How to Increase Parent Engagement Using Seesaw
I am thrilled with what Seesaw adds to my practice as a speech-language pathologist! If you are new to Seesaw, it is a FREE app that allows you to create a
digital portfolio of your students’ work that you can access through an iPad, android tablet or computer. I have been using Seesaw consistently for about 2 years now. Let me share with you a few ways that
I have used it and the benefits that I have seen. Did I mention that it is free?!?!
{Note: Seesaw also has a paid
version but all of the benefits contained within this post can be accessed
through the free version}.
How does Seesaw increase parent involvement?
To give you a
little background history, I work in a school that is comprised of students
from a low socioeconomic background. About a third of our students are also
English Language Learners. Historically, this can be difficult for parent
communication with both the language barrier and families who are working really hard to get their daily needs
met. Seesaw has been a game changer for me.
A few years back, I attended a
session on Cultural Poverty by Celeste Roseberry (Side note: If you ever have
the opportunity to hear her speak, run. Don’t walk. It’s worth it). In the session, one of the take away points
for me was the power of video with families living in poverty.
In cultural
poverty, families live for the moment, not what tomorrow may bring. So, though
others may judge a cell phone or smartphone as frivolous spending, families are
really trying to make the best of the current moment.
The parents of the
families that I work with often change their phone number as their minutes run
out or their plans change so other applications like Remind weren’t a viable
option for me. With Seesaw however, they can access their child’s account
regardless of their phone number or from the library because it is web based.
How does Seesaw increase communication in the home?
Parents that
do not speak English are able to watch a video of their child in speech
therapy and gain an understanding on what they do while in school. Yes, there
still is the language barrier but it gives our students a frame of reference or
visual support to explain to their parent what they did that day at school.
That is powerful.
Parents love to know that their child is loved, learning and enjoying their time in speech. To see the smile on a parent’s face on conference night after
watching their child in action is PRICELESS.
Seesaw also offers parents insight to topics that they may want to discuss or explore further with
their child. For example, I used Seesaw in sessions with a student targeting social language
goals by showing task cards and having the student record their response. One
such task card involved receiving a text from an unknown person asking for the
student’s location. Initially, the student was quick to reveal their location.
The parent was able to hear us walk through why this is not a safe approach and
what the student should do. The student was highly motivated by the “likes”
that their parent would give their posts and it opened up a conversation at
home that may not have happened otherwise.
How do you get
parents involved?
Seesaw provides
an individual QRCode that the parent can scan to access their student’s account
and “follow” their student. They also offer an email option. I sent home the
letter that Seesaw generates explaining Seesaw and the student’s QRCode in the
beginning of the year.
I’ll be honest, just sending home a QR Code didn’t yield a ton of parent
participation in my experience but what did
was having students excited about their learning as we added more and more to
their account. Seesaw offers an option that generates a QRCode to a
particular post. If a student was excited about something that they had posted
that day, we would simply print out that post with a QRCode that they would
take home to share with their parent. BINGO!
This worked like a charm!! Not to mention that it opened up the dialogue
between parent and child about their day beyond “what did you do at school
today”.
How does Seesaw increase student accountability?
Realistically,
we know that not every parent is going to check their child’s Seesaw account.
In fact, chances are a large majority may not but do not let that stop you!
Why, you ask?
It’s simple. Our students
are growing up in a generation intrigued by YouTube sensations and selfies
galore. Putting their work out there (even if you wind up being the only one
who sees it) adds accountability and motivation. Say you have a student working
on descriptive language. The student can describe a topic/picture by either
photographing the object/picture and adding an audio description or can video
themselves describing it. Watch the student shine and proudly show off all of
those awesome language skills they are growing in speech-language!
Baseline
anyone?
Students love to revisit their old posts on their Seesaw timeline. Let
students witness their growth and watch them beam with pride. Show their skills
off to their teacher for added reinforcement outside your therapy room.
Data, Data, & More Data!
When using
another app in speech therapy that collects data, I can easily screenshot each
student’s results page and upload it to their Seesaw account. This helps me
streamline their data and reduces the amount of writing that I need to do in my
daily session notes. I don’t know about you, but chances are you are
back-to-back with groups like me and can’t realistically write extended therapy
notes for each student every day. This allows for an accurate detailed
account of data. At the end of the year, I simply print out each student’s
Seesaw profile and attach it to the back of my Session Log sheet for the
student.
Assign
Student Practice
When planning
ahead of time for therapy, I was able to screenshot a target sheet from a pdf
file and save it to specific students. The student could then open the image
and edit it using the text/drawing feature or record audio to capture their
thinking.
With my preschoolers, I find that having them watch a snippet of therapy starring him/herself elicits more language than the activity itself did. Man, those littles sure do love to watch themselves! Capitalize on that and use it to your advantage!
Summer Carryover
I have mixed
emotions about summer homework. I will usually send home a simple packet or
calendar of sorts but many likely sit in unopened backpacks or find their way
into the recycling bin. Remember when I said earlier that I print out the student
profiles at the end of the year to attach to my session logs? I simply made
an additional copy to send home with the students.
In theory, the parents can
access this through the app or online but remember, not every parent will do so
regardless of how many times you do cartwheels and stand on your head. The
students then had a yearbook of sorts of what they did in speech-language this
year. Each post prints out a lovely photograph. When students recall what they
worked on and all of the fun that they had, the learning extends far beyond
your therapy walls!
Do you want to reference this post later? Pin the image below so you'll know where to find it!
