Online and hard-copy resources can be useful aids in helping to engage parents, though I’d suggest that they be used by educators as openings to initiate genuine conversations — not as ends in themselves.
I thought readers might find a collection of what I think are decent multilingual resources that could be used in this context.
This post is a supplement to two other “The Best…” lists:
The Best Sources Of Parent Engagement Advice For Teachers
The Best Ideas On How Parents Can Help Their Kids Succeed Academically
You can also find all my parent engagement-related “The Best” lists here.
Here are my choices for The Best Multilingual Resources For Parents:
The National Council of La Raza has just published Padres Comprometidos: Support Your Child’s Success in English and Spanish. I wouldn’t say it’s all that great, and it, unfortunately, is being used to also promote General Mills’ products. But it is in Spanish, and there really aren’t that many decent Spanish-language parent involvement materials around.
Parent–Teacher Conference Tip Sheets (Hojas de Consejos Para Las Reuniones de Padres y Maestros) are two hand-outs — one in English and one in Spanish — that “are designed to support educators and families in conducting productive, successful parent-teacher conferences.” They’re from the Harvard Family Research Project.
“But What If I Don’t Know English?” is another great resource from Colorin Colorado, and it’s available in Spanish and and in English. It shares ideas on how parents who don’t speak English can still help their children develop literacy skills.
En Camino: Educational Toolkit For Families is a series of free online “modules,” available in both English and Spanish, designed to help answer parent and student questions about college. It’s from the National Center For Family Literacy.
Ed Week’s Learning The Language blog posted information and links to a number of resources in English, Spanish, Hmong and Somali for parents with children who might have learning disabilities.
People For Education publishes multilingual materials useful for parents. Though some of them are unique to Ontario, others can be used elsewhere. Here’s a sample in English.
College Bound is a series of videos — both in English and Spanish — designed to help parents get ideas on how they can support their children academically. Parent have to register at the site in order to watch them, but it only takes a few seconds to do so. The videos are very accessible, and a few of them seem useful enough for teachers to use them in the classroom with students.
Head Start has a series of downloadable flyers in their Importance of Home Language Series that are in English and Spanish. They’re useful for educators and for parents.
Let me know if you have other suggestions…..
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