Unit 3: Tips for Parents
Unit Objectives - By the end of this unit, you will:
- Understand how to learn what parents want to know
- Understand where to find research-based tips for parents
- Design a plan for sharing tips with parents
Lesson 1
What is it?
Tips for parents are quick bits of advice to help parents support their child's online learning. Tips can be provided on topics such as motivation, time management, and preventing cyberbullying.
Why do it?
Providing tips for parents benefits everyone: the parent, the student, and you. Parents learn ways to help their children succeed at learning, students become more skillful at learning, and you have students who are more motivated to participate and learn! The article Fostering Student Success and Engagement in a K-12 Online School provides a basis in research for providing tips to parents. The article focuses on the parents' role in supporting online learning, and has sections that discuss what parents found helpful as well as what they wanted tips on from the online school. As you read the article note any ideas that resonate for you in your log.
Lesson 2
How do I do it?
Find out the topics parents are interested in. The best way to ensure your tips are relevant is to find out what parents want to know. This video shows a research-based Solution to Parent-Teacher Communication that you can easily use to learn the topics parents are interested in. Possible questions include:
What topics do you want to know more about? Offer a list: time management, testing, grades, Netiquette, deadlines, subject area, motivation, etc. Include a blank line so that parents can write in something else if they choose.
What is the best way for me to share information with you? Offer a list: email. text, social media. Make sure to only include communication methods you are comfortable using. This is a great question to help you design your one-way communication and decide which methods you'll offer for two-way communication.
You can create a free account at Survey Monkey or Google Surveys to design your survey.
Find tips that you can share with parents. Now that you know which topics parents are interested in, it's time to find helpful tips. A good place to look is on the websites of professional organizations. for example, Common Sense Media has an entire section called Advice for Parents. There are tips on learning with technology, cyberbulling, helping children navigate social media, and many more topics. Other websites are the University of Minnesota College of Education and Human Development which offers an infographic to help with reading and
the National PTA which offers grade specific Parent's Guides to Student Success. Here is a good resource for locating professional organizations: Reading Rockets. In addition to professional organizations, you can find information to share in books such as Beyond the Bake Sale and Parents and Teachers Working Together
Include a tip whenever you send out one-way communication such as a newsletter or weekly text.
Evaluation
Periodically, perhaps at the beginning of each grading period, resend the survey asking parents about topics of interest. You can also include a question asking for feedback - do they find the tips helpful? What suggestions (if any) do they have for improvement? This feedback will help you evaluate whether the tips are useful and what changes may be needed. In your log, write down the feedback that resonated with you and any changes you will make for the next grading period.
You've completed Unit 3!
Time to move on to the next part of the course.
Go to Unit 1: One-Way Communication | Unit 2: Two-Way Communication | Unit 4: Putting it All Together | Course Homepage