Row 1: Leslie Cameli (NNPS Key Contact), Deb Whang, Amy VanderVeen, Susan Stuckey (Principal), Janet Anderson, Sheryl Robinson, Amy Connelly, and Susie Fischer. Row 2: Lynn Gissler (NNPS Key Contact), Stephanie Birch, Claire Dunnett, Jennifer Madson, Cheryl Fortman, Celeste Akre, Lisa Wisinski, Brian Kessler, Christine O'Neil, Sue Kouri, and Connie Eilers.
Meet the Challenge to Involve More Families
Highlands Elementary School, an eight-time award winner, continued to conduct many activities that involved more families in ways that contributed to student success. In 2008, one activity was Grandparents’ Day, which involved students and their elders in active genealogical research and in sharing lived history. More than 400 people participated in this activity after school – an increase over participation when the event was conducted during the school day. This year, administrators expanded the event to strengthen students’ skills as self-directed learners and critical thinkers.
Students invited their grandparents (or other senior friends) to attend with them. Two rotating sessions were conducted. In one, two local authors discussed Naperville’s history and presented tips on how to conduct historic and genealogical research. Students and their senior-guests diagrammed family trees and documented family stories and feelings in a student activity book. In the other session, students led school tours, mapped grandparents’ birthplaces, and had their family portraits taken by a local professional photographer. Then, the groups switched so that everyone experienced both sets of activities. Students benefited academically by discussing and recording history about their family, as well as by conducting school tours to share their space and work. They benefited socially by the intergenerational bonds that were strengthened in such an enjoyable way.
Reach Results for Student Success in School
During the fall, Highlands implemented two workshops to help parents and students work together to strengthen writing skills and studying habits. The school’s action team (SFCP) developed the workshops in a series of meetings where parents and teachers brainstormed ideas on ways to support students’ learning at home. The Writing Workshop introduced parents of students in kindergarten through grade 2 to the school’s new language arts curriculum for those grade levels. Teachers showed examples of the experimenting, emerging, developing, transitional, and experienced stages of writing. They invited parents to participate in a mini-lesson, writing time, and sharing time so that they could see what their children were asked to do in class. Parents received a packet of tips to help their children plan and edit their writing assignments at home.
Parents andstudents in grades 3 to 5 attended the Study Skills Workshop together. Presenters first helped the participants determine their favorite learning styles – visual, auditory, or kinesthetic. They gave parent-student teams tips on scheduling study time, creating a study plan, and setting goals. The attendees received a packet of test-taking tips, studying methods, and positive statements that parents could use to encourage and praise students when they demonstrated good study habits at home. Over 100 attended the two workshops. Parents completed a 4-question survey on the quality of the workshops that will help the ATP improve future sessions.
See Highlands Elementary School’s history of Partnership School Awards from 2001 to 2007 and examples of activities in Promising Partnership Practices on the website at www.partnershipschools.org in the section Success Stories. Visit the school at http://www.ncusd203.org/highlands/