I have this love hate relationship with reading fluency. My building uses DIBELS for all our primary students but only use the DRA decoding rubric for the intermediate students. Both of these assessments have speed ranges are the bare minimum of how fast students need to be reading.

Now factor in Common Core. Fluency is addressed starting in kindergarten with standard RF 1.4 RF.K.4 with students reading emergent-reader texts with purpose and understanding. And the standard changes in first grade with RF.1.4 where students have to read with sufficient accuracy and fluency to support comprehension. It remains the same through fifth grade. Common Core doesn't address in detail what that looks like. The key in reading fluency is finding that perfect balance of accuracy and understand what is being read. Common Core wants students to understand what they are reading and then have meaning deep conversation about what they are being taught. This is a hard balance and a tough shift this year for me.

It's the readability and the depth in which students have to understand material that really counts. This has more to do with Lexile Measures than DRA or Fountas and Pinnell levels than anything else. This makes for some very fun shifts in what students have to read and what they need to be able to read. The focus needs to stay on text just slightly harder than their independent reading level (at 96% to 98% accuracy and 90 to 125 wcpm) to have a conversation with the depth needed for them to demonstrate that they really understand what they are reading. The shift is in the text complexity. Check Common Core Appendix A for more information on what the Lexile expectations look like.

I'm not sure this is a huge problem for my student's who struggle with reading fluency but I do know that if they can't read fast enough, they won't finish the test. Students should not see difficult material for the first time on these tests. They have to be prepared to closely read, examine, decode, and digest material that is not within their “fluency” or comfort range.

I'm not sure if the best way to accomplish this is by giving them more challenging texts or by guiding students through have a more in-depth conversation about what they are reading.  If students can talk about what they are reading, then they can write about it.

Close Reading where students markup the text is a great way to support students. I have had student do this but I'm having problems with them transferring this idea outside of their time with me. Plus, our new assessment will be on the computer. No marking the text. Markup the text has helped them find the evidence to support their thinking which is I've been told is way more important. They need to work on telling why they picked that specific chunk of text though.

Why Fluency is important:

As great as close reading of complex text maybe for instruction, we should not measure independent reading. Also from Appendix A (p.4):

Students need opportunities to stretch their reading abilities but also to experience the satisfaction and pleasure of easy, fluent reading within them, both of which the Standards allow for…. Students deeply interested in a given topic, for example, may engage with texts on that subject across a range of complexity.

It's the reading easy material that a student enjoys a book and builds fluency. For independent reading recommendations, students need to read and enjoy whatever they choose, at whatever level for independent reading. That is how to build lifelong readers.

My third grade students are going back to multiplication after Christmas Break. This will be the second time they will have had the content. This time I have to get them to mastery. These guys have a working foundation of the meaning of multiplication through creating models to represent equations.

What are Accommodations for Multiplication?

These are suggestions for mathematics learning accommodations based on specific learning disabilities. These learning accommodations have been proven successful with many learning disabled students. Not all of these learning accommodations are usually needed for most of the learning disabled students. Even using all these learning accommodations may not circumvent every student's learning disability. However, in every case the learning disabled students must be taught math study skills to help compensate for their learning problems.

Visual Processing Speed/Visual Processing

• Note-taker
• Re-Work notes
• Tape Recorder with tape counter
• Large print handouts
• Large print copies of important textbook pages
• Taped textbook
• Turn note book sideways
• Take notes in different pen colors

Short-Term Memory/Auditory Processing

• Note-takers
• Re-work notes
• Tape recorder with tape counter
• Physical proximity Math video tapes
• Tape record important tutor explanations

Fluid Reasoning/Long Term Retrieval

• Note-takers
• Re-work notes
• Tape recorder with tape counter
• Handouts
• Math video tapes
• Fact sheets (flash cards)
• Color coded problem steps
• Tape record important tutor explanations
• Strategy Cards for Higher Grades
• Calculators

Since, coming back from Thanksgiving Break, I have worked to shift the cognitive load in my small groups. This has not been as easy as you may think. Why?? Well, mostly because of the rubric I'm evaluated and I do most of the work. My students will never be able to tackle more complex text, if I can't find ways for them to take that load on.

The Common Core State Standards have changed the way I look at teaching reading. I have had to shift my focus to increase the rigor and cognitive load on my students to gathering evidence, knowledge, and insights from what they read. In fact, 80-90% of the reading standards in every grade require text-dependent analysis — being able to answer questions only by referring back to the assigned text, not by drawing upon and referencing prior knowledge and experiences. This is the first year where 90% of everything my students has read has been informational text.

The hard part getting students to talk more about the text without my direct support--ie; me needing to talk way, way less. But this means that they have to take it having the conversation about the book at a depth that is meaningful and with a high level of rigor.

Gretchen Owocki's book has some many strategies to support reader and show the progression of rigor from kindergarten to fifth grade for the Common Core Standards. My students have been working on Reading Anchor 1: Read closely to determine what the text says explicitly and to make logical inferences from it; cite textural evidence when writing or speaking to support conclusions drawn from the text. (Key ideas and Details)

Students have to read closely, to determine what the text says to find the evidence to support their thinking. Easier said than done. This can be seen in what students need to be able to do on their own at the end of each reading level. One way that I have been able to build my student's ability to talk about books has been to use Accountability stems. These sentence frames have scaffolded my student's as they move towards these benchmarks.

I have many factors to keep in mind how I introduce students to the advanced language of informational text analysis because they don't have the skill set necessary to access more complex text or the relevant terminology to be successful without direct support.. Informational and narrative text features, organization, genres, comprehension questions, and constructed response tasks differ strikingly.

Accountability talk is one way that I'm able to increase the cognitive load on my students because they get to do all the talking. I have included a sample of the sentence frames I use with my students.

The ultimate goal is to ensure that students are more familiar with the text structure and content. This also gives all students daily opportunities to communicate using more sophisticated social and academic English. The more they talk the better. Have a great week.

The beginning of the week started by teaching my 3rd grade math group subtraction. We worked on addition before leaving for break--I was amazed that they remembered how to do addition after getting back. With addition using unifix cubes and drawing the pictures out had them adding within minutes.

I have spent the better part of my break trying to figure out how to increase student access to text without changing the depth of knowledge. Easier said then down. Well almost--until I stumbled okay fell into a feature in Boardmarker that can be found in 6, Studio and plus-symbolate. Talk about a blessing--a whole lot less cutting and pasting and more learning.

Symbolate in a nutshell adds pictures to words in a sentence. It was so excited to share that I created my first video. I'm going to try it next week with a student with autism to see if it helps him answer questions after he has read. What started this was this student who does better when pictures are attached to what he needs to do. So, knowing that answering basic who, what, when, where questions is tough on a good day that perhaps adding pictures would help him understand and answer comprehension questions after he has read. I can see doing this for other things too like a unit math test--not to change the work but to increase access to the text.

This quick and easy adaptation to text is an instructional accommodation. As an access accommodation that provides access to the core curriculum and doesn't affect the mastery level expected of students.



I've included a couple that I have created to use when I have the student in Wilson. If these work for him than I can see using it for other things like math.

Don't forget that everything in my store will be on sale Monday and Tuesday (12/2 and 12/3). Have a great week!

We have all familiar with Common Core but our parents well that's a whole different thing. If your parents are like mine, understanding Common Core is more than a challenge.  Explaining what it is and how it will change things is hard if not close to impossible. Early this week, I came across a wonderful website that breaks it down for parents. The Parent Toolkit was designed to help parents track and support their child’s progress from preschool to graduation from High School.

NBC News and education company Pearson have come together to form Parent Toolkit, a plain-talk, grade-by-grade digital guide to Common Core and benchmarks for each grade. Parents can drill down by grade to see what the math and English language arts requirements are, and get sample problems that illustrate the concept.

Since parents are also their children’s teachers, the site provides ideas for everyday ways to support what your child’s learning at school. For instance, if he’s working on fractions, give him a real-world lesson by dividing a sandwich. The site is also planning to add social and health and wellness milestones for each grade in 2014.

A heads up I'll be throwing a sale at my Teachers Pay Teachers store the beginning of next month.

I have a couple of students this year that have not moved much in the last year or so. At our weekly, team meetings we talk about about these guys. As a group we try to figure out why they aren't moving. It tends to be asking lots of why and right when you think you've got it; you ask why again. Sometimes we need to come back and collect a specific data point. Other times a plan is hatched and put in place. Think of these as questions and does the evidence show that the student has it.

For the last couple of days I have been teaching addition strategies for adding 2 digit numbers with something could be called success. These guys have a hard time remembering the steps--which makes moving on to regrouping tough but yet they have a couple of strategies that have helped them. The basic strategies they have built on to help them work to find the answers. I would love, love if they would memorize the basic facts but getting a correct answer with another strategy is all that matters at the end of the day. Even if its not the most efficient. It has to be efficient and effective for them--not me the teacher.

Though mastering the basic facts is one strategy its not the end all be all. It is equally important that they make sense of number combinations as they are learning these facts. Here are some strategies to help with this understanding.

Adding Zero
Model adding zero (with younger students) or review it with older students. If a child understands that when you add zero you add nothing, he/she should never get a basic fact with zero wrong. Make sure this understanding is in place.

Adding One (Count up)
Adding one means saying the larger number, then jumping up one number, or counting up one number. This happens every time you add one. It never changes. Never recount the larger number, just say it and count up one.

Example: 6 + 1 = say 6 then 7
44 + 1 = say 44 then 45

Adding Two – Count up Two
Adding two means saying the larger number, then jumping up or counting up twice. Again this is always correct and never changes.

Example: 9 + 2 = say 9 then 10 then 11
45 + 2 say 45 then 46 then 47

Commutative Property:
You also have to teach or review the commutative property. The answer will be the same regardless of the order you add the two numbers. 9 + 2 = 2 + 9 Order
doesn’t matter.

Adding Ten 
Adding ten means jumping up ten (think of a hundred’s chart). The ones digit stays the same but the ten’s digit increases by one. Students must understand this. Using a hundreds board to teach this works well to build understanding. Have students actually count up the ten and write down the result. Then affirm with them the pattern and explain why it works every time.

Example: 5 + 10 = 15

10 + 7 = 17
For older students you can relate this to higher numbers:

Example 23 + 10 = 33
48 + 10 = 58

Double Numbers
To add double numbers there are a couple of strategies that might help students.

When you add a double you are counting by that number once.
For example: 4 + 4 = think of 4,8 … counting by fours
Practice skip counting by each number in turn:
2-4
3-6
4-8 etc. This gets harder with the higher numbers but skip counting is an important skill for students to have.

Doubles occur everywhere in life.
For example: an egg carton is 6 + 6
two hands are 5 + 5
16 pack of crayons has 8 + 8
two weeks 7 + 7 =

Do a variety of activities with double numbers and have students determine and explain which strategies help them remember. Each student should look at each fact and relate to a visual image or counting by strategy that works for them.

Near Doubles 
To use the near doubles strategy a student first has to master the doubles. Then, if the double is known, they use that and count up or down one to find the near double.
Example: 4 + 4 = 8 5 + 4 = 9 (count up one)
Or: 4 + 4 = 8 so 4 + 3 = 7 (count down one)

Adding 5
Adding five has a strategy that is helpful but not completely effective as it is a bit tricky. You can decide if it is helpful or not.

To add fives look for the five in both numbers to make a ten then count on the extra digits.
Example: 5 + 7 = (10 + 2) = 12

5 + 8 = 5 + 5 + 3 = 13

Students who can see the five in 8 should have no difficulty. Students who can’t visualize numbers will find this hard. Most students can be taught to do this with some extra work.

Manipulatives
Math manipulatives are an important bridge to help students connect the concrete to the abstract in mathematical learning. Math manipulatives allow students to see, touch, and move real representations of conceptual ideas. Numbers on a page are brought to life when students can model with representations. Concepts such as decomposition, place value, and fractions benefit from the visual and kinesthetic aspects of manipulatives. Challenging and multi-step problem-solving activities can be made more manageable when students are able to use tools like manipulatives to compute and represent various parts of the problem. Practice in choosing appropriate manipulatives deepens student expertise with identifying the correct tools for solving a problem.

Explaining and critiquing mathematical reasoning are important skills in understanding mathematics. Manipulatives help students discuss and demonstrate their methods for solving problems. This type of collaborative communication builds precision in language as well as procedure. When students can demonstrate the how and why of a math concept, they build connections and prepare for more advanced skills. Manipulatives also provide students a tool for testing their theories and the theories of others. And, manipulatives can assist English language learners, who are still building their vocabularies, demonstrate understanding of math concepts.

Manipulatives are great for concrete, visual learners who need to see the problem to solve them. Unifix cubes moved my math group from having no clue on how to add two digit numbers to having a working strategy that they can use with confidence. For showing their work they just draw what they created. This list is full of great ways to help students to solve addition problems. I hope your students find one or two that help them solve addition problems efficiently and effectively. Have a great week!

What is Feedback?

W. Fred Miser says, “Feedback is an objective description of a student’s performance intended to guide future performance.  Unlike evaluation, which judges performance, feedback is the process of helping our students assess their performance, identify areas where they are right on target and provide them tips on what they can do in the future to improve in areas that need correcting.”

Grant Wiggins  says, “Feedback is not about praise or blame, approval or disapproval.  That’s what evaluation is – placing value.  Feedback is value-neutral.  It describes what you did and did not do.”

“Effective feedback, however, shows where we are in relationship to the objectives and what we need to do to get there. "

“It helps our students see the assignments and tasks we give them as opportunities to learn and grow rather than as assaults on their self-concept. "

“And, effective feedback allows us to tap into a powerful means of not only helping students learn, but helping them get better at learning.”

~ Robyn R. Jackson

 It's that time of year, when the kid talks and problem solving teams start getting together. This year, my team started last month. It was not as bad as I imagined--it always helps when teachers come to these meetings ready to talk and with current, relevant data in hand. This is a challenge when in between benchmarks.  My team gets together for kid talks (the first step) every four weeks with follow up every six.

This year, I have a couple of students who have significant Expressive Language Disorders. In their case language skills almost 4 years behind their chronological ago. This makes it tough as these guys have begun to move into the intermediate grade. This is a list of things that I have share with classroom teachers so that they can keep in mind as they plan and incorporate into your classroom in a meaningful way.

Expressive language refers to the use of spoken language. A student with an expressive language disorder is unable to communicate thoughts, needs or wants at the same level or with the same complexity as his or her same-aged peers. Students with an expressive language disorder may understand most language but are unable to use this language in sentences. Difficulties with the pronunciation of words may or may not be present. Expressive language disorders are a broad category and often overlap with other disabilities or conditions.

These guys have difficulties with word-finding difficulties, limited vocabulary, overuse of non-specific words like “thing” or “stuff,” over reliance on stock phrases, and difficulty “coming to the point” of what they are trying to say.

Academic:

1. Modeling
When asked a question, a student with expressive language disorder may provide you with an incomplete sentence. If you were to ask what they saw at the zoo, the student may respond with "tiger." The best thing to do is to model back a full and correct sentence, such as "I saw a tiger." You do not have to have the students repeat the sentence; just hearing the words in the correct order will help.

2. Choices
When you are asking students with expressive language disorder questions, instead of asking them to form their own sentences, give them choices. Following our zoo example, instead of asking "what did you see at the zoo?" you might ask the student "did you see the lions or the tigers when you were at the zoo?" This takes the stress off of the student to make up their own sentence from scratch.

3. Visuals
Place visuals around your classroom to help remind students of words that they could use. Students with expressive language disorder have difficulties remembering words, so seeing them posted may help.

4. Slow down
This is for you and the student. When you are speaking, slow down and model good speech for the student. When the student is speaking, remind them to slow down and make sure that their sentences are complete. This should increase the students self monitoring skills.

5. Time
Let the student know if you are planning on calling on them. This will give them time to think of a response. When the student is talking, allow them the time that they need.

6. Accommodations
Students with expressive language disorder may require different accommodations. If your student is more comfortable with writing their assignments, or with verbalizing the answers, you should allow them to do this. Try things like word prediction software.

Implications for Instruction

• Repeat back what the student has said, modelling the correct pronunciation, word form or sentence structure. It is unnecessary to ask the student to repeat the correct form after you; what is important is that the student hears the correct form.
• Provide the student with choices of correct grammar, sentence structure or word choice to help them process the correct form or word to use. For example: “Is it a giraffe or an elephant?”, “If it’s a boy, is it he or she?”
• Be patient when the student is speaking; not rushing a student who has expressive language difficulties will reduce frustration levels.
• Use visuals to support expressive language skills. Pictures or written cues can be used to prompt the student to use a longer utterance or initiate a phrase within a specific situation or activity.
• Help build the student’s vocabulary by creating opportunities for focusing on language processing skills, such as sorting and grouping, similarities and differences.
• Help students connect new words and information to pre-existing knowledge.
• Use visuals, symbols or photos to help students organize and communicate their thoughts.
• To facilitate students’ speech intelligibility and expressive language skills, encourage them to slow down while speaking and face their communication partner.
• Provide descriptive feedback for students when the message is not understood. For example: “You were talking too fast, I didn’t understand where you said you were going after school.” This will also improve the students self-monitoring skills.

Implications for Planning and Awareness

• Meet with the student and parents early in the school year to discuss how the school can support the student’s needs. This could include finding out about: the student’s strengths, interests and areas of need successful communication strategies used at home or in the community that could also be used at school.
• Learn as much as you can about how expressive language affects learning and social and emotional well-being. Reading, asking questions and talking to a qualified speech-language pathologist will build your understanding and help you make decisions on how to support the student’s success in the classroom.
• Review any specialized assessments available, including the most recent speech-language report and the recommendations listed.
• Collaborate with the school and/or jurisdictional team to identify and coordinate any needed consultation, supports such as speech therapy, or augmentative communication and assessments.

Social

Unfortunately students with expressive language disorder may only experience social problems because of they cannot effectively communicate their ideas and feelings. Here are some strategies you can use as a to help students with expressive language disorder.

1. Conversations
Students with expressive language disorder may need to be reminded to participate appropriately in conversations. Things like greeting people, answering and asking questions, starting or maintaining a conversation are all things that you may work on with your student.

2. Skills
There are certain communication skills that we may take for granted that a student with expressive language disorder may struggle with. Teaching these students to do things like read body language is important. Role playing can be used, or story telling.

Implications for Social and Emotional Well-being

• Engage the student and parents in planning for transitions between grade levels, different schools and out of school.
• The student may have difficulty with social and conversational skills. Teach the language to use in specific social communication situations, such as:
• greeting people and starting a conversation
• asking and answering questions
• asking for help or clarification.
• Explicitly teach social communication skills, such as how to read body language and expressions. Use direct instruction along with modelling, storytelling and role-play.
• Provide support in transitioning from one activity or place to another. Cues, routines and purposeful activity during transitions may be helpful so that the student clearly understands what to do.

As a teacher who has had student graduate from Lakewood High School, I have to share their wonderful Lip Dub they created this year. Way to go Tigers!! There Roar will put a smile on your face. Have a great week




Lakewood High School Lip Dub 2013 - Roar from Lakewood High School on Vimeo.

The last month or so I've had a wonderful time reviewing a produce from SmileMakers. I use timers for everything. I have a stash. Everyone laughs because I often have two or three timers out for groups-one for me for the group time; one for a specific task that they do daily like sounds and letters; and a third should a student need a minute or two. This year I have several students who need visual support to manage time. I reviewed the Time Tracker
Visual Timer & Clock.

I loved:

• 3 colored lights and 6 sound effects that alert children to time remaining
• Helps students learn to manage time 
•  Viewing and a large, easy-to-read LCD display
• Time break down: 80%, 15%, and 5%

• Poor directions; not easy to change times
• The main drawback is that the controls are awkward
• Engineering is horrible
• No AC Adapter and to use 4 AA batteries

There is both a manual and an automatic mode, but they are both pretty similar. "Manual" means you set the amount of time for each phase, along with the optional sounds. "Automatic" means you set the total time, and the percentage of the total for each phase. Once you have a standard one set, you can reuse it but if you need to change it you have to do some button-pushing.

I was not a good speller growing up. I was never given strategies to help me just list after list and sentence after sentence in the hopes that I could become a great speller.  I think it was when my family bought our first computer did I begin to see some light. But I still had to work at it. Even today, I type everything, but that does little when it comes to teaching spelling. I have created a list of spelling apps that I use with students to help them practice spelling.

Phonetically Regular, One-Syllable Words

Sound Beginnings by Preschool University

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/sound-beginnings/id541898864?mt=8

 This app matches pictures at the beginning, middle and ends of consonant-vowel-consonant words and by matching letters to sounds. By touching the letter, the user can hear the associated sound; touching pictures allows the player to hear the name of the picture.

ABC Spelling Magic Short Vowel Words by Preschool University

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/abc-spelling-magic-short-vowel/id429301553?mt=8

The Word Building game includes only the three letters needed; the Moveable Alphabet includes all letters. Consonants are in red; vowels are in blue. Touching the letters reveals the sound. Touch the picture to hear the word; then drag letters into the boxes under the picture to spell the word. Incorrect spellings won’t stick! The letters of correctly spelled words blend into the word.

ABC Spelling Magic 2 Consonant Blends by Preschool University

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/abc-spelling-magic-2-consonant/id438133737?mt=8

ABC Spelling Magic, Spelling Magic 2 focuses on beginning and ending consonant blends and double letter spellings (e.g., ff, ll, ss). Touching the picture reveals the oral word; touching the spaces below the picture reveals the sounds; touching the letters reveals the corresponding sounds.

ABC Spelling Magic 4 Silent Final e by Preschool University

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/abc-spelling-magic-4-silent/id598794973?mt=8

In the Short/Long Vowel game, the CVC picture and word appear first (e.g., cap). When the player drags the final silent e into place, the picture changes (cape) and the corresponding word is spoken.

Simplex Spelling Phonics 1

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/simplex-spelling-phonics-1/id481553580?mt=8

Students learn how to spell the words on the given lists and also learn common patterns in spelling, which will help them spell words that aren't included on the app's embedded lists. The voice commands are clear and helpful, as are the color clues and clearly laid out spelling rules that pop up when players choose to get a hint on the words they misspell. This app supports multiple users, so it's easy to keep track of progress for each student. The app comes close to matching Wilson Reading Systems scope and sequence.

Phonetically Regular, Two-Syllable Words

ABC Spelling Magic 3 by Preschool University

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/abc-spelling-magic-3-multiple/id446294881?mt=8

This app builds two-syllable words with 4 – 5 letters. Most are closed syllables, but a few examples have open syllables.

High Frequency Words

English Words 1-300: Everyone Learns by Teacher Created Materials ($8.99)

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/english-words-1-300-everyone/id659204648?mt=8

This app offers seven interactive games and four learning activities designed to read and spell 300 of the most common high frequency words. Touch the robot to hear the word; then write the word below. Then tap the check at the end of the word to hear the word pronounced and spelled. Instant feedback will not let you make a mistake. At any time, the player can easily access oral instructions and tap the words to hear them pronounced. Images and sound are professionally produced.

Customized Word Lists

 SpellingCity by SpellingCity

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/spellingcity/id538407602?mt=8

Although the provided word lists are not particularly useful for increasing spelling achievement, one can easily create customized lists to suit any purpose. This is particularly useful for students learning to spell advanced words. On a PC, the adult creates an account at www.vocabularyspellingcity.com. Then one can easily create a new list with a specific focus. After the words are entered, one selects definitions and sentences or creates original text. Once done, users can play a game on the iPad or computer.

These are the ones that I have tried-some I love and a few my students dislike but I have seen their spelling improve over time. I'd love to hear of others--please share. Have a great week.

Today, was an early release day. On these days, the Intervention Team doesn't meet with groups but with teachers to talk about any concerns they have about students. One common theme from today's meeting was setting meaningful, attainable, but growth producing SMART goals. I was surprised that of the teachers I talked with today, setting these types of goals was very foreign to them.

In the past we have done SMART goals but I think it was the fact the goals had to have real teeth and challenging but reachable as well. This is a balance that even after ten year of writing IEP goals, I struggle with. I wish someone had taken the time way back then to teach me how to do it without needing tons of time to get it done.

So, how do you set short term meaningful and attainable goals that also growth producing. Very carefully. The key is to compare apples to apples and not apples to oranges. For example: if looking at reading fluency then the goal needs to include comparing the student to their same grade level peers. Take a third grade student whose DIBELS grade level oral reading fluency is well below benchmark then the student needs a goal at grade level comparing them to their grade level peers.

Why??? Is this how you begin to make a case that the student may need to be looked at for special education.

With that grade level information you can now create a SMART goal that has punch. As a general rule of thumb, I like setting mine in 4 week blocks and then create a new goal.

In most cases, I set fluency goals with a 2 more words a week growth. When I set the next goal, I may not use the same number--I usually increase the number. All of the students that I progress monitor for fluency works, I do so at grade level. Over the years, I have been told not too that I should progress monitor off level but then I not no idea if what I was doing was working. These days its standard practice.

I wish classroom teachers would understand its okay if they don't make it--it helps build a body of evidence. In my state that means that the things teachers do and the data they collect is way, way more important than what happens after talking about special education.

This year, I'm starting with two groups of Wilson Reading Systems. For ALL of them they have been through more than a year of it and have MANY bad habits. One group, is starting back in Book 1, page 2 for at least the second because they can't read and spell the words fluently. These guys have only two strategies to decode words--tapping and sounding words out. The thing that makes Wilson a great reading system in cutting students off from using those strategies.

So, this year I have cut them off. No more tapping or sounding CVC words out. Yes, that's right no more! But this means I had to give them a new strategy to use. Well, that's been "Chunky Monkey." Those of you familiar with Book 1 page 2--you know it starts with short a and only a handful of letters. That's all you need to rhyme. When I started on Friday with this strategy, they were very shocked that I was taking the security blanket away but by the time we were done Friday they were beginning to believe me--they didn't need it.

Finding the balance between having them tap and sound out when first moving into a new substep and when to cut them off if very hard. These guys couldn't move on to reading more difficult material because they didn't know what else to use. Will, "Chunky Monkey" always be the answer no but as they move through (I hope) the other steps they will learn other strategies to decode words they don't know.

Besides charting and encoding work, how do I know they are "getting it." Simple. All my groups have learning targets and as part of that target is a quick self-assessment. This group uses Robert Marzano's Assessment for Student Learning. Each student has a clothespin and on their way out the door they put their clip where they think it should go.

 I can then go back later and record they responds. Currently, I'm using Easy Assessment. So far, after I have put the groups and kids plus my rubrics in, I can track how they are scoring themselves and share the information with others. Last year, I used Google, I had problems when it came to sharing the information with others and seeing how students progressed throughout lessons and over a month.



This version of Marzano's Assessment for Student Learning, is available here at my TpT Store for purchase. It has both the wall version but also posters.

I hope everyone is off to a great school year. My thoughts and prayers go out to my fellow Coloradans up north. We have blue skies and warming up before winter comes knocking.

The last two weeks have been NUTS. Pulling schedules together at the beginning of the year is always crazy but in the last two week I had days where both mine and my para's schedule changed twice before lunch. Really-I have to say--I just want to get started and not deal with that mess. But I think it's finial all worked out and I can get down to business.

When my building does flext testing, one things that all students kindergarten to fourth grade are tested on the 500 High Frequency words. The hope being like with phonics instruction that ALL students know all of them and it becomes a non issue when students move through the RTI process. This year, I have taken that insane list word words and broken it down into groups of fifty and color coded them. Creating Super Hero High Frequency Words.

Each fifty words is a different color with word cards, graphes for reading and spelling, and labels to for students to brag about their accomplishment. I have added two of my favorite fluency building games one with dice and the other uses a timer and can be built of specific student needs. This packet is perfect for RTI and small groups. You can find at my store here.

I'm giving away three to the first three people of leave a comment on my blog. Make sure you leave your email address, so I can send you your freebie. Have a great week. Stay cool!!

A little background-This year, I have a student with autism who has limited verbal skills. This poses a small problem when being assessed on the DRA. As all my fellow teachers know the first part of the book is read aloud (depending on the level some more than others) with the comprehension either completed verbally or in writing.

In small group, he has had great success when he has prompts like the 5 "W's" or when he does his retell in pictures. But because the district has said, it must be administered as per the directions-which don't provide accommodations for these sort of things. My team and I have been working on coming up with ways that we could get a better idea of where he is truly an independent reader. Even though we have to us the DRA as written, we can create a way that takes the verbal piece mostly out of the picture and use that to drive his instruction.

My hope is that I'll have a product that will drive instruction and not just a DRA number. The student I designed this form has been out sick. So I'll have more to share next week. Have a great long weekend.

Throughout the previous school year, I collected 200 plus apps for student use. The problem-well-there is no way we would use all of them. So I had to come up with a plan on how I wanted to start the year off. That plan had to include attacking SAMR.

I reported this past Monday. Things have been nuts. I have a new team mate and new leadership again this year. So I'm little CRAZY right now. I've spent my week in training but I have a little freebie to help out your classroom teachers know a little about their IEPs. Yes, they should read the IEPs but we all know how nuts those the first week is.They don't have time to talk, since they have to get rooms ready before Back to School night. But knowing something of them as they are getting up and running is huge. I leave this with them and get back to them by the end of the first week. By Friday they are a little less nuts.

Everything in my store will be on sale Sunday and Monday. Make sure to check out the Special Education Binder (it has all the forms you you need and is editable) http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/The-Special-Education-Binder-Editable-746955and the first 2 units for 1st Grade Math Investigations Units are backwards planned and ready for daily lesson planning http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Investigations-Mathematics-Adding-and-Subtracting-within-20-to-Solve-Problems-794139 and http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Investigations-Mathematics-Counting-Large-Quantities-and-Making-Ten-809094.

My fellow Colorado Bloggers and Pinners are also selling on TpT have some great products that you should check out:

Jean Martin's best selling novel study for Wonder by R.J. Palacio.  It is is wonderful book and teaches kids of all ages about tolerance and acceptance for kids who are different. Also promotes the understanding that who we are on the inside is what really counts.  This is a 5-8 novel study.
http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/A-Novel-Study-for-WONDER-by-RJ-Palacio-395229

Kristy Morris's kindergarten one and second grade writing journals are a big hit with her students.

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Language-Review-Week-to-Week-The-Complete-Set-442491

Wanting ice cream, then Ashlyn Ellsworth's states of matter pack fits the bill. I love this product because first off I use it with my first graders and made this because there wasn't much out there to meet my science needs! The pack is easy to use and the kids love it. The science experiments are great.

Have fun shopping. I have a great week coming up and looking forward to seeing my students again. Enjoy the end of school and getting back to school.

I'm sure I'm not alone when it comes down to downing apps with the promise to play with them all later. Figure out which ones will work best for what and which ones are not so good. So in the ten months since I received my iPads I figure I have downloaded close to 200+ apps. Some great and others I wish I got remove from my cloud.

I prefer having my apps organized by Bloom's thinking which they have been since the beginning. (I talk about that in an earlier post there.) The problem was that keeping them all organized was tough. This year I'm moving to more SAMR thinking, so the apps that I want my students to be need to provide more than one way of thinking. Many are student favorites like Explain Everything and Haiku Deck. Others are plug and play like magnetic letters and all the math practice apps.

The plan this year is to "Teach Above the Line" when students use technology.  The apps I have pulled together represent a couple from each bubble with the plan being that these are the apps students will use the most and are now easy to find since they are not buried.

With hope, I will not take students to long to understand how we use apps when they come and I get some great products.  I'm back to school soon. Keep an eye out for my up-coming sale at my Teacher pay Teachers store. Enjoy summer while it lasts.

 The standards are color coded and are broken down for easy navigation. From this menu, I can open up the standards to the specific grade level targets.

 The piece that I really love is once I open the specific target are the strategies. They provide other ideas in how to work on the target. From there I have the option to enter notes, precursors and successors for that target. I love that fact that I don't have to go looking to for the information what skills they should have mastered todo the grade level skill. And if students have mastered the grade level skill how to push the skill to the next level. I can send the task to classroom teachers with the share button. Mentoring Minds highlights if there is something they don't need to  know at a specific grade level. (Love this!)


The second section Strategies  has tons of information from accommodations and management to RTI and Critical Thinking. Each one has a page of ideas that can be easily implemented. Think twenty books in one place-makes planning with twenty books to one app. Just like there flipped charts in all right there. No more trying to remember where my Depth of Knowledge chart is or where the question stems are Bloom's.

 The last section Vocabulary covers all the common core math words that students need to know. I wish that there were pictures to support the words. But having short and simple definitions makes planning word walls easier.


I was very unsure when I bought this app that it would have everything I was looking for. As you can see you get tons for the twenty dollars.  I have bought the ELA app as well but have not played with it but understand it is set-up the same way. I'm cheap when it comes to buying apps but I love this one just for the simple fact that the strategies and what comes before and after the target are outlined for me. Its less stuff to find or to bring home when I'm planning. This app has been helpful when planning math for one of my tutoring clients. I can't wait to use the app when school starts.

I'm enjoying the last days of my summer break. Happy End of Summer and Beginning of the School Year.