I haven't blogged in some time, and I apologize. I've either been squeezing late work out of students, scoring the late work, or writing lesson plans. The positive is that, although it's the end of the year, the majority of my students are still working very hard to complete the final projects. I think they see the light at the end of the tunnel.
The reading SOL is on March 26. Math SOLs are this week. Students took the required reading post-test last week, and I've spoken to individual students about what they need to understand about the questions they missed, and I've talked to whole classes about how to understand particular questions. I don't see a need to grind through any last minute reviews in preparation for the test, because they've been working steadily all year.
All classes are reading To Kill a Mockingbird. Second core is reading it independently with a short journal response due every three chapters. The first 15 chapters and five responses were due this past week. The rest are due on May 29. The personal narrative project is also due on May 29. I provided computers every day this past week to finish late work and work on the personal narrative project, because I told them I couldn't guarantee any class-wide computer access to computers starting this week because the SOLs are beginning, and computers will be used for testing. Students continue reading books of their own choice, as they have all year, which is a great way to deal with the boredom and stress of all the testing.
It's been a productive year, and I congratulate them on all of the hard work and achievement. We'll be working hard until the last project is in, and the testing is complete.
