Date:

Time:
Lesson Title:
Background

Goals of the
lesson:

Tuesday, October 13th & Thursday, October 20th

6:00 PM - 8:00 PM
Parents as Active Agents in Academic Achievement
Numerous studies demonstrate that effective parental involvement can
support and enhance childrens learning, mastery of skills, and their
academic development. Further, parental involvement causes a
significant contribution to establishing the childrens sense of efficacy
for performing well in school. There is no doubt that parental
involvement will have direct positive influences on students academic
achievement.
1. Provide opportunity for parents to discuss different concerns
about parental engagement.
2. Parents will learn multiple ways to engage in childrens
education in order to promote childrens self-efficacy.
6:00 pm - 6:50 pm
1. School counselor will give a brief introduction of themselves
and the goal of this lesson. The conversation will start by
watching a video entitled A Day in the Life of a Middle
Schooler together once through in the focus group room.
Here is the video link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=PcvLkKp9bME

Procedures:

2. School counselor will invite parent volunteers to talk about what

feelings they are experiencing after the video (i.e. what surprise
them, what they are concerned about, etc.). The school counselor
will then provide prompts to engage the parents thinking and to
assist them in considering different concerns in relation to
parental engagement. This will foster open communication,
conversation, and support among parents.
6:50 pm -7:00 pm
3. School counselors will allow parents can take a bathroom break
and they can stop by childcare room.
7:00 pm -7:40 pm
4. Begin with talking about the significance and positive influences
of parental involvement in childrens education. Introduce four
basic ways that the parents can help children succeed in school:
the operation of personal experiences, vicarious learning
experiences, utilizing verbal persuasion, and strengthening
emotional arousal. (Hoover-Dempsey & Sander, 1995).
5. Operation of personal experience (Hoover-Dempsey & Sander,

1995) means parents can reinforce childrens success in school

by:
a. Providing children instructions (either direct or indirect)
when parents are reviewing childrens school-work, and then
by offering praises for their performance.
b. Affirm childrens school performance by reinforcing the
positive value of participating in the developing the learning
skills that are taught in class and that enable academic
success.
6. Parents can offer vicarious learning experiences that contribute
to childrens development of a personal sense for succeeding in
school by demonstrating their school-related skills and interest
about childrens school work (Hoover-Dempsey & Sander,
1995) :
a. Spending time to discuss the school day or a specific
assignment.
b. Spending time with the teachers to talk about childrens work
and behaviors in school.
c. Talking with the school counselor about childrens abnormal
behaviors and discussing solutions together when it is necessary.
7.

Parents can also offer children verbal persuasion by various

means:
a. Encouraging children to provide more effective effort and
never giving up when facing challenges. This will lead to the
development of the students persistence on personal
challenging tasks.
b. Develop and explain limits and boundaries that encourage
effective schoolwork (Hoover-Dempsey & Sander, 1995)
c. Explain the importance of succeeding in school

8. Parents can contribute to the emotional arousal of their students

in order to develop childrens sense of efficacy (HooverDempsey & Sander, 1995):
a. Set up their own expectation for the childrens achievement
of specific standards of behavioral or task performance
b. Reinforce the ideas that the childs effort and achievement
are significant to the parent as well as the children
c. Explain to the children that they care about their academic
performance and social and personal behaviors in school.

Closure:

7:40 pm - 7:45 pm
1. Parents who are actively involved and engaged in their
childrens education will be more likely to assist children to
develop a strong and positive sense of self-efficacy for achieving
school tasks successfully (Hoover-Dempsey & Sander, 1995).

Checking for
understanding:

Parents have multidimensional approaches to increase involvement:

a. create or reinforce direct experiences of educational success
b. offer vicarious learning experiences of educational success,
c. offer verbal persuasion intended to develop attitudes, behaviors,
and effort consistent with school success
d. create emotional arousal that underscores the personal
importance of doing well in school
2. School counselors will give parents handouts about future
lessons before they leave for the night (next lesson topic: school
belongingness of students)
7:45 pm 8:00 pm
School counselors will give parents opportunities to ask further
questions about this lesson, share other opinions with one another that
they didnt get a chance to do so beforehand, and then collect their
children from the childcare room.

Reference:
Hoover-Dempsey, K., & Sander, H. (1995). Parental involvement in children's education: Why
does it make a difference. The Teachers College Record,97(2), 310-331.