Keeping Track of Data in the Classroom

As I have been out of the classroom now for over a year, I have had a lot of time to reflect on my strengths and weaknesses in the classroom.  This post will be all about assessments and data in the classroom.  First of all, I always blamed my lack of assessments and data tracking to time and lack of resources.  I know now that as long as I am prepared ahead of time (aka, summer break), I can complete the assessments and track them appropriately throughout the school year.

 I love getting students involved in assessments and making goals.  It makes it less scary and more motivating for all!

Another motivator and piece of ownership is data binders for math facts.  Students had to get a 95% or higher at the time (this was my first time trying data folders).  This upcoming year, I will ask students to get a 100% to move on.  I'm so mean, right? haha!

I am still working on which assessments I want to use in my classroom this upcoming fall, and much of that will depend on what grade I teach.  I just know, I am going make myself the goal of testing to make sure my students have a balanced literacy experience (comprehension, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and phonological awareness).  I plan on testing in these areas no matter what grade I teach, but they will be modified accordingly (i.e. I will not be testing 6th graders letter identification).  You may be wondering why I would test phonics or phonological awareness even with 4th graders.  I was working with a student over the last semester, and had an eye opening experience when the 4th grader I was working with was having issues with dipthongs, a few blends, and even some diagraphs.  I was amazed that he did not know these skills, so I knew with a basic phonics assessments throughout the school year I can make sure my students know these basic foundational skills. My goal is to test in the beginning of the year, and depending on scores test some more frequently and others may not be tested again or just 3x a year.  Hopefully I'll be able to update you all on what assessments I decide and how they work in my classroom! 

A few things I do know is that I plan on testing fluency weekly and running records once a month.  These are skills my former 2nd and 3rd graders struggled with and I did not test often enough.  I used to test running records 3x a year, and moved students up to new levels without the data to back it up! YIKES! Now, I plan on testing 1-2 students a day and by the end of the month each student will have an updated score.  This will help when they are self selecting books, deciding interventions, and guiding my differentiated instruction. 

As I sat here, hoping to publish this post soon...I thought to myself "What would make this easier for me [and my readers] and what will help me actually accomplish this goal?"  The answer was a recording sheet.  Something I can keep at the front of my data binder or my lesson plan binder.  So I stopped writing the post at the time, and went to create a recording sheet bundle for all of your ELA assessments.  Now, because I know the struggle of keeping so on top of so many things...I am setting the price of this product as F-R-E-E!  That way, you won't have any issues keeping track of who is left to give the fluency assessment or who is on my agenda for running records today?

Teacher ELA Binder

 Student ELA Binder

 Student Growth Thermometers

 Common Core Checklists: ELA & MATH (K-6)

Data Recording Sheets  {FREEBIE}

Math Fact Data Tracking

Now, my next professional goal is individual interventions. I feel like this is still something I am not very good at deciding which intervention is best.  So now that I have the data thing organized, my hopes is to do the RIGHT THING with this data.  What is the point of having the data if you don't do anything with it, right?  My first step is to look more into websites like:

• Intervention Central
• Florida Center for Reading Research

Feel free to comment with other intervention websites that are free for myself and other readers to try.  My hopes are that using some of these great online resources, I can get a good start on finding the right interventions for struggling students.  Maybe one day, I'll be posting my own interventions on my TPT Store. Until then...

Gobble! Gobble! Gobble!

Thanksgiving is a fun time for students as they are learning important parts of our nation's history (for those reading this blog from the States).  But it is also a time to have a little fun by incorporating some of the great foods, traditions, and crafts into our lessons...when we all have time! I have some sneaky ways to include fun into your classroom, while students are still learning and highly engaged!

Graphing

Thanksgiving Graphing:

I try to make my graphing unit (2nd grade) around the time Thanksgiving rolls around.  This is a great time period to have student survey family, friends, etc. and graph their results. In the past, with my 2nd grade team, we would have students survey family/friends about their favorite type of pie and show results on a Bar Graph.  You can also have fun with Pie Graphs given the name of the game!

I have created a simple document for you to model how to create data from surveying all the way to the analysis part.  I have a teacher example for all three stages.  The students have a "Take Home" document that tells them the steps to take and send the student copies home. Students are to complete a survey to at least 10 family/friends that they know, asking them their favorite Thanksgiving pie flavor.  You can obviously pick your own prompt, but the questioning will not go with it.  I have provided 25 survey ideas for you to use, to assign students, or to give students some ideas to survey friends/family members about. 

 

Get your own copy...HERE!

Graphing: Quick Assessment/Activity

After finishing the "Take-Home" assignment, you can test student's knowledge by having them complete a pre-made survey to create the bar graph and analysis portion. I have used this as a quick assessment to check my students' understanding of basic graphic.  Although, this activity does not make them do the surveying due to time.  It is also a fun activity to have students do the day before Thanksgiving as an educated math lesson, but still involves crayons and food!

 

Click HERE to get your own copy 

Another cookie version is available HERE

Numbers

Roll a Thanksgiving Dinner:

I love the "Roll a..." activity, and I have a few in my TPT store for you to get during all of the holidays throughout the school year. If you haven't heard of this type of activity, here is the breakdown:

1. Students usually work in partners or small groups.
2. They take turns rolling dice.
3. Once they roll the dice, they read the number.  The number correlates with an item to draw to create their holiday picture. For example, if they roll a 1, they must draw the plate.  The fun comes in when they are looking for a specific number to roll to complete their picture and they can't get it.  
4. Students should finish with, in this case, a Thanksgiving dinner drawn on the paper you provide them. 

It is a fun, silly, and teamwork game to play during the holiday week.  I usually use it during my centers, as they can have a couple "fun" activities, and a couple academically driven activities.

Here's the product...you know you want it!

For more "Roll a..." activities:

Roll an [Easter] Egg

Roll a Holiday Tree

 

Parent-Teacher Conferences

I found this awesome photo on Pinterest, and couldn't help but lead this post with this picture. Enjoy!

Cited: http://heygirlteacher.tumblr.com/

Anyone else feel this way? Worrying about scheduling siblings in other grades back-to-back with your students, parents can't make certain times, and the list goes on with the stress of scheduling Parent/Teacher Conferences.

Before I even get into my organization during conferences, don't forget to add something special up on the walls outside of your classroom so parents/guardians can see what their child has been completing in class.  I am lucky enough to have a couple large spaces outside of my classroom.  One of my bulletin boards was filled with student writing.  We did a creative writing piece to teach descriptive writing.  After reading the story I Need My Monster, students spent a day creating 3 of their own monsters and using many new and exciting words to describe them.  They then selected one monster to write a fun-filled narrative about them.  I put the writing as well as their monster picture up on the bulletin board.

The other side of the wall was filled with our personal character traits posters we made at the beginning of the school year. Parents loved seeing what traits their child used to describe themselves.  It was a great "ice breaker" for the parents and I to discuss their child's work and/or character traits before we got into the academics. 

(See that post here)

I try to stay really organized with a folder per student during this time as I know I only have 15-20 minutes with each parent. Things I include in the folder to be shared with the parent are:

• Progress Report
• Writing Sample
• Student Personal Progress Reports
• Math Fact Data (See blog post or buy on TPT)
• Any official forms from school
• Student skills evaluation report (Coming Soon!)
• Student Data of Common Core Standards Checklist (Get your grade level..here)
• Student Reading Level Goal via personal thermometer growth

Having all of these items completed, put into the folder, and ready to go makes me feel prepared.  Once all of the folders are packed, I make sure to put them in order of appointment.  That way, when one parent exits, I put that folder aside and the next one is up & ready to go.

A few more helpful hints: Always start with a positive about the child (or a few) so parents/guardians know you are on the side of helping their child.  This will help parents stay more relaxed and willing to hear the hard stuff if you start with something positive.  It is hard for many parents to see issues or problems when it comes to their child and their education.  Go at this issues carefully, and make sure you have data to back up your thoughts. If you know there will be a difficult conferences, ask one of your administrators to sit in on the conference with you. There is no shame in making sure you have "back up".

Good luck, and I know holding 25+ conferences in a short amount of time is difficult.  So continue being rock star teachers!

Students Tracking Math Fact Data

You may have already read my post about students keeping their own reading level data, but I also have my students track their math fact data.  This allows students to know where they are, and make goals on where they need/want to be. Now, teaching 3rd grade, it is my goal to get them to learn the basics of their multiplication facts. My personal goal for them was to get as far as they can through the multiplication facts...all of them! Crazy, right?!  I tracked their data with my bulletin board outside of my classroom. This was an added bonus on pushing them further to reach mastery of their facts.

Now onto their tracking...

Students were given a folder with multiple sheets to graph their math fact tests (100 problems). They should come into 3rd grade already having mastered addition and subtraction.  Life isn't always so perfect, so I started their data folders with Addition and Subtraction.  The rest of the folder was filled with pages for multiplication. (0-12 & Mixed Multiplication, each having their own page). Update: I've now added Division sheets to this product!

This is great for students to see the progression of that particular level they were on.  The space below the coloring is for the date. I ask students to put the date of each test at the bottom so we can see progression or understand why they had a certain "off week".

I would give 2 math fact tests every other Friday, so it took 10 minutes total (5 min/test).  This allowed students enough time to practice to reach their next goal.  This would also give me time to teach other things as I can't do math fact tests all the time and still get the standards taught.  I would grade ('A' paper allowed them to move on) the tests over the weekend and put the students' tests on their desk with the scores.  After modeling how to graph them they would graph their own on Monday morning.  I would have them draw a line and write the score on top before they were allowed to color. Once it was checked by me, they were able to color. I would also come around to congratulate those people who mastered a level and put a sticker on their data sheet.

It also helped putting a sticker at the bottom or top of the page to help me quickly glance at which page I needed to check or what level they were on. 

Click HERE to get the product in my TPT Store!

Now, keeping track as a teacher on where students were...YIKES! I played around with these for a while, but ended up getting a student chart (just a general chart) I created and would keep checking off when students mastered that number.  I eventually got the hang of it, and I just always had a lot of copies ran to be prepared.
*Note: When copying, you will need to play with the order a little if you are wanting them to be double-sided. This method will all depend on how your copy machine at school runs. My advice is test it before running 30 sets. 

Also, this is a great piece of data to show parents at conferences.  This proved to parents the inconsistencies or even the lack of mastery.  It definitely helped me share my concern, especially with addition and subtraction as they should have been mastered before 3rd grade.  I would highly recommend doing this in your classroom as well. Although it seems like a daunting task, it eventually runs itself.

One thing I love about this is that they take them home at the end of the year. Their parents can see where they ended up and practice before Fourth Grade. Am I right, Fourth Grade Teachers?!

Speaking of Fourth Grade Teachers...

Have no fear! I have adding division tracking sheets onto this product as well. Third grade teachers could benefit from this as well if their students are high achievers! 

Primary Teachers...

Look back soon, I'll add a simpler version for Addition & Subtraction individual sheets. 

Common Core Checklists

As promised, I have created Common Core Checklists for English Language Arts and Mathematics for grades K-6.

I have created individualized checklists for each of the sections of the ELA and Math Common Core.  I used these this past school year in my classroom. I won't lie, it took me a while to get in the habit of having them out as I grade and assess. Within time, I got the hang of it and had GREAT data for each of my students. The checklists allowed me to show my principal, parents, and myself which students were mastering the standards and which ones needed more assistance/reteaching.  I found the checklists especially helpful when trying to get students tested. I had the data right in front of me to show the testing team what his/her strengths and weaknesses were...it really helped me stay focused on what the problem(s) were.

Visit my TPT Store or click on the links below to take you directly to the product you want. 

As the year winds down, this is a great time to download, print, and organize this product. I printed one for each student, and put them in a binder. Each student had a tab, so I could focus just on that individual student. You could also organize your binder by Common Core section. For example, label each paper with student name from the section of writing. This would show how your class is doing in that particular section of Common Core. I just personally liked organizing them by student rather than by standard section. I could just put all my focus on that student's complete performance of the Common Core Standards.

English Language Arts Common Core Checklists (K-6)
Kindergarten Common Core Checklist
1st Grade Common Core Checklist
2nd Grade Common Core Checklist 
3rd Grade Common Core Checklist
4th Grade Common Core Checklist
5th Grade Common Core Checklist
6th Grade Common Core Checklist


Mathematics Common Core Checklists (K-6)
Kindergarten Common Core Checklist
1st Grade Common Core Checklist
2nd Grade Common Core Checklist
3rd Grade Common Core Checklist
4th Grade Common Core Checklist
5th Grade Common Core Checklist
6th Grade Common Core Checklist

Common Core Checklists

Attention All 3rd Grade Teachers:

Check out my newest product for organizing ELA Common Core Standards (CC Math Checklist link is below image below, as well). The product includes a 7 page bundle for each student in your classroom. It is a simple way to keep track of how each student is performing.

Each page includes:

• 3 boxes per standard to check off data/results
• 1 box per standard to write if student has mastered the standard
• 1 comment section per standard to write additional notes
• 1 larger comment section per CC section (i.e. Writing, Literature, etc.)

I use this product in my classroom. I got in the swing of things and would update any time I graded papers. Each student had their own ELA tab in my binder, so I could easily flip to each student to make notes/data/results.

This product is great for meetings with parents or administrators. It allows you to show them exactly how your students are performing in each area of Common Core. Data doesn't lie!

Now if you're a K,1,2,4,5, & 6 teacher, don't feel left out! I will be adding each grade level 1 by 1 to the blog, Facebook, and of course my Teachers Pay Teachers Store.

I always update my TPT store first, so become a follower!

For my 3rd Common Core Math Checklist, click here!

Our Reading is getting HOT, HOT, HOT!

Students are now being asked to do so much more in school. One of those tasks is being responsible for their own growth in terms of data. What I mean by this is understanding if they are making the right amount of gains and showing the growth needed to pass the grade/gain those lifelong skills.

Being a former Title I teacher, I worked with struggling readers. I needed these little, sweet kindergarteners to see their growth so I could continue to motivate them that they were making gains. I started by using a paper thermometer and having them "graph" their growth. I tested their beginning of the year reading level and set a goal (1.5 years growth). Every month I would test them and they would be able to color up the thermometer to show that there reading was getting better. They were so excited when they were able to color. I know some of you are thinking "What happened to the ones who didn't show the growth? Well, it only happened a few times and it was students who did not put their full effort into our time together. It brought great discussion on what we could change to make sure our thermometer grew. Great life lessons.

I used these thermometers with my 2nd and 3rd grade students. I tested them at the beginning of the year, explained what level they needed to be at the end of the year to move to the next grade and they set their own goal. Some went a few levels above the grade level expectation and some even went a level or 2 below expectation. As long as they picked a hard enough goal, I was okay with either. I wanted them to feel like they were pushing themselves and feel the responsibility of selecting their own goal.

Every year, I place them on a back wall so they can see their growth as a reminder that they are making their reading HOT, HOT, HOT! This brought motivation to many students and would push themselves extra hard during testing time to make sure they reached the next level. One year, my entire class met their personal goal by the end of the year. How exciting!

I "looped" up with the same group from 2nd to 3rd grade, and they knew exactly what this was on the first day of school. They were so excited to make a new goal for that school year!

In the middle of the year, you can see how students would color up the thermometer after I tested their new reading level. 

I know many classroom sizes are small or are limited in the amount of wall space they have. I have created a few different sizes for multiple uses. You can make a data folder or binder for each student with other subjects they might track.  This product would also be great for other subject areas as well! Click the picture below to purchase the product.

Don't forget to become a follower on Facebook, TPT, or here at the blog to be the first to know about products, resources, or FREEBIES!