Parental support for childrens' learning

It was after the long July - August vacation and Johnny had returned to school. During the first week his teacher, Miss Singh noticed he was disruptive during class time.She thought before it became a major issue she would call his mother. The mother's response was ,"I had him for eight whole weeks Miss and not once I called you!"
(Anonymous)

This tad bit of humour reflects how some parents feel about their involvement and responsibility when it comes to their childrens' education.Parental involvement is important to developing a well rounded child.I am quite sure many of us have had to deal with students who are disruptive or not performing in classes and when we attempt to call in parents, we discover their parents may be living abroad and the children are in the care of aged grandparents.

Joyce Epstein from the Center for the Social Organization of Schools developed what is known as "Epstein's Framework of Six Types Involvement".The six types are:
1. Parenting
2. Communicating
3. Volunteering
4. Learning at Home
5. Decision Making
6. Collaborating with Community

Epstein suggests having workshops on each of these types would lead to positive results for the parents, children and teachers. For instance,it would build awareness of the importance of school, parents would feel support from other parents as well as from the school and teachers be in a better positon to understand families background, culture, and concerns.

The reality is that most times the parents we want to meet are difficult to get in contact with when situations occur at school. Therefore, teachers are called upon to nurture these students and provide the best solution to assist these children to develop and become good responsible citizens.

All teachers are "Teachers of Reading"

Teachers across the curriculum ,experienced and inexperienced use broad generalisations when referring to students ability to read. If a child is unable to participate meaningfully in the classroom setting, the child is branded as 'unable to read'or 'uninterested in learning'. There is no diagnosing of the students,individually or group wise, and it is apparently left to the English Language teachers to 'fix' these students.The 'blame game' is heard too often.

I am sharing with you some instructional strategies for content area reading from an article by Dr.Hyacinth McDowall entitled,"Every secondary school teacher-A Teacher of Reading".

1. DIRECTED READING-THINKING ACTIVITY (DR-TA)'fosters critical awarenessby moving students through a process that involves prediction,verification,judgement and ultimately extension of thought".

2.DIRECTED INQUIRY ACTIVITY (DIA)'helps direct students through reading assignments with content materials containing an abundance of factual information and details..'. It utilizes a framework of conjecture regarding six points of enquiry: who? what? when? where? why? how?

3.DIALOGUE JOURNALS is a 'reciprocal activity carried on by teacher and student.It is an effective means of integrating reading and writing ..capitalizing on the advantages of functional experiences.

These strategies are a few of the many that can be implemented to improve reading in content areas.

Reading Specialist

I have been a teacher for close to 25 years at the secondary school level. I began teaching without any formal training. I was fortunate to work with very committed senior teachers who encouraged collaboration and team work which assisted in my professional development.
Over the years, I found that students were having difficulties in reading but I was not equipped to deal with the problem.I did not know how to diagnose the problems and how to assist them .My adolescent students were in dire need of professional help.I had to get on board when I heard of this programme.I wish I had some of this training 20 years ago but I still have time to make a contribution to the students and teachers with whom I interact.
All teachers need to see themselves as "Teachers of Reading" and be ready to move into a 21st century mode of teaching using as many different strategies and ICT tools to enhance learning and teaching for diverse learners