Data & Goal-Setting Folders

Each of my students has a Data & Goal-Setting Folder.  In this folder, my students track their sight words, reading level, and Dibels score.  This folder also holds their weekly goals they make.  The folder allows each student to know where they are and where they are going.  It has really motivated my students to work very hard to meet their goals and continue to progress. 

Setting Goals and Tracking Data

Every week my student make a goal they wish to meet that week.  Some examples of my students goals are to learn 5 new sight words, to use periods at the end of their sentences, to use spaces at the end of their sentences, to move up a reading level at the end of the month, and so on.  On Monday, each student writes his/her own goal.  Then on Friday, we celebrate the students that met their goals.  Students keep their goals in their goal-setting and data folders (pictures to come). Here is a link to My Goals printable.  My students also track how many sight words they know, what reading level they are on, and what they scored on Dibels.  They keep this data in their goal-setting and data folders as well.  Here is the link to Tracking My Reading Level and Dibels printable and Tracking My Sight Words printable.

Interactive Reading with Literactive

Literactive is a wonderful tool for early reading teachers.  It is a free website that just requires a very quick and easy registration.  I am always looking for interactive reading activities for my kindergarten students to practice their reading skills and build fluency.  This website has downloadable stories that are perfect for building fluency and confidence in reading.  The website has a large selection of interactive books that includes nursery rhymes and short stories in five different levels.  You can choose to have the stories read to you or you can read them independently.  I like this option because it allows my students to listen to the story first in order to hear fluent reading.  Then we are able to practice reading the story together as a class.  The interactive stories link is http://www.literactive.com/Download/stories.asp

Magnify Images

Just the other day while teaching a lesson, I was using an image from my computer projected onto a screen. During the lesson, one of my outgoing students yelled, “I can’t see.”  At the time, I didn’t know how to fix the problem.  However, when stumbling onto a tutorial about magnifying images on your computer I knew I had to learn more.  It is a very simple six click process that will be well worth it to help your students better see images and text on a computer.

Click START

Click ALL PROGRAMS

Click ACCESSORIES

Click EASE OF ACCESS

Click MAGNIFIER

*The VIEWS menu allows you to choose the magnifier mode

The tutorial from Microsoft Office Accessibility is found at http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/Windows7/Make-items-on-the-screen-appear-bigger-Magnifier

I hope this tutorial will be helpful to you as well when teaching your kiddos using technology.