Building cooperation with diverse parents.

a. Observe, and if possible participate in, an instance of teacher-family communication—a conference, meeting, home visit, or classroom exchange. How many of the five steps for building cooperative relations did you observe the teacher use? What seemed to be the results in terms of teacherfamily cooperation? Compare your findings with ideas from the chapter.

b. Interview a teacher about a family that she was uncomfortable working with or had trouble understanding. How did the teacher communicate with the family to build cooperation? How satisfied was the teacher with the success of the effort? If she would change anything in her approach, what would that be? Compare your findings with ideas from the text.