Due to the popularity of our posts on the role of   parental involvement in children's literacy , which present ideas for Family Literacy Workshop activities taken from   Family Literacy Workshops   for Preschool through Grade 6: A Research Based Approach , we've decided to keep the subject a recurring topic here on our blog, with a new post every week or so offering new free activity downloads and further instruction on   how to hold successful family literacy workshops at your school and tips for taking literacy home.   Most Tuesdays you can check back here and find this kind of content. You can see the earlier posts   here.

You can download this week's free take-home activities,   Biography Word Search   and   Convince Me! , at the bottom of the page! Review the take-home activities with parents. Point out what each one is about and what skills parents will be practicing with their children at home:

Biography Word Search

— Older students will enjoy reading about Martin Luther King Jr. and working on a word search focusing on content words used in the piece.

— Skills addressed: word analysis; fluency and systematic vocabulary development; reading comprehension

Convince Me!

— Older children will be challenged to write a persuasive essay on a given topic.

— Skills addressed: writing strategies; writing applications; written and oral language conventions

4 Simple Ways Parents Can Help with Homework

1. Provide structure

Parents can guide their child’s decision-making when it comes to time management. If parents know there are many activities planned for the end of the week, they can remind their child to work on homework early in the week so that he or she is not waiting until the last minute.

2. Quiet environment

As much as possible, parents should provide a quiet place for their child to do homework. This can include turning off the TV for 20 minutes each night or taking their child to the library.

3. Check homework

Parents can check homework to make sure it is complete and accurate, but should never do the homework for their child. Teachers can support this by not rewarding a child when it is obvious that he or she did not complete the homework assignment on his or her own.

4. Encourage communication 

If the student is struggling with homework or is spending longer than intended trying to complete the assignments, let parents know that it is all right for them to tell you this. This will help keep the home- school connection open.

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Below are this week's take-home activities to download . Remember to check back next Tuesday for another post on Family Literacy!

- Tara Rodriquez