1F) Children’s interests in curriculum
Partner with families on identifying topics or ideas that are of interest to the child and incorporate these in curriculum planning.
Strategy Overview: Family Empathy Interviews
A template designed to support conversation uncovering each family's "funds of knowledge" so teachers can design a culturally responsive and sustaining approach to instruction.Read More
Webinar: Family School Partnership—PreK
In this webinar video, building strong family partnerships is explained as well as providing some tangible strategies for early learning educators.Read More
Video: A Letter From My Mom
In this video, parents are encouraged to write a letter to their child and drop it in a classroom mailbox. Children sort the letters into student mailboxes and then read them with the support of the teacher.Read More
Tip Sheet: Parent Involvement and Family Engagement for Early Childhood Professionals
This resource compares and contrasts "parent involvement" and "family engagement." A spectrum of ideas in both categories for partnering with families are offered.Read More
Strategy Overview: 6 Ways Educators Can Overcome Language Barriers with Parents
This overview includes numerous ideas for educators who have difficulty communicating with parents of children who speak languages other than English. Resources are shared about how teachers and parents can connect, specific strategies are named, and data graphics share information about the types of activities in which parents are most likely to participate.Read More
Article: Tips for Communicating with Non-English-Speaking Parents
Teachers who only speak English may have a difficult time communicating with non-English-speaking parents. This article offers six simple tips to help connect with parents of all students, regardless of the language they speak.Read More
Website: Project 2Inspire
This is a website maintained by CABE, the California Association for Bilingual Education, and is a resource hub for the Parent and Family Engagement Program.Read More
Tip Sheet: Early Learning and School Readiness – Approaches to Learning (Arabic)
This tip sheet, provided in Arabic, can be helpful for providers who work with multilingual families and want to ask questions and share information about children's learning engagement and interactions in both school and home.Read More
Tip Sheet: Early Learning and School Readiness – Approaches to Learning (Spanish)
This tip sheet, provided in Spanish, can be helpful for providers who work with multilingual families and want to ask questions and share information about children's learning engagement and interactions in both school and home.Read More
Tip Sheet: Early Learning and School Readiness – Approaches to Learning
This tip sheet can be helpful for providers who work with multilingual families and want to ask questions and share information about children's learning engagement and interactions in both school and home.Read More
Tip Sheet: Early Learning and School Readiness – Language and Literacy Development (Spanish)
This tip sheet, provided in Spanish, helps providers partner with parents and families of Multilingual Learners in order to develop language and literacy skills both in school and home environments.Read More
Tip Sheet: Early Learning and School Readiness – Language and Literacy Development
This tip sheet helps providers partner with parents and families of Multilingual Learners in order to develop language and literacy skills both in school and home environments.Read More
Tip Sheet: Early Learning and School Readiness – Social and Emotional Development (Arabic)
This tip sheet, provided in Arabic, can be helpful for providers who work with multilingual families and who might need support in how to best communicate and build relationships with them in a culturally responsive manner.Read More
Tip Sheet: Early Learning and School Readiness – Social and Emotional Development (Spanish)
This tip sheet, provided in Spanish, can be helpful for providers who work with multilingual families and who might need support in how to best communicate and build relationships with them in a culturally responsive manner.Read More
Tip Sheet: Early Learning and School Readiness – Social and Emotional Development
This tip sheet can be helpful for providers who work with multilingual families and who might need support in how to best communicate and build relationships with them in a culturally responsive manner.Read More
Tip Sheet: Our Community Poster and Family Foldable (in 26 languages)
These example resources come from Australia and have been translated into 26 languages. The Community Poster shares with families a few ideas on how to support early education in the home. The family foldable is a template for a communication "chatterbox" that can be used at home to develop oral language and discuss connections between school and home.Read More
Newcomer Toolkit: Establishing Partnerships with Families
This is one chapter from the U.S. Department of Education's Newcomer Toolkit. This chapter focuses on how teachers can partner with the families of Multilingual Learners and invite them to share their language and culture and engage with a school community.Read More
Newcomer Toolkit: Welcoming Newcomers
This is one chapter from the U.S. Department of Education Newcomer Toolkit. This chapter focuses on how teachers can welcome both newcomer Multilingual Learners and their families into a school community.Read More
Video & Video Guide: Integrated Thematic Unit – 3rd Grade
This video provides a rich opportunity to look inside a classroom and note the intentional supports for English language and literacy development embedded in a thematic unit of study. The teacher implements a Daily 5 structure, which allows Multilingual Learners to learn both academic language and content across multiple modalities and learning activities. The accompanying guide suggests moments in the video to pause to notice teachers’ practice, along with prompts for reflection and discussion.Read More
Strategy Overview: Family-Centered Goal Setting
This guide breaks down how to set simple, targeted, short-term learning goals in partnership with families. By engaging families in developing learning goals, teachers ensure that the goals are rooted in a shared understanding of the whole child, and prepare families to support their children in working toward their goals.Read More
Parent Letter: Start of Theme (Spanish)
These letters can be sent home to families to announce upcoming topics in classroom thematic units. They prepare families to connect content learning to home experiences, and offer the opportunity to invite parents to share experiences or artifacts that relate to the themes.Read More
Parent Letter: Start of Theme (English)
These letters can be sent home to families to announce upcoming topics in classroom thematic units. They prepare families to connect content learning to home experiences, and offer the opportunity to invite parents to share experiences or artifacts that relate to the themes.Read More
Video: Affirming Language, Culture & Identity
This video shares asset-based strategies for teachers to engage with families, develop the socio-emotional health of children, and set up a classroom environment to support Multilingual Learners. This resource focuses on preschool but the content applies to all grade bands. Examples come from dual language classrooms.Read More
