It's a good thing to practice for a while because, for avid readers, it's hard NOT to read the whole passage. But usually the whole passage is too long and the detailed stuff TOO detailed to retain it. So why read it at all if you can get the gist for the one gist-y question.

I wonder if I should be concerned that as a reading teacher, I'm advising that kids SKIP reading.

So, WRT the magnet job I applied for and didn't get? I heard through the grapevine that I was the most qualified applicant, according to one of the people on the committee who interviewed. She also said that I seemed stressed out and in a hurry. This coupled with her telling me "confidentially" before I applied that I might want to reconsider applying because twins take up so much time and the job is demanding..... I kinda feel like I have a lawsuit or a grievance on my hands at the very least. And yet, I don't care enough to really pursue it right now.

Though, I got the principal's attention when I put in for a transfer.

She IS an avid reader. This is the child I refuse to buy books for anymore. We did go to the library today and she exchanged 3 novels.

It's a good thing to practice for a while because, for avid readers, it's hard NOT to read the whole passage. But usually the whole passage is too long and the detailed stuff TOO detailed to retain it.

Yes, the last thing you want to do in the reading comprehension test is read. It's really an information search task, and reading the whole passage with equal attention is a very poor search strategy. The best scores come from sensing the way in which the information is organized, not reading every word.

As an extreme example, there was an interesting paper in the journal Psychological Science a few years ago showing that scores on the reading comprehension test predicted total SAT scores almost as well when the researchers deleted the paragraph to be read. Yes, they eliminated the reading from the reading comprehension task. Bright students got most of the questions right even though they never saw the passage. They were able to assemble the meaning of the passage by the questions and answers alone, which meant that they weren't wasting any time on the irrelevant stuff.

Such tiny little baby burritos to have so many wires and thingies attached to them. But as Hubby just said, it's mostly sensors. Still . . .

OK, that sucks about the magnet job interview squirreliness. (OK, I seem to not be able to spell squirell. Squirrel? It all looks wrong. WHAT THE HELLS A SQUIRREL?!!!)

But I'm happy to have both.

Yeah, I'm greedy for both. Which reminds me, more mac pictures and stories! (I know you are busy as hell, msbelle. )

I wonder if I should be concerned that as a reading teacher, I'm advising that kids SKIP reading.

(probably you know this a lot better than me. No, certainly.) Well, it's teaching how to test. Which -I- don't think is as important a in the long term as knowing how to read well and enjoying it, but it's an aspect of education. Gotta measure somehow. You just have to find a way to make them complementary. I went through a period of testing very poorly. As in flunking every test. I knew the material (hell, I was teaching it to my peers because the teacher sucked,) something just happened when I was taking a test. Were it not for intervention on my behalf by an earlier teacher (and her working with me to learn how to test,) I would have gotten locked out of calc, which would have been bad for me.

Such tiny little baby burritos to have so many wires and thingies attached to them.

They're just well documented!

YAY TINY ADORABLE BABIES IN CRIBS!

Oh, ha. So apparently we're not going to have satellite TV until Sunday because DirecTV is staffed by incompetent assmonkeys.

If any Buffistas work for DirecTV, well, I'm so sorry that you have to work with such incompetent assmonkeys.

It DOES suck about the magnet job and I'm pissed and I'm offended. And incredibly disappointed.

But now I can go back to calling them the maggot kids.

Testing is such a skill and those little plugger testers, at least the ones who do super well on state standardized tests, are doing their part in keeping up real estate prices.