Cross-Train Your Brain: Use Rosen-LightSail to Build Stamina for Testing

Gaining stamina for the things we love– shopping, running, or maybe even socializing, is easy. It is way more difficult to work up the motivation, interest, or ability to do something that is challenging or frustrating for us. Our students are no different. Many of them can chat for hours with friends, watch endless cute animal videos online, or play a soccer game without getting winded. How did they get this stamina? They practiced ways to engage and concentrate on tasks. The same holds true for reading stamina- it is gained with practice, coaching, and self-awareness. The Rosen-LightSail reading tool is filled with features and strategies to help students build reading stamina for testing and other school tasks.

Check out the info-graphic below to see how Rosen-LightSail supports the development of reading stamina:

How Can I Support My Students To Build Reading Stamina for Testing?

We know that teachers are busy . We also know that teachers love to differentiate for their learners, but have time constraints. Rosen-LightSail already makes book suggestions for each reader based on his/her Lexile. In addition, students can choose books of interest from over 5500 titles in our libraries. Great stories for them and great data for both you and your student from each and every book!

What if we told you that your readers could read an appropriate book of their choice and build stamina for testing? All while collaborating with their peers who read something entirely different? Is this too good to be true? Nope! It’s a reality. Add a discussion group into your assessment repertoire and you have a new measure of student accountability, student-centered instruction, and opportunity to build your class’ culture for success and leadership.

Teacher Tip: Use our Recommended Books (by Lexile) for a quick start to independent reading.

Here’s How!

Group your learners based on the types of books they selected for independent reading.

For example, you may sort students by Literary or Informational groups. Next, script some generic question for student discussion. Here are a few examples:

Each group member should have the opportunity to share out. A fun way to visually track participation is using a string web. Essentially, a ball of yarn is passed between the participants. Each participant is responsible for holding a small bit of yarn before passing it. Once each speaker has a hand on the web, the ball of yarn can be rewound. Each time the web is complete, the students move to another question.

Rewind!

How effectively does this activity support the development of reading stamina for testing? See for yourself below:

Teacher Tip: Depending on how you customize the questions in each rotation, the outcomes are seemingly endless!

Fully Utilize the Rosen-LightSail Platform!

We love to see students with a heightened level of self-awareness. You can help your students reach this by directing them to their Progress Page. Your prompts or questions can help them better understand their choices and their accomplishments!

On the Progress Page you might ask your learners:

Using the Minutes Read calendar feature- identify one thing you are proud of and one thing you want to work on. How will you monitor your improvement?
How do your book choices change your experience as a reader (free choice v. Power texts)? Is one type easier to read? More challenging? Why?
What would be some powerful things to write about in Thoughts? How many Thoughts per week do you think would help you make a connection to your reading? Why?

Community Building!

How will you put a unique spin on this lesson? Please reach out to your LightSail Instructional Coach to share your ideas, experience, suggestions, and goals. Remember, we are all part of this Learning Community. Teachers all over the world work all year to build stamina for testing. It’s fun to share ideas and work together to better our instruction!