Family and Community Engagement

Erica Quintero

College of Education, Grand Canyon University

SEC-510: Creating and Managing Engaging Learning Environments

Dr. Darroll Meyer

February 07, 2024

 Part One: Family Assignment

Name: Sabores y Tradiciones Projecto (Flavors and Traditions Project)

Objective: Students will develop cultural awareness and language proficiency by creating a

family menu, in Spanish, that showcases their own traditional family recipes.

Description: In this assignment, students are encouraged to interview family members to gain a

deeper understanding of their own culture/traditions and discuss where these recipes originated

from. They will need 3 recipes: an appetizer dish, an entree dish, and a dessert. (All dishes from

their culture, using family recipes) Next, they will need to pick one of these dishes and create a

3-5 minute video of the student cooking this dish with a family member, explaining each step in

Spanish. Students will need to create a menu booklet with the names/descriptions of all these

dishes and the recipes translated into Spanish. The first page needs to look like a restaurant menu

with the names, descriptions, and pictures of the dishes. The following pages need to be the

recipes of each dish with instructions, all in Spanish. Lastly, we will watch each video in class, in

which at the end of the video students will need to stand up and share the unique stories and

cultural elements tied to these recipes. This will help promote an inclusive and supportive

classroom environment.

Part Two: Reflection

This is a great assignment to help create an inclusive learning environment. As a Spanish

teacher, I believe it is important for students to understand the different aspects of a variety of

cultures and the similarities/differences between their culture and others’ cultures. For this

assignment, I think it is crucial for parents/guardians to know about this project and to

understand the meaning behind it. This is an assignment that I would send out a mass email to all

of my students’ parents explaining what this assignment is, the purpose of it, and how they can
support their child’s success in this assignment outside of school. However, there are definitely

some challenges teachers can face assigning this project, such as ensuring the engagement of

family. I can understand how parents can become busy and it is difficult to set aside time to have

these interviews/discussions with their children, as well as assist in cooking a dish while creating

a video presentation. This is why I believe it is crucial to have good communication with

parents/guardians about the purpose and meaning of this project, as well as how this project will

benefit their child and other students.

It is very important to engage families in students’ education, as this is a crucial key to

students’ academic success. Students not only need support at school, but also at home. It is also

great to work in collaboration with student families because it can enhance the educational

experience. This helps create a supportive, positive and collaborative environment that can help

students socially, emotionally, and academically. Furthermore, a key way to deal with concerns

or issues with parents and some solutions to support positive collaboration is effective

communication. Effective communication can happen by sharing information with parents about

their child’s learning experience in your classroom.