I am very glad to be meeting with you this week. It's a time that allows for specific questions and feeback on some of the overwhelming, yet empowering aspects of the third grade (and classroom 7) and your child's practice and progress in it.
Although it may seem hidden at times, everything that happens in our classroom has a procedure, structure and "follow through.". Some are standard testing like our Journeys paper and online Think Central assessments and Everyday Math Unit tests. These are posted in advance on our calendar (daily check ins) and have a description of what to expect and the skill to practice.
At other times like in our Science, Social Studies and Health curriculum, a more "hands and thinking on" approach is taken through what we as a class DO together. This usually isn't taken directly from our textbook and workbook on the content, but rather what we explore through it and other means. For example, experiments, vocabulary use from real events, and videos by experts or our own experiences. They are then incorporated into a "test" that may be either on paper or in their Practice Makes Possible book or given as a Family Project (aka the Projectables tab). In both cases, there is a rubric that is given that provides the levels of performance (or already in our Go To Folder as a general one) or an advance notice on content expectations on our calendar.
Overall, as we practice our note-taking skills in our Journeys Journal, the references on this website and your student's GO TO Folder are the places to go when in doubt. As we get adjusted to using each and become more and more fluent at applying them to each purpose, you will too!
If by January our system is not seeing a consistent follow through as a whole or individually, that's when concern and adjustments need to take place. Until then, practice makes possible and turns into PROGRESS ;o)
