FAMILY PLAN 1

Family Involvemnt Plan

Celia Nguyen and Victoria Pecot

Louisiana State University

November 14, 2021

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Family Management Plan

1. Parenting

Different ways Mayfair Laboratory School can support families is to incorporate

grade level or individual zoom meetings, provide translators and incorporate family

week. Due to Covid-19, many parents are not comfortable to meet face-to-face.

Incorporating monthly zoom meetings will keep families involved and updated on what

is happening in the classroom. The meeting will be held with all parents and teachers of

a level grade or individually. All parents are welcomed to sign up for these meetings.

During the meeting, teachers can go over the goals, objectives, and assignments of that

month. Parents are welcomed to ask questions. The meeting would be an hour long and

there would be a translator there. I feel that some parents are shy when it comes to

asking for a translator, so a translator should be at the meeting if there is an ESL family

in the classroom. The meeting is meant to provide support to families and build

relationships with families. A translator should be provided at all meetings; this includes

conferences, zoom meetings, and open houses. Communication with every family is

important. Every family should have the same opportunity to be able to support their

children. To help families support their children at home, the school can have family

week. Family week will allow one to two parents a day to sit in their child’s classroom.

There will be a sign up sheet for parents to sign up if they want to come. Many parents

do not understand the material their children are learning at school. Parents have

difficulties providing support at home with homework because they do not understand
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the material. If parents get the opportunity to sit in a lesson, they will learn the material

and different strategies to support their child. Not only will parents learn ways to

support their child, but also understand the teacher’s teaching style and classroom

expectations. For parents who cannot attend family week, a packet will be sent home

with tips and strategies that teachers used during that week’s lesson. These ideas are a

good fit for Mayfair because many parents want to support their children at home. It is

difficult for families to support their children at home when there are limited

opportunities for families to do so. By allowing these plans to happen, families will be

more confident in supporting their children at home.

2. Communication

Have a face-to-face open house, send home a weekly agenda for all subjects,

and create a study plan for students. Due to Covid-19, there was not an open house for

the past two years, and parents did not get the opportunity to meet teachers and build a

relationship at the beginning of the school year. Some parents did not understand the

expectations in the classrooms that are set. The school should bring back the face-to-

face open house or virtual open house. Open houses provide opportunities for teachers

to build relationships with family members. It gives teachers the chance to gain parents’

support in the classroom. Parents will understand the classroom expectations from the

beginning. For the open house, it should include an “open house packet”. The packet

should include information about each subject that will be covered throughout the year.
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The curriculum plans/goals and a list of materials students will need for class should be

added. In the packet there will be a list of important phone numbers pertaining to the

school, different ways to reach the teacher, a list of resources offered by the school, and

an academic calendar. For parents who cannot attend, the packet will be mailed home

and sent through classroom dojo. Families will have the options to contact teachers

through phone call, classroom dojo, written letters, and home visits. The weekly

classroom agenda should include announcement of upcoming events, descriptions of the

unit with goals/objectives, suggestions of supplementation of the unit at home,

explanation of the grading scale, explanation classroom expectations, explanation of

consequences of misbehavior, and provide community resources. For the most part, the

weekly agenda will stay the same. The only things that change are the announcement of

upcoming events and description of the unit with the goals/objectives. Another way to

support families and students is to create a study plan. The study plan will provide

information on what is expected on the test. Many students do not know how to prepare

for their assessments. The study plan would be sent home a week before students take

their assessment. For example, a math study plan the problems will be pulled from

students homework, problem set, and exit tickets. These practice problems will prepare

students for their math assessment. The problems will be broken into five days of

studying. There should also be an answer key for parents to check for the correct

answer; under the answer there should be work shown on how to complete the problem.
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At Mayfair, there are students who are identified as ESL students. For ESL families,

their face-to-face open house should provide translators. The open house packet, weekly

agenda, and study plan should be translated in their home language. These plans are

ideal for Mayfair Laboratory School because Covid-19 has lowered family involvement.

Many parents do not feel comfortable arriving on campus. While there are parents who

cannot be involved as much due to work.These engagement plans are other ways for

teachers to keep parents involved in the classroom without face-to-face contact. It is not

only important for students to feel welcomed, but also families should feel welcomed

too.

3. Learning at home

A learning plan that can be appropriate for kindergarten through 3rd grade is to

have students read at home. Students are encouraged to read at home at least 15 minutes

a night. Currently teachers send home reading logs for students to fill out after they

have read for 15 minutes. The log only requires the name of the book and a parent

initial; it is given on Mondays and gets picked up on Fridays. It is difficult to see if

students actually read every night because it is just a reading log. Instead of a reading

log, a reading pacing guide will benefit teachers and students. Some students are also

choosing books that may not be on their reading level. Before students are given a

reading pace guide, there should be books provided for students. Teachers can make

sure the books that are chosen are appropriate for each student’s reading level. The
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reading pace guide will include how many pages are recommended to read each night

and a place, the name of the book, and a place for parent initials. On the guide it will

ask students to identify the setting, characters, problems, events, and solutions. The

pace guide is meant to improve students’ problem solving skills, language skills,

cognitive skills, writing skills, and reason skills. This plan is beneficial for teachers

because they can see if students are reading, identify their strengths/weaknesses, and see

improvement. As for students, the pacing guide is meant to promote students’ problem

solving skills, language skills, cognitive skills, writing skills, and reason skills. Parents

are also encouraged to be involved with the reading pace guide. Parents can ask the

questions and help students think about the questions. They can also ask students to

summarize the book they read. All of the questions on the pacing guide are meant to

help students summarize the text. The reading pacing guide is beneficial for students at

Mayfair because there is a small amount of time dedicated for students to read during

class. Students need to continue to read to promote different skills. If they do not

continue to read to comprehend the text, it will affect other developmental domains. For

example, some students in 3rd grade have difficulties with word problems in Math.

They are reading word problems but not comprehending what is asked of them. On

tests, exit tickets, and problem sets students are making careless mistakes due to them

not comprehending what is asked or not following the directions. The reading pacing
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guide will help build the foundation for other subjects such as Math, Science, ELA, and

Social Studies.

Additionally, to promote students learning at home teachers can send home a list

of free resources and send resources home to students. The list of resources will provide

resources for all subjects. It can include videos, online reading, and educational games.

For families who do not have access to technology, teachers can provide a list of free

community resources and send home magazines and books. Free community resources

can be library events, museums, parks, and festivals. All of these resources will

encourage family involvement and help students gain personal experiences. Especially

in Science and ELA, students are encouraged in their writing to recall information from

the text and recall from experience. Teachers can attach a resource list with a quick

assignment for students to complete weekly. Depending on the grade level, students will

be asked to write or draw about one new thing they learned about this week. Of course

for ESL families, these resources and directions would be in their home language.

Mayfair has students that come from all different backgrounds. The list of resources are

meant to give all students the opportunity to learn at home in different ways. The

resources provided would promote students’ social, emotional, cognitive, and language

skills.

The last learning at home plan is to provide a list of learning at home activities.

Learning at home activities will provide a list of activities for families and students to
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do together or alone. With the list, it should include questions or word problems parents

can create. ESL families should have a copy with their home language sent home. The

supplies for these activities would only use resources from home. An appropriate

activity for students from grades kindergarten through 3rd grade is adding, subtracting,

multiplication, and division. The instructions for the activity is to find supplies they

have at home to complete the activity. Families can use beans, markers, glue sticks,

shoes, etc. Once families have gathered their supplies, they can use the objects to help

provide a visual when students are adding, subtracting, multiplication, and dividing.

Parents can give their children 8 markers and then ask “How many markers will I have

left if I take away 3 markers?” A simple activity like this will help students memorize

their math facts. Some students are not memorizing their math facts. When students are

trying to complete a word problem, some students are getting it wrong because they

could not recall their multiplication facts. This at home learning would promote

students’ social,, cognitive, language, and problem-solving skills.

4. Volunteering/School Engagement

Volunteering and school engagement can be very important and fun to become

involved in your school. Especially for families, these can be used as family support,

assistance, and overall involvement in extracurricular activities. Many families and

parents look for these each year, and even year round, because this is a big way they

make their own friends and build relationships within the school. Many parents and
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families want to get involved in the school that their child is in. Just like how their child

is building relationships in school, they want to get to know the school as well. Some

examples of some volunteering ideas that could be placed in the school is for extended

day. I have seen an overflow of children in extended day, with not enough adults. It

would be a very big help to have volunteers in the school for this reason. Also, the

parents and family members could be these volunteers to limit the strangers coming in. I

also had this idea a few months ago, but I think that there should be a club with both

parents, family members, and teachers. I think that just like any club, they could have

regular meetings. However, due to adults’ very busy schedules, I do not think that they

need to meet that often. I believe that this club could take place in each classroom, and

the correct family members will meet with the teacher of their child. In the club, they

could discuss statistical data of their children and what will be taught this month. The

teachers could be open-minded to input the family members have to what they think

should be changed/added. I know that this can be a heavy load, but I know if I was a

teacher I would actually love to do this.

A similar idea to the one previously mentioned would be another

club/association, with the parents and teachers all together. They would all meet and

discuss concerns and bring them to the administrators towards the end of the meeting.

This meeting could be held once every few months, as a check-in to see how everyone

believes the school is running. Even though this seems like a lot, I think it is important
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because the administrators need a check in from time to time. The principal, and the

secretary, etc., are running the whole show behind the scenes and not many people get

to share their feedback that they have, even though they may have a big opinion of it.

For this reason, I feel that there should be some school engagement with this to discuss

everything going on, so that everyone has clarity.

5. Decision Making

Similarly to the volunteering/school engagement section, I feel as though

decision making is just as important. In Mayfair Laboratory School, already parents are

highly involved and engaged in decision making. Teachers are extremely

communicative with each other and the parents of the student in whom they need to

make decisions for. The teachers will wait until the parent says something in order to

make a decision on for what to do. For example, in my class, Student A has had a

difficult school year trying to get used to non-virtual schooling. He has struggled and

been through the ringer. He is not used to not having his hand held during every

assignment, and having to pay attention so much in class. His mother helped him

through everything on her own. This is okay, however, it has had a humongous

negative impact on his grades. He is close to failing each subject, and my mentor has

tried numerous things to help him. We have had three meetings with his mother, the

principal, and the school counselor for intervention on help with him. The mother has

had a lot of decision making with his schooling now, so she receives copies of his tests
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and quizzes before taking them, as well as being in charge of all of his homework

assignments. The teacher does not want him to fail, so this is why we have been

resulting to this, to help him with as much as he needs help with.

I agree that families should have a big role in their child’s schooling and

decision making. However, I also believe a teacher does know what they are doing, and

just needs some support at times. This is why I believe only when it is necessary should

a parent have more control over decision making in their child’s schooling than the

teacher, like for this case. In general, I do believe a teacher should go to the parent

before serious and even mild decision making, to see if they would follow the same

course of action or would choose a different plan.

6. Collaborating with the Community

Mayfair Laboratory School has a wonderful partnership between two community

partners: East Baton Rouge School System, and Louisiana State University (The

University Laboratory School). Louisiana State University and Mayfair Laboratory

School do many projects together. For example, LSU sends many environmental

projects to do in the garden with the students. They help Mayfair build the bridge of

STEM, We regularly have a few projects with them throughout the year, and they

provide the funding, and even sometimes the set up of these projects in our garden.

They provide all of the necessary tools and instructions, as well as even a guide for why

we should do this with the students.

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Two other additional community partnerships that I believe would be beneficial

to Mayfair Laboratory School would be a foodbank, and a homeless shelter. I feel like

both these partners would be beneficial to have in public school, where many of the

students are from a lower/middle class. The foodbank could forge a beneficial

relationship by providing free food for families in need, like on some days where it is

harder than others to cook for their family. The homeless shelter could be a good

community partner for the same reason, but for clothes and basic needs. I have not

heard of many schools partnering with a homeless shelter, but due to an ever growing

need of families to be able to provide for their families, this would seem beneficial.