Dear Caregiver

Dear Caregiver,

Spring is a time for watching things grow. We’re writing to you because we have been watching your child grow as a reader, and wanted to tell you what we have seen.

Most of us measure whether a child has grown inches taller by using a measuring stick that shows the child’s growth in inches, and shows also what the expected height is for children at that age. Some children grow slowly and then spurt up, so it is not a huge worry when a child is not the exact height that one expects, but it is good to keep an eye on this.

In the same way, we measure your child’s reading growth above all by noticing whether the books that your child can read now are harder than those he or she could read in the fall. As you know, there is a general way of measuring book difficulty from A through Z.

At this time in your child’s grade-level, children are ‘at standards’ if they are reading these levels for these grades:

Kindergarten: A/B/C with book intro First grade: G/H/I Second grade: K/L/M Third grade: N/O/P Fourth grade: Q/R/S Fifth grade: S/T/U Sixth grade: U/V/W Seventh grade: W/X/Y Eighth grade: Y/Z

Your child is in ______, and is, in fact, reading books at level ______. When we are asked to put your child’s reading on a scale, the book-level that your child can handle suggests that out of a 1–4 scale, your child is at a level of ______. 1) Needs Support 2) Approaches Standards 3) Meets Standards 4) Exceeds Standards

There is one important way for children to progress from the book level they can read to the next level and it is this: the child must read lots and lots and lots of books at his or her level. The child will do best if he or she can talk about those books with someone who loves reading — and loves the child — and who makes reading into a great pleasure.

Here are a few books at your child’s current reading level: We assess other aspects of reading too, such as your child’s understanding of phonics (which relates to spelling) and the speed at which your child reads. Most of all, we assess your child’s comprehension, and we do this by listening to your child talk about the books he or she has read. We also assess your child’s progress as a writer. Some of those assessments give us numbers on a chart, and some don’t. We would be happy to tell you about any of those assessments.

Most of all, we hope that you and the school can work together to make it likely that your child is reading, reading, reading, and that your child knows that you love reading too.

Sincerely,