Module 4: Family Engagement

This module is part of our featured course, "Empowering Multilingual Learners: One Strategy At A Time." Its strategy is: build partnerships by identifying and removing barriers to family engagement. You'll begin with the difference between translated and accessible, and practice putting school language into plain language. You'll look at why children should not be the interpreters for their own families, and what to do instead. You'll learn habits for working with an interpreter: briefing them ahead of time, speaking to the family and not the interpreter, pausing, avoiding idioms and jargon, and planning extra time. Then you'll look for the barrier before you assume a family isn't interested. Work schedules, language, transportation, and unfamiliar systems all get in the way, and so does the way schools communicate. You'll build a proactive, two-way communication plan that goes beyond calls home about problems, and you'll see how to invite what families know, using the idea of funds of knowledge. You'll also look at how to answer the question "Should we speak English at home?" You'll look at cultural expectations in US schools: what a school may assume (that parents will ask questions, advocate, and follow up) and what some families bring (deep respect for the teacher, a different idea of involvement). You'll look at four moments that get misread, such as a parent who nods and agrees with everything or who doesn't follow up after a conference. You'll then plan a conference with before, during, and after steps. You'll finish with two simple translation tools, ways to partner with the wider community, and a plain-language makeover of a real family communication.