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Dear 5th Grade Parents,


Welcome to 5th grade math! The teachers are excited to begin another
year rich with growth and learning in your child's math class.


As you know, we do group for 5th grade math. Students in all groups
will be faced with substantive mathematical challenges and high levels
of rigor and will cover all the topics of our standard 5th grade
curriculum.


Math groups will begin tomorrow. We have placed your child in a class
that we feel will provide appropriate challenges, manageable pacing, and
accessible levels of abstraction given his or her developmental needs.
We used the following information to place your child in a math group:
information from 4th grade teachers, CTP (ERB) scores, individual
written student reflections, and in-class skills checks. We recognize
that students change over the course of the year, and we tend to place
conservatively, recognizing that we are able to make changes if we feel
that they are warranted as the year goes on. However, changes will not
be made until students have had a chance to settle in to their new
groups and math teachers have had the opportunity to work with them.
The first opportunity for changes will be in about four weeks. For the
continuity of your child's mathematical education, placement changes
will not be made after the winter break.


There are five teachers of fifth grade math. In addition to the four
homeroom teachers, Mary Dufour, Jamie Lauth, Robyn Nichols, and Susanne
Saunders, AB Carneal teaches a fifth section. The presence of this
fifth teacher allows us more flexibility with the size of our groups.


While placement can sometimes be a source of anxiety for students and
parents alike, please know that we take considerable care in making
these placement decisions so that your child's developmental needs are
best served. Research shows, and we have witnessed, that optimal growth
occurs when students are placed in a learning environment where they are
stretched but not stressed. If you have questions or concerns, we ask
that you begin your conversation with your child's homeroom teacher.


Sally Selby