When we break apart the skills involved in reading comprehension, we are constantly amazed at how many skills there really are.  We use the same skills when we watch TV shows, listen to music, and view advertisements.

They are everywhere:  in magazines, in newspapers, on the radio, at the movie theater, and on television.  It is important that we protect ourselves from marketing "tricks", which are intended to "hook" the viewers/readers/
listeners.  Perhaps the product is cheaply made.  Maybe it isn't as it appears.  Is it worth the price?  Is it something you need?  Let's dive right in to a commercial and hone our reading skills along the way.

The commercial below is for a popular brand of snack food - Hostess.

Much has been said of conspiracy theories concerning the imagery on United States currency;
how much of it do you believe?

When we break apart the skills involved in reading comprehension, we are constantly amazed at how many skills there really are.  We use the same skills when we watch TV shows, listen to music, and view advertisements.

They are everywhere:  in magazines, in newspapers, on the radio, at the movie theater, and on television.  It is important that we protect ourselves from marketing "tricks", which are intended to "hook" the viewers/readers/
listeners.  Perhaps the product is cheaply made.  Maybe it isn't as it appears.  Is it worth the price?  Is it something you need?  Let's dive right in to a commercial and hone our reading skills along the way.

The commercial below is for the number one fast food restaurant of all time.

Our Reading Has Improved
We recently completed our reading fluency assessment for the middle of the year, and there is good news to report:

With 25 students in our class, all have improved on their reading fluency.  That is to say, that all have increased the number of words they can read in a minute.  The idea is that if students read at a more conversational rate, they will be more likely to understand what they read.  With that in mind, the ideal word count at the beginning of the year was 108-134 words per minute, while the current goal is 126-152.  At the end of the year, we hope to fall between 140 and 168 words per minute.  As students improve, the target moves, so the object of the game is to increase at a higher rate than the target does.  Naturally, some fall short and some excel, and 17 of our Hoggatteers have met that expectation, as well, while others fell just short.  Still, progress is progress.

Working on their current levels, our class average has risen by 26.88 words per minute from the beginning of the year.  This is a significant increase, and many students have had to increase their goals after meeting them.

Our Multiplication Has Improved
As we continue to work toward mastery of our basic multiplication facts, there is good news to report.  Eight Hoggatteers have officially become Multiplication Masters, and our class average has finally reached 80%, up four points from the last series of quizzes.  While we still have students who are very deficient with their basic skills, the class has pleasingly and steadily improved.

Lauren Tarshis, author of the I Survived series of books for intermediate grade readers, made a visit to our school, Tuesday, to talk about how she became a writer.  She also discussed her process of writing for Scholastic Books. Lauren's book series began with the sinking of the Titanic, and continues within the historical fiction genre.  Other books address kids surviving actual historical events and natural disasters.  Her next installment in the series is to be about the Joplin tornado of May 22, 2011.

Science is often tedious and predictable.  In science we only change a single variable at a time to experiment.  In science, the results should be repeatable.  These concepts always seem to be in the background of our Motion & Design lessons as students test the amount of force necessary to move vehicles.  The only variable to change in this experiment was to be the amount of weight added to the vehicle.  Students did five runs with two blocks of wood, five with one block, and five with no blocks - not changing the amount of force applied by our drop-weight system - and observed the changes in their recorded results.

We all need to know more about money management, but this is a whole different level.

On our short trip to the Memorial Performing Arts Campus, Thursday, we were rewarded with some exposure to the theatrical arts.  High school students portrayed western characters in the melodrama, Christmas Crisis at Mistletoe Mesa.  Students portrayed characters named Happy Holiday, Mary Christmas, and others.  They were able to save Christmas from the likes of the dastardly Ebenezer Grunch and his evil mother.  In the end, Santa and his reindeer were rescued from the hotel outhouse.