Episode Details

Dr. Daris McInnis joins Jethro to explore the complex nature of the reading process and the pivotal role that parents play in building literacy foundations at home. Dr. McInnis emphasizes the expertise that parents bring to the table, urging schools to honor and tap into that knowledge. He challenges the assumptions that parents inherently have everything they need to support their child's learning or that lack of engagement signals disinterest. Instead, he advocates for creating meaningful partnerships with parents, giving them a seat at the table, and understanding the pressures they face, such as time constraints. 

Throughout the discussion, Dr. McInnis highlights the value of programs like Reading is Fundamental (RIF) and literacy nights, which provide families with tools and strategies to support their children's learning. He also encourages educators to rethink their roles as learners themselves, emphasizing the importance of linguistic expression and understanding students as cosmopolitan intellectuals. 

Tune in to discover how schools can better engage families in the literacy process and how transformative leadership begins with meaningful, student-centered conversations.

• Reading process is complex. Starts at home
• At home start understanding the literacy foundations
• Parents have expertise, and we need to acknowledge it. 
• Parents' knowledge of how their students’ everyday life impacts learning.
• Schools should honor and seek that expertise out. 
• Schools don’t honor parent expertise because they don’t have expertise
• Grandma’s statistics
• Assumption: Parents have everything they need to support student learning (in the way we do it). 
• Assumption: People have time. 
• Uninvolved or don’t care is not what silence always means
• Giving them a seat at the table.
• What do they need from the school district? 
• RIF is a great resource
• Literacy nights - valuable for many reason 
• Strategies and tools for parents. 
• Linguistic expression
• How do we rethink about ourselves as learners as well. 
• How to be a transformative principal? Identify a student that a teacher is struggling to reach, then go into the classroom, and have a conversation with that student. Frame them as the cosmopolitan intellectuals they are. 

Please add your bio here: 

Dr. Daris McInnis is an assistant professor of literacy in the College of Education and Social Work at West Chester University of Pennsylvania. His research interests include family literacy, reading research, critical literacy, family-school partnerships, and early childhood education. Daris holds a doctorate in Reading/Writing/Literacy from the University of Pennsylvania, serves on multiple advisory boards with Reading is Fundamental, previously taught early elementary grades in Washington, D.C., and currently volunteers as a reading specialist in New Castle County, Delaware. He is also a Pat Tillman Scholar, and an Army veteran who served five years on active duty as an Ordnance Logistics Officer.

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