Working With Bilingual Parent Volunteers

8/9/2019 Working With Bilingual Parent Volunteers

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H O M E | L E S S O N P L A N S| TEACHING TIPS| RESOURCE PICKS| AS K JU DI E| C O N TA C T

Working with Bilingual

Parent Volunteersby Judie Haynes

Develop a resource of parents who can help

translate, interpret, and communicate

Envisage a classroom where you have bilingual

parent helpers for each of your non-English

speakers! Imagine that your school has a

resource of parents who can help translate,

interpret, and communicate. This dream can

become a reality if you begin a "Bilingual Parent

Volunteers" program. Bilingual parent volunteers

are school and community members who speak

the languages of your ESL/bilingual population.

They are a wonderful asset to classroom and ESL

teachers. Starting this program is work. But in

the end, your school will reap the benefits in

years to come.

Start a bilingual volunteer programBilingual parent volunteers can work in the

mainstream classroom with all first- year ESL

students. Start by recruiting a few approachable

parents. They do not have to be parents whose

children are in ESL. In fact, more established

bilingual parents will probably be more able to

help. Ask them to help a new second language

learner in the mainstream classroom for an hour

a few times a week. Arrange for the volunteer

and the classroom teacher to meet and set a

time convenient for both. Once your have a few

volunteers working with students successfully,

the word will spread.

Invite parents who are limited English speakers

to help also. These parents can be an extra pair

of hands in a large class. They can help with

special projects, make photocopies of work, put

up bulletin boards and complete other jobs.

Train bilingual parent volunteers

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Consider training your parent volunteers. It is

worth the time. An administrator, ESL, or

bilingual teachers would be obvious choice to

train them. Classroom teachers need to be

prepared for the volunteers. Set up a schedule so

that the classroom teacher knows when a

volunteer is coming. He/she should identify

specific tasks they want done. Provide the

volunteer with interesting and varied materials touse with the newcomers. Give the volunteer

concrete feedback during the first few sessions.

If you want them to use positive rather than

negative reinforcers, for example, let him or her

know right away. If it is too distracting to have

the volunteer work in your classroom find a quiet

place for the pair to work. Teachers of students

in grades 4 and up should ask that volunteers

work outside the classroom newcomers at this

age are very self-conscious about receiving extra

help. Be sure the volunteer knows what to do in

the event of a fire drill.

Everyone gains

Everyone gains from the participation of bilingual

parent volunteers in a school. The school benefits

from an increase in the quality of

communications with the parents of their

language-minority population. The classroom

teacher gets extra help with her new students.

The mainstream students benefit from the

cultural input of the bilingual parents.

Newcomers benefit both socially and

academically, and their parents are relieved of

much anxiety about their children. Bilingual

volunteers have stated that they benefit from a

growth of self-esteem and pride in their culture.

They feel more comfortable in the school and

often develop friendships with the teachers they

help.

Bilingual parent volunteers can help:Become a liaison between a new

family and the school

If you have information you want to make

sure the parents of your ESL students

understand, one way is to ask the

volunteers to call them and introduce

themselves. They can explain that they

are working with the child in the school

and give their home telephone numbers

to the newly-arrived parents. In the


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future you will only have to write a note

to the volunteers or call them on the

phone to make contact with new parents.

Many bilingual parents work and cannot

participate in svchool the way they would

like. These parents can be asked to

translate school correspondence and help

interpret during evening parent-teacher

conferences. Be cautious, however, aboutconfidentiality. Parents are sensitive

about other parents knowing their

children's difficulties in school.

Explain American schools

The schools in the United States may be

very different from schools in the native

countries, of your new families. Bilingual

Parent volunteers can explain to new

parents in the same language group what

these differences are. Parents have adifficult time understanding whole

language, invented spelling, thinking

skills activities, cooperative learning and

manipulatives in math. They may have a

hard time with school expectations. They

certainly won't understand the

partnership role that American parents

have with schools in their child's

education. Registration in sports and

music programs, can also be explained.

The volunteers in my school in New

Jersey made Korean/English and

Japanese/English School Handbooks

about all school programs which we hand

out to new families.

Establish a telephone chain

Bilingual parent volunteers can establish

a telephone chain for emergency school

closings and to pass important messages

from the school to the home. This is

another way to keep in touch withparents. Try to have a "key" parent for

each language group. If you have a

message for that group you only need to

call the key parent. They can also help

recruit new volunteers. This is especially

important for emergency school closings.

We invite parents to form chains so that

the Parent-Teacher Organization

volunteers need only call the first parent

on each of the chains. If you've ever had


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a studentleft at school in a snowstorm

while their parents go on to work, you will

realize how important this is.

Help with new arrivals during

registration, a tour of the school,

inoculation and health records

It is very difficult to register and correctly

place new students if their parents do not

speak any English. Ask your volunteers if

they would be willing to come to school to

translate for new families and help

introduce them to the school. This

enables the school make important

decisions about placement if the child's

school records are in another language

and provides an opportunity to impart

important information. It also allows the

family to ask questions and to provide the

school with information about their child.

Support the classroom teacher both

affectively and with instruction

Classroom teachers decide what work

they want their volunteers to do. In the

beginning most volunteers work with the

ESL Learning Centers or at the computer.

These volunteers become invaluable to

the school as their role expands. Bilingual

volunteers who speak the same

languages as your newcomers canprovide crucial help to you. New arrivals

and their parents can be relieved of a lot

of stress and anxiety by having an adult

explain what is expected in American

schools in their own language. Don't

worry about accented English. Your

students are exposed to a classroomful of

good English-speaking models.

Help with "sensitive" issues

Bilingual parent volunteers can helpspecial-subject teachers, administrators,

and the school nurse with "sensitive"

issues: retention, referral, and social

problems. They can answer questions

about culture, explain the expectations of

a particular teacher to parents, and call

the parent on behalf of the principal or

school nurse. Remember, however, about

the confidentiality of your bilingual

families. If you have something private to


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discuss with parents, you need to tell the

parent volunteer to ask the family to

bring their own interpreter. If they show

up without anyone, your district may

need to hire an interpreter from another

district in order to safeguard the

confidentiality of the family involved. This

is especially important when discussing

possible referrals by child study teamsand retention of the child.

Take an active role in the in-servicing

One of the best inservice days my school

ever had was run by four bilingual parent

volunteers who discussed a range of

cultural and social behaviors and how

those behaviors were seen by members

of their culture. An ESL teacher can tell

mainstream teachers not to expect

parents to speak English at home, and itwon't sink in. When the parents of highly

successful students tell the entire staff

that they speak native language in their

homes 99 % of the time, it makes a big

impression. At another inservice, two

bilingual parent volunteers taught useful

phrases to teachers in Japanese and

Korean.

Second language parents can also help your

school put on a multicultural day where theyteach students about their cultures. Of course,

parentscan also go into individual classrooms on

special occasions at the invitation of the

classroom teachers.


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Related Links

Establishing an Atmosphere of Acceptance

Discover how you can alleviate many newcomers'

fears by creating an atmosphere of acceptance

and welcome in all of your classes.

How Does Your School Rate?

Participate in a district goal to make your school

a wonderful place for newcomers. Here are some

practices you could adopt.

Pair Your Newcomers with Buddies

Assign a buddy or a cross-grade tutor to your

English language learner and watch them both

blossom. Buddies gain in self esteem and your

ELLs will feel welcome in your class

Sensitize Your Mainstream Students

You want your newcomers to be accepted on the

playground and on the school bus. Sensitize

mainstream students to the challenges that new

learners of English face.

1998-2004 Judie Haynes, www.everythingESL.net

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