Teacher-Initiated Event
Kindergarten Winter Parent Meeting
Data Collection and Preparation for the Meeting
Following Winter Break, students took a series of assessments to determine their current reading levels and seeing how they are preforming compared to other Kindergarten students throughout the nation. Students engaged in their STEP assessment with me in a 1:1 setting to see how they are growing in their reading development. Students also took an online national assessment (NWEA MAP) to compare how they are performing to other students in their grade level and to measure their progress to where they should be performing at grade level. Myself and my colleagues have collected a great amount of data on student performance that needs to be shared with parents. There were many wins to celebrate, but also communication needed to be sent out to families who have students performing below grade level. After all the data had been collected, 53% of my students were performing on grade level for STEP but 47% are below grade level and 47% are on or above grade level on NWEA but 54% are still behind. Parents need to know exactly how and where their students are performing in order to better support them at home and to help aid them in reaching their goals. As a Grade Level Lead teacher, I scheduled time with a School Leader to plan and set a date for a Kindergarten Parent Meeting. In this meeting we shared individual progress reports, printed resources, interactive learning strategies, and informing parents if their student was performing on grade level or not. This meeting was beneficial because parents were given resources to help support their children to help open doors for them in their future.
Following Winter Break, students took a series of assessments to determine their current reading levels and seeing how they are preforming compared to other Kindergarten students throughout the nation. Students engaged in their STEP assessment with me in a 1:1 setting to see how they are growing in their reading development. Students also took an online national assessment (NWEA MAP) to compare how they are performing to other students in their grade level and to measure their progress to where they should be performing at grade level. Myself and my colleagues have collected a great amount of data on student performance that needs to be shared with parents. There were many wins to celebrate, but also communication needed to be sent out to families who have students performing below grade level. After all the data had been collected, 53% of my students were performing on grade level for STEP but 47% are below grade level and 47% are on or above grade level on NWEA but 54% are still behind. Parents need to know exactly how and where their students are performing in order to better support them at home and to help aid them in reaching their goals. As a Grade Level Lead teacher, I scheduled time with a School Leader to plan and set a date for a Kindergarten Parent Meeting. In this meeting we shared individual progress reports, printed resources, interactive learning strategies, and informing parents if their student was performing on grade level or not. This meeting was beneficial because parents were given resources to help support their children to help open doors for them in their future.
To the left is an E-Mail sent from a School Leader to me of a prior slide show agenda used for another grade Parent Meeting. This slide show gave myself and the Kinder team guidance of what to cover and how to visually present it to parents.
This was shared during an in person meeting with myself, the two other Kinder teachers and a School Leader a month prior to the actual meeting. During this meeting I explained we needed to present individual student data, privately, so parents knew exactly where their students are performing compared to grade level. |
Below are samples of progress reports that were sent. The literacy progress report included individual unit assessment scores, STEP level, mastery of sight word lists, and NWEA MAP scores with meeting grade level or not. Also, for far below basic students, I included letter names and sounds students have yet to master. These reports were handed to parents individually to protect student information and to discuss their student's data points. Parents were able to navigate this resource from teachers explaining the information on the tracker and seeing how their student is performing compared to the entire class, which is discussed in the whole group presentation.
The Meeting and Resources Provided
The purpose of this meeting was to communicate student goals, progress, and to send parents home with strategies and resources to use at home to help support their students. After reviewing data from STEP and NWEA, I noticed many students hold backs were from sight word recognition, encoding and decoding. I collected a variety of resources to support students in this area. I printed off a variety of games and resources to take home. I modeled how I use the resources in the classroom and asked students to practice whole group to be prepared and feeling confident to work with their parents at home. I explained to use sound by sound and "chunking" strategies to read and to make memorizing sight words fun with games. Students and parents practiced these strategies in the meeting with all who was present. I also took down many parent e-mails to send them the entire documents I had provided for decoding practice.
Below are images of the resources I provided parents for Literacy.
The purpose of this meeting was to communicate student goals, progress, and to send parents home with strategies and resources to use at home to help support their students. After reviewing data from STEP and NWEA, I noticed many students hold backs were from sight word recognition, encoding and decoding. I collected a variety of resources to support students in this area. I printed off a variety of games and resources to take home. I modeled how I use the resources in the classroom and asked students to practice whole group to be prepared and feeling confident to work with their parents at home. I explained to use sound by sound and "chunking" strategies to read and to make memorizing sight words fun with games. Students and parents practiced these strategies in the meeting with all who was present. I also took down many parent e-mails to send them the entire documents I had provided for decoding practice.
Below are images of the resources I provided parents for Literacy.
In addition to the provided resources, each parent also walked away with a copy of the presentation the Kinder team had created. This slide included whole group data from each class in Math and Literacy. I created this presentation and asked my colleagues to complete each of their slides. My classes are JHU and DU. Whole group data is presented in this slide show and individual data was communicated on the individual progress reports which each teacher created for their own classes.
Below is the presentation.
Below is the presentation.
As a result of this event, many families were able to leave with in-hand resources to help their children succeed and knowing if their student is or is not performing on grade level and how to help them get to grade level development. After this event, I was able to debrief with many parents and they expressed their gratitude for having this meeting and wanting their other children's teachers would hold a similar meeting. Parents explained how much they learned from the meeting and appreciated seeing their individual student data and whole class data. Parents were able to see how their student was performing compared to other students and what they can do to continue to elevate their student's learning or steps to take to help students reach their current grade level goals.
Below is a picture of just some of the parents we had in attendance to the Parent Meeting. We held the meeting in a multi-purpose room to ensure we had enough space for all families.
Below is a picture of just some of the parents we had in attendance to the Parent Meeting. We held the meeting in a multi-purpose room to ensure we had enough space for all families.
Follow Through
A few weeks after the event, I had parent teacher conferences with parents. This was a great opportunity to follow up with parents and see how the resources given during the meeting were helpful, if there was anything else they needed, and progress that has already been made. I recorded what students were working on and how they were using the resources. I felt it was important to record these responses for another follow up. Since the parent teacher conferences, I have been able to follow up, again, with parents to see if they were still using the resources from the meeting and many are. Parents expressed gratitude after this meeting because they did not know how to best be supporting their children at home. Parents were able to walk away with very specific strategies to use at home that will help students learn which will open doors for them like being on a pathway to college or accepting new career opportunities. This meeting was not only to help parents with their students in my Kindergarten class now but also to support their future. If students are not on grade level now, the trend will follow them through the rest of their life. By giving students and parents access to resources and instructional strategies I use will increase student overall academic success and open doors for them in their future.
Below is the tracker I made to record which of my parents attending the meeting and how they are using the resources given based on their student's hold backs.
A few weeks after the event, I had parent teacher conferences with parents. This was a great opportunity to follow up with parents and see how the resources given during the meeting were helpful, if there was anything else they needed, and progress that has already been made. I recorded what students were working on and how they were using the resources. I felt it was important to record these responses for another follow up. Since the parent teacher conferences, I have been able to follow up, again, with parents to see if they were still using the resources from the meeting and many are. Parents expressed gratitude after this meeting because they did not know how to best be supporting their children at home. Parents were able to walk away with very specific strategies to use at home that will help students learn which will open doors for them like being on a pathway to college or accepting new career opportunities. This meeting was not only to help parents with their students in my Kindergarten class now but also to support their future. If students are not on grade level now, the trend will follow them through the rest of their life. By giving students and parents access to resources and instructional strategies I use will increase student overall academic success and open doors for them in their future.
Below is the tracker I made to record which of my parents attending the meeting and how they are using the resources given based on their student's hold backs.
Conclusion
Overall, I believe having regular parent contact and communication help open doors for students because parents are able to better support their students academically to support their future success. Through conferences, meeting, follow through I believe I am giving my parents and students tools in order to be successful in their future academically and professionally.
Overall, I believe having regular parent contact and communication help open doors for students because parents are able to better support their students academically to support their future success. Through conferences, meeting, follow through I believe I am giving my parents and students tools in order to be successful in their future academically and professionally.