How do you approach parent workshops?

I sent the following letter to the families of my students summarizing the recent parent workshop I gave but not everybody was able to attend. I post it in case anyone else has ever done parent workshops and would care to suggest ideas, directions, and other thoughts on parent education. Thank you in advance!


Dear Parents,

    The purpose of this letter is to give you a brief synopsis of the first parent workshop in October. We began by focusing our attention on thinking about the kinds of reading that we do on a daily basis. A cursory review of our lists reminded us that most of the reading we do is short (articles, emails, work memos, etc) and focused on our particular jobs or personal interests. In addition, most adults read non-fiction more often than fiction.  The same holds true for the kind of reading choices we can expect our students to make. Since information books pique children’s natural curiosities, one way to encourage an interest and engagement with reading for all children is to help them discover their interests and questions about the world. For example, if your child likes reading fiction books about pirates you may want to take a trip to the library, or surf the internet, for information on modern day pirates and the real time international concern with piracy.

    Next, each parent made a two-column chart of his/her child’s perceived strengths and areas for growth as a reader. After looking over this chart each parent determined whether or not s/he considered her/his child a “good reader”. These musings were kept private but I encouraged parents to keep these notes for future reference. If you were unable to attend the first session you may want to make your own chart and consider the same question as detailed above.

    Then, I shared a position statement on reading by a teacher professional organization, the National Council of Teachers of English. Rather than simply quoting the sections that I read at our meeting, I am providing you with the link so that you can read the entire document at your leisure. You can access it at http://www.ncte.org/positions/statements/onreading

    Although I made a quick reference to the fact that writing and reading are reciprocal processes and that some children learn to read by writing first, this was not a purpose of this session. I also made mention of miscue analysis, a process for determining a reader’s strengths and focus for instruction. The premise of miscue analysis is that we all make miscues while reading and that this is normal to the reading process. What is critical here is the kind of miscue that we make and it’s effect on meaning, which is what defines reading as reading: if we don’t understand what we’re reading then we’re not reading. This is particularly important for beginning readers who may slur over words they don’t know without employing meaningful strategies to get at an understanding of a text or, conversely, who think that reading every word correctly means they are reading. Yet, when either of these two readers is asked to retell what she just read neither one may have a clue.

    The focus of the next parent session is on boys and reading with more on miscue analysis. If you are a dad and only have girls this session would be of interest to you. If you have a son who is not in our class this session would also be of interest to you. If you have daughters and are curious about the differences and similarities between boys and girls with respect to reading then I would encourage you to attend. Another link I provided for parents at the first session focuses on boy readers. It is called Guys Read http://www.guysread.com sponsored by popular children’s author, Jon Scieska.

    I hope those of you who attended the first session will offer your own comments or insights regarding what we discussed. You can send these to me and I will forward them to all the parents in our class. Finally, if you have any topics that you would like to see addressed in the future, please feel free to suggest them to me.

Sincerely,

Señora Waingort