Outlines a series of eight defense mechanisms teachers typically employ in parent/teacher conferences. Offers alternative approaches that teachers can practice and consider prior to conferences. (MG)

Summarizes ERIC documents offering suggestions for ways to conduct effective parent-teacher conferences. (FL)

Proposes that the best reading advice to give parents is this: parents should read to their children. Explains the reason why this is the best advice, and offers tips for successful read-alouds. (MG)

Describes a parent/teacher partnership that stretched over one school year: a home response journal/literacy conference effort involving parent/teacher conferences, discussion of the reading-development continuum, weekly newsletters, and response journals in which parents wrote about their children's interactions with language. Shows how parents…