Helping Students Pass CCSS Reading Test

How to Help Students Pass and Exceed Common Core Reading Test: Proficient vs. Exceeds

Reading assessments will be standardized in 47 states starting in 2015 with the adoption of CCSS. The CCSS reading assessments will be more rigorous and require a deeper understanding of rhetorical thinking. Teaching students to read and reason is an art not a science and requires students to read quality literature.

Let the child be encouraged to tell over the story, which he has just read, in language of his own. Let his faults be pointed out to him, with such simplicity, and clearness of illustration as shall make him sensible of what is meant,–and with such kindness, as shall secure his gratitude for the corrections made: and those teachers who have not before tried the experiment, will, it is believed, be surprised at its results. Professor William H. McGuffey

My list of must does to prepare all students to succeed on any standardised reading test. 

1. Reading quality fluency passages daily up to four times per day with a peer to peers running record model. Sample passages
2. Read high quality literature daily for a minimum of 60 minutes per day with kid friendly socratic seminars.  
3. Word work and word study with a twist. Studying 30 minutes daily grade level tier 2 and tier 3 academic vocabulary with board games and vocabulary brain breaks like vocabulary sparkle. 
4. Singing and learning songs with poetic lyrics. With a song book and a cd player or youtube karaoke songs this is a must for fun and fluency.  
5. Study latin and greek roots in a fun and novel way. We read Harry Potter every year and the class does a affix, prefix, and suffix hunt. The students also create their own spells using what they are learning about latin and greek roots. 
6. Make reading and talking about books fun, exciting and an adventure. 
7. Model ,model, and model great reading strategies and thinking. Always correct students when they make errors in a way they can examine and try new reading strategies.