DLTL 464

Cafecito Reflection

Kimberly Pablo

2-10-2023

The Cafecito was not successful in my situation. To start, I did not have support from

administration to do something in person which led me to attempt a less personable approach. I

attempted for Zoom conference but not all parents were familiar or on board. This led me to use

a survey. In the survey parents said everything was fine, they had no questions, no concerns,

and did not need anything extra being done for them. Since we are a lower income school there

are many resources that we have available that I have actually not been aware of which could

be the reason for parents not looking for alternate supports. Out of the 11 parents that

volunteered, only one asked about lectura assignments.The mother mentioned that her

daughter was not able to read books that they read before bed together. This was my only

starting point so I will be creating a conference for assisting with reading strategies.

I will share strategies that are being used in the classroom. But I would also like to use

strategies that they can include in their daily routines. I had completed a survey at the beginning

of the year and one of the questions was what their idea was on homework. I received 19 that

had no preference, 2 not wanting homework and 1 saying she would like to have something to

work on. After this survey, I did not want to put pressure on parents so I sent home optional

worksheets and shared activities being done in the classroom. Our district also has to share a

Canvas page with activities for the week and I refer parents to the page when they want

something to do. With the data in mind, and including some ideas from Johnston and Wong, I

have come up with different activities.

 I will be having my get together on zoom because the administration has yet to give me

authorization in completing an in person event. I am considering asking the library if it would be

possible to use a room there. Since it is within the community it could be easier. The only

downside is I was going to provide childcare for parents by having their kids with two coworkers

in the classroom next door. This would not be possible with the library which would affect

attendance and participation.

In regards to activities, I want to promote various levels and play based and direct

learning lessons. Some parents believe “more strongly that children learn best with instruction

and [disagree] more strongly that children learn while playing (Cheah & Rubin, 2001). I do have

a few parents that mentioned something along those lines during fall conferences. Having this in

mind, I want to provide activities that all parents could use. Since this is kinder and some of

them have trouble with the comprehension aspect of reading, I will promote the picture walk.

Where the students can make up the story by interpreting the pictures in the story. If they are

already reading with their child every night, then this would be something simple to implement.

The alternate level would be for having students “read” a word that is featured in the picture.

Example: The daddy lion wanted to go to the zoo-having students “read” zoo by using the

picture as an aid. After that, having students read the high frequency words that are present in

all texts. The second activity would be a memory game with three differentiated levels. First just

match the letter with the picture that starts with the sound. Next would be to match the syllable

with the picture that matches the beginning syllable. Lastly would be the skill of matching the

word with the picture. The third top priority activity would be to teach them the app we have,

which is Raz-kids, a reading app that contains thousands of leveled readers. Our district does

not have books that we can send home with students so we need to use the app as an

alternative. I would demonstrate where the level readers are so they can begin to read those

with students. If there is still time and I have parent involvement, I will introduce a writing activity

For this instance, I will give them the example of writing lists. A shopping list, to do list, or just a
list of names. Then I would offer the sentence stem of the week and start to put them in a pocket

protector that we send home. I will also be sending flash cards that correlate with the curriculum

pace of teaching syllables with a-e and words with a-e and so parents that prefer drill practice

still have that option.

Hopefully, I am able to teach them all the strategies and will reach out to parents after

the first week to see if the activities provided were being implemented and if not how could I

help, or if they have been implemented what recommendations they have for improvement. My

goal through this project is to help implement the “emphasis on “nurture” rather than “nature”,

[so parents can] be active participants in all aspects of learning (Johnston and Wong, 2002, pg

921). Not only in kindergarten but throughout their students' education.

Works Cited

Johnston, J. R., & Wong, M. A. (2002). Cultural differences in beliefs and practices concerning

talk to children. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research. 45(5), 916–926