NOTE: This blog is not finished. I will be updating this page throughout the summer.
“. . .if we think about the test as a sort of genre, bizarre though it is, we could teach kids how to negotiate it in much the same way that we teach them how to negotiate any other genre.”
~Donna Santman
POWERPOINT
Last year, the new strategies applied in reading instruction in my classroom focused on helping struggling readers to grow. My research found two resources topics that proved helpful.
1. Fluency: I used DIBELS (requires registration; click on FREE testing materials) and easyCBM to practice and measure fluency on a consistent basis. The DIBELS provided a large number of passages to record words per minute. Also, the narrative format of most of the selections served as models for writing.
2. Visual Vocabulary: I used articles from Highlights, Cricket, Hopscotch and Ranger Rick children's magazines to introduce a wide variety of content as reading material. The difficult words from the passages were introduced and practiced with picture/word flashcards made for the SmartBoard and cloze sentences as homework and testing material. The SmartBoard files were also printed and used as flashcards for students to practice in class and at home. NOTE: Google and Yahoo offer image searches. Simply search for your word and scroll to select an appropriate image.
My students showed high growth and above expected success on the End of Grade tests. However, I see areas that they need to achieve more. This summer, I am going to research and find resources to help me provide better instruction and practice with Content Question Stems- including question/answer relationship and Test Taking Tips.
Research Sites for Test Taking Tips (QAR - Question Answer Relationships and Distractors)
- Put Thinking to the Test (online book)
- Mission Literacy
- Like to Read
- Platinum GMAT
- Test Talk PowerPoint
- NC EOG Question Stems
- Richard Allington
- K-8 Visual Reading
- BulletRead
- Speed Reading for Kids
- Self Growth
- BackWoods
- Rocket Reader
- Rocket Reader software
- Reading Comprehension software also science and math
- Video Teacher Guide Test Taking Tips
- Contest Clues
- Info on Misconceptions and Student Errors ****
- Lesson Plans and Answer Choice Categories
- Writing Test Questions and Answer
- Teaching Hasty Test Takers to Think
- NAEP Question Stems and Student Misconceptions
- Conventions of Non-Fiction Text
- Lesson Plans Map
- Test Talk
- Coding Non-Fiction Texts
- Textmapping Lesson for Non-Fiction
- How to Mark Non-Fication Text for Conventions
- Examples of Michigan Question Stems and Descriptors
- Standardized Test Publishers
Continued Resources for Vocabulary and Fluency
Learning Vocabulary through song
GREAT example
What about Read Alouds?
"Remember: There are many "band-aids" that can be applied to cover over reading difficulties - from reading books aloud to reluctant readers to using audio tapes, but the only real solution is to give these kids materials they can read and the skills to tackle that reading with success."
http://www.hip-books.com/teachers.php?p=155
Reaching Reluctant Readers by Paul Kropp
For young students, reading aloud is an effective way to foster comprehension of written language, concept development, and oral language development (Bus, van Ijzendoorn and Pellegrini 1995; Dickinson and Smith 1994).
At the same time, classroom observations reveal that a read-aloud session by itself is not sufficient to increase comprehension. To understand a text, students must be able to relate both their existing knowledge to the words and ideas in the text, and to understand how different kinds of text ‘work’.
This can be a challenging task, especially for students with limited oral language vocabularies (Whitehurst et al. 1994). For read-aloud sessions to be most productive, they should be accompanied by a focused teacher-student talk. The value of talk around book reading is in the way it helps students gain experience with abstract and decontextualised language (i.e. the language used in books to represent ideas and concepts) (Beck and McKeown 2001).
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READ WRITE THINK - Using pictures for Questioning
Tools to Create:
- Interactive Games
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