Data: Analyze your students

I definitely agree that "teaching to the top" can feel rewarding when you see students learning and hear their progress and see their work; however, then I see that the Red Zone students didn't catch on and are still struggling which makes my previous success seem negated. Somedays I get discouraged when I feel like I am not doing enough for my Red Zone students, but then I remind myself to step back and look at my data-- progress monitoring, word lists, daily instruction etc... and then I see the baby steps and even if the progress is small--- it is progress!! I have used Tool 4 to show where my students were at in the Fall for Reading and Math and I am excited to see my next round of Easy CBM data in January. I have already seen awesome progress using the Rebecca Sitton Word List for sight word fluency (some of my Red Zone kids went from reading 12 words to 35 - 40 words in just a few weeks) and I believe that my core phonics and reading instruction from ECRI is really making all the difference. So even though I can get bogged down and feel discouraged when my students continue to struggle with certain subjects, I know am trying my best to teach to the top and remember that progress is progress!