By Charlene Klassen Endrizzi, Westminster College, PA
This week, we journey inside a third grade classroom to explore how Anne, a Westminster College graduate student, started using Family Message Journals in spring. Her goal focused on developing more dynamic home-school partnerships with students’ families. She first sent home monthly newsletters and home surveys to share her beliefs and gain an understanding of her families’ home interactions. Her rural school in western Pennsylvania consists of families from predominantly lower socioeconomic backgrounds with over half of the children receiving free or reduced lunches.
During weekly after school sessions, Anne and a small group of reluctant third grade readers collectively explored six different family story books and wrote about the books in their journals. Following each session children shared the book and journal with a parent, grandparent, or sibling at home, who then wrote a response in the family journal before sending both back to school.
One of the first books Anne shared, Stringbean’s Trip to the Shining Sea depicting a fictionalized vacation through postcards, chronicles the summer camping adventures of Stringbean and his brother Fred. Students ended their journal entries with a question, thereby enticing family members into a written conversation. In response to one third grader’s question, “What was your favorite trip?” his mother recounted, “Julian, The most memorable trip would be when we went to Kentucky to visit Grandma and Grandpa and got stuck in a standstill on the highway for six hours. Love, Mom.”
Julian’s written exchange with his mom reflects the value of an attentive listener. Often teachers ask children to write stories, letters, poems, or news articles without giving them an authentic audience, a reason to want to write. Family members naturally respond to questions about family vacations in different ways than a teacher. Listening in on written conversations between parents and children through message journals offers teachers like Anne a tangible avenue for learning about families’ unique experiences and beliefs.
Several weeks later Anne’s group of reluctant readers explored Isabel’s House of Butterflies, depicting a Latino family’s struggle to survive while adversely impacting a North American monarch butterfly sanctuary in Mexico. Anne also used various nonfiction websites to explore the life cycle of monarch butterflies and their annual migration between Canada and Mexico.
Again Julian closed his entry by posing questions, “What do you think will happen? Do you know any Spanish words?” Tony Johnston’s text facilitates an exploration of Spanish terms and phrases, thoughtfully sprinkled throughout the English text. Julian’s mother responded by sharing an experience. “I took Spanish class throughout high school. My name Harriet, does not translate well into Spanish. So some years, my name was Elena and some years it was Isabelle. I remember lots of Spanish words from school. If you like, I can teach you some of them. Love Mom.” She proceeded to record an entire page of Spanish terms she remembered from long ago. El gato = cat, Me llamo = My name is, El perro = dog, Rojo = red….
Parent perspectives open a window of possibilities for combining home and school viewpoints. In western Pennsylvania, hearing a language other than English is rare. This mother’s valuing of a second language, different from the language of a predominantly European American population, is a remarkable opportunity for inviting her child to find value in a second language.
Anne recognized a need for more non-fiction books in her work with these reluctant readers, therefore she expanded beyond fiction family texts into non-fiction family story books. Owen and Mzee, a true story involving an orphaned baby hippopotamus and a 130 year old Aldabra tortoise was the first book she selected to explore. She also used a Smart Board to share the Owen and Mzee website along with the Google Earth website. Technology tools enticed reluctant (and proficient) readers into this literacy exploration, building a significant contextual frame for understanding the text. (See Barbara Thompson-Book’s January WOW Currents posts for further explorations.)
After exploring the book and websites, Anne asked, “What makes a family?” Third graders discussed differences between friends versus families before writing an entry in their family journals.
Dear Family:
Owen and Mzee taught me that families are people that share time together and someone you love. If you have a mom or dad or friends that you like a lot, they are your family. Owen and Mzee share a lot of good times together like a family. What do you think family is? Love, Adam
Adam:
I think family is — the people who truly love you, who stand at your bedside when you’re sick, or who hold you when you cry. Love, Katherine (7th grade sister)
Adam’s exchange with his sister shows a third and seventh grader thinking more broadly about families, in light of this unusual animal pairing. Katherine’s definition tells us so much about this family’s bond.
Based on her group’s enthusiastic response to Owen and Mzee, Anne chose to share another Hatkoff text with her entire third grade class. Reading Winter’s Tail and watching several other webcasts through a Smart Board led her class to beg for more Hatkoff texts (Looking for Miza and Knut). From my perspective as a Baby Boomer, I am constantly reminded of how the Millennial generation is hooked on visual literacy. Graduate students like Anne keep teaching me of the need to respond to this keen interest through technology tools.
In mulling over these three family-child journal interactions I realize how families offer an essential personal lens. Anne summed up her vision of family journals in response to family story books by explaining, “These journals allowed me to gain insight into my children’s and families’ lives.” When teachers like Anne see the value of these essential insights from home for building a stronger, more vital community of readers at school, we can uncover the potential of literacy communities spanning across home-school borders.
*Which family response evoked a spark, an idea for you to consider within your own school community?
*What windows of possibilities do you see for connecting family-school literacy communities in your classroom?
*When you risk reach out, striving to connect with students’ families like Anne, what successes and struggles have you encountered?
References
Hatkoff, I., Hatkoff, C. & Kahumbu, P. (2006). Owen and mzee: The true story of a remarkable friendship. New York: Scholastic.
Hatkoff, J., Hatkoff, I., Hatkoff, C. & Uhlich, G. (2007). Knut: How one little polar bear captured the world. New York: Scholastic.
Hatkoff, J., Hatkoff, I., Hatkoff, C. & Kahumbu, P. (2008). Looking for miza. New York: Scholastic.
Hatkoff, J., Hatkoff, I., Hatkoff, C. (2009). Winter’s tail: How one little dolphin learned to swim again. New York: Scholastic.
Johnston, T. (2003). Isabel’s house of butterflies. San Francisco: Sierra Club.
Williams, V. & Williams, J. (1988). Stringbean’s trip to the shining sea. New York: Scholastic.
Journey through Worlds of Words during our open reading hours: Monday-Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Saturday, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. To view our complete offerings of WOW Currents, please visit archival stream.
- Themes: Charlene Klassen Endrizzi
- Descriptors: Books & Resources, Student Connections, WOW Currents
From the beginning of the year, I try to establish a connection with the families of my students through weekly “Busy Bee Reports,” monthly parent newsletters, and a class website. I think these connections contributed to the great response I received from parents to the Family Message Journals. The enthusiasm of my students to read their families’ responses aloud every week was amazing. I learned so much about these few students and their families through this short exchange (Spring semester). I can’t wait to start Family Message Journals in the fall with my entire class – think how much more I can learn about my students and their families!
I personally enjoy the family journals, where the students can write to their parents, and then the parent can respond back to them. This is something I would really like to do in my own classroom. however, I teach Kindergarten and I’m not sure how I could do it during hte first semester. Later in the year, my students learn how to write more, and I could use it more then. I look forward to trying it out, to see how parents will respond.
Thanks,
Stephanie
I have never used the “Family Message Journals” in my own classroom, but I do look forward to using them in the fall. This is a wonderful resource that would be beneficial to the child, family, and teacher. I think that the journal will be very helpful in bridging the gap between family and school.
Family Message Journals is a great way to foster better classroom-to-home comminucation. I struggle with finding a way to have good communication with my parents since I do not have an actual classroom. Great idea and I hope that I could do a something like this with a classroom of kids. (Maybe use a journal to share books read in the library?????)
What a great way not only for teachers to learn about families, but for the kids to learn about their families too. Julian might have never known that being stuck in a traffic jam was a special memory for his mom. Maybe this 6 hours in traffic gave them time to talk about things that they never took the time for. This is a great way to open up conversation among families and let the teacher get a sneak peek into what lives are like outside of the classroom.
I have never used family journals. Sometimes the students’ daily planners serve as a means of sending messages. I’ve seen notes from parents to their children in them with words of encouragement (good luck on your test, or I love you) or reminders(Don’t forget to take your AR test, please turn in your field trip permission slip). I can see this working in my classroom. I’ve often wanted to stop in the middle of a lesson and tell my students to, “write this down and tell your family what you learned today when you go go home.” I might start there…repetition is good for the soul…
I really like the idea of Family Message Journals! I think that the family feedback a student received from his/her journal would make the student feel what they’re reading and learning is important. I can see that these journals could help connect students and families to the teacher and school. Great idea!
I really like how this teacher used family message journals in conjunction with picture books. I can see how it really helped the students to value reading and it gave them more of a purpose to respond when they knew someone would be reading it. I might try this in my classroom.
How cool to work with struggling readers in this way. I’ve often tutored after school, but this experience should revive my students as well as myself for an extra hour after school! I will try it!
Agendas are required at all of our schools so the Family Message Journal would probably be overkill and received with some negativity. I think trying to use the agenda like a journal might work and could even change the stigma around the agendas. The idea is to get kids engaged in meaningful conversation through the written word. I love the idea of the various communication links this can create between students and their families. This is certainly an idea to use and expound on.
I appreciate Jeannie’s description of our family work as “sneak peeks” into our students’ lives. These sneak peeks can help us as teachers know if our efforts are making sense, confusing families, etc. We simply have so much to learn about each unique learner and family. Anne’s weekly reports, monthly newsletters and class website invite parents to take a “sneak peek” inside her classroom but her family journals enable to get that vital “sneak peek” into their literacy lives, as she strives to make more informed decisions.
Stephanie’s question about how to make family journals work in Kindergarten classrooms (and even in preschool) takes me back to my son’s K year. His teacher, Mrs. Synder, began family journals in October, inviting five year olds to draw pictures and label items. Bryce was already a writer at that point but other children needed to start with a safe mode of communication – drawing. Children and families then spent time talking about their drawings at home before parents responded. Mrs. Synder’s accompanying monthly newsletters enabled us as parents to gain a lens on developmental aspects of their journals, from a teacher perspective. Bryce still re-reads these precious journals as wonderful memories of his K year.
I have seen other teachers of emergent writers take time in their monthly newsletters to explain how beginning writers need support to continue taking risks. They also make sure to explain that their initial goal is not perfect spelling but communication. These journals are remarkable evidence of my son’s growth, as a thinker, writer, person, and even of his developing knowledge of phonics. These rich journals, full of family and school stories, stand in stark contrast to high stakes tests like DIBELS, offering only fragments of isolated information about five year olds. Teachers could easily use these family journals during parent conferences to show families their child’s growth.
I really like the way that Anne incorporated Family Message Journals into the classroom – especially the connection she made using family story books. This format provided students and their parents with a rich opportunity for discussion and opened the door for parents to share personal stories that otherwise, they may not have. I also thought it was a wonderful idea to tie in a book focusing on another culture and the mother’s response of sharing what Spanish she knew. This perfectly demonstrates a way in which to enrich the education taking place outside of school and how to create such opportunities for your students as an educator.
I love the idea of the journal between family members and the students. Thinking back, I really wish that my teachers in elementary did this sort of thing. It makes me think of the children who really did not like to read. If we had a program like this, would they have enjoyed reading in later years? When I become a teacher, this is one program I am going to use to build Home-School relationships. It is such a wonderful idea.
I love the idea of home-school journals! I got to see an example of a home-school journal in my Special Education Field Experience. In this experience, the journal was sent home and the parent and teacher wrote daily logs and questions about the child. This was such a great tool in getting the parents involved in their child’s education. The importance of parental involvement is sometimes overlooked in classrooms and these articles prove just how powerful a parents involvement is. In the article, I loved how students could ask a question and the parent could respond. That not only involves the parent but can bring the parent and child closer as well. Also, I liked how families could respond together. Asking the questions to the family as a whole gets the whole family involved in the students classroom and can bring everyone at home closer. All in all, this is such a great tool to use in the classroom to get to know families of all ethnicities. It can really bring the parent-school partnership together, which makes for a very successful year of teaching. I definately plan on using some form of home-school journal in my future classroom!
I really liked the idea of the home-school journals! I think that it makes communication with family so much easier that way and it keeps families feeling that the teacher is able to be contacted at anytime about anything regarding their child.
I personally think that Home-school journals is a fantastic idea,because it is a great way to connect school and home life. I think that it creates a great platform for the parents to be involved in their chils’s school life, and helps them to talk about school at home. This is a great way for students and parents to connect over school.
I love this idea of home-school journals. I think that this would be a great tool for any classroom. I personally think it would be great to use this idea in a class with ESL students. It would be a way to help the teacher understand the ESL student’s culture and homelife.
Wow! What an amazing way to present literacy in the classroom and at home. I believe for students items that are interactive with their parents like the home-school journals are not homework! This was a great way for Anne to get a different view into the children’s lives and really bring out different perspectives. The questions that the students came up with were wonderful, and the responses made them even more worth while! A lot of students do not get the time to sit down and talk with their parents, so to put something like a picture book and journal in front of them gives them an opportunity to talk and share, which is a great experience to then bring back into the classroom. Over the past few years in school I have learned how important home-school partnerships are and this is just another amazing way to develop those.
I think that family message journals could be a key part in engaging families in the education of their kids, but also in providing an opportunity for families to communicate with their child about various topics. For instance, the article mentions how Julian asked his mother if she knew any Spanish words. She responded with a story about how she used to take Spanish class. That was a story that may not have been shared with Julian had his mother not been given an avenue to do so. Going even beyond that, she offered to teach him some Spanish. What a wonderful thing!
I think overall parents/guardians WANT to be involved. Many of them work, or have busy schedules that would prevent them from being a chaperone for a class field trip or to come and read books to the class, but a family message journal offers an opportunity for parents/guardians to play an active role in the education of their children and I think that is just as valuable to the parent/guardian as it is to the student.