Parent Involvement in Reading
Laurie Elish-Piper
About This Column
Parents play a key role in their childrens literacy development and school success. To support educators in
building positive working relationships with their students parents, this column offers practical suggestions
to promote parent communication, involvement, and partnerships.
Text Messaging and
Social Media: Free and
Easy-to-Implement
Ideas for Family
Communication and
Engagement
By now, the excitement and newness of the
school year may be starting to wear off a bit for
teachers, students, and families. You may find
that the intensity of the daily schedule, lesson
planning, and other professional and personal
commitments are beginning to weigh on you at
this point in the school year. Sometimes our big-
gest goals for the school year can get derailed by
the daily demands and challenges we are faced
with addressing, and our best laid plans may
be sidelined due to lack of time, energy, or cre-
ative thinking. With that context in mind, this
Parents and Reading column is focused on
several easy-to-implement and innovative tech-
nology applications that educators can use to
build and enhance their family communication
and engagement efforts. Because there is a strong
body of evidence showing that connecting with
students families contributes to positive out-
comes like student attendance, academic achieve-
ment, and attitudes toward school (Henderson
& Mapp, 2002; Jeynes, 2012), I hope that these
simple ideas will help you build or enhance your
family communication and engagement efforts.
Mobile Technology as a Tool for Family
Engagement
The popularity of mobile devices continues to
increase across the United States. According
to the Pew Research Centers (2015) U.S.
Smartphone Use in 2015, 64% of Americans
own a smartphone; and even among the lowest
income group of adults, 50% own a smart-
phone. Furthermore, for those adults with the
lowest levels of education, 52% own a smart-
phone. Additionally, for 13% of U.S. families,
the smartphone is the only way they have access
to the Internet. For adults who do not own a
smartphone, the vast majority report having a
mobile phone, which generally includes text
messaging capability. Because of the growing
availability and popularity of mobile devices,
more teachers are reporting that parents prefer
communications via texts, Facebook, Twitter,
and other social media platforms because they
have their phones with them at all times, and
such communications are quick and easy.
Parent Involvement in Reading 41

Text Messaging with Families
Remind (previously named Remind 101) is a
very popular text messaging application used by
over 35 million people across the U.S. accord-
ing to the description of the application avail-
able on iTunes. This free application (available
for iPhones as well as Android devices) allows
teachers to send short text messages (up to 140
characters) to parents and other family mem-
bers, schedule reminders for due dates and
special events, translate messages into over 70
different languages, and track who has read
messages (and who has not). Families can see
that the text message is from the teacher, but
they will not have access to the teachers mobile
phone number. Some of the newer features of
Remind include the ability to send short survey
items (e.g., Was tonights homework too hard?)
and attachments such as photos, videos, PDFs
of documents, and audio messages. If families
do not have smartphones, Remind can still be
used as long as they have access to a phone
with texting capability. Texts can also be sent
as e-mail messages for families that do not have
mobile phones.
The class feature in Remind makes it very
easy to send messages to all families who wish
to receive communications via text. Remind
also allows educators to do more than simply
send text messages. Kress (2015) reports that
Remind can be used in several different ways to
support learning and to connect with families
(Figure1). For more information about Remind,
see https://www.remind.com. The Remind appli-
cation is free, but text messaging charges may
apply. If teachers plan to use the Remind app,
they may wish to check with their mobile ser-
vice provider to determine the availability and
cost of an unlimited texting package.
Another text messaging option that may
appeal to families, especially those with interna-
tional backgrounds and connections, is Whats
App, which offers many of the same features
as texting but does not require text messaging
rates to apply. With over 500,000,000 users
worldwide, Whats App is becoming increas-
ingly popular in the U.S. For more informa-
tion about using Whats App for educational
purposes, including parent communication
and engagement, see www.whatsappfor.org/facts/
whatsapp-education.
Research on Using Text Messaging with
Families
In an attempt to determine the efficacy of
text messaging to build family engagement
around young childrens learning, the Ounce
and researchers from Northwestern University
conducted an experimental study to determine
outcomes associated with the Pocket Literacy
Coach program. The Pocket Literacy Coach was
set up to send 160 character text messages daily
at 5:00 pm, Monday through Friday, to parents
of young children from low-income homes
enrolled in Head Start early childhood pro-
grams. Each daily text offered a fun and easy

Figure 1. Suggestions for Using the Remind Application

Use of Remind Application
Connect to the curriculum
Extend learning
Celebrate successes
Description
Provide a weekly summary, photo, or video to share what students have
been studying and learning in your classroom.
Suggest learning opportunities to extend what is being studied in school
(e.g., TV shows, online videos and resources, and community events). Share
simple at-home activities that families can do to support what students are
learning in school.
Celebrate successes in the classroom by sending positive messages to
families about accomplishments, goals met, and impressive efforts.

42 Illinois Reading Council Journal Vol. 45, No. 1 Winter 2016-2017

parent-child activity related to literacy, math, or
critical thinking. Two samples of text messages
from the Pocket Literacy Coach are provided
in Figure 2. The purpose of the study was to
determine if parents in the experimental group
who received the daily text messages reported
engaging in more learning experiences with
their young children than parents in the con-
trol group who did not receive the daily text
messages.
The results of this study are promising
related to the value of texting with families.
More specifically, parents who received the text
messages reported engaging in a larger variety
of learning activities with their children than
parents who did not receive the messages. In
addition, they reported doing more learning
activities with their children, especially with
their sons. Ninety-five percent of the par-
ticipating families strongly agreed that they
enjoyed receiving the text message activities,
and 92% reported that the texts gave them
encouragement and supported their parenting.
These findings are very encouraging and sug-
gest that text messaging may also be an effective
approach to connect with families of children
in elementary school and beyond.
Figure 2. Sample Text Messages from Pocket
Literacy Coach
After reading a story, ask questions about the
characters. Which is ur fav/least fav character?
Which is most like u? Which char was in the story
the most?
Teach circles using coins. Put a handful of coins
underneath a piece of paper. Help ur child use a
crayon to rub over the coins to show lots of circles!
From http://teccenter.erikson.edu/wp-content/
uploads/2014/11/NAEYC-Parent-Engagement1.pdf
Social Media Connections with Families
In informal discussions with practicing teach-
ers, I have heard repeatedly that more and more
families prefer to communicate through social
media channels. Creating Facebook Groups and
inviting family members to join is an easy way
to leverage free technology resources to share
announcements, photos, videos, resources, and
other postings to keep families connected to
your classroom. The private messaging feature
can also be used to communicate with families
individually about specific issues or concerns.
Unlike a personal Facebook Page, you can keep
a Facebook group private and only allow access
to families and students in your classrooms. If
using Facebook with families, it is important
to be sure to only post professional messages
and materialsthings you would be proud to
share with your principal or superintendent!
For more information about using Facebook
in the classroom, see https://www.facebook.com/
FBforEducators.
Twitter is another free social media plat-
form that can be effectively used to connect
with families. Using a microblog format with
tweets of no more than 140 characters, Twitter
also allows for links to resources, photos, and
videos. As with Facebook, teachers can set up
a private Twitter account so only approved
users (family members of your students)
can see the Tweets you post. With your class
Twitter account, you can post reminders about
upcoming events or due dates, share news of
the day, and share photos and videos of class
projects and events. Some teachers even have
their students compose class updates as a class-
room job to share with families via Twitter. For
more information about using Twitter in the
classroom and to communicate and connect
with families, see www.edudemic.com/guides/
guide-to-twitter.
Online course management systems such as
Google Classroom (www.google.com/edu/products/
productivity-tools/classroom) and Edmodo (www.
Parent Involvement in Reading 43
 edmodo.com) also offer tools for sharing mes-
sages, information, and progress reports with
family members. As more teachers are imple-
menting such systems into their teaching, they
are encouraged to use the parent involvement
features to make connections with families.
Closing Thoughts
Just as students change each year, so do technol-
ogy resources and applications. As more teach-
ers embrace using texting and social media to
communicate and connect with their students
families, more robust and useful applications
will continue to be developed. If you are uncer-
tain of how families or your school administra-
tors will respond to your using text messaging
and social media, I highly recommend that you
get their input to determine if these tools offer
promise for communication and collaboration
with your students families.
Acknowledgments
Special thanks to these wonderful educators
who offered their ideas, experiences, and inno-
vative ideas about engaging with parents (in
response to my recent Facebook post): Jackie
Cleven, Mary Costello, Nina Dorsch, Pam
Farris, Michele Langford, Jennifer Shettel,
Allison Thomas, and Anna Warren.
44 Illinois Reading Council Journal Vol. 45, No. 1
References
Henderson, A. T., & Mapp, K. L. (2002).A new wave
of evidence: The impact of school, family, and com-
munity connections on student achievement. Austin,
TX: National Center for Family and Community
Connections with Schools.
Jeynes, W. (2012). A meta-analysis of the efficacy of dif-
ferent types of parental involvement programs for
urban students.Urban Education, 47(4), 706-742.
Kress, A. (2015, March 23). 7 ways to engage students and
parents through mobile [Web log post]. Retrieved from
http://blog.remind.com/beyond-communication-
building-engagement-and-relationships-through-
mobile
Pew Research Center. (2015, April). U.S. smartphone
use in 2015. Retrieved from www.pewinternet.
org/2015/04/01/us-smartphone-use-in-2015
About the Author
Laurie Elish-Piper is Dean of the College of Education at
Northern Illinois University, She is also a Distinguished
Teaching Professor and Presidential Engagement Professor
in the Department of Literacy and Elementary Education
at NIU. Prior to her work in higher education, Laurie was
an elementary and middle school teacher, and an educa-
tional therapist in a clinical setting. Lauries research, pub-
lications, and presentations focus on family literacy, parent
involvement, literacy assessment, and literacy coaching.
Winter 2016-2017
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