DEAR DR. ZACK

GREETINGS!

I WANT SOME POINTS ON- ' CREATIVITY IN THE LANGUAGE TEACHING.'
- HOW PARENTS AND TEACHERS CAN BE TRAINED FOR THE SAME?

THANKS FOR YOUR TIPS.

WARM REGARDS
MS. SARBJIT

Dear Ms. Sarbjit:

Thank you for your email and your wanting to create a warm atmosphere between you and the parents of your students. I am very happy to see and hear that there are teachers out there who want and encourage parent participation.

My advice is to first have an open line of communication with the parents, and invite them into the class and give them opportunities to work with the students in small group settings. You might want to set up parent training meetings, where you can show them how to work with their child. Here are some tips: Have the parents read with their child every day, and then have them ask the child questions about what they read. This will help develop the child's critical thinking and comprehension skills. Parents can have the child read anything- including the newspaper or a comic strip, and then have the child tell them to describe what happened. Also, parents can engage children in learning whenever they go to the store, or market, or to the bank, by asking the child questions about what type of activity this is, and why this is important. The most important thing to remember in making sure that parents can effectively teach and help their child in learning is to remind them to always ask questions that begin with why or how as these are the ones called higher-level thinking questions which develop a child's cognitive abilities and comprehension skills.