I just received the CRT results for my classes, and I am very excited. Seventy percent of my students scored at the sufficient or substantial progress levels. I did find that telling students their scores were part of their grade made a difference. Each day, several students would ask me whether their scores had been received.
Reading for the first twenty minutes of class seems to have greatly benefited my students; however, I do plan to make some changes next year. Some books had warned against having books such as "Ripley's Believe it or Not" as classroom choices. I found that some students chose those same books everyday and just looked at the pictures, so I am considering not including those books in my collection.
Since I will be teaching the CORE/Reading classes, I plan to go to the library every two weeks and assist students in finding the most engaging books for them. Vocabulary development is critical, and I want that to be another focus. Of course there will be strategy instruction, but I wonder where language development such as punctuation, etc. fits in. I look forward to the challenge.
