Reading Intervention Activities

Reading Intervention Activities 

Hey friends! Are you tired of searching high and low for reading intervention strategies for your struggling readers? I was too! So I teamed up with my amazing friend  Karen Mallard to bring you a post about running records and reading intervention activities for the classroom.

Reading Intervention Tips

The question we hear so much is, where do I start with my  reading intervention program? The answer is simple: assessments. Reading intervention must start with assessment. Teachers must know what areas students are struggling  with so they can meet their needs effectively. 

Once you assess students, use the data to identify those students who are at risk. Then, be sure  to monitor their progress often. Struggling readers should be assessed at least bi weekly, if not weekly.

After you’ve assessed the student, it’s important to analyze the running record. Running records give the teachers so much information. 

Self-Corrections in Struggling Readers

A topic that we have been discussing at school recently has been self-correction rates.  Some teachers asked for guidance so I gave them some guidelines.  I also think that if a student has a 1:1 ratio but has more than 5 errors that were self-corrected the child is working way too hard.  Analyze the errors and look at the information the student is neglecting.  Is it a weakness in decoding left to right, or a lack of high-frequency word vocabulary?  Address the weakness so the child becomes a more accurate and confident reader. Students who struggle with sight words or high frequency words, can practice those daily using sight word games! These make their learning fun and the kids enjoy them so much!

Self-Correction Rates

1:1 Excellent

1:2 Good

1:3 Fair

1:4 and higher show that the student isn’t monitoring consistently.

Is the student noticing that it doesn’t sound right, make sense, or look right?

Is the student self-correcting with only one source of information and ignoring the others?

The goal is to be flexible and to use all of the cues/information together. (Meaning-pictures, Structure-language, Visual-letters.)

Errors In Reading

Errors in reading are a common issue. It’s important to look for patterns with errors. Are students only having errors with proper nouns? Do they struggle with reading all the way through the word? Think about why you think the student is making the error. This is crucial to figure out how to drive the instruction.

In the primary grades, students sometimes learn a strategy I call “Guess and GO”. These students are looking at the beginning of the word, and guessing on the rest. They do not read through the middle of the word.

  

Sometimes students will have errors similar to guessing, like this:

was/saw

here/her

us/use

Whenever students have these errors, I show them both words. I ask the students if they can see how the words are different and how they are the same. We discuss the meaning of each word  and then use instructional strategies from our intervention binders to help fix it. We use these instructional strategies in our small group instruction to help students make progress in their independent reading levels. 

In our binders, we've included running records that you are analyzed to help you learn how to properly use running records as a data point for your students. This has been so helpful to so many of our colleagues!

Through the intervention binders , students practice skills that they are weak in every single day. This gives students the opportunity to practice the instructional skills they need in order to help close their achievement gap.  If you have questions about how often you should do reading intervention, ask me over here. 

  

Learning Resources for the Classroom and Home

Hey friends! I'm excited to share with you a few products from Carson Dellosa!! I'm really so happy to be working with them through their brand ambassador program! 

First, I have the learning targets! These cards can be used in "I Can Statements" or "Essential Questions". We use the Essential Questions format in my classroom. We review the questions every afternoon. It gives us a way to recap our day and allows the students the chance to reflect on each skill we discussed. Eventually, the students will respond to these "essential questions"  in their response journal, but we aren't quite ready for that!

I store my learning targets in a pocket chart in the front of my classroom. 

 I love these questions because they cover a wide range of topics and skills.  I love this little video regarding the learning targets!!! 

I also received Common Core 4 Today workbooks for my son. I really like the workbooks because he was able to do them as a supplement to his curriculum. My little one isn't exactly thrilled about the idea of school, but he enjoyed these workbooks! They are skill based and include assessments. I like how the book contains several different components.  We especially liked the writing component. 

Lastly, I reviewed the Spectrum Writing workbook.  The neat thing about Carson Dellosa is that they are turning to create more digital based products. I like that because I for one am getting rid of my filing cabinet next year! This product was so easy to use. I have two high students who are using it, as well as my little one. It's perfect because the format is very kid friendly. The examples are clear and concise.  As a teacher, writing is one of my least favorite subjects to teach because I feel like I NEVER have enough  to teach it. So this was a great resource to have to use with my higher students. 

Review Disclaimer: I participate in the Brand Ambassador Program for Carson-Dellosa and have received this product for free to review.

Link to the Carson-Dellosa Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/CarsonDellosa

Reading Assessment Drives Instruction

Hey friends! Reading intervention has ALWAYS been a large part of our day, but I feel like in the last 3-4 years, it's become so much more. General education teachers are now as skilled as reading specialists in some areas! We have so much thrown on us that we pick up and learn different strategies and ways to teach students. Our country has become so "data driven"...but is this a good thing or not??Thoughts? I'd love to hear how you feel about data!  Sound in on my Facebook page. 

I'm working on a series of blog posts regarding Reading Intervention. For today, I want to discuss assessments.

Reading Assessment

The purpose for assessment is to develop a base line for your students. When I first started teaching, I would only test on sight words or rhyming words. I would test in chunks. Now, I do the entire reading assessment at the beginning of the year. This gives me the entire picture of where the student is at and a great place to start with my instruction.

I teamed up with my literacy coach, Karen Mallard, to come up with different ways to help the struggling kiddos. One thing that has helped my students so much was focusing on what words they needed to know in order to advance to a certain levels. We have to assess the students word knowledge before beginning instruction, so these tools are very helpful because everything is right there for you.

After I've analyzed the data, we focus on the words in this list as their "priority" sight words. These are words we feel like the students have to know in order to advance to to next reading level. Students need to learn a TON of sight words, but this is my starting point. The activities in the binder reinforce learning the skills. Shown above and below are the sight word assessments. The binders include assessments for all of the components of reading: Formative Beginning Sound Assessment, Rhyming Assessment, Sight Word Assessments (Reading Levels A-F), Word Awareness, Syllables, Fluency and Comprehension. Once you have assessed students, the binders include activities to instruct students.

The binders include a variety of activities to help students recognize these words.

My students LOVE Three in a Row!!

Stay tuned for more posts about reading intervention! In the meantime, check out the feedback from our intervention binders for grades K-4!! You can check them out here!

Classroom Reveal 2015

Hey friends! I'm a little behind, but I wanted to share my classroom with you! We started school Tuesday, and as you can imagine, I'm so exhausted! So I figured it was a great time to relax as I share my space with you!

This year, I painted my bulletin boards and am so excited how they turned out! I leave my boards blank at the beginning of the year so that we have plenty of space for our learning materials throughout the year. 

View from the door...

This is my math area. I am using Reagan's Free Math Posters. The posters are student friendly and help out with teaching routines at the beginning of the year. 

This is my storage/listening center area. I am using my classroom labels packet. This includes the inspirational quotes.  I found the larger inspirational quotes here. 

Now on to my classroom library. I have a post coming about how I organize it but here are a few pictures...

I used pulsar pink Astrobrights paper to identify my leveled readers section. I think students should be able to browse books both on their level and by theme that they want to read, so I have both in my library. 

Table view. I am using one bucket as a classroom management tool and providing positive feedback to the tables that are working nicely together. Each time I give them a compliment, or praise, I place a pom pom in the bucket. The other bucket is the table's tidy tub. They shouldn't actually be next to each other..but my new firsties must have moved it (and I was too tired to notice ) HA! 

            I am in LOVE with my 10 drawer cart! It stores all of my math centers!

=

My writing center area with the neon fan

My bins for my sub tub and writing folders.

I hope to update our classroom pictures half way through the year so you can see how I use these areas for anchor charts. 

Thanks for stopping by! 

Get the look here!

GoNoodle Blogger Blitz

Hey friends!I'm so excited to link up with my friends over at GoNoodle! I've used GoNoodle in my classroom for the past two years and absolutely love it! The best past is...my STUDENTS love it! 

Let's GoNoodle! 

I use Go Noodle a little differently than some others. At the beginning of school,  we try out the different ways we can have a "Brain Break" in my classroom. Then, we make a list of our top five favorite GoNoodle brain breaks! I do not have pictures from the last two years, but we start back Tuesday, and I'll post pictures on my blog or Instagram. After we make a list of our #Top5, we use those activities for brain breaks for a few weeks. Then, we start over. Each time we start over, we can only reuse ONE of our previous favorite brain breaks. This way, the kids have to get creative and think outside the box. They can't just keep picking the exact same five brain breaks.  As the year goes on, we will incorporate our list into our writing. It's a great way to give the brain break a little extra meaning. We've also made graphs of our favorite brain breaks. I call each activity on GoNoodle a "Brain Break" in my classroom. 

My personal favorite is the 123 Shake. I ALWAYS start with that one! It's easy for us *older* people to maneuver and not look like a fool!! Haha! 

I have a Plus Account and it is SO amazing! I didn't have it the first year and upgrading was the best decision EVER! 

GoNoodle is letting me give a little discount to their Shop! Use the code BTSwithGoNoodle and get your #GoNoodleSwag! I'm excited about my GoNoodle Champ Tee!!

Do you use GoNoodle in your classroom? Comment below with how you use it or your favorite activity!

For your chance to win your own CHAMP TEE:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Crusade for Safety

This little teaching blog has been such a blessing to me. A few years ago, I decided to share a piece of my heart with you. I wanted to bring awareness to topic that was very important to me. It's time for my fourth annual Crusade for Safety.

They say time heals all wounds. I wish that were true. 16 years ago, my life changed forever. Sometimes, a song on the radio can bring me back to that day. Or even the months and years that followed that we continue to struggle. All of the surgeries and other issues that arise for a traumatic event...I can be brought back to that in an instant. I think that the fact that I couldn't remember for so long, left a huge void in the healing process. It's like knowing something happened, but not being able to remember it was so difficult. Now, I remember most of that horrific time.  And I wish I never remembered any of it. Turns out, not knowing is better than knowing in this case.

 I lost a childhood friend that morning.  He was a good guy and always had something funny to say. The way that boy could make me laugh, I'll never forget it. The hardest part now, is being an adult who has experienced marriage, children, a career and life...realizing that he never got that chance. 

AAA  put out a great article earlier this year. I think the biggest thing I could stress, is that if you have newly licensed teens, think about how many people are in the car with them. Chances of a fatal crash go up significantly with each passenger that is in the car. Cell phones are a HUGE issue that we did not have in 1999. Now, parents have to add more to the list of things to discuss with teens and safe driving. PUT THE PHONE DOWN! Teens are on their phones all the time. Just remember "IT CAN WAIT"!!! I know some adults that could use that reminder (including myself). 

 I'm using our experience to help others. If sharing this story helps ONE family sit down and discuss how their teen is driving, who is in the car, where the cell phone is, etc...than I'm happy. I can't bring my friend back or change the past, but I can bring awareness to this issue. I firmly believe everyone has their day, and I firmly believe we also have experiences that can be avoided. Take the time to talk to your kids, at least they will be LESS likely to experience this type of tragedy first hand if they follow a few simple guidelines. 

For more stats and information on teenage driving, check out DoSomething.Org.