Monday, April 30, 2012

DISSECTing a Word

Today all three classes worked on putting the DISSECT strategy to work on some words that they didn't know. We took our words from The Hunger Games-page 22 & 23. That story is full of hard words and several students weren't understanding them as they read.

Here are the words missed by a student as she read orally to me from Hunger Games-Page 22 & 23:
tribute synonymous
corpse pained
recognition occasion
huddled presented
valor

We looked for prefixes and suffixes to dissect off and then examined the stem (root word that is left).

The students did a good job breaking the words down to be able to pronounce them. But they need more practice using skills to determine the meaning of words. Here are two words that they learned the meanings for today: redolence & kin.

Vocabulary is going to be our focus this week especially using the context to help look at word meanings.

Look for words that are difficult as you read. They add so much to your reading.

Friday, April 27, 2012

Satisfied Customers

I have been compiling the data from our second session of Reading Essentials Class which was held from Nov. 30, 2011 to January 29, 2012. The results were very encouraging.

Our students made great gains in both comprehension and fluency.

The average gains for comprehension and fluency were nearly three times the expected growth/benchmark score for all three grades-6th thru 8th grade.

The students did the work. I provided an opportunity for them to read and gave them reading material that they were interested in-all of this was done in a non-threatening environment where reading is valued.

They believed me when I told them that if they read more, they would become better readers. I believed it, and in turn, they believed it and then saw that it worked.

We've had 4 students ask to be part of Session 3 because they saw that Reading Essentials Class helped them become better readers.

There is no better gauge of success then satisfied customers. I couldn't ask for more.