The Parent Literacy Center at Jessie D. Clifton Elementary offers parents opportunities to build skills to prepare for work and for postsecondary education, and to support their children’s learning. The school’s Fall Festival Math Day aimed to increase parents’ understanding of and comfort with the district’s new math curriculum (Eureka Math).
Lake Charles, LA
Parent Literacy Center
“Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.” The Parent Literacy Center speaks to this ancient Chinese proverb by offering parents opportunities to build skills to prepare for work and for postsecondary education, and to support their children’s learning. Parents without a high school diploma may attend classes to earn a General Educational Development (GED) high school equivalency diploma. Those with a diploma can prepare for college, other postsecondary training, or build skills for careers in local high-demand occupations.
Parents also may attend workshops for ideas on how to support their own child’s reading and math skills, tips on family budgeting and financial literacy, and family fun activities with children. By having the Parent Literacy Center at school with programs during the day, the ATP, principal, and teachers expect more parents to come to school to attend one kind of workshop or another. In this way, more students will see that their parents are continuing their education and may be influenced to stay in school through high school graduation and beyond.
Parent Literacy Center is featured in Promising Partnership Practices 2015.
Fall Festival Math Day
Fall Festival Math Day aimed to increase parents’ understanding of and comfort with the district’s new math curriculum (Eureka Math). The ATP, PTO, and math teachers at Clifton worked together to develop and share tools, resources, and fun math activities that parents could use to become actively involved with students on math learning at home. They also wanted students to show parents how they solve math problems using the Read, Draw, Write strategy in the new curriculum that is used at all grade levels.
At the festival, about 65 volunteers and teachers supervised grade-specific activities for children and families. Each student was given a card that was punched when each activity or game was completed. If students completed at least 6 activities, they received a homework pass, and all students received prizes for completing their grade-specific tasks.
