Daily writing prompt
What are you doing this evening?
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Right now I am blogging, playing with kittens, and watching the Dodger Game. I went to an intriguing training on improving reading and writing skills for students today. It really made me think about some of my instructional techniques and how they could be improved. Only 1/3 of all students entering high school are proficient in reading! Some states use 4th grade test scores to estimate how many prisons they will need! Comprehending college texts is the number one predictor of college success as well!

We need to transform they way we teach reading in schools. Teachers are overcoming the achievement gap, poverty, and all the other things that get in the way of student learning using certain techniques. We now have “effective score” for instructional techniques that predict with a fair amount of accuracy what is a “high impact” or “low impact” activity, which was news to me. Our presenter, LeAnn Nicholson wrote the book, The Literacy Triangle. It is packed with information, reusable printable worksheets, all of it very evidence based! If you are a teacher frustrated with outdated reading and writing strategies, I highly recommend it!

I have another day of training tomorrow and then back to my classroom. I was kind of bummed today to have to go to a training and miss my classes today, but at least it was a really good one. I hope you all are having a great evening doing whatever you are doing (or morning). Thanks for checking out Bunchiesblog! Likes, follows, shares are always appreciated!

8 Comments

  2. Curious, …how many prisons they will need! Reading is a very big problem here. I’m blessed that my kids were able to learn reading and writing before they were out of nursery/kindergarten. The school employees a method called jolly phonics to teach toddlers reading and pronunciation and the children are not taught the alphabet before they learn the vowels.

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    1. In the U.S. prisons are big business. Often they are run by private companies that have no incentive for the inmates to leave because they lose money. It costs over $100,000 a year to lock up one person for a year in California. We have millions locked up. How many literacy trainings, books, after school programs could that fund? It’s such a waste.

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  3. Wow. What a long and detailed oriented blog post brother. I am very happy that you are taking reading and writing skills induction training because the bare truth is that we all need to read and write if we want to be productive in life. All the best with your upcoming projects and writing trainings. I am sure your students will ace their exams once they adopt the habit of consistent writing and reading.

    Take care

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