ahora vamos a contar

so yes, i'm starting to get a little cocky. but hear me out: i know i've talked about reading levels a million times, but that's our focus, dammit, and i just want to make sure that this is clear. Reading level goals for the school year are as follows: September - 3; January - 10; May - 16. In second grade they go from a 18 in september to 24 in may, just to show you how intense first grade is in terms of expectations. THAT SAID...

in january, the reading specialist did me a huge favor and tested all of my students. the spread went like so: level 3 - 3 students, level 4 - 2 students, level 6 - 3 students, level 10 - 2 students, level 12 - 1 student, level 14 - 1 student, level 16 - 6 students, and level 24 - 1 student. so i had half of my students at or below the minimum level for january, and half that are exactly where they should be if not significantly higher. thus, the last two months i've been freaking out about getting that bottom group higher, or else half of my class would be retained. today, it was all butter. i did partial tests on all but one of my low kids, and everyone performed with 96% accuracy or higher on the level 8 book. several have even been able to read at an instructional level (90-95% accuracy) on the level 12 book... MEANING... no one will be retained and now everyone's where they should be (so far, i could always make them stupider in april). some of these kids started on a level A or 0 in september, so they've made gigantic strides. i'm ecstatic. i'm astounded. and i'm feeling pretty damned competent these days.