Dear Mr. and Mrs. Jameson
I would first like to say thank you
for entrusting us with your daughter Andrea Jameson, she is a very intelligent
child whom we enjoy in the classroom. This letter is regarding a few concerns with
Andrea’s reading skills. Every day we have a set reading hour from 9:30-10:30,
during this hour Andrea’s behavior deviates from the class participation norms.
After a few sessions of reading one on one and two student interviews, Andrea’s
root problem is not behavior but low self-esteem in her reading. It is evident
that she has an issue with decoding consonant and vowel sounds, which is the
ability to apply letter-sound knowledge (i.e. vowel combinations such as “ou”
in couch, ouch, etc.) to correctly pronounce written words. Mastering and
understanding letter-sound knowledge allows children to recognize familiar
words easily and “decode” unknown words. Andrea has trouble with decoding
familiar words with the same vowel combinations and becomes very frustrated
during reading. Luckily that issue has been caught early and we can get Andrea
to become a confident reader with a few consistent skill practices.
I
am including I have a few solution skill practices that I plan on implementing
to enhance Andrea’s learning. I am outlining activities that I will be
introducing in the classroom but that can be done at home as well.
1.
Sort objects & Picture Cards
a.
Student sorts objects/ cards according to sound
i. Sound sorting activities involve children
actively in sorting words into groups that have the same sounds, and then
connecting those sounds to the letters that represent them.
ii. The process of sorting by sound helps
children attend more closely to the sounds they hear in words.
iii. They become better able to discern
differences in closely related sounds.
1.
This is beneficial for the student because they
are required to recognize and segment sounds
2.
Phonics Game
a.
Online/with cards
i. Allows student to practice synonyms, antonyms, beginning sounds, ending sounds, middle sounds,
and rhymes of specific words.
3.
Interactive Writing
a.
Child and teacher cooperatively compose a text.
The teacher models appropriate strategies for support during reading and
writing.
4.
Word Wheel/ List
a.
Student creates new word from initial word by
substituting consonant(s) (i.e. could, would, should, etc)
If you are interested in doing any of these activities I
home, I have plenty of resources available. I hope we can work as a team for Andrea;
I am more than wiling to meet and discuss more in depth if needed as well as open
to suggestions.
Thank you
Mrs. Booker,
ReplyDeleteThank you for providing such a detailed description of the needs of our child and bringing to our attention the troubles she encounters when reading. Thanks to your assessments, we now know what is giving her issues when reading.
For your suggested exercises, we were wondering if you could help Andrea create some of the picture cards and send them home with her so we can practice. We would really like to help our kid in any way to become a better reader and your recommendations seem like they would benefit her. We have some books at home and a couple magazines for us to read, but we don't have much for Andrea to read. We have a library card and if you could suggest some good books for her to check out, we would greatly appreciate it.
Thank you for your concerns and if you could continue to give us updates on her progress, that would be great.
- Mr. & Mrs. Jameson
Mrs. Booker,
ReplyDeleteWe appreciate your communication and concern for Andrea. I would like to meet with you regarding these assessments that have guided you to this conclusion. When Andrea reads at home she does not seem to struggle as much as you have observed in the classroom, which is puzzling to me. Additionally, when we meet I would appreciate you explaining further your plan of action as well as any activities we can support Andrea with at home. I look forward to meeting with you and creating a plan to better support Andrea's learning!
Sincerely,
Mrs. Jameson
Dear Mrs. Booker,
ReplyDeleteBoth Andrea's father and I really appreciate you writing us with what our daughter is struggling with in reading. It's great that you included examples of the practices you plan on doing with her to help improve her efficiency in reading. We were wondering if you possibly had the website to the phonics game that we could look at and help practice.
Also, any tests/picture cards/etc that you create with Andrea, could you have her bring those home over the weekend so that we can practice with her?
Again, thank you for the heads-up!
Sincerely,
Mrs. Jameson