Stuck On Reading

One of our concentrations this year as a school is on increasing reading comprehension skills.  If you want to read more about that, click here. We have employed a variety of skills each month to help our students attack words, learn to infer, use contextual clues and more. To really hone these skills, they need direct application. Considering this and knowing that the best way for students to become better readers is to actually read more, I embarked on a reading challenge for the month of February. 

We set a goal as a school to read at least 1750 books during the month of February. Preschool students will read 300, elementary will read 1000, middle school will read 300 and high school will read 150. The class that has the highest percentage of participation AND the highest number of books read will receive a class party from me. If we reach our goals, our students will get to celebrate by getting to duct tape me, the principal, to the wall in our multi-purpose room.  

I have been amazed at the response from our students! During the first week alone, we had over 600 books turned in as read. We are writing the names of books, authors and students that read them on strips and making paper chains in the hallway. Students love seeing their class. They want to get more up there than the other classes. I just love seeing that they are reading!

Students have been coming up to me and saying, “I’m going to tape you to the wall!” or “I’ve been reading every night, Mrs. Tigges” and that brings me such excitement. Parents have been telling me how much their kids want to read and it may cost me a little duct tape, but the end result will be SO WORTH IT!!!!!

 Stay tuned for pictures of the duct tape event when our students meet their goals!

- Mrs. TIgges

Academic Goals for the 2014-15 school year

Each spring, we administer the Terra Nova 3 standardized test to our students. We get the results back and we spend a great deal of time analyzing the results. We look at each subject and each grade. We identify trends, both positive and negative.  

 

As a school, we surpass national norms in every area. Many of our students score in the top 10%. Out of 300+ students, approximately 100 scored a 90% or better on the total battery or a 95% in a core subject area (reading, language, math, science or social studies).

in all areas.

This year we identified three main areas we wanted to see growth school wide. They are:

1. Reading Comprehension strategies
2. Writing mechanics skills
3. Math computation skills, including Geometry and Spatial skills

To address these areas, we have adopted a school-wide reading focus that concentrates on specific strategies for comprehension each month. These strategies will be incorporated across the curriculum in instruction. We will focus on the strategies with teachers in faculty meetings and trainings. We will also be doing quarterly progress monitoring that will illuminate growth or regression in comprehension levels.

We will do training as a faculty that focuses on improving reading/writing skills. In all subjects and grade levels, we will work on incorporating more writing opportunities. Grammar, sentence structure and analytical writing will be part of our focus. Language Arts exit criteria for each grade level will continue to be met and evaluated.

In Math, we will work to incorporate more hands-on math strategies. Students will master addition, subtraction, multiplication and division facts by the time they enter the 6^th grade. There is also a need for a specific focus on geometry and spatial skills. Professional Development opportunities will be offered featuring math strategies and hands-on instruction. Teachers will also be sent to the National Math Teachers conference. Math skills will also be assessed quarterly and reported to parents.  

We will reassess overall trends and scores again in the spring 2015 following the receipt of our Terra Nova 3 score reports.  

As a school, we do not “teach to the test”. Our goal and our aim is to provide high quality, Biblically-based instruction that challenges our students at every level. We want to utilize the tests we administer to expose areas of strengths and weaknesses and help us continue to evaluate and guide our curriculum development.

Carrie Beth Tigges, Principal