Embed Size (px)
Citation preview
TENNESSEE STATE IMPROVEMENT GRANT (TN SIG)
2008 SIG/SPDG Regional Meeting
TN SIG COMPONENTS
Preschool School Family Higher Education
FAMILY COMPONENT Target Audience: Families and School
Personnel Content
Reading Strategies Family Involvement Response to Intervention Literacy and Individual Education Plans (IEP)
Activities Workshops Online Course Products: DVD, Flyers, Toolkit, Newsletters
Booklet, Website, etc.
“All About ME”
Hi! My name is___________________I am ____ years old
PlaceYour
Child’sPictureHere
Tennessee State Improvement Grant
Parent Portal
Teacher Portal
SIG Products
Family Component Evolvement
Initially, the SIG conducted workshops for families
Provided families with literacy toolkits Workshops were conducted on an as-requested
basis Workshops included information for typically-
developing children, followed by breakout sessions for those who so desired
Additionally, provided direct service to parents of students with special needs as needed
LESSONS LEARNED FROM THE FIRST YEARS OF TN SIG
o This approach presented challenges with regard to scale up Expensive ($25 per toolkit) Time-intensive (sometimes traveled across state
for workshop with 10 people attending)o Challenges with regard to sustainability
Lack of self-sustaining infrastructure (beyond the life of the grant)
Did not address the disconnect between schools and families (only reached the few families who usually attended; did not reach those who most need help)
Lack of a follow-up mechanism (one-time, general sessions not most effective method of training/education)
HOW DID WE APPROACH SCALE UP? Train schools/districts to help them organize and
conduct their own literacy workshops (developed companion workbook and PowerPoint slides)
HOW DID WE APPROACH SCALE UP? Facilitate school-family communication (help
teachers think about family involvement differently)
Provide strategies for schools to works with families and vice versa (strategies workshop and handout)
HOW DID WE APPROACH SCALE UP? Conduct an online class for teachers on involving
families (Building Bridges between Family/School)
Ensure that all products are available online at http://sig.cls.utk.edu/
Work with schools/districts that receive PD from TN SIG component
CURRENT FAMILY PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT ACTIVITIES
Family Workshops and Products RTI: What Families Need To Know Literacy Is For ALL Infusing Literacy in the IEP Unlocking Your Schools Family Involvement
Potential Helping Your Child at Home, Strategies Parents Can
Use Families Helping Children Become Better Readers Preschool Literacy Guides – English and Spanish
CURRENT FAMILY PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT ACTIVITIES
School Personnel Workshops and ProductsFacilitators’ Guide to Families Helping
Children Become Better Readers (for teachers)
Building Bridges between Families and Schools (Online course for teachers)
Engaging Families: Lessons Learned (for teachers)
Unlocking Your School’s Family Involvement Potential (for parents and teachers)
LESSONS LEARNED AS WE SCALED UP
Difficulties in:Addressing the needs of all – general
education, special education, grade levels, achievement levels
Encouraging attendance by parents whose children really need the information being presented, not just the attendance of families who always come
Changing teachers’ views of family involvement as only ‘in-school” activities and numbers of people who show up at school
LESSONS LEARNED AS WE SCALED UP
Steps taken to address difficulties:General sessions, with additional sessions for
specific needs as requestedTeacher calls, several reminder notices,
duplicate sessions at more than one time/place, providing food/child activities
Working with teachers to find ways to get the information home to parents through communication networks:
A workshop is not only a meeting on a topic held at the school building at a particular time, but also the content of a topic to be viewed, heard, or read at convenient times and varied locations. (Epstein, 2002)
PRESENT CHALLENGES
Doing more with less Finding ways to evaluate Family services Strengthening our SIG presence by providing
family services in schools where SIG consultants are already working with teachersGetting the word out about what we can offerFollowing up with contacts to schedule our
family servicesMatching our services with schools’ needs
PRESENT CHALLENGES
Ensuring parents whose children have special needs know about the workshops and services we offer
Avoiding one-time professional development workshops, but instead providing multiple, comprehensive events on a systemic level
Aligning services offered to families with services offered to school staff.
Working at the system level instead of the individual school level
Taking the time to put all of our products into finished products that will be uploaded to website.
QUESTIONS? Kathy Strunk, Director
[email protected] White, Center for Literacy [email protected] Curran, Center for Literacy [email protected] Perumal, [email protected]
