Dear Parents, September 1, 2010
I am very excited to be working with your child this year in the Elementary Language Arts course at KEYS!
This course is designed to enhance the student’s home study of language arts, cementing a strong foundational understanding in the areas of grammar, sentence structure, composition, and beginning literary analysis. It will include instruction in the basic parts of speech, various forms of writing, complex sentence structure, etc. Students will become more comfortable with the writing process as they become more comfortable with the basic grammatical components that make it easy!
I would encourage you to continue your child’s home study of language arts while he is enrolled in this class by utilizing one of the appropriate levels of Learning Language Arts through Literature. These books are neither difficult nor time-consuming, but they are broad in their scope and will serve as a nice supplement to what we’re doing in class. I would recommend either the yellow book, the orange book, or the purple book, depending on your child’s age and reading ability. They are neatly divided into five lessons per week which are easily administered and graded by the parent. We will not be utilizing these books during our class, and your use of them is entirely optional, of course.
Important areas of language arts that will not be covered include penmanship and systematic studies of vocabulary and spelling. You may cover these in any way you choose, but if you choose one of the LLATL books mentioned above, these areas will be adequately covered. You also may wish to augment the literature study we will be doing, especially if your child is an avid reader. Again, if you choose LLATL, the books studied there will more than suffice.
Copious reading of high quality literature is a significant contributor to enhanced language skill in the student and is therefore mandated; students will be required to read a certain amount of quality children’s literature each month and to keep a reading log. We will also maintain individual lists of words misspelled in the student’s writing, for your use in his home study of spelling.
There is no one textbook that we will be using for this course, but I will be drawing from many different sources throughout the year. There will be a “library fee” of $15 for the year, to cover the cost of duplication and/or purchase of these materials. Your child is expected to exercise care in preserving and returning all materials used by him throughout the course, to avoid incurring further fees. Please make your check payable to Laurie Sitterding, in the amount of $15.
If you have any questions or concerns at any time throughout the year concerning your child’s progress for the course work itself, feel free to email me or call me at home before 9 p.m.
I thank you for the privilege of working with your child this year, and I am very much looking forward to helping him solidify a strong foundation in the study of the English language!
Sincerely,
Laurie Sitterding 481-3164 (home) 289-8636 (cell) ParksidePedagogy@gmail.com