6615 E Cholla St

Scottsdale, AZ 85254

March 17th, 2018

Parents/guardians of John Doe

0000 W xxxxxx st
City, State xxxxx

Dear parents/guardians of John Doe:

I hope this letter finds you well, I am Mr. Deffner, John’s social studies teacher at Cocopah
Middle School. I am writing to you as I wish to bring to your attention some specific academic
struggles that John is having in my 4th period social studies class. John rarely completes
assignments, assignments that are turned in are often incomplete, or lacking a considerate
amount of effort. When students are given time in class to work on assignments John frequently
starts conversations with his peers, distracting each other from the work at hand. These behaviors
and disruptions are preventing John from receiving the grades he will need to pass his social
studies class. I have below, a few steps I wish to implement with you to help John focus on his
work, so that he may pass my class, and receive the information he will need in future social
studies classes.

Missing or incomplete assignments:

All assignments that I give to my class are available on our class’s Google classroom, as well as
a calendar of due dates. I have emailed you a link to the classroom today (3/17/2018) and will
grant you viewing privileges so that you may view upcoming assignments and discuss them with
John. If you are unable to check the Google classroom, I would like to implement a plan for you
to check John’s assignments for completion and sign them for him to return to me on the due
date. This will provide John some accountability as to addressing his assignments with you, and
keeping you aware of due assignments and their completion. If John does not bring me
assignments or turns in incomplete assignments in the future I will be in contact again to find
another solution to his grades and attitude towards assignments.

Attentiveness and classroom disruptions:

The class if often given assignments to complete in class, in groups as well as individually.
These are often the assignments in which John does not complete or completes partially. John
spends the class time that he is given to work on the assignments and ask for help, to participate
in off topic discussions with peers. When John is seprated from specific peers to work with other
students, John often uses the pencil sharpener as well as other utilities around the classroom,
frequently working his way into off topic discussions with other students in transition. John will
usually correct his behavior and return to his seat if asked. These disruptions to both John’s and
other students work are regular enough, that I will start documenting such issues, and will advise
other teachers that John has, to do the same. If there is a significant amount of disruptions within
other classrooms as well, I would like to look into introducing a behavior plan that you may
work with us to create that would best suit John’s needs in the classroom.
I look forward to future communication with you in securing John’s success in this year and
future years of schooling. My contact information is as follows:
Email: XXXXXXX(at)ssusd
Phone: xxx-xxx-xxxx (extension xxxx) call between (2:30-4:30 M-F)

Thank you for your time, Mr. Deffner