Friday, January 23, 2009

Study Island Student Assistance

The problem was he was a clicker. He could answer more questions on Study Island than any other student in the school. He figured out, the easiest way to do a session was to just keep clicking on that Enter button And because the questions were multiple choice, he could always get about 25%. Unfortunately for him, his teacher soon caught on to the fact that he was blowing away lessons like a windstorm blowing leaves in an oak woods. He could complete ten questions in about a minute.

Study Island is based on state standards. It is an excellent online learning program that features lessons, and remidiation by bumping students down to lower grade levels if they are unable to pass the tests. Each session features four answer multiple choice questions on a chosen topic. The test is an excellent predicter in the likelihood of students passing the Ohio Achievement Test.

A third grade teacher, Mrs. Kable approached me with this problem. She had a student who was rushing through lessons on Study Island. I picked three Reading Workshop students, Trindi, Dylan, and Jacob to take turns helping this student with his sessions. One goes each day for 20 minutes, rotating so none miss too much class.

After the first day, this was my conversation with Trindi:
Me: How did it go?
Trindi: OK
Me: Did you help him?
Trindi: Yes
Me: How?
Trindi: He wasn't even reading the questions. He just clicked on an answer.
Me: What did you do?
Trindi: I told him to stop clicking, and read the questions.
Me: Then what happened?
Trindi: He got the rest right.

Here you go. A fool-proof method for improving Study Island scores. Thanks to these students, working as teachers, to help a third grade student be successful.

Image from http://flickr.com/photos/96dpi/501424691/
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4 comments:

Anonymous said...

That is a good idea.I will try that.But what if you don't understand a question your on,and the teachers are busy or out of the room?Would I be able to ask a friend?

Anonymous said...

I used to be a clicker but then I realized that when you actually read the question you have a better chance of getting the question right. Another strategy is to highlight important words. Then my sister told me that sometimes it helps to go back and re-read. After I started fallowing these directions I started to get better grades.

Mr. McGuire said...

It sounds like your sister gave you some great advise, Austin.

Anonymous said...

I think that it did help him because when he took his time he was getting a higher score!