Andrea Overman

Family Involvement Plan

April 12, 2016

Mrs. Raiche is a 3rd grade teacher at Cold Spring Elementary. She works on a committee

consisting of teachers from Cold Spring Elementary and the surrounding schools to come up

with ways to include families into their curriculums. This is done to better the overall experience

for the families and their children while they are attending the area schools. They will develop a

family involvement plan for the following 2016-2017 school year which will include plans for

the upcoming 1st-3rd graders. Some of the areas that the group will discuss include:

communication, volunteering, learning at home and representing other families. For

communication they will discuss things such as open house and family fun night. Volunteering is

something the board will really focus on and will talk a lot about many ways to get parent

volunteers. Learning at home is great but it can be difficult so a plan for that will be discussed.

Having the parents feel represented is important so ways they can be involved such as, inviting

them to join this committee and others or create outside groups to attend with family. The

committee will argue all of these things are very important and qualify to be used in this age

range of 1st-3rd graders for the following reasons: Open house and family fun night is just

fantastic way for children of this age play and get to know one another. The parents are then also

given time to get to know one another and this gives the teachers to get to know their parents

along with the students in a new environment. Volunteering is a great way to get the kids

comfortable with being in the classroom and they think it is so cool to see their parents at school.

Alternative learning or learning at home is something that can be used successfully with this age

group because often times the child will be learning and having fun while they do it which is

very different from the daily learning in the classroom. Family representation is just beneficial
for all age ranges because if the parents are being represented and listened too they will have an

overall better experience with their child.

First off the committee will focus on how to incorporate good communication between

the parents and the teachers. To start off the committee will discuss having open house. Open

houses are very effective according to Santos. He states that this is the perfect way to invite

parents and their children to get a good feel for the classroom environment along with their

teacher for the next year. The committees discussion included just that. They also talked about

how having an open house not only allowed for the family to get a good feel for where their

child would be learning and spending most of their time in the next year but it was also a good

time to figure out what was the best way of keeping in contact throughout the course of the year.

The teacher would have out on the table a sheet for the parents to fill out. The sheet would ask

them things such as where they work, what time is best to get in contact with them, their phone

number, email address and any other contact information needed. There would also be a spot for

them to list what the best way to contact them are and if they preferred things such as phone calls

over text messages or vice versa. There would be yearly calendars for the parents to take home

with all of the future events. Another thing that would be available would be a simple signup

sheet for parents to volunteer in the classroom. The teachers phone number and email address

with office hours will be available on the white board in the classroom but also included on the

front page of the childs planner and on the main information page given to the parents in a

registration folder. Another thing the teacher will have to make note of to all the parents is that

their contact information is on the school website as well. The teachers will have an open door

policy so the parents may contact at any time which will be stressed at open house. Family fun

night will also happen twice a year one time in the fall and one time in the spring which will just
be a bunch of games where the students can play with their friends and just allows for the parents

see the kids in the school and talk to the teacher in more of a casual environment.
Santos, Rosa Milagros, Laurie M. Jeans, and Catherine Corr. "The Developmental Benefits Of Parent-Child Interaction: Perspectives
Of Filipino Mothers Of Children With And Without Disabilities." Journal Of Research In Childhood Education 30.1 (2016): 85-98. Education
Research Complete. Web. 12 Apr. 2016.

Volunteering is one area the committee would like to strengthen in the following year.

Some of the ways the committee would like to get the parents involved are: field trips, reading

groups, math groups, parent demonstrations and help with snack or lunchtime. As talked about

earlier at open house there would be a signup sheet for volunteers. The teacher could then make

phone calls or emails to the parents to get a good idea of what they would like to do and when

they are available. These times would be very flexible so that all types of parents could have this

opportunity if they want it. The teacher will also send out weekly emails to ask for parent

volunteers for the upcoming events. One of the reasons why the committee wants to get families

involved with volunteering is because as stated by Levy, parents have different heritages and

have experience things that could be beneficial to the kids. The committee thinks this would be

very beneficial for the students to understand their classmates a little bit more and would be a

great way to incorporate those parents that are another nationality. Another great reason for

parents to volunteer is it strengthens the children when they see their parents in the classroom

helping out. This also makes the parents feel more engaged and included.
Levy, Sara A. "Parents', Students', And Teachers' Beliefs About Teaching Heritage Histories In Public School History
Classrooms." Journal Of Social Studies Research 40.1 (2016): 5-20. Education Research Complete. Web. 12 Apr. 2016.

Learning at home is something that students and parents both struggle with; this being

said the committee will discuss just that. To benefit both the family and the student the teacher

will provide monthly resource packets. The resource packet will be sent home as a hard copy

with the students at the end of every month so it is ready to use for the next month. Since

everyone is human and one can easily misplace things the packet will be sent out through email
and be posted on the school website for easy access. The packet will entail many different things

to help the student to learn at home. The top of the packet will be a calendar including all the

curriculum that the students will be working on each day. In the packet will be extra worksheets

for the student to do along with activities other than worksheets to make it more fun. To make

things more interesting the activities include family participation which will get the students

super excited. It is important to have a nice variety while learning so some links for online videos

and games are included too. The parents are encouraged to help their students learn at home and

the board thinks that this would be a great way to get this accomplished. According to Hampshire

it is important to get your child in a good homework routine because it helps them form a sense

of independent habits. This is something that the committee would love to see come out of these

resource packets. Along with the child learns how to be independent the parents can also still feel

involved. One way the committee thought would be a good way to promote the resource packets

would be to have a social if the kids brought back their packets completed every month. They

hope to increase participation in a fun and inviting way.

Hampshire, Patricia K., Gretchen D. Butera, and Jack J. Hourcade. "Homework Plans: A Tool For Promoting Independence."Teaching
Exceptional Children 46.6 (2014): 158-168. Education Research Complete. Web. 14 Apr. 2016.

The board has talked about many things throughout their meetings but one other focus

that they will have is how to get the parents involved in making some of the important decisions

on including themselves in the curriculum for their children. One of the ways that the committee

will do this is by simply inviting them to join committees such as this one or the PTA and any

other committees or boards concerning family involvement. One other thing on the more casual

side would be having leadership workshops for the parents to attend. The one thing that the

teacher would have to do is really advertise these events which could be done in the newsletter

and sent out in emails. The workshops would be help in the evening on Thursday nights but
would also be offered on the weekends to accommodate for busy schedules. These programs are

mainly for advocacy and would promote all families to be represented through one another. The

parents are invited to speak out and share how they feel and what they want to see happen in the

current and following years. The board believes in this based on Acars thoughts exactly. Acar

states that educators should always include the parents of the students because they most often

times know what is going to work for their child. The board has strong beliefs in working hand

and hand with the families and they want to make sure that they are being represented as well.
Acar, Serra, and Yusuf Akamoglu. "Practices For Parent Participation In Early Intervention/ Early Childhood Special
Education." International Journal Of Early Childhood Special Education 6.1 (2014): 80-101. Education Research Complete. Web. 14 Apr. 2016.

One of the main focuses of this group is to make things as flexible and as accommodating

for all types of families. Throughout all of the plan the committee made sure to include how this

would benefit those families that needed some accommodating. In the communication process

the teachers are making sure to get all types of contact info and when the best time to reach the

family is. They are also doing things such as making it an open door policy and posting their

contact information in many areas to make it the most convenient. This is benefiting all groups

especially those with busy schedules or single parents who work. When it comes to volunteering

the committee made sure there were multiple times to do this and many different ways. This

highlighted those with a different ethnic background by inviting them to teach the class a bit

more on their heritage. For low income families there were many things such as family fun night

and the free home curriculum/resource packet made available. Everything was always made to

be flexible and easy going so that everyone was able to participate and become involved.

By being on this committee Mrs. Raiche was able to be a much more successful teacher

and got great family involvement results when it came to family fun night and volunteering.