This week’s assignment was to find two Peer reviewed journals or articles that related to my research topic. A child development professor suggested that I try the JSTOR data base to find more articles about education. JSTOR is located under the general database in the Brandman Leatherby libraries. There I found an excellent article called, “Family Involvement and Educator Outreach in Head Start: Nature, Extent, and Contributions to Early Literacy Skills.” (Hindman & Morrison). This article is about a survey called, Family and Child Experience Survey ( FACES) , that was conducted on 3,100 parents and children, their teachers, and their site directors. It was conducted to reveal if the current Head Start parent involvement program was effective. The other article I found using the EBSCO Premier Data Base is titled, “Welfare-to-Work Single Mothers’ Perspectives on Parent Involvement in Head Start: Implications for Parent-Teacher Collaboration.” (Bruckman & Blanton) This article is about the efforts of the Head Start programs to provide information to families about their child’s education and to encourage a parent teacher collaboration that benefits both the child and their families. This study focused on families headed by single mothers.

 Finding a research topic was not hard for me, but narrowing my topic to a single question is challenging. From this week’s article search, I am now leaning towards finding a question that relates to Head Start, teacher family collaboration and a new way to get parents hooked on helping their children be successful in school. I cannot remember what was said to me by my child’s Head Start teacher that got me hooked. I think it was just an invitation said with a smile.

Resources:

Hindman, Annmarie  H. and Morrison, Fredrick J. (2011) “Family involvement and Educator

            Outreach in Head Start: Nature, Extent, and Contributions to Early Literacy Skills.” The

Elementary School Journal, 111, No. 3: 359-386.

             Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/657651

Marilyn Bruckman and Priscilla W. Blanton(2003) “Welfare-to-Work Single Mothers’ Perspective

             on Parent Involvement in Head Start: Implications for Parent- Teacher Collaboration.” Early

             Childhood Education Journal, 30, no.3: 145-150

 http://www.springerlink.com.libproxy.chapman.edu/content/n982v25240465323/

This week’s assignment was about finding books related to my research question. This assignment was focused on how to search for books in the Brandman University Library and Google books data base. It also gave me helpful information about how to choose a book that offers reliable information about the topic. While doing the research for my topic I realized that there is many books out there related to my topic. It is refreshing to see that many teachers want to share their experiences in the child development field.

During my search for books on the Brandman University I ran into a problem with being able to acquire the actual book in time for my research. I found an excellent document written about my subject and I could view it on the website but it was not available to copy, and renting it would have taken longer than a week. So I decided to try searching in Google Books. On Google books I was able to type in three words related to my research and several books came up. Here I found a book titled, “Awaking children’s minds: how parents and teachers can make a difference”. The author of this book, Laura E. Berk is a distinguished professor of psychology at the Illinois State University. I went to my local free library’s web page and I found and requested a copy so that I can use it for my research. My research goal is to gain a better understanding about how to encourage parents to get involved in their child’s education and to help educate them about the importance of having a open relationship with their children’s teachers. I am also looking for ways to help parents be advocates for their children when concerns come up about their developmental milestones.  

http://www.blackwellreference.com.libproxy.chapman.edu/, This document titled, “Children and Inequality”, is about the downfalls parents sometimes face when they are working long hours in inflexible jobs and are unable to take an active role in their children’s education. Low income families typically have limited education and also grew up in a low income family. Occasionally these parents are preoccupied with working to put food on the table and are sometimes intimidated by the school systems.  “Social class inequalities can affect parent’s ability to advocate for their children in the schools (Wrigley 2005)”.

The most valuable advice that I received from this document is to get educated about how the school is ran and to encourage parents to get know their child’s teachers. “When parents cannot easily be advocates, children’s troubles or minor transgressions may become way stations out the door, as institutions are freer to push them out then they are with better defended children (Wrigley 2005).” I feel that this statement is true for all families. I have a passion for informing parents about how important it is to be an advocate for their child’s education. It is important for parents to expect an open door policy from teachers and staff working at their child’s school. This document encourages parents to learn ways to communicate effectively with teachers so that they can be advocates for their children’s education.

http://eclkc.ohs.acf.hhs.gov/hslc/sr/approach/pfcef This document is from the Head Start Approach to School Readiness guide that teachers and administration of Head Start use for reaching the highest level of efficiency when educating parents. I agree with the statement, “Continued family engagement is important throughout the school years. Longitudinal studies of low-income children show that high family involvement offsets the risks of children growing up in low-income households and in households with low parent education.”(Dearing 2006) The information in this document is research based and statistically proven to be highly creditable.

Work cited:

Document 1:

Wrigley, Julia and Joanna. “Children and Inequality.”  The Blackwell Companion to Social    Inequalities. Romero, Mary and Eric Margolis (eds).  Blackwell Publishing.2006 Blackwell Reference Online. http://www.blackwellreference.com.libproxy.chapman.edu/ 

Document 2:

Parent, Family, and Community Engagement Framework. Head Start Approach to School Readiness. HHS/ACF/OHS. 2011. English. http://eclkc.ohs.acf.hhs.gov/hslc/sr/approach/pfcef . 4 Dearing, E., Kreider, H., Simpkins, S., & Weiss, H. B. (2006).

Hello! My name is Julie. I am currently attending Brandman University to get my BA in Child Development. I work in a local Head Start with 3 to 5 year olds. I discovered Head Start in 2003 when my middle son Matt was assessed for speech and language by the county. They discovered that he was speaking at a 2 year old level but he was 4. So he was started on speech and occupational therapy and he was invited to attend Head Start due to his disabilities. I am happy to report that Matt is currently a 6th grader and is doing well in school. Ironically enough in 2006 I had my son Mike assessed for speech and he qualified for Head Start also. At that time I thought that there must be something wrong with my parenting so I decided to volunteer in his class to see what I could do for him at home. I loved being in the class room and I decided to attend MJC and learn more about child development. My son Mike actually had to have surgery on his tongue which extended the length of his tongue and he began to speak at his age level very quickly. My whole family has benefited from the Head Start Program. Head Start is the reason why I am still attending college.
       
         I am creating this blog for my LBSU 302 class titled Information fluency and Academic integrity. From this class I hope to learn how to cite information sources without plagiarising them on accident. There is so much information on the world wide web, but being able to decide truth from fiction is sometimes a challenge for me. I think that this class will help me with future classes and my job. The topic for my blog will be about parent education. I am passionate about being a supportive and loving parent and I hope to pass this on to other parents in my community. As a Head Start parent I learned that I have rights as a parent to what happens to my child in the public school system. I know that every child does not have an IEP or Individual Educational Plan that is recognized by the teaching staff but through healthy communication you can let the teachers know what your child's educational goal is and ask them for help to achieve the outcomes that you desire.