Lack of Parental Involvement and Achieving Student Success
You’ve done all that you can do. You’ve done absolutely everything that you know how to, and it’s still not working. Your parents are not involved in your students’ academic performance. So, what do you do when your parents are either absent or simply don’t care about their children’s performance in school? Let’s talk about it.
Sometimes, we can do everything possible, but it’s a sad reality that our parents still will not get involved in their child’s life. They’re not helping us. And as you know, one of the most important indicator of a students’ academic success is parental involvement. If we as educators could get our parents involved, then chance are extremely good that our students are going to be academically successful.
Shorten Homework Assignments
One of the first things that you can do if your students’ parents are not involved in your students’ lives is make sure that you give shorten assignments. No, not the assignments or activities that you do in your regular classroom. But, shorten the ones that you give as homework or large projects.
That means you can still give homework. Just make sure that you’re not giving your students something that is going to require a whole lot of time to complete or something that they’re going to need a lot of help doing. Remember, these students are having to complete their assignments on their own, so make sure that they can successful complete it on their own.
Review Homework & Other Assignments
Make sure that you’ve gone over any homework or other assignments during class. This means making sure that your students have a good understanding of what you expect them to do. It also means making sure that you have covered the material beforehand.
Emphasize the Importance of Education
Another thing that you want to do is make sure that you have emphasized the importance of homework or schoolwork or any other academics. You need to do this because there is no foundational base at home. So, it is up to you to make sure that your students understand the significance of completing the assignment. You will need to get them to understand the importance of doing their schoolwork.
So, make sure you’re continuously reiterating how important education is. You will need to begin impressing upon them to get a good education from day one. Whether your students’ parents involved or not, make sure that you are emphasizing education This is especially important for those students who do not have parental support at home.
Encourage Self-sufficiency
Also, make sure that your students are self-sufficient. If they’re self-sufficient, they can motivate themselves to complete their assignments. This means that you are training your students to be able to do their homework and/or their assignments on their own.
Several years ago, I had a student who came to school in dirty clothes. It was him and his little brother. And, we were trying to figure out what was going on. We eventually discovered that this student’s mom worked a lot. She worked at night, and a lot of times, she was too tired to wash the kids’ clothes. So, the little boys were getting up and they were putting on whatever they found.
The first part of the week, the boys’ clothes would be clean, but as the week progressed, their clothes were not clean because their mom didn’t have time to wash your clothes. So, one of the things that we did- even though we’re a school-was teach that young man how to wash his own clothes. Once we showed the young man how to use a washing machine, how to get the detergent, how to wash and dry his clothes, he started coming to school in clean clothes. So even though that was a life skill, we had to train him how to be self-sufficient.
I guess you saying, why did she tell me that story about a child and clean clothes? The reason that I told you that story was to show you that when you have parents that are not involved, you’re going to have to make sure that your students are able to take care of themselves. In that particular incident, it was making sure that the clothes were washed. Your objective is to make sure that your students can manage their own homework and other academics themselves.
Praise & Rewards
Another thing that you want to do for your students who are continuing to work…who are continuing to be involved in class…despite the absence of parental involvement, is to praise and reward them. Constantly give them that pat on the back. Tell them that they are doing a great job. This way you are building relationships with your students. At the same time, you are building your students’ self-confidence.
Keep Parents Informed
Also, make sure that your students’ parents know what’s going on in your classroom. How do you do that? You can do that by sending newsletters home. You can send newsletters through email. You can make sure you’re posted on your class or your school’s social media as often as you can. Let your parents know what assignments are due. Let them know when major tests or projects are scheduled. Be sure to include all due dates. You can also use apps such as GroupMe, Remind me, or Class Dojo.
Unfortunately, it’s becoming more and more common for our students’ parents to be absent from their academical lives. As a result, you as the teacher have to make an effort to ensure that your students are receiving the best education they can. Some of the ways you do that are by making sure that you shorten homework assignments. You make sure that our students can do their homework on their own. You check so see if they have a good grasp of the concept or procedure before they leave to go home.
First thing in the morning, when your students come back to class with their homework completed, you reward our students. Rewards, of course, vary according to age and appropriateness.
You begin to instill in them the importance of education at the beginning of school. You constant tell them why it’s important that they get their work done, and why it’s important that they have a good educational foundation. You definitely want to ensure that your parents stay informed.