Standard 4

Instructional Delivery and Management

Component 4.a: Demonstrate effective verbal and non-verbal
communication skills that convey respect and sensitivity across all
learning experiences.
Artifact: PED 321 Parent Letter
Date: Spring 2018
Reflection:
The parent letter attached was developed in my PED 321 Movement Education class.
The purpose was to inform the parents of their child’s progress and success in the Movement
Education program. In the letter, I discussed the child’s strengths in physical education, class
behavior, areas to improve and goals for the future.
The parent letter relates to component 4.a because it emphasizes the importance of
both verbal and non-verbal communication skills across a variety of instructional formats.
Teachers are constantly communicating to those around them, through means of letters,
conferences, phone calls and e-mails. The parent letter attached shows my non-verbal
communication with the parents of the student I was working with. I was able to discuss all
the necessary information within the letter, while also demonstrating respect and
professionalism throughout. As much as we want to emphasize what the child’s strengths
are, teachers must also highlight the student’s weaknesses in order for them to progress.
While maintaining respect, I was able to address the areas where their child needs to
improve, providing them with a variety of activities they can do at home to help their child
advance further. In the letter, I respectfully highlighted their child’s weaknesses, while
following up with different activities and strategies that I am going to use to help them
improve. I provided a great amount of detail in my letter so the student’s parents are aware
of exactly what their child is being taught in class and how their child is progressing.
The content within the parent letter was a result of my communication and
experience with the student throughout the semester. After working with the student twice
a week, I got to know them on a personal level, learning a lot about their strengths and
weaknesses. An effective style of communication is essential as a teacher in order to learn
what works best for your students when giving instruction and ensure that they are learning.
Teachers must be able to communicate effectively to not only their students, but parents as
well. Good communication between parents and teacher helps students improve
performance.
SUNY Cortland
12/1/2017
“Healthy Steps Today, Lead to Healthier Steps Tomorrow”

To the Parents/Guardians of Ben,

I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for allowing not only myself, but also
my peers to work with your child in our Movement Education class. The experiences I have
encountered with your child have already helped me further my skills as I prepare to be a future
Physical Educator. The excitement is over thrilling to be able to work with Ben this semester and
help him strengthen his gross motor development. Every new day I spend with Ben I see
improvement.
We performed the TGMD-2 assessment, which assesses object control and locomotor
movements. As Ben became more comfortable with our class, I was able to see progress right
away. Ben was mostly fluid in skills such as throwing, catching and running. When working on
throwing, Ben had proper form and had almost all of the components for the elementary stage of
throwing. This is fantastic because most kids in Ben’s class are still in the initial stage, and are
unable to throw with good form and a follow through. When working on catching, Ben caught
seven out of the eight balls thrown to him. He had good form and great reaction time, meaning
he reacted to the ball right away and had his arms out in preparation to catch the ball. It’s great to
see how involved Ben is getting now and how well he improves on these skills each day. I plan
on working on these skills with him so he can leave the Movement Education class with fluidity
in the mature stage.
There were a few locomotor skills that I would especially like to see Ben advance in;
some skills include sliding and galloping. Right now, Ben is at the initial stage for both sliding
and galloping, which is very common for his age. I would like to use my knowledge to help him
progress eventually to the elementary stage. I would like to plan out activities that combine both
of these skills and be able to work on them a little each class. One way I plan on doing this is
setting jump ropes on the floor and having Ben practice these skills in different directions and
pathways. With galloping some things to do at home could be to take chalk and draw different
lines and ask him to gallop up and down the lines. It is important that the back foot never crosses
the front. The same thing with sliding can be done as well, but to remind Ben that his feet should
never cross paths. With my knowledge I plan on designing a plethora of activities for not only us
as the mentors to notice, but you as the parents as well. I have a lot of ideas I would like to
present to Ben this semester and am looking forward to working with him for a great semester!
As a future Physical Educator some of our lessons can tie in with much more. Such as,
teaching the students different pathways and directions. I am planning on working with Ben on
an obstacle course I created showing him curved, zigzag, and straight lines. As well as directions
such as, under, over, up, down, and through. Working with Ben this semester so far has been a
blast and I can’t wait to see much more improvement from him.
Thank you again for this amazing opportunity and I hope you are as excited about this
opportunity as I am. If you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to email me at
Erin.Carley@cortland.edu. It would be greatly appreciated if you could answer the following
question to help me get a better idea on how I can help work with Ben. “In a million words or
less, describe your child.” Feel free to either email your response or send it to school with him.
Ben is a wonderful and smart child and I look forward to improving his skills and literacy
throughout the semester.

Sincerely,

Erin Carley