![\"family](\"https:\/\/tiie.w3.uvm.edu\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/family_communication.jpg\")
<\/a>Lizzie Stockbridge, a 6th grade math teacher at Frederick H. Tuttle Middle School in South Burlington, Vermont, gives students 15 minutes every week to write an email home.<\/span><\/p>\nBut when she started she had no idea how powerful this simple routine would turn out to be.<\/span><\/p>\n Intrigued? Well,\u00a0read the whole email here<\/a>\u00a0as well as his father’s full response, which starts:<\/u><\/p>\n Lizzie’s students are really engaged in this routine. They use their weekly emails to express creativity, raise red flags, reflect on academic learning, process intense events — all sorts of things.<\/p>\n Lizzie is a first-year teacher but she recognized the importance of connecting with families. And she knew that the key was to follow the lead of students to make sure it was meaningful.<\/p>\n At the end of the first week of school, students hadn’t yet delved into the math curriculum. When Lizzie read the first set of emails, she found that “they were just so excited about everything that had happened. Before school, after school, how there\u2019s sports here now, how there\u2019s clubs, blah, blah, blah. All the different teachers that they talked to. … Once I saw how invested they were in these other things, I just rolled with it.”<\/p>\n That’s responsiveness. And her instinct to let her students lead planted the seeds of the good things to come.<\/p>\n There are a few simple components to Lizzie’s approach.<\/p>\n In addition to strengthening family communication, here are eight more benefits of students writing weekly emails home.<\/p>\n Lizzie values learning about her students. This was big part of the reason why she altered her original math-focused email plan.<\/p>\n When I saw how they enjoy me talking to them on Mondays being like, \u201cOh, how did that football game go?\u201d Like, \u201cWhat? You know I played football? You read my email!\u201d Which is really cool. Instead if I’m like, \u201cHow did ratios go last week in Math?\u201d They’re like, \u201cI don\u2019t want to talk to you about this.\u201d That was my major switch.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n As a former math teacher, I was always jealous of ELA teachers who learned so much from students’ writing. The weekly emails do this for Lizzie.<\/p>\n Lizzie uses what she learns to directly support math learning as well.<\/p>\n It makes teaching math so much easier to me. Because if I notice the kids not getting it, I can make connections. \u201cOkay, I know that you have watched Spiderman this past weekend because I saw it in your email.\u201d And so I’m like, \u201cOkay, what if Spiderman needed to save someone and they needed \u2013 what do they need to make the suit? …when I ask them to create their own problems, they can easily do it and they connect it to things that are going on outside of the class. Where I feel like last year if I ever ask my students to create anything, it would just be surface level class pencils to markers, but now, I feel like they know that they can talk to me about everything that\u2019s going on because they know that I read it.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n In several cases, Lizzie has come across information that was helpful to her team mates for supporting a student.<\/p>\n It helps in other classes, I noticed, because I found some emails, some red flag emails, and I immediately just contact the team or I contact whoever needs to be contacted. Also, for kids who shut down in class, they don\u2019t tell us anything but then they\u2019ll email about it. It\u2019s nice to see that I can see what they’re thinking without them having to verbally tell me.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n In one case a student noted that “my teachers hate me.” Lizzie notified her teammates and they talked to the student about it. The positive change was immediate. “She’s like a completely different kid. She comes in all bubbly and says hello to us every day now.” Listening is a powerful strategy and the emails give students another venue for voice.<\/p>\n Lizzie was hoping that students and families would talk about school more at home due to the Friday emails. Her action research suggests a moderate shift based on parent survey responses.<\/p>\n Lizzie did see some interesting exchanges however:<\/span><\/p>\n A lot of students think ahead to their weekend. …they often talk about what they hoped to happen in the weekend. They send a list home of things that they want to happen. …\u00a0It\u2019s something they usually send an ask home of, \u201cCan we eat popcorn while we watch our movie?\u201d Or, \u201cCan we watch this movie instead of that movie? Could we go outside? Can we go sledding? Could we\u2026\u201d It varies, but they are usually sending a list and then asking something of the people they send their emails to.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Kids getting a jumpstart on weekend negotiations suggests that they saw this as a legitimate communication tool for the stuff they care about.<\/p>\n Lizzie was amazed at how little her 6th graders knew about the tech skills related to emailing. Students needed to learn how to use Outlook, how to create a signature, how to enter email addresses, and how to access responses.<\/p>\n It became apparent several months into the school year that she had forgot one important aspect. A parent pleaded, “Can you please teach them how to reply?” Students had been creating new emails each week. Contributing to an ongoing threaded conversation is certainly a 21st Century life skill!<\/p>\n Lizzie framed the emails as a form of reflection:<\/p>\n I do call it an email reflection, and so now when they hear the word reflection, I think that they are correlating the, \u201cOkay, now I have to process what I have done.\u201d I don\u2019t know if it\u2019s true in all cases, but I\u2019ve noticed that whenever I say reflection to them, they know exactly what\u2019s expected of them.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n In some cases students were focusing their reflection on academic learning. In many cases they were just thinking through the day-to-day tribulations of young adolescence.<\/p>\n I’m thinking that it\u2019s a way for them to process what has happened to them this week, and if that is school related or if that\u2019s something outside of school, that\u2019s up to them, but taking that time to think about what they have done for the week or what they have done for the hour is really important.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n In a school-wide survey, Lizzie’s team received positive responses relative to other teams. Parents were impressed with the family communication and students were enthusiastic about reflection. Lizzie and her team mates consider the Friday emails to be an important contributor to the encouraging feedback.<\/p>\n If Lizzie has to skip a Friday, she gets a lot of push back from students. Students sometimes finish their emails in study hall. And students have sent their Friday email when they were sick or traveling.<\/p>\n Some students have gotten really creative. One student created the idea of “Girl Power Industries,” where her weekly learning is framed as world-changing. And if you check out a typical email from her<\/a> then you might believe that this girl is indeed likely to change the world!<\/p>\n Lizzie has received good feedback from families as well.<\/p>\n And Lizzie has felt the difference in her interactions with families.<\/p>\n Parents are constantly reaching out to me. Every week, I at least have five parents reaching out to me. It can be simple things, concerns, or just check-ins … When I see parents and introduce myself. They’re like, \u201cOh no, we know who you are.\u201d Immediately they’re like, \u201cYes. We know you. You\u2019re the math teacher. We know exactly who you are. We hear about you and see your emails,\u201d which is really cool.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n It’s so important to be seen and to be known. For teachers, for students, and for their families. Sometimes the simplest routines can help us be human.<\/p>\n Please check out the screencast below to see Lizzie’s presentation at the Middle Grades Conference on her approach, her action research, and her findings.<\/p>\n <\/p>\nUnicorn stories!<\/h2>\n
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Melding student voice & family connections<\/h2>\n
How does it work?<\/h2>\n
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![\"\"](\"https:\/\/tiie.w3.uvm.edu\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/MGC-2019-Family-Math-South-Burlington-HS-1024x576.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n8 positive impacts of weekly emails<\/h2>\n
1. Teacher student relationships<\/h3>\n
2. Curricular relevance<\/h3>\n
3. Crisis prevention & support<\/h3>\n
4. Students connecting with their families<\/strong><\/h3>\n
5. Student learn life skills<\/h3>\n
6. Student reflection<\/h3>\n
7. Kids like it<\/strong><\/h3>\n
![\"Pie](\"https:\/\/tiie.w3.uvm.edu\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/Screen-Shot-2019-03-11-at-1.42.28-PM-1024x589.png\")
<\/p>\n8. Families like it<\/h3>\n
![\"Pie](\"https:\/\/tiie.w3.uvm.edu\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/Screen-Shot-2019-03-11-at-1.43.20-PM-1024x508.png\")
This comment on the survey seems to capture the parental gratitude:<\/p>\n![\""Thank](\"https:\/\/tiie.w3.uvm.edu\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/Screen-Shot-2019-03-11-at-1.57.58-PM-1024x123.png\")
<\/p>\nAction Research<\/h2>\n