Parent Involvement Program
In keeping with the goal of Children First, giving parents opportunities to become "full and active partners in their children's education," parents have demonstrated great interest in Reading Reform Foundation's training methods. Now that there will be full-time parent advocates in each school, this seems an opportune moment to include some workshops for the parents of children in Reading Reform Foundation classrooms which demonstrate to them how their children are being taught. Parents will be invited to participate in mini-courses and/or workshops at which the approach to teaching reading, writing and spelling will be explained. Reading Reform Foundation will give parents an explanation and demonstration of the training their children's teacher are receiving, therefore making parents better able to understand what their children are learning.
The workshops will include information on the structure of the language, how to put sounds into words and how to write sentences. They will also explain the importance of accurate spelling and good handwriting. This training could help strengthen parents' own skills.
These workshops could range from an introductory one and a half hour lecture in which parents could participate by writing letters and saying sounds as their children do, to a series of weekly or twice-a-month meetings so they could follow the progression of their children's learning. The meetings could be scheduled as requested by the principals and the parents.