A Game-Changing Back to School Night Approach for High School Teachers

When Steph’s goddaughter started kindergarten, the whole family was excited for Back to School Night: Karolen got to meet her soon-to-be-beloved teacher and find her seat; her parents got to learn what this new phase in her life was all about. We’re willing to bet that every child had a representative in the classroom that night.

High school Back to School Night? Totally different story.

We were lucky if more than two parents showed up for each class period, and double-digit attendance was shocking. Parents were shuttled from class to class in 15-minute increments, the two-minute “passing periods” wildly unrealistic for the trek across campus. And Back to School Night presentations were essentially a reading of the syllabus that parents had, theoretically, already read and signed. The end of the night required a “no teacher left behind” approach as we made sure none of our colleagues were trapped in their classroom with a persistent parent at the end of a 12-hour workday.

Why do we even bother with Back to School Night in high school?

The principles are the same as they are for elementary school: parents want to meet their students’ teachers, get a glimpse of their students’ day-to-day lives, and learn more about the expectations for each class. It’s a way to lay the groundwork for the all-important parent-teacher relationship that puts us all on the same team as we do our best to help students experience a successful school year.

But Back to School Night has to look different in high school. It took us years to figure out an approach that works, but once we did, it was a game changer for us, our students, and their parents.

Why Back to School Night Has to Look Different in High School

High school, with its six or more class periods per day, is not well-suited to the traditional Back to School Night model. In only an hour or two, parents must travel to each of their child’s classes. This leaves us with short “class periods” that offer enough time for a brief hello and a review of the exact same spiel parents have been hearing since kindergarten (and probably heard 6–7 times that night). Parents with more than one child at the school have to strategically plan out which classes to attend, but if they miss the right “period,” they may miss the pertinent information. It’s no wonder turnout is low.

By high school, parents know how school works and how students are expected to behave. They’re much more interested in the academics of it all: what their children are learning, what grades their child will earn (or has already earned), whether their child will be prepared for the competitive college application process. And, as courses get increasingly more advanced, parents don’t always know how to best support their students.

If the goal of Back to School Night is for parents to get a sense of what their child’s day-to-day experience is like, we have to change the model, making the evening look a lot more like our daily classroom experience. For most of us, lectures and PowerPoint presentations are increasingly rare as we look for ways to better engage our students; some of us are part of closely collaborative Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) in which students will interact with multiple teachers.

And since most parents want a chance to speak to the teacher (and we want to build strong relationships with parents), we need to create ways for those conversations to take place, even if we ultimately direct those “How’s my student doing?” questions to another time and place.

Changing Up the Traditional Back to School Night Model

After years of dutifully trudging through the expected Back to School Night routine, Kate, inspired by our principal’s encouragement during summer professional development to “try new things,” brainstormed something new and different.

She proposed that the four of us who taught English 10 together come together in the school library for a joint Back to School Night in which parents explored interactive stations that let them experience their child’s day-to-day classroom routine and offered suggestions about how best to support students over the course of the school year.

It was a much better experience for us (no more awkward one-on-one lectures or being trapped in a classroom with an aggressive parent or that graduated senior who decided to come back for a visit), but it was also a delight to watch students and parents interact as students guided their parents through the stations. We had meaningful conversations with parents, and the night felt productive for us all.

The Set Up

The four of us put signs on our classroom doors directing parents to the school library. Because we weren’t giving formal presentations, parents could wander in at any time.

In the library, we set up nine stations with signs detailing what students and parents could do at that station and how they could engage with the content (or with their student).

Since we all taught additional courses, we each had our own individual station for those courses—we had an AP Literature table, our colleague had a Film and Literature table, and Steph had a yearbook table. While smaller (these classes tended to bring in less parents each year anyway), each of these stations had handouts, sample curriculum, and Chromebooks set up to allow parents to explore our online programs.

We stationed ourselves around the room and spent the evening greeting parents and students, engaging in conversations, and directing parents to the appropriate station (or teacher).

Station #1: Course LMS

We set up a station with a Chromebook that showed parents what our LMS looked like, and then we provided a stack of slips parents could fill out to be added to their student’s account. We were using Google Classroom at the time, so we had to “invite” those parents as guardians ourselves. Once we switched to Canvas, we provided parents with step-by-step instructions to pair their account with their student’s, instructions they could follow right there on the Chromebook.

Once we made the switch to Canvas, this was an excellent opportunity for parents to see our easy-to-use setup: the home page had clear buttons directing them to key pages, including a weekly agenda page with all the links for that week’s assignments. Giving parents the opportunity to see this not only helped them know where to direct their students (or look themselves) when they had questions but also made it clear to them that their students had no excuses for being uninformed about class happenings.

Station #2: Typing Club

Because our weekly bellringer assignment included typing practice, we set up a few Chromebooks that were already logged into Typing Club.

We posted a sign explaining why we included typing as a regular part of students’ curriculum and encouraged students to demonstrate the program to their parents (or let parents try it out for themselves). We also posted materials for parents to take home explaining how they could help their students improve and even sign up for a free account themselves.

One of the best parts of the night for us was watching students challenge their parents to typing competitions or watching students’ excited faces when their parents struggled with the same lesson they had struggled with earlier that week.

Station #3: Quill Grammar

Quill Grammar was another part of our weekly bellringer assignment, so we set up a couple Chromebooks where students could show their parents how it worked. We posted explanations of why we included the program in our curriculum, suggestions for parents looking to help their students succeed at this weekly assignment, and links parents could access to learn more about the program.

Station #4: Actively Learn

Aside from our LMS, Actively Learn was the core website we used in our class: students used it weekly (if not daily) to complete their reading assignments.

We posted an explanation of what the website is and why we use it regularly and offered suggestions for parents looking to talk to their students about the assignments they complete on it. We had several Chromebooks open to recent assignments that parents could explore.

Station #5: Independent Reading

Once we committed to making independent reading a core part of our weekly routine, we knew it had to play a key role in our Back to School Night stations. We provided signs explaining why independent reading matters, what our weekly reading day and Reading Check-In assignment looked like, and questions parents could ask their students to open up conversations about reading at home.

Best of all, we lugged over a wide selection of books from our classroom libraries that students and parents could browse and even check out if they wanted to. Seeing parents enthusiastically reminisce about books they once loved and then seeing a parent eagerly borrow a book that caught their eye made hauling all those books over more than worth it.

Station #6: Your Sophomore’s Schedule

We are all about organization and classroom routines, so our schedule looked similar each week. We provided parents with a handout detailing the activities students would complete on specific days so parents could ask about those activities, hopefully eliciting more than a “fine” from students when asked how their day had gone.

Station #7: Understanding Your Teen

Just before Back to School Night (talk about fortuitous timing!), Kate attended a presentation by Dr. Jerry Weichman, founder of the Teen Brain Program at the Hoag Neuroscience Institute. She created a handout based on the presentation with tips on how to talk to teenagers effectively, signs of crisis to look for, strategies for handling technology as a family, and substance abuse warning signs.

We made a stack of copies that parents could take, and we provided a friendly reminder to students that their parents want to help them succeed, so sharing how they’re feeling each day is helpful for everyone.

Station #8: Aeries Parent Portal

Knowing that grades are among parents’ top concerns on Back to School Night, we created a station where parents could log into Aeries and see their student’s grades, but more importantly, with handouts explaining how to create a parent account.

We provided counselors’ email addresses for parents who needed additional help, explained how to check attendance, and provided a list of things parents could look for when they were checking students’ grades (including encouragement to compliment students on grades that were trending up).

Station #9: Turnitin.com

At our final station, we provided information about what Turnitin is and how it works along with a sample Turnitin report and a key to interpreting it. We encouraged students to show parents their work from the beginning of the year or even previous classes, and we provided parents with suggestions on how to talk to their students about Turnitin submissions throughout the school year.

We were thrilled with the results of our new Back to School Night approach: despite the prep work it took to get set up, we enjoyed ourselves more than we ever had at this annual event, and we got to watch students and parents engage in meaningful conversations about English class.

We had clearly communicated expectations for the year to parents in a way that went beyond the syllabus they had already seen and showed them more of their child’s daily experience. Most importantly, we gave parents tools to equip them for better and more productive conversations with their teens.

If you’re interested in hearing more details about our approach, we have a podcast episode and YouTube video about it, and we discussed some of the obstacles we navigated in getting it set up in this blog post. If you still have questions, we’d love to hear from you! You can reach us at [email protected] or on Instagram @threeheads.works.