Das Bloggenstein

Students have begun choosing their own writing topics and styles, or what they are going to write about and how they will write it. Some are still making up the narrative essay from last week and will get to embark on this new adventure when they turn that in.

In other news, on Thursday all students will remain in Core class so we can fill out a survey online in the computer lab. The survey is used to gauge student’s perceptions of the climate and safety of the building, among other things. Then on Friday we will visit the library and students will have an opportunity to take an AR test and get a new book.

In terms of my previous post on AR point totals I must say that I am happy to see fewer students with zero points although that didn’t always mean a higher class average. What it does mean is that more students are trying but not necessarily reaching the goal. I cannot reiterate this enough: It’s not about the points. Students should be reading 20-30 minutes a night, AR is simply a way to give students credit for what they should already be doing. Furthermore, I didn’t see any students frantically trying to get some points, any points at all, before they were due last Friday. This is in contrast to October when this practice was a little more rampant.

Today both AR points and Narrative Essay Final Drafts were due today. If your grade has gone down you can attribute it to one or both of those things! Missing essays have been entered as missing but it will take me a little bit of time to get through the ones turned in on time so be patient. Getting 80 essays at a time can be a bit daunting.

Here are the totals by core class.

• Core 1, 20 points due
  • Average: 21.16
  • # of students with 0 points: 3
• Core 2, 10 points due
  • Average: 5.68
  • # of students with 0 points: 10
• Core 3, 10 points due
  • Average: 6.37
  • # of students with 0 points: 5