Frog Street’s Empowering Families program seeks to educate and inspire parents to embrace the learning that starts in the classroom and continue it at home. This program consists of actual curriculum content for parents to reinforce learning after school hours and Professional Learning courses designed for educators on how to engage families:
• The Early Literacy Take-Home Books offer an easy-to-use first step toward empowering families with the tools they need to influence positive academic growth at home.
• Frog Street’s Empowering Families Professional Learning Courses will help you integrate family involvement into your school’s overall mission.
Take-Home Books
Frog Street’s Early Literacy Take-Home Books are the perfect tool to create a powerful home-school connection. The front and back cover of each literature title includes ready-to-use tips and ideas to help families use interactive and purposeful reading strategies when enjoying the books at home with their child.
The program includes 35 titles (20 printed books of each title plus a digital library) and is available in both English and Spanish.
Professional Learning Courses
The Six Building Blocks of Family Engagement
This session provides participants with the opportunity to explore the foundation for family engagement that emphasizes the process of working with your school family.
Objectives:
– Understand the impact of family engagement
– Define the difference between involvement and engagement
– Acknowledge that programs must know their families
– Be able to apply asset building
– Understand the impact of adverse childhood experiences
– Learn the Six Building Blocks of Engagement
Recommended Duration: 6 hours (any of the objectives can be provided in a 2-hour session)
Unraveling Family Data, Tracking and Usage
This session provides participants with the opportunity to explore the data tracking needed to support a family engagement program and unravel the use of this data to determine additional tracking that may be needed to enhance program goals.
Objectives:
– Learn how to use your data to benefit your program goals
– Define the data currently being tracked and determine the effectiveness of this model
– Acknowledge additional data opportunities that would be used to enhance program goals
Recommended Duration: 2, 4, 6 hours
Unwrapping the Parent, Family and Community Engagement Framework
This session provides participants with the opportunity to explore the PFCE and determine how to best use these engagement outcomes to build a more effective program.
Objectives:
– Acknowledge the intent and expectation for programs using the PFCE framework
– Understand the meaning of each outcome
– Determine how your program is currently using them
– Create a plan that will support your program goals
Recommended Duration: 4-6 hours
The Home/School Connection: Linked to Learning
This session provides participants with the opportunity to explore and adapt initiatives that align student achievement goals with the connection to families and their understanding of the goals set for students.
Objectives:
– Understand the meaning of “linked to learning”
– Define the academic goals of your students
– Form a dialogue with families on the connection between school and home
– Outline the expectations of family support
– Determine the methodology to communicate with families
Recommended Duration: 2, 4, 6 hours
Family Advocacy: What does that look like?
This session provides participants with the opportunity to understand that family advocacy is an essential element to a successful program; identify key ideas through this course.
Objectives:
– Acknowledging family strengths
– Understanding families through their cultural lens
– Acknowledging personal bias
– Defining stress in families and your role of support
– Understanding the impact of risk factors
Recommended Duration: 2-4 hours
The Importance of Literacy
This session provides participants with the opportunity to understand how literacy impacts family engagement.
Objectives:
– Define the types of literacy
– Outline how illiteracy can impact family engagement
– Build strategies that promote literacy among families
Recommended Duration: 2 hours
Connecting Social/Emotional Support
This session provides participants with the opportunity to understand how supporting a family’s social/emotional well-being connects to academic success.
Objectives:
– Define social/emotional well-being
– Explore the connection between well-being and academic success
– Build strategies to support social/emotional competencies in the home
Recommended Duration: 2 hours
Markers of Progress: Family Engagement Program Assessment
This session provides participants with the opportunity to engage in a reflective dialogue to evaluate the effectiveness of their current family engagement program.
Objectives:
– Define program goals related to engagement
– Assess program goals using the Markers of Progress
– Outline strategies to increase effective family engagement practices
Recommended Duration: 2 hours
Understanding Adverse Childhood Experiences
This session provides participants with the opportunity to understand what adverse childhood experiences are and how they may impact family engagement.
Objectives:
– Identify adverse childhood experiences
– Understand the depth of using a screening tool
– Explore ways to promote engagement for those with high ACEs scores
Recommended Duration: 2 hours
Understanding Poverty: Ruby Payne Model
This session provides participants with the opportunity to understand the stresses of living in poverty and how it can be difficult for families to participate in their child’s learning and development. Promote engagement by linking your understanding of living in poverty to the goals for your family engagement plan.
Objectives:
– Explore the difference between situational and generational poverty
– Highlight what is known about poverty in your area and the impact is has on student success
– Identify the role of language in poverty
– Discuss the thoughts of a class system and the hidden rules of that system
Recommended Duration: 2 hours
Supporting Developmental Assets
This session provides participants with the opportunity to support positive development by forming an understanding of what assets children need early on to succeed.
Objectives:
– Identify 40 developmental assets
– Engage in strategies to assess your current inventory and capacity of your program to implement developmental asset building
– Plan the necessary steps to support asset building in your community
Recommended Duration: 2 hours
Home Visits: What’s the purpose?
This session provides participants with the opportunity to understanding the depth of home visits and how they are an essential part of student success.
Objectives:
– Identify the “why” and “how” behind a home visit
– Explore what research says about the effectiveness of home visits
– Engage in conversation that transforms home visits from thought into practice
Recommended Duration: 2 hours
Challenges Faced by Undocumented Families
This session provides participants with the opportunity to understand the challenges faced by undocumented children.
Objectives:
– Explore what it means to be undocumented
– Explore the roles that your program can play in promoting positive and enriching learning experiences for all students
– Identify alternative resources that can be provided to families that are undocumented
Recommended Duration: 2 hours
Collaborative Communication
This session provides participants with the opportunity to identify how staffs view families and how their communication style works to build a collaborative link between home and school.
Objectives:
– Acknowledging family strengths
– Understanding families through their cultural lens
– Acknowledging personal bias
– Identifying communication styles that build collaboration
Recommended Duration: 2 hours
Bridging the Gap Into Kindergarten Transition
This session provides participants with the opportunity to decrease the struggle between the transitions from pre-k to kindergarten.
Objectives:
– Identify an effective transition
– Explore the research behind the emphasis on transition and build a transition plan
Recommended Duration: 2 hours
