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　　Your children’s teacher will be providing extra time for test preparation．This school year’s test will be held on January 8 and 9．The test preparation time is open to all students, and we strongly encourage your children to attend．

　　This year we are changing the time for our test preparation：it will be on Thursday mornings from 8∶10 to 8∶50．This helps children who ride the bus and cannot stay for the after-school period．It also helps avoid conflicts with after-school activities．

Danielle and Marina will be working with the recent new test takers 6 days on the following Thursdays：15^th, Nov; 29^th, Nov; 6^th, Dec; 13^th, Dec．; 20^th, Dec．and 3^rd, Jan．

　　Besides the test preparation lectures on these dates, teachers are already putting test preparation into their usual courses．We are finding that we can help our students to be both skillful and whole-hearted readers and test takers－after all, we all know that the best test preparation is good reading and writing training．

　　What can you do at home? Again, the best and most effective test preparation for the ELA test is reading and more reading．The research is quite clear－students who do well in the tests are those who are good readers．Reading not only builds reading ability, it also helps build confidence－important for successful test taking! But do discourage your children from spending too much time on books that are too hard or even a bit too hard．Children best develop comprehension skills when they are reading books just right for them(too easy doesn’t hurt here either)．

　　Finally, on Friday, December 7, we will have a morning lecture on the ELA．Please pay attention!