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The Personal Aspect of Parent Involvement in Schools
The Personal Aspect of Parent Involvement in Schools 424 283 admin

Simply put, students succeed when families are engaged. There are tons of ideas to increase parent involvement out there, but how effective are they?

While students benefit from family engagement so to do teachers and schools. Researchers tell us that when parents are engaged in their student’s education, students complete more homework, score higher on tests and in grades, and graduate at higher rates. The monkey in the wrench is how to engage families.

Parent engagement should be considered a collaboration between school and parents. As a parent, I have often been intimidated by teachers or by principals, even with all of my experience in schools. I remember encouraging one of my sons to strive to reading level G in first grade. His teacher took me to task for making academics a competitive sport. I felt embarrassed and chastised. I certainly did not feel that I was collaborating with the teacher or school for my son to succeed.

While I will share several suggestions for actions that schools can take to engage parents, the critical factor to parent engagement is often the personal factor.

Does the parent feel welcome, supported and celebrated in the school? So as you build a parent engagement strategy, emphasize often, to all involved, that it is the personal moments with parents that will bring them in or push them out of school involvement. We all need parents to be involved to succeed!

Practical Ideas to Increase Parent Involvement in Schools

  • Provide parents with an explanation and several examples of one reading and one math strategy each month that they can use consistently with their children.
  • Start the school year with a positive note to parents about their student’s performance in school.
  • Send personal invitations to parents to attend assemblies that celebrate learning and recognize student achievement.
  • Showcase parent engagement participation in school newsletters following each event.
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UPDATED! Our Spanish Parent Guide to Summer
UPDATED! Our Spanish Parent Guide to Summer 300 390 admin

An updated Spanish language Parent Guide to Summer is making waves this summer.  Offered at no additional charge, our expanded Spanish language Parent Guide, La Guía para los Padres, includes translated instructions and answer keys for every ThinkStretch workbook from Pre-K to 7th grade.

Increasing family engagement with ESL and ELL families is a challenge facing many schools. Nationally, approximately 73% of ELL families speak Spanish as their predominant language.  ThinkStretch is meeting the challenging of meaningfully engaging these families in their students’ academic lives by offering fully translated and integrated summer learning guides for Spanish-speaking families.

It can be difficult for parents whose first language is not English to work with their students on homework.  As I researched how to help engage families over the summer months, teachers provided me with consistent advice: “Provide student materials in English and parent materials in Spanish.”

As I studied how parents and students were interacting over the summer, it became clear that simply translating the Parent Guide to Summer into Spanish would not be enough.  Parents wanted to participate in the bonus activities with their children.  Children needed occasional help with instructions or activities, particularly in the earliest grade levels.

With the perspective of always working to build bridges between the home and school, I undertook the task of translating all 9 volumes of ThinkStretch Summer Learning books into Spanish.  But I did not create Spanish student books, instead the instructions for every book was added to the Spanish language Parent Guide to Summer or La Guía para los Padres.

Now, if a student is struggling with the writing practice in Week 7 of the 3rd heading to 4th grade ThinkStretch Summer Learning book, her parent can simply turn to La Guía para los Padres.  On page 31, the parent will find: “Haz una lista de lo que harías si tuvieras el todo el día para ti y pudieras hacer todo lo que se te antojara.”  This instruction matches the student’s English language instruction of “Make a list of what you would do if you had all day to yourself and could do whatever you wanted.”

Now parent and child can talk together about the writing activity in the language of their choice.  In addition, the parent can find additional writing activities and tips to help encourage her student all summer long.

San Joaquin Elementary provided the original La Guía para los Padres to over 400 families last year.  When one of their children needed help reading or understanding and instruction, San Joaquin’s Spanish speaking parents were able to quickly read the instructions in Spanish and offer help and support at home.

I am excited to hear your stories and successes with La Guía para los Padres this summer.  ThinkStretch and I continue to strive to be your partner in education, benefiting every family and student in your school.

Have thoughts on our Spanish language materials? Leave us a comment!

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Boys and Reading
Boys and Reading 282 424 admin

As a mother of three sons, I have (occasionally!) jealously watched quiet families of girls reading. I imagine all the things I could accomplish with some quiet time.

However, my curiosity and frustration began to rise as I noticed how much better at reading girls are doing today compared to boys. According to the US Department of Education, a lot of boys are having trouble reading. Reading tests for the last 30 years show boys scoring worse than girls in every age group, every year.

As I dug into the research, I looked for specific things I could do to help my boys become better readers. Here are a few reading tips for parents with boys struggling to stay interested in books:

  • Expand my definition of reading – I needed to include nonfiction, graphic novels, comic books and websites.
  • Point out male role models – I have a book club.  My husband has a poker night. My boys do not see reading as part of what “a guy” does. I needed to ask my husband to step it up as a reading role model.
  • Start small – Starting with a short book or a short magazine and then talking about it with me is enough.
  • Give a lot of choice – The books I am interested in generally do not appeal to my sons. I needed to step outside of my comfort zone and ask the librarian for help to come up with a pile of choices that I had never heard of!

The most important thing I can do, however, is to keep my boys reading. After all, the only way to get better at reading is to READ, READ, READ!

Today isn’t just Valentine’s Day, it’s International Book Giving Day, too. Why not celebrate by giving your son (or daughter!) a new book, or reading a new book aloud with them?

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Read Aloud or Read With Me?
Read Aloud or Read With Me? 424 283 admin

As your children transition from beginning readers to more independent readers, how you spend time together reading can change.

One distinction that I have used with my boys is the difference between a “read aloud” book and a “read with” book. “Read aloud” books are usually books beyond my child’s reading level. I am in control of the pace, expression and timing of the reading. My son just needs to sit back and relax into the story and the warm couch with me.

A “read with” book is a story that is at or slightly above your child’s reading level. Instead of you controlling the pace of reading, your child is reading with you. We took turns reading paragraphs or pages. Sometimes I would be the voice of one character and my son would be the voice of a different character.  The important thing with a “read with” story is that your child reads aloud to you, giving you the opportunity to help with new words.

The best part of both the “read with” and “read aloud” books is the time spent together. It’s fantastic to hear a child ask, “Will you read with me?” Don’t waste an opportunity to build some reading comprehension by talking about the book when you are done. Ask a few questions about the story and watch your child’s reading skills grow.

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Taking on the BrainFreeze Reading Challenge Online
Taking on the BrainFreeze Reading Challenge Online 300 109 admin

Over Winter Break, 606 students signed up for and took on the challenge to read 20 minutes per day at home with our new online BrainFreeze Reading Challenge. Even students who have been struggling with reading were excited at the chance to receive prizes; it was fantastic to get emails from parents sharing their child’s drive to read more than they ever have before.

In total, BrainFreeze Reading Challenge online participants read a whopping 58,052 minutes over Winter Break! Readers answered 413 extra BrainGain questions, sharing interesting facts from and parts of the stories they read as well as new words they learned during their time reading over Winter Break. The two readers who challenged themselves to read the most this break achieved over 1,000 minutes of reading each!

More students in Michigan, California, and New York challenged themselves to read than in any other state. Congratulations to everyone who participated in the ThinkStretch BrainFreeze Reading Challenge. We’d like to congratulate Abbot Elementary in Michigan, in particular. After having fantastic success this past summer in overcoming summer learning loss with ThinkStretch, 40 students from Abbot challenged themselves to log minutes online this winter as well.

Great job to all participants. Keeping your brains warmed up over Winter Break will help when you return to school! The following prize winners were drawn randomly from students who logged their minutes online:

1st Prize (iPod Touch) went to Jaxon J., a 1st grader in Michigan

2nd Prize (Kindle) went to Abby L., a 5th grader in Michigan

BrainGain Prize (iPod Nano) was Priscilla M., a 7th grader in Maryland

Sometimes students need a little motivation to keep reading when they take a break from school. A chance to challenge themselves online and win prizes turned out to be great motivation. We’ve received emails from teachers and parents telling us how much their students enjoyed participating in the first ever online BrainFreeze Reading Challenge and are excited to have seen such great success. We’re looking forward to rolling out a summer reading challenge online for schools and students with our summer learning program to motivate students throughout summer months, when summer learning loss is a significant challenge every student faces. Stay tuned for more details!

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Classroom tips to keep young brains warm over winter break!
Classroom tips to keep young brains warm over winter break! 150 184 admin

We’re excited to offer new 2013 BrainFreeze packets. For your classroom or for your whole school, you can help students return to school in the new year ready to learn new skills.

To get the most out of your BrainFreeze packets, we have a few classroom tips to help keep the young brains in your classroom warm over winter break: 

Send the BrainFreeze packet home the day BEFORE break begins. Sometimes backpacks do not get opened again until the night before school starts back up!

Host a school contest. Reward the class that turns in the most BrainFreeze packets with a popsicle party.

Offer a special class privilege to EVERY class that has ALL its students return a completed BrainFreeze packet—lunch in the classroom, extra recess time, free computer time, or their names read on the loudspeaker.

Offer a token reward to each student who turns in a completed BrainFreeze packet silly pencils or cool erasers.

If you haven’t gotten your BrainFreeze packet yet, download BrainFreeze now!

[cta text=”Keep students’ brains warmed up with BrainFreeze Winter Break packets from ThinkStretch!” link=”https://thinkstretch.com/product/brain-freeze/” color=”blue”] Download BrainFreeze [/cta]

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BrainFreeze Reading Challenge ONLINE!
BrainFreeze Reading Challenge ONLINE! 300 109 admin

Sign up for the online BrainFreeze Reading Challenge to give your students or children a chance to win great prizes for reading over winter break!

We’re thrilled to announce our first ever online reading challenge. Kids can log their reading minutes daily in our winter break reading log and earn a raffle ticket into a random drawing with a grand prize of an iPod Touch.

And as an extra bonus for kids, BrainGain questions keep reading alive and engaging. Plus, for every BrainGain question answered, students are entered into a random drawing for an iPod nano.

Join ThinkStretch as we challenge students and families to keep an online reading log this winter break. Everyone wins when students return to school with ready to learn new skills in the new year! Sign up today!

P.S. If you haven’t gotten your BrainFreeze packet yet, download BrainFreeze now!

[cta text=”Keep students’ brains warmed up with BrainFreeze Winter Break packets from ThinkStretch!” link=”https://thinkstretch.com/product/brain-freeze/” color=”blue”] Download BrainFreeze [/cta]

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“Learning to Read” and “Reading to Learn”
“Learning to Read” and “Reading to Learn” 200 300 admin

A subtle turn of phrase – Learning to Read versus Reading to Learn – but a sea change in a child’s education. The transition from lower-el to upper-el marks a moment in education that can define a child’s future success, or so we have been told.

After 3rd grade, it is has long been assumed that a child can read well enough to absorb new information without continued reading practice and instruction. This myth in education began to become ”commonplace” knowledge in the 1990s based on the work of a Harvard professor.

Many teachers took this as permission to abandon reading instruction for the upper elementary and focus on curriculum content. However, reading is a complicated a process that requires continued instruction as text and materials change.

Working on ThinkStretch, I am often questioned about the “best” grade in which to support summer learning and prevent summer learning loss. Some schools want to just focus on 2nd graders heading to 3rd grade so that they can make their 3rd grade reading proficiency benchmark.

This is a narrow view from two perspectives. First, if the students have not maintained their reading skills over the summer from Kindergarten through 2nd grade, they are likely already 6-9 months behind target, having been affected by summer learning loss already. Second, maintaining reading skills while in upper elementary is equally crucial, as the text students have to absorb becomes more nuanced and complex.

As parents and educators, we need to support our students’ need to read outside of school time, both during the school year and in the summer, to maintain and increase their reading skill. ThinkStretch is a summer learning program specially designed to support parents and educators aiming to do just that.

Originally posted on DonnaLasinski.com

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ThinkStretch maintains academic skills at Family Learning Institute
ThinkStretch maintains academic skills at Family Learning Institute 300 224 admin

Using the ThinkStretch Summer Learning Program this summer as a part of their summer program Brain Boot Camp, Family Learning Institute (FLI) in Ann Arbor, MI maintained or improved every student’s academic skills!

Focusing on reading, writing and math, students spend 4 hours, once a week at FLI engaged in fun learning activities as well as academic activities to combat summer brain drain. ThinkStretch provided the backbone of the academic program with volunteer tutors directing hands on learning extensions.

At the start of the summer, FLI assesses each student’s academic placement. Working to each student’s level, FLI completes the ThinkStretch Summer Learning Program and assesses the students again at the conclusion of the six week program. For the fourth summer in a row, FLI demonstrated that each of the over 30 students in the program maintained or improved their academic outcomes.

Family Learning Institute works closely with the Ann Arbor Public Schools and focuses on the persistent disparity in test scores, grades, and graduation rates between economically disadvantaged and other students.

“We have used ThinkStretch for four years and are looking forward to using it again next summer,” praised Executive Director Amy Rolfes. Ms. Rolfes complimented ThinkStretch for its intriguing writing prompts, complete mathematic content and its colorful, quality achievement medals. “We have a gold medal celebration with the kids hooting and cheering for the students who have completed their work!”

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Students Keep Learning All Year Long
Students Keep Learning All Year Long 197 300 admin

Representing a cross section of the larger community, not all students at Abbot Elementary have equal access to summer learning opportunities. Luckily for these students, Principal Pam Sica recognizes the detrimental effect that summer learning loss has on every student and the cumulative effect it has on her most at-risk students.

Abbot Elementary is a school of just under 300 students, with nearly 40% representing an ethnic minority and over 1/3 of students eligible for the free lunch program. A neighborhood school that draws from 1950s era brick ranches as well as low income housing units, Abbot is a close knit community of teachers and parents, according to current parents.

Now finishing their 3rd summer using the ThinkStretch Summer Learning program, students at Abbot earned over 120 gold medals, a 50% increase from the first summer. Everyone at Abbott Elementary had reason to be proud this fall as students, parents and teachers celebrated the completion of over 120 ThinkStretch Summer Learning books.

Just over the course of last summer alone, Abbot students read over 96,000 minutes, completed over 30,000 math facts and wrote in excess of 7,680 journal entries. The stories of their fun with home science activities thrilled the teachers.

“I am so happy we went with this program!” praises Principal Sica.

Abbot elementary now has an established school culture of year round learning. When the school door closes on the academic year, students pick up the challenge and continue their learning through out the summer with the ThinkStretch Summer Learning Program. Teachers welcome students to the new year with achievement medals for the students efforts and new material learn.

Are your students as enthusiastic to return every Fall? If you’re finding yourself spending time re-teaching lessons from the last year as a result of summer learning loss, download a sample ThinkStretch book today. Start planning your school’s summer program now and begin the battle against summer learning loss for your students.

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