Online Lesson 1:
Communication with Parents and Parental Involvement

This is a very interesting and important article. Take note of the family social structure and its relation to school achievement. How does one explain how these recent immigrant traumatized children of refugee families succeed in schools where other minority students have failed? What may be the reasons why these recent arrivals do so well while other minority students such as African Americans and Hispanics don't? Are there cultural, social, political reasons? Think about these questions as you read this article.

Caplan, N. M. H. Choy and J.K. Whitmore. Indochinese Refugee Families and Academic Achievement. In Scientific American. February, 1992 pp. 36-42

Moll and Gonzalez' article focuses on teacher household and community research for the purpose of creating a more relevant and culturally appropriate and effective pedagogy for students. Underlying this model is the fact that parents and teachers must collaborate in this effort, thereby making the connection between home and school stronger. Household "funds of knowledge," that are integrated into classroom lessons and which also help create the pedagogy, bring to the classrooms daily life experiences that parents and children experience can continue to discuss at home. Research shows that parental involvement in their children's education is related to high academic achievement. One major form of parental involvement is to have authentic daily interactions with their children about school activities including helping them with their homework. If homework and class activities are related to the experiences of the home and of the community, then the quality of interaction between students and parents may be increased since the conversations would be "authentic" as opposed to those that are "formulaic" or redundant in nature

Moll, L.C. and N. Gonzalez. Teachers as Social Scientists: Learning about Culture from Household Research. In P.M. Hall (Ed) Race, Ethnicity and Multiculturalism, Vol. I pp. 89-114, NY: Garland 1997.

When you are finished with the introduction and readings, there are two VCC activities.

Go on to Online Lesson 2
or
Go back to Topic 4: Communication with Parents