South Huntington Schools

• Grades K-2
• Grades 3-5
• Grades 6-8

As listeners and readers, students will collect data, facts, and ideas; discover relationships, concepts and generalizations; and use knowledge from oral, written, and electronic sources. As speakers and writers, they ask probing and clarifying questions, interpret information in their own words, applying information from one context to another and presenting information and interpretation clearly and concisely in a matter that follows the accepted conventions of English language.

TO HELP MEET THIS STANDARD, PARENTS OF PRIMARY STUDENTS CAN:

• Build your child’s vocabulary by speaking and reading with your child regularly. Phrase questions so they do not allow for a yes or no answer. Include picture books, signs, labels, how-to-books and electronic books.
• Help your child collect data, facts and ideas through family conversations, the newspaper, read alouds, and discovery moments that occur as part of the normal routine of family life. Talk about family events, discuss a television program, talk about different solutions to an every day problem, etc. Video taping allows children to see themselves as speakers.
• Provide opportunities for your child to discover relationships, concepts and generalizations. Ask your child to follow or repeat directions or have your child categorize information.
• Provide opportunities for your child to write. Letters to relatives, thank you cards, shopping lists and post cards are perfect opportunities for your child to write! "Frame" the letter, even if your child just adds a word, letter phrase or picture. Have your child copy the name of an item onto the shopping list or sign his/her name to a thank you card.
• Provide opportunities for your child to listen, tell and retell stories. Family occasions are a wonderful opportunity for this. For example, have your child retell an event of the day using specific details and  the correct sequence.
• Use appropriate grammar in your own oral language and encourage your child to use the correct grammar and spelling. Answer questions or re-phrase sentences using the correct language so you can model for your child.
• Require your child to be an organized student. Help your child by establishing study or homework routines, a quiet place to study, and people or places to go to for extra help or support, as needed.

As listeners and readers, students will understand, interpret and critique imaginative texts in all mediums, and relate them to their own lives and experiences. Students will develop an understanding of the diverse social, historical and cultural features of the text. In speaking and writing, students will produce their own imaginative texts and performances using oral and written English language that follows the accepted conventions for self expression.

TO HELP MEET THIS STANDARD, PARENTS OF PRIMARY STUDENTS CAN:

• Read to your children from a wide variety of books. Include plays, poems, short stories, fairy tales, folk tales, fables, myths, legends magazine articles and modern day children’s fiction and non-fiction.
• While reading, relate the text to your child’s life. Have your child relate it, too. "Isn’t that just like when we..."
• Read books about different times in history and about different cultures. Have your child compare this time period to his/her own life.
• Check your child’s writing to see if s/he knows the conventions of print such as proper grammar, spelling and punctuation. E-mail, journal writing, messages, etc. allow you to respond to your child in written form.
• Talk about literary elements such as plot, setting, characters, theme, or point of view as you read with your child. Compare these between other books they have read or with their own lives. "If you were ____(character)___, what would you do?" "What was the story problem?" "How was it solved?"
• Compare two or more books written by the same author.
• Visit the library often. Have your child recommend a book to another child and explain why s/he would recommend it.

As listeners and readers, students will analyze experiences, ideas, information and issues presented by others using a variety of established criteria and recognizing the differences in evaluation based on different sets of criteria. As speakers and writers they will use oral and written language to present opinions and judgments based on experiences, ideas, information and issues with reference to the specific criteria on which the opinion or judgment is based.

TO HELP MEET THIS STANDARD, PARENTS OF PRIMARY STUDENTS CAN:

• Discuss the difference between facts and opinions with your child. Magazine advertisements and sports articles provide good resources for this type of family discussion.
• Discuss the believability of a story. "Could this really happen? Why or why not?"
• Ask your child’s opinion about advertisements, commercials, and other things s/he has read.
• Discuss an event from different points of view. For example, discuss the effect of a major snowstorm from the point of view of a school student, a working parent, and a mail carrier.
• Ask your child to tell what s/he liked best about a book s/he heard or read.
• Support your child when s/he is asked to prepare an oral or written report. Ask your child to be able to support the information from text. Practice parts in a play. "Find the place in the story where it told you this."
• Practice oral readings at home together by becoming the child’s first audience.

Students will use oral and written communication to talk and communicate with people of different ages, cultures, and genders. Students will use written communication as a means to establish, maintain and enhance personal relationships with others.

TO HELP MEET THIS STANDARD, PARENTS OF PRIMARY STUDENTS CAN:

• Encourage good listening habits at home.
• Have children exchange thank you cards, holiday greetings, and letters with family and friends.
• Encourage your child to write to a pen pal who lives in another city.
• Encourage children to speak when it is appropriate. They need to know how to answer the phone politely, and how to take a message. They also need to know how to speak to different social groups (both peer and familiar adults) in a variety of different settings. Role-play with your child.
• Be sure your child sees you read! Talk about newspaper articles, recipes, sports articles or the book you are reading with your child or your own friends. Model for your child!

As listeners and readers, students will collect data, facts, and ideas; discover relationships, concepts and generalizations; and use knowledge from oral, written, and electronic sources. As speakers and writers, they ask probing and clarifying questions, interpret information in their own words, applying information from one context to another and presenting information and interpretation clearly and concisely in a manner that follows the accepted conventions of the English language.

TO HELP MEET THIS STANDARD, PARENTS OF ELEMENTARY STUDENTS CAN:

• Build your child’s vocabulary by speaking and reading with your child regularly.
• Help your child collect data, facts and ideas through family conversations, the newspaper, read alouds, and discovery moments that occur as part of the normal routine of family life.
• Provide opportunities for your child to discover relationships, concepts and generalizations.
• Provide opportunities for your child to write. Letters to relatives, thank you cards, shopping lists and post cards are perfect opportunities for your child to write!
• Provide opportunities for your child to listen, tell and retell stories. Family occasions are a wonderful opportunity for this. For example, have your child retell an event of the day using specific details and in the correct sequence.
• Use appropriate grammar in your own oral language and encourage your child to use the correct grammar and spelling.
• Require your child to be an organized student. Help your child by establishing study or homework routines, a quiet place to study, and people or places to go to for extra help or support, as needed.
• Assist your child as s/he learns note-taking strategies.

As listeners and readers, students will understand, interpret and critique imaginative texts in all mediums, and relate them to their own lives and experiences. Students will develop an understanding of the diverse social, historical and cultural features of the text. In speaking and writing, students will produce their own imaginative texts and performances using oral and written English language that follows the accepted conventions for self expression.

TO HELP MEET THIS STANDARD, PARENTS OF ELEMENTARY STUDENTS CAN:

• Read to your children from a wide variety of books. Include plays, poems, short stories, fairy tales, folk tales, fables, myths, legends magazine articles and modern day children’s fiction and non-fiction.
• While reading, relate the text to your child’s life. Have your child relate it, too.
• Read books about different times in history and about different cultures. Have your child compare this time period to his/her own life.
• Check your child’s writing to see if s/he knows the conventions of print such as proper grammar, spelling and punctuation.
• Talk about literary elements such as plot, setting, characters, theme, or point of view as you read with your child. Compare these between books or with their own lives.
• Compare two or more books written by the same author.
• Example: Have your child recommend a book to another child and explain why s/he would recommend it.

As listeners and readers, students will analyze experiences, ideas, information and issues presented by others using a variety of established criteria and recognizing the differences in evaluation based on different sets of criteria. As speakers and writers they will use oral and written language to present opinions and judgments based on experiences, ideas, information and issues with reference to the specific criteria on which the opinion or judgment is based.

TO HELP MEET THIS STANDARD, PARENTS OF ELEMENTARY STUDENTS CAN:

• Discuss the difference between facts and opinions with your child. Magazine advertisements and sports articles provide good resources for this type of family discussion.
• Ask your child’s opinion about advertisements, commercials, and other things s/he has read.
• Discuss an event from different points of view. For example, discuss the effect of a major snow storm from the point of view of a school student, a working parent, and a mail carrier.
• Discuss the believability of a story.
• Support your child when s/he is asked to prepare an oral or written report. Ask your child to be able to support their information from text.
• Practice oral reports at home together by becoming the child’s first audience.

Students will use oral and written communication to talk and communicate with people of different ages, cultures, and genders. Students will use written communication as a means to establish, maintain and enhance personal relationships with others.

TO HELP MEET THIS STANDARD, PARENTS OF ELEMENTARY STUDENTS CAN:

• Encourage good listening habits at home.
• Have children exchange thank you cards, holiday greetings, and letters with family and friends.
• Encourage your child to write to a pen pal who lives in another city.
• Encourage children to speak when it is appropriate. They need to know how to answer the phone politely, and how to take a message. They also need to know how to speak to different social groups in a variety of different settings.
• Be sure your child sees you read! Talk about newspaper articles, recipes, sports articles or the book you are reading with your child or your own friends. Model for your child!

As listeners and readers, students will collect data, facts, and ideas; discover relationships, concepts and generalizations; and use knowledge from oral, written, and electronic sources. As speakers and writers, they ask probing and clarifying questions, interpret information in their own words, applying information from one context to another and presenting information and interpretation clearly and concisely in a matter that follows the accepted conventions of English language.

TO HELP MEET THIS STANDARD, PARENTS OF MIDDLE SCHOOL STUDENTS CAN:

• Build your child’s vocabulary by speaking and reading with your child regularly. Discuss books, news events, television or electronic reports, interviews, or movies that you both know. Model respectful and responsive listening. Keep a dictionary handy.
• Help your child collect data, facts and ideas through your encouragement of the use of the school or public library. Encourage your child to use many resources for information, including reference materials, online resources, magazines, graphs, charts, biographies, etc.
• Provide opportunities for your child to discover relationships, concepts and generalizations. Ask your child to relate new information to prior reading and experiences.
• Proofread your child’s written work with an eye toward understanding the purpose of the writing. For example, was your child trying to explain, describe, narrate, persuade, show feelings, etc.
• Provide opportunities for your child to listen for different purposes. Have your child retell information from a short news story, repeat multi-step directions, make predictions, or draw inferences from a speaker’s voice quality.
• Use appropriate grammar in your own oral language and encourage your child to use the correct grammar and spelling. Model language, eye contact, volume, tone, and rate that are appropriate to different purposes for speaking. Discuss the adjustments that occur based on the audience or purpose.
• Compare and contrast information from more than one source. Ask your child where else you can check out facts and details beyond the first source.
• Discuss different note taking strategies. Ask your child when s/he uses webs, venn diagrams, outlines, etc.
• Organization is the key! Require your child to be an organized student. Help your child by establishing study or homework routines, a quiet place to study, and people or places to go to for extra help or support, as needed.

As listeners and readers, students will understand, interpret and critique imaginative texts in all mediums, and relate them to their own lives and experiences. Students will develop an understanding of the diverse social, historical and cultural features of the text. In speaking and writing, students will produce their own imaginative texts and performances using oral and written English language that follows the accepted conventions for self expression.

TO HELP MEET THIS STANDARD, PARENTS OF MIDDLE SCHOOL STUDENTS CAN:

• Provide opportunities to read from a wide variety of genres. Include plays, poems, short stories, myths and legends, magazine articles, and novels. Read the same book as your child in order to have book discussions.
• Point out how the author’s use of language creates images or feelings.
• Provide opportunities for your child to compare a film, video or stage version of a literary work with the written version.
• Look for and expect a more mature writing style. Your child should be able to use Standard English to communicate effectively. Students may use literary devices such as dialogue, flashback, foreshadowing, etc. and will write lengthier pieces for writing tasks.
• Encourage your child to recommend readings to their peers by grouping their recommendations by common elements such as theme, author, type of character, etc.
• Model by using references to literature as a way to support a position in a discussion.

As listeners and readers, students will analyze experiences, ideas, information and issues presented by others using a variety of established criteria and recognizing the differences in evaluation based on different sets of criteria. As speakers and writers they will use oral and written language to present opinions and judgments based on experiences, ideas, information and issues with reference to the specific criteria on which the opinion or judgment is based.

TO HELP MEET THIS STANDARD, PARENTS OF MIDDLE SCHOOL STUDENTS CAN:

• Discuss books, articles or events from varying points of view. For example, after reading a newspaper article, discuss how a teacher, student, parent or school principal might each view a new rule requiring school uniforms?
• Help your child judge a text by using evaluative criteria from a variety perspectives, including literary, political and person.
• Provide feedback for your child on written work by asking who the audience will be, what the purpose of the writing is, and what the content must include.
• Remind your child to be sure that all information has been presented before making judgments.
• Point out elements of propaganda (i.e. "bandwagon, " or "sweeping generalities") in everyday events.
• Ask your child’s opinion about advertisements, commercials, and other things s/he has read.
• Encourage your child to use pre-writing activities such as brainstorming, note taking, organizers, outlining.
• Practice oral critiques, reports or debates at home together.

Students will use oral and written communication to talk and communicate with people of different ages, cultures, and genders. Students will use written communication as a means to establish, maintain and enhance personal relationships with others.

TO HELP MEET THIS STANDARD, PARENTS OF MIDDLE SCHOOL STUDENTS CAN:

• Continue to encourage good listening habits out of school that adapt to different purposes and settings.
• Comment on the different types of language appropriate to social communication. For example: informal or formal, culture specific, jargon, e-mail messages, etc.
• Set purposes for continued social writing to occur (for example, condolence notes, get well cards, thank you notes, etc.) Model or show your child samples of written communications that you have written.
• Provide opportunities for your child to read published letters, diaries or journals.
• Emphasize the development of a personal voice that allows the reader to get to know the writer.