Parents,
Today your child will be bringing home a summer work packet. There is also a piece of paper that has your child's logins and passwords on it. Both of these can be used if you would like your child to practice during the summer. Over the course of the year, many people have asked me for my opinion on COVID's impact on schools and education. I am happy to give you my opinion if you ask, however, what I believe you most care about is my opinion on the impact COVID has had on your child in particular. Is your child ready for 6th grade? Categories and indicators: Reading fluency and comprehension- There are two areas to look at that are good indicators of your child's level. Dibels (Acadience) testing and the RISE test in ELA. I will be sending home your child's results in these areas. In the meantime, I can say that all of your children are on grade level for reading fluency. RISE testing in ELA scored your child using a 1-4 system. If your child received a 3 or 4 they are on grade level or above grade level. Math- There are two areas that I would look at closely. 1) The skill(s) test that is at the end of the packet that is being sent home. This is the same skill(s) test that I sent home at the end of the 3rd quarter. 2) Your child's RISE test in math. Math also uses a 1-4 system to let you know their proficiency. Writing: The state of Utah made a slightly suspicious change to its grading here. It will only tell you if your child scored below, at/near, or above grade level on the end of the year RISE test. If your child is in the at/near range you may want to look more closely at the details of their results (I will be sending these home next week.) Science: Due to a change this year in the 5th-grade science content/standards and in the style of test that they give we will not be receiving science results anytime soon. My understanding is that the state of Utah needs to check for validity in the test questions before they finalize results. I will say that we explored science in more challenging ways this year. Just today I watched your children participate in a science assignment and I was very impressed with their thoughts, work, and analysis. I feel confident that they are on the right track. Responsibility: This is the middle school leap of faith. Are they ready for 7 different teachers and the organization that will be required to be successful? I challenged them this year in that regard. I purposely did not fill out a daily planner together with them. I tried to give them the freedom to sink or swim in order to find their strengths and weaknesses. Distance learning Fridays were a gift in this regard. Was your child able to take care of their own distance learning without you? Were they able to get their work done on their own, or did you have to micromanage their Fridays? I think distance learning days were a sample of their preparedness for the responsibilities of middle school. Homework: This is the one area that I find myself conflicted. I don't believe in the classical expectation of homework. My understanding is that your child did NOT have much homework (Monday- Thursday) this year. We were still able to be highly successful without having much (if any) homework. Unfortunately, that does not appear to be the strategy of middle school. If my seventh grader is a fair example, there is a high level of homework required in middle school. I don't agree with it, but I am also not a middle school teacher, so I don't think I can judge. I didn't feel comfortable assigning a lot of homework this year when my only rationale would have been that it prepares them for middle school. In this area, I may have done your child a disservice. I hope not. The main takeaway that I want to leave you with is that our class did not regress when I compare them to past years. They started the year lower. It took longer to convince them of good habits and skills. However, as I look at our end-of-the-year results we have caught up to my expectations and previous years' levels of achievement. We did not drop at all. Thank you for all of your support. We were/are on the same team, and we could not have achieved what we did without you. Regards, John
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Parents:This is the place where I will post updates as I make decisions, problem solve, and learn how to adjust to a new paradigm of teaching. Archives
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