Parent Communication: Showing Off Learning

It has come to our Middle School principal's attention that some of our parents feel disconnected from their children's learning in school. They are used to being involved with their children while doing homework during Elementary School. They are used to helping out in the Elementary classrooms. They are used to looking through work samples with their children at home and the teacher during conferences.

Things change in Middle School. Kids are more independent and get their homework done without parental help or supervision. They are more secretive, and often want to work in their rooms with the doors closed. They don't voluntarily show their parents their writing pieces, technology projects, or tests. Middle School teachers only occasionally invite parents to classroom events, and we don't have homeroom parent liaisons. When we have conferences, we discuss grades and study skills.

So the question becomes: How can we Middle School teachers help our parent community understand what is going on in their children's school lives? How can they understand what their children are learning and why we are teaching in this way? How can we ensure that they see the summative assessments, really see them for the types and quality of learning they represent?

One vehicle that is a starting point is a quick "newsletter"-like blurb at the beginning of each unit. This blurb, sent via email and posted on the class website, could provide an overview of the unit, the types of learning activities, and the enduring understandings and/or essential questions that drive the unit. This unit overview can keep parents in the loop for what is going on in school.

The harder question is how best to share the assessments. Ideally, students should sit down with their parents and talk them through the assignment and reflect on their performance. Parents should ask questions to find out more about their children's learning related to the assessment. They should talk together about what went well, what was challenging, and set goals for future performances.

In the "real world", these parent-child conversations rarely happen unless there is either a structure provided, like student-led conferences, or accountability, like some kind of a sign-off, built in. As we do more and more paperless assessments, having a parent sign-off that they've seen the artifact becomes troublesome-- where do they sign? Asking parents to send an email to the teacher is a time-consuming request, which also clogs up the teacher's inbox. And just because a parent signs off that they've seen an assignment does not guarantee that there has been any conversation around it.

At our department meeting this week, we are going to discuss this question of sharing assessments, especially writing pieces, with parents. I hope that our collective brain can come up with a workable solution. Without seeing first-hand what their children are capable of achieving, some parents (the ones talking to the principal) are doubting the quality of our program. We teachers know about the great stuff happening in our rooms. Now we need to ensure that our parent community knows it too.