I hope this seems an appropriate celebration or two. Our elementary system, along with outlaying schools with grades 6-8, adopted the DRA2 this fall along with higher expectations in terms of attaining reading levels. Our teachers and students alike were overwhelmed with the fluency requirements and increased demand in terms of comprehension. However, we saw significant shifts from the numbers of students moving from basic and below basic classifications to proficient and advanced. I feel that our teaching staff responded to the challenge and has done a wonderful job of addressing fluency in holistic, appropriate ways. That is a huge celebration for me.
My second celebration is that the quality of writing instruction and, thus the quality of student writing, is being influenced as well. I realize that as a coach, my celebrations are different, but, boy, I have to tell you--there have to be some classroom celebrations going on for our coaching staff to have any of their own. Lori ----- Original message ----- From: Bill IVEY <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: [email protected] Date: 2008, 11, Monday Of February 21:55 Subject: [LIT] that time of year... > Hi! > > I don't know about most of your schools, but in my school, this is > probably the lowest point in the year. So what better time than now to... > celebrate our successes! > > In my case, I am really excited about the first drafts of literary > analysis essays that my ESL students are producing. One of them, although > her vocabulary is extremely limited, managed to turn in two or more pages > on friendship, discussing at length (on paper and with me in conference) > issues around making and keeping friends through thick and through thin. > Another produced work which, a few grammar tweaks aside, shows that she > has come light years in terms of being able to express sophisticated > thinking in English. It is so cool to see these kids developing the > English to express that which has been inside them all along! > > What successes are you all seeing? > > Take care, > Bill Ivey > Stoneleigh-Burnham School > > > _______________________________________________ > The Literacy Workshop ListServ http://www.literacyworkshop.org > > To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to > http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/lit_literacyworkshop.org. > > Search the LIT archives at http://snipurl.com/LITArchive > _______________________________________________ The Literacy Workshop ListServ http://www.literacyworkshop.org To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/lit_literacyworkshop.org. Search the LIT archives at http://snipurl.com/LITArchive
