Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Greetings Parents!

By now you should know which state your child "pulled out" of the jar for his/her ABC State Report. The children were able to check out two library books about their state today, and several students read their books during Sustained Silent Reading time (otherwise known as AR time), and shared interesting facts about their state afterwords. A couple of students started taking notes on their ABC State Report guidelines paper, which was very good.

I'm expecting the children to take sufficient notes from their books between today and next Wednesday so that they can return their library books on that day. Other classes will be doing state reports as well, and our class can't "hog" all the books. They are encouraged to do research online both at home and at school when we go to the computer lab this Friday.

The kids were great at the library today! They went in, sat down quietly, and waited patiently for Mrs. Galipeaux to be ready to start. (The word "patient" was an important word in the story she read to the class.)

Today the math homework is a mini-test and a "final" test of the Number Sense part of math curriculum. If a child did not complete the Reading Test practice section in class, that was also homework. Then, of course, the children are to read every day for at least half an hour in their AR book.

The big issue that is of concern with the AR tests is comprehension. It's not just a matter of getting through a book and saying: "I've read it." It's a matter of understanding the entire story, of knowing who the characters are, of understanding the setting, and especially the plot of the story. Sometimes it's a good idea for children to reread a book before taking the AR tests. If the book is very long, perhaps having the child take notes on it would help with comprehension. The children are not allowed to have the books in their laps or on the tables when taking the tests--they are TESTS.

I need help! If you are able to volunteer a half hour or hour a day--preferably in the morning--to help in the classroom, I'd really appreciate that. My e-mail address is located at the top of the blog, and you can e-mail me to let me know when you can help, or you can send a note to school with your child. I have a lot of papers that need to be graded, and I can really use some help with the task.

Thank you! I hope you received the note and copy of yesterday's blog this afternoon when your child got home from school.

Thanks again!!