Early Literacy Development
Observing
and Interacting With Program Director and Other Administrative Staff in your
Setting
I was interacting with Ms. Elsa Galan; she is the
site director of Incarnation Head Start. Ms. Elsa has been working for this
site for about a year and a half. I told her that my topic for my research
paper is Early literacy, and what she thought about it. She said that it was a
good topic that once a month parents have a literacy workshop, provided by the
staff of the University of Illinois in Chicago, but parents’ participation is
very low and they do not attend the workshops. She also said that parents learn
how to make reading fun to their children, through these workshops, and at the end
of these workshops parents received books.
One insight I gained is that Ms. Elsa talked to
parents at the moments they are dropping off their child, and she invites them
to the different workshops she organized for them. She has good relations with
the parents. Another insight is that Ms. Elsa is a bilingual site director, and
most of the families in the program are Hispanic, she said that it is very
important to talk to parents in their native language if it’s possible, because
talking to them in their own language, develops trust between parents and
staff.
Its definately very important to have a good rapport with parents so that they feel safe knowing that their children are in good hands.
ReplyDeleteI love the fact that the school you are observing at does literacy workshops! Its so unfortunate that the parents are not very interested in it.
I am actually also writing my research paper on early literacy. It is such an important topic and I feel it doesn't get much attention.
Good luck with your paper.
Great post!!
Lisa, even though our topic is about early literacy, is going to be very interesting to see how different or similar our resaerch paper will be.
DeleteI think that it is important for parents to be involved and the workshop would help them to get some of the skills that they need to help their children. I think that most of the parents are discouraged because the workshops are in English and they do not understand. But we should never stop trying to encourage them.
ReplyDeleteRosalie, the parents workshops are provided in English and Spanish, but still the parents do not attend them.
DeleteHi Rosalie,
ReplyDeleteI think that it's a great idea for parents to attend workshops! The school I work at provides us with several workshops to better ourselves, but nothing for the parents. It is important for the parents to be on the same page as us and I feel that we should attend workshops together. Parents would gain so much valuable knowledge and would be extremely greatful for being able to attend these workshops.
It's too bad parents don't take the opportunities provided to help them with their child's education. I know parents are busy however make it a 'family' night bring the kids and have them participate in the activities so parents can see how easy it is to do as well as how much the kids enjoy the process.
ReplyDelete