Dear Division 4 Families,

With regards to assessment, please keep all work that is completed for online education (i.e. any worksheets, writing responses, spelling). If you have not kept what was done up until now that’s ok! Since I am not able to assess in a classroom as usual, I am asking that you assist your child with reflecting on what they have done each week. Every Friday (unless there is a holiday, then it would be Thursday), please send me one email which includes a photo of something that your child is proud of in terms of their work or an activity, and a photo of something that they feel they could have changed, done differently or which they need more practice with. We will go with this approach for now and then I will revisit this approach in a couple of weeks to see if there are ways it can be improved for our class. You can either get started on this and do it today or you can wait until next Friday. This photo could be of a writing response and drawing, or of them doing an activity, or a finished worksheet. In addition, please write a note or have your child write it (this could be great for writing practice), saying what they felt was good in terms of understanding and what they felt they struggled with or need more help or practice with. This email can be as short or as long as your child wants it to be. It could just be the photos with one sentence describing how they felt that week or it could be a paragraph or longer. It can also include a message to me if they just want to write about how they are doing or talk about something that they have discovered recently (however it’s up to your child if they want to include this).

Also, it could be helpful if you could help your child with picking varied subjects. For example, instead of every email consisting of writing responses, perhaps they could include math or other activities (so that I am able to assess more than one skill/subject). That being said, if your child truly wishes to pick their writing responses to show to me each week that’s ok (closer to the end of term, I may ask for some additional photos/descriptions of their work so that I can assess them).

Thank you for all of your support! I know it can be challenging to be both a parent and act as a classroom teacher at home and I appreciate everything that you are doing.

*Because I am asking that work be submitted on Friday, please note that it may take a couple of days to receive feedback.

Sincerely,

Ms. Chin