Posts Tagged ‘books’

School’s Back for Debbie’s Readers

Thursday, September 29th, 2011

to kill a mickingbirdThe summer went all too fast and now it’s back to school for millions of children.

In Boulder, super-teacher Debbie Valette has been busy getting things back up and running with her excellent reading program for those kids that have fallen behind. Then again, it’s not as if she abandoned them during the summer either.

Debbie spent some valuable time with her students during the break, making sure that their new found love of reading didn’t disappear during the summer. Check out ‘Reading Lunch a success – Part 1’.

She got in touch this week to let us know that things are getting underway agian, with plans to take her class to see a play of their class-book, ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’. Read the rest of this entry »


Reading Lunch Success – Chapter 2

Tuesday, August 9th, 2011

debbies readers in bookstoreLast week, teacher Debbie Valette took us through an interesting lunch date with some of her reading students and how the experience helped them hone their newly gained reading skills in the real world.

It also gave them a chance to discuss the books they are currently reading and also a wide range of topics that those books presented to them. You can catch up on that here – Reading Lunch A Success – Chapter 1″

Here’s what happened after lunch:

“From there we headed to Boulder’s only local bookstore to find a new read [see photo].

I attached a couple of pictures of the girls looking for books. We finally found one we could all agree on. It’s called Illegal by Bettina Restrepo.

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Summer Reading Vital For Problem Readers

Thursday, July 29th, 2010

debbies class 3Debbie Valette’s unique reading programme for 12-14-year olds in Boulder, Colorado, has made great strides in getting kids with serious reading problems back on track.

The recent feedback from the kids has been amazing and according to Debbie her programme has seen 99% of her students scoring higher on the GRADE test and the DRA2 fluency test.

Students made gains of 1.5 to 2.5 years in reading. Debbie’s been in touch to let us know what’s been happening this summer and said:

“All of you at Catalyst Exhibits can feel great about being part of these kids’ growth. “If I weren’t able to keep my kids supplied with appropriate books, I would not have been able to keep them engaged. Thanks so much!!”

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