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.

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.

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.

Middle School is Worse than Meatloaf

Middle School Is Worse Than Meatloaf by Jennifer L. Holm has caught the imagination of the 6th graders in my class for reluctant readers.


I suggested Middle School is Worse than Meatloaf to a 6th grade boy last week. He said, "No thanks" at first look. "It looks like a girl's book." But when I opened the book and started talking about it, his curiosity got the best of him.


He finished the book today and had high praise for it. "It wasn't a girl's book", he commented to me and cheerfully told me the story of Ginny and her trials in middle school.




I don't think there is higher praise for a book than that.

Newbery Challenge

I have always enjoyed reading books that have been awarded the Newbery Award.  The Newbery Award is given annually "most distinguished contribution to American literature for children". It is the premier award for chapter books.  Looking over the list of winners since the inception of the award in 1922, there are many titles that I read to my own children.  So I know that I've been reading Newbery winners for years.  But this year I'm getting serious and I've joined the Newbery Medal Reading Challenge.  I learned about it with my new 'friends' who blog and tweet about books for children.  


I am going to try and read all of the Newbery winners and honor books from the past 90 years.  I don't expect to finish in one year.  The Challenge is billed as being 'stress-free' so I can't set unrealistic goals and I'm not going to beat myself up for not going fast enough.  


I will keep you updated on my progress.  I picked up three Newbery winners this morning at the library used book sale.  


If you are interested in joining the Challenge with me, go to Watch.Connect.Read.