Reading Assignment

Students are required to read at home as homework. Students must read 20 minutes each night Monday – Thursday and one time over the weekend (Friday – Sunday) for 20 minutes. Students should have a time every night to do their reading homework. Students that do not complete this will have serve detention to make up for missed time.

Students' Weekly Reading Assignment rewards effort. Students choose a book that they want to read from home, the library, or the bookmobile. The only requirement is that they log the title, time read, and pages. 

Any time students read it counts towards their weekly minutes. They will read each day at school during SSR--Sustained Silent Reading time (10:55-11:10). In addition, they can read at home, on the bus, while they are eating breakfast, once they finish a test or assignment in another class. Any time they read it counts towards their grade.

Reading Assignment Grading Scale

A = 180 + Minutes
B =    120 - 179 Minutes
C =    60 - 119 Minutes
F =    Less than 60 minutes and/or less than 4 times a week.

Extra credit will be given for students that read more than 225 minutes in a week.

Where is Your Homework?

Here's an excuse for not having your homework, Reading Workshop students. Feel free to use it any time.

Or, you could just do your work and be successful.

Image from Tabytha Sidders

An Assignment Checklist

We have a new program to give students a hand. Students will receive a checklist to help them identify things they need to accomplish during Brave Period. Then, student and parent volunteers will help them complete tasks on the “To Do” list. Each week students will fill out and staple an Assignment Checklist in their agenda books, so you can follow up at home to see if there are assignments your child needs complete.

The volunteers will help check Jupiter Grades with the students and then work on missing assignments. They will also help with Study Island lessons, ongoing writing assignments like blog essays and answering the Question of the Week. They will give a hand with social studies or science projects, and assist with homework. 

Hopefully this will help all students as they work to be successful.

Why My Mom Made Me Read Doesn't Work

Student:  Hey Mr. McGuire, I read 594 minutes.

Me:  Wow, that's a lot of reading for two weeks.  That's great!

Student:  Yeah, I know:

Me:  So did you read that much because you like to read, or because your mom made you?

Student:  Hee, hee, the second one.

Me:   Hhhhmmm!

OK, let's think about this.   Students in The Reading Workshop have a weekly Read at Home assignment which is weighted so that the more they read, the higher the grade.  At home, this student has fake read over 3 hours a week, every week of the school year.  In addition, students read at least 2 hours a week during SSR. He sits, with a book, pretending to understand what he is reading.  

His reading log is fairly impressive.  He has 15 books listed, and many are excellent choices.  He has mastered the art of writing responses, even when you don't get the book. But there are 15 great stories, with exciting events, difficult problems and interesting characters that he missed out on.

It sure sounds boring to me.  It would be kind of like watching TV, with  the set turned off.  Freak the Mighty gets it, maybe Kevin can help him.

Fake Reading, Will Smith, and Being Successful

Her homework paper said she read exactly 30 minutes a day.  She read exactly 10 pages each time.  As I looked at the paper, I thought, "another fake reader.  Why?"

The Read at Home assignment is meant to be low stress.  All students have to do to get a good grade is read.  And the more they read, the better the grade.  And they can read any book they want.  But still she chose to fake read.

I know grades do not matter that much to her.  So why did she lie about her reading?  I had already been watching her in class and could see that she does not like reading and has no interest in her book.

I wonder if she is a Will Smith fan?  I wonder if she will believe him when he says she can succeed?  I wonder if she has the guts to want  to be something and the strength to chase it?

The student's task for the day was to pick one area that Will Smith discusses in the video and write a post in their blog.  They could rewatch that piece of the video.  The times are listed in parenthesis after the area.

It Can Be That Easy (1:00)
There's No Shortcut to Success (1:38)
Lay One Brick at a Time (3:00)
Focus on Making a Difference (3:48)
Represent an Idea/Possibilities/You Can Make What You Want (4:35)
You Have to Believe (5:00)
Nothing is Unrealistic (5:45)
Our Thoughts are Physical/Make a Choice (6:47)
You Really Have to Focus (8:08)
Attack Your Fears/"I Hate Being Afraid of Anything" (8:30)
Protect Your Dream (9:17)

You can check out their thoughts, ideas, and opinions by following the links to Student Blogs in the sidebar.

Unbelievable Readers

In the last three weeks, Heather, a student in Reading Workshop has read 1,448 minutes at home! Plus, she read 30 minutes each day during SSR time in class. She read Falling From Fire, Six Months to Live, the Kidnapped series, and the six Spiderwick Chronicles books.

What started as a conversation about what students would read over break, turned in to an unbelievable accomplishment for one class. Students piled up on books the last day, as they prepared to leave for winter break. BUT, I never would have dreamt that they could read anything close to the amount that they read. In fact, 80% of the students earned an A for their read at home grade.

Even more surprising is the total minutes read by a number of students. As I looked over reading logs, student after student totaled up a significant amount of reading and a great collection of books.

Here is a tally of the top readers:

Taylor 465 minutes

Desire' 690 minutes

Kyndrah 1,000 minutes

Collin 664 minutes

Christian W. 1,115 minutes

Heather 1,448 minutes

Tyler S. 445 minutes

Rachael 361 minutes

Students from some of the other classes racked up the minutes:
Jessica 455 minutes
Emma 450 minutes
Kara 544 minutes
Makayla 520 minutes
Corbit 403 minutes
Ryan 511 minutes
Lily 685 minutes

One thing that I know for sure, these students will have a lot of academic successes ahead. Students that read this much will benefit from an ever increasing vocabulary, increased knowledge, and a broader view of the world. Great job to this bunch of unbelievable readers.

*

Using Technology for Education

Having computers and other gadgets in a class is great. But, does it increase student learning? According to many, the only reason schools can justify any expense on technology is if students achievement improves.

This list details many of the ways that technology is integrated into our daily classroom routine.

1. Students do daily online lessons on Study Island. This is tied directly to the curriculum of the state of Ohio.
2. Study Island Student of the Day is awarded to recognize students with excellent performance.
3. Lessons on Ohio Department of Education academic indicators are viewed by the class using the DLP projector, and then sample Study Island questions are answered.
4. Students journal about their SSR book on their Blogs.
5. Students log their reading book titles, times, and pages on their Book Journal to keep accurate records, and to allow easy access for teacher evaluation.
6. Grades are kept on at Engrade, which allows parents and students to always know their grades.
7. The message feature of Engrade allows students and parents to contact the teacher with questions regarding a grade
8. Every student has a computer at their desktop with Internet access which can be used to research any time questions come up, and for informational reports.
9. BrainPop videos are shown to assist visual learners understand main concepts.
10. The Reading Workshop blog is used for information and communication between students, parents, and the teacher.
11. Class notes are kept the blog so students can access them at any time, even when absent from school.
12. Words that Count (spelling words) with example sentences are online so students can access them from at home when doing homework, and in the class whenever they are writing.
13. ATandT Labs Text to Speech is used by students with reading difficulties to read aloud questions, or parts of passages with difficult text. Students also use it as a revision tool when writing by listening to their essay to be sure it sounds right.
14. A discussion board is used for students to write about character elements in the SSR books they are reading.
15. Homework is listed daily on the blog so parents always know what has been assigned and when it is due.
16. Online editing tools like Answers.com and Ask.com are used daily to assist with writing corrections.
17. A storage server is used so students can access their files anywhere in the school.
18. The doc camera and projector are used to show real-time examples of students work to help demonstrate teaching points.
19. Open Office software is used for students to do word processing on writing projects.
20. The networked laser printer is used for students to print out their written work, revise and edit, and then print a final copy.
21. Students sing, reading lyrics projected on the wall, to music from the computer. This builds fluency and vocabulary is taught also.
22. Students create presentation projects combining the use of many of the tools already listed.

Some of the skills learned are measurable by a mandated test, but not all. In Reading Workshop, students learn to use technology as a tool. Also, they learn technology skills that will help them throughout their life. To me, this makes it all worthwhile!

Read at Home Change

Title ________________________________________
Start Time ___________  Page ________________
End Time ____________  Page ________________

On each day in their assignment book, students will put a label with this on it.  Instead of logging on their reading log, they will be posting it in their assignment book.  

This will eliminate the need to carry and keep track of an extra sheet of paper.  Also, students already have to take their agenda book  home anyway, so they will have it when they need it.  It will also keep an ongoing record of books they read, how long they read, and how many pages they read.  Students will be keeping an on-line comprehensive reading log on their book journal page.

The requirements are still the same:

A = 180 + Minutes
B = 120 - 179 Minutes
C = 60 - 119 Minutes
F = 0 - 59 Minutes

Students must read at least 4 times/week for 15 minutes each day.


For more information see the Read at Home homework post.

Reading at Home

Each week students have an assignment to read at home. Students choose a book that they want to read from home, the library, or the book room. The only requirement is that they log the date, title, time read, and pages. Students are responsible for filling out this chart each week as they read, logging both at school and at home. Occasionally, students will have longer than a week when the school schedule is affected by holidays.


Students can choose to earn the grade they want. The more they read, the higher the score. This is the grade scale:

A = 180 + Minutes
B = 120 - 179 Minutes
C = 60 - 119 Minutes
F = 0-59 Minutes

Although students have no direct assignments associated with Read at Home and the Reading Log, many of the activities and projects in class are based on the book they are reading. The recent project of a Dear Mr. McGuire letter is an example. When students write about their book, it is easy to monitor comprehension and see if students are "getting it." The fact that students can pick their book to read helps because they can find a book that interests them.


The emphasis on reading is largely based on the research from Richard Allington. Allington cites four "background factors" associated with why students have difficulty with reading. According to the author:

1. the amount of reading that students do in and out of school was related to reading achievement;
2. children who spend more time on workbook activities versus reading text are more likely to have difficulty reading;
3. children who come from homes where reading is not modeled have difficulty reading; and,
4. students who have difficulty providing details and arguments to support interpretations of what they read have difficulty with reading.

According to the author, time on task is the best predictor for reading success in students. Put simply, more reading is equal to greater academic achievement.

The best part of this system for monitoring reading, and increasing reading time is how students can control their grades. If they are willing to work hard, their grades will show it.

Welcome Parents

Welcome to The Reading Workshop. I hope you will visit often, and comment about what you read.

This blog serves several functions in Reading Workshop.

1. It is the main communication tool for anyone who wants to know what we are doing in class.

2. Students can share their thoughts, ideas, and opinions, and receive extra credit in language arts by doing so. Check out this post by Shayna--How do You Feel About Reading?

3. Teachers from other classes and other schools read it to see what type of activities we are doing in Reading Workshop.

4. A calendar is posted on the upper left side so students and parents have a handy resource for knowing about events, and homework due dates.

5. The blog serves as a way to keep the history from the past, and you can use it to see some of the types of activities ahead. An example of this is the post about two-person journals.

6. I share my thoughts and opinions for anyone who cares to read them.

7. There are links on most posts to help find more information, or the source of a fact, statement, picture, etc.

8. Students can read and write about themselves and topics that matter to them.

9. And, most importantly, anyone can join us in our class, by posting comments.

So parents, teachers, family, and friends, thank you for visiting. Please join us by commenting about what you see and read.

Just Suggest It

Thanks to those that have commented in response to the survey. If you haven't commented yet, please jump in there on the survey post. In response to some well-thought out advise, I am going to try to update more frequently and include more student work. I also added a section at the top left of the blog for each day's events, and the homework due.

We are slowly building a wiki page. Feel free to check out the start of the Laurelville Elementary Language Arts Wiki. Eventually this will include all of the student's writing and reading notes, and many of the handouts. We may also use it to list many of the books that become student favorites.