[MOSAIC] grades and levels

[Laura Cannon]

One reflection on leveled text-I think sometimes the amount of text on the
page makes a difference.  If there are well done illustrations and less text
on the page children get less frustrated decoding harder words-and if they
struggle with the decoding they can reread the text again when they have
done all of the decoding without it being long and overly burdensome.  One
example is Grandfather's Journey by Say.  It has some difficult words and
some of my problem decoders will struggle-but it is only one or two
sentences on most of the pages with awesome pictures.  They can read and
reread the text several times-practicing the words they struggled to decode
and thinking about the rich comprehension ideas in this text.  I will also
be using this to model metacognition and leading into connections this
week-even my lower readers can follow the text and then reread the story on
their own.  

On grades-we have been told in no uncertain terms that children in danger of
failing our state test (TAKS-it's Texas) must have grades on their report
card that reflect their struggle.  They can be passing grades-but not A's if
they are really off level or even B's.  This is always hard at the beginning
of the year when so much of my teaching is guided-and I don't want to assess
things I haven't taught.  Anyone else have this problem?

I'm so glad this list is up and running again.

Laura C