“Parents received information to understand terms used in the school setting, like phonemic awareness, fluency, etc.,” said Heather Stambaugh, president of the Greenon Federation of Teachers and a high school social studies teacher. “There were sample activities and questions that parents can incorporate into their time with their children that can be done beyond book reading, and can feel more organic than sitting down with a book, while still building confidence and skills.”
In addition to building skills for parents, the training also helped build deeper connections between educators and parents, said Neil Bhaerman, communications director for the Ohio Federation of Teachers.
“We designed a morning that allowed teachers to connect with parents and equip them with the tools and understanding needed to foster their child’s reading development at home,” Lisa Storm, intervention specialist at Greenon Elementary, said. “Our goal is for every parent to leave feeling confident and well-prepared to support their child’s literacy journey.”
Stambaugh and Storm helped lead this training. Other than Greenon, teachers from Cincinnati, Cleveland and Toledo are doing similar training with their districts.
“We can best support our students by making sure we’re all pulling in the same direction,” said Melissa Cropper, president of the Ohio Federation of Teachers. “By sharing skills, resources, and tips with parents, we know that they’ll be able to be more active and more confident in helping their children develop a lifelong love of reading.”
Bhaerman said OFT plans for this to be the start of ongoing work, but there are no additional trainings scheduled at this time.
The Greenon Knights Parent Teacher Organization sponsored this event, where families received free books for students’ home libraries, provided by AFT’s Reading Opens the World and First Book, a book distribution nonprofit.
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