Friday, October 5, 2012

The Easy Way to Get a Good Grade

Students weekly Read at Home assignment rewards extra effort. 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 title, time read, and pages.

As a teacher, I reward the students that make the most effort. Although grades are not entirely tied to how hard a student works, poor grades are reflective of a lack of work ethic.  If a student wants a better grade, just read a little more.  I even give extra credit for students that read more than 180 minutes.



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 many of the activities and projects in class are based on the book they are reading. 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 bottom line--if students read more, their grade improves and they become better students.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

My book's title is The 39 Clues:The Medusa Plot written by Gordon Korman.

The event that bring me into the story is when they try really hard to find the 39 clues thats the part that bring me in. It bring me into the book because I think its cool how they try to find clues cause one time they get a text message from a unknown person and try to figure out what he means in order to find the clues

Anonymous said...

I'm currently reading The Scorch Trials, the second book in The Maze Runner series by James Dashner.

The thing that really keeps me going is the ending to each chapter. Almost every ending has a sentence that just makes you want to keep going and read the next chapter. For example, In one chapter James ending the chapter with. . ."Minho turned back to look at them. 'See you shanks on the other side!' Then he stepped through, and the wall of murk gray swallowed him whole" After that I defiantly had to read the next chapter.

I can't really explain the series, but each book is different, but it's in the same story line. Does that make sense? All I can say is that the series is amazing and you definitely need to check this book out!

If you want a book with excitement, adrenaline, and some-what like zombies called Cranks, then James' series is the thing for you!