Appendix A - Five Ways To Improve Instruction For The Benefit Of The Students!

1. I am making it a goal to teach at least one new fact to all of my students every single day of the school year, so that at the end of 180 days, they might know 180 new facts in grammar. (At the same time, I hope they will be learning to be organized, take good notes, be prepared for class, meet deadlines, use a dictionary and thesaurus, listen, and follow directions carefully.) I am really interested in students improving their scores on achievement tests and ACT tests on the grammar, and to do this, I will make sure they learn one grammar fact each single day (or two some days when we miss class).
2. I have make a weekly calendar for the students which we will follow as much as possible, and the goal here is to help them be more organized, and be able to meet deadlines.
3. I am using Reading Charts this year for each grade level, so that faster readers can go ahead of slower readers, and I can keep track of each student’s reading. By using the chart, students can also keep track of how many books they have read, and what their grades on the reading tests are. I am hoping this makes them more responsible for their own reading.
4. I have initiated a program (based on an old timer guest speaker I had last year), where I would award every single student in my classes, who makes a straight “100” on the spelling-vocabulary tests that we take each week. My goal here is again to improve scores on ACT and achievement tests, increase vocabulary and spelling skills, and increase the level of their speaking vocabulary!
5. In order for students to be aware of education in the news, they will bring one article per week about English or the field of education. I have set aside one bulletin board for these articles and they are required each Friday, so hopefully, students are reading the newspapers more, and becoming more aware of what is happening in the world around them.