Although I have no answer specifically to Angela's situation.... her post prompted me to write some of my concerns for first graders..... I would like to know especially from teachers who administer the dra 2 how they introduce the written element of the test which starts at level M..... Never given this test previously..... I can see why it might not be appropriate to administer the level M test to first graders.... however.... our district cut off is level M....... although my fluent readers can sail through the decoding and even answer those comprehension questions at the end orally as well as support their responses with evidence from the text (at least some of them can) ... that is a far cry from writing their responses. The length alone is daunting! Plus we have not taught them to enter responses in their notebooks like that. We use sticky notes and graphic organizers.... kids use their reader's notebook responses more for fueling their chats with their buddies...... I would think that somewhere after J and before M...... there is a need to formally show kids how to answer questions (whether literal interpretative or reflective) in written responses that are more formal summaries.... My high flyers are aware of the kinds of information that might need to add but certainly they talk their way through this more than write their thoughts.....even the graphic organizers I provide are more for stream of thoughts ..... I am interested to know if you do take formal steps to teach this kind of writing..... does it occur in your reader's workshop or your writer's workshop or does it more naturally occur when they are developmentally ready? I know as a grade level we added a unit of comprehension called retelling (verbal) before we even gave the DRA in the fall because at those early levels kids do not even know what elements to include in their retells.... our response was overwhelmingly successful and kids did way better at the beginning of this year as compared to the results we gathered the year before. I am wondering if the same holds true for beginning the writing of retelling.
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