SRI & Thanksgiving: Week of November 14-18

The theme this week was Thanksgiving for the primary grades, SRI testing for the intermediate grades.  The increased testing that classroom teachers are asked to do also impacts teaching in the library.  I give several assessments throughout the year, including the Scholastic Reading Inventory (SRI), STAR (which gives students their AR zone, not used by every class), and TRAILS (Tools for Real-time Assessment of Information Literacy Skills, given by me to inform my own instruction).  Assessment does give us information to drive instruction and focus on areas of need, but sometimes it seems that with so much testing, we struggle to find enough time to teach the skills needed to be successful on tests.

Kindergarten:  Thanksgiving books are so much fun to read, they are warm and fuzzy and almost always make me hungry.  Kindergarten students heard Over the River: A Turkey's Tale by Derek Anderson, based on the song with another story told through the illustrations.  Kindergarten students are the perfect audience for books like this because many are not reading yet, so they rely on pictures to tell them the story.  They notice when the illustrations share a story not included in the text, more so than older readers who read the text and pay less attention to illustration.  Kindergarteners love to show you something you might have missed in an illustration.  Jan Brett is another author and illustrator who includes subtexts in her illustrations, and students can spend long periods of time poring over her books.  Jan Brett's books include The Mitten, The Hat, The Three Snow Bears, Hedgie's Surprise, Trouble with Trolls, and Gingerbread Baby, among many others.

1st grade:  In 1st grade classes this week, we read Thanksgiving books, includig I Know an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Pie, which is a funny take on I Know An Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly.  It's familiar to them, and just as outrageous.

2nd grade:  Some 2nd grade students took their first turn at the SRI this week.  We start 2nd graders taking this now because it can take up to three times to get used to taking the test online (logging in with a username and password is difficult and takes practice).  After the third time, we feel we have an accurate score.  The SRI tests for reading comprehension, giving students a passage from a book and then asking them a multiple-choice comprehension question.

One 2nd grade class will test after Thanksgiving, so we read The Sniffles for Bear by Bonny Becker and Kady MacDonald Denton, part of the series that started with the Washington Children's Choice Picture Book nominee A Visitor for Bear.  I love the language used in the books, it is not limited to words known by primary students.  It is realistic and difficult, and prompts them to use context clues to figure out meanings.  If they aren't sure what a word means, they always ask.  Examples of fabulous new vocabulary words we discovered include:  decency, "gravity of the situation", mournful and "last flicker before the dark."  Bear is convinced he will not survive his illness, but as usual, his over-exaggeration of everything and Mouse's never-ending patience with him is hilarious to the listener and reader.

I found a nice blog post interview with the illustrator of the Bear books, Kady MacDonald Denton, including rough sketches of some Bear illustrations and other books she has illustrated.

3rd grade:  Students took the SRI.

4th grade:  Students took the SRI.

5th grade:  Students took the SRI.

6th grade:  Students took the SRI.