Fluency Fridays

Fluency Card Bank from Lakeshore Learning

I began Fluency Fridays 8 years ago with the DRA {Developmental Reading Assessment} starting putting emphasis on Words Per Minute and students couldn't progress on to the next reading level if they didn't meet the fluency rate requirement.

Every Friday I would check all of my second graders fluency. Flash forward... I teach third grade now and not every child needs fluency rate practice. Every Fall when I complete DRA assessments I make a list of students who failed a level because of WPM as well as a list of students whose WPM is borderline. Usually that's around 8-12 students. On Fridays I check those student's fluency only.

I was finally able to capture some pictures of how I set up my fluency checks while teaching summer school. I use the fluency record that comes with the kit to track their progress and I used a program called Graph Club years ago and created this graph {sorry I don't have an electronic copy}. Students read the colored copy from the kit while I follow along in my binder. I also use the minute timers the kit came with to measure how many words they can read per minute.

I use a 1 inch binder for my Fluency Checks

I copied one Fiction and Nonfiction Passage from each level and put them in sheet protectors in the binder.

I started this student at a level E, as you can see it took two tries to pass that level and then she went onto level F. During the year, I would give her the Nonfiction E but for sake of time this summer I just went onto the next level.

As you can see this student's fluency was inconsistent this summer.

This student was only able to stay on level G this summer but you can see that his fluency doubled from the beginning of summer school until the end.

This student was able to progress through 3 levels this summer. I also remind them that their fluency drops when the begin a higher level but then usually by the second reading they bounce back.

 

Every year I've seen students who've struggled with fluency increase their WPM and most importantly their confidence by do this every Friday. What do you do to increase fluency in your classroom?

T minus 13 Days

Only 13 more days until summer vacation! Did you enjoy your Memorial Day weekend? I sure did. My husband and I traveled to Phoenixville, PA for our nephew's 1st birthday party. It was basically a 3 day event, between Monkey Joe's for the kids and Bounce U for the adults, shopping at the outlets and a family trip to Arnold's Family Fun Center, I'm exhausted. But I did make time to visit the Lakeshore Learning Store at King of Prussia. Here's what I bought...

I can't wait to use these Find the Evidence Clips. Students use them during
Guided Reading to mark their book. I'll probably do a test run with these
in Summer School.

I finally broke down and purchased these Nonfiction Question Sticks.
I purchased something similar years ago, but this year they came out with
two separate tubs, one for Nonfiction books and one for Fiction books.

Now that I have both tubs I can pull out the tub I need during Guided Reading
instead of reading through to find which ones apply to fiction and nonfiction.

So that's what I picked up on my excursion. I had a coupon and my husband had a coupon so I saved myself $14. I'll still make my yearly summer trip to the Lakeshore Store in Northern Virginia after summer school is over and... wait for it... before my surgery! After a follow up with my GYN, it was decided that it was time to remove the fibroids. So I will be having that procedure done on August 4th. Since it will be an incision there's a 2-8 week recovery time. I'll be missing all of those August Professional Development sessions that's required there's a possibility that I won't return until after teacher work week, but we'll cross that bridge when we get to it.

Now that my class has finished all of their state testing I've got some cute craftivities lined up for them. First, they will each teach a lesson to the class using this resource.

Click the picture for the link.

 Can't wait to display these cute cupcakes in the hallway!



Click the picture for the link.

And these guitars!

Click the picture for the link.

Oh and if you're in need of some FREE end of the year awards, there's some available on my website!



Click the picture for the link.

Summer Wish List

We have only 2-half days left of school... that equates to 7 hours and 20 minutes... but who's counting! I don't know about you but I'm already thinking ahead to next year. Every summer, like thousands of other teachers, I purchase new things for my classroom. But I'm married now, and I have to think of my household first and I can no longer spend money all willy-nilly! Fortunately my husband is very supportive and could probably care less but I don't feel comfortable doing it. In comes summer school... 5 weeks, Monday-Thursday 8am-12pm...$25 an hour! So I'm working summer school to fund my obsessive habit of having every and any thing I want for my classroom! So what will I be working for...(click the pictures for links to the websites)

1. Grade Level T-shirts for my team. I'm using these as back to school gifts.

 

2. I did interactive notes in Social Studies this year and I love the process. Fortunately there is a website just for Virginia Standards that sells interactive notes for all subjects. I know I'm purchasing Math, Science and Social Studies, the jury's still out about Reading.

 

 

3. Have you heard of Gallopade International? Well I love this website, really I love any website that sells products aligned to the Virginia Curriculum. I have most of their resources for 3rd grade but they have these new Digital Readings that I really like. It's 20 readers and they are about the Famous Americans we teach. Side note... 3rd Graders in Virginia take a standardized test on all the social studies content from K-3, so these will be perfect for introductions and review.

 

4. Next year I'll be teaching 3rd grade Science for the first time. Previously I taught Social Studies to two classes while my partner taught Science to both classes. Well my partner is going back to 2nd grade (we both came to 3rd from 2nd) and I thought it would be the perfect time to take responsibility for all my subjects. I order most of my books from Amazon. I have a running wish list with tons of Science books, Character Building, Biographies. Pop on over and take a look, you might find something you can use in your classroom.

 

 

5. My favorite teacher store ever is Lakeshore Learning. I've visited the one in Columbus OH, Matthews NC, Atlanta GA and of course Alexandria VA! Every August I take a trip to Lakeshore with a friend, each year I think it's been a different friend. But this now there's like 6 teachers who want to go with me so we're going to make a day out of it. Go shopping, eat lunch and just have a good time before school starts. I've got several items on my wish list and if you teach in a Common Core State (I don't) they have some new resources for you. I have a couple of CC items on my list because our math standards are very similar.

 

6. Are you familiar with Reading A to Z? Well the have an electronic version call Raz-Kids. I had this program at my previous school but when I transferred 2 years ago I found my new school did the Accelerated Reader program. Well now that the AR program has gone online my school won't be able to purchase any additional quizzes and they will no longer have tech support. So I'm not entirely sure what will have to AR but I have a back up if they decide to get rid of it. I love Raz-Kids because the books are aligned to the students DRA level. I assign a level and students read the books, take quizzes and can even get a worksheet from me about the book. After students have passed the quizzes at their level, it automatically goes to the next level or when I do mid-year DRAs I can change the levels myself.

 

7. This year I purchased Mountain Math and I loved the spiral review. I'm strongly considering Mountain Language next year. I have the math bulletin board but I'm thinking of purchasing the language flip book center.

 

So what's on your wish list, what are you looking to purchase for your classroom in the Fall?