Summary
In this session, participants reflect on how they can partner with families to help students succeed in postsecondary education. Participants start with a reflection survey on family engagement, then work through family scenarios that focus on discovering each family's strengths and looking for opportunities where they can support families. They dive into research about family engagement and postsecondary readiness. The session wraps up by having participants focus on their strengths and ways they successfully impacted families, as well as how their strengths can help leverage areas of growth.
Essential Question
How can our school partner with families to support students’ postsecondary pathways?
Learning Goals
Participants will reflect on their areas of strength and growth related to family engagement.
Participants will identify the strengths and challenges of families to support them in their understanding of postsecondary pathways.
Participants will examine research and identify a strategy they would like to implement to increase family engagement in their school.
Snapshot
Engage
Participants use the Flamboyan Foundation’s Family Engagement Assessment Tool to discover areas of strength and growth in family engagement. This will provide them with an area of strength and an area of growth.
Explore
Participants explore family scenarios and discover each family’s strengths as well as areas of opportunity for schools to work alongside them. They learn about the Five Essential Roles Families Play to Accelerate Student Learning.
Explain
Participants read over the Partnering with Families for Student Success Research Brief and use the I Think, We Think strategy.
Extend
Using the Two Stars and a Wish instructional strategy, participants think of two examples where they positively impacted families and discover a strategy to support their area of growth.
Evaluate
Participants answer the question, “How would you leverage your area of strength to address your area of growth?”
Materials List
Presentation slides (attached)
Partnering with Families for Student Success Research Brief (attached; print two-sided; one per participant)
Family Engagement Scenarios (attached; print 11x17)
Note Catcher (attached; one per participant)
Five Roles Families Play to Accelerate Student Learning (attached and linked; photocopy or print in color; one per participant)
Chart Paper (one for each Family Engagement Scenario)
Markers
Laptops (one per participant)
Engage
10 Minute(s)
Introduce the session and presenters using slide 2. Display slides 3 and 4 to introduce the essential question and learning objectives.
Display slide 5 and introduce the Flamboyan Foundation’s Family Engagement Assessment Tool. Inform participants that in this survey they will provide some details about themselves, then respond to 29 Likert-scale items by ranking their level of agreement with the statements. Upon completion of the assessment, participants will be directed to a screen with their results. Results will include an area of strength and an area of growth across four domains of Family Engagement: Asset-Based Beliefs about Families, Relationship Building and Establishing Trust, Ongoing Communication Methods, and Academic Partnering. Each area is linked to a PDF document to assist participants in learning more about these two domains of Family Engagement. Encourage them to also download and bookmark their results for an activity later in this professional development and for future reference. Have participants navigate to the shortened url on the slide and begin the survey.
Once participants have finished the survey, pass out the Note Catcher handout (attached) and ask participants to record their Area of Strength and Area of Growth on it.
Display slide 6 and have participants join the Menti using the code on the slide. Have participants answer the following two questions:
What is your area of strength?
What is your area of growth?
Inform the participants that their responses are anonymous. Once all responses are in, take a minute to discuss the areas that are most common in both strengths and growth.
Explore
20 Minute(s)
Display slide 7 and, based on the total number of participants, invite participants to organize themselves into groups of four or five individuals. Inform participants that they will rotate to all five scenarios. You will be doing a modified version of the Chalk Talk and Gallery Walk instructional strategies. Provide each participant a marker for this activity.
For rotation 1, display slide 8. Ask participants to read their scenario silently to themselves. After reading, participants will silently list, draw, or visually represent the strengths or assets that the family possesses. Once participants understand the directions, start the 3 minute timer on the slide.
Display slide 9 for rotation 2 and have participants rotate to the next poster. Ask participants to read their scenario silently to themselves. After reading, participants will discuss the strengths/assets that have already been identified by the previous group. They will place a star by any that they agree with and/or add any that were not previously listed. Once participants understand the directions, start the 2 minute timer on the slide.
Display slide 10 for rotation 3 and have participants rotate to the next poster. Ask participants to read their scenario silently to themselves. After reading, participants will discuss the strengths/assets that have already been identified by the previous group. They will place a star by any that they agree with and/or add any that were not previously listed. Start the 2 minute timer on the slide when you are ready to begin.
Display slide 11 for rotation 4 and have participants rotate to the next poster. Ask participants to read their scenario silently to themselves. After reading, participants will silently list, draw, or visually represent the challenges the families are experiencing that may impact students’ postsecondary readiness. Start the 3 minute timer on the slide when you are ready to begin.
Display slide 12 for rotation 5 and have participants rotate to the last poster. Ask participants to read their scenario silently to themselves. After reading, participants will discuss the challenges that have already been identified by the previous group. They will place a star by any that they agree with and/or add any that were not previously listed. Start the 2 minute timer on the slide when you are ready to begin.
Display slide 13 for rotation 6 and have participants return to their original scenario. Pass out a copy of the Five Roles Families Play to Accelerate Student Learning handout (attached) to each participant. Participants will review the strengths and challenges listed on the poster. Each group will consider the strengths and challenges for their family and select one role from the handout that can support their family in assisting their student in postsecondary readiness.
Display slide 14 to share the Five Roles Families Play to Accelerate Student Learning. Start the 8 minute timer on the slide.
Once the timer has stopped, each group will nominate a spokesperson to share the role they selected and the reasons they selected the role. If you have multiple groups of the same scenario, group the responses one after the other.
Explain
10 Minute(s)
Display slide 15. Pass out the attached Partnering with Families for Student Success Research Brief to each participant. Introduce the I Think, We Think strategy to the group. Have the participants individually read the research brief about family engagement and postsecondary readiness. After participants have read the brief, have each participant record what they believe to be the most important information they learned under the I Think column on their Note Catcher.
Display slide 16 and invite participants to share with a partner what they wrote in the I Think column. As a group, they will discuss the most important aspect of the brief. Once they come to a decision, they will write down their thoughts under the We Think column.
Extend
5 Minute(s)
Display the Menti results from the Engage section and ask participants to reflect on their own individual areas of strength and growth. Move to slide 17 and introduce the Two Stars and a Wish instructional strategy. On their Note Catcher, have participants write two examples of successful family engagement efforts they have implemented from the domain that is their area of strength. Then have participants write a family engagement strategy that they would like to try to support their growth area. Have participants find a partner, preferably a participant from their school site. Inform participants that they will take turns sharing the family engagement strategy they would like to try. Ask for a few groups to share their strategies with the large group.
Evaluate
5 Minute(s)
Display slide 18 and ask participants to reflect on the following question: How would you leverage your area of strength to address your area of growth?
Provide participants time to discuss with someone sitting near them. If time allows, have a few volunteers share their responses.
Research Rationale
See the attached Partnering with Families for Student Success Research Brief.
Resources
Family Engagement Assessment Tool. (2024). Flamboyan Foundation. https://assess.flamboyanfoundation.org/
Flamboyan Foundation. (n.d.). https://www.flamboyanfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/Five-Roles-Families-Play_Flamboyan-Foundation.pdf
K20 Center. (n.d.). Chalk talk. Strategies. https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/strategy/19
K20 Center. (n.d.). Mentimeter. Tech Tool. https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/tech-tool/645
K20 Center. (n.d.). Gallery walk / carousel. Strategies. https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/strategy/118
K20 Center. (n.d.). I think / we think. Strategies. https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/strategy/141
K20 Center. (n.d.). Two stars and a wish. Strategies. https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/strategy/83
YouTube. K20 Center 2 minute timer [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HcEEAnwOt2c&list=PL-aUhEQeaZXLMF3fItNDxiuSkEr0pq0c2&index=4
YouTube. K20 Center 3 minute timer [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iISP02KPau0&list=PL-aUhEQeaZXLMF3fItNDxiuSkEr0pq0c2&index=5
YouTube. K20 Center 8 minute timer [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R-21YM7Ey7k&list=PL-aUhEQeaZXLMF3fItNDxiuSkEr0pq0c2&index=10