Lesson Seven

The piece of software that I'd like to discuss this week is one that I use in my classroom daily--TeenBiz3000. This fabulous software is a web-based program that delivers timely articles to students based on their lexile score. So, while every student is reading the same activity, they each have one that is customized to their individual Lexile score. This program meets many of our school-wide goals and objectives. Because of the nature of our student population, we typically have students who are at least 3 grade levels behind in reading. Teenbiz helps us meet our DJJ and Title I program goals to improve CATS scores in reading comprehension. We actually saw a decent improvement in the number of novice scores in reading this past year, though this is only our second year using the software.

Students and teachers both find it extremely easy to use the program. It is based on an email user interface. Students are familiar with the email inbox layout and this mode of delivery relates to what they are using in real life. Another plus is that there aren't a load of questions to answer for each article. The questions cover several higher-level thinking skills, but don't bore a kid to death with DOK 1 drill scenarios. Through using the program, I've found that students should not access TeenBiz every day. They soon tire of it and think of the program as a chore. Also, though it's risky, sometimes it is a good thing to enable the games. After a set number of passing scores on articles, student should be able to earn stock market or game time as an incentive. Another thing I've learned is that a good training is essential. The whole first year that we had the program I had little idea of its capabilities. The first training for our building was sketchy and somehow I got left out of subsequent trainings. Luckily, this year I was able to attend a small group training that was 100% hands-on.

Teenbiz is fabulous. I would recommend this program for -any- school district that wants to engage students in relevant reading experiences as well raise their CATS scores. It's a research-based program that is tailored to state standards and NCLB standards. TeenBiz also gives teachers reports that predict how students will perform on high-stake tests according to how they've performed on similar items in the program. Once again, if you have the money, get this program! And teachers, there is no additional grading for you to do. It's all done for you, you just have to interpret and utilize the results you are sent.