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
Liberty and Dystopia: February Literacy Contracts
Since it is February and we celebrate President’s Day this month, we focus on government and leadership in reading. We chose dystopian literature as the theme of the February Literacy Contract. ...
Streamlining Research Check-ins
For an obsessive person, I’m oddly disorganized. It’s strange: I am meticulous about list making, obnoxious about planning ahead, and consumed with noting everything on my calendar (I break into...
Journeys and Quests: January Literacy Contracts
January is the month of new beginnings, resolutions, and transformations. We love the month of January in the school year because we’ve got long stretches of teaching time. There is...
Exploring Winter with Short Texts
December is a short month with lots of interruptions like choir practices and holiday parties, which lead to antsy students. Because of the time limitations, we will focus on shorter...
November Contract: Family and Memoir
November is a month of celebrating family and giving thanks. It’s a time when many people go "home" to relatives and traditions. As much as we all love our families,...
Learning from Kidwatching
It took Sierra a few weeks to decide to talk in Keri Archer’s kindergarten class. Her father startled Keri the first time she met him: his face was steel gray,...
Creating Your Own Kindergarten Assessment
A dear friend’s kindergarten age son told me about his tearful bumpy bus ride to school. He confided, “I cry each day. The first day was okay, but I really...
October Literacy Contracts: Fear and Conflict
October is a wonderful month for teaching and learning, with relatively few interruptions compared to other months on the calendar. By this point in the year, we’ve established routines, relationships...
Kidwatching and Connections in the Early Days
Sitting down beside Daniel, I notice he has a large collection of picture books surrounding him. He has collected several books from our author stand and is comfortably seated on...
Emphasizing Empathy: September Literacy Contracts
September holds a lot of promise and excitement for teachers and students, but it can also be a stressful month. We are all trying to get back into the swing...
Literacy Contracts: Introduction
As you walk into our fifth-grade classroom, Raigan and Gracie are seated shoulder to shoulder, hovering over their books and whispering to each other while pointing to specific lines and...
The Cure for Value-Added Grief? Teacher Research
Data: what a loaded word. We’re living in a data-driven society, where data is collected, analyzed, and used to make decisions about everything from identity theft prevention to hospital infection...
What Data Will You Be Collecting?
Like many of you I love the beginning of the school year. By the end of July I twitch, pace, and lose sleep. I want to dive back into school...
Rethinking the Assessment Binder
In early December, I asked my 26-year-old daughter to come into school and help me file papers into student folders. After a few hours at the back table, she looked...
Notebooks, Goals, and Writing About Characters in First Grade
Katie DiCesare confers with a group of first graders about their writing notebooks, goals, and drafts about the characters they are studying during reading workshop.
Reflecting All Year Long
Reflection is important to me, especially at the end of another school year. I am gathering stacks of professional books –- some to read, some to reread, as I plan...
Independent Reading By the Numbers Is NOT Text Complexity
If we’re not talking to kids about what they’re reading, then it doesn’t matter what kind of book they choose. It’s the thinking and talking that help students unravel a...
Three Ways to Build Purpose in a Preschool Reading Workshop
For the past four months I have been sending my Head Start children off after our daily meal for “reading time” on the carpet while we complete our daily toothbrushing...
Assessing Learning During Student-Led Book Clubs
My most important job during book clubs is to know what my sixth-grade students are thinking. The point is to increase the rigor and accountability of each student through the...
Eyes on the Fries: Just-Right Books and Reading Peer Pressure in Middle School
One of my favorite parts (okay, definitely my favorite part) of my morning running group is the socializing. During one pre-dawn run in late summer, I found myself running with...
New Year Goals (Part 2)
Every year in January Choice Literacy contributors share some of their professional goals with our community. This is the second installment in a two-part series. See below for a link...
