Google Doc version (view or save a copy): Messaging Matters
STUDY GUIDE: Messaging Matters: How School Leaders can Inspire Teachers, Motivate Students, and Reach Communities
- Author: William D. Parker
- Publisher: Solution Tree Press
- Publication Date: 2018
Directions
Creating the right support structures for families is critical in a remote/hybrid environment. This text identifies potential pitfalls to avoid. By analyzing pitfalls educators can glean a better understanding of how to best deliver a message to stakeholders. Below is a list of Eight Elements of Error that school leaders or classroom teachers might make when partnering with families to create support structures for learners. Use this list in a professional development session as a talking board, similar to the “Have you ever” game used for participants to get to know one another. Participants can talk to one another to find someone else like them who has either made one of the listed errors or experienced the error as an educator, parent, or caregiver. This resource was adapted from TheMainIdea.net.
Resource: The Eight Elements of Error for Support Structures
- Quickly implementing reactive support structures rather than planning proactive support structures
- Assuming what families as partners need as support structures versus asking stakeholders and listening to their needs
- Being solely dependent on technology for communicating available support structures for families as partners
- Focusing exclusively on academic support structures and neglecting structures that support the health and well-being of learners and families as partners
- Underestimating the amount of communication needed to inform families of a change in support or a new support structure available
- Avoiding conversations which require the implementation of support structures because solutions are challenging to implement
- Focusing solely on conversations aimed at implementing support structures to address concerns versus fostering conversations about strengths and positive outcomes
- Communicating support structures available once and believing that is sufficient, rather than communicating about support structures multiple times and via multiple mediums