Introduction


	Purpose of the TIPS CD Using the CD Adapting Activities Sharing Your TIPS Work with Others Acknowledgments Purpose of the TIPS CD This Teachers Involve Parents in Schoolwork (TIPS) Interactive Homework CD assists educators in developing and adapting high quality TIPS Interactive Homework assignments that involve families in their children’s learning. Because the TIPS process is not a “canned” program, we encourage teachers to use their creativity in generating interactive homework assignments that are linked to their curricula. All TIPS activities should be informative and interesting to teachers, students, and families. The original prototype TIPS activities were developed by Joyce Epstein, Karen Salinas, Frances Van Voorhis, and educators in the Baltimore and Washington DC areas. In conducting workshops and trainings with teachers nationwide, we learned that teachers wanted to be able to easily adapt existing TIPS prototypes to meet the curriculum standards in their own districts and schools. This CD addresses the teachers’ request. All prototype TIPS activities were entered in the computer, edited, and formatted with computer graphics. This CD includes over 500 prototype activities for students in: Elementary Math (217 activities) Elementary Science (9 activities) Middle Grades Math (20 activities) Middle Grades Language Arts (116 activities) Middle Grades Science (178 activities) *Download a complete list of TIPS Prototype Activities Back to Top Using the CD All activities on this CD are presented in two ways: Microsoft Word 2000 and ADOBE Acrobat. To VIEW or PRINT the activities, use the ADOBE print file. NOTE: If you do not have a copy of the ADOBE reader, you can download a copy of it from the CD. To ADAPT and REVISE the activities, use the WORD version of the activity. You may print all TIPS activities as they are designed to appear by clicking on the “ADOBE” version of the files. Click here if you want TIPS ordering information for paper copies of the activities, TIPS manuals, or other TIPS materials. Adapting Activities The files on this CD are “read-only.” This means that you cannot change the content of the information stored on the CD. To adapt activities, you may simply add or delete information in the Microsoft Word file. To save a revised activity, you must save the document to your computer or a disk. Some adaptations we suggest include the following: Adapt the assignment for particular classes of students (i.e., Add questions or extra credit questions for advanced students. Add helpful steps or remove sections for slower students.). Add point values for questions (i.e., Make each assignment worth 10 or 100 points and indicate point values next to each question or section.). Translate the letter to parents and the home-to-school communication section for families who read different languages. We strongly suggest that the following components of the TIPS activities remain unchanged: Keep the section headings of the TIPS assignments in the activity (i.e., the Letter to parents, Home-to-School Communication section, Look This Over, Practice Section, Let’s Find Out, Procedure, Conclusion, Discussion). Keep the length of the assignment to 2 sides of a page. Restricting the length to 2 sides keeps paper requirements down and keeps the length of the activity to about 15-30 minutes. In rare cases, you may decide an extra page is warranted, but make this the exception rather than the rule. If you adapt the assignment in the ways that we recommend, you may alter the tagline to read: The tagline printed at the bottom of the last page of the activity. Adapted by names of authors and date. Example: If Ima Teacher and Shesan Educator adapted a middle grades math activity by including a Spanish translation of the letter and home-to-school communication section, the tagline would read: © Epstein, J. L., Salinas, K. C., & Van Voorhis, F. L. (2001). Teachers Involve Parents in Schoolwork (TIPS) Math Prototype Activities for the Middle Grades. Baltimore, MD: Center on School, Family, and Community Partnerships, Johns Hopkins University. Adapted by Teacher, I., & Educator, S. (September 2003). Back to Top Sharing Your Work with Others The National Network of Partnership Schools would like you to share the best TIPS activities you develop (according to feedback from students and families) with educators nationwide. To find out how you can submit your TOP TIPS activities to our collection each year, click here “TOP TIPS Project” We hope that you find this to be a useful teaching resource in creating meaningful homework assignments! Frances L. Van Voorhis, Ph.D. Joyce L. Epstein, Ph.D. TIPS CD Content Designer Director National Network of Partnership Schools Center on School, Family and Community Partnerships www.partnershipschools.org *Working Together for Student Success* Acknowledgments Special thanks to Monique Queen for her technical assistance in creating this CD, and Beth Simon for her contributions to the web design of many of the sections. Thanks are also due Catherine Batza and Wynter Towns for their work on the design and formatting of the revised prototype activities. This work is supported by grants from Disney Learning Partnership and the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Educational Research and Improvement (OERI). The opinions and approaches are the authors’ and do not necessarily reflect the positions or policies of either funding source.

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