Before submitting your Assessment, carefully review the rubric. This is the same rubric the assessor will use to evaluate your submission and it provides detailed criteria describing how to achieve or master the Competency. Many students find that understanding the requirements of the Assessment and the rubric criteria help them direct their focus and use their time most productively.

Rubric

This assessment has three-parts. Click each of the items below to complete this assessment.

Part I: Family Engagement

As you begin to consider how you will engage families at the start of the new school year, it is important to reflect upon why family engagement is necessary and beneficial for children, families, and early childhood programs. Review Document #1: Blue Stream Early Learning Center Overview.

In two to three pages, do the following:

• Explain why family engagement is important for the healthy development of children and why it is essential to creating a foundation for effective early childhood practice.
• Describe at least two strategies that you would use to engage families prior to the beginning of the school year.
• Explain why you chose these strategies and how each strategy can be used to promote a respectful, reciprocal, and responsive partnership with the families.

Part II: Individualized Family Communication Plans

Imagine that it is now the second week of the school year. You have received the completed Beginning of the Year Questionnaires that you sent to the children’s families as seen in the following documents:

• Document #2: Jon Hall: Beginning of the Year Questionnaire
• Document #3: Annie Xun: Beginning of the Year Questionnaire
• Document #4: Irene Segers: Beginning of the Year Questionnaire

Based on the questionnaires, create an individualized plan for how you would communicate and collaborate with each of the three children’s families.

Each of the three individualized plans should be two pages in length and include:

• An explanation of the initial method of communication you will use with the family. Explain why you chose the method for this specific family.
• A description of at least one potential obstacle you might face in communicating with the family.
• Describe at least one strategy you might use to overcome the obstacle you identified, so you can effectively communicate and collaborate with the family.
• An explanation of how you will communicate information to the family about their child’s overall development and academic progress. Provide a rationale for your choice.
• An explanation of how you will communicate to the family the opportunities for them to engage in the classroom. Provide a rationale for your choice. Include an explanation of why building a partnership with this family is essential to the healthy development of the child(ren) in this family.
• A description of at least one strategy you would use to obtain information from the family. Provide a rationale for your choice.

Part III: Family Newsletter

A month has passed, and it is time to update the families on their children’s progress.

Your newsletter should should include:

• An overview of learning and development that has taken place in the classroom since the first month of school.
• A welcome to families and an invitation to volunteer or become involved in the classroom community at Blue Stream Early Childhood Center. Provide at least one specific way families can volunteer or become involved in the classroom community.
• At least one recommendation for promoting their child’s emotional, social, cognitive, or physical development at home.

Save this file as CC003_firstinitial_lastname (for example, CC003_J_Smith). When you are ready to upload your completed Assessment, select Submit.