Abstract
Parental involvement on school-based literacy activities at home has the potential to improve student achievement. Though parent involvement on school-based activities may be seemingly limited in some cases, with a parent-outreach approach, more families can be reached with a collaborative model. In this study, the researcher first attempted to determine whether or not parental involvement on homework could be improved through a parent outreach approach. Second, the researcher aimed to determine which setting parents preferred for the coaching session: school, public library, or home. This experimental case study included eleven families from a low-socioeconomic and culturally diverse class of first grade students and tracked parental involvement for eight weeks on literary homework activities done through weekly homework reading logs. In addition, field notes and anecdotal records were kept during coaching and follow up meetings. The treatment group included six parent participants who received a one-on-one, one hour long teacher-led coaching session involving homework expectations and shared reading activities that could be done at home. Four weeks later, a short follow up meeting was conducted with each participant. The researcher modeled activities, explored resources, and collaborated with parents to support shared reading activities and routines that could be done at home. Flexible dates, times, and choices of location were offered to parents and accommodated for. The results showed that five out of six families chose a school setting while one family chose the home setting. Of the six families in the treatment group, four families participated in the treatment. Of these four families, quantitative data showed positive effects on parent participation on school-based literacy activities at home for two out of four families. Conclusions drawn about declining participation and also about families that were unable to participate are discussed. Implications discussed for educators include considerations about using personal invitations to reach more families, the demands of homework on a case-by-case basis, English Language Learner needs and support, and parent-teacher collaboration.