff shared their expertise to program audiences locally, nationally and internationally.”

Radio and television programs are a great way to reach parents with busy schedules in a non-intrusive way. For immigrant parents that are skeptical or simply unable to come into their child’s school as volunteers or to get involved in other ways, this kind of outreach easily brings important information to them. Clearly, this has been a successful outreach strategy with over 3,000,000 parents tuning in.

http://blog.latism.org/2011/12/12-15-latism-twitter-party-boosting-latino-parents-involvement-in-education/

I think it is extremely important to pinpoint how and why parents should get involved, as well as the possible range of involvement. As the article states, “Parents [can] simply visit the school, help out at the school regularly, speaking with teachers, principal, and other parents, and/or simply sitting down when the child comes home to discuss what the child learned or did that day in class.” By consistently encouraging these simple involvement strategies through radio and television programs, parents can decide which methods work best for them and their children.

The Michigan Department of Education similarly compiled research on the positive impact of parent involvement, as well as simple ways for parents to guide their children toward academic success.

NCPIE

I recently came across another organization with a similar mission as CABE. The National Coalition for Parent Involvement in Education, founded in 1980,  works specifically to build meaningful relationship among parents and schools around the country. Their mission is:

“To advocate the involvement of parents and families in their children’s education, and to foster relationships between home, school, and community to enhance the education of all our nation’s young people” (NCPIE).

NCPIE clearly outlines the benefits of parent involvement and strong family-school relationships  on the website, which reads as follows:

• “Students do better in school and in life.
• Parents become empowered.
• Teacher morale improves.
• Schools get better.
• Communities grow stronger”  (NCPIE).

Similar to CABE, NCPIE offers outreach and resources to parents through conferences and workshops. This organization has similar aims to better inform parents of the No Child Left Behind Act, to teach parents successful strategies to better support their children throughout their educational journeys, and expose them to available resources to accomplish these goals. NCPIE does not focus specifically on bilingual children and parents as CABE does. This organization does, however, offer outreach to parents with children with disabilities.

National Parent Involvement Day is another initiative seeking to break down any barriers that may exist between parents and schools. As this news report explains, simply the presence of parents or loved ones in the classroom offers immeasurable benefits for children. CABE could start to promote these sort of parent involvement days in which parents are directly invited to come help out in the classroom. If at any point immigrant parents are able to come into the classroom, whether just for a lunch period or for an entire day, I think it will begin to establish a level of comfort and a more vested interest will be taken in the child’s work at home.

Sources:

NCPIE

What is a CABE Conference?

CABE conferences offer a space for students, educators, parents and the community to come together and attend informational workshops and discuss the issue of bilingualism throughout the state.

This video offers extended information on the CABE Conference of 2010 in San Jose. These conferences, as the video explains, are among the leading conferences for educators and parents of English Learners and are held annually.

Oscar Medina, President of the Board of CABE, explains the importance of offering rewards to exceptional individuals “…in order to recognize and celebrate the many achievements that the members of our community across this great state bring to education and to the lives of children” (California Scenes, 2010).

Celebrating the commitment of parents through these conferences and recognitions is a great way to encourage involvement. The issue remains of how to gain access to these parents to get involved, let alone attend these conferences since it costs hundreds of dollars to attend.

 

 

Resources:

California Scenes. “CABE Convention in San Jose.” YouTube. YouTube, 11 Mar. 2010. Web. 16 Apr. 2012. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L1IcOvnkbSM&gt;.

Network, Network, Network

Strong networks provide extremely helpful and important resources to every individual. Establishing a network, whether through social media or personal interactions and meetings, can be very beneficial in an  endless number of situations. This is especially true for immigrants who leave the comfort and security of their families and native culture and are faced with unfamiliar situations- language barriers, not being accustomed to social norms, looking to establish themselves, find a job and a good school for their children etc. Studies show that immigrants arriving to the United States, and elsewhere, tend to end up settling in culturally diverse cities (Gimpel, 1999).

http://fuelingnewbusiness.com/2010/09/24/the-top12-list-of-advertising-agency-networks-for-new-business/

Immigrants of the same ethnic group often end up in clusters within a given region, probably as a coping mechanism so as to avoid major culture shock. Once settled in these areas, immigrants are able to reestablish themselves and begin networking within the community.

It is also extremely important for campaigns and organizations to have a solid, vast network in order to be effective and make a significant impact. The CABE network can be represented through a VUE map as seen below (clicking on the image will enlarge it). This is a preliminary network representation based on my own research and will probably evolve as I learn more about the CABE organization.

Sources:

Gimpel, James. “Migration, Immigration and the Politics of Places | Center for Immigration Studies.” Center for Immigration Studies. Oct. 1999. Web. 06 Apr. 2012. <http://www.cis.org/InternalMigration-GeographicMobility&gt;.

The Impact of Home Learning

I came across a few articles this week that stressed the importance of home learning in terms of speaking vs. writing. While children are often able to quickly pick up a first and/or second language simply through hearing it spoken at home, writing takes a more patient and invested approach. In other words, children are able to pick up on spoken language simply by hearing their parents speak in the house even if there is NO formal instruction by the parents. Reading and writing, on the other hand, requires practice and skills that must be taught to children. There are many parents who are unable to take a vested interest in the education of their children for a variety of reasons which may be no fault of their own. I have seen this at the high school level when working with ELLs on their written essays. The level of writing proficiency is often unbelievably low.  However, when I asked a student what message he or she is trying to convey, they were able to speak to me and talk through it with some guidance. Sometimes getting their thoughts on paper in a cohesive manner is the only problem. Many of the students at my internship weren’t taught this skill at home and were just learning how to write a paper for the first time.

Writing is an extremely important aspect of language proficiency, especially for ELLs. It allows for a timely development of thoughts and expression of language appropriate for learners of a new language. Once ELLs have learned to write, they are allowed to carefully think about and choose their words to develop ideas and effectively reiterate experiences in written form. Expressing thoughts and emotions in written form can also, in my experience, be therapeutic which is helpful to many ELLs when they are uprooted from their home country and placed in an unfamiliar setting.

One article I came across stated, “Students write about their lives when provided an opportunity” (McCarthey, 104). I think this is very true, even thinking back to my years in elementary school. I always enjoyed writing stories about my life and my family and things that I had done that week etc. This is why journals can be a great way to engage ELLs in practicing their writing skills. Journals can be collected, with the student’s permission, and read and commented on for feedback and/or simply to show interest in the student’s life and experiences.

http://teachingpractice.edublogs.org/2011/12/04/movie-critique-3-freedom-writers-reflection-task/

Just like in the movie Freedom Writers, the teacher requires that the students (many of whom are minority students) write in a journal about anything they want. She tells them to leave their journals in her classroom if they want them to be read. In the end, every student wanted to be heard.

 

 

Sources:

McCarthey, Sarah J. “Risks and Opportunities of Writing from Personal Experience.” Web. 3 Apr. 2012.