School Workshops Aim To Help Parents Help Students

NORTH CANAAN — The idea came from parents. And it has spawned more ideas. The basic premise is that approaches to teaching — methods, and even the vocabulary — have changed so much, parents are finding it difficult or impossible to help their children at home.

A series of informal workshops, "What We Teach and Why We Teach It" at North Canaan Elementary School began in December and will continue through March.

Organizers have been pleased with the large turnout. With these sessions, aimed at the teaching of basic reading skills, it has been mostly first-grade parents so far.

Questions asked in a brochure sent home with students are intriguing. "Are you a person who has forgotten the nuts and bolts of phonics?" Okay, that would have most parents nodding their heads. Yes, we need to brush up on that.

But then the brochure asks, "Are you a person who tells your child to sound out words?" Parents would be nodding their heads again. Of course kids should sound out words, most would say. That’s the way we were taught.

Workshop organizer and Title One primary grades teacher JoEllen Belter said what they call "oddball word patterns" mean sounding out is not always the best way. The English language is very inconsistent.

"There are other methods, such as tapping, that are effective. Parents weren’t taught these methods when they were in school and they are lost when it comes to helping their children learn to read," Belter said. "The idea is to re-teach parents and have a better connection with the way they are learning in school and at home."

First-grade teachers Diane Selino and Linda Peppe are also workshop presenters. Students are taught phonetic prompts, such as "Two vowels go walking, the first one does the talking."

Those have proven to be effective prompts, and there are many more. Problems occur, though, when children have not learned all the phonetic elements.

"All most parents recall is being told to sound words out," Peppe said. "But when a child has not learned the tools for it, telling them to sound out a word when they don’t know how sends a mixed message."

The teachers stress that the methods are also designed to be temporary. They are increasing communication with parents to advise them when it is time to help their children "back away from prompts toward independent reading."

"What we give parents at the workshops is the same vocabulary we use," Selino said. "Then they can reinforce what we are teaching, rather than confuse their children, and themselves."

That leads to the subject of math, which may be the subject of a future series of workshops. Parents struggle enough with recalling how to work a problem. When children start using phrases they have never heard, it becomes extremely frustrating for all parties. There are also different approaches for solving problems that can give parents fits at homework time.

"A lot of feedback is about applying this same approach to helping parents help their kids with math," Belter said. "It is problem. Concepts have been given new words and it’s like a different language."

Workshops are open to anyone, not just NCES parents. For a schedule, call the school at 860-824-5149. The turnout has been as high as 18, so those planning to attend are asked to call the school in advance to allow for sufficient space and materials.