Friday, August 3, 2012

How can I write an essay explaining how to help the community in which I work to address the barriers that prevent learning within my school...

Let's first address what some of those barriers may be, and then you can move on to develop a topic statement that shows your overall position in a way that you can support with additional details. 


A common barrier in learning within a school community is the disconnect between parents and teachers. This specific barrier consists of parents not actively participating in the academic progress of their children. Instead, they hold the school community, teachers, and not themselves, entirely responsible for the raising and education of the child. This attitude causes parents to not appreciate the importance of their roles in the social and intellectual successes of their kids. As a result, they hinder the learning process that takes place in the classroom by not providing the much-needed continuity that is required for learners to maintain and enhance the skills that they learn during the day. Something must be done to close the gap between parents and the school community. Once both sides work together, they will be able to achieve more. 


The information in the previous paragraph can serve as an introduction that explains exactly which barrier you are going to focus on. Since the barrier in this case is the lack of home and school connection, you can expand the rest of the essay by developing the points mentioned regarding parents resting upon the system, and not providing the needed continuity at home. 


An example of it would be as follows:


Paragraph 2- About parents not taking active part in the academic progress of students. 


Start your paragraph addressing that point directly in your topic statement, and then provide examples. Here is an example. 


In this community, parents do not take active participation in the academic progress of their children. A large majority of students report having a hard time completing homework because they do not get help at home. Moreover, parents hardly show up for conferences, avoid calls from teachers, and many use "not understanding" or "not knowing" as excuses for not even asking their children about their classwork. The attitude of the students matches that of their parents: if they do not get motivation or support at home, why bother doing homework at all? This behavior also affects the atmosphere of the learning environment. The feeling of dread alone makes the problem all the more complicated.


Paragraph 3- Here you can talk about the results of that kind of attitude in the overall performance. Mention facts, such as low grades, low test scores, absenteeism, lack of motivation, teachers feeling discouraged, and the overall sense of frustration that comes from knowing that something can be done, but will not happen. 


Finally on your paragraph 4, you might address the point made in the first paragraph about "something" that needs to happen. You are not obligated to provide a solution to a problem for an essay, but you certainly will show extended knowledge about your topic if you at least suggest a possibility.


Hence, in this paragraph, mention some alternatives to bring parents on board. A popular thing that parents are doing voluntarily these days is joining the schools' social media pages. Some school districts allow for student work to be displayed online to give accolades to work well-done. This is another way to lure the parents in to looking into those communication tools.


Other school districts offer social media parent groups to keep abreast of what is going on, check out pictures, or to communicate directly with the school principal. The Millennial parents' love for social media may be the key to attract and invite them to participate in workshops that the school can provide for them on how to help their kids with their homework. Another way to attract parents is through Parent Academy activities that many community centers provide to schools through programs sponsored by the city government. 


Your last paragraph should reflect the opinion used as closure for paragraph 1: That working together will help to achieve more. As a great way to bring closure to the entire essay, use this opportunity to express the positive aspect of breaking down the learning barrier that you have been describing all this time. This is the chance to show the importance of tackling the problem, and the positive results that may arise from taking action.

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