Directions: Write a letter to parents that conveys your views about how parents and teachers can work together for the benefit of the children. The purpose of the letter is to invite parents’ participation in their children’s education. The letter should address the following topics (in order). This is a SAMPLE letter. Yours will NOT include the first two sentences of each of the four paragraphs here or my guiding questions, only your own words (responses).
Dear Parents:
Background of relatedness: Express, from your personal point of view, what you and the parents have in common, why you are here, and what brings all the people in this community together.
Consider:
• How parents and teachers share a mutual interest in helping each child.
• How they share the responsibility for children’s care and education
• What motivated you to become a teacher.
Conversation about possibility: Clearly state the dream you hold of the future for the children and for your program. This is a statement of aspirations, the ideal, your vision for the children’s future.
Consider:
• What you want for children and your program as a whole: Your dream.
• How you and parents can work together to prepare children for their future.
• What is possible if you work cooperatively with parents in supporting children’s development.
• The world you can create together focusing on young children and their needs.
Conversation about opportunity: The current state of your program within a community context: specific problems to address, decisions that the community ought to address, what can be done right away.
Consider:
• How the school/program is part of the local community (what role it plays in the larger picture).
• Specific problems currently facing the school that parents and teachers can help address.
• What actions teachers and parents can short- and long-term in addressing problems.
Invitation to commit: Invite the parents to help the program, just as you would friends to a party you were having.
Consider:
• How you can welcome parents to take an active role in the life of the program and the classrooms
• How you can recognize the unique talents and skills that parents have to offer.
• The different jobs parents can do inside and outside the classroom.
Sincerely,
Sign letter
List your title in the program
