Parents: In a Million Words or Less
A MiddleWeb Classic
“A Million Words”
A Wonderful Tool to Connect with Parents
The Million Words tool basically works this way: In the first month or so of school, the teacher asks parents to tell you about their child, in “a million words or less.”
Sounds simple – and it can be very powerful – but as you’ll see in this MiddleWeb Classic conversation, there are many permutations. Fortunately for all of us who want to try this idea, this particular MiddleWeb listserv chat was populated by a group of insightful folks, many of whom had tried the Million Words tool — and in a variety of different school settings and contexts.
We’ve captured the conversation in this MiddleWeb Million Words Resource file (PDF). Feel free to download it, check out the links, look at the sample teacher letter at the end, and visit the Education World page where our chat and other related activities are considered.
What teachers need to know about students is still generating discussion in 2012. In “When to Brief the Teacher, and When to Bite Your Tongue,” the NYT’s Motherlode posts experiences and recommendations from both parents and teachers. Some comments may make you smile while others may trigger a furrowed brow.
5 comments
Love this! We started school last week, and I gave my parents a homework assignment as well! My parents had to email me back with 5 adjectives that described their child. They love to brag, and had a hard time stopping at 5! I wish I had seen this first.. although I learned a fair bit in 5 adjectivesl! :)
I’ve seen this idea before and have always found it both fascinating and a bit scary at the same time.
Has anyone got a copy of the letter they send out to the parents that has worked well within their school that you’d be willing to share?
Thank you.
There’s one sample letter in the PDF file, at the very end. And in the conversation transcript, several folks talk about what they put in the letter. There’s also some thoughtful discussion about what not to say and how to keep this activity positive and sensitive to the many situations that students live in.
We also highly recommend the Education World article that’s based in part on our MW conversation:
http://www.educationworld.com/a_curr/profdev/profdev080.shtml
We’d love to hear about other letters – please post here in the comments or share a link to your own blog or file. Just paste the link in and we’ll make it active (or you can code it if you know how!).