Fluency Game FREE Download

I've been meaning to post this for a week or so, but finally sitting down to do it! For the past few weeks, I've been working on fluency with my first and second graders. Most of them are having trouble using punctuation to dictate their expression...so, I made this little game for them! Using words off of our district's high frequency word list, I came up with {simple} sentences, and left off the end marks. Students take turns pulling out the cards to determine if it needs a period or question mark. Once they read it the way it should sound, they graph their results on the "Punctuation Graphing" Record Sheet. The first one to color all five hearts, is the winner!

Head on over to my TpT Store to download this for FREE! Enjoy.

On a side note, Steve and I are working on a blog makeover...Here's a sneak peak of what it's going to look like:

Classroom Behavior Observation

Part of my role as the RtI Coordinator is making behavioral observations on specific students. If I had a nickel for each student I've observed in the past few weeks...I'd have at least $2. My school's instructional coach gave me a form to use (which was very helpful to get started) but decided I needed to tweak it! Mainly because I needed more space to write down additional comments...

Download It!

It looks pretty complex, but it's actually quite simple...and quick! 

When I went in the classroom to observe, I had the teacher select a "comparison student" that I'd also monitor. The "comparison student" and "referring student" received a (+) if they were on-task and a (-) if they were off-task for each 30 second increment. (I used the "Stopwatch" on my iPhone to keep track of the time). I placed X's in the appropriate boxes to denote the problematic behaviors of the "referring student". At the end of 15 minutes, I'd count how many off-task behaviors each student received and placed it in the "Totals" boxes at the bottom of the page. 

It's really an effective tool for parents to see during RtI meetings and parent conferences! If you have any other observational forms you use, please send them my way!

HELP for Reading Fluency

Yesterday, I stumbled upon a nice little intervention for Reading Fluency and Progress Monitoring, called HELPS. Once you have created a FREE account (all you need is your e-mail and a password) you instantly have access to 100 FREE fluency passages available for download. The passages are quite nice.  

 

To download the passages(did I mention they are FREE?)after you've created an account, go to the HELPS home page HERE and click the materials tab. There you can download the entire curriculum, fluency passages and teacher manual. They even have a training manual and training videos. This program is a nice little resource and the price is right!

Hope this post helps some of you stumble upon the HELPS site yourself.   

If you are looking for more ideas for improving Reading Fluency be sure to check out our Reading Fluency and Reading Fluency Activities pages at our website ReadingResource.net. 

Update: I used the passages today for repeated reading with my 3rd and 4th grade intervention students and they worked great.  So even if you do not use the entire HELPS program, setting up an account is certainly worth the access to extra instructional materials. 

Super Bowl Sunday Freebies!

Happy Super Bowl Sunday! Like ReadingResource.net on FaceBook and leave a comment by the end of the game and we will send you a FREE DOWNLOAD of your choice from our Download Central Page. 

Don't forget to tell us your FREEBIE preference and leave your e-mail address so we can send your freebie.


In addition to our Super Bowl Sunday Freebie, we have also joined the huge TpT Super Bowl Sale! Every item in Katie's store is 28% off! 20% from us and the extra 8% from TpT. This is the cheapest way to get great learning resources for your classroom! PROMO CODE: SUPER

EXTRA BONUS: We are extending the TpT Sale one extra day through February 4th. You can grab 28% off today and 20% off  tomorrow. But don't forget your FREEBIE today as well (see below).

Student Accommodations Checklist

Yes, it's Friday night and I'm sitting on my computer working on school stuff...which, after this L...O...N...G school week, it's a miracle I'm even able to sit up...let alone be able to type. I guess I just love you all that much (coupled by the fact I haven't blogged much here in the past few months). Either way, I hope you'll find this freebie beneficial!

A few days ago I was sitting in a RTI meeting with my colleagues and realized how many accommodations they make for their students...I wondered how many of those accommodations aren't reported to the next year's teacher AND how many times parents don't really see that we are doing what we can for their child.

I grabbed a 504 checklist and asked a couple of my peers (who I will discretely refer to as Batalie Nall and Jegan Menkins) for help. And you'll find the final product below! I realize it's not an exhaustive list, but should cover the basics. Now you'll have something to show parents and teachers for all the hard work you do.

Click and Download!

If you download and use this template, let me know what you think..I'd be happy to make any additions and modifications!

DIBELS Next Checklist

Being responsible for DIBELing 200-300 kids every other week is a task in itself...but sharing the results (not just the scores) with teachers has been challenging. I made a quick little checklist for Phoneme Segmentation, Nonsense Words, and Oral Reading Fluency. I'll print a sheet off for each teacher and give it to them after I've completed the assessment. Hopefully this will be a helpful tool for teachers! 

I'm working on a new "Student Accommodations Checklist" I hope to have finished and posted in the next couple days!

DIBELS (NEXT) Download Freebie!

Basic Code (Flashcard) Sliders

In September I began working with a first grader who, just a year ago had a life-threatening condition which required her to have half of her brain removed...Causing her to relearn basic information she previously knew before the surgery. With deficits in receptive and expressive language, I wasn't quite sure how I was going to help her to learn to read...Each day with her was trial and error!

A few weeks ago when I was working with her in reading intervention she began blending the sounds that another child was saying. {I was amazed to say the least!} I looked at her and without hesitation she replied, "I can do that, duh!"

A couple students where using the "See, Slide, & Say" Flashcards (purchased from Barnes & Noble) that have picture cues below each letter to help them when they are trying to say the sounds in words. There is a "slider" that they can pull to look at the letters one at a time. I showed Kelley a card to see if she could look at the letters to tell me a sound...Although she tried to use the pictures as a cue, some of them were difficult for her to recall. I thought maybe if the pictures were different, she'd be able to use them to sound out words.

Her aide worked with her for about a week, generating a picture for each letter sound. I took those pictures and created her own "See, Slide, & Say" flashcards using basic code words from our district's high frequency word list. These cards have been a big hit with Kelley and my lower first grade intervention students, so I thought I'd share them with you! Click on the link under the picture to download!

Download Basic Code Flashcards (FREEBIE)

Have a great weekend, bloggers!