Family Writing Activities ~ Unit Intro

The success of this project depends on parents being well-informed and students well-prepared.

Well-informed parents: Before starting the unit, send home a detailed letter describing the project's aims and schedule, along with a clear outline of the parental role. Stress the educational benefits of students teaching a skill that they have just learned. Reflection on their learning process and articultate the procedures, step by step, greatly helps deepen students' own understanding. Explain that their role, as parents, is to support their child's learning by allowing them (the children) to be the "teacher" in this project. Emphasize to parents that, regardless of their own writing ability, they can support their children with their patience and compassion, as well as by sharing stories from their own lives.

Because many of my students' parents have not reached higher-level education, initially they felt embarrassment or concern about their writing abilities. Once I coached my students to be their parents' scribes, together they were able to produce incredible stores. It was very moving to see and hear about how excited one mother was, on seeing her story published in our class book. She (the mother) had never before written her own story.

Well-prepared students: Becoming mentors to their parents will be a challenge for students. Successfull, in-class lessons may not be sufficient preparation. Type up the teaching ideas in clear and organized manner and give students a "cheat sheet" to use at home for their "teaching sessions" with their parents.

Writing skills transfer across languages - if applicable, let your students decide with their parents what language to write in. If the parents has a basic foundation in English, this project can double as a language acquisition support for the parent. If the parents do not speak English, or prefer to tell their stories in their own language, allow the students to complete the project in their native tongue. They will still benefit from explaining each writing step to their parents.

You can encourage these students to translate their parents' stories, or read the stories in the native language as a wonderful cross-cultural experience for your class.

Make sure you give students and parents enough time to finish each step of the assignment. Finding even a half-hour during the week to work on a school project may be difficult for some families. This activity should be instructive and fun, not stressful.