AIMSWEB Testing

Reading more brings stronger readers. I want to shout it from the rooftop.

This past week we completed our universal screening instrument for all our middle school students. It takes considerable time and dedication of personnel. But the results allow us a snapshot of how our students are progressing. It also helps us be proactive with students and make certain they are offered an intervention when their progress is not what we would like it to be.

The results have been very encouraging for our Reading Essentials Class students. The average gain for the Reading Essentials students was 2 - 3 times the average gain for each class.

I am so happy for our students. I had assured them that if they followed my suggestions, their reading levels would improve. And it did!!

Reading more brings stronger readers. I want to shout it from the rooftop and now I have the data from our school to prove it.

Goodreads.com Book Review

Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I haven't read a more powerful book for a long time. The story is skillfully woven by Sal, a thirteen-year old girl who is facing some of life's most difficult situations.

The surprise ending combined with the understanding and acceptance the characters had for each make this a must-read for all middle school students.

I would especially recommend this for children dealing with loss and grief because of the honest way in which each character reacted to life's hard moments.

View all my reviews

DISSECTing a Word

This week we have been studying the Word Identification Strategy and applying it to words we find in our daily reading. The Word Identification Strategy is designed to help adolescents read the multi-syllable words that are found in Social Studies, Science and Math classes. We are learning to take the words apart or DISSECT them. We found many words in Hunger Games, which is a popular choice of many of the students. These words include:
pained
valor
synonymous
retrieved

We then moved on to look at Social Studies words including conservation, conversion, accurate, accumulate. I'm asking the students to located words in their own reading for us to practice reading. I"ll let you know what they come up with this week.