Family Communication and Student Success

7.1.4c Communication with families

There has been much research revolving around the topic of family engagement in a student’s education leading to higher performance levels of the student. For some families this may be obvious but for other families it may not be as apparent. Math can be a scary topic for families who may feel that it is not their strongest subject or have an aversion to mathematical content. Because of this, they will avoid trying to engage with their student regarding their math class and family engagement will be absent. For those families I will need to provide tools and resources to aid their involvement.

In order to engage families in their students’ schooling, I will send a letter home at the beginning of both semesters. A “First Semester Letter” is shown below. Included in this letter is a semester overview of the Algebra 2 content, student expectations for my class, how parents can engage with their students and my contact information. My “Second Semester Letter” will follow a similar format and will include an update on how the class is going, second semester content areas, I will ask for parent feedback through a short survey, and I will provide updated contact information. I will also provide more ways that parents can get involved in their students’ education.

School is not only a place to focus on academics but it is a place for students to grow socially, explore themselves emotionally, and learn how to be functioning members of society. Families are not with their students for the thirty-three hours a week that students are at school and if teacher/family communication is lacking then families may know very little about what is going on in their student’s lives because teenagers often despise talking to their parents/guardians. Family communication is important so that families are aware of how their student is doing not only academically but also socially and emotionally. Therefore frequent family communication and engagement is imperative to the success of all students.

Letter to Families

Family Involvement in Moral Education

H4 – Honor family/community involvement in the learning process.

Values and citizenship are ideas that are often “caught not taught”. This means that through observation, practice and reinforcement of good behavior, students are formed into successful members of society. This is where families and the community come into play. These entities are the examples that students need in order to be able to mimic and learn good practices from. Kirk’s article addresses just that by mentioning that “the recovery of virtue in America depends in great part upon the reinvigoration of family” (1987). The venn diagram below shows how all pieces of a child’s life, family, school and community, contribute to the student’s success. Family involvement in student’s education takes different forms in different families. Some parents can help their child with their homework, no matter the subject, while other families cannot. Regardless of the level of academic support families can provide, they can provide morally sound examples of how values and citizenship are just as important in being successful in school. Contributions include academic as well as moral support and modeling.

An effective way to be sure that families are involved in this endeavor of improving the values and behaviors of our students is to address the subject directly. Parents and family members need to be informed that they, as much as the educator, is responsible for setting a good example. During a “back to school night” or parent meeting at the beginning of the school year, I will discuss the yearly academic goals and go over the content we will be learning. I will tell parents about homework requirements, assessments and other classroom activities their students will do. In addition to this information though, I will talk about classroom expectations and how they can help their students be successful in their behavior. Respect, communication, politeness and strong effort will be the focus. As parents, they can uphold these values at home so that students are constantly surrounded by morally sound people. With the outside influence and ability to observe good values in all aspects of their life, students will be molded into sound citizens and classroom management will be more successful.

Kirk, R. (1987). Can Virtue Be Taught? The Wise Men Know What Wicked Things Are Written in the Sky. Retrieved from https://mountainlightschool.files.wordpress.com/2010/05/sis-session-6-reading-kirk1.pdf