Second semester begins tomorrow, January 28. I love new beginnings! During the next few weeks I will be sending home information about how my expectations for your child will be changing between now and the end of the year. As I tell the kids, now it's all about getting ready for 2nd grade! Hopefully they find this exciting enough to propell them through the intense workout they are about to begin.
The last few weeks we have been doing our mid-year assessments. That means I have met individually with each student and administered some reading tests. These test assess how well your child is doing in recognizing letter sounds, sounding out new words and reading stories. The minimum goal at this time of the year is for your child to read 23 words per minute with 78% accuracy. My personal goal to assure your child is at or above the 75th percentile is 35 words per minute. This is assessed in story reading, not just reading down a list.
How can you help your child achieve this goal? The answer is really very simple:
READ................READ.................READ...............READ
I tell the kiddos that it's a lot like basketball, you can't get better at it if you don't do it. So parents, your job is to make sure your child (actually ALL your children) are reading at home every day. It doesn't matter what they are reading, although it should be at their current level, not too hard, not too easy. Ask your child about how to pick a "just right" book.
Last, I regret to say that over the last few weeks, the district has decided to reduce the teaching staff at P3A. Mr. Cotton (2nd grade) and Mrs. Shepherd (1st grade) have been reassingmed to other schools. What this means for us is that our class is growing again. We may soon find ourselves back up to 35 or more students. Although this is discouraging news, please be assured that I will continue to do everything possible to ensure that your child is recieving the proper tools to make him/her successful. I appreciate all your support as we go through our growing pains.
Mrs. Brackett
The last few weeks we have been doing our mid-year assessments. That means I have met individually with each student and administered some reading tests. These test assess how well your child is doing in recognizing letter sounds, sounding out new words and reading stories. The minimum goal at this time of the year is for your child to read 23 words per minute with 78% accuracy. My personal goal to assure your child is at or above the 75th percentile is 35 words per minute. This is assessed in story reading, not just reading down a list.
How can you help your child achieve this goal? The answer is really very simple:
READ................READ.................READ...............READ
I tell the kiddos that it's a lot like basketball, you can't get better at it if you don't do it. So parents, your job is to make sure your child (actually ALL your children) are reading at home every day. It doesn't matter what they are reading, although it should be at their current level, not too hard, not too easy. Ask your child about how to pick a "just right" book.
Last, I regret to say that over the last few weeks, the district has decided to reduce the teaching staff at P3A. Mr. Cotton (2nd grade) and Mrs. Shepherd (1st grade) have been reassingmed to other schools. What this means for us is that our class is growing again. We may soon find ourselves back up to 35 or more students. Although this is discouraging news, please be assured that I will continue to do everything possible to ensure that your child is recieving the proper tools to make him/her successful. I appreciate all your support as we go through our growing pains.
Mrs. Brackett