Welcome to Mrs. Evans Third Grade FCAT Prep Group

Mrs. Evans' FCAT Preparation Course Outline:

By: Nicole Evans

Certified Elementary Teacher

Experienced St. Johns County

Third Grade Teacher

Please check out my official website:

www.mrsevansfcatprep.com

Objectives:

A. To provide students with review and practice of Reading/Language Arts skills, as dictated by the Sunshine State Standards, in order to optimize student potential for success on the Florida Comprehensive Achievement Test.

B. To teach, explore and engage in and establish as habit the practice of effective test taking strategies which will prove beneficial in the classroom, on the FCAT and hopefully throughout the students' entire educational career.

Course Length: 12 Weeks, 1.25 hours per week for a total of 15 hours of small group instruction

Location: Elks Lodge 829 Conference Room , Anastasia Island, A1A just north of Anastasia Baptist Church. Entrance is in the rear of the building.

Time: 3:00 - 4:15 p.m. and 4:30 - 5:45 p.m.

Days: Mondays and Wednesdays

Number of Students per Class: Maximum of 6

Materials: FCAT Prep Book $25.00 per student “Ready, Set, Show What you Know on the FCAT” included in the $375.00 Tuition/Materials Cost

(**Preregistering and paying in full prior to October 5, 2007 will get you $25.00 Materials fee WAIVED, bringing the total cost out of your pocket to $350.00)

Class Requisites: Students need to be reading at HM Reading Level J and/or have achieved a minimum DIBELS ORF score of 50 at the May 2007 assessment. This would be the equivalent of a reader on an early 2nd Grade level. This is NOT designed to be a Reading Remediation course. It is a Third Grade Skills practice/review and Test Taking Strategies course.

You are welcome to contact me to discuss my private tutoring rates and available time slots for Reading Remediation or other academic needs.

Cost: $375.00 per student for 12 week course including materials.

Transportation: Must be provided by parents. Please pick up promptly at 4:15 and 5:45 p.m. Thanks for your punctuality. Unfortunately, late pick ups can become problematic and therefore I do charge the traditional "dollar per minute" rate for pick ups beyond 10 minutes of contracted course time.

Course Design:

Class Breakdown:

50 Minutes Sunshine State Standard Skills

(10 review previous week's lesson + 40 min Intro/Practice new skill)

25 Minute Test Taking Strategies

(15 min. Strategy Instruction + 10 Min Strategy Practice)

Session A/B/C/D Schedule

Session A and B: MONDAYS

Session A attends from 3:00 - 4:15 p.m.
Session B attends from 4:30 - 5:45 p.m.

Monday Nov. 5th (No class next week Veteran's Day)
Monday Nov. 19th
Monday Nov. 26th
Monday Dec. 3rd
Monday Dec. 10th (No classes Dec. 17, Dec.24, Dec. 31)
Monday Jan. 7th
Monday Jan. 14th (No Class next week MLK Day)
Monday Jan. 28th
Monday Feb. 4th
Monday Feb. 11th (No class next week President's Day)
Monday Feb. 25th
Monday March 3rd

SESSIONS C and D: WEDNESDAYS
Group C attends from 3:00-4:15 p.m.
Session D from 4:30-5:45 p.m.

Wednesday Nov. 7th
Wednesday Nov. 14th
Wednesday Nov. 28th
Wednesday Dec. 5th
Wednesday Dec. 12th (No Classes Dec. 19, 26, or Jan.2)
Wednesday Jan. 9th
Wednesday Jan. 16th
Wednesday Jan. 23rd
Wednesday Jan. 30th
Wednesday Feb. 6th
Wednesday Feb. 13th
Wednesday Feb. 20th


Also a 12 Day Crash Course will be offered the three weeks directly before the FCAT. The crash course will meet 4 days per week for three weeks. February 19th-March 10th. Location and times TBA.

Course Includes:

Time Allotment for Sunshine State Standards Skills: 50 Minutes per week

Time Allotment for Test Taking Strategies: 25 minutes per week

Class 1: Skill Introduction: Using Context Clues to construct meaning
Strategies: Passage Parts

Class 2: Skill Introduction: Multiple Meanings
Strategies: Activating Prior Knowledge

Class 3: Skill Introduction: Prefixes/Root Words
Strategies: Reading Directions and Questions Carefully/Key Words

Class 4: Skill Introduction: Root Words/Suffixes
Strategies: Active Reading/Self Checking

Class 5: Skill Introduction: Main Idea
Strategies: Book vs. Brain ?s

Class 6: Skill Introduction: Antonym/Synonyms
Strategies: Review all Test Taking Strategies to date

Emphasis: MAKE CONNECTIONS, MAKE CONNECTIONS with text.

Class 7: Skill Introduction: Author’s Purpose
Strategies: Identifying the Genre

Class 8: Strategies Only
Strategies: Analyzing the Question

Class 9: Skill Introduction: Cause/Effect
Strategies: Identifying the Order of Events

Class 10: Skill Introduction: Compare/Contrast
Strategies: Use your time Wisely

Class 11: Skill Introduction: Modeled/Guided FCAT Test Practice- Applying the Strategies

Class 12: Simulated FCAT Test Practice- Independent

Group Corrections/Discussion of Test Results- Analyze areas of strengths and weakness for specific target practice areas at home/class before the test.

Test Day Suggestions: Breakfast, Sleep, Exercise, Relaxation Techniques

To get your registration started, you must enter your E-mail address here. You will not be asked to make your payment online now. This will secure your spot in line and you will be contacted within three business days to inform you if a placement is available. (You may need to disable any PopUp Blockers or try holding CTRL key when clicking Join if the Registration window doesn't appear)

I moved to St. Augustine from Cape Cod, Massachusetts in 1991 to attend Flagler college for its esteemed Elementary/Deaf Education Program. I graduated Cum Laude from Flagler in December 1994. I was fortunate enough to get offered my first teaching position straight out of college, at Mill Creek Elementary School, where I had just completed my internship in a Third Grade Classroom. I was honored that they had enough confidence in me to ask me to establish their first ever Pre-K classroom from the ground up. That endeavor, while challenging and quite rewarding, wasn't exactly what I had envisioned myself doing post graduation. I felt the upper Elementary grades would allow me to utilize more of the teaching skills I had spent the previous four years studying and developing.

When a Third Grade Position opened up at Mill Creek the following year, I quickly jumped on it. I spent the next four years teaching Third Grade and then Looped upto Fourth Grade, taking my entire Third Grade Group with me. It was an interesting and exciting way to transition into a different grade level. Many pros (with a couple of cons) to "Looping." It was by far, one of the best teaching experiences I've ever had. The continuity of instruction and the ability to just pick up where we left off was academically priceless. Our group, we were like a family. The relationships I formed with those students, as well as their families were very strong and are to this day cherished. That group, My Looping Babies, are SENIORS in High School this year! I'm feeling all sentimental (and old) just thinking about it.

In my personal life during this time, I married my best friend, Bob. We had a dream wedding in Hawaii, followed by a reception upon our return to Florida. We bought a house that same year and started our life together as husband and wife. Graduate from college - check. Working a job that I love - check. Married an intelligent, creative, kind, considerate man with mutual dreams and solid morals - check. Buy a house in a friendly neighborhood - check. Children...it must be next.

In 2000 I left my teaching career to become a Stay at Home Mom to our first child, a daughter, named Kendall. Staying home has been far more challenging and exhausting than I ever expected, but it has also been rewarding and enlightening beyond words.

We now have three children, another daughter, Julia, born in 2001 and a son, Zachary born in 2004. Children - check, check and check!

In 2006/2007 school year, I revisited my teaching career which I missed dearly, but I expected to be a difficult transition for our family. As suspected, I was faced with both the personal frustrations of making sacrifices on my families' behalf to provide my students what they needed, and professional disappointment when I also had to make sacrifices on my students' behalves in order to do what was in my family's best interest. Being a working mom was an ongoing balancing act where I felt pretty conflicted about where my dedication and loyalties should or were required to lie each day. My hat is off to the working Moms and Dads who have mastered the juggling act and figured out how to keep all those precious balls in the air. While my life continues to resemble a circus in action on most days, I acknowledge that I am not ready to become the Master of Ceremonies just yet.

One's family should always be their first priority with out question, but when the nature of one's work is such that it profoundly effects other children and their families' lives, prioritizing professional and personal obligations becomes a morally challenging one. Teaching is a not just about engaging students in lifelong learning experiences, it's about making a positive difference in the lives of children. Many of my proudest professional accomplishments haven't been academic in nature. The things I'm most proud of have to do with touching a child's spirit, being a positive influence on their character, building up their confidence, and empowering them with tools to make good choices. I had a hard time clocking out at the end of the day if I knew doing so was going to be at the expense of not going the extra mile for a child in need.

While I enjoyed my return to the classroom, it broke my heart that the majority of my time was spent enriching the lives of other people's children, and my own children, while in the hands of some amazing child care givers, were not getting the best that I had to offer them. I missed them tremendously. I wanted to be there for them when they came down with a fever and needed to be picked up from school. I wanted to be the Homeroom Mom in their classrooms, not the teacher in someone else's, in search of a homeroom mom. So the question became, how can I satisfy my own professional goals, while also keeping the needs of my family at the top of my priority list?

I considered the needs of my family as well as those of the children in this community. Then I considered what talents I have to offer and what time is available to offer it, and I think, HOPE, I have found the answer to that question. I don't have to chose one over the other, I can teach and be available to my own children without taking on the extensive responsibilities that come with full time teaching. I've decided to start my own private business tutoring and providing FCAT Prep/Test Taking Strategies via small group instruction. By teaching part time I hope to be able to satisfy the needs of my family, while offering St. Johns County school children an afterschool program with supplemental instruction, review and practice that will optimize their potential for success on the FCAT and consequently will relieve stress and anxiety commonly associated with the high stakes test.

Taking advantage of my comprehensive, carefully designed FCAT Prep Program, should give parents relief because they've provided their children with an advantage they otherwise wouldn't have. My formula for success is to provide intensive review and practice of skills and strategies in a small group setting where individual needs can be acknowledged and addressed. Student fears associated with the FCAT, should be diminished and replaced with confidence that they are prepared with the tools for success and EAGER to go in and show what they know on the FCAT.

Of course, I can't guarantee any certain scores on the test, but I do guarantee that I will do my very best to make sure that your children are familiar with the test expectations, they have had ample opportunities to practice the skills required to meet those expectations, and through guided practice with individualized, evaluative feedback and corrective instruction they should be highly confident in their abilities to achieve success in meeting those expectations.

I look forward to combing my two joys, my family and teaching, into a world that can be enjoyable and satisfying for everyone involved in both.

Wish me luck.