April 5, 2016

Dear Parents,

It is time to begin working on the Fifth Grade State Report. ______’s

state is ______. I am giving to each student two pages of detailed directions, and I will grade the report based on the fulfillment of these requirements. Please read the directions and return the bottom of this letter tomorrow with your signature. The report is due May 25th, the day before Open House.

Beginning thisweek, I will be giving instruction and practice in different areas of report writing. The students will be taking notes and writing paragraphs from their notes. All notes and rough drafts will be checked by me before final writing (or typing) is done, and the rough drafts are to be turned in with the final report. Any note taking or rough drafts done at home should be brought in for my OK.

I have provided one book for each student, but that will not be enough to complete all parts of the report. You can help by taking your child to the library to select research books, and by seeing that he spends a sufficient amount of time on the project. (PLEASE have some books in class by Monday, April 11th.) I have dividedmost of the report into manageable tasks and set deadlines for completion on a weekly basis. See the attached schedule and also look for these deadlines on the back of each weekly study plan. Please help them stay up-to-date each week. Thank you. Some parts of the report can be done at home without being checked by me.

Give encouragement and guidance when needed, but allow him to do the report on his own. I will strongly evaluate this report based on what I expect a fifth grader to accomplish. For example, if note taking is difficult, help your child read the materialand decide what notes to take and be his scribe, if necessary, but don’t write the report for him (or rewrite it after I have checked his rough draft.) Please don’t bypass the note-taking process and just write directly from any book or other source. Thank you.

* * * SPECIAL NOTE: Home computer programs are so well developed today that your child could produce a spectacular report without any effort, AND without learning through experience how to do a research project. Therefore, some requirements have been added about computer use that you will find on the directions sheet. Please note these.

* * * SPECIAL NOTE #2: NO copied (Xeroxed) material of any kind is acceptable in the report unless okayed by me.

Thank you,

Mrs. Cashman

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

I have read the report directions and understand that the grade will be based on following these directions.

Student’s signature ______Parent’s signature ______