Houghton Mifflin

[MT]

This is the second year using the HM series for reading. I really like it.However the book tests are very long and take forever to administer. The majority of the students do fine. I have two that scored very low. They simply could not read the material. They are low in class but are progressing- not as quickly as the rest of the class. Should I pass them or should they repeat first grade if they are not reading as the rest of the class. They can read the stories and the worksheets. The tests are way too hard. What can I do? They go to reading resource every day.

 

[Tee]

Houghton Mifflin ( great post)

MT

This is my 3rd year using this series and I also agree with you about the tests. One of my fellow 1st grade teachers and I were discussing the test last week. One of the biggest problem we are having is with the reading portion, including questions. It covers so many pages. The students have to turn back so many pages to find the answers to the questions. One of the teachers give a portion at a time. She says it takes longer but the students do better. I will probably try it next time. Another problem I have in the reading portion of the test is that some of the major reading objectives are not covered extensively in the practice book or teachers edition (for example compare & contrast, making generalizations, or noting details, etc.). Therefore when the students take the test they do not do as well on these parts. Sometimes I get other material to help supplement some of these areas. I also have 1 student that is not reading on the same level as the other students. I work sometimes one-on-one with him and he also goes out for remediation. He's a repeater. I really stuck with what to do about him, because he can read some the stories and do the theme weekly tests. I do like the program and would like to use it more effectively in my classroom. Maybe others posters will have some great techniques or ideas that we both can use in our classroom. I can't wait to read their posts.

Thanks

 

[DB]

Phonics Bookshelf and Watch Me Read

I like to have ALL students (no matter what their reading level) reading from the correlated readers each week (phonics bookshelf and watch me read). They read them independently; they read them in guided reading, and also as a shared buddy read.

These books reinforce the weekly phonics skill covered in the workbooks and the teacher's ed. They also reinforce current, as well as, old high frequency words. If students are keeping up with (and successful in retaining) the new high frequency words each week, then they can read these books no matter how low their reading level.

Also, if they can read these books, they can read the reading portion of the tests which seem to correlate with the reading level of these readers.

Am I making sense? Anyway, it has really worked for me.

DB

 

[Mindfull]

I like Houghton Mifflin too

Our district demands that we give the Integrated theme test which has a large portion of writing. My kidos really get bogged down by this. My class is very low and most meet the intensive at risk level. We read all of the test together. I still have students fall on the floor and cry because it is so hard. I just recently let a group read their tests and do it alone while I work with the rest of the children. This test takes way too long but as I said I don't have a choice of which test to give. It is mandated by the district.
I love the series and love the books.