SHIFTING BOUNDARIES IN-HOME AND SCHOOL RESPONSIBILITIES - THE CONSTRUCTION OF HOME-BASED LITERACY PORTFOLIOS BY IMMIGRANT PARENTS AND THEIRCHILDREN

There is consensus that parents play an important role in children's l earning, but many questions remain about how to establish a collaborat ive relationship between parents and teachers. With a sample of four f amilies, this study examined the nature of parent-teacher interactions when discussions and conferences were centered around artifacts of ch ildren's literacy learning in both home and school contexts. Results s uggest that the creation of home portfolios may provide a starting poi nt for teachers and parents to discuss children's developing literacy. As teachers and parents addressed the artifacts that children complet ed at home and at school, they each began to see the connections betwe en home and school. Teachers sa iu how children practiced school liter acy outside school, and as well, how they practiced literacy behaviors that had not yet been addressed in school. Parents used the explicit examples to formulate questions that had been troubling them about par ticular assignments or about specific practices they had observed. Res earchers concluded that the process has the potential to affirm parent s' awareness and knowledge of their children's learning, thereby inclu ding them as valuable informants in assessing children's performance a nd progress. In addition, it has the potential to inform teachers abou t the ways parents and children engage in literacy, and to suggest way s to link events in school to routine events at home.