How Learning Happens: Family and Caregiver Conversation Tool

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Asset type: Conversation guide; supports family assessment of learning environments

Purpose: This is a tool for helping parents, caregivers, extended families, and their children have conversations about what social, emotional, and academic development actually looks like in practice, in the learning environments where they spend much of their time.  It offers families concrete ways to identify what to look for at schools and in after-school environments that would indicate an intentional approach to the social, emotional, and academic development of their children. It also helps families and young people engage together in conversation around how they can help their schools and after-school programs take a more intentional approach to developing these important skills and competencies.

Note: InDesign files are available for you to brand as your own, or to swap out customized images of specific schools, programs and young people, with the same text.

Suggested Uses:

  • To use in preparation for family conferences at school
  • To use as a year-end reflection tool in schools and OST environments
  • To send in advance to new families and students before the year begins
  • To serve as a conversation starter for families and caregivers with their children about how school and OST programs are going
  • For families of children receiving special education services or additional supports, who are looking for ways to have satisfying conversations with teachers about the developmental needs of their children
  • For schools and OST programs to post on their websites

Suggested text for sharing on social media:

  • Brain science now backs up what families have always intuitively known; learning is social, AND intellectual, AND emotional. It’s not an opinion. It’s #HowLearningHappens
  • FAMILIES: How do we create environments that can nurture all the developmental needs of young people? This guide can help. It’s #HowLearningHappens
  • What are 7 key skills for all young people to acquire — and what do they look like in a school setting? This guide for families and young people can help. It’s #HowLearningHappens
  • FAMILIES: What could learning with and through relationships look like? Here are answers. It’s #HowLearningHappens
  • FAMILIES: What could learning with and through empathy look like? Here are answers.  It’s #HowLearningHappens
  • FAMILIES: What could learning with and through respect look like? Here are answers. It’s #HowLearningHappens
  • FAMILIES: What could learning with and through responsibility look like? Here are answers. It’s #HowLearningHappens
  • FAMILIES: What could learning with and through communication look like? Here are answers. It’s #HowLearningHappens
  • FAMILIES: What could learning with and through collaboration look like? Here are answers. It’s #HowLearningHappens
  • FAMILIES: What could learning with and through persistence look like? Here are answers. It’s #HowLearningHappens

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