Parental Involvement Plan
Parental involvement is essential to any classroom. The research shows that children with parents who are active in their school do better academically. You will be designing a presentation that introduces you and your classroom to the parents for the new school year. Some of the items from your First Week of School PowerPoint® will be “recycled” into this assignment. You may want to tweak them because the audience is very different — now your audience is the parents.
Some of the portions of this presentation you may want to actually use in your own classroom as an actual presentation when you first meet your students’ parents; other sections you will use during the year in different ways. This is an exciting and practical Assignment!
For this Assignment, you will create a presentation using PowerPoint.
You will include the following in your plan:
Basic description of your class (grade, subject, room number). Remember you are teaching a secondary subject matter classroom for all ED581 Assignments.
2. Your introduction (you can recycle this from your First Day of School PowerPoint). Be precise and professional. This slide is not your resume, your scrapbook, or your Facebook page. If you decide to use a picture, make sure it is a professional looking picture.
3. Classroom Activities: Include a detailed description of three classroom activities for which the parents will be invited to participate (one per slide).
Jobs/functions volunteers will have to perform.
Objective of the activity: what will students learn? (What will you assess?)
Materials you need donated, if any.
Any preparation that needs to happen at home (if you need someone to cut paper, staple something) or in school before activities takes place (making photocopies, assembling something).
How much time will this take? When do you need volunteers in your class?
Do your volunteers need any special skills?
Description of activity (what will happen?).
State or national standard(s) this activity will target/meet.
Assessment: How will you know that your students learned what you set out to teach them?
Each activity needs to clearly titled and explained.
4. Home Activities: Include a detailed description of three home activities for which the parents will be required to help their child complete. You need to include:
Objective:
what is the activity’s goal? What are the students going to learn? (you will assess their learning in the classroom after the activity ends or is submitted)
Materials (board, glue, scissors).
Resources (textbook pages, worksheets, websites, etc.).
Steps for home activity.
Presentation
Due date.
State or national standard(s) this activity will target/meet.
Assessment: How will you know that your students learned what you set out to teach them?
Each home activity needs to clearly titled and explained.
5. Parental Communication Plan (that needs to be the title of this section)
Include how you will communicate with them.
Please include at least three different communication channels; use at least two different types of technology (email, tweets, texting, class website, etc.)
How often?
How can the parents reach you?
Conferences: how do parents request a conference?
Course Calendar and Homework: How can the students and parents keep up with homework and the course calendar in your class?
Please include at least two different types of technology parents and students can use to keep up with course calendar and homework assignments (website, texting, etc.).
6. Discipline Plan (portions recycled from the First Week of School PowerPoint)
Rules
Consequences/Steps
Steps
Explain (in one slide) when parents can expect to hear from you in the plan.
Assure the parents you are on their children’s side and the plan is clearly designed to make sure instruction, learning, and safety are the priorities.
7. Letter of Introduction
Create a short introductory letter (or email) that you would send your students and their families a few days before your class starts. Remember you are going to be teaching secondary school, your letter should be written for middle or high school students and their parents in mind.
Your letter should include:
Your name
Subject area you teach that specific group the letter is for (I may teach Spanish 1 and AP Spanish, I would have a different letter for each group… for this assignment you only need to include one letter-just for one group or level/subject).
Overall description of your course– this is not a course catalogue or a syllabus but this statement should be specific enough that the students and parents get a sense of what the students will be learning this year in your class.
Mention three projects, assignments, events, guest speakers, books, etc. that the students will be exposed to or involved in your class during the year. Remember, it’s not a syllabus so don’t dwell on minute details but make sure the description of each activity, event, trip, experience is detailed enou