Handout 7: Reflecting on Parent Involvement through Journal Writing
Instructions: Keeping a journal about your observations, reflections and ideas on parent involvement can help you in two ways:
- It can help you think about and learn from your work with parent involvement.
- It can be a place to develop your ideas on staff roles in parent involvement.
Here are some ideas for getting started. If you learn best by seeing or feeling:
If you learn best by speaking and listening:
- Draw your thoughts first. For example, draw parent involvement as a tree (large branches and smaller branches as offshoots). Then in words, explain your picture. As another example, you may want to draw a chain of overlapping circles. Put a staff member in each circle. Then in words, explain how the people in overlapping circles work together for parent involvement.
- Observe different program staff and activities. Make your observations specific -that is, look for the answer to a specific question such as "what is that staff person doing that makes parents feel welcome?" or "what parents are present or missing from this activity?"
If you learn best by writing and reading:
- Talk over an issue in parent involvement first, with a co-worker, family member or friend. Then use the thoughts from your talk that most interested you as a starting point for your written journal entry.
- Speak into a tape recorder. Again, use the most interesting thought or question that came up in your talk to yourself, to use as a starting point for writing.
Journal Entry Date: ______________
- Read a parent newsletter or other parent involvement material from your program.
- Jot down your thoughts in an informal outline or word map in preparation for writing. A "word map" is a way of brainstorming. For example, put "parent involvement" or a key question such as "what is my role in involving parents?" in a circle in the middle of the page. Then down write different ideas outside of the circle. Use these ideas to begin your journal entry.
Here's a topic I need to discuss with _______________, my co-worker or supervisor: