Thank you to all of the parents who came to conferences on Thursday evening! I always enjoy sharing what we've been doing in class and what I've noticed about kids' skills. There are several general things that I reviewed with parents during conferences, so if you were unable to attend, here's a run-down of those items:
1) Please make sure that your child is reading at home as many nights a week as possible. Remember, the kids are trying to build reading stamina so that they cannot only read for longer periods of time in one sitting but also so that they develop an out-of-school reading habit for the future. For example, in high school, they will have English every other day, so they WILL need to read outside of English class. Also, ask your child about what he/she is reading and how it's going. Any conversation about what the kids are reading helps immensely.
2) I've just begun grading students' reading logs each week. They have set reading goals based on their individual reading rates (we have an easy formula to follow on the bottom of our reading logs). Students helped determine how many pages below their goal equals a "B" or a "C" or if a student needs to continue to read to "catch up." The reading logs are worth 5 points each week, so again, it's crucial that students find time to read at home. Students should be reading approximately two hours spread throughout the week - in and out of school.
3) Students are responsible for one book talk per quarter. These are scheduled throughout the quarter, and students select their own due dates. The point of a book talk is to share a brief summary and recommendation to classmates; we add titles that sound interesting to our wish lists. Please see the "Book Talk" page for specific instructions and rubrics.
4) For writing, students have been composing a variety of quick writes in their notebooks. We will be writing a formal narrative essay in the upcoming weeks, and the quick writes will provide students with plenty of ideas to draw from.
5) If you use the parent portal to check your student's grades, you'll notice there are 4 strands of grades for my language arts class: reading, writing, language, and speaking and listening. Each of these areas accounts for 25% of a student's grade. I add grades to Campus each weekend rather than every night. Teachers are responsible for updating the ICU list daily, so I spend time each day updating the list and touching base with kids and/or parents about students' owed work. So, the weekend is what works best for me to transfer grades from my paper grade book to Campus.
If you have any specific questions or concerns, don't hesitate to contact me at: [email protected].
1) Please make sure that your child is reading at home as many nights a week as possible. Remember, the kids are trying to build reading stamina so that they cannot only read for longer periods of time in one sitting but also so that they develop an out-of-school reading habit for the future. For example, in high school, they will have English every other day, so they WILL need to read outside of English class. Also, ask your child about what he/she is reading and how it's going. Any conversation about what the kids are reading helps immensely.
2) I've just begun grading students' reading logs each week. They have set reading goals based on their individual reading rates (we have an easy formula to follow on the bottom of our reading logs). Students helped determine how many pages below their goal equals a "B" or a "C" or if a student needs to continue to read to "catch up." The reading logs are worth 5 points each week, so again, it's crucial that students find time to read at home. Students should be reading approximately two hours spread throughout the week - in and out of school.
3) Students are responsible for one book talk per quarter. These are scheduled throughout the quarter, and students select their own due dates. The point of a book talk is to share a brief summary and recommendation to classmates; we add titles that sound interesting to our wish lists. Please see the "Book Talk" page for specific instructions and rubrics.
4) For writing, students have been composing a variety of quick writes in their notebooks. We will be writing a formal narrative essay in the upcoming weeks, and the quick writes will provide students with plenty of ideas to draw from.
5) If you use the parent portal to check your student's grades, you'll notice there are 4 strands of grades for my language arts class: reading, writing, language, and speaking and listening. Each of these areas accounts for 25% of a student's grade. I add grades to Campus each weekend rather than every night. Teachers are responsible for updating the ICU list daily, so I spend time each day updating the list and touching base with kids and/or parents about students' owed work. So, the weekend is what works best for me to transfer grades from my paper grade book to Campus.
If you have any specific questions or concerns, don't hesitate to contact me at: [email protected].