Successful Involvement of Language Minority Familties in Secondary Classrooms
Graduation Date
Fall 2006
Document Type
Master's Thesis
Document Form
Degree Name
Master of Science
Program Name
Education
Program Director
Madalienne F. Peters, EdD
Abstract
Parent involvement is a key to student achievement and success in schools. However, not all parent involvement programs include all parents and inevitably, some parents and families may not play a large role in their students’ education, or do not know how to effectively become involved. The purpose of this paper is to explore some of the factors that prevent a language minority (LM) family member from being involved, and how schools and school personnel can help LM parents and families become more involved. Secondary teachers can implement simple ways to encourage involvement. Included in the second part of this work is a handout I developed for teachers that provides tips and strategies on how to more effectively engage LM parents in one’s classroom. This handout is based on the literature review and I implemented the strategies in my own classroom to observe how effectively they engage LM parents within the classroom.