1. Hilary Manzone READ6421Home/School Partnership Project Part A
Summary Article 1:
The first article titled “Making home an advantage in the prevention of reading failure:
Strategies for collaborating with parents in urban schools,” emphasized the need for parent and
teacher collaboration and partnerships to promote a positive relationship between the
student’s home and school environment. A key component of the school and home relationship
is communication and is referenced periodically throughout the article.
The two case studies were included to highlightthe struggles parents and teachers
sometime face when dealing with struggling students. At times, parents and teachers do not
fully understand each other’s perspectives and without careful consideration, disagreements
can arise and cause tension between the school and home environments. To prevent
miscommunication, parents and teachers should meet to discuss and develop a school-home
partnership plan.
There are many strategies teachers can use to implement a school and home
partnership. Some examples include holding family nights, face-to-face meetings, training
sessions for parents, differentiating reading based on student’s ability, and reading logs to keep
constant home communication. It’s also important to set short-term goals for students so they
can feel success earlier than later. Lastly, flexible helps parents with busy work schedules.
There needs to be a transition of thinking that parents and teachers work separately to
a thinking that parents and teachers need to work together. The focus should be directed on
the student’s academic success. Although teachers may feel there is no time to implement a
partnership and feel the constant pressure from the state and local districts to meet standards,

2. Hilary Manzone READ6421Home/School Partnership Project Part A
the benefits reaped from home and school relationships outway the negatives.(Musti-
Rao&Cartledge, 2004)
Reflection Article 1:
The article addressed many concerns teachers currently have with home and school
relationships. Many times, parents have busy schedules making it difficult to attend meetings.
Other times, parents may not be involved in their student’s education because they do not
know the tools or strategies to use with their children. Still other parents believe it’s the
teacher’s duty to take care of their child’s education even though they do not know how much
their interaction would benefit the child. This article provided many strategies and tips for
creating a more comfortable and trusting home and school relationship as well as ways to help
parents understand the benefits of creating a strong home and school communication.
Therefore,“a shift is needed form the paradigm of parents and teachers working separately to
parents and teachers working together for the benefit of the child.” (Musti-Rao&Cartledge,
2004, p.19)
Once a home and school relationship is established, teachers need to understand that
parents are not a nuisance and can actually provide a good at home support system for
struggling students (Musti-Rao&Cartledge, 2004). In addition, both teachers and parents need
to take in account the benefits this program provides.
For a school to implement this program, it may be helpful to provide trainings and
materials to help teachers understand how the home-school partnership works and how it can
be easily adaptable to their classroom. Since there is constant pressure from state mandates

3. Hilary Manzone READ6421Home/School Partnership Project Part A
and little time to implement new programs, a slow-paced implementation is essential to
prevent teachers from being overwhelmed. In addition, teachers may want to start with one or
two sets of parents before implementing a class-wide home and school partnership. Of course,
some strategies can be used with the entire classroom such as reading logs and differentiated
reading materials, but the trainings and face-to-face meetings can be limited to only a few sets
of parents at the beginning.
The benefits of creating a collaborative relationship between parents and schools prove
that home and school partnerships are successful when implemented correctly. At our school,
we have started offering math and reading nights that parents can attend with their children to
practice certain reading or math strategies we use in the class. Students feel important when
they come to the sessions with their parents because they can show their parents how to
perform a certain strategy or how to solve a problem. Although we only offer a few a year,
we’ve discussed offering more for different subjects or topics we may introduce as the year
evolves.
Another wonderful tool is the internet. If parents have access to internet at home, it
makes it easier to communicate with parents as well as provide power-points, handouts, or
videos on our classroom website that they can have access to if they are unable to attend our
training sessions.

4. Hilary Manzone READ6421Home/School Partnership Project Part A
Summary Article 2:
The second article titled “Home-school partnerships in literacy education: From rhetoric
to reality” focused on extended the instructional time student’s receive to the home
environment by creating home involvement programs. One of the most intriguing pieces of
information from this article is that even with the stresses teachers face day to day, “the theory
and research supporting the inclusion of parents in children’s education, especially in the early
years of school, is deep and compelling.” (Padak&Rasinski, 2006, p.292) Therefore, it works!
An example of an effective home-school partnership called Fast Start was introduced in
this article to show how literacy instruction can be implemented at home. This program
allowed parents to work with their students for 10-15 minutes daily at home to improve fluency
and word knowledge in an easy and informal setting. This program is successful because
students are exposed to the words repeatedly. Studies reported that schools that implement
this program have a high correlation of reading achievement. (Padak&Rasinski, 2006)
There are several components needed for successful home-school partnerships that
were incorporated in the Fast Start program. For example, reading strategies should be
research based and trainings to implement the strategies at home should be offered. Chosen
texts should be meaningful and reading activities should be enjoyable to promote motivation.
Lastly, home reading logs can assist with communication between teachers and parents.
Although the Fast Start program appears to be effective, it can only work when teachers
advocate for the implementation of home-school partnerships at their school. Teachers and

5. Hilary Manzone READ6421Home/School Partnership Project Part A
parents need to work together using research based strategies in effort to help struggling
readers.
Reflection Article 2:
Documented research was a key component in this article to prove the effectiveness of
the home-school partnership program. Research is a powerful tool and can motivate teachers
in using research based activities within their own school. The problem arises when teachers
have limited time or not enough training to start these programs in their classroom.
Teachers may be using many of the characteristics of an effective home-school
partnership such as home reading logs and providing authentic texts aligned to the student’s
reading level. Areas that teachers can improve on include on-going training sessions for parents
to help them use this reading program at home. In addition, there needs to be a variety of at-
home reading activities developed to provide to parents. Lastly, although some teachers feel as
though communication is completed through a log, there are other effective ways of
communicating such as e-mail, phone calls, and conferences to keep parents informed.
Introducing Fast Start or a modified version of Fast Start would be helpful if presented in
chunks rather than all at once. Teachers may feel a little overwhelmed with a list of strategies
they need to use immediately in their classroom to create effective home and school
communication. To ease the stress of implementing a new program, providing the training in
sections may help more teachers “buy” into the idea.

6. Hilary Manzone READ6421Home/School Partnership Project Part A
Another consideration to keep in mind is creating this program school-wide. If parents
and teachers and are exposed to home-school partnerships in Kindergarten and observe the
positive affects it has on students, chances are parents and teachers will be more apt to using
the program at every grade level. It also creates consistency and shows the commitment of
teachers as a whole school rather than one teacher.
The articles helped me realize the importance of communication between the school
and home. It is an area of personal interest that I have been working on in my fourth grade
classroom. I am reluctant to work with a teammate who shares the same beliefs. When we
work together as educators and families, the benefits are compelling.
References:
Cartledge, G., &Musti-Rao, S. (2004). Making home an advantage in the prevention of reading
failure: Strategies for collaborating with parents in urban schools. Preventing School
Failure, 48, 15-21.
Padak, N., &Rasinski, T. (2006). Home-school partnerships in literacy education: From rhetoric
to reality. The Reading Teacher, 60, 292-296.