Dear Tina and Steve,
Your son Levi is an excellent student, more specifically an excellent reader. We have recently done some reading testing and for a Kindergarten student, your son is reading at a reading level 2, which is second grade level. Since the majority of our class is still at a Kindergarten level, Levi is not getting as much practice as he should with his reading level. Although Levi is an excelling student, I would love to work with him more one on one on fluency at the second grade level as opposed to fluency at the Kindergarten level which is much different. Fluency is the way that we read things, so the way our voice sounds when we read (not robotic sounding), how it changes for different punctuation, and just practicing reading at his level of reading. In order to do this, I would like to work on teaching Levi high-frequency words that he doesn't know yet. I also want to try a few things with Levi such as having him read the higher level text quietly to himself before reading it out loud to me and also choral reading with a few of the other students who are at the same reading level as him. I would also love to try Readers Theater with Levi. Readers Theater is when students are given a script and are reading for a specific character, since they are "acting" out this character they are practicing reading with emotion, I am going to do this with that same group of excelling students that I was talking about before. I think all of these different techniques are going to help improve Levi's fluency at a second grade level!
I am looking forward to working with Levi on his fluency and am looking forward to seeing him excel even more in reading! If you have any questions do not hesitate to ask me, my door is always open! I am so proud of your son and his accomplishments in my classroom!
Thank you!
Leanne Zotos
Ms. Zotos,
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, thank you so much for taking the time and writing this letter about Levi. Your kind words are much appreciated ☺ From your letter I have learned that Levi would benefit greatly from extra reading practice, and because of that we are reading more at home! We recently went to the bookstore and picked out books that are more appropriate for his reading level, he seems to be really enjoy reading the books aloud to Steve and I. From what you said about fluency, I can see what you are talking about with the “robotic” sounding reading. I think the high frequency words that you plan to share with him will help him greatly in this department. Also, I think it would be great if Levi could read with other students in the class that are as at his level. I think this would be a wonderful chance for students to help each other with their reading skills. I am very excited to hear about how Reader’s Theater goes. It seems like something Levi would really enjoy doing. I often catch Levi acting out scenes from his favorite movies with his friends, so I hope he as comfortable as reading a script as he is when he plays with his friends. My only concern is that Levi may get too hyper during this activity and lose concentration on his reading. However, I do think it could work with the help of your supervision ☺.
Thanks again for keeping Steve and I updated on how Levi is doing this year. You are a wonderful teacher!
Sincerely,
Tina
You two did a very nice job in being realistic and authentic. You took on each of your roles acting as if Levi was your student or child, and made the letters very believable. Leanne, I like how you included a lot of detail in your letter explaining to the parents what is happening in the classroom and the different areas of reading you would like Levi to become involved with. It was very descriptive and catered to the needs of parents who need to be in the know. However, I also felt as if at times it seemed as if you may have been talking down to the parents or telling them something about their child they already know. This is not to say that this is a bad component, but from a critical perspective it may have been more efficient to assume they knew what their child liked or what readers theater is for instance. Overall the letter to Levi's parents was very positive and a great way to approach a topic such as this one.
ReplyDeleteWhen it came to acting like Levi's parents, Amanda, I think you did a nice job in fulfilling that role. You confirmed everything Leanne had said and gave good constructive feedback. I also liked how you went about voicing you concern on reader's theater and about how Levi can sometimes become hyper. This would be a very constructive statement for Levi's teacher to take into consideration, for since you are his mother you should know what makes him hyper in ways that Leanne may not. The tone of the letter was very friendly and served its purpose. The only thing I would suggest is asking more questions of his teacher, such as what more you can do to help support him.
Writing effective parent letters is very important, for you want to make sure you are communicating with the parents of your students as best as you can. I like to think that teachers and parents work together to best scaffold their children's' learning. If a letter was to be unprofessional, a strain would be placed on the relationship between the teacher and parent and therefore could hinder the learning of the student. Communication is key in every circumstance, especially within a learning environment.