Partnerships and Children

Precious Johnson
ECE497: Child Development Capstone Course
Instructor: Pilar Carroll
July 6, 2015

Elementary Students
This presentation is going to focus on elementary students, their
families, and their comunity. Elementary students are considered
to be in middle childhood because they are between the ages of 7
to 11. This stage of development according to Piaget, marks a
major turning point in cognitive development. Thought becomes
far more logical, flexible, and organized, more closely resembling
the reasoning of adults than that of younger children (Berk, 2013,
pg. 249). Family and the community can make a huge impact on a
childs development during this stage.

My Role
My role as a child development professional is to work with
children and their families and give them advice on how to help
support a childs learning. We as a community can help support a
childs learning by working together. We have to understand that it
does take a village to raise a child; once we understand that, we
can build a better world for our children.

Purpose of Presentation
The purpose of this presentation is to provide information about
how the family structure and community can help support a childs
learning. If the parents, teachers, and the community can work
together, our children will have a better chance at succeeding in
school and in life. According to the Department of Education
family and community involvements foster partnerships among
schools, family and community groups, and individuals. These
partnerships result in sharing and maximizing resources. And they
help children and youth develop healthy behaviors and promote
healthy families (2012, pg.1).

The Mesosystem: Bronfenbrenners

Ecological System
Bronfenbrenners Ecological System is a theoretical approach on how a child's
development is affected by their social relationships and the world around them
(Roundy, 2015).
There are four systems in Bronfenbrenners Ecological System, but the one that affects
all of you here is the mesosystem. The mesosystem consists of the interactions
between the different parts of a person's microsystem. The mesosystem is where a
person's individual microsystems do not function independently, but are interconnected
and assert influence upon one another (Roundy, 2015, pg.1).
For example, The microsystem is the system that is closest to the child so the
mesosystem would be considered the interactions between the microsystems. The
mesosystem would be the interactions between the childs parents and his teachers.
The childs parents would take an active role like attending parent-teacher conferences
of becoming a member of the PTA.

Bronfenbrenners
Ecological System

Epsteins Types of Involvement

Epsteins six types of involvement can be used to help educators
develop more comprehensive programs of school-familycommunity partnerships. According to the National Network of
Partnership Schools, each type of involvement includes many
different practices of partnership. Each type has particular
challenges that must be met in order to involve all families, and
each type requires redefinitions of some basic principles of
involvement. Finally, each type leads to different results for
students, families, and teachers (1997, pg.1).

Epsteins Types of Involvement Continue

There are six types of involvement that can influence a childs learning and
development (Epstein, N.d) .
Parenting: Children will have an awareness of family supervision and respect for
parents.
Communicating: They will have an understanding of school policies on behavior,
attendance, and other areas of student conduct.
Volunteering: They will have an increased learning of skills that receive tutoring or
targeted attention from volunteers.
Learning at Home: They will have a positive attitude toward schoolwork and
complete homework assignments
Decision making: They will have an awareness of representation of families in school
decisions which will help them get involved.
Collaborating: They can increased skills and talents through enriched curricular and
extracurricular experiences

Parenting
Children will have an awareness of family supervision and respect
for parents.
According to the Partnerships School article, we can accomplish
this by Assisting families with parenting skills and setting home
conditions to support children as students. Also, assist schools to
better understand families (Epstein, et. al. 2009).

Communicating
Children will have an understanding of school policies on behavior,
attendance, and other areas of student conduct.
Because 58% of the students are second language learners, the
school can provide free second language learning classes to those
parents who only speak one language, so they are ale to
communicate with teachers who do not speak their language. The
community can also sign a petition to put translators in classes so
that the teachers and parents can communicate without difficulty.

Volunteering
Children will have an increased learning of skills that receive
tutoring or targeted attention from volunteers.
The community can help by organizing volunteers and audiences
to support the school and students. Provide volunteer
opportunities in various locations and at various times (Epstein,
et. al. 2009).

Learning at Home
Children will have a positive attitude toward schoolwork and
complete homework assignments
A way to help is to Involve families with their children on
homework and other curriculum-related activities and decisions
(Epstein, et. al. 2009). We can do this by giving children homework
to where they will need to ask their parents questions.

Decision Making
Children will have an awareness of representation of families in
school decisions which will help them get involved.
We can help children in this area by Including families as
participants in school decisions, and develop parent leaders and
representatives (Epstein, et. al. 2009).
This videos description: Scaling The Community School: How
School Leaders, Community Partners and Parents Can Build a
Network of Support Services for Students and Their Families.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X8ZrJVaNQIQ

Collaborating
Children can increased skills and talents through enriched
curricular and extracurricular experiences
This can be achieved by Coordinating resources and services from
the community for families, students, and the school, and provide
services to the community (Epstein, et. al. 2009).

References
Berk, L. E. (2013).Child development. (9th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.
Cherry, K. (2015). Piaget's Stages of Cognitive Development. Retrieved July 14,
2015 from http://psychology.about.com/od/piagetstheory/a/keyconcepts.htm
Christianson, C. (2015). Typical and Atypical Motor Development Retrieved June 24,
2015 from http://www.abilitypath.org/areas-of-development/physicaldevelopment/motor-skills/articles/typical-and-atypical-motor-development.html
Department of Education. (2012). Why Family and Community Involvement Is
Important. Retrieved July, 6, 2015 from
http://education.nh.gov/instruction/school_health/health_coord_family.htm
Epstein, et. al. 2009. School, Family, and Community Partnerships: Your Handbook
for Action, Third Edition. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press, Inc. Retrieved July 14,
2015 from http://www.csos.jhu.edu/p2000/nnps_model/school/sixtypes.htm

References Continue
National Network of Partnership Schools (1997). Epsteins Six Types of Involvement.
Retrieved July 6, 2015 from http://www.csos.jhu.edu/p2000/sixtypes.htm
Oswalt, A. (2015). Urie Bronfenbrenner and Child Development. Retrieved June 18,
2015 from http://www.gulfbend.org/poc/view_doc.php?type=doc&id=7930&cn=28
Perry, D.B. Szalavitz, M. (2008). The Boy Who Was Raised As A Dog: And Other Stories
From a Child Psychiatrist's Notebook : What Traumatized Children Can Teach Us About
Life, Loss, Love, and Healing. New York: Basic Books
Roundy, L. (2015). Bronfenbrenner's Ecological Systems Theory of Development:
Definition & Examples. Retrieved July 1, 2015 from http://
study.com/academy/lesson/bronfenbrenners-ecological-systems-theory-of-developmentdefinition-examples.html
TeacherVision (2015). Students with Exceptionalities. Retrieved July 14, 2015 from
https://www.teachervision.com/special-education/new-teacher/48459.html