The Short:
If you could use some simple, quick reading comprehension questions that gets updated daily, go here!
The Long:
When I switched schools about 17 years ago, I was hired specifically to work with kids who were destined to not pass the English I EOC. For those of you not in North Carolina, an EOC is just our state exams. Students need a 3 out of 4 to pass it and my students were predicted to make a 1 (based on previous state tests from elementary and middle school). I did have a few 2s. My principal flat out told me when he hired me that my job was to get these kids to pass the test.
Back then, if you failed the state exam, you failed the entire course. Lots of pressure for kids who struggle with reading. Lots of pressure for the new(ish) teacher. I started looking for samples, test specs, etc. and ran into a brick wall. I managed to pick up a few scraps from here to there.
I also realized that having the kids read a whole passage was one task and having them figure out how to answer a reading comprehension was a completely different task. The biggest problem with the second task was that I was struggling to get them to complete the first task.
So I started writing short reading passages on the white board with multiple choice questions. Super short reading passages. Super super short reading passages. That way we could spend time focusing on how to break down that question, how that literary term worked, etc.
But I'm lazy. It's rule #1 in my class.
I didn't want to have to keep writing those on the board. So I began putting it on a blog so that I would have it year after year. Then I realized that other teachers were finding it and using it because there was just NO RESOURCES FOR THE STINKING NCEOC!
The test has changed, somewhat. It is now in the 10th grade (poor kids who had to make that transition and get it two years in a row) and students no longer need to pass it to be promoted. I also no longer teach the test, but I have decided to keep the blog going.
Over the years I have had quite a few people tell me they are happy that the blog is there. Some shoot me emails when I forget to update it (I do it in chunks, recycling the questions each semester), and some who have sent me questions to add to the mix (I love those teachers!). I also have quite a few that have seen fit to get mad at me because they didn't like the answer or do not like the daily format because they wanted to find one specific question or other. People like to complain. I also got reported to my principal, superintendent, and state superintendent for "teaching to the test" by some person I've never met, but that's a story for a different time too.
So, take some time to enjoy the questions (or send me a nasty email about the way I am doing it), make some of your own and share it, or have your kids create some themselves and share with me the good ones to be immortalized forever and ever.
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