Skip to main content

READ 180 UPDATE

Before leaving for Thanksgiving Break, my students took the SRI test for the second time this year. This test measures each student's lexile level.  This is an exciting time for my students but  also creates a bit of anxiety in both my students and me, the teacher! These students give up their elective to take this class, so I definitely want them to feel as though their hard work is worth it! As you can see from the chart below, we would like students to be between a 970-1185 at the middle school level.  Before the test, I gave the students a pep talk, had them look at their first score, and then sprinkled them with fairy dust (aka glitter).  Don't worry!  I only sprinkled those who wanted to be sprinkled!  

I told students they were welcome to take a bathroom break, go get a drink, or just get up and stretch at any time during the test. They were so focused!  After about twenty-five  minutes, students began to finish.   One by one, I'd hear an excited voice say, "Mrs. Karney, I finished!"  Most students had  big smile on their faces! Below is a chart showing each student's growth since the first test this year.  Of course, I cut off the students' names!  I was beyond thrilled with their results.  

According to Scholastic, students should expect to gain 75-100 Lexiles per year!

I then asked students to figure out how many points they'd grown since the first test and write it on my poster.  They were SO excited to do this! I can't wait to see how much they improve by the end of the year.  Some of my students have made enough progress to allow them to leave my class at the semester. :)

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

TQE: Get students Engaged and Digging Deep

I've mentioned before how Twitter has helped me grow as an educator.  Edutwitter is a valuable resource for book recommendations, new teaching methods, lessons, and articles.  One of my favorite educators to follow is Marissa Thompson, a high school teacher at Carlsbad High. This summer I read about her TQE(thoughts, questions, epiphanies) method for discussing literature.  I'd always longed for having discussions like the ones I had in my college literature courses, but when I try fishbowl or Socratic seminar with my students, the discussions felt forced, flat, and awkward. That changed today when I tried TQE for the first time.  Sharing homework in small groups Students writing their TQEs on the board When I listened to Marissa's podcast on Cult of Pedagogy ( check it out here ), I was intimidated. After all, her students are in high school and have a rock star teacher.  I think I read the transcript twenty times before finally trying it.  Here's h

Writing an Essay...with a Partner

I love technology for collaboration! Teaching writing to middle school students is not easy.  All students come with different skills and knowledge.  With 35 students in a class, it's impossible to sit down one on one and assist students with the writing process.  Teaching students to write a literary analysis is particularly challenging because most seventh-graders have little, to no experience.  Students need to learn to  develop a thesis statement, find evidence from the text to support it, provide the context of the selected quotations , and write insightful commentary on the evidence they selected. Remember, these kiddos are twelve! Graphic organizers are particularly helpful to these young writers. The biggest challenge is providing feedback to students as they are writing, rather than after they turn their work in for a grade.  Students need to be able to use the feedback they receive and see the difference it makes in the final product.  I was adamant that I was not go

The Outsiders

Anyone else remember reading The Outsiders in middle school?  I remember reading it in 7th grade in 1981. Oh how I loved that book!  Then came the movie!  Rob Lowe, Tom Cruise, Leif Garret, Matt Dillon, and Patrick Swayze were some of the actors in this Francis Ford Coppola film.  I have to admit that it was a little depressing this year when I mentioned that Tom Cruise was in the movie, and only one student said, "I think I have heard of him."   Yet, here it is 2014 and my students are enjoying this book as much as I did.  On the surface the book is about two rival "gangs," the Socs and the Greasers.  However, the book is about so much more.  It is about stereotypes and prejudging people.  It's about true friendship, family, and loyalty.  It's about courage and growing up.  That makes it the perfect book for middle schoolers. I started off the unit with a web quest about the 1960s to get the students acquainted with the setting of the novel.  They