Parents communication for iReady

Lowell Elementary School

175 Orchard St, Watertown, MA 02472 USA - 617-926-7770 - fax: 617-926-2676 -   www.watertown.k12.ma.us

September 12, 2018

Dear Parents and Guardians,

I am excited to share that our school is implementing an excellent Math and Reading program called

i-Ready. Below, you will find information on the program and how we will be using it in the classroom.

What is i-Ready?

i-Ready is an online program that will help us determine your child’s needs, personalize his or her learning, and monitor progress throughout the school year. i-Ready allows us to meet your child exactly where he or she is and provides data for us to increase your child’s learning gains.

The i-Ready Diagnostic is an adaptive assessment that adjusts its questions to suit your child’s needs. Each item a student sees is individualized based on his or her answer to the previous question. For example, a series of correct answers will result in slightly harder questions, while a series of incorrect answers will yield slightly easier questions. The purpose of this is not to give your child a score or grade, but instead to determine how best to support your child’s learning. Your child will participate in only two, 45-min assessments (one literacy, one math), three times per year (fall, winter, late spring). Our testing dates are between 9/18 and 10/5.

What can I do to help?

To help prepare your child for the i-Ready Diagnostic, please encourage them to:

·       Get a good night’s sleep and eat a full breakfast the day of the assessment.

·       Try their best on each question and try not to rush.

·       Try not to worry about questions they do not know—remind them that it is expected they will get about half of the questions correct.

·       Use paper and a pencil to show work for math questions.

·       Be respectful of other students who take longer to finish.

What happens next?

The i-Ready Diagnostic will provide results that help teachers identify what your child already knows and determine next steps for instruction. Teachers look forward to sharing these results with you throughout the year and to providing a learning experience that will attract and hold your child’s interest while teaching important skills and concepts.

If you have any questions about i-Ready, please do not hesitate to contact me or your child’s teacher. You can also learn more about i-Ready by visiting i-ReadyCentral.com/FamilyCenter.

As always, thank you for your continued support and for being a partner in your child’s learning! It is much appreciated.

For our kindergartener parents…. Your child will enjoy the process of becoming an expert in using a computer in our classrooms this year! Once fully prepared mid-year, our kindergartners will be participating in their very first experience with i-Ready—an innovative adaptive assessment and engaging personalized instruction program. i-Ready will help me understand your child’s unique needs and celebrate every achievement—large and small—throughout the school year. i-Ready will also provide your child with an individualized online learning path that will support all the skill development work we will be doing this year in both Mathematics and Reading. The are two testing sessions for kindergarteners: winter and spring. We will inform you of the exact dates closer to the winter. I want to share what I’ll be discussing with your child as we prepare for the Diagnostic: It will take a few sessions to complete the i-Ready Diagnostic assessment. We will start and stop as often as it takes to keep your child happily engaged. Interactive items will provide fun for the children. For example, in the Phonological Awareness section, students may be asked to identify the sound in the middle of a word. In mathematics, students may be asked to count how many pencils they see. A series of correct answers will result in slightly harder questions, while a series of incorrect answers will yield slightly easier questions. This is what we mean when we say “adaptive.” The Diagnostic is a marvelous tool that gives teachers current, reliable information to use to plan instruction that is “just right” for your child. The Diagnostic assumes students will not know the answer to every question. The teacher will explain to your child that it is OK to not know every answer and to just do his or her best on each question.

Sincerely,

Mrs. Phelan,