May 17, 2013
Dear Families,
This year, all San Jose Unified School District students will be taking their end-of-year writing performance assessment in May as usual. Second Graders will be asked to write a Friendly Letter. This Friendly Letter must include all five parts of a letter- date, greeting, body, closing, and signature, the letter must be formatted correctly, and the content of the letter must address the writing prompt.
Starting next year, the Friendly Letter will no longer be part of the Second Grade curriculum. Common Core Standards emphasize Narrative, Persuasive, and Expository writing genres. In addition to these three genres, Second Graders will be expected to produce reports as part of a group, to use various sources to report on a topic, and to type their work on a computer.
The Friendly Letter has not been emphasized in our class this year since we are transitioning to Common Core Standards. We have practiced the Friendly Letter in class. We had two whole-class mini-lessons to learn about the Friendly Letter, and have had worksheets reviewing the concepts both in our homework and in class.
On Friday we are taking home the Friendly Letter packet we worked on in class. Please check it to see if it is complete and correct. Also, please find out if your child has any questions! I will address them in class before the Writing Performance Assessment on Tuesday, May 21, 2013.
Thank you!
E-2 Excellence 