Here’s how it is scored:
Now, let’s see what that looks like in practice!
If the participant says….Challenges at work? And you think that this might be affecting Katie some way?
They would be scored… Low
Because… The task here is really for the teacher to respond to the parent as a human– not an extension of their child and here the teacher has made it clear that they see the parent only through the lens of the child. A teacher’s job is too teacher the child, not the parent, but they need a strong home-school partnership to do that and denying the parent’s personhood is unlikely to build that partnership. Specifically, the teacher is ignoring the empathetic opportunity.
If the participant says….Right. Kids are definitely perceptive. And I think that might make a little bit more sense. Maybe Katie’s sensing more stress at home, and so she’s bringing some stress into the class, which is totally normal, and also, I think third grade is a big transition period, especially for girls, because they’re entering like the latter half of elementary school.
They would be scored… Low
Because… Here again the teacher is missing the empathetic opportunity. The parent is sharing about their work and the teacher is telling the parent what their child might be noticing.
If the participant says….Why? What type of challenges is she facing at home?.. I’m really sorry to hear that. Okay, um, yeah, you never know what stresses might be causing this… Does that sound like a good thing?
They would be scored… Medium
Because… This one is so much closer! When the parent goes on to talk about lay offs (in the … section), the teacher says I’m sorry, acknowledging the empathetic opportunity directly. But the teacher only follows up about the child, not about the parent and so this is only a medium.
If the participant says….Well, I’m very sorry to hear that. I hope I hope the situation gets better….But But you know, I think I think it’s really important not to, you know not not to not to put all the weight on yourself. Like, like I said, you know, high, you know, high school is a difficult time. And the thing that I really want to work with you with is, you know, working together to make sure that Katie, you know, is having the, the best support she can and so from my
They would be scored… High
Because… Here the teacher is directly acknowledging what the parent shared and following up by affirming the parent’s parenting and trying to make them feel better. The teacher is reacting to the parent as a human, not just an extension of their child and so this is scored as a high.
If the participant says…. I’m so sorry to hear that. Is there anything that I can do to?
They would be scored…High
Because… We do want new teachers to have boundaries, but the point of this item is to help teachers learn to respond to parents as humans and not to go over boundaries. This teacher is clearly seeing and responding to the parent as a person– they are acknowledging the empathetic opportunity and following up on it.
Now it’s your turn! You have one last practice quiz left for this module so go ahead and try it out!