Spark Student Motivation: Reading Letter freebie

I am linking up with my super sweet friend, Joanne, at Head Over Heels for Teaching with a quick student motivation tip.  I have been all out of sorts this week because my six year old missed school all week.  She was diagnosed with pneumonia on Thursday and has had a high fever since Sunday.  It has been a stressful week with my husband and I taking turns staying home and sub plans are always more difficult than just being at work.  

I was working on a letter to send home to parents today regarding my students recent STAR assessment which coordinates with Accelerated Reader program and I thought this would be great to linkup with Joanne.  Our school uses the STAR assessment for benchmark scores in ELA and math.  I am using the STAR assessment to set individual goals for AR points per quarter for each student.  You can read more about my motivational strategies for promoting independent reading in my classroom here and here.  I believe that a key component of promoting a successful reading program is frequent accountability and communication with parents regarding classroom expectations.  The letter I will be sending home on Monday describes my plans for using the STAR assessment to make an individualized goal for each student and then includes space at the bottom for me to write the AR point goal for the quarter, students' points earned to date, and the percentage of the goal reached to date.

 I added this handout to my facebook page as a FAN FREEBIE.  The text is completely EDITABLE but the background is not due to copyright.  I noticed that the text doesn't line up quite right when I view it in Dropbox, but after it is downloaded, it lines up on my computer.  If the text doesn't line up for you, it is editable anyway.  

Maybe this template will spark an idea for a way to track your students' reading even if your school doesn't use AR.  Enjoy the rest of your weekend! :)