Remembering The 3R’s of Multilingual Family Engagement For Back To School 2020
by Sarah Said
We made it through the spring with the hope and anticipation that in the fall we will return to something that is somewhat “normal”. But, we’re still in the midst of the pandemic, and we really don’t know if the end is near. I know, this doesn’t sound positive or inspiring, but we need to learn from our lessons in the spring and make the best of this for students and their families. The article that I wrote last spring focused on how family engagement needs to be woven into the fabric of our schools. It is best achieved through utilizing the “3 R’s”- Relationships, Resources, and Response. As we create our plans for reopening our schools, whether it be in person, remote or hybrid model, we need to revisit those 3R’s of Multilingual Family Engagement in order to support the needs of our students for back to school.
Moving back into a new school year, we have to understand what we are up against. When we think about instruction, we are trying to create more robust models of instruction virtually. Those of us in person are worried about our own health, the health of our family/friends, and the health of our students while trying to balance models of in person learning and remote instruction. And, we are currently dealing with the trauma of the pandemic while families are dealing with this trauma as well. It is a lot and the emotion in our buildings and outside of our buildings will be high. We have to utilize the the 3R’s to navigate this.
As my building has already opened in mid-August, we really had to work hard to navigate our support to families as they engaged in a hybrid model. We had to ask ourselves about equitable communication and support regarding families who are in person and remote. We also had to make sure messages were not lost from a distance. Is this easy? Not at all. But with time, we have been able to make this model work for our community.
Relationships
The first thing that we needed to do was restore and continue the relationships that we built before school was out for the summer. Then we needed to build our relationships with new families at our school. How did we do this?
First amazing front office support, this is critical in any education community. If you don’t have strength and the will to help people in a front office staff, it really hurts your parent support.
Before preparing families for the transition, we built relationships through our own outreach to families. Prior to school beginning our food vendor distributed food boxes to all families weekly with fresh produce. Also, two weeks before school started, we distributed summer family book bags to families with a drive up in order for families to have access to high interest and age leveled texts for their children.
We also prepared our families weeks before in helping them understand what they needed to know to start school. Our school’s dean had even created a “welcome back kit” equipped with pictures of what to expect and teaching tools for families to prepare kids for mask wearing, social distancing, hygiene, and preparing for remote learning. I condensed this kit and sent a version of it English and Spanish to the parents of students in our Multilingual Learners program.
In addition to the kit to support families, social media was also used to explain mask wearing. We encouraged students in our school community to send us pictures of them in their masks. This gave a sense student voice to our campaign and got other students excited to see their peers wearing masks.
For remote families, videos were made in English and Spanish to support usage of understanding Seesaw for schools. As an administrative team, we were accessible by phone and email to support families in accessing Seesaw for schools. We started to get to know the families we serve better through building relationships in trouble shooting chromebook usage and Seesaw for Schools.
As remote learning began we found ways to make connections to families that were from a distance. Teachers created Seesaw activities that were “all about me” assignments where they learned about students and their home lives. Also, in Physical Education, we started weekly family challenges where families got to engage together in physical activity via video for teachers to view. We posted our “finest” videos on our school twitter page. Videos came from Multilingual families and the general population as well. Doing this built stronger connections between the home and school.
Our older students and families engaged in more crucial conversations with lessons focused on Justice Equity Diversity and Inclusion. In addition to a medical pandemic, we also have a racial pandemic in this country that concerns our families. All families needed the space and resources to connect with the school about the issues that have been troubling our country and community regarding the racial divide and they need space with each in their homes to unpack structural racism and implicit biases in their homes.
Weekly, we have had what EL Education (we are an Expeditionary Learning [EL Education] school) calls “Community Crew” virtually where we ask a school put a film together that represents the voices of the school community on weekly topics regarding our school’s social emotional learning, goal setting, and building students’ capacities to become change makers in their communities.
Besides the mass communication, we worked hard to make sure we had direct communication with families who were part of our school community. For new families, I made sure to send a personalized Talking Points message (a two way translation text application) about how our day went online or in person. I wanted families to know that they are part of our school’s community. Families have to know in this school year that they matter. Helping families see that will strengthen their relationships with you.
Resources
People
In the last article, I referred to the idea that native language speaking staff are vital, especially in these times. I still want to emphasize that because we need to be able to reach our linguistically diverse communities during any distance learning. All important communication needs to be translated in native language so that families can understand and follow protocols.
But one thing I did learning, is families can be resources to each other. What I learned was needed was a space for families to collaborate on how they are working with their children remotely. Families who speak the same language and can support each other will be stronger together. Our Multilingual parent meetings that are on zoom now have one parent featured and they advise on a topic that is a hot topic in remote learning. This family collaboration helps parents feel like they are not on their own island at home.
Platforms
We know what the platforms that work for us are- we just need to know innovative ways to use them. Seesaw for Schools is our platform. We found the Seesaw for Schools announcements features beneficial to communicating about events and resources to our families. Yes, we put communication in writing, but many liked seeing us on video through the communication. I think seeing a person’s face and hearing them talk can build more of a relationship than reading a letter from them.
Creativity
This new normal has prompted us to really be innovative and creative with our reach to families. From helping families collaborate with each other, to showcasing our weekly JEDI assignments to helping families complete remote learning tasks with children, we are forced to be creative. We have used twitter as a “bulletin” board for student and family work to bring families closer together and guide them. We have found ways to get resources for learning delivered to homes by working with parent groups to do that for us. We are always on our feet finding new ways to help each other.
Response
We are going to get messages and calls that we don’t like from families. Many of them are in fight or flight mode to do this pandemic. We have to keep this mind. Take your time to respond to messages that are heated. A parent struggling with a remote assignment may not be having the best day and sent you a message out of frustration with their day. Encourage families to talk to you to have crucial conversations about how they are feeling about tasks given to them at home. It’s better that you take the time to talk directly to families right away about their needs. If you do not, they will find other avenues to communicate.
When talking to families, try to assume positive intent. A lot of times, parents are flustered with trying to deal with their own jobs and lives on top of completing remote learning with their kids. Yes we need to be timely in the communication that we send families to support them, but we also need to set norms and boundaries for that communication. In the spring, I found myself exhausted and overwhelmed because of the amount of time I spent on communication with families after hours. Now, I let families know that I will have a delayed response after 4pm to the next morning. A video of norms in English and Spanish was sent to families to help them understand the expectations of their usage of Seesaw. We need to support our own mindfulness in these times.
Being in my third year at an EL Education school, I like using EL Education’s phrase of diving in, getting stuck, and pushing through to describe what this school year will be like. Help yourself and the families you serve by having a growth mindset towards your own instruction and usage of your model as well as how families are understanding the model. Use the “3R’s” to help you navigate these times with families. You will all prevail.