Thursday, December 4, 2014
Dear Parents,
Today, you will be seeing your child’s first Kindergarten report
card. For this reason, I am writing to explain why your child
received the grade that was given. As explained in previous letters,
St. Anne’s is using a “standards based” report card. There are
certain standards that are required by our state for students to
achieve. Please look to the bottom right of the report card. There
you will see numbers and explanations of each number. In
Kindergarten, things are pretty cut and dry. Either students know
what is required 100% or they don’t.
I will explain each area listed under “Reading/Language Arts” and
“Mathematics” to help you understand. Keep this note next to you
as you read your child’s report card.
Reading/Language Arts
“Recognize and name all upper-case letters”
If your child could do this for all 26 letters, he/she received a 3.
If he/she could do this for 21-25 letters, a 2 was given.
If he/she could recognize and name 20 or fewer letters, they
received a 1.
*This same information is true for “Recognize and name all lowercase letters” as well.
A 3 is what you want to see on a report card.
“Say each consonant sound”
There are 21 consonants. If your child could tell me the sound for
all 21, he/she received a 3.
If he/she could tell me the sounds of 17-20 consonants, a 2 was
given.
If he/she could tell me the sounds of 16 consonants or less, they
received a 1.
“Say each short vowel sound”
There are 5 vowels. If your child could tell me the sounds of all 5,
he/she received a 3.
If he/she could tell me 4 vowel sounds, a 2 was given.
If he/she could tell me 3 or less vowel sounds, they received a 1.
Please note that only 3 vowels have been introduced so far this
year. They are Aa, Ii, and Oo. This means at this time of year, it is
OK to receive a 1.
“Recognize words that rhyme” and “Rhyme one word with another”
Your child and I sat together to talk about rhyming words, giving
examples of words that rhyme and those that don’t. We looked at
endings of words and noticed that rhyming words have the same
endings, but different beginning sounds. After this discussion, I
said six different words, asking them to give me a word that
rhymes, or sounds like the one I said. They could be real or
nonsense words. If your child gave me correct answers for all 6,
they received a 3. If they could do that for 5 of the words, a 2 was
given. If they could do that for 4 or less, they received a 1.
“Locate and define roles of the author and illustrator of a story”
Since there are only two things being asked for here, students
either knew the difference or they didn’t. For this reason, students
were either given a 3 or a 1-nothing in between.
*This holds true for “Show front cover, back cover, and title page
of a book.” Everyone received a 3 or a 1.
I’m happy to say that all students could “Follow words from left to
right, top to bottom” and received a 3.
“Print known upper and lowercase letters”
This one is a bit trickier. It is very important that students form
each letter presented correctly. If you remember, I sent a note
home earlier in the year explaining how important this would be.
Each letter is built upon the next. Some Kindergarteners have
beautiful handwriting and you would assume they should get a 3.
But, if they are not forming the letters correctly as taught, I
couldn’t give them that. I had each student come to my desk and
make each letter in front of me. I watched to see where on the
lines each letter was formed. The main things I was looking for was
that all letters started at the top and went down, that circle
shapes were made counter clockwise, and if they needed to pick up
their pencil for another stroke, they did. If your child formed each
of the 14 letters correctly as taught (Cc, Oo, Gg, Aa, Dd, Ss, Ll)
they were given a 3. If they made 12 or 13 correctly, they received a
2. If they made 11 or less correctly, they were given a 1. I know this
may not seem fair when your child’s work looks neat and easy to
read, but that’s the way they need to be graded.
“Read known high frequency words”
As explained in last week’s parent letter, there is no Minnesota
standard requiring student’s to read a certain number of words.
There is, however, a requirement in my Kindergarten classroom. 50
words were presented by Day 50 of school. These words are the
ones I had students read for me. If students could read at least 41
of the 50 words, they received a 4. *This is the only instance when
a kindergarten student would be able to receive a 4 in an academic
subject. Again, 3’s are the goal for each student, with 4’s being the
exception. If a student could read 35-40 words, they received a 3.
2’s were given to those who could read 30-34 words. Any student
that could not read at least 29 words received a 1.
____________________________________________________
Mathematics
“Read numbers 0-31”
Students were asked to tell me the names of all numbers 0-31. The
numbers were not presented in order. If they could tell me all 32
numbers, received a 3. If they could read 26-31 of the numbers,
they were given a 2. If they were able to read 25 or fewer numbers,
they received a 1.
“Count forward to 100”
If students could count to 100, they received a 3. If they counted
up to at least 80, they were given a 2. If they counted to 79 or less,
they received a 1.
I’m happy to say that every student could “Identify, create,
complete and extend patterns” and “Sort objects by shape, size,
and color” and received a 3.
“Count 31 Objects”
Students were given 31 objects for them to physically pick up and
count. If they counted correctly to 31, they received a 3. If they
could count 25-30 of them, they were given a 2. If they could count
24 or less of the objects, they received a 1.
“Identify 2-Dimensional Shapes”
Kindergarten students were asked to identify these shapes: circle,
square, triangle, rectangle, heart, star, diamond and hexagon. If
they could tell me all 8, they received a 3. If they knew all but one,
usually the hexagon, they were given a 2. If they identified 6 or less
shapes, they received a 1.
All academic subjects on the inside of the report card were given
number grades using the “Standards” model. You will also see that
“Successful Learning Behaviors” on the back were also given a
number, but these numbers 4-3-2-1 have different meanings. Please
see the top of the backside of the report card for an explanation.
Kindergarten is your child’s first experience as an all day everyday
student. I realize it can be overwhelming. My goal is to instill the
love of learning into each and every one of my students! Thank you
for encouraging your child to be his/her best. Without your
support, your student or myself would not have a successful year.
Together we can make a difference!
Sincerely,
Mary Grieves