Reading Goals

Hi Everyone,

I trust you are having a great weekend.

I want to get the students working toward their reading goal for the month. Traditionally the reading goal in grade 6 has been to read 600 pages each month which the students would record in their reading logs. I would like to break from that tradition and do something a bit different.

In Accelerated Reader, there is a goal feature that has been set up for each month. Obviously, the number one goal for the students is to have a love of and enjoyment of reading. The second goal of reading would be to completely understand what they are reading. Accelerated Reader can't measure the love of reading but it does a pretty good job in measuring comprehension.

On Friday we took Star Reading tests ( as well as Star Math tests) These are assessment tools that give a brief snapshot of your child's reading abilities. Based on the Star Reader results, I want to set goals for each student on Tuesday when we come back to school. The target areas are: 1. Percentage correct on Accelerated Reader quizzes,(around 85% correct on tests) 2. Points attained (each student would have different goals) and 3. Average book level (each student would have a different goal). There would be no paper work for this as it would all be recorded on the Accelerated Reader program online. You would have access to your child's results so we can work together to assist them in reaching their goals. Please encourage your child to do the quizzes online (hosted238.renlearn.com/3313). There are over 200 000 books available for the Accelerated Reader Program.

To check your child's progress, go to: https://Hosted238.renlearn.com/3313/HomeConnect/Login.aspx and have your child login to their account.

If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to contact me.

Writing Assignment

Students were given a writing assignment today. They are to introduce themselves to me.
Due: September 10
We talked about the writing process a bit today. For the assignment, the students were to include in their handing in:
1. Brainstorming
- how they are thinking about their ideas
2. Outline
I. Introduction
II. ____________
III._____________
IV. Conclusion

3. Rough Copy
4. Good Copy

Please note that I require handwriting for this assignment. The students were told they are to hand in a handwritten copy. We will be doing keyboarding assignments later and they will have lots of practice using the computer. The length is to be 200-400 words.

I will give the students time in class to work on this.

The final copy will be graded as:
Brainstorming/ Outline/ Rough copy: /4
Paragraph and sentence structure of good copy: /4
Neatness of good copy: /4 marks
Grammar/ Spelling of good copy: /4 marks
Overall impressions of good copy: / 4 marks
Total: /20 marks

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me.

I know that this is the first assignment requiring handwriting, and I know that this will be a stretch for some of the students, however I believe that the students will get used to the handwriting and will become 'second nature' to them.