05/12/19

Monthly
Classroom
Newsletter
HELLO FAMILIES!
My name is Andrea Clark. I am a new third-grade
teacher here at Cheraw Intermediate school. I
obtained an associate degree in Early Childhood
Education. I also have obtained a bachelor’s
degree in Elementary Education. I am certified by
the South Carolina Board of Education. I will be
teaching your children in English Language Arts.
This letter is to inform you of what your child will be
doing in the classroom this week. I look forward to
working with you!

THE IMPORTANCE OF FOSTERING

SOCIAL INTERACTIONS AND
COMMUNICATION
Promoting social interactions and communication
amongst students is a vital asset needed to
prepare them for the future. By learning how to
interact with others in a positive way, they develop
friendships and learn how to work well with others.
That is why I have created a positive learning
environment that will promote communication and
social interactions in my classroom. I model the
appropriate expected behaviors for positive peer
interactions through role-play. I frequently provide
rewards, praise, and positive feedback when they
engage in a positive way. Students work at tables
and not desk to promote collaboration. I frequently
change the grouping of students to allow all
students to interact at some point and time. I have
learning centers filled with a variety of materials to
support their development, such as literacy centers
filled with a variety of different level books, and
word walls to increase exposure to vocabulary. To
learn through play, our veterinarian office allows
students to dress up and fulfill the roles of real
Reading: Shared reading is a strategy I use to read
along with students as they lead the interactions. I
allow students to select a book that is meaningful
to them. As the student reads aloud, I stop
frequently and ask questions to help provide
support and encourage communication. We share
experiences that relates to the topic to help them
make connections with the content.
Writing: Responding to a daily prompt is the
strategy I use to promote communication. I provide
a prompt and model writing expectations as
students follow along. Then students work
independently to respond to their own writing
prompt. Once the task is complete, students share
their responses with the class. After they share
their responses, students will work with their
partners and trade papers to provide positive
feedback (Graham, 2017).
veterinarians. It includes stuff animals in cages and
artificial medical supplies to care for the animals.
This will promote positive interaction and
communication for students and help them develop
problem-solving skills. “Play is an essential part of
a child’s development.” “It’s not only good for their
body and mind, but it’s also great for developing
their social skills (Cox, …nd).” When children play
together, they learn how to work through their
differences. They also learn how to listen to the
perspectives of others and see how they work
through their problems, which is a very important
skills needed to be successful. Listening: Turn-and-Talk is a listening strategy that
requires students to listen to their partners and
share their ideas to accomplish a task. This is used
DIFFERENTIATIONS AND during our read aloud. This requires students to
listen and follow along in their books as I read a
ADDITIONAL COMMUNICATION story aloud to them. After the story is read,
SUPPORT students are asked to turn-and-talk to their partners
about the information and to answer questions.
My goal is to meet the needs of all students. Our This helps them become active listeners and listen
class has students who are English language with the purpose to gain information followed by
learners, has emergent literacy skills, special questions that must be responded to.
needs, and are gifted. For additional support, I use
wait-time as a strategy. This strategy provides
students additional time before being required to
respond to questions during open-discussion, small
group activities or during one-on-one instruction.
Sometimes students may need the additional time
to translate the words or clarify in their mind what
was asked. I provide students with a written outline
of what I will be discussing the next day in class.
This allows students to become familiar with what
they are going to be expected to learn and it helps
them know what they need to focus on. I use
shared reading activities where the students and I
read books together.

Speaking: Think-pair-share, is a strategy I use to

LEARNING COLORFULLY!! pair students with a partner. To begin, I ask a
question to the class, then ask them to think about
any possible answers independently. After they
have had time to think, I tell them to talk to their
partner and share their thoughts. This provide them
a chance to hear what other peers think. This also
allow students to receive help from their partner if
they are confused. After sharing thoughts, they are
called upon to share their final answer with the
class. This strategy promotes communication from
some of the shyest students and increase peer
interaction. These types of interactions accelerate
language and content learning by hearing other
peers speak (Robertson, 2015).