This week, starting tomorrow, we will be taking the IOWA Test of Basic Skills. Tomorrow will be the Reading portion, Wednesday is the Language portion, and Thursday is the Math. Today we started with the IOWA practice test so students know what to expect on the actual IOWA test.

I passed back their math tests from Friday, and went over the results. Test remediations were assigned. We began working on those in class.

What are remediations? After completing a unit in math, I give a test. This test is meticulously gone over by me, making comments when I can, in the hope that the student reads what I have written and learns from their mistakes. This is very time-consuming. Taken seriously, this is a powerful learning tool. No grade is given. Test remediation is then assigned, where the student must:

• Explain their thinking (why did you put the answer you gave).
• Do the problem correctly.
• Explain why this is the correct answer.

They must do this for EVERY problem that they got wrong. Then they must get a parent signature and turn it in to me. I usually allow 2 to 3 days to collect these, then a retest is assigned. The retest is usually given on the computer and parents can see this grade when their child logs into the math book website.

These are due Thursday, with a parent signature. Again, the purpose of this activity is student learning.

Also today, we went to the library, then completed our 7th keyboarding lesson. Tomorrow's secret codeword is: bananas. After recess, we met up with Mingl's class and discussed the "Question of the Week" and went over the lesson vocabulary.