IT 573 - Dinosaurs NTeQ Unit Day 4

Today was a review and assessment day. We began class as usual with a "Did you know?" fact and a discussion of the day's goals. We then broke up into our two guided reading groups. Students again took turns completing different matching, fill-in-the-blank, and multiple choice quiz activities at the Smart Board. We also sorted statements as fact or opinion on the Smart Board. The random name generator was used again to decide what order students would work at the Smart Board.

Next, I passed out our comprehension quizzes. I read each question aloud to the group of students. I walked around the room to make sure each student was on track and I stopped to answer any question that a student may have had. After the completion of the quiz, I assigned a journal reflection. At the completion of the reflection, students were asked to return to the other classroom.

I sat down to grade the comprehension quizzes right away. I was eager to see how students scored on this assessment. The average score was an 83 %. I also averaged the scores on the rubric used to assess the guided reading activities. Skills assessed were participation, comprehension, vocabulary, and fact/opinion. Students scored an average of 15 out of a possible 20 on this rubric. This results in a B average. Both comprehension and guided reading assessments were lower than my goal of 90 to 100 %. Although my expectations were set very high, I am not at all disappointed with the average score. The average reading level for this group of students is 2.6. It is my belief that the activities students are participating in are helping their comprehension.

The activities are most certainly increasing their motivation and interest. Mrs. Stewardson, the head summer school teacher, made the comment today that attendance for the first week has been the highest yet! Mrs. Pieper commented that when students are finished working with me they often ask why I cannot stay all day and work with them. They also want to write in their journals later in the day about activities they have participated in with me. I credit this positive energy, not only to the integration of technology, but also to the comfortable and caring learning environment I work to establish each and every day.

After grading the comprehension quizzes today, I read through all of the journal entries written so far. I wrote positive comments back to each student to provide timely feedback and continue communication. The majority of the students are writing rather positive notes in their journals about the content and technology tools. I am looking forward to student efforts next week as we tackle our research project.

This weekend I plan to bury the prepared teeth fossils in boxes of sand and rock. Students will participate in a dig on Monday. Last night I spent time organizing the hotlist of websites by the type of dinosaur to make the research process much easier.