Reading Decisions

11/10-11/10  Parent Teacher Conferences.  I have tested the fluency of all of my students.  I have parents who support their child being moved up on reading level groups, and others who support the implementation of the Read Naturally Program.  I will have about 8-9 students reading a passage for a week, with a pretest and posttest to graph improvement of their fluent reading.  Last year I began this in the spring of the year, and then it was hit or miss as to when I would get back to hear them reread.  I want to do a better job on implementing this program.  I realize the need to look at my schedule and set up a schedule for students to meet with me.  Students I have in this program are reading at a 2.5 – 4.0 grade level.    The students at a 4.0 grade level are reading below grade level for comprehension.  I know that fluency isn’t the only factor involved when looking at comprehension, but it’s a place I can begin.
11/8/10  I’ve had a few parents question me on why their child is not in the advanced reading group.  Most of my students improved on the second unit test from the first unit test (all but 2) so I feel great about that.  I decided to check fluency.  I decided that if a student improved to 85  percent or more on their grade level test, I would consider moving them up to advanced, as long as their scores showed them as fluent readers.  Well, my advanced group grew from 4 to 11.