April 13, 2013
Augustus & Marlene Breckenshaw
5555 Tree Lane
West Lansing MI 00000
Mr. & Mrs. Augustus Breckenshaw,
I have had the
pleasure of working with your son Martin for the past year and have learned a
great deal about what he values, his hobbies, and what he wants to be when he
grows up. Martin excels in generating ideas as well as spending time with
literature that supports adventure and animals. I am grateful for such a fun
student to have in my class!
I will be
finishing up my teaching internship this May, whereby I will no longer be
attending the classroom, and Martin’s teacher, Mrs. Coledemere will take over
instruction once again. Until we reach that point and into the summer, I
encourage you to actively pursue the integration of reading activities into
your daily lives. Although Martin has made tremendous strides in learning the
many blends of the alphabet, recognizing sight words, and understanding the use
of vowels in words, extra practice is always helpful. Martin struggles to
recognize new, and more difficult words, as well as incorporating these words
into the text he is reading. Martin can comprehend what he needs to, but when a
word stumps him, he is stuck and spends a great deal of time focusing on the
word instead of remembering all that he has previously read. Your child is
reading at grade level, but I encourage you to challenge him this summer as
simple literary practice techniques can make a world of difference/.
There are many ways you can go about challenging
Martin’s current literary standing. As I stated above, Martin enjoys reading
books that pertain to his interests. In pedagogical terms, we call this
library, where Martin delves into an assortment of books while also venturing
deeper into the classics he loves the most. Martin would be a prime candidate
for reading clubs that the local library offers, as it exposes him to a wide
variety of books. In addition, I would utilize the index cards I will attach to
this, which have letters and blends on them, to make words. If you are able to
make an affix and then have Martin build off of it, this challenges him to make
the word instead of reading a pre-created one. This reverses the role of what
Martin is responsible for, which allows for some differentiation in activities,
hopefully keeping him interested.
The final and most important thing I can ask you to do
is to read with Martin. Rely heavily on asking Martin to do the reading even if
it is a long and daunting text. Remind him to take each line as its own and
before he knows it the page will be done! The more text Martin is exposed to,
the more equipped he will be with sorting through hard and challenging words.
When you do encounter challenging words in a text, bring them out in your
everyday life or in the making words activity in order to foster the
opportunity for a difficult word to become a sight word.
You have a good boy on your hands and I am sad to see
him head up to second grade without me. He does well and you should be proud.
Challenge him now as he is young and with time, you will see the fruits of your
labor. Enjoy your summer!
Thank you,
Miss Cramer
Reading this letter from the perspective of the parent, I appreciate what Miss Cramer had to say. I am glad to hear my son is doing well in her class. From this letter, I understand that my son is doing well in reading but may need more support at home. This is something that is difficult for many parents who are working odd hours and are busy trying to provide for their children. I really appreciate that Miss Cramer had that thought in her mind and provided some activities along with this letter. Giving parents the tools to help their children is always a great thing. I also love the idea of enrolling him in a book reading club through the library for the summer. It would be a great way to involve him in reading in times when parents are busy.
ReplyDeleteA few questions I still have would be in regards to his reading level. As a parent, I may not be familiar with where normal first grade students should be at this time of year, so just telling me he is at grade level may be a little confusing. I may not understand what you meant by sight words as well and it would have been helpful to list a few or give examples of the types of words my son struggles with so I can further help his progress with literacy. It may have also been helpful to include some strategies to try at home to aid in comprehension. As a parent, they might not know how to help students with those types of strategies.
Overall, if I were a parent receiving this letter, I would be pleased to hear that my son has a teacher like Miss Cramer. The thing that stood out to me the most in this letter is the positivity Miss Cramer shows and how she does care about Martin's progress in literacy. Having positive and constructive feedback for parents about their children is so important and makes them more inclined to respect the teacher and work with them to give their children the best education possible.