Cypress Creek READ 180 students celebrate achievements

Cypress Creek READ 180 students celebrate achievements
To reward the hard work of her 46 READ 180 students in 2013-2014, Cypress Creek High School READ 180 teacher Andrea Barnes hosted a year-end open house celebration in her classroom throughout the day on May 30.

Several guests attended the event—including Dr. Mark Henry, superintendent of schools; and Tom Jackson, Board of Trustees vice president—which featured reading performances by students as well as presentation of awards voted on by classmates.

“The students like to award their classmates for their hard work. It helps them feel like they have accomplished their goals,” said Barnes, a six-year READ 180 teacher. “The students are able to make positive shout-outs to their classmates and teacher. It is a fantastic way to end a hard year of working and accomplishing goals.”

CFISD launched READ 180, a Scholastic reading intervention program, in 2007-2008. The program uses Lexile Framework to measure reading progress—a system that uses a common metric to evaluate both reading ability and text difficulty.

The program’s 90-minute class model begins with 20 minutes of teacher-student instruction and skill warm-ups. The students then break up into three different 20-minute rotations: small-group textbook work, instructional software and independent reading with READ 180 libraries.

Currently, 1,282 middle school and 670 high school students are participating in CFISD’s READ 180 program. Secondary students read 301 million words for a yearly average Lexile gain of more than 110 points.

“The READ 180 program is the most amazing Reading program I have ever been a part of in all of my years of teaching,” Barnes said. “The students’ results are phenomenal on the Scholastic Reading Inventory, the STAAR/EOC scores, and most importantly, the students beliefs in themselves. Students feel confident about reading and find the love of reading.”