Kindergarteners working on writing
Dear PS 107 Families,
We have a busy week ahead of us, kicking off with Halloween on Monday! Park Slope is such a wonderful place during the Halloween season, and we know our students are really excited. As a reminder, costumes are not permitted during the school day for students, and though there are varying opinions on this, after a great deal of thought and consideration and for a number of reasons, we feel this is the best decision for PS 107 for this year. But there will be fun at school on Monday! Happy Halloween!
On Thursday, students have a half-day (dismissal is at 11:40 am) for Parent-Teacher Conferences. By now, you should have signed up for conferences with your child’s teacher(s). If you would like to meet with one of our specialty teachers, please reach out to them directly to schedule a conference:
Ms. Abby, 2-5 Science, aroberts@ps107.org
Ms. Diane, PreK-5 Physical Education, dditonno@ps107.org
Mr. DiFranco, PreK-5 Music, gdifranco@ps107.org
Ms. Galella, PreK-1 Library/English as a New Language, Academic Intervention for 2nd grade: pgalella@ps107.org
Ms. Julie, PreK-5 Art, julie@ps107.org
As I noted in a letter to the community earlier this year, Parent-Teacher Conferences will be disconnected from report cards for the first time at PS 107. This was the result of many conversations with our School Leadership Team over the course of last school year where the overall sentiment was that parents and teachers wanted more opportunities to share student progress in both formal and less formal ways during the year. You will receive your child’s first formal report card in January 2023. Our second Parent-Teacher Conferences will take place in March as usual, again disconnected from report card distribution. Final report cards will be distributed on the last day of school in June. While you will receive two, rather than three, report cards, you will have four opportunities to learn how your child is doing in school, rather than three, starting this year and going forward.
At these first conferences, teachers will discuss their initial assessments of students’ academic and social-emotional skills. Teachers in 1st-5th grades may share student reading levels, but I urge you to take these as but one data point. Reading levels are based on Fountas + Pinnell benchmark assessments and don’t fully capture the full range of your child’s reading skills. For instance, if a child has a great deal of background knowledge on the topic of the book they are reading, they will be able to read above their reading level. If a child is very motivated to read a book, they will likely be able to read above their reading level. I also remind you not to confuse “decoding” (reading the words) with comprehending text. Sometimes parents believe that a child can read at a very high level because they can read all of the words on the page, but deeply comprehending a text is based on a number of factors, including a child’s developmental level.
As always, questions about student progress are best answered by those closest to your child — their teachers! Feel free to come to your child’s conference with questions that you have about their skills, as well as ways that you can support their learning at home.
Most importantly, I want to assure you that PS 107 students are doing very well! I have been regularly reviewing our schoolwide assessment data, as well as checking in with kids and teachers in classrooms, and the bigger picture shows that all of our students are making wonderful progress and are very much enjoying school and feeling seen and cared for by our staff (which is ultimately what’s most important).
Warmly,
Ms Joanna