The Harvard Family Research Project separated from the Harvard Graduate School of Education to become the Global Family Research Project as of January 1, 2017. It is no longer affiliated with Harvard University.
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Spring 2003 Parents, Families, and Communities in SchoolsRolla E. Lewis
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Rolla E. Lewis, Ed.D., NCC
Graduate School of Education
Portland State University
Email: lewisr@pdx.edu
“Meeting our diverse communities' lifelong educational needs”
Students needing an accommodation should immediately inform the course instructor. Students are referred to Disability Services to document their disability and to secure support services when appropriate.
Program Policy Statement: The counseling profession requires a high level of personal integrity, self-awareness, and personal maturity. Some core courses include experiences designed to enhance these qualities. These attributes may also be considered by faculty in assessing your overall qualifications for a career as a professional counselor.
All students in the program will demonstrate behavior that is consistent with the Ethical Standards forwarded by the American Counseling Association and the American Psychological Association in their Codes of Ethics. Failure to do so can result in termination from the program.
Course Description
Examines effective methods for including parents, families, and communities in schools. Emphasizes a systems perspective that includes consultation and collaboration in addressing academic, career, and personal/social success for all students. Family dynamics and influences on school success will be addressed. Application of school counseling consultation, collaboration, and family support for all students will result in a school-based project integrated into a school's comprehensive counseling program.
Essential Professional Practices Addressed in this Course
TSPC practices and competencies addressed in this course
School counselors are expected to:
- Demonstrate interpersonal skills, working with others and communicating with community members
- Demonstrate ethical standards and legal framework unique to counseling
- Support and develop plans which respect difference and promote communication among diverse groups
- Collaborate with school staff, families, and community members to meet individual student needs
- Assist staff to understand the needs of all students
- Collaborate with colleagues, staff, parents, and the public to enhance the student's performance
Essential CACREP Program Standards Addressed in this Course
Foundations
- Role, function, and professional identity of the school counselor in relation to the roles of other professional and support personnel in the school
- Strategies of leadership designed to enhance learning environment of schools
- Knowledge and understanding of community, environmental, and institutional opportunities that enhance, as well as barriers that impede, student academic, career, and personal/social success and overall development
Context
- Advocacy for all students and for effective school counseling programs
Knowledge and Skills
- Design, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation of comprehensive developmental school counseling programs (e.g., the ASCA National Model) including an awareness of various systems that affect students, school, and home
Counseling and Guidance
- Developmental approaches to assist all students and parents at points of educational transition (e.g., home to elementary school, elementary to middle to high school, high school to postsecondary and career options)
- Constructive partnerships with parents, guardians, families, and communities in order to promote each student's academic, career, and personal/social success
- Systems theories and relationships among and between community systems, family systems, and school systems, and how they interact to influence the students and affect each system
Consultation
- Strategies to promote, develop, and enhance effective teamwork within the school and larger community
- Theories, models, and processes of consultation and change with teachers, administrators, other school personnel, parents, community groups, agencies, and students as appropriate
- Strategies and methods of working with parents, guardians, families, and communities to empower them to act on behalf of their children
- Knowledge and skills in conducting programs that are designed to enhance students' academic, social, emotional, career, and other developmental needs
Objectives of Course
Students will:
- Understand the how school counselors can work effectively with diverse parents, families, and communities to make schools viable learning communities for all students.
- Develop a family story that includes a genogram, stories about self and family members, the role of education in that family story, and reflect how such an understanding might inform their work with diverse families in school settings.
- Show how school counselors can assess resources within clients and their communities to develop projects that will serve all students in learning to live, learning to learn, and learning to work.
- Present a Pointer for engaging diverse parents, families or stakeholders in the community in promoting the success of all students.
- Read assigned texts and articles, and reflect on presenters, class dialogues, readings, and other assignments related to professional practice.
- Maintain an engaged and ethical professional practice.
Required Text
Fuller, M. L., & Olsen, G. (1998). Home-school relations: Working successfully with parents and families. Needham, Heights, MA: Allyn & Bacon. ISBN 0-205-18126-0
Rosenberg, M. B. (1999). Nonviolent communication: A language of compassion. Encinitas, CA: Puddle Dancer Press. ISBN 1-892005-02-6
Recommended Professional Resources for School Counselors
American School Counselor Association. (2003). The ASCA national model: A framework for school counseling programs. Alexandria, VA: Author.
Epstein, J. L., Sanders, M. G., Simson, B. S., Salinas, K. C., Jansorn, N. R., & VanVoorhis, F. L. (2002). School, family, and community partnerships: Your handbook for action. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.
Judith Sedgeman's The Three Principles at www.hsc.wvu.edu/sbi
Participation
Much of our class will be conducted as a professional dialogue. Your participation and positive engagement are critical. Attend class and participate actively in an evolving dialogue and varied activities.
- Enter into dialogues to learn about differences between people. Listen to learn. Challenge each other to stay on the growing edge. Demonstrate civility when disagreeing. Show respect toward students and invited presenters.
- Turn off cell phone while in class; respect the learning space in the classroom. Missing class time will drop your grade.
- With the entire class, define and adhere to the classroom agreements. Students will be asked to reflect on their role as leaders or detractors in creating a learning community.
I. Family Story Assignment
Follow guidelines to craft a family story and how it impact your work as a professional school counselor. See Family Story Project Guidelines for details to complete this 10-page project.
II. Actions to Transform School Counseling and Class Presentations
Follow guidelines to develop presentation that illustrates actions school counselors can take to enhance a school and community partnerships. See Actions to Transform School Counseling Guidelines to prepare a presentation and Pointer.
III. Reflection Paper
Part One: Reflection on how you construct your world. Reflect on the dialogues, readings, movies (see family movie list), class activities, and influencing how you can collaborate with diverse parents, families, and communities in schools. You are encouraged to keep a learning log to reflect on presenters, readings, and dialogues. Your concern is not on punctuation and speling [sic], but ideas and perceptions shaping your world view as a professional school counselor. As a faculty I will not be reading these reflections. Keep a one-page weekly learning log.
Part Two: Capturing thoughts in the moment. Moment-to-Moment Log. Mihaly Ciskszentmihalyi has used the Experience Sampling Method of self-report to have individuals assess their current experience at specific points in time. We will use the moment-to-moment log to have you look at your experience at different times. Complete at least five moment-to-moment logs at different times of the day. You may also be given moment-to-moment log assignments at random times during class, which means you may end up with more than five logs. The purpose is to give you a tool to capture your thoughts in the moment, and to see how your constructions may shift moment-to-moment.
Part Three: Creating a perspective on your professional trajectory. Explore the steps you have taken to meet the course objectives by reflecting on your learning log, Moment-to-Moment log, readings, and other materials. Check your style, spelling, etc. This paper is a polished final draft. The paper should use APA format. The essential point is to focus on how your perception (thinking) impacts the actions that you choose as a school counselor to construct a school community that includes diverse parents and families. Five pages, double spaced, APA format.
Evaluation
Participation – 10, Due: Every class
Family Story – 30, Due: 5/12
Class Presentation & Pointer – 40, Due: 5/19 and 6/2
Reflection Paper – 20, Due: 6/9
Late assignments will receive partial credit. If you want your papers returned, please supply a self-addressed, stamped envelope. Papers with a SASE will receive comments from faculty; other papers will be read and graded. All unclaimed papers will be discarded after July 1, 2003.
Tentative Calendar
March 31 – Introduction
Syllabus
April 7 – Joyce Braden Harris, Director, Equity Center
Read: Epstein pp. 1–80
April 14 – Meg Merrick, Coordinator Community Geography Project
Read: Epstein pp. 81–155
April 21 – Metacognition or thinking about thinking
Read: Epstein pp. 157–216
Sedgeman see website
April 28 – Armando Gonzales, Professional School Counselor
Read: Epstein pp. 217–260
May 5 – Consultation and Collaboration
Read: Epstein pp. 263–288
May 12 – Family Story Read: Epstein pp. 289–320
Family Story due
May 19 – Learning Story, Student Presentations
Read: Epstein pp. 325–369
May 26 – Memorial Holiday – No Class
June 2 – Student Presentations
Pointer due
June 9 – Finals Week
Reflective Paper due
Family Story Project Guidelines
This assignment is drawn from and aligned with an assignment given by Dr. Susan Halverson in her Marriage and Family Counseling course. The personal development of counselor candidates has long been a concern in counselor education. Commitment to enhancing counselor self-awareness is predicated on the belief that counselor effectiveness is significantly increased by the ability to deal effectively with personal and interpersonal issues that might otherwise inhibit counselor effectiveness. Some research shows that clients cannot progress to levels of psychological and emotional health that are higher than those of their counselors. Currently, greater emphasis is being placed on counselors' relationships to their families of origin as critical elements in their personal development.
Your family story should include the following:
- Interviews with parents, siblings, grandparents, and great-grandparents. Note: Interviews with grandparents about their parents and siblings are strongly encouraged. Interviews may take place face to face, by telephone, by letter, or by a structured questionnaire of your own design.
- A three-generation genogram—you may want to develop this genogram after you interview your family. The genogram should depict births, deaths, marriages, divorces, educational achievement, and occupations. You may include or note other information (e.g., medical conditions, sexual orientation, religious affiliations, etc.) It is better to focus on the insights you are gaining about yourself than on the technicalities involved in creating a genogram.
- Details of family myths, secrets, and rules and how these impact your current perceptions about the world.
- Family photographs, excerpts from diaries, copies of pages from the family bible or other sources documenting the family story as appropriate for you.
- Some discussion of how your family of origin experience currently affects you, your spouse/partner, and children as appropriate for you.
- An analysis of how the family viewed education, teachers, and school. How did your family view math? Writing? Reading? Athletics? Teacher authority? School as a community? Diverse or different groups within the school? How has that impacted your view about education, school, and your future working within schools?
- An analysis of what you might need to understand better about yourself and what you might change if you are going to work effectively with diverse families in a school setting.
If you have any questions or concerns about this assignment, please talk to me. The intention of this assignment is for you to explore your own family story and to recognize that diverse family stories come together in schools. School counselors work with diverse families and empowers them by offering a positive orientation to learning. 10 pages typed and double-spaced.
Actions to Transform School Counseling Guidelines
Background and Assumptions
The assumption in this assignment is that school counselors can play an important role in creating schools as learning communities. As professionals, school counselors must have tools and skills to create learning communities that serve all students.
One tool: The ASCA National Model for School Counseling Programs provides a framework for helping school counselors create programs that help all students learn to learn, learn to live, and learn to work. Below are the four elements of the ASCA National Model. A school counseling program that builds a learning community must integrate each of the four elements.
- Foundation. Does the school counseling program have articulated beliefs and mission statement that includes a role for parents, families, and the community?
- Delivery System. The delivery system for a school counseling program includes: (1) school guidance curriculum, (2) individual student planning, (3) responsive services, and (4) system support. The ASCA National Model states, “System support consists of management activities that establish, maintain, and enhance the total school counseling program. School counselors use their leadership and advocacy skills to promote systemic change” (2003, p. 43). System support includes consultation, collaboration and teaming as important skills for inviting parents, families, and communities into the schools. Is there evidence that the school counseling program includes consultation, collaboration, and teaming with staff, faculty, parents, and other stakeholders in the community?
- Management System. The management systems involves the various organizational processes and tools needed to manage a school counseling program. How does the school counseling program use data to monitor student progress and address the achievement gap that may exist between students of different racial or economic groups?
- Accountability. Accountability and evaluation of the school counseling program are necessities. Johnson and Johnson ask a crucial question: “How are students different as a result of the school counseling program?”
A second tool: Your textbook is an excellent resource, i.e., use the “Measure of School, Family, and Community Partnerships”on page 330.
Basic skills: The National Model (ASCA, 2003) points out that school counselors must understand consultation, collaboration, and teaming.
- Consultation. Counselors must consult with teachers, staff members, and parents or guardians regularly in order to provide information, to support the school community, and to receive feedback on the emerging needs of students (ASCA, p. 43).
- Partnering with staff, parents or guardians, and community relations. This involves orienting staff, parents or guardians, business and industry, civic and social service organizations, and community members in the comprehensive school counseling programs through such means as partnerships, newsletters, local media, and presentations.
- Community outreach. Activities included in this area are designed to help counselors become knowledgable about community resources, referral agencies, field trip sites, employment opportunities, and local labor market information.
- Advisory councils. School counselor are active in serving on community committees or advisory counselors, etc.
Presentation and Pointer Assignment Requirements
Select a topic related to involving and engaging diverse parents, families, and communities in the schools. Use the topic from Possible Topics for Presentation or consult with the professor about a topic of your own choosing.
Research your topic. Conduct a Web search, library, or community research to find resources for collaborating with parents, families, and communities. Ask basic questions and be curious about your topic:
- How will or could efforts involving diverse parents, families, and communities help students to overcome any obstacles, such as the achievement gap?
- How do or could the efforts help improve:
- The sense of community and empower students with the recognition of their own capacity to learn?
- Math performance for all students?
- Reading performance?
- End of quarter attendance or grades?
- The percentage of students meeting the CIM, graduating, or entering four-year colleges directly from high school?
Develop a Pointer for teachers, counselors, administrators, or parents. Summarize and share a key resource. For a Pointer example to review, go to the GSE Counseling, School Counseling in Action website at www.ed.pdx.edu/spedcoun/sca.html – Pointers for Teachers, Counselors, and Administrators. Click on “2002” and view those Pointers. These offers two good examples for teachers.
Prepare a Pointer for posting it on the Counselor Education website. See Posting Work on the School Counseling in Action Web Page in syllabus.
Make a 10–15 minute presentation focusing on how your information, project proposal, etcetera will engage parents, families, and communities into the school. How will your work foster as sense of schools as learning communities where diverse parents, families, and communities participate in helping all students live up to their potential? Tell how your efforts will or could be integrated into your school's comprehensive counseling program? Expand on Johnson and Johnson. Ask yourself: How will students be different as a result of inviting parents, families, and communities into the school? How will such efforts to expand the learning community influence or guide your school counseling program?
Possible Topics for Presentation
1. Assessment Tools for Determining Progress. Healthy Kids Resilience Survey
Get to the WestEd website www.wested.org/hks. Click on the “Healthy Kids Resilience Module Report.” Read on screen or make own copy. Click on “Survey/Questionnaire.” Take one version of the “California Healthy Kids Survey” (there is an elementary, middle, and high school version).
Although the Healthy Kids Resilience Module Report is designed for school administrators and school board members, the report poses some questions that school counselors should ask as mental health professionals: (1) Why does youth development and resilience matter to schools? (2) What does the health kids resilience module measure? Does the health kids resilience module provide reliable and valid assess measures? How could school counselors use the healthy kids resilience module report? Additional guidance: There are two core questions being asked: (1) What can school counselors do to promote healthy youth development in schools? (2) How does awareness of your own resilience improve your professional actions?
Develop a Pointer that summarizes how the HKS might help school counselors develop a data regarding personal/social concerns at school and the construction of a learning community.
2. Websites related to parents, families, and communities
Feel free to search and find your own websites. Here are a few websites related to parents, families, and communities in schools:
Partnerships, Family, and Narrative
Northwest Regional Laboratory School-Family-Community Partnership Team webpage at: www.nwrel.org/partnerships or www.nwrel.org/partnerships/links/index.html
Harvard Family Research Project and the Family Involvement Network of Educators webpage.
Narrative Space webpage at: elegantwebdesign.net/narrative/index.html
Nonviolent communication resources for parents: www.cnvc.org/parents.htm
Resilience
The National Resilience Resource Center webpage at: www.cce.umn.edu/nrrc
Project Resilience webpage at: www.projectresilience.com
Search Institute webpage at: www.searchinstitute.org
Tucson Resiliency Initiative webpage at: www.resiliency.com/htm/links.htm
Safety
The early warning timely response – A guide to safe schools is found at: www.ed.gov/about/offices/list/osers/osep/gtss.html
Community
The Public Conversations Project webpage at: www.publicconversations.org/pcp/resources/resources.asp
Education Reform and Assessment
The Education Trust webpage at: www.edtrust.org
Oregon Department of Education CIM and CAM webpages at: www.ode.state.or.us/cimcam
Center for Education Policy Research: Understanding University Success at: www.s4s.org
How could the information from these sites be integrated into the school counseling program and used to construct a learning community?
Develop a Pointer that summarizes how the information might help school counselors construct a democratic learning community that engages parents, families, and communities in the education of youth. Given the diversity within families and communities, this is quite a challenge.
3. Reading for All Students
Bibliotherapy and books for middle school level. Doni Stewart at West Sylvan Middle School is a master librarian who is familiar with books that help students navigate personal challenges. She has supplied a list of books that focus on a variety of challenge middle school students might face. You may read a book from Doni's list (below in syllabus) and interview her about how school counselors might use bibliotherapy as an adjunct to counseling to help middle school students with personal crises, such as divorce, death, etc. You may even lead a group. Consult with Doni about how school counselors and librarians might work together to help middle school students. Contact Doni at dstewart@pps.k12.or.us.
Collaborate with Doni to lead a reading group using a book selected for a specific adolescent issue, i.e., divorce, death, etc. Develop a Pointer that summarizes the collaboration with professional librarians, the group experience, and a statement that might help school counselors develop a bibliotherapy interventions.
4. A Write Way
Investigate how writing can be used to help students during their transition from one school to another. Requires consultation and collaboration with counselors, teachers, and administrators. For information, see:
Lewis, R. E. (1999). A write way: Fostering resiliency during transitions. Journal of Humanistic Education and Development, 37, 200–211.
Consult with the author and/or with Martha Thornton, a school counselor from Alder Creek Middle School in North Clackamas, South Dakota who has adapted the A Write Way materials into her Jump Start transition program. Contact her at thorntonm@nclack.k12.or.us.
Develop a Pointer that summarizes how school counselors might develop a structured narratives to help students during transitions.
5. Materials From Text
Develop an action plan for how you might implement the information from the text to invite parents, families, and communities to participate more fully in the school. If you are not working in a school, you should consult with school counselors and teachers about your project.
Develop a Pointer that summarizes how school counselors might use materials from the text to invite parents, families, and communities to participate more fully in the school.
6. Parent Survey
Using the National Model or other resources, collaborate with a school counseling department to develop a survey focused on parents perceptions and/or need for school counseling services.
Develop a pointer that summarizes how school counselors might use surveys to invite parents, families, and communities to participate more fully in the school.
7. Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory (NWREL)
NWREL has important resource and training materials that are used in local schools. Check out Planning for Youth Success: Connecting Schools, Families, and Communities for Youth Success or other materials. Dr. Lewis has a copy of the resource and training manual. Develop an action plan how you might implement the program in your school. If you are not working in a school, you should consult with school counselors and teachers about your project.
Develop a Pointer that summarizes how school counselors might use materials from the NWREL to invite parents, families, and communities to participate more fully in the school.
8. Sex
Sex is a taboo topic in our culture and youth frequently discover and define sexuality with little or no conversation with trusting adults. Review the literature. Start with Bradley, Jarchow, Robinson (1999). All about sex: The school counselor's guide to handling tough adolescent problems, My Insignificant Other (Oregonian, March 16, 2003, L1 and L4), and other resources. Explore the information you can and can't share with students in your specific school setting. How do counselors talk about sex in your school?
Develop a Pointer that summarizes how school counselors might approach talk about sex that is sensitive to diverse parents, families, and communities.
Doni's Reading Bibliotherapy and Reading List for West Sylvan Middle School Students
Anderson, Speak. A traumatic event near the end of summer has a devastating effect on Melinda's freshman year in high school.
Bloor, Tangerine. Twelve-year-old Paul, who lives in the shadow of his football hero brother, Erik, fights for the right to play soccer despite his near blindness and slowly begins to remember the incident that damaged his eyesight.
Brashares, The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. Once there was a pair of pants. Just an ordinary pair of jeans. But these pants, the Traveling Pants, went on to do great things. This is the story of the four friends who made it possible.
Buss, Journey of the Sparrows. Maria and her brother and sister, Salvadoran refugees, are smuggled into the United States in crates and try to eke out a living in Chicago with the help of a sympathetic family.
Chbosky, The Perks of Being a Wallflower. To live life with passion or to live life with passivity. This challenging book explores one young person's journey.
Dessen, Dreamland: A Novel. While confined to a mental hospital, 13-year-old Callie slowly comes to understand some of the reasons behind her self-mutilation, and gradually starts to get better.
Na, A Step From Heaven. A young Korean girl and her family find it difficult to learn English and adjust to life in the United States.
Nye, Habibi: A Novel. When 14-year-old Liyanne Abboud, her younger brother, and her parents move from St. Louis to a new home between Jerusalem and the Palestinian village where her father was born, they face many changes and must deal with tensions between Jews and Palestinians.
Paulsen, The Beet Fields. The author recalls his experiences as a migrant laborer and carnival work after he ran away from home at age 16.
Powell, Run If You Dare. Fourteen-year-old Gardner, trying to find some direction in his life, is shocked to discover that his unemployed father considers himself a failure.
Rosen, Chaser: A Novel in E-Mails. When his parents decide to move to an old house in the country, Chase uses email to his friends back in Columbus, Ohio and his sister in college to help him deal with the cicadas, deer hunters, and other changes in his life.
Sleator, Oddballs. A collection of stories based on experiences from the author's youth and peopled with an unusual assortment of family and friends.
Thomas, Rats Saw God. In hopes of graduating, Steve York agrees to complete a 100-page writing assignment which helps him to sort out his relationship with his famous astronaut father and the events that changed him from a promising student to a troubled teen.
Posting Work on the School Counseling in Action Web Page
Pointers, Intern Projects and Research, Continuing Licensure, and Doctoral Projects
Getting your project posted on the School Counseling Webpage (www.ed.pdx.edu/spedcoun/schcoun.html)
1. Guidelines for posting work: Pointers, Intern Projects and Research, Continuing Licensure, and Doctoral Projects
- Make sure you do not use copyrighted materials.
- Do not use names of students or your school.
- Once the work is posted, it's out there for the cyberworld to see.
- Have the names of three peer reviews placed at top of page.
- Make sure your name(s) and the date are at the top of the page.
2. Submitting your work
- Type of file. Save your work in Word, HTML, or Adobe Acrobat.
- Word and HTML documents are “doc”. Adobe Acrobat is “pdf”.
- Naming how your work is saved. Type in your last name with no spaces.
- Work saved in Word would be submitted as: “name.doc” or “lewis.doc”.
- Submit saved work (Pointers, Intern Projects and Research, Continuing Licensure, and Doctoral Projects) to Dr. Lewis on floppy disk with your assignments. Dr. David Bullock will have a graduate assistant post the work on the website described below. Make sure your floppy has your name, email address, and the name of what is saved.
Accessing the Pointers, Intern Projects and Research, Continuing Licensure, and Doctoral Projects
Find the Counselor Education webpage via the GSE webpage
- School Counseling Program describes the program.
- Go to School Counseling in Action (scacoun.html).
- School Counseling in Action has a sections for Pointers, Intern Projects and Research, Continuing Licensure, and Doctoral Projects.
- Work is posted according to school year beginning September, i.e., 2002.
Moment-to-Moment Mindfulness Log
Date:
Time:
Place:
What are you thinking about?
What was the main thing you were doing prior to writing?
What other things were you were thinking about or doing?
Were you thinking about the Past / Present / Future ?
Scale how time was passing (circle one):
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 |
| Slow | Fast |
Scale your thoughts (circle one):
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 |
| Busy | Serene |
Comment on a thought in process—right now!!!
Describe the social environment (are you alone or with others – who? What is your relationship to them, i.e., brother, sister, stranger?)
Scale the social environment (circle one):
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 |
| Critical/Hostile |
Accepting/Nurturing
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Scale your mood/thoughts right now (circle both scales):
| 1 | |||||||||
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| 3 | |||||||||
| 4 | |||||||||
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 |
| Critical/Reactive | 6 |
Accepting/Listening
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| 7 | |||||||||
| 8 | |||||||||
| 9 | |||||||||
| 10 | |||||||||
Describe a thought in this moment that gives you a greater sense of inner peace and well-being.
Further reflections:
R. E. Lewis (2003). Graduate School of Education, Portland State University. Based on Mihaly Ciskszentmihalyi's Experience Sampling Method of Self-Report.
The Accused (1988)
Affliction (1998)
Agnes of God (1995)
Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore (1974)
All the Way Home (1963)
And the Band Played on (1993)
Bastard out of Carolina (1996)
Being There (1979)
Benny and Joon (1993)
The Color Purple (1985)
The Crying Game (1992)
Death of a Salesman (1951) (1985)
Double Happiness (1994)
East of Eden (1955)
Eve's Bayou (1997)
Fried Green Tomatoes (1991)
Good Will Hunting (1997)
The Great Santini (1979)
The Hanging Garden (1997)
The Joy Luck Club (1993)
Kiss of the Spider Woman (1985)
Life is Beautiful (1997)
Like Water for Chocolate (1992)
Lolita (1962) (1997)
Long Day's Journey into Night (1962)
The Long Walk Home (1997)
My Brother's Wedding (1983)
My Family (Mi Familia) (1995)
Mr. Jones (1993)
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975)
On Golden Pond (1981)
Ordinary People (1980)
Patch of Blue (1965)
Parenthood (1989)
The Perez Family (1995)
Prince of Tides (1991)
Prisoner of Second Avenue (1975
Pushing Hands
A River Runs Through It (1992)
Roger Dodger (2002)
Soul Food (1997)
Sweet Hereafter (1997)
Terms of Endearment (1983)
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (1945)
Ulee's Gold (1997)
What's Eating Gilbert Grape (1993)
Free. Available online only.