Mrs. Shields' Literacy Blog: Professional Reading

The Reading Teacher is a source of
great information and ideas.

Mrs. Steinhart and I decided to study this
book by Kylene Beers. We started in October
and will finish up in late April. We've learned
many things to improve our teaching.

Assessment Calendar for System 44 Students

Scholastic Reading Inventory

Every student at Lincoln will take the SRI three times during the school year. System 44 students will take the test during class time. Other students will take it during SuccessMaker.

Basic Reading Inventory

Students will be given this assessment at the beginning of the school year to help me determine . This test includes leveled word lists, leveled reading passages, and comprehension questions. The test is given one-on-one. It's a great opportunity for me to hear each of my student's oral reading, listen to smoothness, and rate.

Mid-Year Assessment

When students complete Series 14 they'll take the mid-year assessment. Since there are 25 series in System 44 this assessment might be more appropriately called the mid-program assessment. Some students haven't taken it yet while others will take it before the end of the school year.

End-of-Year Assessment

When students complete the final series of System 44, Series 25, they'll take the end-of-year assessment.

Fluency Friday

On Fridays students reread text from the Decodable Digest. A student partner times their reading twice and gives feedback on how the reading sounded. Spring oral reading fluency norms for 4th grade are 113-133 words correct per minute, 5th grade 129-149 words correct per minute, and 6th grade 140-160 words correct per minute.

When students finish the software they'll wrap up their time in System 44 and transition back to the regular LARS classroom. During the transition phase they'll take the Scholastic Reading Inventory, Scholastic Phonics Inventory, and the end-of-year assessment to measure phonics and reading growth. They'll usually join a guided reading group with Mrs. Steinhart during their transition.