Week 7

I know that I mainly talk about my English 7 class on my blog, but I also have the privilege of teaching Read 180, our reading intervention class.  I've taught this class numerous times over the past ten years, and it is a very rewarding class to teach!  Students are placed in this class mainly based on their lexile score.  However, we also use other data to make sure we are making the right decision when making a recommendation to parents! To get a lexile score, students take an online reading test.  The first time students take the test,  passages start off easy.  . Difficulty is determined by sentence length and vocabulary difficulty.  Once a student's lexile has been determined, the test is over. 

One of my Read 180 kiddos

The Read 180 model is whole class instruction for the first twenty minutes.   Typically, students receive vocabulary instruction and read with me using the cloze reading strategy in their R books.  Then, we break off into three groups.  Currently, students are grouped based on lexile score.  One group works on the individual software where they practice vocabulary, reading comprehension, fluency, and spelling.  Another group reads a novel of their choice , and the other group works with me.  Sometimes my group works in the R book or L book. other times we work on a writing assignment, and other times we do a close read of a Newsela story!  Yes, there is a LOT of reading!

To keep students motivated, I have developed a reward system using Karney Cash.  Students earn "money" for completing the most software minutes, staying on task, passing quizzes and more.  At the end of the week they can shop in my store.  They get so excited about this, and I love focusing on the positive things that my students do!