Parents as Literacy Experts with Dr. Daris McInnis
The Be Podcast Network, an organization of more than four dozen engaging shows dedicated to education, and Reading Is Fundamental are partnering during National Literacy Month to share high-impact conversations about literacy with more than 40 unique episodes featuring conversations about the state of children’s literacy nationwide, best practices for reading instruction and engagement, strategies to foster the joy of reading in school and at home, and much more.
Dr. Daris McInnis, who serves on multiple advisory boards with Reading Is Fundamental, joins Jethro to explore the complex nature of the reading process and the pivotal role that parents play in building literacy foundations at home. Dr. McInnis emphasizes the expertise that parents bring to the table, urging schools to honor and tap into that knowledge. He challenges the assumptions that parents inherently have everything they need to support their child's learning or that lack of engagement signals disinterest. Instead, he advocates for creating meaningful partnerships with parents, giving them a seat at the table, and understanding the pressures they face, such as time constraints.
Throughout the discussion, Dr. McInnis highlights the value of programs like Reading Is Fundamental (RIF) and literacy nights, which provide families with tools and strategies to support their children's learning. He also encourages educators to rethink their roles as learners themselves, emphasizing the importance of linguistic expression and understanding students as cosmopolitan intellectuals.
Tune in to discover how schools can better engage families in the literacy process and how transformative leadership begins with meaningful, student-centered conversations.
- Reading process is complex. Starts at home
- At home start understanding the literacy foundations
- Parents have expertise, and we need to acknowledge it.
- Parents' knowledge of how their students’ everyday life impacts learning.
- Schools should honor and seek that expertise out.
- Schools don’t honor parent expertise because they don’t have expertise
- Grandma’s statistics
- Assumption: Parents have everything they need to support student learning (in the way we do it).
- Assumption: People have time.
- Uninvolved or don’t care is not what silence always means
- Giving them a seat at the table.
- What do they need from the school district?
- RIF is a great resource
- Literacy nights - valuable for many reason
- Strategies and tools for parents.
- Linguistic expression
- How do we rethink about ourselves as learners as well.
- How to be a transformative principal? Identify a student that a teacher is struggling to reach, then go into the classroom, and have a conversation with that student. Frame them as the cosmopolitan intellectuals they are.