The following suggestions are intended as guidelines to help you work with your child at home.

Homework

          It is important to develop good study habits now while your child is young.  Establish a regular homework routine in a specific place that is quiet and comfortable.  Encourage, motivate, and prompt your child, but do not do the work for him/her.  The purpose of the homework is for your child to practice and use what he/she has learned in class.  If your child is consistently struggling with the homework, please contact the teacher.

          Occasionally, there will be an extra research assignment or project in Science, Reading or Social Studies. These assignments are meant to challenge your child and allow learning to spill over at home.  Homework will be assigned daily.  Please remember to check your child’s planner each afternoon.

Spelling

          The children will have a spelling list consisting of words based on the spelling rule being covered that week.  In addition, students will have two high frequency words, and 2 words from previously learned patterns. Spelling lists will be taped into each student’s planner to be available for study at home on Fridays.  The weekly spelling test will be given the following Thursday. ***The first 4 tests will cover K-3 high frequency words only.

          Spelling is an important part of our language and writing program.  Your child will be acquiring spelling skills in a variety of ways:

1.    Formal instruction which emphasizes common letter patterns in English

2.    Identifying spelling rules and strategies for words that are difficult to spell

3.    Collecting lists of individual problem words

4.    Proofreading and editing papers – both his/her own and fellow students

5.    Use of the dictionary as a spelling tool

          When your child asks you how to spell a word, here are some strategies you can use to help your child become a better speller.  Just giving the spelling to the child may not be helpful to spelling development.

ASK:

1.    “How do you think the word is spelled?”

2.    “Does the word look right to you?”

3.    “Is there any other way you think the word might be spelled?”

4.    “How does the word start?  How does it end?”

5.    “Have you seen the word in your reading?  Can you remember how it was spelled?”

6.    “Did you “stretch” the word as you spoke each syllable?  Did you include all of the sounds in each syllable of the word?  Did you put a vowel in each syllable?”

ENCOURAGE:

Use the “LOOK, SAY, COVER, WRITE, and CHECK” technique when spelling.  Specifically, have your child …

·        LOOK at the word

·        SAY the word

·        COVER the word and try to visualize it

·        WRITE the word

·        CHECK the word

* Some children benefit from a more tactile approach such as tracing words in flour or tracing with a finger on the carpet.                                           

Reading

          Current research shows a direct relationship between how much time children spend reading and how well they score on standardized tests.  In addition, writing and vocabulary development are positively impacted with increased reading time.  Good writers read more than they write.  Therefore, the best way to help your child improve reading skills is to read at least 15-20 minutes a day. 

          Help your child choose books that will ensure success.  As a rule of thumb, the books your child reads for pleasure will usually be about one grade level below the level read in the classroom.  One way to identify if a book is on an independent level is “The Rule of 5”.  If a child misses more than 5 words on a page, it is too difficult to read for pleasure.  Reading is not fun if you have to sound out the majority of the words on the page!

          If your child seems to lack interest in reading or is frustrated with his/her abilities, it would be a good idea for you to read the text aloud.  A great deal can be learned from your modeling.  The important thing is to continue to emphasize through actions and not just words that reading is fun and is important.  Let your child see you reading for the pure joy

of it! Another way to make reading enjoyable is to listen to books on c.d.  This is a fun and easy way for the entire family to earn their reading minutes. 

Writing/Composition

          Students will have daily opportunities to write in fourth grade.  They will be working with many different forms of writing: poems, letters, how-to stories, narratives, lists, charts, journals, and more.

          Our primary purpose is to expose students to the qualities of good writing.  Our assessing standards will reflect this philosophy.  Correct spelling of high frequency words will be expected in every child’s writing.

          We will compare your child’s work to the work expected of an average fourth grade student.  After demonstrating that a concept has been mastered, we will expect it to be used correctly on subsequent writing assignments.  For example, if your child knows when to use questions marks, we will expect the continued use of question marks correctly.

          Some of the writing our students do is not meant for assessment.  Ask your child to read the paper to you and applaud the ideas.  Please try to avoid criticizing the lack of correct spelling and mechanics.  Even when we do not have a specific assessment on a writing assignment, we do take note of the kinds of errors the students are making.  These skills are then discussed and taught in follow-up lessons. 

          When an assessment is given on a writing assignment, the criteria will be discussed with the students.  We use the district writing rubric attached and teach our students to score their own as well as other writing samples using this tool.