One School, One Book offers the opportunity for schools to engage in meaningful communication with families, and to partner with families in assisting with their child’s learning at home. However, schools can also use their One School, One Book program as an opportunity to further family engagement. When doing so, schools meet the family engagement requirement for Title 1 and can use those dollars to fund their One School, One Book program.
Our team has compiled a list of strategies that you can use to bolster your school’s family engagement efforts. Check them out below:
Launch your reading program with a family reading night – or close with one!
For many schools, Family Reading Nights are their most anticipated event for the year. They are a way to highlight the importance of families reading together with their children, and for teachers to share wisdom about the power of reading together. You can try kicking-off your One School, One Book program with a Family Reading Night that includes bulletin boards, games, activities, and read alouds of your selected title. You can also ride the excitement of your One School, One Book program by concluding your program with a Family Reading Night, allowing families to share their favorite parts of the book, their favorite memories made while reading, and encourage them to turn reading aloud daily into a habit.
Be sure to share the letter home and reading schedule with your families.
When kicking off your One School, One Book program, an easy way to drive family engagement is to raise awareness of the event, itself. The letter home – part of your Before Your Read materials – is an editable resource that can be tailored to suit your school. It is an easy way to share the Why and What of your read aloud program, and drum up excitement among families. The reading schedule (also found in your Before Your Read materials) is something that can be printed out and sent home with students, allowing families to follow along with an established, shared timeline to put all the families in your school community on the literal same page.
Make use of the home materials for families.
While the bulk of our resources pertain to the classroom, the majority of our titles also include a resource called the Family Fun Pack, which you can find in During Your Reading: At Home Resources. This resource is broken down in tandem with the reading schedule, providing family-oriented trivia, an activity, and discussion questions for each week of your program. It also includes Next Book Connections, a list of other books with similar themes or by the same author to encourage families to keep reading beyond the conclusion of your program.
Share a post-program survey with families.
Surveys are a brief, concise way to gather vital feedback about your program. By sending out a post-program survey, be it paper or electronic, you can understand what about your program worked for families and what may need to be adapted for future One School, One Book programs.
Encourage families to share their experience on social media.
As families are reading the selected title, encourage families to share photos of themselves reading together. You can launch a reading challenge in your school, paired with a hashtag to engage families on social media. It’s always a blast to see who else is reading in your community!
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One School, One Book is an incredible way to establish – or bolster – a direct partnership with families, one that can be nourished well-beyond the scope of your reading program.
Do you have any family engagement strategies that have been successful in your school or district? Share them in the comments below. Happy reading!
