Abstract

A kindergarten parent workshop series on the developmental stages of writing was created and assessed. The intended outcome was to empower parents with writing knowledge and writing skills so that they could apply this knowledge and skills at home with their child. The researcher developed the workshops from parent involvement research, developmental stages for writing, and the knowledge of adult learning. To assess the outcomes, the researcher utilized a mixed-methods qualitative approach analyzing responses from a pre and post assessment, oral discussions from videotaped sessions, researcher field notes, and parent responses to focused questions in a journal. Thirty-five Spanish-speaking parents from a low socio-economic status school in Southern California voluntarily participated in 4 workshops led by a bilingual teacher. Two separate series of workshops were conducted in Spanish, the participants' primary language. Using McMillan and Schumacher's (2006) inductive analysis of the data collected, 5 primary themes emerged: parent confidence, parent-child communication, parent-parent interaction, parent-child bonding, and parent increased knowledge of writing. Based on the analysis of the four data gathering methods, the following major conclusions were drawn. First, parents revealed a change in their self-efficacy during the oral portion of the workshops. Every session included a 20-minute parent oral discussion regarding parent-child interaction during the assigned writing activity at home. Most parents expressed more frequent and positive interactions with their child. Participants changed from a parent who simply checked that homework was completed to a parent who actively participated in the homework process. Also, parents reported that they provided resources, information, a place to study and personal feedback on their child's work. Second, all parents expressed high satisfaction and benefits from the workshops. Third, all parents had an increase in knowledge and skills in the developmental stages of writing and 80% percent accurately assessed their child's writing stage at the completion of the workshop. During the oral discussion portion of the workshops, the researcher noted high participation among all parents. The format and instrumentation of these workshops are highly recommended as valuable opportunities for teachers to educate and empower parents in the child's development of writing.

Library of Congress Subject Headings

Education -- Parent participation; Language arts (Elementary); Dissertations (EdD) -- Organizational leadership

Date of Award

2009

School Affiliation

Graduate School of Education and Psychology

Department/Program

Education

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctorate

Faculty Advisor

Hiatt-Michael, Diana B.;

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