It’s back-to-school season! As we jump into the new school year, we know how important it is for school leaders to not only create a positive school environment but a collaborative one based on trust, communication, and participation. Here are some of the ways we build collaboration among teachers, students, and caregivers at your school and district:
1. Becoming relationship-minded
Springboard focuses on building and strengthening two main relationships. First, we leverage the family-child relationship to extend the learning beyond the school day. We do this by encouraging a family member’s natural buy-in to help their student and by equipping them with specific and clear reading tips that they can try at home.
Second, we create relationships between educators and families by forming small teams. This is the first step in what we call our Family-Educator Learning Accelerator (FELA) framework, which is embedded throughout our programs. Each team consists of a teacher, a student, and a family member who agree to work together toward a certain learning goal. From the beginning of programming, we encourage teachers to complete team-building huddles to foster relationships. Teachers conduct team-building huddles (in-person or virtually) at a family’s house or in a public space to have a personal interaction with each student and their family outside of the classroom. During a team-building huddle, families can share anything from their hopes and dreams for their child to their current at-home learning habits.
2. Meeting students where they are
Once a family-educator team is formed, it’s time to find the student’s starting point for their reading level. Many teachers use their school’s assessment tools, but Springboard also offers an assessment via our home literacy app, Connect, which parents can administer. Connect not only gives families visibility into their children’s reading development but it can also improve their child’s reading habits.
Whatever you use, the key is to determine each student’s strengths and areas for growth to figure out how best to support their learning. Once a baseline is established, family-educator teams then set a quantifiable and individualized goal that is achievable within 5-10 weeks. Teachers then use data from assessments to inform individualized instruction and to identify specific reading behaviors that support the child’s developmental needs.
3. Building a school community
Lastly, Springboard Collaborative focuses on building a school community in a number of ways.
During our family workshops, families and educators come together to discuss how family members can be effective at-home literacy coaches. In these workshops, families learn reading tips and practice applying them with their child. Each reading tip teaches adults how to read with their child purposefully and ask questions to help their child develop essential reading skills. These tips are aligned to the reading strategies that are used in the classroom to help build a bridge from school to home.
Family workshops are a crucial component of Springboard’s programming and act as a catalyst for increasing the quality and quantity of time students spend reading at home. An effective workshop helps turn the living room into a personalized reading classroom.
Moreover, we build school community by celebrating small wins. We conclude each program with a Learning Bonus Celebration, which fosters a positive attitude toward learning and encourages all stakeholders to take part. Because we meet students where they are, we know these small wins can look different for different students, and we want to celebrate them! This celebration could be something small, like a “Reader of the Week” or even a text home to share the good news, but celebration and recognition can encourage students and families to keep moving forward and help them feel connected to their school community.
These three tips help us build strong relationships inside and outside the classroom. Feel free to try them on your own or contact us to learn more about how we can support your school!