Building Connections with Families

Communicating with Families About Reading and the Reads Act

Tools for Communicating with Families

Best Practices for Orienting Families

Family and School Partnership Scanning Tool

Family and School Partnership Scanning Tool This scanning tool is designed for Alaska Family Engagement Center partners to look at their own family and school partnership at a district, community, school or classroom.

Building Block 5: Skills and Confidence

Families and staff often want to work together more effectively but don’t know how. Successful partnerships build the skills, confidence, and capacity of both partners. Through training and specific opportunities, staff and families can build the skills and confidence they need.

Building Block 4: Links to Learning

Successful family partnerships are a lever for student achievement and school improvement. When teachers, school staff, and families have shared expectations for students, they can work together to support student learning, goal-setting, and a sense of shared mission.

Building Block 2: Relationships

Building trusting relationships can help families and school staff to authentically work together. These connections help each partner value the other and develop a shared understanding of how to work as a team. Relationships are critical for addressing mistrust some families experience toward the educational system and serve as a foundation for solving problems and resolving conflict.

Building Block 1: Mindset

Successful family engagement starts with a mindset that families are equal and essential partners in their children’s education. Part of this mindset is a view of family engagement as a continuum, with true partnership as the ultimate goal.

Family Inclusive Lesson Plan Template (For Social Emotional Learning Lesson)

This lesson planning template allows educators to think through the components needed for an SEL lesson to be family inclusive.

Social Emotional Learning (SEL) Lesson Inventory

This resource will guide you through the process of conducting an inventory of your SEL Lessons to ensure they contain components including family language and understanding, stories and teaching practices, and family relevant materials

Lesson Planning Best Practices for Teachers

Teachers play an important role in supporting their students as they connect their individual, familial and community experiences to new knowledge and classroom learning opportunities. Creating units and lessons that collaborate with families, community resources and Elders will foster learning at all academic levels. This resource provides a list of best practices, examples of how educators can encourage learning at home, and a tool to gather more information about families

Communication Tools Around Social Emotional Learning

These conversation starters and sample letters are tools that educators can use to start the conversation with families around social emotional learning.

Tool to Help Assess & Build Relationships with Families

Building relationships intentionally and consistently is an important step in building trust between families and school staff. Educators can assess their current knowledge of their students’ families by using the following worksheet as a guide. The additional questions provide a starting point for educators to talk with families and fill in any gaps in knowledge or understanding, and can help foster more trusting relationships.

Stronger Together Framework