JoBeth Allen

This honest, clearly written, and accessible book shows how to use Family Dialogue Journals to increase and deepen learning among students in grades K-12. Written by teachers who have been implementing and studying the use of weekly journals for several years, the book shares what they have learned and why they have found these journals to be an invaluable tool for forming effective partnerships with families. Learn from first-hand accounts how students write weekly about one big idea they have studied, and then invite a family member to participate in the discussion by asking him/her to write a response to the student’s question about the topic in the journal. Through these journal entries, students share their family knowledge with classmates while actively engaging with the curriculum. In turn, teachers extend the academic discussion by writing to each family and incorporating the family contributions into classroom lessons. Family participation in journal entries is remarkably high across ages, ethnicities, and diverse economic backgrounds.

This honest, clearly written, and accessible book shows how to use Family Dialogue Journals to increase and deepen learning among students in grades K-12. Written by teachers who have been implementing and studying the use of weekly journals for several years, the book shares what they have learned and why they have found these journals to be an invaluable tool for forming effective partnerships with families. Learn from first-hand accounts how students write weekly about one big idea they have studied, and then invite a family member to participate in the discussion by asking him/her to write a response to the student’s question about the topic in the journal. Through these journal entries, students share their family knowledge with classmates while actively engaging with the curriculum. In turn, teachers extend the academic discussion by writing to each family and incorporating the family contributions into classroom lessons. Family participation in journal entries is remarkably high across ages, ethnicities, and diverse economic backgrounds.

With a focus on literacy instruction, this showcases stories of ""what works"" when teachers in elementary school classrooms partner with families across cultural and language differences. It demonstrates effective strategies that educators can adapt to fit their own school communities. This book is perfect for professional study groups, parent-teacher discussions, and whole-school workshops.

This engaging and rich resource details how schools and diverse families throughout the country have formed partnerships that support and enhance student learning. It is designed for teachers who care deeply about students and welcome diverse families as partners, for parents who want to be active partners in educating their children, and for administrators in diverse schools or districts who know there is no quick fix for building lasting partnerships among families, schools, and the community.

This book describes and documents an exciting new approach to educating literacy teachers. The authors show how to help teachers develop their own critical literacy, while also preparing them to accelerate the literacy learning of struggling readers. The text takes readers inside a literacy lab in a high-poverty urban elementary school, reveals the instructional approach in action, and provides many excellent examples of critically responsive teaching. Featuring a synthesis of several fields of theory and research, the book: illustrates teacher preparation and development as personal and social transformation - demonstrating that this process requires changing the ways teachers think about students, language, culture, literacy, learning, and themselves as educators; provides pedagogical tools - including the history of the innovative literacy lab, the context of the instructional interactions, and the transition from a university-based to a school-based project; and combines critical and accelerative literacy instruction - showing how teachers can accelerate the slowest developing readers in their classrooms, and also build a sense of engagement for students with the social world.