4a: Help Your Classmates

Heather Hoff's Portfolio Page | Quick and Effective Parent/Teacher Communication | QEP/TC Course Navigation

Objective

In this section, learners will:

• Use their job aid to revise examples of parent/teacher communication.

Communications to Improve

Your digital classmates have each brought a parent/teacher communication for you to review and improve.

Please select one or more classmates to assist. Download or print the file. Make revisions using your job aid.

👨🏼‍💼 This is my welcome email that gets sent out at beginning of the year. It never gets a good response. Parents rarely respond and when they do they often ask me questions that were answered in the email. Please help!	👩🏾‍💼 Here is my newsletter. I enjoy creating it and sending it home each month, but from what I've learned in this course I feel like it is set up all wrong! I'd like to include information the parents need, set expectations and all that, but I don't even know where to begin. What sections should I include? What information? Please help!	👩🏽‍🏫 These are the conversation notes I made before placing a phone call to a student's parent. They are actually the notes from the call I mentioned previously that went poorly. I always make notes before I call a parent. The notes typically follow this pattern, but I think my approach could be improved. Please help!
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Revision Suggestions

The digital classmate's revised their digital peer's communications.

👩🏾‍💼 Lex, I revised your welcome letter. It had lots of great information, but that made it a bit overwhelming. Now the letter starts by explain it's purpose. Next, the expectations are explicitly list. You already had these, but they were buried in the text. I broke the email into logical sections, so caregivers could choose to read what was applicable to them. Also, I suggest that you provide a link to instrument rental sites. That way the you are providing the resources needed. Lastly, I pulled out your questions and gave explicit instruction to respond. The email looks longer, but I think it is easier to read now.	👩🏽‍🏫 Mara, I just love the look of your newsletter. Since you raise chickens, featuring the chicken is a nice touch that adds warmth and personality. I have put in some suggested sections based on what you mention and this course. The sections are described in detail on the document itself. Even though the read every day item might not change, it does set a high expectation and as an ELA teacher I couldn't bear to remove it. Instead, I made it small and gave it to the chicken to say!	👨🏼‍💼 Amee, that is a great idea to sketch out conversation notes before a call. I may start doing that! You started with a greeting and the reason for the call. I kept that but listed it more clearly. Then I added a note to ask for the father's thought. That gives him a chance to share his experience. Next, you would open a discussion of solutions and again would request input from the father. The conversation would end on a positive note with you sharing your high expectations of the son.
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Pause and Reflect

• What can you learn from your digital classmates' revisions?
• How do their suggested revisions compare to yours?

Moving On

You have practiced your parent/teacher communication skills by helping your classmates.

Now it is time to 4b: Help Yourself!