At a reading intervention meeting I attended recently, the topic of grading came up (and was heatedly discussed, I might add). Many schools are asking their reading specialists, "If I'm supposed to be doing Guided Reading, then how should I be getting my students'grades?" Many teachers are now teaching reading in small groups using sets of books, such as the Rigby books or novels, and are not using the anthology to teach reading. It is certainly true that the anthology is simply a resource that you can use to teach your students reading, and it is not required that you use it. That being said, it is handy that the anthology has sets of worksheets for each story from which you can gather grades.

So how can you get grades when using book sets? Assessment of reading really boils down to three things: how well do they decode words, how well do they comprehend what they read, and how fluent are they? This information can be quickly determined by doing a quick running record on a child during small group time or silent reading time. Comprehension can be determined by oral or written retellings or by having the students respond to books in a "Literature Log". A lot can be determined about a student's comprehension based on his/her written response. It's certainly not unheard of to tell students that their responses will be factored into their grades, so if they want a decent comprehension grade, they need to be sure to include EVERYTHING they remember about the story. These response logs can also serve double duty by being graded for GUMS (Grammar, Usage, Mechanics, Spelling). Some worksheets anthologies are generic enough that they can be applied to any story. And of course, some weeks you might want to read some of the stories in the anthology with a group of students, in which case you can use the worksheets.

Another approach is to grade the students' Silent Reading time. This idea is from Sara Angeletti and makes a lot of sense: Each child starts off with 20 points a day during silent reading. Over a week they should have 100 points total. They must stay on task during the entire silent reading time to keep their 20 points. Time they spend gazing at the ceiling, flipping through magazines without reading, goofing off with friends, etc., are points deducted from their total. For a 20 minute reading time, each minute = a point. If they get up to go to the bathroom, that's time not spent reading and points are deducted for each minute they're gone.

Kids need to know that we are serious about reading. Research shows that for kids to score in the 90th percentile on standardized reading tests, they need to spend 60 minutes per day reading. That includes the time spent reading in all subject areas, homework, completing worksheets, etc. The free reading time we give students at school is crucial to improving their overall reading achievement.

~ Heather Wall

"Reading without thinking is as nothing, for a book is less important for what it says than for what it makes you think." ~ Louis L'Amour