Chapter Six Chapter 6: The Home to School Connection

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Chapter 6: The Home to School Connection
Homework in Kindergarten?
Homework Assignments
All homework assignments should be designed to enhance the kindergarten curriculum. The goal is to reinforce what has
been learned at school and provide parents with strategies to assist their children in the learning process. Assigning homework
on a weekly calendar is helpful for both students and parents. Students will be able to complete the assignments at their own
pace, parents will be able to plan ahead to assist their children, and know what to expect for the week. Assign homework on
a daily basis, Monday through Thursday, and include all sheets or activities in a weekly homework packet. The completed
homework packet should be due on Fridays. The weekends should be free for children to enjoy. Language arts assignments
can include activities for practice with letters and sounds. Provide phonemic awareness exercises, phonics, and word study
activities. Homework should also include reading. If you
designate a specific amount of time for reading, parents
and students are more likely to follow through. Children can read their take-home book, read books from
their familiar book basket, or be read aloud to by family
members. Assign at least 15 minutes for nightly reading.
Include a writing assignment as well. Math assignments
can be based on the current unit you are studying in
your math program. The homework schedule will basically remain the same for the year. The basic homework
calendar format is shown below. It was created using the
Print Shop Deluxe program. Start out simple. Be consistent with concept practice, but also vary the activities
and keep them interesting and fun. Review homework
procedures often
and model activities.
Allow time for kindergarten families to
create a routine and
help everyone be
successful with your
homework program.
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Week of
August 28, 2006
Monday
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Read and enjoy the attached “Kissing Hand” poem. Add it to your new
Poetry Folder. Keep your folder in your backpack! Share the “Kissing
Hand” project you made at school today. Parents, read the Saxon Math
Intro Letter. Read for 15 minutes. Complete Saxon Math sheet #1.
Tuesday
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Talk about some of the friends you’ve made at school this week. Draw a
picture of him/her. Read for 15 minutes. Saxon Math sheet #2.
Wednesday
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Thursday
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Friday
1
Color the “School is fun!” picture. Write your name at the top. Saxon
Math sheet #3. Read for 15 minutes.
Write your first name on the attached Name Sheet. Saxon Math sheet #4.
Read for 15 minutes.
Your homework packet and math sheets are due. All tables have Show and
Tell today. Share your backpack!
*Because we already had a meeting at Kindergarten Orientation, we will
not need to meet at Open House on Sept. 6th. I will send home information on that day regarding our Literacy Plan and Curriculum Overview.
The 10 Best Ways to Help Your Kindergartener Succeed in School
By Ann E. LaForge from Scholastic
For Parents
1. Encourage reading in any way you can.
2. Treat your child as though he’s an author.
3. Make math part of her everyday life.
4. Teach your child how to listen.
5. Support your child’s teacher and the school rules.
6. Tell the teacher everything.
7. Make sure your child is ready for school.
8. Spend time in your child’s classroom.
9. Encourage responsibility and independence.
10. Ask your child about school every day.
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Homework Web Sites for Kids
Below are some helpful websites for kids, parents, and teachers. They love doing computer homework assignments.
Fun Sites
FunBrain.com
Online educational games for kids of all ages
MagicTricks.com
Includes magic tricks for children
GamesKidsPlay.net
Make-Stuff.com
Online educational games for kids of all ages
kidsjokes.co.uk
Tricks.com Includes magic tricks for children
funorama.com
Online activity center and bookstore for kids
HarryPotter.com
Official site of the J.K. Rowling books
Yucky.Kids.Discovery.com
Interactive children’s museum with more than 400 hands-on exhibits
MyFamily.com
Create your own family web site
Kids.MSN.com
All Magic.comCartoonNetwork.co.uk
NaturalChild.org/gallery
Post you drawing on an internet art gallery
Conjuror.com
Magic Tricks
TryScience.org
Science and technology site for kids
KiddoNet.com
Make your own home page, create comics, send funny greetings
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KidsLife.com
The Idea Box.comBuild-it-Yourself.com
Wordpool.co.uk
Children’s book and writing site for parents, teachers and writers
Homework Help
About.com
Massive directory of useful links and articles
School.Discovery.com
From the Discovery Channel
EncylopaediaBritannica.com
SuperKids.com
Educational software review
FactMonster.com
Huge American reference site for kids
TopMarks.co.uk
Homework helpers, GCSE, A-level and exam revision aids and study notes
Games.Yahoo.com
BrainGamez.com
Funology.com
Kids’ Search Engines and Directories
Yahooligans.com
Yahoo for kids
sunsite.berkeley.edu/KidsClick!
National Geographic.com/kids
Kidsites.com
Guide to the best web sites for children
Childnet-int.org
Non-profit organisation promoting children interest on the internet
NetNanny.com
Software allowing parents to restrict internet access The Home to School Connection
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Chapter 7: Literacy Assessments
Consider the Value
Believe it or not, assessment can actually be very exciting for teachers, parents, and the students themselves! Some teachers
may find all of the assessment tools, documents, tests, and record keeping forms to be tedious, time consuming, and not always helpful in really getting to know students. As you use these tools, try to keep the goals of assessment in mind so that you
are not overcome by the “have to’s “of record keeping, but the appreciation of the growth of your students, and the adaptations you can make as a teacher to customize instruction to further enhance that growth. By being aware of a child’s knowledge, teachers can make informed judgments about the appropriate focus for each child, and when students respond with,
“Look what I can do!”, the excitement is realized. As you face the challenge of collecting data on your student’s progress, consider the purpose; assessments should be meaningful, reliable, and useful. Offered below are different samples of reading and
writing assessment tools to provide some insight on what is available:
Assessment Tools
Portfolio Collections
• Reflect and demonstrate student progress and accomplishments in literacy learning toward a benchmark
• Provide teachers with information about student achievement and needs in literacy learning
• Drive instruction
• Serve as a basis for flexible skill groups
• Promote communication – professional and at parent conferences
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Portfolio packages may come in a variety of forms. They can become an elaborate “scrapbook” with work samples, art,
photos, anecdotal records, teacher observation notes, and student journal entries. Some teachers keep an electronic portfolio where student work is scanned or imported. The contents of the electronic portfolio can include reading samples, work
samples with student reflections, journal entries, photographs, and even video clips! Copies can easily be burned to CD’s for
parents as a keepsake. Portfolio samples may also be collected in a binder or a simple file folder. Some important things to
keep in mind when beginning a portfolio system; date each piece, keep it organized, allow students to review their work from
time to time, add pieces that are important to the students, inform parents about the work collection, and make sure the system works for you!
GRIP-K Emergent Literacy Assessment
There are a variety of emergent literacy and phonological awareness assessment resources available. The assessments that
I’ve found to be the most effective and reliable are the GRIP-K literacy assessments. Teachers can easily register for GRIP-K
through RPDP. This course offers teachers training in various methods to effectively teach basic literacy skills to students. This
training includes thorough procedures for assessing emergent literacy. It is highly recommended that teachers complete the
course before attempting to implement GRIP-K assessments in the classroom. This manual provides an example of GRIP-K
literacy assessments.
What do you think are the top two predictors of a Kindergarten student’s success in learning to read
in first grade?
A. The amount of television watched
B. Amount read to at home
C. Phonemic segmentation ability
D. Prediction of former Kindergarten teacher
E. Score on oral vocabulary test
F. Ability to recognize alphabet names and shapes
G. Whether or not student attended preschool
F. Ability to decode made-up words
Definitions of Assessment and Evaluation
ASSESSMENT is the collecting of data providing an array of evidence
EVALUATION is the appraisal of what has been collected
Why Assess?
a To understand how children think
a Administrative requirements
a Parent conferences/communication
a Planning appropriate activities
a Reassurance
a Documentation
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GRIP-K Assessments…Why?
a Letter Identification
a Concept of Word
a Phonological Awareness
a Spelling
Are they ready for…
formal guided reading instruction?
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Letter Identification
Show the student the lower case letters.
Introduce the task by saying “What do you call these?’
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Show the student the lower case letters.
Introduce the task by saying, “What do you call these?
Place a card under the top row of letters masking the rest of the letters and ask, “Can you find some that you know?”
My Ideas
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Show the student the lower case letters.
Introduce the task by saying, “What do you call these?
Place a card under the top row of letters masking the rest of the letters and ask, “Can you find some that you know?”
Continue with the rest of the letters.
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Concept of Word
Speech to print match
a To understand how children think
a In print words are separated
a If a child can match what they say in print they are ready to read
Before Assessing
a Teach the poem
a Model fingerpointing
Concept of Word Assessment
Take a picture walk through the book.
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Concept of Word Assessment
Take a picture walk through the book.
Read the book to the student and touch each word.
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Concept of Word Assessment
a Take a picture walk through the book.
a Read the book to the student and touch each word.
a Take turns finger-point reading the book. First teacher reads a page, then student reads the same page.
a When child has finished the finger-point reading of each page, immediately point to the target word(s) and ask
• “What word is this?”
E
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Phonological Awareness Assessment
Rhyme
a Ask student if the following words pairs rhyme.
• can - man
• cat - pet
• rock – tin
a Say the following word pairs. Ask student to provide another rhyming word.
• top – mop
• bug – rug
• rake - lake
Phoneme Isolation
Rhyme
a Ask student if the following words pairs rhyme.
• can - man
• cat - pet
• rock – tin
a Say the following word pairs. Ask student to provide another rhyming word.
• top – mop
• bug – rug
• rake - lake
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Phoneme Blending
Say the first sound of a word, then the rest of the word. Have the student say the word as a whole.
a /m/ . . ap
a /t/ . . ake
Say each word sound by sound. Ask the student to say the word as a whole.
a /s/ /u/ /n/
a /m/ /a/ /d/
Phoneme Segmentation
Say each word. Ask the student to say the word. Ask how many sounds he/she hears in the word.
a see
a ship
a hide
Say each word. Ask the student to say each word sound by sound.
a rain
a sock
a tub
Phoneme Manipulation
Say each word. Ask the student to say the word without the first sound
a fun
a rat
a shut
Say each word. Ask the student to replace the first sound with /s/.
a rock
a mat
a hand
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Phonological Awareness Assessment
Demonstrate saying a word, stretching the sounds, and identifying each sound you hear.
Dictate the five words- mat, fed, rip, log, sun
a Say each word clearly.
a Read the sentence.
a Then say the word again.
Do not demonstrate the sounding out process again.
You may prompt the student.
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Developmental Writing Stages
based on the work of Richard Gentry
These stages represent a way of looking at writing development in children. You’ve probably seen them
in a variety of writing resource books. These examples can serve as a valuable tool for you to examine
and compare your students’ journal writing to the appropriate stages. Keep in mind, all stages overlap and
children progress and reach writing stages at many different ages. The development of early writing skills
is another important aspect of a child’s emergent literacy development. Regardless of which stage a child
is at, writing development can be enhanced through being encouraged to write on a regular basis. Children should never be
discouraged from exploring writing by the means they are able to do, whether it be scribbling, letter strings, invented spelling,
or conventional spelling. These Developmental Stages of Writing are based on the work of Richard Gentry, Ph.D. Gentry is
an internationally acclaimed author, educational consultant, researcher, and a recognized leader in education for ground breaking work in spelling and for recent work with Pre-K through second grade emergent literacy.
Scribbling
Scribbling is the first developmental stage. It looks like a random assortment of marks.
Sometimes the marks are large, circular, and random, and resemble drawing. Although
the marks do not resemble print, they are significant because the young writer uses them
to show ideas.
Letter-like forms
The next stage is when letter-like forms emerge. Sometimes the forms are randomly
placed and are interspersed with numbers. The child can tell about his/her own drawings
or writings. In this stage, spacing is rarely present.
Strings of letters
Strings of letters is the next stage. In the strings-of-letters phase, a child writes some
legible letters that tell us they know more about writing. The child is developing awareness of the sound-to-symbol relationship, although he/she is not matching most sounds.
Students usually write in capital letters and have not yet begun spacing.
Beginning sounds emerge
The next stage is when beginning sounds emerge. At this stage, a child begins to see the
differences between a letter and a word, but he may not use spacing between words. The
message makes sense and matches the picture, especially when a topic is chosen.
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Consonants represent words
Consonants represent words is the next stage. A child begins to leave spaces between
her words and may often mix upper- and lowercase letters in her writing. She begins using punctuation and usually writes sentences that tell ideas.
The last three stages are the more advanced developmental stages. They are initial, middle, and final sounds, transitional
phrases, and standard spelling. Students in these phases are spelling words correctly, their writing is readable, and they are
developing an understanding of root words, compound words, and contractions.
Initial, middle and final sounds Transitional phrases
Standard spelling
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DIBLES
The Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS) are a set of standardized, individually administered measures
of early literacy development. They are designed to be short (one minute) fluency measures used to regularly monitor the
development of pre-reading and early reading skills.
More information on this valuable assessment can be found at the DIBELS web site, located at http://dibels.uoregon.edu/.
Curriculum Professional Development and the Clark County School District annually provide many opportunities for teachers
to be trained in DIBLES.
My Ideas
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