New Ways to Engage Parents: Strategies and Tools for Teachers and Leaders, K-12

Just as populations change, ideas about how to encourage and work with parents also need to evolve. This practical resource by bestselling author Patricia Edwards provides school leaders and classroom teachers with new and creative ways in which to welcome, encourage, and involve parents. Enacting these types of practices requires a special kind of commitment from teachers and school leaders, which often coincides with a particular kind of mindset about families and one's responsibility to engage them. Educators often develop this mindset as they deepen their understanding of families, literacy/language, culture/race/class, and themselves. Edwards pulls these understandings together and presents them in a straightforward, concise, and easy-to-use guide that is perfect for professional learning communities and teacher preparation courses. New Ways to Engage Parents is essential reading for all educators who care deeply about working with a wide range of parents in today's schools.

Book Features:

• A clear view of the changing community demographics and what that means for teachers and administrators.
• Strategies for communicating with parents, including the use of technology.
• The best times to make contact with parents.
• Examples of how to bring parents together for meaningful activities.
• The importance of understanding parental constraints and the need to meet them halfway.
• Approaches for overcoming "school ghosts" as well as negative histories and perceptions in the community.
• Additional resources available online, including an extended example of a parent-teacher-student conference.

Patricia A. Edwards is professor of language and literacy in the Department of Teacher Education at Michigan State University and former president of the Literacy Research Association and the International Reading Association. Her books include Bridging Literacy and Equity and Change Is Gonna Come. Dr. Edwards received the 2020 Literacy Research Association's Oscar S. Causey Award to recognize a LRA member for outstanding contributions to literacy research.