A Path to Follow: Learning to Listen to Parents

by Patricia A. Edwards

The diverse and difficult needs of today's children far outstrip the ability of any one institution to meet them. Yet one of the richest resources for understanding a child's early learning experiences-parents-is quite often the most frequently overlooked. A Path to Follow suggests that parent "stories" can be a highly effective, collaborative tool for accessing knowledge that may not be obvious, but would obviously be of benefit. Pat Edwards and...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0325001529
• ISBN13: 9780325001524
• Release Date: March 1999
• Publisher: Heinemann Educational Books
• Length: 112 Pages
• Weight: 0.40 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.3" x 6.0" x 9.2"
• Grade Range: Kindergarten to Grade 5

Customer Reviews

Wonderful Resource!

In reading a Path to Follow, I found it to be a fantastic resource for thinking about how to involve ALL parents in the education of their children. By highlighting the idea that parents and teachers can have honest and mutually beneficial conversations about children, I think that the authors of this book have hit on the true meaning of parent involvement!

Concise...a quick read

A Path to Follow: Learning to Listen to Parents is a must read for anyone that is interested in learning more about getting parents involved in their children's schooling. That probably covers anyone and everyone that is reading this. The book is a very quick read with many examples of how to implement "parent stories" in to your daily teaching and routine. When there are problems with a child's literacy and/or learning often times the families are perceived as the root of the problem. The schools often see the homes that many of these children are raised in as inadequate environments. Parents feel threatened by this accusation and exclude themselves from the school setting altogether. Parents can also tend to not just exclude themselves, but also have a negative effect on their child's learning. Edward's notes many solutions to this negativity felt by both parents and schools alike. Her main solution is to recruit teachers into the field of education that have much cultural knowledge. Certain activities that are not seen as literate by many cultures are in fact considered very literate and learning based. There are various social, emotional and educational variables that educators may overlook if parents are not given the chance to share their stories. Research has shown that parent involvement has a strong impact on student learning especially in reading and language arts. Edwards suggests the use of "parent stories" to involve families throughout the year and not just at scheduled conference and report card times. Much of the research conducted on parent literacy lacks what parents have to say. It generally gives a synopsis of particular things that were considered literate by an outsider. "Parent stories" suggest that teachers enter the homes of their students and let the parents share what they have to say or show. Edwards provides the reader with many sample questions and examples of actual visits. So in addition to all that the teacher can physically see, the parent will provide to more important information. Edwards suggests providing the parents with the opportunity to answer questions with more that one word. Instead of: "How often do you read with your child?" Try "Tell me about all the kinds of things that you and your family read or have read in the past." These types of prompts allow teachers to build a more complete picture of their student's literacy experiences. Chapter three was the nuts and bolts chapter. It offered suggestions of questions to ask as well as a checklist of tools and various graphic organizers. After collecting the "parent stories" the author describes how to use these to aid in instruction. These "stories" provide a lot of information. Some of the information may not seem important but after reading the various examples we can see how seemingly unimportant information is crucial to further instruction. Edwards warns that these parent