Letter_To_Parents

Letter to Year 7, 8 and 10 Parents

My name is Ms Hewes and I will be your son/daughter’s English teacher for 2010. I thought that I would send a letter home to welcome you and your son/daughter to our class.
=== In 2010 my goal is to have an open classroom door policy, where parents and caregivers feel welcome to contribute and observe what occurs within the English classroom. I am a firm believer in a community approach to teaching and learning, and through the use of technology (especially the internet) I feel that this approach has become possible despite the rush of life in the 21st century. ===

There are a number of tools that I will be employing this year to ensure your involvement and engagement in our class. These are:
=== * The class blog. A blog is short for ‘web log’ and it is a website in which individuals create reflections on topics of personal interest. The purpose of the blog is to keep track of what has happened in class each lesson and to access important websites to help enhance learning. Log on at: [|http://davosevens.wordpress.com] === === * The class wiki. A wiki is a collaborative website created by the users. Each student will have their own page to which they add during the course of the year. Log on at: http://themindmirror.wikispaces.com/ === === * Email: I am happy to receive emails from you if there is any issue that you would like to discuss, or if you would like to contribute to our class in some way. However, please keep in mind that I am not only a teacher, I am also a busy mother of two young children and therefore I may not always be able to respond to your emails promptly. My DET email is: bianca.woods1@det.nsw.edu.au === === I find that at high school parents often lose touch with their child’s teachers and what is happening in each subject, particularly homework and assessment tasks and when they are due. The above tools should help avoid these issues. === === This year your child will spend time in class exploring a variety of interesting and challenging concepts. These concepts will be expressed using a number of different textual forms. Some of the text forms your child will be studying include: novels, film, picture books, media texts (including newspapers, radio, television, blogs, wikis and websites), poetry and non-fiction texts. ===

1. During the last lesson of each week we will have a spelling and/or grammar and punctuation quiz. Students will be required to prepare for this quiz each afternoon.
=== 2. Reading is the key to academic success. Students are encouraged to read each night for at least ½ an hour. A variety of texts should be read – both fiction and non-fiction. During the year we will be looking at how to be an active reader and this will form the basis of our literacy circles. === === 3. Each term there will be an assessment task that students must complete. This may be a speech, short story, essay etc. And of course there is the English examination during test week that occurs twice a year. ===