Quote: "When parents and other community members come into the school, they demonstrate the value they place on education by working as tutors and aides, sharing their cultures, and demonstrating other types of expertise (Graves, 1995)" (Tompkins,p.24).
Comment: I believe that when children see adult members of the community, parents, or college students in their classroom it makes them feel like school is something that adults have done before, that they appreciate it, and that it has done something for them. It increases the value of school for the children. I participated in a program at the Y Serve (BYU) called TOPS. I went to the schools twice a week to tutor Mathematics. The kids would ask me if I was in college, I had the opportunity to engage in conversations about how much I cared about education. When I tutored them I was also able to tell them that at one point in my life I was scared about not understanding something, or that I loved Math and that's why I was in college so I could teach Math one day.
Question: If a parent volunteers to go to the classroom to help, and you clearly see he/she is not a fluent English speaker what would you invite him/her to help you with in your classroom?