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Dear Parents,
OUR HOMEWORK SCHEDULE NEVER CHANGES IN ROOM 21. This is what it
looks like. Every Friday your child will come home with a homework packet.
It consists of the following:
• 2 math assignments
• Spelling (practice words that were incorrect on the pre-test).
Complete "rule of the week" work handout.
• Memorize a poem (on the back side of the spelling list)
• Nightly reading (write down the titles read and minutes each week).
100 minutes a week is the requirement.
• A take home Science or Social Studies Book with related activity.
A home journal also comes home each Friday with a letter for you from your
child. Please take the time to write them back each week. Return this on
Monday.
You can decide how you want to pace out homework completion with your family.
HOMEWORK IS ALWAYS DUE ON THURSDAY!
Homework
POLICY: Homework is assigned each Friday, and should take about 30 minutes
each night (per APS School District standards) to complete. All homework and
nightly reading sheets are due on Thursday.
Reading: Research says that children become better readers by reading at
their ability level, so students will also read for a minimum of 15 minutes
each night. Students have a reading calendar for the week, which they will
keep in their homework folder.
How to Make the Most of Reading Homework
To improve reading, the children have a 20 minute per night reading
assignment. Please help your child record the name of the book on the
appropriate line of their book log. Listen to your child tell you a little
about what he/she read. Ask one or two of the following questions, or make
up your own.
If the book is fiction:
Who are the main characters? Is there one you especially liked or
disliked? Why?
Where or in what time period does this story take place?
What is the problem in the story?
What is an important event in the story?
How did the problem get solved? (If the story is finished)
What was the mood of the story? Did it make you feel happy, sad, excited?
If the book is non-fiction:
What facts do you like learning about the most? Why?
What information would you like to share with someone else?
Would you like to read more books about this topic? Why?
Do you understand what the author is saying? What information is the
easiest to understand or the hardest to understand?
Why Your Child Should Read for 20 minutes Every Day
"WHY CAN'T I SKIP MY 20 MINUTES OF READING TONIGHT?"
LET'S FIGURE IT OUT --- MATHEMATICALLY!
Student A reads 20 minutes five nights of every week;
Student B reads only 4 minutes a night...or not at all!
Step 1: Multiply minutes a night x 5 times each week.
Student A reads 20 min. x 5 times a week = 100 mins./week
Student B reads 4 minutes x 5 times a week = 20 minutes
Step 2: Multiply minutes a week x 4 weeks each month.
Student A reads 400 minutes a month.
Student B reads 80 minutes a month.
Step 3: Multiply minutes a month x 9 months/school year
Student A reads 3600 min. in a school year.
Student B reads 720 min. in a school year.
Student A practices reading the equivalent of ten whole school days a year.
Student B gets the equivalent of only two school days of reading practice.
By the end of 6th grade if Student A and Student B maintain
these same reading habits,
Student A will have read the equivalent of 60 whole school days
Student B will have read the equivalent of only 12 school days.
One would expect the gap of information retained will have widened
considerably and so, undoubtedly, will school performance. How do you think
Student B will feel about him/herself as a student?
Some questions to ponder:
Which student would you expect to read better?
Which student would you expect to know more?
Which student would you expect to write better?
Which student would you expect to have a better vocabulary?
Which student would you expect to be more successful in school....and in
life?
WHY READ 30 MINUTES A DAY?
*If daily reading begins in infancy, by the time the child is five years
old, he or she has been fed roughly 900 hours of brain food!
*Reduce that experience to just 30 minutes a week, and the child's hungry
mind lose 770 hours of nursery rhymes, fairy tales, and stories.
*A kindergarten student who has not been read aloud to could enter school
with less than 60 hours of literacy nutrition. No teacher, no matter how
talented, can make up for those lost hours of mental nourishment.
*Therefore...30 minutes daily = 900 hours
30 minutes weekly = 130 hours
Less than 30 minutes weekly = 60 hours
Guess you now understand why reading daily is so very important. Why not
have family night reading? It is great to just shut off the television for
20-30 minutes and read... and share.
(Source: U.S. Dept. of Education, America Reads Challenge. (1999) "Start
Early, Finish Strong: How to Help Every Child Become a Reader." Washington,
D.C.
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