Univision Contigo – Clave al Exito – “Key to Success” is media company Univision’s educational online resource designed to help Spanish-speaking parents get involved in their child’s education. The platform serves an access point for helping parents communicate with educators and learn how to help their children read and excel with their studies.

Be a Learning Hero – Another valuable source for vital information and tips for parents on how to stay up to date with all of the growing changes happening in the education system in the United States. With so many new shifts in the current paradigm, it can be tough to navigate so many developments and this website is dedicated to helping parents stay on top of every new change to become more effectively involved in schooling.

The ENLACE Initiative – A program under management by the Intercultural Development Research Association (IDRA), the ENLACE initiative was created with the sole purpose of helping Hispanic families find the resources they need in order for children to complete high school and pursue college. It serves students in grades K-12 as well as students enrolled in college and universities both public and private.

Lectura Books – Publishes bilingual books to meet the language needs of Spanish speaking parents and their children.

Family Phonics – A program to use with parents who need to learn basic phonics and phonemic awareness, so that they can help their children with English phonics.

Family Stories Curriculum – published by The Latino Family Literacy Project. Requires staff development for effective implementation of a Parent Involvement and family reading program.

The post Parental Engagement Resources for Hispanic Parents appeared first on The Latino Family Literacy Project.

The avenues of communication between teachers and parents are paramount in the successful academic outcomes of a child. Without a healthy back and forth of ideas between both stakeholders, the child could potentially fall through the proverbial cracks where their learning is concerned. Teachers are tasked with educating students during the school day and when children return home it’s the parent that must continue the encouragement of that education by helping them complete their lessons. When it comes to English Language Learners, teachers are often tasked with assisting parents in being a part of the educational process in the home.

This interaction between teacher and parent can proceed in a number of ways and cultural background often plays a role in the successful achievement of that interaction. Teachers who display positive and encouraging personalities are intent on sharing their excitement of the child’s accomplishments in the classroom, in a bid to inform and inspire the parent to get deeply involved in the educational process. However, studies have shown a proclivity for minority parents not to engage in school activities and these parent-teacher relationships are less positive than with those involving Caucasian families.

There are a variety of factors at play here, lower motivations and values placed on education and some of that sentiment may extend to the parents’ own experiences with schooling when they were children. These deep-seated attitudes can form strong barriers to parental engagement in the child’s education. Good personality can certainly be a helpful component in trying to bring the parent into the fold, while providing an inviting atmosphere and multiple methods for opening up the classroom to parents are also crucial to higher success rates in children. But teachers must also be cognizant of the potential for personality clashes that could emerge with one or both parents of a student.

Certain ethnic backgrounds have strong rules and mores that concern education and no matter how much a teacher tries to break through what is perceived as a barrier on his or her end, they may only be doing more harm than good when the parents don’t see that same barrier. In some Hispanic cultures, parents view the teacher as the top authority when it comes to the education of the child. Their lack of involvement isn’t born from disinterest but out of a belief that their opinion on the subject holds less weight than that of the educator. Teachers who press the issue of trying to teach the parents to be more involved in the child’s schooling could risk their actions being misinterpreted in a negative fashion and this could lead to a clash of personality between the two parties. Unfortunately, it’s the child who suffers most in that instance and teachers must be well-versed in the potential pitfalls that exist with parents of ELL’s and adjust their own personalities accordingly when trying to teach parents how to be more involved in their child’s learning.

If you or anyone you know is interested in implementing a parent involvement program please visit The Latino Family Literacy Project. This company understands the importance for parent involvement and has developed an award-winning program for teachers to provide to parents at their schools. If you would like to find out more information they also offer online Webinar training and in person workshops.

The post Building Positive ELL Parent – Teacher Relationships appeared first on The Latino Family Literacy Project.

A school is only as good as the people who study there, work there, and become part of the school’s daily life. These are the students, teachers, and parents who are the lifeblood of any school.

Part of what keeps a school functioning well year after year is the legacy that it is building and has built.
So, the question becomes: how do you build a lasting legacy at your school or for your whole school district?

First, what is a legacy? [leg–uh-see]

A legacy can be anything handed down from the past, as from an ancestor or a predecessor.

For us, this is the meaning of legacy. It’s something handed down from generation to generation. Imagine it to be similar to a torch that’s passed from teacher to student, from parent to child, from one class to another. On a day-to-day basis, that means creating a community of people who build a school of value, a school that stands for excellence in education for everyone, and pride in the ongoing good result of its daily efforts.

One of the most important ways to create a legacy for your school is to make sure that parents are involved in the life of your school.

Creating a parent involvement program with the intent to create a legacy, particularly with the expectation of parents handing down the continued ritual of reading and learning with their children, might seem daunting, especially if parents at your school may not be engaged currently in a culture of literacy at home.

Fortunately, there are tools and programs that can help you build that legacy. Here at The Latino Family Literacy Project, we have researched, organized, and created the most meaningful programs for Parent Involvement with Spanish-speaking parents. Our programs have a proven track record of success for almost 20 years in more than 20 states.

The parents, who attend our programs, speak with pride about their children’s school. This is because parents are brought into the school’s information loop. Parents are trained to read with their children and learn how to be their children’s Language Arts teacher at home.

The children, whose parents attend our programs, speak with pride about their parents’ participation at their school. In addition, they benefit greatly from their parents attending programs and learning new skills.

These good feelings and practices will help to create a strong legacy of reading and participation with the next generation, and good experiences in your school community. When you look back, you can say that in 2016 you took the steps to help build a strong legacy for your school.

The Latino Family Literacy Project provides proven, cost-effective parent involvement programs and training for teachers to provide meaningful programs for English Learners. The literacy programs and training workshops are designed to establish family reading routines for Spanish- and English-speaking parents and their children at your school site. The Project introduces the teachers to a language acquisition method and a step- by-step literacy instruction process. It involves family reading for Hispanic parent involvement, vocabulary development, and English-language development for parents and their children. Please contact our office to receive a free information kit with book samples to review at your leisure. Click to Request Information.

The post Build a Legacy at your School with Parent Involvement appeared first on The Latino Family Literacy Project.