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From: Virginia Tardaewether <tarv@exchange.chemeketa.edu>
To: Multiple recipients of list <nifl-family@literacy.nifl.gov>
Subject: [NIFL-FAMILY:1046] RE: Home visits
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I have some understanding of the trust issue. One just needs to think of
the history of your Russians, etc. perhaps to see why governmental trust
might be an issue. My family was investigated by the FBI because they talked
Russian on a party telephone line. We have plenty of US born students with
similar feelings.
As an adult educator, I have found home visits to be imensely helpful as an
evaluation of the effectiveness of my classroom lessons. When you do
lessons around nutrition, the contents of shelves and refrigerators should
change as a result. What better place to see truly the impact of your
teachings. If you talk about childhood safety yet go to the home and see
numerous unsafe items that you had talked about, well it lets you know that
the lesson didn't transfer to another environment and that you need to
revisit the concepts. PLUS it is wonderful to have the children and adults
show you their home, special places and nick nacks.
Va
Virginia Tardaewether
Chemeketa {Place of Peace}
Outreach Instructor
Dallas, OR 97338
tarv@chemeketa.edu
503-316-3242
-----Original Message-----
From: Sylvan Rainwater [mailto:sylvan@cccchs.org]
Sent: Tuesday, April 30, 2002 12:01 PM
To: Multiple recipients of list
Subject: [NIFL-FAMILY:1044] Home visits
At 04:31 PM 04/26/2002 -0400, Tracie Janis wrote:
>Thanks Andrea, the district where my daughters attend offered home visits
>from teachers. I didn't take advantage of the offer at the time because my
>schedule at work is crazy! It appears from your experience that the home
>visits were a great success.
><SNIP>
Home visits are an integral part of our program. It's my understanding that
at least at some point Even Start had a requirement of 4 home visits per
year? We do 2 per month, so are clearly over any minimums.
We emphasize home visits because we are part of a Head Start program that
emphasizes home visits, and we have found them to be a very effective way
to enhance family learning and involvement. We can give individual help to
families on home visits, whether that involves social services or
educational goals. It gives an opportunity, as noted by others, to have the
family on their own turf, where they are sometimes more relaxed than in a
classroom. It also gives you a lot more information about the students
(both children and adults) by seeing the environment where they live, and
can provide opportunities to make suggestions that are appropriate for that
particular household.
It is true that some people really don't want home visits. We've made few
inroads into the Russian-speaking community, and I understand that one of
the reasons is that they have such deep distrust of anything remotely
governmental coming into their homes that they just can't deal with our
program. We try to make accommodations by going to libraries or other
public places, and even having visits in our centers if they prefer,
because usually once they get to know us and have a relationship with us,
they are more at ease about inviting us into their homes.
We stress up front when we do recruitment that home visits are as much a
part of the program as attending the class. And we find that when we share
information as a team, children's teachers, home visitors, and parent
teachers, that we can get a more accurate picture of each family and its
needs, and can support each other's work with ideas and insights that we
wouldn't get otherwise.
It does seem that I've heard more recently about home visits happening in
public school settings, and that teachers are finding them beneficial. Most
children are jazzed when the teacher comes to the home, and feel more
important and proud as a result. They form a relationship with the teacher
that enhances the classroom experience a lot.
------------------------------
Sylvan Rainwater . sylvan@cccchs.org
Adult Education Teacher and Family Literacy Program Manager
Clackamas County Children's Commission . Oregon City, OR USA
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