Week 2 Fifth Grade

Lasers (Non-fiction, Level 15, Stage 3) by Lynne Kelly

Boy did we learn a lot about lasers this week! This week’s book was designed for use over 2 weeks, but it was so interesting and full of exciting information that I couldn’t stop my fantastic fifth grader from reading it all in one day, so we used the activities all in one week and learned a lot about lasers that none of us ever knew before. Even little brother joined in for a while too!

The activities I want to highlight this week are the assessments. This Guided Lesson comes with a Reading Benchmark Assessment and a Fluency Benchmark Assessment, and both are stellar. Instructions for the Reading Benchmark include the following: Remind students they have read this book earlier. Now they are to reread silently the book and be prepared to read a portion orally. Do not provide vocabulary or comprehension support at this level. Have each student individually read the designated text. Ask and score the 4 comprehension questions and have the student demonstrate the reading practices. Both are calculated as the Comprehension Score. The student should score at least 75%. The Fluency Benchmark is similar in that the student reads the same portion of the book aloud, but the fluency score is calculated based on the number of errors made in the selection and the time taken to read. I used these assessments as a part of our weekly tests, and I was so happy with the immediate feedback they provided me. I could quickly identify Elijah’s strengths and weaknesses and adjust my plans for next week accordingly. Also, I can send the test scores to the staff at AlphaSkills, and they can adjust our content if needed as well.

This book was so popular that we may have to bring it out again over the next couple of weeks, which makes this Mama very happy! For more information about the AlphaSkills Read with Sarah curriculum and our family, see the AlphaSkills Blog Introduction.