Since it is almost the end of the year (??!!? When did this happen?), I am trying to get all my kids tested using the IRI reading test. I tested them at the beginning of the year, too. The IRI is a test of reading ability. Basically the kids read a short leveled passage and then I ask them questions about it. They are monitored for fluency (though with my kids the issue is always comprehension, not fluency) and you are looking for the level they get about 70% comprehension. This is their “instructional” level, meaning that this level is hard enough that they are pushing themselves but not so hard that they are frustrated (compared to their “independent” level, which they can read by themselves and understand). The test is similar to the DRA, if you’re familiar with that.
One of the annoyances about the IRI, and one reason that…
Teachers need to be patient. Really patient. SO INCREDIBLY PATIENT. Because here’s the thing. Some kids will get stuff the first time. And then there are some kids who will kind of get it the first time, but then they will really get it the second time. And then there are some kids who need…
read more »Every time I drive one of my kids home, it hits me again that they have grown up in a different world than I did. I don’t think I’ve ever painted a mental picture of what it looks like where my kids live on the Rez, so here goes. Keep in mind everywhere is a…
read more »One of my favorite kids is a 5th grader on my basketball team. He’s not in my class, obviously, but I adore him. He’s funny and sweet (when he thinks no one is looking) and tries so hard at basketball. At school, however, he doesn’t try at all. In fact, he refuses to try at…
read more »I am lucky to have the best kids ever. My kids are, barring a few incidents this week from my boys who can be forgiven because they are exploding with too much testing, fantastically well-behaved. Also, they work hard. At the beginning of the year I had 4 “intensive” students, meaning students who read 60…
read more »Well, the first week of testing is over. We survived! But in the middle of this high-stakes testing, I wanted to talk briefly about something someone commented on a few posts ago. I was lamenting how many things such as cultural references or experiential knowledge get in the way of my kids’ comprehension. The comment…
read more »Realizing that this was originally intended to be musings on teaching, New Mexico, and my life, and that I’m usually more about the teaching, and that while teaching is one aspect of my life but not (hear that, self? NOT) my whole life, I have decided to write about something else. Like the Wild Spirit…
read more »My reading group is reading Holes by Louis Sachar, which, if you haven’t read it, you should go read right now. But in case you’re not going to do that, brief summary: poor, chubby, but generally nice boy Stanley is in the wrong place at the wrong time and gets sent to Camp Green Lake,…
read more »Have you ever dreaded something so much that every time you think of it, your stomach does a little barrel roll? And you feel kind of nauseated? And you try desperately to think of something, anything else? And then has that something that you’re dreading ever been something that was beyond your control? Or something…
read more »I adore my student’s dad. Not in a creepy inappropriate way, but in a I-want-you-to-tell-me-stories way. Today was parent-teacher conferences, which still make me vaguely surprised that I am the teacher in this scenario (not that I expected to be the parent, but still), and he came in wearing his typical jeans, boots, and cowboy…
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