Is it just me, or are there far too many things to keep track of when it comes to Read 180?! This is my first year teaching the program and I was excited to be moving into the program which was sold to me as being almost zero prep work and almost nonexsistant grading. After 5 sections of regular 9 and 150 some students, I was SOLD! But now that I am actually living it, I realize it is NOT for the faint of organized.
After one full semester of trial (and error I assure you!) I think I may have found a system that works for me and I would love to share it with you. I can see this working with Read 180 progarm or any classroom with several chunks and parts that don't necessarily need to be graded in the gradebook.
Our school is still handing out the old school gradebooks even though we are required to use the digital PowerSchool gradebook system. If your school doesn't, see if a nearby school does and maybe a teacher friend would be willing to hook you up, or you make have to suck it up and by one. You know the kind...
I have stickers on it to identify which class is which at a glace, Orange and Yellow for these because that is what I had stickers in! :D
I broke down the class into these categories because, personally, this is what I wanted to check but not necessarily grade:
1) Do now
2) rBook
3) Reading log
4) 10 pg. minumum
5) Wrap up
6) Graphic Organizer
7) SRC Quiz
Here is a sample of what it would look like for one student:
I just place the dates at the top in the "Assignment" spaces and place a check mark in each box indicating a student finished the work or a O meaning it was not completed or the traditional A for absent. If a student didn't do their work 3/5 days, I will place them in intervention.(I don't tell my students this or they would only do 3 days of work!) But feel free to not impliment this or change it up to fit your needs! I do 3 because of the demographic of students-- they can have off days for sure and most of the time it is out of their control. But 3 days, their fault or not, they need to come in and get the missing chunks!
Now, I know what some of you are thinking, "7 categories plus a name?! How is there room for all of the students?!" Well, there isn't.-- not all on one page at least. I break up my students into groups for rotations anyway. These rotation groups become my "classes" in the book. By doing this you have room for up to 5 students! No Read 180 group should be this large! This makes it easy to finish one page per rotation group.
At the end of each week, I will place a green streak in the week total box indicating they were saved from intervention or a red streak indicating they will spend some time with me after school catching up. I give about 2 points per day (10 for the week) and will give them points in the grade book for participation based on this. (In my grade book for Read 180, 90 points for the 9 weeks isn't all that much but it can bump or drop them if they aren't doing their work.
Hope this helps some of you tame the Read 180 beast!
Things I will try next year (or even next quarter)
1) add to the list of things I check-- Software time requirement met that day, and maybe somehow even a behavior tracker in there
2) Impliment right from the get go! Keeping kids accountable is key for this Read 180 class to work. I can see my life being SO much easier next year.
3) Use it every day! Kids will question you and your word if you don't.
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