Welcome to Back to School Night

1. GRADE 3 Welcome to Back to School Night Mrs. DeckerMrs. BennettMrs. Toscano

2. Changes • Transition • Responsibility • Organization • Letter Grades

3. Reading Objective: to create lifelong readers • The First Twenty Days is what we are currently using for the month of September. It is the foundation for the reader’s workshop model. • Our reading program, Literacy by Design, guides the curriculum in five areas of reading instruction: comprehension, vocabulary, phonics, phonemic awareness and fluency. Student progress is assessed frequently using a variety of measures including: Running Records, unit quizzes/ tests, and teacher observation. • The foundation of Literacy by Design is a Reading Workshop structure. Students experience four kinds of reading (below), each with its own level of teacher support: • Modeled Reading: The teacher instructs the whole group; demonstrates fluent reading and introduces specific skills and strategies through a whole class text.

4. Reading Objective: to create lifelong readers (continued) • Shared Reading: The teacher instructs the whole group again. The students and the teacher read and reread the whole class text. The students apply previously introduced skills and strategies with teacher support, using either a Big Book or the Rigby Sourcebook. • Guided Reading: The teacher differentiates instruction with small groups reading in texts at the students’ instructional reading level. The teacher connects the whole class lesson to the small group lesson or chooses to instruct other skills and strategies that meet the needs of the children in the group. • Independent Reading: The students read at their independent reading level practicing skills and strategies. Students read silently or with a reading partner.

5. Spelling • The spelling list in Literacy by Design is linked to the weekly phonics lessons. The list includes words that reinforce the phonics skill of the week, high frequency (no excuse) words, challenge words. • Spelling words will be introduced to the students on Monday morning. Weekly tests are given on Friday. When the test comes home, please sign and return it. • Spelling homework is assigned on Monday and is due on Thursday. • Homework choices: writing sentences, alphabetical order, writing stories, writing each word 3 times, and identifying vowels and consonants.

6. Writer’s Workshop • In our classroom, the writing workshop lasts for approximately 45 minutes, 3-4 days a week. It begins with a mini-lesson in which we explicitly teach the skills of good writing. After the minilesson, the children are expected to try to apply what they just learned from their writing. As the students work, this gives us an opportunity to conference with students about their writing. • Throughout this first month or so of school, your children will be writing personal narratives, which are true stories from their lives. This unit is meant not only to teach them qualities of good personal narrative writing, but it is also designed to help them develop stamina, focus, structure, detail, a sense of purpose, an appreciation for conventions, and enthusiasm for writing. • As the year progresses, your child will learn to write in a variety of genres, including essay, fiction, and speculative writing.

7. Math • The philosophy of our third grade math curriculum is to connect math to everyday life. We encourage our students to become problem solvers. Our curriculum is based on computation and problem-solving. • We use the Scott Foresman and Investigations programs to teach the following topics: • Place Value • Fractions • Multiplication/ Division • Graphing • Geometry • Measurement • We evaluate their progress using quizzes, tests, homework and classroom observations to evaluate their progress.

8. Handwriting/ Science and Social Studies The children will be learning cursive writing this year using a program called Zaner-Bloser. Our Social Studies and Science units are: • New Jersey • Immigration • Multiple Intelligences • The Moon • Insects • Social Studies and Science is taught through our Primary Years Program units. • Evaluation is based on activities, cooperative projects, participation and an occasional quiz or test.

9. I/E • During I/E time the teachers work with flexible groups of students to provide intervention and enrichment. • It is also during this time that those students who qualified for the TAG program will meet with one of the 3rd grade teachers. • Parents will be notified of TAG status in October. • TAG will occur 2x in a 5 day cycle.

10. E-Boards • On our e-boards, you will find information about upcoming events, a monthly newsletter, and the weekly spelling list along with the spelling homework assignment. • To access the e-board, go onto the Bret Harte Website, click on “e-STAFF” and find the teacher’s letter “e”.

11. Student-Led Parent Conferences • We will be preparing the children for conferences by presenting their academic progress to you by displaying and explaining artifacts that they will collect between now and conference time. • The conferences will be held on Monday, December 5th, Tuesday, December 6th, Wednesday, December 7th, and Thursday, December 8th. Monday and Wednesday are evening conferences. Tuesday and Thursday are afternoon conferences. • The children greatly benefit from taking the time to reflect and self-evaluate their class work.

12. Behavior We reinforce classroom positive behavior with tickets that can be redeemed for various rewards. If students who do not meet the behavioral expectations set up in each class will be handled on an individual basis. We will be sure to keep you informed if a problem arises.

13. Planners • The homework assignments are written in the planner throughout the day. At the end of the day, we review what the homework will be for that evening. • It’s the child’s responsibility to show you the planner and their homework each night. • After your child has shown you his/her homework, your child has been instructed to place the homework in the home/school folder and in his/her backpack. • If your child forgets his/her homework, a lesson can be learned by not dropping it off at school for him/her. • The planner is also an important means of communication for teacher and parent. Please feel free to write a brief note, send an email, or leave a message on our voicemails.

14. Homework Homework generally consists of: • independent reading • math • weekly spelling assignment/study • studying for various tests and quizzes

15. Assessments • Learning is a process. • We will use quizzes to assess throughout units and tests to assess at the end of units. • The assessments will come home. Please review, sign, and return them. • We use interims to communicate with you halfway through the marking period, if we have concerns about your child’s progress. • If a reassessment is necessary, we average the first attempt and the second attempt.

16. Conclusion • Our priority is the safety and well being of your child. Our hope is that every child will be productive, organized, and responsible, but most importantly, have a successful third grade year.