Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Free RTI Reading Intervention Program

Free Common Core RTI Reading Programs | Free RTI Reading Intervention Program

Purposes 1) Launch students into the rigorous and intensive reading and writing program that is taught throughout the year: 2) Accelerate the closure of the academic achievement gap in lowest quartile students; and 3) Teach the students cooperative learning structures (peers teaching peers), social emotional intelligence, school etiquette, classroom manners, academic listening, questioning and speaking skills (Socratic Seminar), critical and strategic thinking, respect, responsibility and rebuild a love of learning and reading ...

We Learn.... 

10% of what we read 
20% of what we hear 
30% of what we see 
50% of what we both see and hear 
70 % of what is discussed with others 
80% of what is experienced personally 
95 % of what we teach to someone else. 

William Glasser 

College and Career Ready Standards are tougher and demand the very best from your students. Reading success is the goal, is Reading Boot Camp your students' Answer?


Sample Schedule of a Reading Boot Camp DAY!


Why is Reading Boot Camp 20 Days?
Students that are failing to read or struggle to read, start shutting down and dropping out of school mentally as early as 1st grade. Reading Boot Camp shakes things up in a fast paced, novel way that is fun for all students. Reading Boot Camp uses fun summer camp ideas that create an atmosphere of cooperation and team building. The learning structures or camp activities are designed to replace bad academic habits with positive academic habits. The fun, intense and rigorous cooperative learning structures used in the program are designed to maximize learning, academic listening and speaking, reduce behavior problems, and replaces poor academic habits with positive achievement. The kids have fun playing games, competing, exploring ideas, collaborating and truly having a camp experience while learning to be amazing readers and thinkers. Children thrive in the positive learning environment that is created, and after 20 days the positive behaviors are habit. Students learn to build social emotional intelligence, Socratic inquiry, positive interdependence and amazing academic achievement in a unique way that is reproducible in any classroom.

My 2009 Reading Boot Camp PPT "reading fluency"! 


The Power of Students as Teachers that can Think Critically! 

Students need Curriculum that develops Theory of Mind, Executive Function, Creativity, Socratic Inquiry, Curiosity, Social Emotional Intelligence, Background knowledge and Cooperative Learning Skills! Curriculum should inspire students and teachers to reach for the highest levels of understanding. Curriculum is not the published textbooks, even if published curriculum is exemplary it is just a supplement to the teachers’ rigorous expectations, expertise, knowledge, insight, and enthusiasm they model in classroom lessons.


Students must model and practice cooperative learning structures and strategies designed to help enhance academic focus, team building, active listening and critical thinking skills. Practice and model active listening to strengthen memory, auditory processing and deepen critical thinking ability. Repeat all declarative and procedural information to enhance memory; repeat to remember, remember to repeat and build sustainable cognitive ability. We think, we learn, we thrive! 

If you want at-risk students to succeed you need to teach them critical thinking!   
 

Sample Schedule of a Reading Boot Camp DAY!   

Why implement Reading Boot Camp? The real answer is kids love playing, enrichment activities, being creative, genuine reading and learning! The administrative answer is, 95% of all students that attend Reading Boot Camp make over a years growth in reading and language arts. 90% of all students including NES, ESL/ELL, and special education students pass state reading test in some of the poorest Title I schools! Reading Boot Camp is the same Education model that is used in Finland, with amazing results and positive student outcomes!



Make Reading an Event!

A key reason Reading Boot Camp helps at-risk students pass State Reading and ELA test is the focus on critical / higher order thinking, exposure to complex literature, and strategic reasoning activities that include tier 2 and tier 3 vocabulary games! The games, fluency practice, word work, close reading, music and lyrics, poetry, journaling "Close Writing/Response to Literature", dramatic plays, and fiction and non-fiction are intertwined with advanced academic concepts in a fast, fun, inspiring, and spiraling way. Blooms and Webb's question Stems and academic vocabulary are posted in the classroom for me and my students to keep the higher order thinking going.

RBC changes student’s futures!
  • Creating exemplary work ethic
  • Develop Active Listening, Questioning and Speaking 
  • Developing Critical and Strategic Thinking
  • Building Cooperative Learning Skills
  • Building Academic Listening and Speaking Skill
  • Building Social and Emotional Intelligence
  • Developing greater Theory of Mind and Executive Function
  • Thriving academically and curious students
  • Participating actively and engaged in the learning
  • Attaining challenging goals with precise effort and practice
  • Taking responsibility for ones own learning
  • Having fun pushing through academic challenges
  • Building Emotional Intelligence
Reading Boot Camp is a teaching philosophy that uses collaborative teaching, cooperative learning structures, active student listening, academic questioning, speaking and learning, and teacher made curriculum that has many levels, structures, and strategies designed to meet the needs of individual children and classrooms.

Student need to PLAY fun strategic board games and higher order thinking games daily to help build "Socratic Inquiry Skills"! 

Reading Boot Camp takes a teacher with vision and competence to implement, administer, and fully utilize the curriculum framework, structures and strategies. An understanding of Tier 1, 2, and 3 academic vocabulary, cooperative word work, fluency drills, setting rigorous goals and objectives, cooperative learning structures (Kagan) are all important to speed and maximize learning. Teachers must be flexible and willing to develop specific curriculum to meet the desires of their students. Students will find a love of reading when they get to read and learn in a novel and fun environment.

Reading Boot Camp does not come in a box or on a CD\DVD!

When you present truncated disingenuous ELA reading programs to students, you get what you put in. No root, no fruit! Many of CCSS ELA reading programs take up 10 hours of scripted instruction time per week, yet they only have one hour of on task reading allotted and no substantive Webb's DOK or Bloom's HOT question or question stems to engage students in academic dialogue? Most of the so called new CCSS ELA curriculum is just republished rehashed worksheets or re-purposed materials designed to keep students busy! The secret to Reading Boot Camp is students spend most of the day reading genuine literature with deep introspective concepts that lend themselves to teachable moments. Reading books like Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone lends itself to active student participation. collaborative dialogue, and Socratic inquiry because in covers every literary element, human condition, and creates thousands of teachable moments!

All Curriculum Materials Are Shared Openly With Other Teachers ! Sean

Fun Word Work Games!
RBC Core Academic Content
1. Cooperative Learning Structures
2. Reading Fluency Drills
3. Reading Quality/Vigorous Literature
4. Learning Poetry and Lyrics 
5. Tier 2 and 3 Vocabulary games
6. Word Work | Word Study
7. Close Reading
8. Developing Quality Writing Strategies
9. Academic Listening and Speaking 
10. Mentor text and structured graphic organizers, outlines and strategies to enhance reading comprehension   

RBC Core Social Emotional Intelligence Content and Critical and Strategic Thinking
1. Energizing Brain Breaks
2. Teaching Social and Emotional Intelligence
3. Repeat all declarative lessons!
4. Use the 75/25 rule 75% Academic/25% Enrichment
5. Classic Strategy Board Games with a Twist

Things to Think About?
1. How rigorous is your curriculum i.e. your teaching expertise, knowledge and or skills?
2. What resources do you use to insure all students are learning at high levels?
3. What is the quality of the professional development being used in your school to develop curriculum i.e. teaching expertise, knowledge or skills?
4. How many rigorous learning characteristics do you see in your classroom? examples: Higher/deeper levels of thinking (non-routine),  collaborative learning; constructing knowledge, problem-solving, teaching to others, 21st century communication skills  i.e. convey critical content ideas in multiple formats | speaking, writing, role-playing/modeling, incorporating knowledge from other content areas.

The Reason Reading Boot Camp Is Successful!

1. Language and reading is a function of auditory learning, students learn 6 times faster when listening, reading orally, and speaking. Language and vocabulary are mastered with repetition and modeling. When a reading teacher relies too heavily on individual student silent reading and silent writing activities, the speed of auditory learning is lost. By finding cooperative, creative and effective ways to provide more listening, oral reading, and speaking activities, you can give all learners in your reading class an accelerated chance to develop their literacy skills. During all Reading Boot Camp literacy activities the students are ether reading text or listening to text being modeled the within a cooperative learning or team structure. The repetition of seeing, hearing, and speaking vocabulary daily in fun and novel ways builds pathways exponentially, the further you get into the program the greater the automaticity. By day twenty, the brain pathways are automatic, automaticity has been achieved, the kids had fun learning the 800-2350 most used words and are ready to use them.

2. Reading Boot Camp is just that, camp, with camp counselors (teacher) providing highly focused fast, rigorous, cooperative, enriching, active, challenging, and fun, and yes reading activities all day long.

3. Students as teachers, using cooperative learning structures or peer partners for 90% of the activities builds accountability for the teams, and creates personal and interdependent learning that fosters greater success faster. Students are trained to work as cooperative learners, sages, bosses, scribes, secretaries, praisers, and teachers with the ability to run all Reading Boot Camp cooperative learning structures and activities with little assistance from the teacher. Students know all expected learning outcomes and work to meet individual goals and team goals. Students as teachers multiplies the effectiveness of on task behavior and helps student monitor individual progress and partners progress (Force Multiplier).

4. The 2000 most used English words (Tier 1 Words), Tier 2 and 3 academic words, and the Dolch sight words are modeled, read, written, acted, recited, or spoken 20-60 times per day during Reading Boot Camp. Students are exposed to 10,000-20,000 new vocabulary words during the course of reading a vast collection of literature that includes poems, plays, fairy tales, parables, fables, jokes, short stories and chapter books. Students build a fast auditory knowledge of the English language using simple yet fun enrichment activates. Teaching idioms, cognates, definitions, academic vocabulary, and any kind of words in a boring format will kill the learning and desired retention of any concept. Students interact with all the vocabulary in a fun nonthreatening way in the form of games or cooperative learning word work.

5. All Reading Boot Camp activities are Brain Based to enhance working memory, executive function and long term memory of materials.

80-90% of Reading Boot Camp activities use cooperative learning strategies and structures.
80-90% of Reading Boot Camp activities are done to maximize auditory learning or build language.
100% of Reading Boot Camp activities are literacy based.
70% of Reading Boot Camp activities are 5-15 minutes in length.

Students need Curriculum  Equity that develops Theory of Mind, Executive Function, Creativity, Socratic Inquiry, Curiosity, Social Emotional Intelligence and Cooperative Learning

Harvard Preparatory | Ivy League Education?

World class college preparatory experience in failing schools? Students and parents may not expect much from public school these days, Reading Boot Camp classes are the exception. Students receive a world class college preparatory experience from the rigorous demanding curriculum and Socratic inquiry to the high academic expectations. Meticulous manners and politeness are strengthened (theory of mind and executive functions), not with obedience but with emotional intelligence and cooperative learning structures.

Manners and Respect!
We practice and model social etiquette, manners, cooperative learning, and academic dialogue on day one! We start with students learning to work cooperative and build teams that facilitate academic and social and emotional interdependence. We practice and model daily all desired behaviors and outcome even standing up and greeting visiting dignitaries (parents or teachers), cordial teacher and student dialog, and teacher-student colloquy. Students giggle at first shaking hands and learning to greet and be greeted, but they soon feel empowered with the new found skills of manners. Students are looking for direction, guidance, structure, and a positive purpose in life! Learning cooperation, positive academic interdependence, social etiquette, manners, and pride in showing executive function gives students a sense of honor and virtue. Sorry for the florid verbiage I tend to go on but we are talking old school decorum. Students who shine and take to the cooperative learning structures, superior manners are given the job of class prefect or class models to help other students acquire the positive skill needed in school to succeed.

Teaching student’s cooperation
Teach students cooperation, trust, imagination, school etiquette, classroom manners, honesty, perseverance, discipline and responsibility or any other important life skill during your literacy block with fun interactive modeling, play acting, or the sharing of great literary tales of happiness and perseverance.

Learning Social Emotional Intelligence
Students begin their day with stories of high adventure, perseverance, duty, courage, sacrifice, within minutes of entering my class. They learn very early in school that learning to read, write and do math is important, but cooperation, character, manners, and empathy are more important if students want to thrive in school. The first four weeks of Reading Boot Camp are dedicated to teaching reading and writing and the process associated with language, yet the kids would never know that because they are having fun.

Are you Ready for Reading Boot Camp?

Before you begin your search for a reading solution for your school, you will need to take time for deep introspection on why you are seeking a reading intervention. Test results never played into my thinking when implementing new methods. I was only concerned that I could never let 70% of my students pass through my class with out learning to read and love literature. Spending 20 days of high intensity, literary immersion, is not for the faint of heart. You will have total support from your students who struggle with reading. They will see your mindful wisdom and join the journey with passion. Parents who desire an education for their children will love the idea and support you fully. In a perfect world, you will have love and support from your administrator, parents, fellow teachers, and students.

Reading Boot Camp was originally designed for 4th, 5th, and 6th grade.
Reading Boot Camp is being tested in even more primary grades this year around the world!
1st, 2nd and 3rd grade programs are available!

Reading/ELA Success Taxonomy
Making Literacy and Critical Thinking Work!    
Academic Dialogue "Active Listening, Questioning and Speaking" (Developing Socratic Inquiry to develop and build knowledge)
  1. Model reading comprehension strategies with the use of Bloom's and Webb's DOK question STEMS with tier 2 and tier 3 vocabulary
  2. Students focus on developing academic dialogue and inquiry with cooperative learning groups and teacher modeling using mentor text, my Favorite is Harry Potter
  3. Model Socratic Inquiry "higher order thinking" with Socratic seminars and critical think-alouds that demonstrate metacognition 
  4. Read genuine quality literature daily and ask deep introspective questions that stir critical thinking! Read vigorous challenging literature with all students and differentiate with expository dialogue and word work
  5. Play strategic board games (Chess/RISK/Go) with Socratic Inquiry and critical thinking modeled 
Sustained Engagement with Rigorous ELA Curriculum (Reading quality literature that inspires rich dialogue, questioning and thinking)
  1. Read genuine quality literature daily with  deep introspective concepts! 
  2. Repeated exposure to tier 1, 2 and 3 vocabulary concepts (repeat to remember)
  3. Examine literary elements, poetic devices and text structures plus reading comprehension strategies continuously "close reading with Socratic seminars" Always with genuine literature and mento texts
  4. Repeat all declarative lessons! 
Social Emotional Intelligence and Character Development (Developing Presence of Mind, Executive Function and Build Cooperative Learning Structures and Strategies Skills)
  1. Use cooperative learning structures and strategies that build problem based learning skills, critical thinking and develop character
  2. Incorporate Educational Sloyd "formative enrichment" based on the Finnish model of education 
  3. Model and Role Play Social Emotional Intelligence, Character, and active academic communication 
Critical, Strategic, Inquiry, Higher Order Thinking and Mind Development
  1. Play, Play, Play, Role PLAY! | Learn Lyrics, Learn Dance Moves, Play Board Games, Create and Imagine,  Then Create and Imagine some MORE! 
  2. Use complex games and learning simulations to develop Socratic inquiry
  3. Model Critical, Strategic, and Higher Order thinking with think-alouds 

Quick Look










Reading Vocabulary Word Walls
Academic Vocabulary Word Walls
Vocabulary Flash Cards
Open Source Speller 
Open Source Reader
Poetry Reading
Buddy Reading
Endurance Reading
Music and Lyrics
Chapter Books
Whiteboard E-books and Librivox Audio Books
Fluency Drills
Comprehension Building Games 
Vocabulary Sparkle
American Juku
Alphabetics for Kinder and some primary students
Recitation
Close Reading
Peer Tutoring | Cooperative Learning Structures
Book Clubs/Literature Circles
Great Class Reading Sets ( Your Class Library!)
Reading Masters By Grade Competition
Reading Journals

Students don't come with academic deficits they come with instructional deficits!  
Make Reading an Adventure!  

Reading Boot Camp is Fun and Academically Enriching! Students learn that reading is a magical sojourn that takes you away to distant lands and adventures!

Imagine how fast kids learn difficult concepts like protagonist, antagonist, plot, drama, and so many other literary ideas when they get to act them out.






Areas of Continuing Education and Teacher Collaboration that is Needed in All Schools that Serve At-Risk Students!
  1. Kagan Cooperative Learning Structures and Active Engagement Strategies
  2. Educational Käsityö | Formative Handicraft Principles in Schools 
  3. Fine Arts Enrichment  
  4. Positive Behavior Support and or Restorative Practices Principles in Schools
  5. Theory of Mind and Executive Function Development
  6. Critical and Strategic Thinking Development
  7. Inquiry Based Learning Practices
  8. Project Based Learning Practices
  9. Problem Based Learning
  10. Reading and Writing Best Practices
  11. Math, Science and STEM Best Practices 
Free RBC Reading and Literacy Games!

Steampunk Board Game | Reading Comprehension Board Game 

"The Legendary Lands" Steampunk Airship Board Game and Literary Adventure Game!
In this RISK style “word domination game“ Steampunk board game of reading comprehension and reading strategies you are battling to conquer the world of literacy, writing elements, plot, text structures, literary elements, poetry and academic vocabulary. To win, you must launch daring adventures, assemble teams of scholars, resolve the quest set before you, build floating sky fortresses of learning (Sky Libraries), seek knowledge on all fronts, and sweep across vast literary lands with boldness and cunning. But remember, the dangers, as well as the rewards, are high. Just when the world of knowledge is within your grasp, your antagonist opponent might strike and take it all away!


The Legendary Lands Rules
The Game can be played using modified Risk rules or used as a teaching aide or simulation, replacing the dice rolls with the students knowledge to determine the outcome.

The Set Up | Cooperative Learning Groups

The “Boss” may assign students at the table the jobs of ‘banker, scribe, geographer, meteorologist and or chronologist’ or students playing in small groups can change jobs before each new round. The banker will make sure all vocabulary cards, character pieces, glass beads, florins (money); dice are accounted for and will make certain that players vocabulary cards are in good condition before the start of the game.

Draft ideas for new Character Cards for, "The Legendary Lands!"






Lady Alice Amelia Wonderland



All players roll for highest dice to start the game and determine initial board placement. The player with the highest roll of the dice will deploy 5 scholars and one professor to any 5 florin territories as well as become the first player to start the game. Play will proceed clockwise once the starting game player has been determined. If a  tie  for  the highest roll exists,  the  involved players will roll again until a starting player is determined.
Students start with One Main Character (Professor|Mentor) and Five Companions (Scholars|Apprentice), 200 Gold Florin coins and vocabulary cards or dice depending on the lesson or academic level.

CCSS ELA Reading Boot Camp GAME CARDS















You and your students can make Steampunk characters or use literary characters like Alice in Wonderland.
  • Lady Alice Amelia Wonderland |  Airship Designer and Captain
  • Lord Jack “The Bean” Quick | Steampunk Mechanic and Engineer
  • Mr. Wolf | Sky Pirate 
  • Miss Red  R. Hood | Wolf Hunter, Geographer and Cartographer   
  • Mr. P. N. Boots | Ships Captain Retired 
  • Kate "Bonnier" Crackernuts | Restaurateur, Airship Caterer and Chef
  • Baron Von Rum Pelstiltskin | Time Bandit and Part Time Gold Weaver
  • Mr. Harry "Mad" Hatter | Tea Monger and Clockwork Engineer
  • Count Harry Beast | Barrister of Enchantments and Curses
Chronology of “The Legendary Lands”
1.      Placement and hiring of Main Characters and Companions, and movement and or hiring a conveyance
2.      Exploring an unoccupied territory, invading or migrating into an occupied territory. Migration is a good way to make allies.
3.      Knowledge phase, attack resolution for invaders and defenders, occupying new lands resolution. All knowledge phase activities use the vocabulary cards to determine completion of migration, invasion, or migration action. Dice are used for knowledge ties, high roll wins the battle.
4.      Payment and Reinforcements
When a player is ending his/her turn they should:
1. State the intent to end turn
2. Decide to execute or not to execute the allowed movement and act accordingly based on that decision
3. Take the Florins if earned for completion of knowledge phase
If a player has not conquered a new Territory during the course of his/her turn then that player is not entitled to receive a Florin payment. If the non conquering  attacker  chooses  to  end  his/her  turn without  overtaking  another  territory then they should:
1. State the intent to hire a conveyance or to end turn
 See Movement

A turn consists of the following actions:
1. If hiring scholars is warranted a player begins by paying the banker 25 florins for each new scholar or 200 florin for a professor. Five scholars and one professor is the maximum reinforce allowance during the reinforcement part of a players turn. New scholars must be deployed to occupied territories immediately. Scholars are deployed, moved or reinforced.
2. You, as the invader or migrant, clearly express the territory you will invade as well as the territory you are defending, you can only invade a territory with a professor and any of his/her accompanying scholars. If a preference exists to answer level 5, 15 or 30 Florin question this must be stated during the attack. If no preference is stated the defender can ask any level question from any vocabulary card.


Steampunk Airship | Steampunk Sky Pirates
3. Attack begins and evaluation of scholars knowledge commences, a win or loss for both sides is determined via  the answer to the vocabulary questions. The invader decides  to continue with  the attack cycle  until  all  desired  goals  of  the  attack  have  been  met or retreat is needed to stay in the game.  The attacker chooses when  to  stop  the  attack  cycle. The attacker should state that his turn is ending when attacks for his/her turn are finished.
4. When  attacks  have  been  completed  the  defender   has  the  option  to execute a reinforcement or movement from adjacent territory to fortify his/her position.

Rules for movement are as follows: 
A. Scholars/Professors can move to any adjacent territory on the board that is contiguous without a conveyance. Players are not allowed to move across water without an airship, clipper, steamship or ferry!
B.  minimum  of  one scholar must remain on a Territory at all times to show who is in possession of that territory.
C. You may opt not to execute movement.
D. If exploring  a new territory a player will take his/her scholar question to see if they can stay in the new territory.  
Conveyance Movement | Dice Mechanics | Natural Disasters Chart |
Time Bandits, Sky Pirates, Sea Pirates Probability Charts

Legendary Lands Conveyance
Movement
Capacity
Natural Disasters
Lose half your scholars
Sky Pirates, Time Bandits, Sea Pirates
Lose half your money or lose 2 turns
Airship
6 territories
10 Scholars
Roll 3 or higher
Roll 1
Steam Train
3 territories
30 Scholars
Roll a Six
Roll 1
Clipper
3 Atlantis Miles
5 Scholars
Roll 4 or higher
Roll odd
Steamship
6 Atlantis Miles
30 Scholars
Roll a Six
Roll 1
Ferry
Ferry Crossing
30 Scholars



Teach Reading and Writing the Fun Way!
Trade in Values
Scholars 25 Florin
Professors 200 Florin or 4 scholars 

Dice Rolling Rules
Same as Risk 

End of the Game | Students can write their own Plot ideas or stories on cards and play or use the three bellow. Having the students write their own plot is a great tool to teach writing.





Scenario Ideas | Limited Rounds 3, 5 or 7 Rounds
When a player has successfully taken control of more territory at the end of the agreed number of rounds  and or his/her   and territory is more than all other players you have won the game! You may lose if a player has fewer territories but more points from airships, trains and florins. Congratulation! You have reached the end of the game.

Scenario and Plot Ideas | Sky Ship Port Control
When a player has successfully taken control of all 4 Sky Ship Ports they are also the winner! Congratulation! You have reached the end of the game.

Steampunk Airship | Steampunk Sky Library
Scenario and Plot Ideas | Building a Sky Library

When a player has successfully built a Sky Library at a cost of 5000 florin they are the winner! Congratulation! You have reached the end of the game.









A Sample of a Vocabulary Flash Card used with Board Games or "The Legendary Lands" A student reads the definition and a student must provide the term, or read the term to the player and they must give a student friendly example, denotation or connotation.

Student can also use test prep reading passages and multiple choice answers but this slows down the play. Read the Passage and answer the question: Get it correct or lose your turn or lose your playing piece! 


Sample Reading Passages

solar cell (also called a photovoltaic cell) is an electrical device that converts the energy of light directly into electricity by the photovoltaic effect. It is a form of photoelectric cell that when exposed to light can generate and support an electric current without being attached to any external voltage source. The term "photovoltaic" comes from the Greek meaning "light", and from "Volt", the unit of electro-motive force, the volt, which in turn comes from the last name of the Italian physicist Alessandro Volta, inventor of the battery (electrochemical cell). The term "photo-voltaic" has been in use in English since 1849.  Words 128 reading Level High School
If answered correctly Move 6 or win the Battle

Student Made Boards 
"The Legendary Lands"

Which of theses statement is correct?

  1. solar cell generates electricity using heat.
  2. The term "photovoltaic" comes from the Italian meaning "light"
  3. photo-voltaic cell works without an outside power source.
Read the Passage and answer the question:
  
Saturn is the sixth planet from the Sun and the second largest planet in the Solar System, after Jupiter. Saturn has a large ring system that consists of nine continuous main rings and three discontinuous arcs, composed mostly of ice particles with a smaller amount of rocky debris and dust. Sixty-two known moons orbit the planet; fifty-three are officially named. This does not include the hundreds of "moonlets" within the rings. Titan, Saturn's largest and the Solar System's second largest moon is larger than the planet Mercury and is the only moon in the Solar System to retain a substantial atmosphere. Saturn is a gas giant with an average radius about nine times that of Earth. While only one-eighth the average density of Earth, with its larger volume Saturn is just over 95 times more 
massive than Earth. Reading Level Middle School

Which of these statements is not true?
Reading Questions
"The Legendary Lands"


  1. Saturn is the largest planet in the solar system and has nine large rings.
  2. Saturn is named after the Greek god Saturn.
  3. Titan, Saturn’s moon is larger than all others moons in the solar system except one.




To receive a free digital copy of “The Legendary Lands” board game we ask that you submit 5 grade level CCSS ELA test questions. They can be multiple choice or extended response ela questions.  All Test questions will be added to the blog and shared with teachers free of charge. 





The reason I put so much time, research, thought, and effort into developing Reading Boot Camp! 

I have Dyslexia and Dysgraphia, I never passed a single reading test, writing test, spelling test or State Standardized test in my public school life. I dropped out of High School, or I should say, I was pushed out of High school because my failing academics. I went on to graduate from the U of A, and NAU with the highest honors, I did graduate studies in multicultural education in Sweden. The only thing I got from all the testing, bad grades and failed standardized test in public schools was low self esteem, low self worth and a sense that I was stupid. I hated school and the "curriculum" was worthless at meeting my literacy needs. Sean D. Taylor M.Ed 

Reading Boot Camp White Board Slides! 













7 comments:

  1. Reading programs have become a billion dollar industry and they promise a failing district an average +0.50 extra reading growth in one year. Your district just has to spend $75,000 for a school license, teacher training, and materials and you get +.50 year's progress. My students have achieved the "impossible" for four years and they improved +1.50 AVERAGE in just twenty days. Reading Boot Camp serves one objective -- to teach students that to fail in reading is impossible. We refuse to let failure happen. It is time to slay your doubts and let your students do the 'impossible.'It is time to slay the jabberwocky. No gimmicks, no flash, just rigorous instruction and high goals will do.

    ReplyDelete
  2. 8:35 Morning Motivational “Can I get an Hazzah ”: We start every day by ”brain
    washing” the kids using the old fashion method of classic fairy tales. I share the epic stories of courage, virtue, honor, perseverance, responsibility, duty, fortitude, chivalry, civility, empathy, sacrifice, and most importantly, an exemplary work ethic.
    Readingsage.com Sean Taylor M.Ed.

    ReplyDelete
  3. BY HENRY SUZZALLO.
    Using FAIRY TALES to Teach Literacy!
    The fairy tale has a place in the training of children which common sense and a sympathetic attitude toward childhood will not deny. Some rigid philosophers, who see no more of life than is to be found in logical science, condemn the imaginative tale. They regard the teaching of myths and stories as the telling of pleasant lies, which, if harmless, are wasteful. What the child acquires through them, he must sooner or later forget or unlearn. Such arguments carry conviction until one perceives that their authors are measuring the worth of all teaching in terms of strictly intellectual products. Life is more than precise information; it is impulse and action. The fairy tale is a literary rather than a scientific achievement. Its realities are matters of feeling, in which thought is a mere skeleton to support the adventure. It matters little that the facts alleged in the story never were and never can be. The values and ideals which enlist the child's sympathy are morally worthy, affording a practice to those fundamental prejudices toward right and wrong which are the earliest acquisitions of a young soul. The other characteristics of the tale--the rhythmic, the grotesque, the weird, and the droll--are mere recreation, the abundant playfulness which children require to rest them from the dangers and terrors which fascinate them. The fairy tale, like every other literary production, must be judged by the fitness of its
    emotional effects. Fairyland is the stage-world of childhood, a realm of vicarious living, more elemental and more fancy-free than the perfected dramas of sophisticated adults whose ingrained acceptance of binding realities demands sterner stuff. The tales are classics of a particular kind; they are children's classics, artful adaptations of life and form which grip the
    imaginations of little folks. The diet of babes cannot be determined by the needs of grownups.
    A spiritual malnutrition which starves would soon set in if adult wisdom were imposed on children for their sustenance. The truth is amply illustrated by those pathetic objects of our acquaintance, the men and women who have never been boys and girls. To cast out the fairy tale is to rob human beings of their childhood, that transition period in which breadth and richness are given to human life so that it may be full and plastic enough to permit the creation of those exacting efficiencies which increasing knowledge and responsibility compel. We cannot omit the adventures of fairyland from our educational program. They are too well adapted to the restless, active, and unrestrained life of childhood. They take the objects which little boys and girls know vividly and personify them so that instinctive hopes and fears may play and be disciplined. While the fairy tales have no immediate purpose other than to amuse, they leave a substantial by-product which has a moral significance. In every reaction which the child has for distress or humor in the tale, he deposits another layer of vicarious experience which sets his character more firmly in the mould of right or wrong attitude. Every sympathy, every aversion helps to set the impulsive currents of his life, and to give direction to his personality. Because of the important aesthetic and ethical bearings of this form of literary experience, the fairy stories must be rightly chosen and artfully told. In no other way can their full worth
    in education be realized. They are tools which require discrimination and skill. Out of the
    wisdom of one who knows both tales and children, and who holds a thoughtful grasp on educational purpose, we offer this volume of unusually helpful counsel.
    HENRY SUZZALLO. 1916 “A STUDY OF FAIRY TALES”

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  4. BY HENRY SUZZALLO.
    The fairy tale has a place in the training of children which common sense and a sympathetic attitude toward childhood will not deny. Some rigid philosophers, who see no more of life than is to be found in logical science, condemn the imaginative tale. They regard the teaching of myths and stories as the telling of pleasant lies, which, if harmless, are wasteful. What the child acquires through them, he must sooner or later forget or unlearn.
    HENRY SUZZALLO. 1916 “A STUDY OF FAIRY TALES”

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  5. One Minute Word Wall Drills
    During Reading Boot Camp
    Word walls are used daily to build phonemic awareness,word attack skills, and comprehension. Students will read the word walls up to 5 times per day, as needed, at the start of school to reinforce fluency and critical word comprehension. The drills are a quick one-time read through that take about one minute to read the 20-30 words with a few reminders of the words meaning. Ask students to set the pace and use the pointer to guide students. Students with attention problems do well with this task.Remember this is a super-fast drill to build fluency and word attack and cursory comprehension.
    Sean Taylor M.Ed. Readingsage.com

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  6. Day Two
    Goals, Goals, and More Goals

    Our First Goals Are Quick!

    Use a teacher made fluency chart to get a raw word per minute score for each student and set goals using that data. Most of my kids entering 4th grade read 60 words per minute from a third grade passage. We work on building fluency on just one passage at a time to impart confidence and desire to keep going. We will read that passage up to 16 times a day with teacher and student modeling. The kids take the fluency test the next day and some jump up 60-80 words per minute in just one day. You may say this has no real literacy value for the kids. To the students it is an epiphany that hard work and practice can have amazing results! This keeps students excited and even more motivated to do exceptional during Reading Boot Camp!

    8:45 Morning goals and preview: We set daily, weekly, and monthly goals, with active
    charting of all data for a strong visual cue of each student's progress. Class and student
    goals are always set at or above grade level, even for students who are four years below
    grade level. All class goals are posted in the class and updated regularly as students meet
    and surpass goals. Daily goals include tasks completed for homework and class work. For
    intermediate students, we list at least seven daily goals: 1) I will read, analyze, and
    diagram four poems, and select one to memorize for daily recitation; 2) I will read two
    short stories and complete vocabulary comprehension exercises; 3) I will read two
    chapters from a grade-level text and write a story map for each; 4) I will write fifteen,kid-friendly sentences with at least six to eight words each using the review vocabulary; 5) I will write one poem in student-selected cursive in my Book of Memories ( a collection of students best work and cherished knowledge); 6) I will learn twenty five new words, ideas, facts, jokes, stanzas, phrases, limericks, rhymes, riddles, antonyms, synonyms, quotes, parables, folktales, myths, fables, and or fairy tales; and 7) I will learnm and have fun! “Try to learn 25 new things everyday at school or at home!” Goals: Students who meet their daily, weekly, and monthly goals can earn time for art lessons, hot cocoa with the teacher, Chinese noodles for lunch, homework passes, and the kids favorite a ten-minute dance party.

    Sean Taylor M.Ed. Readingsage.com

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  7. What would Boot Camp look like in a high school setting??? Same way?

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Thank you!