To be most effective, teachers should keep in regular contact with parents about how their children are performing and progressing in the classroom

Question

Describe four different strategies that you might use to open and/or maintain lines of communication with your students' parents.

Answer 1

Possible strategies include these (the response should describe at least four of them):
• Hold parent-teacher conferences.
• Keep other important family members (e.g., grandparents) in the loop, especially if these individuals appear to play a major role in students' care and upbringing.
• Send home homework slips, informal notes, checklists depicting progress, and/or class newsletters.
• Call parents on the telephone.
• Communicate by e-mail if working in a relatively affluent community.
• Create a class website and encourage parents to look at it regularly (effective only if parents have good computer skills and easy access to the Internet).
• Conduct parent discussion groups.
• Conduct conferences and other discussions at times and locations convenient for families.
• Hold special functions at school (e.g., author teas, fundraisers).
• Extend personalized invitations that clearly communicate a desire for parents to come to a school function.
• Make an effort to get parents' trust and confidence.
• Demonstrate that parents' input is valued and helpful.
• Encourage parents to be assertive when they have questions or concerns.
• Give parents suggestions about learning activities they can easily do with their children at home.
• Invite parents to share their special talents with your class.
• Provide volunteer opportunities.
• Find someone who can interpret for non-English-speaking parents.
• Make home visits if such visits are welcome.
• Provide desired parent resources in the school building.
• Give recognition to parents when their children do well at school.