Day 6 Collaboration and Conferences

Classroom Teachers:

Tomorrow at your Day 6 Collaboration, you'll have the flexibility to focus on Tier I instruction, Tier II or your own learning. I have placed in the your Google Doc Day 6 folder the following template to guide your work:  Day 6 Protocol. Each Day 6 please make a copy of this protocol and rename it with that day's date within your Day 6 folder. Then focus on the area of need your team feels is the most important on that day.


Also leading into Parent/Teacher Conferences, I wanted you to have some helpful assessment information/resources shared by Ann Mitchell. Please know it is not my expectation you discuss PALS and MAP data at conferences. Especially for those of you just learning about these assessments for the first time this fall. These reports will go home in first trimester report cards.

PALS Parent Letter sample

NWEA MAP Talking Points for conferences

NWEA MAP Parent Letter (results)

How do I share assessment information with parents/guardians?

Hudson student-parent-teacher conferences should be meaningful conversations focused on student strengths, struggles, and next steps in learning. We want students to know themselves as learners, to understand steps they can take to practice areas of struggle, and to share goals with parents to help them focus their efforts.

Be thoughtful about using fall assessment data to communicate student learning with parents. Whether referencing NWEA MAP, F&P, PALS, or other assessments, please consider sharing the following:

§  Specific areas of strength and struggle (rather than a score or level). Highlight with students and for parents steps each can take to support the student making progress in their learning.

§  Explain the value of the assessment as an instructional tool designed to help you (the teacher) plan the best (literacy) instruction for their child.

§  If helpful to parents, provide an overview of the tasks that are assessed, the benchmark scores associated with each task, and the scores obtained by their child.

§  Identify the literacy instruction you have in place, and how you are planning to address their child's strengths and needs as indicated by the assessment.

§  With a focus on literacy and reading, encourage parents or siblings of emergent readers to read with each other, sing songs and rhymes, look through pictures in a book, and so on. Encourage parents of all students to explore books with their children, expand into a variety of genres, and talk about what they read.

If you are looking for additional guidance on how to conduct productive, literacy-rich meetings with parents, view the following webinar that is available on DPI’s Read Wisconsin (www.readwisconsin.net) website here.