Summary

Hidden Villa constantly strives to bring people together in positive ways. This unit provides a structure for students to share their Hidden Villa experiences and their classroom learning with their parents. It also boosts student self-confidence and self-esteem by validating their knowledge and creating the opportunity for positive parental attention.

Teacher Background

Part I: Personal Narratives

This lesson accompanies the personal narrative unit; however, the same steps could be used for other writing genres. (At the end of this page is an example of how to adapt this lesson for a unit on fiction writing.) Since most parents have not spent time at Hidden Villa, explain to students that they are going to help their parents write about an experience in nature that changed them in some way. Make sure your students understand that we are surrounded by nature and that their parents do not have to limit their stories to time spent in nature preserves.

Lesson 1: Reading the personal narrative with parents

Lesson 2: Guiding parents to choose a personal narrative topic

Lesson 3: Students talk to parents about good story beginnings and help them to begin their rough drafts

Lesson 4: Helping parents to revise their rough drafts

Lesson 5: Creating the final draft

Part II: Celebration

Whatever type of writing genre you use for this family-school activity, make sure to enjoy the wonderful experience of celebrating the project at its conclusion.

Part III: Fiction Story Adaptation

This same project could be repeated or modified, focusing on fiction writing after students write their Hidden Villa animal stories. Students review together all the steps they tool to write their stories, and then support each other in learning to teach these steps to their parents. Although I require my students to set their Hidden Villa fiction stories in the habitat of Hidden Villa, for the family-writing project I encourage each family to choose the habit and animals they are most familiar with. Here is a suggested schedule:

Lesson 1: Reading the published story at home

Lesson 2: Guiding parents to choose a main character

Lesson 3: Students talk write a plot outline with their parents

Lesson 4: Working with parents to write the story

Lesson 5: Coaching parents through the revision process

Lesson 6: Publishing the fiction story

Teacher Background

Introduction

The success of this project depends on parents being well-informed and students well-prepared.

Well-informed parents: Before starting the unit, send home a detailed letter describing the project's aims and schedule, along with a clear outline of the parental role. Stress the educational benefits of students teaching a skill that they have just learned. Reflection on their learning process and articulate the procedures, step by step, greatly helps deepen students' own understanding. Explain that their role, as parents, is to support their child's learning by allowing them (the children) to be the "teacher" in this project. Emphasize to parents that, regardless of their own writing ability, they can support their children with their patience and compassion, as well as by sharing stories from their own lives.

Because many of my students' parents have not reached higher-level education, initially they felt embarrassment or concern about their writing abilities. Once I coached my students to be their parents' scribes, together they were able to produce incredible stores. It was very moving to see and hear about how excited one mother was, on seeing her story published in our class book. She (the mother) had never before written her own story.

Well-prepared students: Becoming mentors to their parents will be a challenge for students. Successful, in-class lessons may not be sufficient preparation. Type up the teaching ideas in clear and organized manner and give students a "cheat sheet" to use at home for their "teaching sessions" with their parents.

Writing skills transfer across languages - if applicable, let your students decide with their parents what language to write in. If the parents has a basic foundation in English, this project can double as a language acquisition support for the parent. If the parents do not speak English, or prefer to tell their stories in their own language, allow the students to complete the project in their native tongue. They will still benefit from explaining each writing step to their parents.

You can encourage these students to translate their parents' stories, or read the stories in the native language as a wonderful cross-cultural experience for your class.

Make sure you give students and parents enough time to finish each step of the assignment. Finding even a half-hour during the week to work on a school project may be difficult for some families. This activity should be instructive and fun, not stressful.

Classroom Relevance

I have adapted Professor Sudia Palom McCaleb's (Dean of Education, New College of California) idea of student-parent collaborative writing projects, and the results in my class have been wonderful. From my students' reflections on being in the teacher role and their class work, I could see that the project was indeed reinforcing academic writing skills, particularly for those students just at or below grade level.

I loved the feedback from students - and their parents - on how this project provided the opportunity for positive family bonding experiences. (Students commented that they learned things about their parents that they had never known.) This project validates the incredible teaching role parents, including those without much formal education, can play in the education of their children.

Besides increasing parental involvement, this project can also provide the invaluable opportunity to get to know parents of your students in a very meaningful way. This influences your relationships with parents for the rest of the school year.

Lesson Plans

Part I: Personal Narratives

Lesson 1: Reading the personal narrative with parents

School: Students finish publishing the final draft of the personal narratives. Send home a family letter explaining the project.

Home: Parent and child read personal narrative together. Send home a worksheet that guides the parent to comment on positive aspects of the story and to make connections to the child's experiences.

School: Class discussion about what it was like to share their writing with their parents.

School: Guide a class discussion to help students remember all of the steps they took to write their personal narratives. The first step is to choose a memory and make a web of the story details. Many parents have never created an idea web before, so send home an example. Guide your class in creating a web of all the places "in nature" could refer to (e.g. beach, forest, farm, park...) and listing the kinds of the activities they think their parents may have done in each (e.g. swimming, hiking, having a picnic...). Send home a clean copy of the web, as an example of an organized web and to provide ideas for parents to choose a personal narrative memory.

Home: Students coach their parents in finding an appropriate memory and in creating a web of story details.

Lesson 3: Students talk to parents about good story beginnings and help them to begin their rough drafts

Share: Students bring in their parents' webs to share. Guide a class discussion about the challenges and successes they are experiencing in their new role of writing coach.

Continue: Have students discuss together the best ways to explain how parents can use their webs to write their story.

Home: Students coach parents in creating a good story beginning and in using their web to write the rough draft.

Lesson 4: Helping parents to revise their rough drafts

Share: Students bring in their parents' rough drafts. Guide a discussion about their discoveries, triumphs and challenges in being in the teacher role.

Continue: Review the processes in your classroom for revision conferences. Remind students that as coach/teacher it is their responsibility to support their parents writing by coming to the revision conference prepared with some positive comments on their parents' personal narratives and several specific suggestions that could make the story even more interesting. Have students work together in pairs to read over the personal narratives of each other's parents. Give each student a revision conference planning worksheet so that they can write down the ideas they want to share with their parents at home.

Home: Students guide their parents in a revision conference and help them revise their story.

Publishing: Your class can go about publishing their parents' personal narratives in several ways: 1) As teacher, you could type them up and unobtrusively correct any spelling and grammar errors. 2) Students could type up their parents' stories in the computer lab. 3) Make it a home assignment and have students write or type up a final copy on their own time.

Part II: Celebration

Whatever type of writing genre you use for this family-school activity, make sure to enjoy the wonderful experience of celebrating the project at its conclusion. Have students and parents illustrate their writing pieces together; then post the stories, parent's and child's side-by-side, around the room. Your could photocopy each parent's story side-by-side with their child's writing, compiling them in a class book which students can read during silent reading. If you are able, I recommend making a photocopy of the book as a treasured memento for each family.

After our class finished our personal narrative books, we celebrated with a family gathering during which students did simple oral presentations from parts of their stories. Then, they presented our family writing book to their parents as a gift. In the following weeks my students' homework was to pick several stories (student and parent) from our class book to read and write quick reflections for discussion back in class. 

Part III: Fiction Story Adaptation

Lesson 1: Reading the published story at home

Together at home, students read their published fiction stories with their families.

Lesson 2: Guiding parents to choose a main character

In class, students review how to choose and develop their main character. Then, at home, students do this in collaboration with their parents.

Lesson 3: Students write a plot outline with their parents

In class, students review how to plan a good plot outline and discuss how to best explain these steps to their parents. At home, students and parents together create the plot for their story using the plot outline worksheet the students used in class.

Lesson 4: Working with parents to write the story

In class, students review how to use their plot outline to write the actual story. They may review writing strong beginnings or creating dialogue. At home, students and parents together write down their story.

Lesson 5: Coaching parents through the revision process

In class, students review all the steps to hold a revision conference in your classroom. Then, in pairs they review the stories of each other's families and prepare comments for their revision conference. At home, students guide their parents in a revision conference and together revise their story.

Find a way to publish the stories. You may also want to review the steps for illustrating fiction stories, send home necessary materials and encourage students and parents to work together to create illustrations for their story. When the stories are done, don't forget to celebrate the process and product with your families.

Download Materials 

Student Worksheets

Part I

Lesson 3

Plot Outline for 2nd and 3rd grade

Plot Outline for 4th and 5th grade

Part III

Lesson 2

Plot Outline for 2nd and 3rd grade

Lesson 4