Family and community engagement has two primary components. The first is a way for professionals to support families in whatever capacity they are in need of and the second is for parents to demonstrate to their child(ren) that education is important. These components both directly and indirectly support students’ academically. Being trauma informed is a critical component of effective family and community engagement. This course begins with learning about how to be trauma informed, moves to a comprehensive focus on family engagement, and ends with practice implementing family engagement.

While 2 of the 3 required textbooks are written for educators, the concepts are very much applicable to family service professionals as well - especially those interested in a career within the educational system.

• Educated by Tara Westover.
• Home, School, and Community Collaboration: Culturally Responsive Family Engagement, 5th Edition by Kathy B. Grant and Julie A. Ray.
• I Wish My Teacher Knew: How One Question Can Change Everything For Our Kids by Kyle Schwartz.

Course Learning Objectives (CLO)

1. 1. Demonstrate ability to collaborate with families, colleagues and other professionals to promote student growth and development (Utah Effective Teaching Standard 1.B).
2. 2. Define cultural competency and demonstrate ability to view students and families through a culturally competent lens (Utah Effective Teaching Standard 8.B & 8C).
3. 3. Demonstrates ability to create opportunities for parent and family involvement in school (Utah Effective Teaching Standard 9B & 9C).
4. 4. Demonstrate ability to apply critical thinking skills to families, communities, and colleagues (UEN Standard 8C).
5. 5. Identifies potential risk factors in a child’s home, school and community including signs and symptoms of child abuse and demonstrates understanding about the effects of trauma.

Assignment Category to CLO Mapping

Grading Scale

Assignments, Expectations, and Evaluation

• 1. DISCLAIMER: Please know I want to be a support to you and because I am operating within a system, I am limited in what I can and can’t do to support you. If you are in need of accommodations, please reach out to the Disability Resource Center on campus who can help you access short-term and long-term accommodations. If you have a complaint about any professor or course on campus, please take the following steps:
  1. Talk to the professor
  2. If you feel like you can’t talk to the professor, please go to the chair of the department, contact information for this person can be found on the department’s website.
  3. Other resources include:
  a. Dean of the college where the course is housed
  b. Provost’s office
  c. Dean of Students
  4. Regardless of the steps you take, leaving feedback in your end of semester course evaluations is important. These are anonymous; instructors do not have access to them until after grades are posted.
• 2. Emotional Safety - Emotional Safety - Emotional Safety - Emotional Safety - Due to the emotionally and psychologically vulnerable content that will be discussed throughout this course, it is essential that all participants contribute to an environment of emotional safety. In the event of a student participating in emotionally unsafe comments/behavior, the instructor will provide feedback which will serve as a warning. At that time, the student will be invited to converse with the instructor about what made their comments/behavior emotionally unsafe. If the behavior is repeated, students will be referred to campus services. If you find you are emotionally overwhelmed by content in this or any other course, the University Counseling and Psychological Services Center (CAPS) is a resource available to you. The phone number for CAPS is: 435.865.8621.
• 3. As a student in this course, you are responsible for the content presented in this course and for your own learning. If you need help, please ask. If you have questions about the material that you are interested in or curious about that is not addressed in the course, please ask. If you have questions about expectations for an assignment, please ask. If you do not understand a concept being taught/discussed, please ask. The instructor is a resource to you; however, if you do not communicate that you need help, the instructor cannot help you.
• 4. Please pay attention to Canvas Announcements as this instructor uses Canvas Announcements to communicate with students about important information. You will be accountable for information provided through announcements.
• 7. All documentation must be done in APA 7th Edition format. For this course, abstracts, cover pages and headings are not necessary. You will not be docked for using these. When required to use outside sources, students are expected to use credible sources; wikipedia is not allowed for use as a reference in this course. OWL at Purdue is a great resource! Please do not rely on any automatic reference/citation formatting tools/engines as these often produce incorrect citations/references. If you are going to pursue your education in the social sciences field, you may find it useful to purchase an APA manual. If it is discovered that you used a false source, generated by AI or any other source, this will be considered academic dishonesty and SUU Policy 6.33 will be followed.
• 8. It is expected that all work you turn in is created and developed by you. If you use AI, it is the expectation for this course is that you use it as a resource and not a robot. You must properly cite it if you use it. If it is discovered that you are using AI without properly citing it or you use AI to generate work that you turn in as your own, SUU Policy 6.33 for Academic Integrity will be followed. AI is a fantastic tool for brainstorming!
• 9. All papers must be typed in either Arial or Times New Roman with a 12 point font, 1 inch margins and double spaced.
• 10 Grammar and following instructions matters! Your grade will be affected by these things. Please pay attention to page requirements - both minimums and limitations. Once the page limit is reached, I will stop reading and any information included after that point will not be considered in your grade. While your grade will be impacted according to assignment rubrics for incorrect grammar and poor writing mechanics, because of the amount of time it takes to do so, I will not be editing your papers as I grade them.
• 12. Grading: Because I want your focus to be on learning and not on how skilled you are or aren’t at earning high grades, the grading in this class is intended to be reflective of that. Your participation, effort, and learning are more important than your skill at earning a specific grade.
  All assignments, except the Movie Analysis, turned in on time, or within 3 days of the due date (maximum of 3 assignments), and completed according to the assignment instructions as outlined in both the assignment instructions in Canvas and the grading rubric will receive full credit. All assignments turned in on time, or within 3 days of the due date (maximum of 3 assignments), for which all or part of the assignment is insufficient for meeting assignment expectations as outlined in both Canvas and the grading rubric will receive ½ credit.
  If you earn ½ credit on an assignment, you may revise and resubmit for full credit as long as you do so within 7 days of when the assignment is graded and your revisions are highlighted. You may revise and resubmit as many times as you want/need to in order to earn the grade you want on each assignment. The instructor will not regrade any assignments that do not have revisions clearly highlighted. Any assignments due the last week of the semester will not have this flexibility; while you will be given the opportunity to revise and resubmit these assignments, it must be done within the time frame outlined in comments left by the instructor/grader at the time it is graded.
• 13. Syllabus Quiz (25 points) - This will count as your commenced attendance assignment. If you want full points for this assignment, it needs to be done by the due date. You will have the option to complete it until the deadline for commencing attendance. If you do not complete it by this deadline, you will be at risk of being dropped from the course. Please review the syllabus prior to taking the quiz. It is open note. You may take it as many times as you want to receive the grade you would like. Please see Canvas for the due date.
• 14. Pre and Post Course Reflection Papers (15 points each). Specific instructions for these assignments can be found in the Canvas assignment shells. Please see Canvas for the due date.
• 15. ACEs Score (15 points). Please submit yourACEs score. That’s it. Just the number. Please see Canvas for the due date.
• 15. Application of Content Assignments (50 points each). My goal for this class in general is to prepare you for professional work and application of class content. These assignments are in lieu of tests/quizzes. Three times throughout the semester, you will submit a plan for applying the content from the course to whatever career path you are considering at the time the assignment is due. The only requirements for this assignment are to:
  • Incorporate both assigned reading and online learning content/activities
  • Specify a minimum of 3 takeaways from the course content
  • Incorporate contextual factors
  • Incorporate the family and community engagement project
  • Explain how your completion of this assignment helps you plan to implement course content in the future
  Please refer to the assignment shells for what content is to be applied in each assignment. For this assignment, you might write an essay explaining your thought processes, create a work of art expressing yourself, write a lesson plan, prepare a presentation for peers, or design a bulletin board for your professional space. If the required content is not obvious (such as in a work of art), you will need to submit a brief explanation so that the grader can assess whether or not you included the required components. You will earn an “Incomplete” if it is not clear to the grader that you incorporated both assigned reading and class lessons/activities.
  This is important: There is no right or wrong way to complete the assignment as long as you include the required components. It is the expectation of the professor that you practice autonomy with this assignment; it’s great real-world experience! Please see Canvas for specific instructions and due dates.
• 16. Freedom Writer Bullet Points (25 points). We will viewing the film Freedom Writers in class. After viewing the film, please submit a list of connections you made between the course and the film to Canvas. Specific instructions and the due date can be found in Canvas.
• 17. How Will You Ask the Question (25 points). Gaining the ability to directly and compassionately ask someone if they are thinking about suicide is an important component of trauma-informed care. An important part of the process of being able to ask someone if they are thinking about suicide is forming the question in our minds ahead of time. Please refer to Canvas for specific instructions and the due date for this assignment.
• 18. Movie Analysis (100 points). For this assignment, you will watch 3 consecutive episodes of a fictional or based on a true story TV show OR film. A significant portion of the content of whatever you choose to watch should take place in the setting of a field relevant to family and community engagement. Apply specific concepts from the course, as outlined in the assignment instructions to the film/TV show. If you intend to work in education, watching a film or TV series that takes place in an academic setting is a great choice! If you intend to pursue a career in social/family services, watching a film or TV series that takes place in a social services setting is a great choice. Documentaries won’t work for this assignment. If you are unsure if the TV series/film you want to use for this assignment will meet the criteria for this assignment, please ask before completing it. Please think of this assignment as your final exam. Please see Canvas for the due date and detailed instructions.
• 19. Family and Community Engagement Project. For this assignment, you will collaborate, in some way, with a community partner who works to meet some kind of need for folks within your community and complete a family and community engagement project of your choosing with approval from the instructor. The purpose of this assignment is to practice family and community engagement not to provide community service; therefore, your project focus needs to be on family and community engagement not just on providing community service/accruing volunteer hours.
  In order to earn a C or higher in this course, you will be required to contribute 10 hours of hands-on time with the organization. Hands on means time spent preparing and executing your project and does not include time spent completing assignments related to the project such as the outline or preparation for your presentation. While it is strongly preferred that you work as a group, for a variety of reasons, you may choose to work individually. You will get much more out of this assignment if you work in a group.
  Each student is expected to log 10 hours; those hours may overlap. For example, if you are working in a group of 4, the total amount of hands on hours should be 40. If each of those 4 people spend 4 hours of time at the same time working on the project in some way, each person gets to count those 4 hours. DO NOT divide those 4 hours between you. There are portions of the project due throughout the semester, so please pay attention to due dates listed in Canvas.
• 16. Presentation of Family and Community Engagement Project (150 points). For this assignment, you and/or your group will create and present a presentation lasting no more than 20 minutes for the class about what you did for your Family and Community Engagement Project. While there is not a minimum length of time, it is expected that you are thorough in your explanation of your project. Presentations will be done in class at a time TBD . Detailed instructions are included in Canvas.

Course Schedule

Course Schedule Disclaimer: While content scheduled to be covered that is outlined in this course schedule will not likely change, the timing of which week it is presented and correlating assignments may change based on factors unavailable to address at the time this syllabus was written.

No Final Exam!

• 5. All assignments are due at midnight on the due date unless otherwise noted and should be turned in via Canvas. The instructor will not accept assignments turned in any other way.
• 6. Assignments may be turned in early. You may turn in up to 3 assignments up to 3 days late without questions or penalty. Any late work beyond this will only be accepted if you have formal accommodations in place through the Disability Resource Center or support through the Office of Student Outreach and Support. This applies to all assignments that will receive a grade. Please do not rely on Canvas to remind you of when assignments are due; please be proactive and know when assignments are due. All assignments for the semester are already entered into Canvas.

11. Attendance - Being in class matters and your attendance will significantly impact your grade. The exchange of ideas is an essential learning element for this course. You are allowed 2 absences without any impact to your overall grade. This is the equivalent of 1 week of class. After the first 2 absences, each unexcused absence will drop your final grade by 1%. Excused absences will only be granted for school excused activities, DRC Accommodations, or as supported by the Office of Student Outreach and Support. You are responsible for providing/facilitating documentation for school excused absences. Please use your 2 free absences wisely. If you have extenuating circumstances that arise such as emergency surgery, a long term illness, or a death in the family, please be aware you may be eligible for temporary accommodations through the DRC or support through the Office of Student Outreach and Support.

Electronic Device Use (Cell phones, laptops, tablets): Please keep your cell phones on vibrate or silent and do not allow them to become a distraction in class. If you need to use your cell phone, please practice professionalism and step out to do so. I, and other faculty on campus, have noticed a trend of laptops becoming a distraction in class. Please practice professionalism while in class and keep your focus on class. Please do not work on assignments for this or any other class during this class, unless that assignment is the current focus of class (such as labs).