Choice Lit Topic: Assessment Tools
Making sense of the enormous amount of student data in any classroom or school is probably the biggest challenge we face individually and in our school communities. Here you’ll find everything from one-page templates created by teachers for use in their classrooms to videos of staff teams poring over large data sets. We don’t have all the answers, but we do provide tools to help you ask better questions as you evaluate students and talk about assessments with your colleagues.
Results
Alternatives to Home/School Reading Logs
When I announced to my fourth graders that we would not be having reading logs this year, they breathed a collective sigh of relief, and a whispered chorus of thanks...
Core Memories and Gotcha Moments
The popular Disney Pixar movie Inside Out delves into the idea of “core memories”—those things that have happened to us that have had such an effect that they will forever...
Unstable Labels: Stop the Race to Z
One evening at a family dinner at the end of the school year, Kim sat next to her sister-in-law, who nodded toward her five-year-old son sitting across from her at...
Reading, Engagement, and Kidwatching
I looked up from my reading conference with Jordan to see that David was building a mighty impressive book fort, Mateo and Tucker were exchanging Lego figures behind books, Jasmine...
Using Reading Notebook Covers for Reflection and Goal Setting
When you walk into grade 3-6 classrooms during writing workshop, the covers of writing notebooks are often filled with photos, images, and quotes that remind young writers of stories in...
Data That Matters
On the first day of my internship with Nancie Atwell at the Center for Teaching and Learning in Edgecomb, Maine, I sat eagerly with my spiral-bound notebook, poised to record...
Getting Started with Digital Portfolios
A student portfolio is a collection of student work that is compiled for the following reasons: to create a snapshot of a student’s learning over the year, to evaluate the...
Launching Student Data Binders
Student data binders are an invaluable tool. I do not know how I ever taught without them. The purpose of data binders is to drive student performance, to teach students...
Growth Lines
When we began to remodel our home recently, we realized that the opening between the dining room and the kitchen had pencil lines vining up the wall from the late...
Setting Goals During Mini-Celebrations
Last week, I spent some time working in one of our second-grade classrooms. As part of a unit on writing about reading, they are developing opinions around the books that...
Student Learning Targets
I recently came across this comic from Baldo by Cantú and Castellanos via a family member whose hobbies include archery. In the comic, a young girl is using a bow...
Setting Goals with Students
As an adult learner, I always have a set of evolving goals. Some of these goals I have to put on my annual professional growth plan, others I write down...
Rethinking Reading Goals
This fall, my students' reading goals typically included sentences such as these: I want to read more minutes. I want to read more pages. I want to read a different...
Weekly Check-In Sheets
I think one of the most often asked questions when you share that you teach reading and writing workshop is “What do you do for grades?” This is a tough...
Digital Status of the Class
Are you frustrated about not having enough time in your reading workshop? Would you like to gain 18 hours in your reading workshop and be better prepared for your reading...
Wyatt’s Running Record
Bitsy Parks completes a running record with first grader Wyatt.
Running Record: Kaenon
Bitsy Parks completes a running record with first grader Kaenon.
Jillian’s Running Record
Bitsy Parks completes a running record with first grader Jillian.
Running Records: Rationale and Procedure
Bitsy Parks explains how and why she completes running records in her first-grade classroom.
Grading in Literacy Workshops
Last year I heard Kelly Gallagher speak at the National Council of Teachers of English Annual Convention. Many of his remarks stuck with me, but the one that I have...
Letter to Franki Sibberson’s Students
What do we tell students about adults observing them in classrooms? I wrote this letter to Franki Sibberson's third graders after I visited, when Franki and I both realized the...
