Section 1: Academic Achievement - National Center for School ...

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homework. Teachers need to focus on family practices instead of family structure. One way to get parent’s involvement in learning activities at home is to provide families with printed suggestions for simple things they can do at home to help students achieve at higher levels. Some suggestions are to have parents set aside a specific amount of time each day for doing homework. Parents should also set aside time daily to read to or listen to their child read. They could use library books, hobby books, newspapers, and magazines as the source of this activity. Teachers could create a student homework/class work notebook. Class assignments or homework assignments could be written in the book and this way teachers and parents can communicate about how the student was doing. This can provide a means of notifying parents on the student’s progress, about problems that were beginning to arise, and to remind them of meetings or upcoming conferences. Teachers could also suggest questions for parents to ask students about homework assignments and how to stimulate conversations about learning. There needs to be a school-home connection. This is the basic obligation of a school to communicate from school to home about school programs and student progress. Using letters, memos, phone calls, report cards, newsletters, and conferences can do this type of communication. I sent home a monthly newsletter to parents. They knew to look for it at the beginning of each month. The letter informed them about what we were learning in the classroom, upcoming events in our classroom or at school, and then a section with reminders. I added a section at the start of this action research project that included homework tips. These tips were easy ideas and solutions to many parents’ questions. It gave them concrete ways that they could help their child with their homework. I also gave them educational websites that they could use to supplement homework or for fun if they had computer access. I posted this letter on our school’s website and posted one outside of my classroom door. Families should be involved in the school as well. Some parents volunteer their time in the classroom assisting the teacher and students, or in the school assisting administration or children in classrooms and other areas of the school. Not all parents have time during the day to come to school to participate and learn what is being taught in the classrooms. In order to serve as many of our families as possible we provided a family math night. The night was designed to pull families into the school setting and show them how the district math program (Everyday Math) is set up and how to play the math games at home with their children. We Action Research to Study Homelessness and High Mobility in School Communities 61
were even able to hand out the materials to play the games (i.e. dice, number cards, fact triangles, etc). About 75 of our families attended the family math night and commented on how helpful it was for them. I was in charge of our after school Homework Help for a six week session. I had students ranging from K-3. It was amazing to me that half of the kids didn’t have homework, didn’t know what their homework was, or didn’t have a clue how to do the homework (and sometimes I didn’t even know how to do the homework). It made me realize how frustrating this can be not only for the child, but for the parents as well. I started communication with the teachers to try to set up an arrangement for those who were enrolled in Homework Help. One expectation was that if they had a student in Homework Help they must come with homework. The student must know what the directions are to complete the homework. If a student’s native language was not English then appropriate translation of directions or assignments in their native language were to be given (for example, the Everyday Math Program has homework links in Spanish). If a student is functioning below grade level then modified assignments would be sent with them. One aspect that was taken care of during the Homework Help program was that community members donated educational materials for the students to take home and be able to use for homework purposes. Such materials included scissors, pencils, writing paper, rulers, crayons, etc. Our principal and a small group of staff members are involved in setting up school wide expectations for homework for the 2006-2007 school year and to work on a protocol for the Homework Help program. The main goal is to make sure that all homework is meaningful to the students who are doing it. Teachers also need to care about homework too. If homework is important enough make copies and send home, then it should be important enough to give some feedback. Research shows that when homework is turned into the teacher, graded, and discussed with students, it can improve students’ grades and understanding of their schoolwork. I found that many teachers at my school don’t even look at their student’s homework, let alone give it a check or a grade. The biggest comment from my students’ parents is that they appreciated the feedback and follow through of my homework assignments. If something is not done appropriately, then it had to be fixed and turned in again. The student’s knew that I viewed homework as important, so their parents and each one of them valued it too! Action Research to Study Homelessness and High Mobility in School Communities 62
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WEB-BASED PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
Page 3 and 4:
Chapter 1 OVERCOMING BARRIERS TO PA
Page 5 and 6:
increase parent involvement as a so
Page 7 and 8: arriers such as time, money and chi
Page 9 and 10: Gathering Data This study was condu
Page 11 and 12: in school. They reported that their
Page 13 and 14: Action Taken Using the plan created
Page 15 and 16: more teachers and volunteers involv
Page 17 and 18: Appendix A -Parent/Child Homework G
Page 19 and 20: • Follow up with parents regardin
Page 21 and 22: Recommendations • Involve parents
Page 23 and 24: Appendix C - Individual Interviews
Page 25 and 26: Appendix D - Pre and Post Questionn
Page 27 and 28: Comments: Appendix E - Homework Bar
Page 29 and 30: more affluent, stable neighborhood
Page 31 and 32: started a lottery system to ensure
Page 33 and 34: perhaps because the Social Worker w
Page 35 and 36: Hopefully, you can offer quality af
Page 37 and 38: I had a total of 20 students. I hav
Page 39 and 40: • The parents also said that some
Page 41 and 42: struggling with. On Thursday it was
Page 43 and 44: Recommendations/Process for WBPD 1.
Page 45 and 46: Appendix 1 Student Survey! Name ___
Page 47 and 48: Appendix 3 Name____________________
Page 49 and 50: houses grades Pre-K through 5th. Lo
Page 51 and 52: strategies that students could use
Page 53 and 54: Etta Kralovec and John Buell (2000)
Page 55 and 56: directions, to help check the finis
Page 57: I then sent a letter to the parents
Page 61 and 62: are worthy of other teachers using
Page 63 and 64: Chapter 5 IN WHAT WAYS CAN I ADJUST
Page 65 and 66: year. She couldn’t provide me wit
Page 67 and 68: frustration level rose, yet I was s
Page 69 and 70: So, I made three adjustments. First
Page 71 and 72: left the room they knew they would
Page 73 and 74: How did I modify the Title Math pro
Page 75 and 76: Chapter 6 HOMELESS AND HIGHLY MOBIL
Page 77 and 78: Literature Background Many educator
Page 79 and 80: school year with representation at
Page 81 and 82: them eat in class. Additional reaso
Page 83 and 84: additional minutes of reading instr
Page 85 and 86: verbalize to me. It was their behav
Page 87 and 88: They have determined that by the en
Page 89 and 90: finding. However the 3 rd and 4 th
Page 91 and 92: Suggested Steps to Enhance Educatio
Page 93: Appendix 2 H&HM Research Survey 200
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