Crumb Chronicles
***A Family Newsletter***
November 10, 2012 – Issue 7
Dear Families:On Tuesday (after students get back from the 3-day weekend), you will receive the third, and final, progress report for the 1st trimester. If your child is missing any major assignments, the morning of November 15 would be the last possible day to turn them in.
I look forward to seeing you at conferences, which will occur on Friday, November 16; Monday, November 19; and Tuesday, November 20 after early release at 11:55. Wednesday, November 21 will also be an early release day, giving everyone a head start for Thanksgiving break. On these early release days, students will present to the class what they've learned in their 1st trimester independent projects. I will not assign any formal homework over Thanksgiving break, but November's reading project ("Story Map") will be due soon after we get back. Your conference day and time were sent home on November 2, and the schedule is now posted on the blog (I've made some adjustments since the times originally went out so that everyone is able to attend).
I am asking that your child attend the conference with you. The 4th grade is an important transitional year -- and a time when students really need to take increased responsibility for their own education. I believe we need your child's input so that we (parents and teacher) can support his/her learning as best we can. I understand that you may have matters to discuss without your child present. We can make time at the beginning or the end of the conference for this purpose if you wish. We will, of course, take a look at your child's report card as a starting point, as well as some pieces from his/her portfolio. You will take the portfolio with you so that you can spend more time looking at its contents -- please return it following the Thanksgiving break.
By now, most of you are familiar with the "standards-based" report cards. There is a great deal more information compared to the traditional report cards of the past, and academic "descriptors" are used instead of letter grades. It's important to emphasize that a "4" does not correspond to an "A," a "3" to a "B," and so on. You can read the descriptors for yourselves, but unlike traditional grades (in which effort and percentage of assignments turned in play a significant role), standards-based scores only reflect students' demonstrated knowledge of each particular skill. To put it bluntly, it may be easier to get an "A" on the old report card than a "4" on this one. Although missing assignments and projects would have a greater (negative) impact on the traditional, letter-grade report cards, missing assignments do make it more difficult to assess whether a student is "meeting the standard." In other words, the more information I have, the easier it is to figure out where a student is at in relation to the standards. I will err on the side of caution and mark that a student is "working towards" the standard at this time.
Please also note that we haven't yet devoted much time to certain areas on the report card (social studies or probability in math, for examples). In addition, we've had many special events fall into the first few months of school (field trips, assemblies, walk-a-thon, extra class time preparing for the 4th grade concert, and so on). For all of these reasons, an "X" (Introduced) or an "N/A" (Not yet addressed) will appear in some sections for this first trimester.
I look forward to talking with you in the next week or so.
Sincerely,
Michael Crumb
P.S. If your child collected donations for "Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF," please send that in on Tuesday. Also, the P.T.S.A. has asked teachers to remind families that our Lost & Found is overflowing. It will be out during conferences, and all unclaimed items will be donated on November 27th.
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