Welcome to First Grade
This is an important year in your child’s growth and development. The faculty and staff in Mendota Elementary CUSD#289 are working very hard to provide higher quality instruction to all students. The goal is to to prepare students to be successful for more challenging work at the next grade level so all students will be “college ready” after high school graduation.
This is an important year in your child’s growth and development. The faculty and staff in Mendota Elementary CUSD#289 are working very hard to provide higher quality instruction to all students. The goal is to to prepare students to be successful for more challenging work at the next grade level so all students will be “college ready” after high school graduation.
Mastering early learning skills and concepts in reading and math are critical to your child’s success in school. The research is clear and consistent: “By third grade, students are expected to know the fundamentals of reading and be able to apply their reading skills across the curriculum. Students are not being taught how to read anymore in third grade. Instead, teachers use written text to teach other material, such as science, history, literature,etc. This shift from “learning to read” to “reading to learn” is extremely difficult for children who have not mastered basic reading skills. As they get older, struggling readers find themselves with less and less access to texts that are getting more and more complicated (Musen, 2010).
Mastering early learning skills and concepts in reading and math are critical to your child’s success in school. The research is clear and consistent: “By third grade, students are expected to know the fundamentals of reading and be able to apply their reading skills across the curriculum. Students are not being taught how to read anymore in third grade. Instead, teachers use written text to teach other material, such as science, history, literature,etc. This shift from “learning to read” to “reading to learn” is extremely difficult for children who have not mastered basic reading skills. As they get older, struggling readers find themselves with less and less access to texts that are getting more and more complicated (Musen, 2010).
The New Illinois Learning Standards provide a framework and define “what students should know and be able to do” by the end of the school year. In order to help students meet or exceed these standards, we have had to make instructional shifts. Teachers concentrate on a more focused set of concepts and skills. This allows students more time to master fewer standards. Teachers use rich and challenging content and engage students in activities that require students to apply knowledge to real-life problem-solving situation, explain how they got the answer and use models to explain their thinking, and explain where they found the evidence to support their thinking. Formally known as the Common Core State Standards, these grade-level standards help us all think “higher, clearer and deeper” for each learning standard.
The New Illinois Learning Standards provide a framework and define “what students should know and be able to do” by the end of the school year. In order to help students meet or exceed these standards, we have had to make instructional shifts. Teachers concentrate on a more focused set of concepts and skills. This allows students more time to master fewer standards. Teachers use rich and challenging content and engage students in activities that require students to apply knowledge to real-life problem-solving situation, explain how they got the answer and use models to explain their thinking, and explain where they found the evidence to support their thinking. Formally known as the Common Core State Standards, these grade-level standards help us all think “higher, clearer and deeper” for each learning standard.
Additional information:
http://www.ilclassroomsinaction.org/standardsbooks.html
http://www.isbe.net/ils/pdf/ils_introduction.pdf
http://www.isbe.net/common_core/pls/level1/pdf/ela-standards.pdf
http://www.isbe.net/common_core/pdf/ccs-faq-0813.pdf
http://www.isbe.net/common_core/htmls/news.htm
http://s3.amazonaws.com/rdcms-pta/files/production/public/K%20June20.pdf