Literacy in the Welcoming Classroom

Nearly every reform effort espouses the importance of “parent involvement.” This research-based guide is essential reading for teachers and administrators who want to make welcoming classrooms a reality. With a focus on literacy instruction, it showcases stories of what works when teachers in elementary school classrooms throughout the country partner with families across cultural and language differences. The author showcases effective strategies that educators can adapt to fit their own school communities. This book is perfect for professional study groups, parent–teacher discussions, and whole-school workshops.

This follow-up to JoBeth Allen’s bestselling Creating Welcoming Schools:

• Features up-to-date research on family involvement that has been shown to make a difference for students’ literacy learning.
• Demonstrates how teachers and families can collaborate through projects such as dialogue journals, photography and writing projects, and critical literacy inquiry.
• Details how to establish and sustain genuine dialogue through student-led, family-involved conferences.

Offers exercises teachers can use with families, including a version in Spanish, downloadable at www.tcpress.com.

JoBeth Allen is a professor of Language and Literacy Education at the University of Georgia who works closely with schools. She codirects the Red Clay Writing Project.

“If all schools could put these ideas into play, I have no doubt that children’s reading achievement would soar.”
—Anne T. Henderson, Annenberg Institute for School Reform

“JoBeth Allen’s new book is the one we educators most need for 21st-century schools…. This isn’t about getting families to do school at home; it’s about bringing homes and neighborhoods into the language and literacy activities and learning inquiries in schools.”
—From the Foreword by Katherine Bomer, educational consultant and Randy Bomer, The University of Texas at Austin

Supplementary Materials