(Hey sorry girls I posted this on our Math blog yesterday! Whoops!---Thanks Julia :) )
My focus student is more in the medium level reading area around the children in the classroom. He has a hard time getting through some words (sounding out or blending sounds) and he becomes frustrated and becomes very negative on himself. His parents would be considered in the lower class, which would be taken into account while structuring a letter and thinking of ways to support this child's learning. If I was interning I would constantly moderator his growth over the course of the years and think of ways to support the level he is at and have this continued in the home environment. Here is a letter I might send home (or even better-meet with his parents about in a comfortable meeting after school). I am going to use the fake name of Jeff. I believe a letter to parents should always have positives and show students strengths-not just immediately going into what he needs to work on.
To whom it may concern,
Jeff is always very excited to be at school. He enjoys drawing, working on art projects, and sharing with his peers all the accomplishes he makes during gym class. Jeff has many strengths in the classroom such as: following daily routines, working through addition problems, making predictions for science experiments, and shows great knowledge of reading comprehension. I have noticed that Jeff struggles in specific reading areas of word knowledge and self-regulation. While reading Jeff has trouble recognizing practiced sight words as well as sounding out the words/letter sounds. This is effecting his overall fluency of getting through the passages. When these word challenges occur he says "I can't do it" or shows he is upset. I would like to work with Jeff more on his reading skills in the classroom as well as his self-regulation. The practices I use in school can also be implemented by you as parents. To help with his word recognition, practice sight words consistently. I would be happy to send home a list of the words we are working on in the classroom and also words I noticed Jeff having trouble with. You can make this experience fun by making a game out of it or even just putting the words on note cards. We do these practices as a whole class everday! To support sounding out words practice breaking apart the words and saying the individual sounds of the letters. This will help him understand how he can discover what a word is by break apart the individual sounds and blending them back together. Everyday I work with each child individually to read a passage during this time I will work with Jeff on these letter-sound skills. Lastly to support his self-regulation, when Jeff correctly identifies a word or get through a passage I praise him! By using encouraging words before, during, and at the end of a passage it will build his confidence. I will be supporting all of his skills in the classroom through these practices and encouraging him to enjoy reading as much as possible. If you have any questions or concerns please do not hesitate to ask. Have a wonderful day.
Sincerely,
Ms. Kay
As the parents of Jeff, I now understand that my son is struggling with recognizing sight words as well as sounding out words and letter sounds and I realize that it is affecting his fluency. I am pleased to know that his teacher has taken a great interest in Jeff and feel as though she is taking the time to get his needs met. I know she is working with him being more positive and trying to steer him away from being negative and saying “I can’t do it” and we will do that at home as well. I have learned that she is taking the time to work with him on sight words and she is doing these practices as games, which I know can make it more fun than simply practicing and reciting the words. I am pleased to find out that his teacher is individually working with him and each student in class, which I know can be very time consuming but I am happy to know he is getting individual help with his reading passages. In addition, I am very happy to know his teacher is giving him praise when he is doing something right but also giving him constructive criticism. I do not have many questions besides some extra advice on how we can help Jeff at home. I know Ms. Kay gave us some ideas on how we can help Jeff but we do not have many resources and would like to know how we can help Jeff and make it fun by some game examples that she talked about. We really appreciate Ms. Kay’s dedication to our student.
ReplyDeleteFrom this letter from Ms. Kay, I now understand that my son struggles in several aspects of reading. I realize that he needs to work on sight words, and sounding out letter sounds. I am extremely happy that my son's teacher is taking a particular interest in him and is concerned about his learning now and in the future. I know that Jeff can struggle with motivation and gives up early, so I would like to help him at home like Ms. Kay suggests. The only thing that I need to know further information about is what types of games specifically we can do at home to help Jeff improve! Thank you for your concern and dedication to Jeff!
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