Creating Family-Community Partnerships
Authoritative teachers need to address undesirable behaviors of children and involve parents in resolving behavioral issues. In the case of Lucy’s inappropriate behavior in the classroom, it is necessary to involve her relatives in the development of the plan according to which the family can cooperate with the teacher to contribute to the girl’s development. The plan should include the following aspects: the involvement of the English-speaking relatives or educators to improve the communication between the teacher and parents; scheduling the teacher’s regular visits to the family’s home; scheduling the observation and reports related to Lucy’s behavior in the classroom.
The family engagement techniques that are the basis of the plan include sharing the control with the family; inviting the family members to discuss the behavior of their child at home; visiting families at home; supporting linguistically diverse children; providing the parents with notes on the child’s successes (Kostelnik, Soderman, Whiren, & Rupiper, 2011). It is also important to discuss the reasons for including these strategies in the plan for Lucy. While sharing the control, the teacher emphasizes that the parents are equal participants in the educational process, and they should be aware of the fact that their words and actions can influence the child’s behavior directly.
Also, the parents’ visits to the school are important to provide the teacher with the necessary information regarding changes in the child’s life. Furthermore, it is also significant for the teacher to visit the family because she needs to observe factors and conditions that can influence the child’s behavior at school (Keys, 2015). In the case of Lucy, much attention should be paid to respecting the culture and language typical of her family, and the cooperation with the parents is important to create a positive environment for the child in terms of using the language and cultural norms (Abel, 2014). Finally, sending notes to parents is critical because the problematic behavior of the child should be monitored, and the parents should be informed regarding positive changes in Lucy’s behavior.
The plan should also be based on such child guidance strategies as the acknowledgment of the child’s viewpoint and the reason for misbehavior, as well as on the reference to positive consequences to affect the child’s behavior (Kostelnik et al., 2011). These strategies are selected as major ones because the teacher needs to demonstrate the individual approach to Lucy and focus on her vision of reasons to cry and misbehave each morning.
The information received during the face-to-face communication should be shared with parents to address the problem effectively (Garbacz, McIntosh, Eagle, Dowd-Eagle, & Hirano, 2016). Besides, the selection of positive consequences is associated with the idea that Lucy’s misbehavior is caused by viewing the class as an unfriendly environment, and the desired behavior can be achieved only with the focus on the positive reinforcers. The praise for non-crying and demonstrating the positive behaviors can be effective in the case of Lucy.
The ongoing communication with the child’s parents should be based on the regular exchange of notes regarding Lucy’s successes. The positive changes in the behavior will be measured with the help of reports in the form of observational and behavioral checklists. When the required data are collected, the teacher can assess the changes in the child’s behavior and report about positive or negative results to the parents. For Lucy’s parents, such notes can be translated to guarantee the understanding of the discussed details.
References
Abel, Y. (2014). Process into products supporting teachers to engage parents. Education and Urban Society, 46(2), 181-191. Web.
Garbacz, S. A., McIntosh, K., Eagle, J. W., Dowd-Eagle, S. E., & Hirano, K. A. (2016). Family engagement within school wide positive behavioral interventions and supports. Preventing School Failure: Alternative Education for Children and Youth, 60(1), 60-69. Web.
Keys, A. (2015). Family engagement in rural and urban Head Start families: An exploratory study. Early Childhood Education Journal, 43(1), 69-76. Web.
Kostelnik, M., Soderman, A., Whiren, A., & Rupiper, M. (2011). Developmentally appropriate curriculum: Best practices in early childhood education. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson. Web.