Foreword by Sheila E. Durkin Preface Acknowledgments About the Authors Introduction 1. Parents, Families, Teachers, and Schools Appreciating and Supporting Each Other 2. Teachers, Students, Families, and Homework 3. Teachers, Students, Families, and Literacy 4. Teachers, Students, Families, and Mathematics 5. Teachers, Schools, Families, and the Special Education Student 6. Looking at the Roles of Non-Parental Caregivers in the Student's Life 7. Communicating With Families and Bridging the Gap Between School and Home 8. Working With Families and Especially Challenging Students 9. Working With Families From Nondominant Cultures 10. Families, Schools, and the Social Aspects of the Classroom 11. The Role of School Administrator: Increasing Student Achievement Through Parent Involvement Index
It's clear that students learn best when they are supported by a community that values education and includes not only teachers but also parents, families, and other mentors. Yet schools often find it difficult to successfully involve parents and families in children's educational lives. Based on solid educational research that reflects culturally diverse communities, this important new book offers teachers and administrators 55 practical strategies for forming effective partnerships with every type of family group. The authors cover a wide range of opportunities for collaborating with families, from homework, parent conferences, and open houses to family literacy and math activities, to hot-button topics like bullying and discipline. Each strategy offers: - a synthesis of the related research - a description of how to use the strategy in a classroom or broader school setting - precautions and pitfalls for consideration to help make implementation reasonably error free - research sources for optional follow-up.
Neal A. Glasgow's experience includes serving as a secondary school science and art teacher both in California and New York, as a university biotechnology teaching laboratory director and laboratory technician, and as an educational consultant and frequent speaker on many educational topics. He is the author or coauthor of ten books on educational topics: What Successful Schools Do to Involve Families: Fifty Research-Based Strategies for Teachers and Administrators (2008), What Successful Literacy Teachers Do: 70 Research-Based Strategies for Teachers, Reading Coaches, and Instructional Planners (2007), What Successful Teachers Do in Diverse Classrooms: 71 Research-Based Strategies for New and Veteran Teachers (2006); What Successful Teachers Do in Inclusive Classrooms: 60 Research-Based Strategies That Help Special Learners (2005); What Successful Mentors Do: 81 Researched-Based Strategies for New Teacher Induction, Training, and Support (2004); What Successful Teachers Do: 91 Research-Based Strategies for New and Veteran Teachers (2003); Tips for Science Teachers: Research-Based Strategies to Help Students Learn (2001); New Curriculum for New Times: A Guide to Student-Centered, Problem-Based Learning (1997); Doing Science: Innovative Curriculum Beyond the Textbook for the Life Sciences (1997); and Taking the Classroom to the Community: A Guidebook (1996). Paula Jameson Whitney has been an educator for 21 years. During that time, she has been a middle school teacher of language arts, ESL, and social science; middle school vice principal; elementary school principal; and central office director of learning support and categorical programs. Her master's of education is in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages, and her expertise is in instructional practices for English learners, gifted and talented students, and leadership strategies for school improvement.