Illinois Wesleyan University Digital Commons @ IWU John Wesley Powell Student Research Conference 2012, 23rd Annual JWP Conference Apr 14th, 9:00 AM - 10:00 AM Ways to Involve Parents in and Outside the Classroom Katherine Bell Illinois Wesleyan University Leah A Nillas, Faculty Advisor Illinois Wesleyan University Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.iwu.edu/jwprc Bell, Katherine and Nillas, Faculty Advisor, Leah A., "Ways to Involve Parents in and Outside the Classroom" (2012) John Wesley Powell Student Research Conference https://digitalcommons.iwu.edu/jwprc/2012/ESposters/1 This Event is protected by copyright and/or related rights It has been brought to you by Digital Commons @ IWU with permission from the rights-holder(s) You are free to use this material in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s) directly, unless additional rights are indicated by a Creative Commons license in the record and/ or on the work itself This material has been accepted for inclusion by faculty at Illinois Wesleyan University For more information, please contact digitalcommons@iwu.edu ©Copyright is owned by the author of this document Ways To Involve Parents In and Outside the Classroom Katherine Bell and Leah A Nillas* Educational Studies, Illinois Wesleyan University Purpose Whether through home-based or school-based activities, parents can have a great influence on their students’ academic achievement Using different instructional methods, I provided multiple opportunities to incorporate parent’s involvement in students’ education My goal was to explore how to involve parents in the classroom Methodology Participants: 16 Kindergarten students (6 boys and 10 girls), 23 parents Task: I created and implemented different activities incorporating various tasks for parents to participate in Data Sources: Lesson plans, parent and teacher questionnaires, and teacher journals Framework: Grounded Theory (Glaser & Strauss, 1967) Literature • A study showed that within elementary schools, the lower the grade level, the more likely the teacher is to use parent involvement, especially volunteers in the classroom ( Epstein & Dauber, 1991) • A report showed the importance of implementing subject-specific involvement strategies to increase subject-specific family involvement and results for students (Van Voorhis, 2003) • Many teachers have reported lack of relevant knowledge and uncertainty regarding ways to encourage parent involvement (Lewis, Kim, Bey, 2010) Findings Table 1: Summary of Lesson Analysis Parent’s Role Lesson Results Small Group Facilitator v Language Arts v A total of six parents came in to help with small groups, allowing for one adult to v Students used a work with one group combina:on of drawing, dicta:ng, and wri:ng to compose four different pieces Observer-‐Learner v Phonemic Awareness v A total of eleven parents came in to v Students demonstrated observe throughout the four months of my student teaching understanding of spoken words, sounds, v Nine parents took notes while observing and syllables v Parents were invited to observe me as I worked with students using Michael Heggerty’s phonemic awareness curriculum Class Reader v With help from a v Parents were asked to help students with parent, students their posters at home designed and made a v Parents were also invited to come in poster to share with the during the week and read a favorite story class to the class v Students shared informa:on about themselves and present their posters in class Homework Facilitator v With the help of a v Parents were asked to do ac:vi:es parent, students together with their child completed at least v They checked off what ac:vity was done three ac:vi:es a week and signed the boNom of the sheet v These ac:vi:es included prac:cing life skills Whole Class Instructor v Students counted to tell v A total of two parents volunteered to the number of objects teach students v Students demonstrated v Each parent was given a day to teach a 15 their understanding of lesson the rela:onship v All resources were given to parents along between numbers and with instruc:ons from the teacher quan::es v Students classified objects and counted the number of objects Lesson Plans: The most effective method to involve parents was the role of a homework facilitator In all activities, parents were eager to be invited to the classroom Additionally, the Phonemic Awareness lesson had the most participants for an in class activity Teacher Journals: Students classroom participation increased when parents were in the classroom Behavior and attention improved radically when parents were involved Students also asked to write letters home inviting parents to come to class Parent/Teacher Questionnaires: Parents were very satisfied with the opportunity to observe and learn about Michael Heggerty’s curriculum and be involved in the classroom A majority of teachers expressed apprehensive feelings towards involving parents, though many were eager to learn various methods to increase parental involvement Conclusion • My findings contribute to the professional knowledge base for teachers pertaining to parental involvement and student success • For future research, a study allowing for more time to implement a variety of parental involvement strategies would be beneficial .. .Ways To Involve Parents In and Outside the Classroom Katherine Bell and Leah A Nillas* Educational Studies, Illinois Wesleyan University Purpose Whether through home-based... was to explore how to involve parents in the classroom Methodology Participants: 16 Kindergarten students (6 boys and 10 girls), 23 parents Task: I created and implemented different activities incorporating... home designed ? ?and made a v? ?Parents were also invited ? ?to come ? ?in poster ? ?to share with ? ?the during ? ?the week ? ?and read a favorite story class to ? ?the class v Students