Now... I had promised a few more reading and writing posts, a few blog entries back. So, back to reading we go!
One thing I am starting to work on is organizing my lessons for my workshop model. I wrote in a post earlier that I have ran the gamut of reading "programs" and my heart always comes back to the workshop model. I can't help it. Does anyone else use the workshop model for upper-el? Or are the majority of you doing the Daily 5? I'd love to know!
Another big thing I do in my room is Accelerated Reader. Another love/hate relationship. We are required to do AR in our classroom, and many teachers in our building even had their teacher evaluations tied into their student's AR goals or progress.
One thing I decided to do in my class was to throw away the reading logs, because students never seemed to do them/like them/care for them, etc. Instead I use Accelerated Reader "point goals" like a reading log instead.
I love it because it encourages reading, and holds students accountable by having them take the tests. But I don't like it because I often find many of my students are only reading "AR point heavy" books. "Oh- this book is only worth 2 points, I'm not reading it.". A teacher's worst nightmare- hence the LOVE/HATE!!!
I have had many talks and mini-lessons with my kids about choosing books. I try so hard every year to get my students to understand that even though a book is not worth 11 points, it is still an AMAZING STORY that you can grow from as a reader. Since we do a lot of reading in class, sometimes those kids that just can't stop obsessing over their AR books and points will read their AR books at home and a different book at school. *Not always the best scenario, but trying to make the best out of a program we are required to use!
Anyways...at our school, we have 30 minutes in the computer lab times each week where we can take our whole class to take AR quizzes. While our students are taking AR tests, we can pull groups, or we can have students progress monitor on the STAR assessment program.
In the STAR program, you can align students' reading level with a specific AR test goal which is awesome. For example, a student that is reading 20 minutes a night, at a 5.2 (5th grade, 2nd month) reading level may have a goal of 11 points in a grading period.
Here is the chart I grabbed off STAR that I use: (ZPD= zone of proximal development, which is basically saying this is how low/high the student can read independently).
Isn't this chart awesome?! So each student sets their individual goal for the marking period, and we track goals at our data center and in students individual reading binders.
Here is an example of how I might sit down with a student and choose her AR point goal:
*Obviously it is up to the teacher to choose, tweak and change. You can see I went with 45 minutes of at home reading for this student, even though my students are only *REQUIRED* to read for 20 minutes every night. By conferencing with this student, and getting to know her, though, I know she LOVES to read. So 45 minutes every night isn't a stretch for her. You can see from the chart above, you may have some students with 23 points, and some students with 8 points.
I have seen so many cute AR tracking boards like:
I read "The Book Whisperer" last summer, and also started the 40 book challenge in my classroom, and with tracking the AR points that my students receive, it also helps them track their 40 books read in the 40 book challenge.
I have included a link to a freebie item in my store which is a 4 page document that highlights my classroom AR routines, includes an AR book log for students' reading binders, a sign up list for taking AR tests in the classroom, and a teacher data table for setting up a class of student's goals.
It's what I use to *START UP* Accelerated Reader in my classroom! Click HERE or on the picture to grab the feebie. ENJOY!
