Wednesday, April 6, 2011

Wordless Wednesday....

....just joking!  It would be really hard for me to post something without any words.  I just was too lazy wasn't feeling creative enough to make a fun post title today.

I'm super excited to announce that I won an awesome giveaway that was hosted by Diane and Kelly over at Made for 1st Grade!  I was the first winner of this giveaway so I was able to choose from 3 great Primary Concepts products.  I chose the Word Ladders and I can't wait to use it with my kiddos!  Thank you, ladies!

Most of my third grade students are reading fairly fluently as far as WCPM so we have been working mostly on expression, intonation, etc.  Basically we are "making our reading sound interesting"!  However, I do have a few kiddos who have painfully very slow reading rates so we have been doing weekly fluency checks so that the students can self-monitor their rate.  I have found this to be informational to me, but also motivational for the students!  I got all of my [1-minute] fluency checks from EasyCBM.  I put them in a binder with the student copy on top and assessor copies underneath (in plastic sleeves).  This makes for easy access if we ever have an extra minute or two to do the check!  Eventually I'll probably add other grade levels to this binder, but for now, I only needed the third grade forms.  If you haven't checked out this site, I highly recommend it!  It has a lot of quick checks for literacy as well as math and best of all: it's totally FREE!  :)  What do you all do to help improve your students' reading rates?







I have had a bad cold that first graced me with his presence last Thursday.  Luckily the worst of it seemed to hit me over the weekend.  (Is it sad that I felt lucky to get sick on the weekend so I wouldn't have to miss school?!)  Either way, I'm finally starting to feel better, but my neck has been crazy sore.  So much so that I can barely turn my head or look up and down.  I feel like a zombie or something (not sure why).  I already had a doctor appointment scheduled for tomorrow to check up on my hypertension so I'm holding out for a solution until then.  In the mean time, I'm sporting a new accessory to help my neck until I get to the doctor.  Don't be too jealous.....

Bad qualtiy pic but it's hard to take it backwards!










Speaking of health, a quick update on my high blood pressure sitch: I got an ultrasound last week on my kidneys.  Results: healthy kidneys, yay!  So now my doctor is puzzled (never a good thing) and I'm headed to see her tomorrow to see if she has any other ideas or solutions.  Wish me luck!




10 comments:

Tickled Pink Mandy said...

Thanks for the link for the passages! ORF is huge for my first graders and I am always running out of passages.. And I love how you put them in a binder.. This may help me be more organized than "filing" them in the cabinet! :) haha

Emily said...

I had them filed away and they were never convenient for me...the binder is so much easier to pull out when I need it!
I also forgot to mention that the website allows you to enter their "scores" (wcpm) online and they will create a progress graph for you!

Lorena said...

Thank you for sharing the link on fluency.

Littlelearnerinc.blogspot.com

Rachael Hope said...

lol, We really did have "Wordless Wednesday" in my class today. I had no voice and had to type messages to my kids in Microsoft Word projected onto the screen. They did amazingly well. Thanks for the link on fluency. This is something my class really needs work on!

Deb said...

This is going to be such a huge help in my classroom! Thank you!

Oh My Little Classity Class

Christina said...

Thanks so much for sharing this information. My school is starting our afterschool tutoring this week, so I am so glad I found this site- easyCBM.com to use in my class.
I hope you are feeling better.

Christina

livelaughteach.blogspot.com

Mrs. Yazzie's Classroom News said...

Did I miss something? I checked out easyCBM and I couldn't find any free fluency passages. What am I missing? There was a $3.00 charge with a 100 minimum purchase.

Chris
cryazzienj@yahoo.com

anotherwise said...

I teach first grade and have been doing weekly fluency passages with my students for years. This year I really focused on retell and I couldn't believe how much my student expression and voice changed. They have stopped being racer readers and are reading for comp. Thanks for the ideas.

itsrandi@rocketmath.com said...

Please don't forget that "measuring" fluency is not the same as doing something to improve reading rate. Try repeated re-reading and duet reading techniques to improve fluency. Then the ORF "check" is just that, a check to be sure that the interventions are working.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for sharing! We think you'll also love our literacy and maths stations.
http://www.teacherbrain.com.au