Nourishing Caregiver Collaborations: Elevating Home Experiences and Classroom Practices for Collective Care

Summary

In Nourishing Caregiver Collaborations, Nawal Qarooni invites us to step beyond school-centric, one-off events and practices to create more authentic, engaging collaborations with caregivers. Instead of asking what families can do to support schools, Qarooni asks how schools can identify and celebrate what families already bring to their children's literacy learning. Establishing this work in holistic teaching, Qarooni explores five critical literacy tenets by highlighting opportunities to listen for, honor, connect to, and elevate family strengths while inviting them further into our shared work and encouraging reflection around:

● Recognizing the journey of process

● Celebrating the role collaboration plays within the collective

● Using observational literacy to read the world

● Advocating for the power of talk to grow ideas and connect

● Giving children choice to make self-directed decisions

With moments of memoir woven in alongside diverse family examples and classroom stories, Qarooni shows how families contribute meaningfully to their children's literacy lives. Discover how we can tap into those vast wells to support learning at home and in school.