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Meeting Goals

Eli ended his first semester of 2nd grade this week. He has met a couple of big goals and we are so proud of him!

He had an Accelerated Reader (AR) goal of 10 points this quarter, which meant that he had to read 20 half-point books and get a 100% on the reading comprehension tests for them. He is still developing his reading skills and isn't ready for chapter books, so he has to read lots of books to meet his goal. He has really been into a series of non-fiction books about animals. He reads one almost every day. And he has to read each book twice before he can take the comprehension test on it. Usually he reads it to me after school and then to his daddy before he goes to bed. This week, however, I made him read one to Dawson instead of me. It was about naked mole rats. Yuck!

This quarter I also started paying Eli $5 per week for every spelling test he got a 100% on at the Pre-test on Wednesdays. If the students get a 100% on the pre-test, they don't have to take the test on Friday. If they get under a 100%, they get a second chance. Honestly, I was not trying to bribe Eli to do good on his tests. My main goal was to get him to take his test in the classroom and work hard enough early in the week to get a 100% so that we wouldn't have to spend the rest of the week studying. The reason for this is that last year he took his spelling tests separately with his reading resource teacher. She would go slow for him so he wouldn't get behind. But I really wanted to push him this year to try to keep up with the other students and learn to take the tests in the busyness of the classroom instead of in private. That little stinker has made $52 this quarter!!! He got a 100% on every pre-test except for one, and he got a 100% on the Friday test (he got paid $2 for that.) The real goal was met, and he has some cash to buy a new video game.

Since math and science are his strong subjects, improving in reading and spelling is so very important. He has accomplished so much!

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