One of my students ( male with a reputation for disrupting) with a Lexile of 710 just finished "Monster" by Frank Peretti. My copy is hardcover and 500 pages long...and definitely above 710. He could only read a few pages a day, but he carried it with him all the time and other teachers would see him reading when he finished work. I've heard him talking to other students about what he was reading, so I know he was understanding it.
Just wanted to share!
Monday, January 23, 2012
practice groups
I took most of my lower Lexile students and gave the word list test earlier this year. This particular student came up with around 3rd grade level before she hit frustration. That was pretty much where he/she tested last year on the CRCT. That group in third period is the one I've been looking at for the small group.
There are three kids in that group: One is the one I tested, one is ESOL, the other one I'm not sure about. Sometimes she seems able to function above her Lexile rating, other times not.
The student I tested with the word list is the one I gave the reading test to. I used a second grade expository passage, had the child read aloud, and allowed look backs. The oral reading was okay, showing this was an independent passage. BUT - based on the comprehension questions this is the child's instructional level. The student can call the words fairly well, but the comprehension component shows there is a gap. One telling comment the student made was, "You know how it is when you read - you just don't remember most if it." Ouch! That says she needs to read - pause-reflect adn see if that increases her recall of what she has read. All three of the group members will be learning that technique.
There are three kids in that group: One is the one I tested, one is ESOL, the other one I'm not sure about. Sometimes she seems able to function above her Lexile rating, other times not.
The student I tested with the word list is the one I gave the reading test to. I used a second grade expository passage, had the child read aloud, and allowed look backs. The oral reading was okay, showing this was an independent passage. BUT - based on the comprehension questions this is the child's instructional level. The student can call the words fairly well, but the comprehension component shows there is a gap. One telling comment the student made was, "You know how it is when you read - you just don't remember most if it." Ouch! That says she needs to read - pause-reflect adn see if that increases her recall of what she has read. All three of the group members will be learning that technique.
Tuesday, January 10, 2012
"Diagnosis" The Missing Ingredient in RTI Assessment"
I agree that if you have a student having difficulties, you need to try to figure out what's going on. Is the student coming to school unprepared to learn? Is the focus of the family away from education? Does the student have a learning dissability? Was there something they missed in an earlier grade / lesson?
As I read the article, however, I noticed they were mainly speaking about early learning, not upper grades. I think teachers in these grades are much more comfortable with the diagnostic process than middle and high school teachers, and have access to resources the upper teachers do not. That being said, we teachers in the upper grades recognize many of our students have problems, we jsut don't know what to do about it.
Currently, the common practice seems to be to focus on those kids that can be fixed quickly so test scores will rise. It seems the focus is on the test, not the students. I've been told some students are too low to qualify for the "enrichment" classes. In other words, they weren't a "bubble" kid so there wasn't enough time to bring them to "meets the standard".
I guess my questions for the authors would be along the lines of :
1) I have a class of 27 students, 5 of which are around a third grade reading level, 7 are on a fifth grade level, and 6 are on sixth grade level. The rest are around grade level. No one is above grade level. In 60 minutes, with 27 students and no assistance, how do you effectively test and diagnose problems? Did I mention I have some of the top discipline problems int he school in there as well? Oh, and 4 are SST kids.
2) What assessments do I use? After that, what materials? I have a basal reader and my own paperbacks.
3) I know some sorts of testing were done at the elementary level, but where do we see the results?
4) In a regular education middle school class, how do you remediate and teach the standards at the same time?
The average upper grade teacher needs validation that what they have been seeing is in fact true. This article gives us that: you have to be able to DO something with all that data that's been collected. Now, help us by giving us specifics.
As I read the article, however, I noticed they were mainly speaking about early learning, not upper grades. I think teachers in these grades are much more comfortable with the diagnostic process than middle and high school teachers, and have access to resources the upper teachers do not. That being said, we teachers in the upper grades recognize many of our students have problems, we jsut don't know what to do about it.
Currently, the common practice seems to be to focus on those kids that can be fixed quickly so test scores will rise. It seems the focus is on the test, not the students. I've been told some students are too low to qualify for the "enrichment" classes. In other words, they weren't a "bubble" kid so there wasn't enough time to bring them to "meets the standard".
I guess my questions for the authors would be along the lines of :
1) I have a class of 27 students, 5 of which are around a third grade reading level, 7 are on a fifth grade level, and 6 are on sixth grade level. The rest are around grade level. No one is above grade level. In 60 minutes, with 27 students and no assistance, how do you effectively test and diagnose problems? Did I mention I have some of the top discipline problems int he school in there as well? Oh, and 4 are SST kids.
2) What assessments do I use? After that, what materials? I have a basal reader and my own paperbacks.
3) I know some sorts of testing were done at the elementary level, but where do we see the results?
4) In a regular education middle school class, how do you remediate and teach the standards at the same time?
The average upper grade teacher needs validation that what they have been seeing is in fact true. This article gives us that: you have to be able to DO something with all that data that's been collected. Now, help us by giving us specifics.
Friday, November 11, 2011
Note taking lesson - II
Starting Monday, the students are going to take the notes they have written and plug the note numbers into a 4-square. After that, they're going to construct an outline, edit it, and finally write a short paper on wolves.
Keep your fingers crossed. I'm hoping modeling the process for them and then having them work with me will give them a leg up on research writing.
Judy
Keep your fingers crossed. I'm hoping modeling the process for them and then having them work with me will give them a leg up on research writing.
Judy
Tuesday, November 8, 2011
note-taking lesson
Some of the standards for ELA cover researching and writing papers. I did a lesson today on notetaking that seemed to help get them started in the right direction.
First - I found some general directions on notetaking - skim first, look at headings, captions, structure of passage (bold print words, etc.) before starting to take notes and put it on a Word document so I could project it.
Next - I cut / pasted three short passages on wolves into word document - with web addresses
I put the first page of directions on the screen and just briefly read over them with the kids. Then I put up the passages. As per the directions, they could tell me what they needed to do first. I modeled skimming and thinking aloud about the structure / headings.
Next they got out a sheet of paper and we practiced taking down just facts from what we read. (Somewhere I saw to explain to them it's like texting: you don't text whole sentences, just facts / key words.)
We only did the first passage today, so I'm going to move on to the 2nd and 3rd tomorrow. I think notetaking was becoming a bit clearer. I hope so; they have a major research paper they will be starting for science in a few weeks!
Judy
First - I found some general directions on notetaking - skim first, look at headings, captions, structure of passage (bold print words, etc.) before starting to take notes and put it on a Word document so I could project it.
Next - I cut / pasted three short passages on wolves into word document - with web addresses
I put the first page of directions on the screen and just briefly read over them with the kids. Then I put up the passages. As per the directions, they could tell me what they needed to do first. I modeled skimming and thinking aloud about the structure / headings.
Next they got out a sheet of paper and we practiced taking down just facts from what we read. (Somewhere I saw to explain to them it's like texting: you don't text whole sentences, just facts / key words.)
We only did the first passage today, so I'm going to move on to the 2nd and 3rd tomorrow. I think notetaking was becoming a bit clearer. I hope so; they have a major research paper they will be starting for science in a few weeks!
Judy
Thursday, November 3, 2011
"Strategies that Work"
I have this book in the first edition from when I took Literacy Coach training several summers ago. It has very workable things to do with the students in a regular class, not just for when you have the staff to pull out small groups for individualized attention. Not only do they describe the strategy, they also explain how it works in a real class, and show you examples of student-generated work. According to the website, the newer edition has more strategies and even has a free PDF study guide to go along with it. Doc, the strategies will work with higher grades as well - they aren't just elementary.
Judy
http://www.stenhouse.com/shop/pc/viewPrd.asp?idcategory=0&idproduct=310
Since its publication in 2000, Strategies That Work has become an indispensable resource for teachers who want to explicitly teach thinking strategies so that students become engaged, thoughtful, independent readers. In this revised and expanded edition, Stephanie and Anne have added twenty completely new comprehension lessons, extending the scope of the book and exploring the central role that activating background knowledge plays in understanding. Another major addition is the inclusion of a section on content literacy which describes how to apply comprehension strategies flexibly across the curriculum.
View the study guide that accompanies Strategies That Work. The guide is in PDF format so you will need the free Acrobat Reader on your computer.
Judy
http://www.stenhouse.com/shop/pc/viewPrd.asp?idcategory=0&idproduct=310
Strategies That Work
Teaching Comprehension for Understanding and Engagement, Second Edition
Stephanie Harvey and Anne Goudvis Since its publication in 2000, Strategies That Work has become an indispensable resource for teachers who want to explicitly teach thinking strategies so that students become engaged, thoughtful, independent readers. In this revised and expanded edition, Stephanie and Anne have added twenty completely new comprehension lessons, extending the scope of the book and exploring the central role that activating background knowledge plays in understanding. Another major addition is the inclusion of a section on content literacy which describes how to apply comprehension strategies flexibly across the curriculum.
View the study guide that accompanies Strategies That Work. The guide is in PDF format so you will need the free Acrobat Reader on your computer.
Friday, October 14, 2011
Common Core website
When I was going to the CC website, I typed in the address wrong...and ended up at a site run by teachers sharing ideas on the CC. Go to http://www.commoncore.org/ instead of the http://www.corestandards.org/ we've been using.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)