Sample Parent Letter

Using the POCET system provides teachers a way to observe and track progress of each individual child, which can be greatly beneficial when it comes to communicating with parents. Below is a sample letter than can be sent from teachers to parents about POCET and what the teacher will be tracking throughout the school year. This letter also introduces parents to the checklist folder and the criteria used to evaluate the various skills, which they will see evaluated during the year.

Dear Family Members:

Your child’s classroom has chosen to use the Preschool Outcomes Checklist and Evaluation Tool (POCET) to track your child’s progress in developing preschool skills.

Several times throughout the school year, we will update your child’s progress using the Developmental Checklist Folder that is part of the POCET tracking system. The checklist folder contains the 68 developmental guidelines that have been determined to be appropriate skills for preschool children. These 68 skills are developed to help your child be prepared to enter kindergarten at the age of 5.

When you receive a copy of your child’s developmental checklist folder, you will notice that each skill is scored with three different criteria:

· Not Evident (your child cannot demonstrate the skill at this time)
· Needs Support (your child demonstrates part of the skill or making progress toward mastery)
· Competent (your child reliably demonstrates the skill) It is important to remember that the developmental guidelines are always listed in developmental order (the order most children develop the skills).

Depending on your child’s age, it may be appropriate for your child to score ‘not evident’ in areas that are not yet appropriate for your child. Although the skills are listed in developmental order, children develop at different rates. Help us support your child in making continual progress through these important early childhood skills.

Working together we can prepare your child to enter kindergarten.

Sincerely,

Child’s Teacher

POCET for Back to School

Fall often means new classes and students, new projects, new teachers... It's a season of new beginnings. Starting your school year with POCET is a great way to provide parents and teachers a common ground for communication about each child's progress. POCET provides early childhood educators with six easy steps to individualized assessment, and it can be used with any preschool curriculum.
With POCET as their guide, any teacher can identify an appropriate sequence of preschool skills, using developmental guidelines. provided in the POCET binders. These guidelines are divided into eight domains of learning and focus on school-readiness skills, such as language, literacy, math, social & emotional, creative arts, approaches to learning, science and physical health and safety. POCET provides activities that help build skills in each domain, and provides tracking sheets that allow educators to clearly track a child's progress in each domain.
Here's an example of a a language domain activity:
Skill: Follows Directions
Activity: Follow the Leader
Have the child/children imitate whatever motion the leader chooses. The teacher should be the first leader. As children master following this one-step direction (for example, clapping, hopping, winking, waving, etc.) have them take turns being the leader.
There are more listening-skill-building exercises on TeacherQuickSource as well.
Starting the year off with POCET gives teachers an organized, simple way to begin observing and tracking the learning progress of the children in their care.