Midterm Communication Plan
Describe methods you would use for communicating with parents in your classroom. These should include the characteristics of effective communication, be sensitive to issues of diversity, and be designed to promote the well-being of each child in your care. 3-5 pages. 20pts.
How to Structure Your Paper
Introduction
Begin the paper with a clear introduction that describes your beliefs or philosophy regarding parent-teacher communication. You should discuss your goals and objectives for communicating with your students’ family members. For example, explain the importance and need for establishing good parent-teacher communication and what you hope to accomplish through the kind of communication strategies your communication plan employs. Also discuss how you hope parents will respond to your communications or initiate communication with you or the school.
Body of the Paper
Describe the purpose of the different kinds of communication you will use throughout the year (newsletter, folder of a student’s work from a completed unit, Web site, “good news” notes or phone calls, etc.). Be sure to explain the strategy you will use for each purpose and why you believe that strategy (or mode of communication) will be effective. Also mention whether this is a “one-way” or “two-way” communication strategy.
For example, if you plan to create a newsletter, here are some things you might want to consider/ discuss (these can of course apply to other communication strategies as well):
What do you hope to accomplish with this newsletter and what kinds of information will it include (will you involve students in creating it)?
Do you intend to use the newsletter as a traditional form of one-way communication or will you design the newsletter to elicit parent responses?
How often will you send it, and how will you distribute it?
How will you accommodate parents who do not speak English and those who may not have access to electronic communication?
How will this newsletter help parents support students’ social, emotional, or academic success?
Unless you have an innovative strategy for conducting parent-teacher conferences or for sending progress reports or report cards, you do not need to discuss these in detail .
Conclusion
In your conclusion section, describe the ways you will know if your plan is effective. For example, if your goal for sending out a flier is to increase parent attendance at parent-teacher conferences, you can assess the fliers’ effectiveness by evaluating whether more parents attended.
References
You should cite at least two-three (2-3) course readings that inspired your plan or a particular strategy that you used. You will need to include this source in your list of references, which should be on the last page of your paper.
