Testing Reading Levels

I spent the greater part of October testing the reading abilities of all the students from grade 2 through grade 6.  It took a long time and a lot of patience.  By the end I had pretty much memorized the reading passages and knew exactly when a kid made an error reading without looking at my own copy of the reading.

While I had a blast laughing with the kids and getting some one-on-one time with each of them, I was so saddened by how little some of them could read, especially when that little was nothing.  It broke my heart each time I tested a kid that was 8, 9, even 10 years old, and found out that they couldn't read one word.  These weren't even words like "green" and "truck" but "it" and "on".

After a few attempts at reading and getting a slew of random words, or getting absolutel silence, I would ask the kid if they could read.  They would look down at their lap and say to me, "No miss."

I would ask, "Would you like me to teach you to read?"

I always got a "Yes," and a smile. :)

Needless to say I'm incredibly excited to be teaching reading.  Of all the subjects it's the most difficult to teach but by far the most rewarding.   I'm ready for the challenge.  I've got 8 kids that can't read a single word.  Bring it on.