Gosh I can't believe it is already the first day of school for student on Monday August 30th! Welcome back everyone. As many parents know I will be out on maternity leave until November 1st. Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns through our school email as I will be checking it daily. As your students arrive at school for the first time or are returning to us from a fun filled summer please know that teachers are going to begin reading instruction on the first day of school! There is no time to waste. Be ready for students to start bringing home some guided reading books by the second or third week of school as their teachers identify their current reading levels and get them started in their small group instruction. There is a lot going on during the first few weeks so be on your toes and make sure to communicate with staff if you have any concerns or observations you made during the summer, since I know we all did a lot of reading.
That being said please don't panic if your child has regressed a couple of reading levels from where they ended last fall. It is completely normal for this to happen since writing is a strong component of reading comprehension sometimes even if you did a lot reading during the summer students need to be refreshed on how to respond to questions through writing. It should only take a couple of weeks to get them back on track and making progress in their reading levels again. However, please communicate with your child's reading teacher if you have questions or want to know how to help your child at home.
In first and second grade students may attend a reading initiative class. These classes are made to decrease the size of the homeroom class for reading in order to provide more individualized instruction in first and second grade. If your child has a different reading teacher please know that it does not mean your child struggles with reading. It may be that there are a few other students at the same reading level and teachers want to make groups equitable. Again, if you have a concern about your child moving classes please communicate that with staff. Our first concern is doing what is best for kids. Having smaller reading classes is a big step in meeting that goal!
In third through fifth grade reading classes are much larger so parent communication about how your child is progressing in reading that much more important. In third grade through the rest of your child's schooling content reading is going to be very important. The more excited we can get student about reading non-fiction the better off they are going to be. Starting in third grade students have to navigate more "text book" type reading which has increased difficulty with vocabulary and text structure. We have to keep a close eye on students' reading progress during this time to make sure they are not struggling with vocabulary or content.
As we embark on a new year please know how excited I am to be working with all of your wonderful children K-5. I can't wait to get back to work but will enjoy the time I have with my little ones at home. I am going to continue to post comments each week and want you to feel free to comment or email me with any reading questions you might have. Together we are going to make sure all of our students are successful in reading!
Mrs. Del Balzo
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