School and home.

Abstract

Parental involvement and cultural mismatch have been challenges for teachers, students and parents in the United States (Good, Masewicz, & Vogel, 2010). This in part is due to lack of teacher training in cultural pedagogies and cultural knowledge for teachers working with English Language Learners (ELLs). Therefore the purpose of this Masters’ project was to provide teachers in the Buffalo City Schools a resource to access when working with ELLs whose native language is Karen, Arabic, Somali or Nepali. This handbook can also serve as a resource to any teacher working with ELLs for it provides information on parental involvement ideas and strategies to help bridge the gaps between school and home. A thorough examination of the four main language groups was conducted through interviews, articles, books, and websites in order to create this handbook. The four languages chosen were selected based on the highest population of students in Buffalo Public School #45, the setting chosen for this project. The handbook was designed to provide teachers with knowledge on the different cultural norms of each language group as well as provide teachers with information on the benefits of parental involvement. It is hoped that this handbook will allow teachers to have a better understanding of the cultural backgrounds of their ELLs which will in turn allow for increased knowledge on how to bridge the gaps between school and home.