Conferencing with Parents

Scenarios on parent conferencing can be used in a Support Group Meeting or Instructional Coaches can individually discuss with his/her New Educators. The scenarios simulate parent conferences to stimulate discussions among participants in anticipating situations and issues that may arise during conferences with parents.

Suggestion: At a Support Group Meeting, ask for volunteers. One person will receive only one description of a teacher role and another person will receive the paired description of the parent role. Each person silently reads the role and prepares to play the role to the group. Neither the teacher nor the parent will know the other's description. They face each other to role-play the conference.

Discussion follows. Some questions to discuss are:
1. What strengths/positives occurred in the role-play?
2. How could it have happened differently?
3. How could the teacher have prepared for the conference?
4. What could the teacher do after the conference?
5. What are the implications for your parent teacher conferences?

Examples of the Role Descriptions:
Role-play Teacher #1 (New Educator): You are calling home to inform Billy’s parents that his behavior in class is unacceptable. He leaves his seat without permission, calls out across the classroom, and refuses to stay on task. Efforts such as private conferring with Billy have been met with rudeness and disrespect. Seek their intervention and support so that the situation will not result in an administrative referral.

Role-play Parent #1 (Coach): Billy’s teacher is calling to inform you of his poor behavior. He has been rude and disrespectful and often off task. Be unsupportive, try to put the teacher on the defensive: “Your class must be boring!” “What do you expect me to do? You’re the teacher!”

If you would like more examples of parent and teacher roles, view them on the Induction CAB conference.

Source: Renee Wallack, former NESS School Liaison, Plantation High School