Get Families Involved!

Resources to boost your knowledge, skills, and daily work with families

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As a teacher, you know that family involvement is important to student success. Harvard Family Research Project (HFRP) at the Harvard Graduate School of Education knows it too. We also know that it’s not always easy to get families involved in their children’s education. That’s why we offer you a wide range of free Web resources to help you encourage family involvement.

The Family Involvement Network of Educators

The Family Involvement Network of Educators (FINE) (www.finenetwork.org ), organized by HFRP, comprises over 5,000 educators, researchers, and practitioners who are committed to family involvement in education. Free membership in FINE allows you to get the latest and best information about family involvement, receive monthly updates about new resources, exchange ideas and insights, and learn about assessment methods. When you visit the FINE Web site, you’ll find a wealth of information, including summaries of family involvement research, workshops and teaching cases for professional and staff development, and a guide to family involvement resources available elsewhere on the Internet. (http://www.gse.harvard.edu/hfrp/projects/fine/fineresources.html ).

 

The Family Involvement Storybook Corner (http://www.gse.harvard.edu/hfrp/projects/fine/resources/storybook/index.html) This site can help you promote family involvement with your own classroom families. Geared to classroom teachers, the Storybook Corner provides guidance and resources for using recently published children’s storybooks with family involvement themes to engage families in their children’s learning. With family involvement storybooks in hand, you can efficiently and naturally infuse ideas about the importance of family involvement into your daily teaching practice. When you visit the Storybook Corner, you’ll have access to free resources, many of which are downloadable, including:

 

• Using Family Involvement Storybooks
  (http://www.gse.harvard.edu/hfrp/projects/fine/resources/storybook/about.html ) This article talks about family involvement storybooks and how you can use them to promote family involvement.

 

• The Bookcase (http://www.gse.harvard.edu/hfrp/projects/fine/resources/storybook/storybook.html) Browse the Bookcase for lists of read-aloud picture books for ages 4–8, as well as summaries of family involvement ideas in each storybook. You can use these storybooks in a variety of ways with students and families to communicate the importance of family involvement in children’s learning. For example, you can read books aloud to begin a classroom discussion about family involvement, or you can share them with families at home to inspire involvement activities.

 

• The Reference Desk (http://www.gse.harvard.edu/hfrp/projects/fine/resources/storybook/reference.html ) Visit the Reference Desk to find even more resources for using family involvement storybooks. Here you’ll discover concrete ideas about how to use family involvement storybooks in your classroom and to build relationships with families. You’ll also find a collection of resources for using an award-winning storybook, Halmoni and the Picnic (a story about an immigrant minority family’s participation in school), to build home-to-school relationships.
  
  Resources for Halmoni and the Picnic include a teacher’s guide with lesson plan themes, discussion questions, a student writing activity, and more activities to share with families. You’ll also find ideas for reflecting on your practice with culturally diverse families. We also provide you with a handout for families to guide them in sharing the storybook with children at home. This handout offers families step-by-step help in how to talk with you about their child’s learning.

 

You can further enrich your use of Halmoni and the Picnic in your classroom by learning how one 3^rd-grade teacher used the teacher guide with her class. Also, you can read what Sook Nyul Choi, the book’s author and a former teacher, thinks about building relationships between schools and families. Finally, for staff and professional development purposes, we offer a module for using Halmoni and the Picnic to train teachers to involve families in schools.

· Related Readings
(http://www.gse.harvard.edu/hfrp/projects/fine/resources/storybook/readings.html ) In addition to our bibliography of children’s storybooks, we provide you with a list of related readings on research into family involvement in children’s early literacy.

 

We at HFRP are always working to stock the Storybook Corner with new resources. Soon, when you visit the site you will be able to find new book listings and other resources, including materials focused specifically on family involvement among Latino families. To learn when these are available and to receive announcements about other family involvement-related resources, you can join FINE (www.finenetwork.org ).

Harvard Family Research Project (http://www.hfrp.org)

Staff Workshop Teacher Handout: From - Building Family and Community Relationships
This staff workshop indicates how successful early childhood programs depend upon partnerships with families and communities. For more information, see the instructions for worksgop leaders, "Building Family and Community Relationships", linked to this page.

Policies & Practices: Working With Families
Moore offers advice on building strong connections with families in order to learn more about their children. The more information one has from families, the better one can understand the child and create the trusting relationship necessary for that child to blossom in one's classroom.

Staff Workshop Topic: Understanding the Basic Principles of Character Education
The purpose of this Workshop topic is to involve staff in reflecting on important issues in order to build a character education program that speaks to and includes everyone - staff, families, and children. For more information, see Staff Workshop Instructions linked to this page.