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Family Engagement in Literacy: Family Engagement in the Middle School: Using an Academic Socialization Approach
By Laurie Elish-Piper
Document: Column
Introductory Paragraph: Family engagement is most common in the context of early childhood education, focusing on the foundational stages of literacy development (Castro et al., 2015; Ma et al., 2016). However, family involvement remains crucial even as students advance from elementary to middle school. Research shows that family engagement during the middle school years is linked to positive academic outcomes for students such as improved grades, better attendance, and more positive attitudes toward school (Kim, 2022). Middle school is a period of significant transition. Students experience changes in their cognitive and intellectual development, social-emotional learning, physical development, autonomy, responsibility, motivation, engagement, self-concept, identity, and behavioral changes (Anderman & Mueller, 2010). They move from self-contained elementary classrooms to team-based structures with subject-specific teachers, and the curriculum becomes more complex, requiring increasingly sophisticated literacy skills. The middle school curriculum shifts toward a disciplinary literacy approach which requires specialized ways of reading, writing, and thinking within specific academic disciplines (National Research Council, 2012; Shanahan & Shanahan, 2008). As middle school students transition to more advanced and varied subject content, the need for targeted literacy skills becomes increasingly significant as they are expected to begin to read like a historian, comprehend complex mathematical problems, identify and understand the author’s purpose, and understand scientific charts and graphs in their classes (Ortlieb et al., 2023). Engaging families as partners can support student outcomes in the middle school context, but the approach needs to differ from traditional ways of involving parents in reading with younger children.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.33600/IRCJ.53.1.2024-2025.58
Page Numbers: 58-62
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