Data, Data, Data! {Stephany from Primary Possibilities}

We keep all kinds of data in our classrooms, here are some of the ways that I keep and track data in my classroom.  First up is student data books.  I make mine a half sheet sized booklet that is bound at the top with comb bindings.  This saves paper and space at the same time.  I laminate the front and back over for durability. 

We decide the most important skills that students should graph.  Graphing and tracking every standards would be impossible, especially in second grade.  Each page is set up to be graphed once a month.  I try to spread it out so that we aren't graphing everything all at once.  Students like to see their "steps" go up on their graphs and when they don't they do notice that they need to work on certain skills.

We changed to standards based report cards this year so it was important to find a way to track student progress on all of the standards.  You can track the overall percentage that passed the class with this form below.  This helps reflect on your teaching and also plan your future instruction.  If you have a super low percentage passing you would obviously want to reteach to the entire class.  You can also look for patterns among strands or testing days.

This form keeps track of data for each standard by student.  I pull the standards that we are working on that quarter.  You can keep track of all of the reteaching data on the same form.  

We also keep a data wall in the classroom that tracks the most important standards for that grade level.  These are decided by grade level teachers and by the particular needs of the students that year.  This year we are tracking addition and subtraction fact fluency, writing, literary response and reading level.  This is the overall percentage passing of the entire class.  We graph these once a month after our monthly assessments.

I hope you find these ideas useful in your own data tracking!

On Track and On Target {Kelsey from Aloha to Second}

Data is a huge buzz word!  I hear this word and part of me gets excited and the other part of me feels anxious.  It can be so much work and take so much time.  So, this year I have tried to cut back on my tracking and make it more meaningful and concise.

Our whole school has 3 WIGS, these are wildly important goals.  

1.  Our school will read 23,000 books by the end of the school year.

2.  Our school will raise $10,000 for the walk-a-thon.

3.  Our school will have 100% participation in student-led conferences.

Currently, we are working on our reading goal and the walk-a-thon goal.  Our student-led conferences are in the spring, so we aren't tracking that yet.  We track these goals as a whole school, as a class, and for each student.

Here are the class displays.

  

Here are the student displays that are placed in their leadership notebooks.

  

For their reading tracking, my students record the books they read each night on a reading log.  You can find my reading log here for free!

Their reading logs are kept in their book bags and a new book is sent home each night.  On Friday, students highlight the books they read that week and add the total number of stickers to their tracking sheet.  I also keep a class total and add it to our class display.  The class total is also sent to one of our teachers and she tracks the whole school progress! Whew! Are you tired yet?  Let me tell you, this can be exhausting sometimes, but totally worth it to see that students are showing reading growth.

I also set one class goal at a time.  Our class is tracking how many students know their personal mission statements.  Once a child learns it, they can add their name to the gumball machine.  When the whole class is in the machine, we can chew gum for a day!

Let me dive into personal student goals and tracking. 

I have grouped my students into ability groups, and these groups have different goals to track.  Some groups work on letter ID, letter sounds, sight words, counting, and number recognition.  

So, each child has a personal goal and an academic goal.  I set that each child would have a personal goal of tying shoes.  Then, the academic goals are based on areas students are struggling in.

Here is an example of some of my tracking sheets.

I sent home a letter to my parents telling them their child's goal, and I sent home activities they can use to practice this at home.  Then, each week I pull the students and practice this skill, and on Friday I test them.  After I test them, the students color their tracking sheet to show their progress.

I like that the goals and tracking sheets are based on individual students and it pushes them to work towards a meaningful goal.  It did require time, but once it was all set up it felt so good!  We are on trimesters, so I will have students track goals once per trimester.  

I have created many tracking sheets that follow the same template above.  You can find it here in my data notebook packet.  Click on the picture below if you are interested. :]

I hope you have found some useful things!  Thanks for stopping by. :]

An InLinkz Link-up

Tracking Math Data {Stephanie from The Learning Chambers}

Happy Sunday friends!  We are having such beautiful fall weather here in Houston, so I hope it's just as nice where you are!

Today I'm here to share how I track data in my math classes.  Since I teach in a Two-Way Dual Language classroom, I have two different math classes each day and 39 students in total to track.  It's definitely a challenge at times, but I've found three very simple ways to track data in both of my classes.  My motto this year is simple content driven instruction and these totally keep me on track.

#1 Pre-testing
Before I start a new unit in math, I also have some sort of pre-test.  It can be a hands-on activity to gauge what my students already know or it can be a paper and pencil pre-test.  Either way, it's a great way for me to see who knows what, who needs re-teaching, and who is ready for some extensions.

This was a fun pre-test activity for fractions that I found from Amy from Step Into Second Grade.  I was able to quickly see who understand the concept of equal and not equal.  Plus, the kids had no idea I was assessing them.

#2 Quick Checks
Every week in math, I have several quick checks for my students.  These are simple and normally one to two questions in length.  I normally write the two questions on a piece of paper and then project the questions using my document camera.  My students write their responses to the quick checks in their math journal.  The idea of quick checks is that they are quick and no-prep!  They are a quick way to see which of your students need re-teaching in a small group.

While my students are responding to the quick checks, I'm walking around monitoring with a small clipboard, three to four markers (each a different color), and sticky notes.  I normally choose different colors each time, so that the students don't figure out a pattern.  As I walk around, I give each student a colored dot at the top of their paper.  I also take notes on the sticky notes, so I know who to meet with in small groups.  Later after the lesson, I call kids to my table by calling out their color.  Sometimes I meet with the kids who understand to extend their learning and sometimes I meet with the kids that need re-teaching.  It's just an easy way to quickly assess my kids and make meaningful small groups.

#3 Blended Learning
I'm still pretty new to the blended learning model, but I'm really trying this year to use it to help me differentiate instruction for my second graders.  I love using Edmodo in my classroom!  Right now, we are using it mostly for math and I have my students turn in assignments.

The assignment is to watch a video that I created and then answer a short question.  It really helps me easily collect data and it really helps guide my instruction.  I also can use quizzes to collect data from my students.

I really hope this helped you gain a few easy ways to keep track of data.  I would love to hear how you collect and keep track of data.  Let me know by leaving a comment.

On track and on target {Managing Student Data and Goal Setting}

I have a slight confession… I hate data. I really do. It’s a lot of work. It’s time consuming. It’s tons of papers to keep up with. It’s not my favorite… at all. On the flip side, I love data. It gives me insight on what I need to reteach, what my small groups should focus on and how my class is progressing.

However, when I don’t like things, I try to figure out a way to make it work for me!  I made myself a data binder/assessment binder a few years ago and LOVED that I had all of my information in one HUGE binder. I had to do much more paperwork in the past for assessments. At this school and in the past few years, we’ve used ESGI to help with assessments so it saves me TONS of time and I don’t use ANY paper when it's time for report cards.

Here’s what I do to keep up with tracking my student data.

My data binder has a place for classroom data, student data and in the back is where I put most of my quick assessment sheets and cards.

I do have a few letter naming sheets, number sheets, colors and alphabet charts behind the assessment tab. I rarely use these because I have a math and ELA intervention binder that also works as a great quick assessment for things that I don't want to use for ESGI.

I keep the cards in this zip bag and just pull them out. I have the cards color coded for easy use. Numbers are on orange, letters on one color, sight words on another and so on. I can quickly grab a color and get to work with what I want to assess for a particular child

My binder also have a tab for each child. I keep all of their monthly assessment sheets here. They have an assessment sheet that goes home in their homework binder and when I fill it up, it is stored here as well.

The assessments are done during the week. I send them home on Mondays for parents to sign. I take them back out and keep them at school the rest of the week. This helps with them being misplaced or ruined. I've had some get things spilled on them and this helps to take them out every Tuesday morning for me to keep.

These assessments are VERY time consuming, but I LOVE them. I usually can check off students after small groups, after we've done something whole group, just working with them as I walk around the room and it lessens my workload on Fridays. The ones that already know all their letters and sounds - it's easy to just check them off. This helps when you have to conference with parents as well. They already know up to date information on how their child is performing. We don't have to give progress reports so this is my form of a progress report in kindergarten.

We are doing DIBELS this year so any thing related to that will go under their tab as well. It was SUPER easy to make tabs for each child. I just printed off a cover with their names and typed all of their names much smaller on one page. I cut each name out and just taped them to the page protectors. Quick and easy personalized tabs to help me when I’m looking for a certain child.

For our goal setting, I can only show you one picture (I prefer not to show their pictures next to the goals).

I have different goals and I add their pictures off to the side for students that have reached the goal. We work really hard and talk about one goal for each child. Of course, some hit more than one or two quickly and that’s okay. The fact that they get to see their picture makes them want to work a heck of a lot harder to get their pictures. When they do reach a goal, they also get a brag tag to go along with that.

That's it! I try to keep it as SIMPLE as possible, but I like to have the data when it comes to conferences, RTI meetings, and during IEP time. I will have ALL of their data in one place and won't have to scramble to look for it or try to hurry and print anything off.

On Track and On Target {Tips for Any Teacher!}

I am not going to lie, friends... I'm not the best data tracker! Isn't it so hard to keep track of ALL of the successes that our students encounter throughout the year?

Now that it's October and we are settled into our classrooms, we'd like to kick start the month by giving you some tips, ideas, and even some freebies along the way to help you keep better track of all that D.A.T.A.!!!

This year our math curriculum is different and when talking to our school's math coach, she helped me make this graph. I have never done this before and I actually got really excited about it once it was shown to me! The test was out of 25 points and not only did a ton of my kids score 100%, but I can visually see where everyone is clearly! I am going to do this with the rest of the chapters and it's a way to keep track of how my class is doing in math! 

 Speaking of math, I have my kids keep track of their own data for math fact fluency. I also do this for the students who have reading fluency folders. I have found that these graphs are fun for the students and they are visually inviting! The kids look at the trajectory and really understand that they are moving up, up, up! You can grab these graphs here FREE.

 Something quick and easy that I started a few years ago are these assessment binders. I am not going to lie (I know... already said that!), these can be tricky to keep up with! However, I think that in the end it is worth it!

How they work:
Each student has five tabs inside for (1) word study (2) writing (3) social studies (4) science (5) math
After the assessments are graded, I put them in the binders (you could have the kids do this!)
Every couple of weeks I send them home and ask the parents to sign the assessments.
The students bring them back the next day!
Repeat!

It can be time consuming to file the assessments in the binder, but since I teach second grade and my students don't get grades on their report cards, I really want my parents to be clued into how they are doing! I find this has been really helpful and that parents really are appreciative! You can grab these covers HERE free!

The last thing I wanted to show you are these editable Words Their Way grouping sheets that I made. If you use Words Their Way, then after you give the spelling inventory, you  just type the student's names in this and you have them documented and ready to go! You can grab these HERE for free too!

Well friends, consider that data tracked! Like I said, I am not the best and by now you know I am not the most organized teacher, but I love sharing what I know and I hope that these tips can help you this year!

On Track and On Target {Student Led Goal Setting}

I get so many questions about how I set individual goals with 5 year olds (when they are not so independent yet).  So I thought I'd show a quick little tutorial on the process I use that works well for me. I try to start goal setting as soon as possible into the school year. It usually depends on my group of kiddos, but I definitely like to have a good start by the beginning of October. Here is what setting writing goals looks like in my classroom.

1. Assess students' independent writing.
The first and second week of school I take independent writing samples from my kindergartners in each genre (narrative, information, and opinion) based on the common core.  These writing samples are taken with very little direction. I simply prompt students to "write a narrative piece with beginning middle and end." There is absolutely no help from me. As you can imagine, the kids look at me like I have 3 heads, and ask for help 736 times but that's okay, this is a baseline...they can only grow from here! :)

2. Score writing on a rubric with grade level team.
I use the rubrics in Lucy Calkins New Units of Study. I love that they have grade level specific expectations along a continuum so I can really see where kids fall. Also it's a big reality check for how much most of my students need to learn, as a majority score minimal and basic with a small handful scoring close to proficient. I try not to worry too much though because there is plenty of time to get there!

3. Look at goals from VOICES menu that may be appropriate for groups of students.
I use the goal cards from the writing menu that I created based on the rubrics above to choose the goals that might work for at least a handful of kids based on the assessments/rubrics. Because small group instruction will be based on these goals, I try to limit choices to a manageable number of groups for myself. (Usually 5 at the most) 

 You can find the Voices Menu here.

4. Pull students individually to look at writing and choose from 2 or more goals.
I pull out the writing sample I took and read it back to the student then give them a choice of 2 or more goals.  For now I chose 2 that would work for about half of my kids, and 2 that would work for some of my more capable writers. Here is an example of one of my students needing a lot of support. As you can see both goals would be good choices to work on.

5. Students complete their goal sheet while I pull the next student.
The student selects which goal they would like to work on and then write it on their goal sheet by copying for now.  This is where the cards come in really handy because I can send them to their seat and pull the next student.

 The goal setting sheets that I use also have a spot for the students to add how they will show their evidence of learning and their learning plan.  We work on these together in our small group meetings, but this is about all they can handle in their first goal setting conference so we stop here for now.  

After setting goals with all of my students, the students with the same goal become a writing strategy group. I know my focus for each group and each time I confer with a child.  I am always amazed at how good students are at picking a good goal for themselves.  Of course it is guided so that I don't have 22 different goals at the same time, but still I rarely have to point out why a particular goal might be a better choice for them.  

For math and reading I use the same process.  I simply use any beginning of the year assessments I have in these areas along with the standards for kindergarten.  I have goal setting menus created for Math and Reading here as well.

These personalized goals really make learning more meaningful to students because they feel ownership in what they are working towards and it is specific to their needs.  making even the youngest student a part of goal setting has been a powerful tool in accelerating learning and increasing motivation/engagement in my classroom!