In our families class, we have been reading about the school/family relationship...There was a great activity that is simple and all grades can participate in...here's is a little blurb I wrote about the process and reasoning.
We have been building communities within our classrooms as well as building bridges to our families and their personal experience. This is done to “pave the way,” a two way street, from the school to the home, and back from the home into the classroom. This free flow of information and communication is critical for a vibrant community and a constructive school/home relationship. One way in which we have implemented this is to have our families write their “stories.”
The students and their families together will write down important facts or vignettes in their personal history and then present this to the class. This brings the family in, giving them a voice, letting them know that their experience, knowledge, wisdom, and opinion is not only welcomed but celebrated in our classrooms. Every student and every family has a different story and background, and we as teachers need to honor them.
This brings all the families into the classroom, and at the same time endears the school to the home because of the interest expressed in their personal stories.
2 comments:
That activity sounds great. Can you bring/forward any more info about it?
Another interesting project is an "I am" poem, or "I am from" (I can't remember the exact name. Basically the beginning starts the same "I'm from..." and they add in lines that speak to their background ("I'm from spaghetti and meatballs on Thursday nights". I recall one class doing these, and then performing them as a class at a family literacy night. Each student gave one line, and it popcorned around. It was powerful, and showed their collective experiences.
An example of an I am poem is here... on a really good writing teacher blog...
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