Andie Cunningham

The students I teach come from home environments of limited resources, but their years of family and life experiences are rich. Many of these families only recently immigrated to America, so there is a wealth of languages and cultures to tap in these homes.

In the past few years, I've increased my communication with these families. And most recently, I've found ways to invite the community of home languages and experiences into our literacy work in the classroom. The bridge between home and school grows when the families and I welcome the opportunities to communicate.

Chatting with Sabinna's mom and siblings early in the morning.

Family Homework Promoting Respect and Love

Last year, I sent home a series of invitations to families to share words and stories from their homes. One of the earliest requests was for family sayings of respect that we could hang on our walls in the different languages that are spoken by the families of my students (see the article on "Family Dichos" by Ruth Shagoury linked at the end of this article).

Another important Parent Homework Assignment was my request for parents to write "what you love about your child." The page I sent home for parents included this text:

Parent Homework: Confidential - Parents Only

Parents,

I am interested in creating a book as a gift for students at the end of the year. To start this book off, I invite you to consider what you love about your child. What do you love to do with them? What amazes you about them? What words or experiences have you had with them that you treasure? Write your answers here when you have a chance and send them back to me by December 17. Please do not show this to your child yet. I am considering making it a surprise. Thank you in advance for your time and insight.
Andie

Below are excerpts from a few of the notes I received to give you a taste of how parents responded to this invitation:

Jacob

If I had asked Jesus to give me the best, most well-behaved, generous, loving, kind, and smart boy, he couldn't have done any better than Jacob. Each day I feel blessed for him, yet no one has asked me to write why I feel he's so special. I don't think any words can say how I feel, but I'll give it a shot. Jacob loves to hear books and talk about them. The dollar store is a great place to go with him and he likes it a lot. It's one of the few places I say. "Go pick out whatever you want!" I've never known a child to be so concerned about how others feel. He sincerely cares about everyone. For some reason, when I try to quote specifics of something Jacob has said, my mind goes blank because there are so many things he says or does on a daily basis. One thing I won't forget that he said is: "We have love in our family, huh, Mom?"

Bao Jun (Chinese)

Dear Andie,

How are you doing? This confidential, talking about my daughter. Actually, I don't know how to help my daughter. But I know she's very love you. Every day after school, my daughter tell me, "Today Andie teach me something." My daughter is very likely child. She study English very hard at home. She like listen the story, she like watch the cartoon TV show, she like draw the picture for me. Please excuse me if I have left any of your questions unanswered. Because my English is very poor. Thank you!

Hermilo (Hispanic)

Nosotros como padres amamos todo de nuestras hijo/a. Me sorprende de mis hijos. Que son muy intelligentes porque ellos tratan de aprender muchas cosas como leer, jugar, en hablar en ingles o en espanol. Gracias por aser todo lo que possible con nuestros hijos.

Rough Translation: We as parents love everything about our children. My children surprise me. That they are so intelligent because they try to learn many things as to read, to play, and to speak in English or in Spanish. Thanks for doing everything possible for our children.

Daniel (Chinese)

Daniel is an amazing child; he was a perfect baby when he first came to our world. He is very caring, very responsible, and very strong-minded, we call that stubborn. We love him just the way he is. It was not easy for us to have him. When we knew he was coming, we start to imagine how he will look like. My husband wants a healthy baby with Chinese look, but with a round head. Daniel came to the world just the way we wanted - healthy, Chinese but with a round head. He is a gift! My husband treasures the Superbaby experience. When Daniel was a baby, right after his bath, my husband always hold him, play with him until I was ready to feed him before bed. Daddy would hold him up in the air, pretend Superman, fly across the house then land in my arms. My work is very stressful and sometimes Daniel is concerned about me. He will come to me quietly, give me a gentle hug and a little kiss and he will tell me very quietly "Mommy, I love you." There is no other thing I can ask.

Honor Books

Brendan's finished "Honor Book" with the cover signed by his classmates.

My intention was to give the students their parents' writing at the end of the school year. I used the writing within what I call "honor books." Each honor book has pictures of that student from the classroom, a poem for the child from me, a poem for the child from Ruth Shagoury (a literacy researcher who worked with us weekly), and the writing from the parents. Not every single parent chose to contribute, but each book was still filled with memories and words and photos.

There are so many ways to write poems for students that take small amounts of time. Ruth chose a format that I appreciate, telling what she noticed about each child, written as if she were writing them a letter. For example,

Solomon,

You greet me in the morning and teach me about

Yu Gi Oh and Spiderman, dragons and rockets.

You are an expert painter, mixing drops of color

On the paper to show what you are thinking.

I picture you hard at work during Writing Workshop

Under the table,

Putting you words and ideas in your journal to share.

Thank you for your gifts of the heart

To your friends in the classroom

And to me.

Love, Ruth

Bao Jun enjoys her "Honor Book" among her classmates.

Bao Jun,

You write whole books

To your friends

And teach me about your Chinese writing,

Explaining the characters in At the Beach.

I picture you playing ball at Outdoor Play

And giving me warm hugs when I come to school.

Thank you for your gifts of the heart

To your friends in the classroom

And to me.

Love, Ruth

At the end of the year, the children loved getting their books. We all enjoyed reading the messages from home and school about each child.

We find building deep connections with children and their families a powerful place to start our long-term commitment to them, walking with students as they create their own bridges from home to school.

Tips for Creating Honor Books

• Work from anecdotal notes to create portraits of children. You can read about how we tracked student writing and developed some of these anecdotal records by clicking here.
  
• Keep a camera handy to capture natural shots of kids at work, not just posing with finished work. The photos will spark memories for you long after the events, too.
  
• Two sites for translating notes from parents written in languages other than English are www.freetranslation.com and www.babblefish.com. These will NOT be exact translations, but the services are quick, free, and you will get the gist of the parent comments if translators aren't available at your school.
  
• If you come up with a format like Ruth's for a poem, with places for specific elements (i.e., writing topics the student enjoys, an observation) it is much easier to create poems for each child in your classroom.
  
• The "Honor Books" provide a great focus for a literacy celebration - consider distributing them before the very end of the year, when the school schedule is cramped.