Parent Resources

1. Welch ELL Program Parent Preview
2. Read every day!  The more a student reads the better reader and writer they will become. Students can read independently, read aloud to someone, or listen to someone else read aloud. An excellent resource for parents to help with the understanding the importance of reading aloud and selecting appropriate books for students is: The Read-Aloud Handbook by Jim Trelease. He also has an informative website for parents: http://www.trelease-on-reading.com/  
3. Predictable books for emerging readers: "Predictable books make use of rhyme, repetition of words, phrases, sentences and refrains, and such patterns as cumulative structure, repeated scenes, familiar cultural sequences, interlocking structure and turn-around plots. These stories invite children to make predictions or guesses about words, phrases, sentences, events and characters that could come next in the story." --Mary Jett Simpson, Reading Resource Book
   A great list of predictable books can be found online at: http://www.nellieedge.com/articles_resources/predictablebooks.htm   http://www.pennygardner.com/predictable.html  http://library.bridgew.edu/maxweb/pdf/predictable.pdf 
4. A Child Becomes a Reader: Proven Ideas from Research for Parents, Kindergarten through Grade 3 https://lincs.ed.gov/publications/pdf/readingk-3.pdf  
5. Write every day! The more a student writes the better writer they will become. Students can keep a notebook to draw/write in daily. As students get older, they can use the notebook to write you letters. When you read and respond to their letters, you can ask them questions that require them to think more deeply about their topics and provide more details in their response. An excellent resource for parents interested in how we write and learn to write is: Radical Reflections by Mem Fox. She also has an informative website for parents: http://memfox.com/books/radical-reflections-on-teaching-learning-and-living/ 
6. If Your Child Learns in Two Languages: Parent guides for improving educational opportunities for children acquiring English as a second language:  http://www.ncela.us/files/rcd/BE019820/If_Your_Child_Learns.pdf  http://www.colorincolorado.org/families/  http://pplace.org/publications/bulletins/English/ppbulletinv11n2.pdf
7. Advocate for Children's Healthy Development: The Alliance for Childhood promotes policies and practices that support children’s healthy development, love of learning, and joy in living. Find research and videos to support developmentally appropriate practices in early childhood education. http://www.allianceforchildhood.org/
8. Play board games in English OR your native language such as: Balderdash, Scrabble, Outburst, Boggle, Headbands, Apples to Apples, Scattergories, Spot It or Mad Gab with the students. They will learn new words when they hear the words you come up with. It will also challenge them to apply new words they have learned over time.
9. Math is All Around Us: You can help your child by simply talking about numbers, counting out loud, and using other math words as you go about your day—and this book is full of ideas to get you started! http://toosmall.org/lets-talk-about-math 
10. Each night at dinner, muse over 5 new words (in English OR your native language) from books, newspapers or magazines they've been reading. Write the words on a piece of paper, discuss the words, and issue a challenge: They have to use the words in conversation the next day. The next evening's meal begins with raucous banter revolving around who used the words, how they'd used them and how many times they'd snuck them into conversation. Choosing new words is a responsibility all family members share. (from 11/3/10 on: http://www.thedailycafe.com/public/1095.cfm)