How Data Sharing Can Help Struggling Readers

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Originally published in TEACH Magazine, May/June 2017 Issue

By Kirby Morrison

“Mr. Morrison, I want to take a reading test today. I know I’m going to get a green. Let’s go!”

These words still catch me off guard. It’s not that I don’t believe my student (we’ll call him Elias). In fact, I know he is going to get a “green”—the colour code I use when students pass a reading test. What shocks me is that he wants to take a reading test at all.

At the beginning of the year, Elias—my most challenging student—either flat out refused to take the test or did so with great hesitation and protest. In fact, none of my students were particularly thrilled.

I teach 7th and 8th grade students who receive special education services and come to my self-contained classroom for reading instead of the general education classroom. My students are below-grade-level readers, but they try and they’re frustrated. Giving these tests allows me to gauge their reading skills and monitor the progress they are making throughout the year.

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Kirby Morrison is a 7th and 8th grade Special Education Teacher at Chavez Elementary School in the Chicago Public Schools district.

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Kirby Morrison
Kirby Morrison
Kirby Morrison is a 7th and 8th grade Special Education Teacher at Chavez Elementary School in the Chicago Public Schools district.

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