This is the last week of Trimester 1! We will spend a good portion of this week reviewing and assessing remaining Trimester 1 reporting standards. This coming Friday, I will carefully complete your child's progress report that will go home on Wednesday, December 5th. When looking at your child's progress report, please carefully review the 1-4 descriptors and keep in mind that this is a snapshot of where your child is performing right now in first grade. A score of "3" indicates that your child is meeting grade level standards. All marks within reporting standards are a compilation of formative assessment (quizzes, activities assessed as we go), summative assessments (end of unit or concept assessments after teaching), and teacher observation. If you have questions about your child's progress report, please feel free to email me at [email protected] for clarification.
As Trimester 2 begins, you will also notice a change in your child's spelling routine. The word study instruction your child will receive from now on will be different from the traditional spelling. We will use a newly adopted research based program called Words Their Way, which focuses on the developmental needs and learning styles of children through word study. Along with direct instruction of skills, students will spend about 10 minutes on meaningful word study activities each day. Your child will bring home their first set of words the week of December 10th. To determine word sets, I assessed each child to find the appropriate level for word study instruction.
Your child will begin to bring home a personalized leveled word list to study that is at their instructional level (not too hard, not too easy). At the end of each 5 day week, students will be assessed on ten of the words from the set. We will not let students or parents know which ten words will be assessed since the intent is to learn (not memorize) the phonics patterns. We have provided some short activities below that you can do at home with your child to help them with weekly word study.
Monday Initial Sort: Remind your child to sort the words into categories like the ones we did in school. Your child should read each word aloud during this activity. At the end of the sort, ask your child to verbalize what the words in each column have in common. Save cut up pieces to use throughout the week.
Tuesday Blind Sort: Lay down a word from each category as a header and then read the rest of the words aloud. Your child should indicate which column the word belongs to without seeing it.
Wednesday Words Hunt: Look for words in the book you are reading that follow the same spelling pattern. Add it to your writing sort.
Thursday Writing Sort: To help prepare for Friday’s test, call out each word in random order as your child writes them in categories.
To help with this transition, we will practice routines and expectations using these words as a whole class. I will send home a letter with the first word set to help you with this change. Thank you for your support during this transition! Onward to Trimester 2! :)
~Liz Housman