The key portion of my involvement plan will be to have the students bring a parent/guardian to class.
This visit will happen prior to the beginning of the Promotion of Mental, Social and Emotional Health unit. This unit looks deeply at healthy relationships, cultural values, influencers, stressors, diversity and respect for diversity.
Depending on the class length a certain number of students/parents will come into class one day in order to share with the class a cultural value, norm or tradition that they have. It will be rather open-ended. The student and the parent will both present together that way if a parent needed help translating or was nervous the student would be there to help. (Herrell, 2016, p.7). Also by having them present together they would need to collaborate together at home about what they would like to share. An outline or worksheet would be sent home ahead of time to help structure the presentation. (Breiseth, 2011, p. 22)
This strategy would require the most effort on the parent/guardians part but I believe it would pay off immensely. The parent would come to the school, learn how to sign in at the office, see some of the school, share their story with their child, other students are exposed to different families and the experience will set a platform or reference point for the coming unit(s).
For students who's parent/guardians do not want to come in or do not have good home relationships, these students will present and they can choose to either discuss a tradition or event that has influenced them or something they would like to have in the future with regards to values or traditions.
One of the primary goals here is to foster respect for other peoples cultures and to feel proud about ones own culture and heritage. I would hope this helps encourage a positive attitude from ELL students about their culture and show them they do not need to assimilate to American culture in order to succeed in public schools. (Sousa, 2011, p. 43)

1. There are 9 units in total that need to be covered in a high school health class. The units include (short hand): alcohol and drug prevention, prevention of disease, environmental health, healthy eating, mental social and emotional health, physical activity, sexual health, injury prevention, violence and suicide prevention.
2. Health is controversial! This will be kept in mind when writing the "Communication" assignments. I will always create more than one way to go about a topic, keep assignments low risk, open ended and provide an "out" for the parent. (Breiseth, 2011, p. 21).
3. Within each unit there will be one Communication assignment. Depending on the topic each assignment will likely be different from the last. For example in the physical activity unit the students could be required to keep an activity log. They will ask their parents to do the same. After the logs are completed they will analyze and create short and long term SMART goals for physical activity.
4. I would have the students explain the highlights of what they have learned in class within the particular unit to their parents.T his will help the students think through the content and help prep them for the unit exam.
5. Understanding some parents work multiple jobs or the line of communication isn't open I will ask students to speak with me if they foresee issues with the assignments and we would modify the assignment on a case-by-case basis.
6. Lastly, a parent letter will be sent home at the beginning of the year describing (among other things) the units that will take place. I will explicitly ask parents to visit the classroom as often as they would like and include my contact and the school's contact information as well as examples of how they can help out in the classroom (helping with assignments, activities, sharing their experiences, etc.)
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