Cookin’ Up Reading

To my 2008-9 students.  You guys were awesome this year.  You learned so much.  I am proud of you and will miss you next year.  Have a great summer and come back next August ready to roll.  And remember to read read read this summer.

Hi Students….Glad to see that some of you are checking out my blog.  Hey, I was really proud of your figurative language presentations.  You rocked!!

I would like to put in a plug for Jamestown’s 5 Star Reading Series, both narrative and expository texts.  I use them in my 7th grade Reading classes as a leveled independent Repeated Readings activity.  This is one way I can individualize instruction as well as increase comprehension.  My students are leveled according to the NWEA reading RIT scores which are given in September as a baseline and again in April (improvement assessed).  I place the students in an anthology at their INDEPENDENT level (2-9).  They must read a story silently and answer the 20 questions (elements of a narrative, vocabulary in context, inferencing, sequencing).  I check their answers immediately.  They must pass with  90% accurace for Narratives and 80% for Expositories.  If they do not pass, then I toss their answer sheet and they must reread the selection and try again.  They all have folders and keep track of their scores on a chart (this categorizes their scores for each skill) and on a graph (this charts their progress).  The students must complete a certain number of stories each week. They calculate a cummlative score at the end of each term which is entered into my gradebook. When the students are assessed at the end of the year, I have found marked improvement in reading levels.  Of course, this is not the only curriculum that I use, but I have used it for several years and have found it to work very well.  The stories and expository pieces are very high interest.  I have found that the students enjoy reading them.

http://readingyear.blogspot.com/

Welcome, to my Blog.  It will be mostly about Reading, but lots of other cool things as well.  Stay tuned….