In continuing the ‘Two Rivers University’ Series, this piece explores parents as active learners in a school environment like Two Rivers. Parents actively engage in learning rhythms through participating in back-to-school nights, family conferences, parent education workshops, celebrating learning at our end-of-semester expedition showcases, as well as engaging in informal learning conversations with teachers and fellow parents. Through both the culture and structures we have, parents, like teachers, have opportunities to learn and grow so that they can better partner with the school to help their children thrive toward our mission of life-long learning.
Why is parent learning so important?
In Learning By Heart, Eric Hoffer’s quote emphasizes the importance of life-long learning:"In times of change, learners inherit the earth, while the learned find themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world that no longer exists." The world that parents experienced school in is very different than the one in which their children are currently learning to navigate.
At the heart of this change is a dilemma that parents find themselves in as they support their children’s success in school: The definitions and measurements for success in the 20th century, which is the familiar educational world parents know, have unfortunately not caught up to the outcomes that are necessary to measure and cultivate in the 21st century. As students, many parents grew up with rigor that was defined and measured by the teaching of basic skills, practice with using formulas, and broad coverage of content assessed by standardized testing. Many of us associate rigor with the hefty textbooks of our childhoods, full of dense text and practice problems, coupled by hours of studying to replicate success on the same types of problems taught in class. Project-based learning, problem-based task teaching, and creative problem-solving was considered more of an enrichment, rather than what rigor needed to be for every student. However, in the 21st century, what was an enriching add-on for those considered advanced is now an urgent redefinition of rigor for all, in which every student must not only build a set of basic skills and knowledge but also be able to flexibly use their skills to solve increasingly complex problems. Memorizing long strings of facts, regurgitating content in the same types of assessments or contexts, and learning in homogeneous, tracked systems-the hallmarks of 20th century school success-are not enough for our students anymore to compete for rich and varied options in a globally connected 21st century.
Parents who are learners are willing to seek out knowledge, resources, and experiences to adapt to this evolving definition of rigor. They are open to engaging with models of rigor that characterize the great schools that the 21st century world demands-ones like Two Rivers in which depth over breadth is valued. Parents who are learners value collaboration with diverse individuals in settings and experiences that mirror our increasingly diverse, integrated world.
How do parents learn at Two Rivers?
Back-to-School Night and Conferences
At Two Rivers, every classroom hosts a Back-to-School Night at the end of the first month of school. At this event, families have an opportunity to both actively participate in and learn about their children’s classroom community, goals for the year, structures for learning, and on-going ways to communicate and partner with the school. Parents experience a day in the life of their child, as well as explore the full scope of what is to come for their child in that new grade level. Throughout the rest of the year, parents refer back to this night as an anchor and lens for understanding future learning experiences, having experienced a slice of the world their child engages in every day.
Following Back-to-School Night in September, parents participate in three important parent-teacher conferences throughout the year. The first conference in November is the critical beginning conversation about how their child is acclimating to the classroom environment, participating in learning expectations, and what strengths, affinities, and learning needs have emerged for the student. The parent learns the full “data story” for their child, in which teachers share the multiple snapshots that Two Rivers provides about every student in the core content areas of math, literacy, science and social studies inquiry in expeditions, and social-emotional development. Parents learn not only how students are developing in basic skills and knowledge in core areas, but also how students are cultivating the transferable skills of flexible problem-solving and healthy risk-taking to solve any type of problem. They also learn how students are specifically doing in relationship to their grade-level peers, and actively participate with teachers to create an action plan for progress in the next months before the January conference. It is also important to highlight that the first November conference builds the foundation for a positive parent-teacher relationship, which will foster on-going communication and partnership throughout the rest of the year. The next two conferences in January and June are both timed intentionally to provide important follow-up to action plans created, evaluate what progress the student has made in all core areas, and have crucial dialogue about the student’s readiness for the next grade level. In these conferences, parents and teachers learn from one another how to best support the child’s learning and development. This learning ensures that no matter where the child is at the beginning of the year, there is intentional dialogue and partnership throughout the year to support the growth of every child.
Parent Education Nights
At Two Rivers, parent education provides an important means to achieving the mission for every student at Two Rivers. We know that our parents are our students’ first teachers. Our parent education nights are intended to educate and empower parents, inviting them into essential partnership for every child’s life-long learning.
Every year, Two Rivers hosts four parent education nights around the following core areas: Expeditionary learning, culture and Responsive Classroom, math, and literacy. This year, our Expeditionary learning night focused on the model of rigor we provide for every student through our expeditions and problem-based task teaching. On that night, parents had the opportunity to participate in a slice of a rigorous sixth grade expedition on the economics of food. Just like our middle school students, the parents investigated multiple perspectives of the problem of healthy eating in the face of environmental, economic, and personal factors. The parent night provided a window into the rich learning and complex problem-solving that our sixth graders engage in throughout the 12 weeks of their expedition. For our parents who attended this night, they walked away with a more complete understanding of the expeditionary learning model, as well as the outcomes we work for in our students that extend beyond factual knowledge into expert thinking and complex communication. Parent nights like Expeditionary Learning night also enable parents to begin asking more informed questions around their students’ learning, so they can better understand and partner with the school in reaching common, powerful outcomes for their children.
Following our parent night on Expeditionary learning, our parents participated in a culture parent education night in which they learned about parenting using the growth versus fixed mindset. This workshop gave parents the opportunity to dialogue with and learn from one another through a common framework of mindsets. Parents who participated in this night walked away with tools and new questions about using the language of descriptive feedback versus general praise, connecting the hopes and dreams they have for their child’s life-long success to what they can actively do here and now.
Coming up in the spring semester, families will have the opportunity to participate in our math festival night in January and literacy festival night in March. Unlike the Expeditionary learning and culture parent nights, parents can bring their children to math and literacy festival nights and are highly encouraged to engage in learning together! These two festival nights give families the opportunity to participate in fun, simple, and interactive learning experiences that foster mathematical inquiry and a love for reading and writing in both parent and child alike. There is more of a center approach and room for engaging in informal learning conversations with your child, with staff, and with other parents. At Math Night, parents also have an opportunity to try an array of exciting, mind-boggling ‘Mathemagical Wizardry’ problems with their children, learning how to approach open-ended problems that invite multiple, creative solution paths. In fact, through whole-school community meeting celebrations, parents get to participate in the ‘Mathemagical Wizadry’ experience every week beyond Math Festival Night. Through solving each problem as a family and turning in the solution together, parents learn how to love math, love tackling challenges, and model that love and perseverance for their children.
In each of our parent nights and our weekly math celebrations, there is always a thoughtfulness that characterizes the learning conversations we have as a parent community, reflecting the on-going learning that parents engage in about themselves, their children, the school’s mission, and their imperative role in helping their child achieve that mission.
Showcase Nights
There is an excited buzz in the air around mid-December and mid-May, when families attend showcase learning nights at Two Rivers. Showcases are culminating celebrations of learning, in which every class presents the story of their learning process and authentic learning products within expeditions. Parents have heard pieces of expeditionary learning throughout the semester, and have perhaps even participated in field studies related to the expedition. Showcase night is where all the pieces come together and parents learn the full picture of how students investigated and solved the problem-based task at the heart of their expeditions. Parents learn both the content and process of learning that students engaged in. This includes not only the fund of knowledge at the core of the science or social studies discipline, but also the big ideas and expert thinking involved in tackling the rich problem that drove the entire expedition adventure. Parents also experience first-hand how the arts are integrated into content learning through the dramatic and musical expedition performances. They see how our arts program gives students creative avenues to both learn and communicate their learning. Over the past seven years, Two Rivers is proud of a consistently high parent attendance rate for every showcase night. This strong representation of parents reflects the parent culture of commitment and excitement we have in celebrating student learning.
Through each of these school-wide experiences, parents are evolving learners as they work hard to support their children’s learning. As a learning community, families are committed to learning and using common language and experiences between home and school to support both academic and social-emotional success for our students. Moreover, Two Rivers strives to foster a culture of respect and trust in our parent community, in which parents have formal and informal opportunities to reflect on their personal journeys, find connections, and learn from the wonderfully diverse community we have. This powerful adult learning translates directly into expanding the possibilities of what our children can learn, achieve, and become.
Parents and Teachers as Learners: Closing Thoughts
What distinguishes a good school from a great school? It is one in which every adult member of the learning community works in service of the child, engaging in personal and collective learning so that children can become active learners and participants in their own education. Parents, teachers, and school leaders all participate in this learning so that our children can learn better and achieve fuller visions of themselves. At ‘Two Rivers University’, everyone is a student no matter how old you are or what role you play. The degree received is an ever-evolving one of life-long learner.
