What a morning we had!  We took our math lesson outside, in the cool breeze, to make a number line from 0-100.  Although students have experience with number lines, it was interesting to watch them struggle to fill in missing numbers on the line.  Counting by 10"s I laid down hoops to show "decades".  Students followed and counted by 10's.  Students were then paired to fill in the numbers that were missing in between each decade.  I immediately noticed that students did not know how to evenly spread out the missing numbers so that the "5's" increments were in the middle of the 10's.  Many students began making tick marks, but did not spread them out evenly between each 10.  Once we corrected this, I asked students to stand on various points of the number line and we worked as a class to determine which "decade" the student was closer to.  

Students have learned, for years, that if a number is between 0-4 they round down and 5 or more they round up.  The problem is that they could not explain why they did this.  By standing on the number line, they were able to see which "decade" they were closer to.  When we reached the middle, such as 55, students had to decide would they round down to 50 or up to 60.  Following the old way of learning it, they said 60, but when I questioned why, they could not explain it to me.  We then decided that if we were on a road trip and got half way through our trip and figured out we forgot something, would we go all the way back or continue on to the next point?  We would continue on, rather than driving all the way back.  If we were closer to the 50 mark, like 52 or 53, it would be a short trip back, but once we made it to 55 or higher, it would be smarter to move on to 60.  

Tomorrow, we carry on the learning using 0-99 charts to see if students can determine word problems that ask students to round/estimate.  

End of Year Assessments

I cannot believe it is already end of year assessment time! Thursday we started our end of the year math assessment. This assessment measures DoDEA 3rd Grade Math Standards that your child is required to learn.  With 47 problems, I break the test up to about 10 problems a day until we finish it.  This way students do not tire out. So far, I'm very pleased with how they are doing on it.  Each day, I grade the page they finished so that on the last day I can immediately give them a final grade.  It is my expectation that your child score a 85-100% on this assessment to show 3rd Grade Math Mastery.  With daily lessons, Daily 5 Math, homework, and one-on-one teacher time, students should reach this expectation.

This week I also start testing students on the Benchmark Assessment System (BAS).  This is our reading assessment that measures students comprehension and fluency. Students in 3rd grade take this assessment twice a year- beginning and end.  Third grade students should end up on a Level L-P.  Most students are already within this range or higher.  I've included a BAS Text range below for you to use once I have tested your child.  

We also have our Scholastic Reading Inventory (SRI) test to take before June 5th.  This test measures your child's reading comprehension.  The SRI provides a lexile score for the student to use when selecting "Just Right" books.  

Once all assessments have been completed, I will send home a report with the scores for the whole year so that you can see your child's progress over this school year.  This report is something that I do and is not required by the school or district, but I feel that you need to know exactly where your child is and how much progress they made this year.  I plan to have all reports ready to send home by the last day of school.  Report cards will be mailed home by the school. 

Have a great weekend!!

BAS Text Levels