MS.

SAGENDORF
COMMUNICATION
NEWSLETTER

Sample School CONTACT INFO.

PHONE NUMBER
3300 W. Camelback Rd
Phoenix, AZ 85017 123.456.7890 Ext. 9
T: (123)456-7890
EMAIL

Sagendorf@sampleschool.org
BIO:
OFFICE HOURS
Hello,
I am Ms. Sagendorf (Ms. S) and I will be your son or daughters teacher M-F: 6-8am, 3-5pm
for this school year! I am so excited to be working with your child and
look forward to helping them reach their success. I believe every child is
capable of success and I think with your help, they can reach it! I KEY VOCABULARY
graduated in the Spring of 2018 from Grand Canyon University, with a
bachelors degree in Elementary Education. I am a first-year teacher, Readers Theater: Read a scripted
but have gained so much experience through practicum hours, text as if you were the character in
student teaching, work, extra-curricular activities and various class the book
work. My teaching philosophy consists of many components. First and Creative Drama: Taking an
foremost, I believe having good relationships with students and parents imaginative experience, creating
is essential. I think it is important to get to know my students on an an activity and then writing about
individual basis to better address their needs because every student is it
unique in their own way. I also believe in having students engaged
DLTA: using questions and
while also creating a fun and safe learning environment. To do this, I
discussion before, during and after
have students engaged through a variety of teaching methods and
to elicit listening during a read
activities, make meaningful connections and set high expectations for
aloud
all students. Finally, I am a firm believer in promoting all types of learning
styles through diversity. Treasure Hunt: discussing with
classmates different questions and
IMPORTANCE OF FOSTER ING COMMUNICATION AND SOCIAL answers
INTERACTION

I am writing to you today on behalf of the importance of fostering

communication and social interaction in the English language arts
Classroom. There are four key components of communication: reading,
writing, listening and speaking. I believe in a balanced literacy approach,
one in which all components matter and build on one another (Critchfield,
2017). To do this I work towards a goal of integrating all four components in
English every day. This is important for all students as it helps them
understand the foundation of each and grow in all aspects of literacy. To

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do this, I start off with teacher-led instruction such as read-alouds and modeling, and work towards progressing
all the way to independent work (Critchfield, 2017). I think fostering communication and social interaction in
the classroom will help students reach that goal. As we progress, we go through shared, interactive and guided
instruction. I also think fostering social interaction is beneficial in the classroom for my students. Social interaction
allows students to collaborate and learn from one another. We do lots of strategically-based grouping activities
that allow students to work with one another and solve problems. This allows them to share ideas, discuss with
one another and become better communicators.

READING, WRITING, LI STENING AND SPEAKING STRATEGIES

To enhance students communication skills, I use a variety of strategies. In regard to reading, one strategy I use
is Readers Theater. Readers theater is a method of reading, in which students read a scripted text as if they
were that person or character from the book (Cox, 2014). I use a variety of genres that have the following
features (Cox, 2014):

Dialogue and Clear Prose

Lively, high-interest, humorous stories, with children or personified animals as main characters
A good balance of parts of nearly the same size
Short stories
In using this strategy, each student will be assigned a different character or role, and will work with their group
to practice reading and acting it out. The students are engaged, enthusiastic and best of all: becoming better
readers. Another strategy I use is creative drama, which is often incorporated with enhancing writing. This
strategy involves students having some type of experience, incorporate that into an activity and then write
about it (Cox, 2014). For example, I use sense training in my classroom, where students go to different stations,
with a different sense at each. Using that sense (smell, touch, taste, sight, hear), they imagine the scenario
presented to them, think about what they would do and write about it. This strategy not only helps students
become better writers but allows them to think abstractly by answering the question What if?. To better
enhance listening skills, I use a strategy called DLTA, also known as directed learning thinking activities. A DLTA
helps students focus on a read-aloud story by activating prior knowledge, encouraging predictions, focusing
attention on the story to very those predictions and make meaning of the text (Cox, 2014). This strategy consists
of discussion and questioning before the story, during, and after. Finally, for speaking I use a variety of
strategies, including a treasure hunt to enhance communication skills. This is a strategy in which students create
a list of questions on a topic they want to know more about, then interact with their peers to find someone who
has the answer. This strategy allows students to learn from one another and discuss different questions. I always
use this strategy on the first day of school, to help students become familiar with one another.

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MORE IMPORTANT NEWS

DIFFERENTIATION

In addition to the importance of communication skills, I also believe

differentiation is important. As mentioned before, I use strategic grouping in
my classroom, which allows for better collaboration. These groups are
typically mixed, to allow advanced students to act as facilitators and help
their peers, while struggling students can receive help from their peers.
Furthermore, groups can collaborate with one another, discuss ideas and
share answers, preventing students from falling way behind. Furthermore, COMMUNICATION
for students with special needs, emergent literacy skills or English Language
learners, I often provide visual aids, manipulatives, additional resources, a CLASS DOJO
variety of methods and instructional approaches and a buddy system Code: S123456
(Vawter, D. H., & Costner, K. M., 2013). In addition, I use tiered activities,
provide background knowledge, and one-on-one attention if needed. CLASS TWITTER
Often times, I also assign specific roles to students in groups based on Twitter.com/Sagendorfclass
needs and strengths (Cox, 2014). For gifted students, I provide them with
REMIND 101
enrichment through extension-based activities. They may be challenged
through harder-level text, more extensive writing pieces, probing questions, Text @sampleschool to 81010
in-depth discussions and DOK level 4 questioning and thinking.
SS CANV AS

CONTACT INFORMATION Log in with user-created

credentials to track grades,
Phone: 123-456-7890 progress, scores and
communication
Email: sagendorf@sampleschool.org

If you have any questions please dont hesitate to contact me!

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