*** Due to formatting changes, I also included the google doc I originally typed this on.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1vdOzHypgw8JSXuwLnp13zf6U64rAxqV83UCX-jEE4JA/edit?usp=sharing  

Abstract

Merging home life with school is an important aspect of student growth. Often times, teachers become so focused on curriculum and state tests that they often forget students have homes, backgrounds, and stories to tell. If teachers opened up their classroom and merged the two worlds together, students would be able to share their stories and diverse backgrounds. This could not only engage students more but could also create a strong classroom community. This article discusses the importance of this connection between home and school as well as how to incorporate home lives into the curriculum and key aspects of this connection for educators and families.

Teaching Tip

Teacher’s intentional connection between home and school is a very important aspect of student growth, both academically and socially.

Manuscript

During the school year, teachers often become focused on curriculum. They need to get through the curriculum, improve test scores, and prepare students for state testing. In the midst of this preparation and focus on pacing guides, we often put one major aspect of students on the back burner: their lives outside of school.

Importance of School-Home Integration and Communication

Integration and communication between school and home are important for all who are involved. Students, teachers, and parents would all benefit from the merging of the two worlds.

(SUBHEADING) How it Helps Students

When school and home become one, students are able to share their backgrounds and where they come from. Some students may come from middle-class homes, some may come from poverty, and some may come from somewhere outside of the country. When students are able to share their stories, they are able to connect with other students as well as teachers. They feel more comfortable with asking questions, discussing problems, etc. Two major areas improve for students when home and school meet. These two areas are academics and socially.

(SUB-SUBHEADING) Academic Improvement When School Incorporates Home

As previously stated, academic improvement would be inevitable when home and school merge. Below I list a few ways as to how student academics would be improved:

1. Students would be held accountable at home and school when communication is open and constant. Parents know what is happening at school, therefore there is accountability at home.
2. When students’ backgrounds are incorporated into school, students become more engaged in the activities as it pertains to them personally.
3. Students would hear other’s backgrounds and culture, thus increasing their knowledge of that specific culture.

(SUB-SUBHEADING) Social Improvement When School Incorporates Home

Not only would students’ academics improve, but their social lives, confidence, and willingness to share would improve as well. Below I list some ways as to how students’ social lives would be improved:

1. Students would get the opportunity to connect to diverse students from different backgrounds.
2. Students would feel increasingly comfortable sharing their stories, traditions, and cultures.
3. Students would feel important and heard.
4. Students would feel connected to teachers more than if there was no discussion of home life. This could allow students to feel more confident in asking questions, holding classroom discussions, and more.

(SUBHEADING) How it Helps Parents

As a middle school educator, I have found that students don’t always communicate to their parents what they are doing in school, what assignments they have due, what projects are coming up, so on and so forth.

When students don’t communicate this information effectively, it is our duty as educators to communicate this information and more.

Parents feel more comfortable with the education system as a whole when there is open communication between the school and themselves. If educators open up their classroom, parents will be able to see the carry over between education and home as well as assist in assignments, projects, and tests.

(SUBHEADING) How it Helps Teachers

Teachers often times assume all students have equal access and knowledge of literacy. Often times, this is false.

Sarah J. McCarthy performed a study in 1997 where she went into schools to see students’ diverse backgrounds, how teachers incorporated literacy into their classrooms, and how it affected the students differently. McCarthy found that some students were not being supported correctly. The study showed that when teachers selected books, they were “selecting books that were not relevant to many students' lives and inadvertently excluding some students from classroom discussions seemed to be rooted in teachers having more information about middle-class students than students from working-class or culturally diverse backgrounds. The teachers' practices were rooted in their assumptions that just providing literacy opportunities such as book response, thematic units, and writing workshop would result in students' automatically making home-school connections” (McCarthy, 1997, p 176).

If teachers took the time to get to know students and their home lives, they would be able to select appropriate texts for students as well as appropriate activities. All students learn differently. Sometimes they learn differently because of where they come from or how they were raised.

Not only would merging students’ homes with school help teachers provide differentiated curriculum better, but it would also allow students to become more comfortable in the classroom, thus creating an environment where teachers can hold effective classroom discussions. Often times, there are a select number of students who enjoy classroom discussions, collaborative reasoning discussions, etc. When students are able to share their lives and cultures, they become more comfortable in the classroom. This feeling of being comfortable would then lead to more students participating in whole group discussions.

How to Incorporate the Home into Literacy Curriculums

Some teachers may find it difficult to merge home with school. Merging the two can be easier than some think. For example, during the narrative unit, there can easily be a day where students transcribe their traditions, cultures, and backgrounds.

(SUBHEADING) Writing Prompts to Merge Home with School

Writing prompts to bring in students’ backgrounds, cultures, and traditions can be easily implemented within the writing curriculum. The Write Shop provides some ideas of prompts you can use in your classroom:

1. Describe one of your earliest childhood memories. How old were you? What bits and pieces can you recall?
2. Describe the most unusual or memorable place you have lived or have been.
3. Do you have your own bedroom, or do you share with a sibling? Describe your room.
4. Do you have quirky or interesting relatives on your family tree? Describe one or two of them.
5. Describe your most memorable family vacation. Where did you go? Did something exciting or unusual happen? Did you eat new or unique foods?
6. Do you have family traditions? Describe one.
7. Write about some sayings, expressions, or advice you heard at home when you were growing up. Who said them? What did they mean? Do you use any of those expressions today?

(SUBHEADING) Discussion Prompts to Merge Home with School

Read Write Think offers a lesson with some discussion prompts educators can use when connecting texts to home.

1. What does this story remind you of?
2. Can you relate to the characters in the story? How?
3. Does anything in this story remind you of anything in your life?
4. What does this remind you of in the real world or things you have experienced?
5. How are events in this story similar to things that happen in the real world?
6. How are events in this story different from things that happen in the real world?

Pause and Ponder

1. How can we, as teachers, improve literacy through school-home communication and incorporation?
2. In what ways can this help students, not only in our classroom but across all grade levels?
3. How is your curriculum and classroom designed to help incorporate students’ home lives? If it is not currently designed this way, how might you be able to incorporate students’ home lives?

Key Aspects for Educators and Families

The National Center for Families Learning (NCFL) is a non-profit organization that provides literacy strategies, programming, and resources to families and educators across the United States. With the sponsorship from PNC financial corporation, the NCFL was able to create a resource for families and educators that helps create school and home connections. NCFL proposes five key things for educators and five key things for families to remember when establishing home and school relationships. For educators, NCFL proposes that we communicate regularly, have an open door policy, set goals together, share information, and connect families with the community. The five key things for families include talk to your child’s teacher, visit the classroom, set goals for your child, stay involved, and make connections.

These key five aspects are important for both families and educators to create an open communication and to reach students’ full potential. Not only will these steps create open communication, but it will also allow students to merge their two worlds (school and home) into one world.

Last Words

With schools becoming more diverse and more focused on trauma-informed classrooms and restorative practices, the merging of home lives with school is more important than ever. If educators take the time to incorporate students’ diverse culture and backgrounds, the classroom they are in will become a learning community.

Take Action

1. At the beginning of the year, make sure to say hello to parents during open house, allowing them to visit your classroom.
2. If there are parents who do not attend open house, call home or send a quick email introducing yourself.
3. Get to know the students and families by sending home a questionnaire at the beginning of the year, asking questions about home lives such as: How many people are in your family? What are your child’s strengths? What would you like your student to improve on? What are some things you would like me to know about your child and/or family?
4. Make a point to reach out to parents at least once a month or every other month, keeping them informed on assignments, tests, and/or projects.
5. Incorporate projects and assignments that give students the opportunity to incorporate their home lives.
6. Make sure to reach out for positive notes so not all of the communication is negative.
7. Keep communication open throughout the school year.

References

Connecting Home and School. (n.d.). Retrieved from

https://www.scholastic.com/parents/school-success/school-involvement/connecting-home

-and-school.html

Kautzer, K. (2018, April 27). 22 writing prompts that jog childhood memories. Retrieved from

https://writeshop.com/childhood-memories-writing-prompts/

P., & N. (n.d.). Creating Home-School Connections. Retrieved June 10, 2019, from

https://www.pnc.com/content/dam/pnc-com/pdf/GUG/LessonCenter/TeachersToolkit/Creating Home School Connections.pdf.

Making Connections - ReadWriteThink. (n.d.). Retrieved from

http://www.readwritethink.org/professional-development/strategy-guides/making-connect

ions-30659.html

Mccarthey, S. J. (1997). Connecting Home and School Literacy Practices in Classrooms with

Diverse Populations. Journal of Literacy Research,29(2), 145-182.

doi:10.1080/10862969709547955

NCFL | Home Page. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.familieslearning.org/

Literature Cited

Jones, S. (2014). Writing and teaching to change the world: Connecting with our most

vulnerable students. New York: Teachers College Press, Columbia University.

More to Explore

http://readwritethink.org/classroom-resources/lesson-plans/life-your-life-look-947.html

http://readwritethink.org/classroom-resources/lesson-plans/investigating-names-explore-personal-878.html

http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/summer13/vol70/num09/How-to-Connect-with-Families.aspx

http://readwritethink.org/classroom-resources/lesson-plans/exploring-sharing-family-stories-805.html

https://www.idra.org/resource-center/engaging-parents-in-education/