Sunday, July 21, 2013

My Year Round Assessment Packet

Ok, I'm cheating a bit today. I'm combining my Apple A Day and Monday Make It posts into one. In fact, my Apple A Day (data collection) item is my Monday Make It item. I know, shame on me. In my defense, the kids come back to school tomorrow and, even though I have my lesson plans done for the week, I'm only about 75% of the way prepped... for tomorrow! Hence, the combo post.

So, first thing's first. Make sure to check out the Apple A Day linky party over at the Applicious Teacher for more data collection ideas...


and the Make It Monday party at 4th Grade Frolics for some wonderful creative ideas.

 


 
So, the way I was taught to lesson plan (and I'm sure this is the way a lot of other people were trained) is to use the Backwards Design Method. You create your final goals, then the assessment to test those goals, then the lesson plans to prepare for the assessment... hence backwards. However, I wouldn't do it any other way. So, it only seemed natural for me to create my end of the year goals and my academic plan before I even started my lesson plans for the year. Once I had that done, I knew I needed an assessment that went along with it. Now, the assessment I used last year wasn't horrible but, the problem I ran across was that, when conferences rolled around, I had multiple packs of the same assessment (one from the beginning of the year, one from fall assessments, one from winter assessments, and one from end of the year) that I had to compare and analyze for progress. The solution? Combining everything onto one and having the one packet be a bit longer.

I finally came to the conclusion that the best way to combine everything is to simply have the item to be assessed and add a set of 4 boxes underneath that can be checked or used to record info at each of my 4 assessment times (beginning of the year, fall, winter, end of the year).

I know, super simple solution right? Well, that just goes to show where my brain has been this summer that it took me that long to come up with it. Anyway, I decided to make the assessment packet as self-sufficient as possible by putting the letters and numbers out of order. That way, I can simply show the kiddos the packet and eliminate the need for flashcards and lots of extra assessment pieces. Pretty much everything needed for the assessment is included. All you would need other than the packet is a set of math manipulatives for sorting and patterning plus some base ten blocks to see if they know what they mean.

The best part? The whole assessment packet is FREE until MONDAY afternoon!! Make sure you head over and grab it while you can!

 
Hope you can use it!
Katie

2 comments:

  1. I also had several different sets for the year. This will certainly help keep me organized. Thanks!

    ReplyDelete