Dear Parents,
I am once again delighted to share that the vast majority of our students made a significant improvement in this round of MAP standardized assessments. Our Mathematics remains above the 80th percentile, though it has decreased by 2 percent. Science has increased by 4. Language Usage by 4 and Reading by 8 (percentile). In this newsletter, I would like to highlight the importance of summer reading in order to keep our students developing over the summer break. Reading remains, our main area for growth.
Summer Reading
I have been doing some experimentation with our MAP assessments. This year, I taught a homeroom so I could track progress carefully. Attached to this email, you will find two images. There are two different students, who are typical, strong, English language acquisition students.
You will notice that both students made significant progress while at school. The difference is that I put one of these students on a reading program over the summer. She read two novels and wrote book reports for me on the novels. The other student did not.
From the report you can see the student who did not do the reading program over the summer went down over the summer period, but the students who did the reading program went up.
I share this data to highlight the importance of our students reading and using English over the summer. I encourage you to ask your child to read at least two novels at their grade lexile level over the summer. I also encourage them to write a book report on each novel.
Estimated Lexile Level by Grade
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Grade 2: 300-500
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Grade 3: 501-620
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Grade 4: 621-780
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Grade 5: 781-920
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Grade 6: 921-1010
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Grade 7: 1011-1109
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Grade 8: 1110-1180
Source: Newsela
Book Report
A basic book report contains the following information, written by the student:
Title:
Author:
Genre:
Summary: 200 words
An extension would be to compare and contrast the two novels after reading them. This skill of comparing and contrasting is a part of both the language acquisition and language and literature courses in both the MYP and DP.
Reading Summer Toolkit
For students in lower primary, please this link to a reading summer toolkit, which was shared by one of our teachers, Ms. Stickleman. It contains reading charts, high frequency words, and other ideas to support summer reading. Nothing will develop a love of reading, however, more than a parent spending time reading stories to a child.
Finally, I wish you and your family a fantastic summer holiday. I look forward to welcoming all our students back in August. Before that, I hope to see you at the Wizard of Oz this Saturday.
As always, I love to hear from you. Please take the time to reply to this email and let me know how your child is doing at school. Remember to include their name and class, so I can check in on them.
Sincerely,
Brian Lalor
Deputy Head of School
