Summary of Activity 1: In this activity, prospective teachers will complete a culture quilt that represents their familial customs, traditions, and ways of life. A culture quilt is a large rectangular area (usually the size of an 8 ½ in x 11 in sheet of paper) made up of several small squares. In each square, use words, pictures, symbols or other objects to represent an important aspect of their culture (customs, traditions, language, religion, food, etc.). One can usually fit 6-12 squares on a sheet depending on how large the squares. 

Next, teachers should describe themselves and their upbringing using their culture quilt as a guide, and with a partner consider how their culture is reflected in the ways that their parents, caregivers, and family engaged in their educational experiences. 

Literacy Ed Application: Teacher educators for literacy and reading courses may ask students to focus specifically on excavating their experiences with literacy in their homes, specifically how literacy was defined and demonstrated by their families and caregivers. Prospective teachers may also write a literacy narrative that details how literacy was defined, demonstrated, and experienced in their personal homes.

In this activity, prospective teachers will engage in one conversation with 3 students/school-aged children in an effort to become more familiar with their in-school and after-school activities and interests, their homes and communities, cultures and knowledge bases, and their home and community resources. Participants may use an interest inventory, a list of questions about student experiences and ideas, to guide conversation. A prospective teacher's inquiry should elicit information about how students feel about reading, what they enjoy/dislike about reading, and how they engage in literacy practices outside of school. Participants should also include in their guides, questions about multimodal literacy practices such as students’ experiences with music lyrics, movies, visual art, audiobooks, etc. 

Prospective teachers should use the results of the interest inventory to reflect upon their own literacy instruction design and implementation. How do their methods align with students’ interests and strengths? If disconnects exist, how can they use their knowledge from the interest inventories to better connect the curriculum to students/children? 

Application Activity: The goal is for prospective teachers to curate a literacy environment within their classrooms that reflects what they learned from the conversation with students about their literacy interests. Throughout the school year, student teachers should continue having conversations with students about their literacy engagement and gradually make changes to ensure that elements in the classroom support students’ needs and interests.

Related Readings: 

Barnes, C. J. (2006). Preparing preservice teachers to teach in a culturally responsive way. Negro educational review, 57.

Gardner, R. P., Osorio, S. L., & McCormack, S. (2021). Creating spaces for emotional justice in culturally sustaining literacy education: Implications for policy & practice. Theory Into Practice, 60(3), 301-311.

Summary of Activity 3: Literacy can take many different forms and it is important to hold expansive views and definitions of literacy that can accommodate the cultural and linguistic diversity present within schools and communities. Teachers should prioritize recognizing various forms of literacy as welcomed assets in their classroom environments. As an example, students may read printed texts in various types of publications, write lyrics for songs, or read and perform poetry, and all of these expressions represent forms of literacy. There is also a situational awareness that can be described as “reading the world” that students may have and that should be recognized as a literacy skill set. 

Activity 3 is an extension of Activity 2 but should include and involve the perspectives of parents, families, and caregivers. In addition to learning about children/students’ individual perspectives, prospective teachers will gather information to create a more holistic understanding of how to engage with their students and their families. The goal of this activity is to discuss with parents their perceptions of literacy and how they engage with literacies outside of school. Prospective teachers should be able to identify the literacies parents value and the goals that they have for their children/students. 

Upon reflection, consider how the course curriculum/state standards mirror parents/families goals. How can prospective teachers supplement the curriculum/standards to address and align family goals and concerns. Although it may not always be possible, they should consider how to solicit input and feedback from students and their families on instructional design and implementation. 

Engagement/Application: This activity is intended for parents, caregivers, and students to showcase their home literacy activities while providing teachers opportunities to use academic language to connect home literacy activities and skills to academic content standards. Parent/caregiver and student show and tell is an opportunity to invite families into the classroom to talk about home literacy activities that they do with their children. Teachers should offer flexible scheduling and modalities to accommodate parents’ schedules and levels of accessibility. Teachers should offer examples of home literacy activities and offer to support parents/caregivers to identify home literacies that they wish to share. Teachers should ask parents to share their plans ahead of the presentation and pre-plan how to use instructional vocabulary to connect classroom standards to home literacy practices.

Summary of Activity 4: Parental Involvement occurs when parents are integrated into previously established goals, plans, and activities. However, parental engagement provides parents with opportunities for more active roles as co-designers in the classroom environment. For some teachers, parental engagement poses a concern of over-involvement in the instructional process. In this activity, prospective teachers should consider how they can create and maintain healthy boundaries with parents while maintaining an open and welcoming environment for collaboration.  

Application Activity: Collaborate with parents to create a communication plan. Parents want to be informed about what their children are learning and how they can best support them outside of the classroom. One suggestion is to create a survey to gauge how often and in what ways parents and caregivers want to be updated about the literacy content and standards teachers will cover in the classroom. Teachers may also consider providing optional opportunities for enrichment. As some schools move to “no homework” policies, we found that some parents valued homework assignments as opportunities for enrichment. If prospective teachers do not assign homework in the form of worksheets or other more traditional homework activities, they might consider encouraging parents and caregivers to engage with their children in more authentic ways through their home literacy activities. For example, they may encourage caregivers to include their children in meaningful ways in grocery shopping, cooking, organizing household items, etc. then invite students to discuss their experiences. Prospective teachers' discussions with parents and caregivers in Activity 4 may inform your approach to this activity. 

Candid Conversations: Prospective teachers can ask parents and caregivers to select one texts (print, audio/video, visual art, etc.) that is accessible in their home/assign or provide them with a text, and have a conversation about it with their child. Check-in with adults about their experiences in discussion with their children, and talk with children to learn how their engagement with the texts supports their understanding of the content.

Related Readings: 

Goodall, J., & Montgomery, C. (2014). Parental involvement to parental engagement: A continuum. Educational review, 66(4), 399-410.

Jeynes, W. H. (2018). A practical model for school leaders to encourage parental involvement and parental engagement. School Leadership & Management, 38(2), 147-163.

Parsons, M. W., & Shim, J. M. (2019). Increasing ELL Parental Involvement and Engagement: Exploration of K-12 Administrators in a Rural State. English Language Teaching, 12(10), 29-43.