September Letter to parents

September 19, 2014

Dear Parents or Guardians,

    We are off to a GREAT start in READ 180 at Sebasticook Valley Middle School ! I wanted to share some information about the program, especially if I didn’t get to meet you at  open house. READ 180 is a 90 minute class of 8-13 students where students are broken up into smaller groups of 3 or 4 and rotate from station to station during the period. All students have taken their first SRI (Scholastic Reading Inventory), which provided a beginning lexile score. Your student’s individual score is included in this letter. It also shows the end-of-the -year proficiency target range that we are working toward.

    Our stations include whole group work, small group work, independent reading, and instructional software. In both whole group and small group we work with a text book (r book) on reading and writing skills with interesting stories and articles that incorporates social studies, science, literature and college and career readiness. We have skill tests at the end of each workshop. The writing activities are carefully scaffolded to help students successfully move from sentences to paragraphs to multi paragraph writing. In the first workshop we have been working on writing an informational paragraph on how immigration has changed our community.

    The students also read books at their independent level based on the lexile score. There are audio books they can listen to as well. They take computerized quizzes after reading. We have class goals and awards built in that add a little fun. Each class is trying to reach 1,000,000 words to earn an ice cream party. As of right now, the 8th grade is ahead with 191,315 words already!  Students can also do eReads or go to the READ180 eBook Library to read books or short stories online at home. Go to Read 180 Next Generation Student Access  and be sure to change the district by typing in our zip code (04953) to get to RSU19. They can then come to school and take the quiz for credit and help their class reach that million!

The instructional software has some awesome topics that always start out with cool

videos. Students then read short stories and work through reading, word, spelling and writing zones to get to the success zone. There are four segments(stories) in each topic  and the eReads correspond with the topics. When students log on, they come to their dashboard where they track their progress and awards they’ve earned.  

Grades for READ 180 are evenly divided into four categories worth 25% each:  tests and writing prompts, independent reading, topic software, and group work with rbook. The books students read as well as the topics they complete, can also be used for their Language Arts reading goal of 25 books.

I’m really pleased at how well all students have transitioned into the READ 180 class and I know this is going to be a great year! They’ll work hard, but have lots of fun along the way and their reading and writing skills will definitely do a 180!  I look forward to seeing you all at student led conferences, but call or email me at any time if you have questions.

Mrs.Stevens

rstevens@rsu19.org   207-368-5492 (ext. 202)