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Making curriculum links with homes and communities

6b What Student Teachers might do to Support Parents

Student teachers on placements could, in consultation with the class teacher or head of department, consider how to facilitate parents’ understanding of the how the school’s language curriculum is taught by:

  • putting  tips for supporting homework, including home reading, in homework diaries
  • writing children’s targets in homework books
  • pasting an explanation of the school marking policy in the back of writing books
  • Explore the possibility of making literacy focused resources with parents

Story Sacks and Bags of Learning are part of a Basic Skills Agency national initiative.  Groups of parents and member of the teaching staff work together to produce a range of materials to support home based story telling, children’s understanding of a fiction or non fiction book or museum visits, explaining the language purposes as they go along. The book, appropriate tape, or visit details are placed in the sack and lent out to families. http://www.basic-skills.co.uk

  • Consider inviting parents into the classroom for a curriculum focused workshop using the children’s materials See 6c: Case Study (i) Good practice in supporting parents
  • Tell parents about where they can get more information independently of school.

The DfES , National Literacy Trust and Basic Skills Agency all have comprehensive websites for parents. LEAs also sometimes have resources on their websites:

http://www.parentscentre.gov.uk
http://www.literacytrust.org.uk/database/parentindex.html
http://www.basic-skills.co.uk

Student teachers could: ask a non teaching friend about the teaching of a language topic (e.g. reading, set texts) and compare the answers with their own knowledge

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Contents

  1. Introduction and Rationale
    1. Introduction
    2. Rationale
  2. Core Principles about Language and Learning
  3. Key Issues
    1. Key Issues in Language and Learning
    2. Key Issues in Assessment and Evaluation
    3. Key Issues in Management
  4. Suiting Links to Purposes
  5. Links to Inform Parents and the Community
    1. Overview of Informing Links
    2. What Student Teachers might do to Inform Parents
  6. Links to Support Parents
    1. Overview of Supporting Links
    2. What Student Teachers might do to Support Parents
    3. Case Study (i): Supporting parental awareness of curriculum and methodology
    4. Developing parents’ own abilities through Family Learning courses
  7. Links to Make the Curriculum Reflective of Home and Community
    1. Overview of Reflective Links
    2. What Student Teachers might do to Make the Curriculum Reflective of Home and Community
    3. Case Study (ii): Reconstructing a community scenario
    4. Case Study (iii): Using texts from the community culture
  8. References
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