Getting them to read (,) right (?)

 Getting them to read right. As in correct.

Getting them to read, right? Like, at all. 

Right now, our biggest hurdle is getting kids to read. 

• They are still reading the questions and scanning. 
• Or they are just reading the questions and choosing an answer. 
• Or they are reading, struggling to make it make sense.
• Or they start reading and get tired.
• Or they look at it, and realize they are bored already.

None of our lessons and reviews on TEKS and questions are going to amount to a hill of beans - or even cow patties - if they aren't even reading. On all the days ending in y or on the test day. 

Here's some ideas: 

Show me your screen: 

Have kids open up their screens and show you what they do first, second, and third. Have them show you what they do with the tools. Then tell them to stop all that crap, expand the text, turn on the damn line reader, and actually read the thing. 

Manage your energy: 

Look. On test day, we get tired. It makes sense to start with the hard stuff first. Use the next key to next all the stuff until you see the pencil. This is the icon that tells you that that passage has the long text you have to write. Start there. Read the second paragraph in the prompt and use that to set your purpose - reason - for reading. 

Then find the questions that ask you to use two passages. Now read the first passage and answer those questions. Then read the second passage and answer those questions. Then use both passages to answer questions about both of the passages. 

Then go back to number one on the test and do those parts after you take a break. 

Stop Boring Yourself

Guys, when I listen to kids read...it's torture. As teachers, we have to back up and teach people how to stay interested in a text by reading with prosody. The voice in their head - their reader's ear - can't be boring. There must be emphasis, tone, phrasing, soft and loud...an actor reading lines in their head, a grandma reading a story, a newscaster explaining a disaster, a podcaster on a true crime series, a youtuber unveiling a toy or doing a game walkthrough, some crazy-Texas-accented-eccentric-white-lady-who-overdoes-it-all... Something interesting. Anything but that monotone bored teenager in the seat and stuck in a room for five hours. Seriously, why would they torture themselves like that? Stop the madness. 

Point of Difficulty

There's a lot involved in reading. And kids need a strategy for each component when they struggle. 

Decoding - try breaking up the letters, three at a time and stacking them on top of each other

con

trib

ute

Say each line one at a time. Then put it all together. If it sounds like a word you know, you are good to go. If you don't know the word, have the dictionary tool say it for you so you can figure out the meaning that goes with the sounds. 

Purpose - Decide what genre it is. That helps you know what to expect and the voice you need to hear in your head. Are you grandma reading a story, a slam poet, or a documentarian? 

There's more to say...but our instruction has to help kids know what to do when stuff doesn't make sense.

Understand Why

Most kids think they have to do well to pass the grade or to graduate. That's actually not why. The real why is that Texas wants to know that they aren't releasing a giant population of fools into the world. And people who can't read something and use it to make decisions -well, they are easily fooled. The world will take advantage of folks like that. The point of all the assessment is to determine if learners are capable of making decisions that make their lives better. Sure - the test isn't really gonna make life better. But knowing the true purpose and showing competence to get the thing over with sure does make the retesting pain shorter. 

NOTE- I'm working with some specific lessons to resolve these issues with Unity Learning Communities - we'll be trying them out and reporting on the impact.