Assessments are used in my classroom to guide instruction. I use a variety of assessments each day to help my instruction and to help monitor my students' success. I used a problem-solving model to help with several of my students this year. I've seen that several students in my classroom have trouble with math this year. I've used the data from MAP, Benchmark testing, and classroom assessments to notice an achievement gap. I am meeting with parents right now to discuss ways we can both help these students. These students are attending RtI and I am meeting with them in small math groups to help close the achievement gap. I also have a tutor that my students go to each week to help with math. I give my students many chances to succeed by offering many different types of assessments. I use the traditional assessments of quizzes, tests, and daily grades. I also use projects, observations, technology, and oral reports. My students can use the smartboard and write on their desks with whiteboard markers. I am able to walk around the room to monitor students' progress throughout the year.
First, I need to give more pretests to my students to see what they already know before beginning a unit. I can help my higher students by giving them individualized instruction during reading and math to help challenge their thinking. I struggle with using the data from classroom assessments to help meet my students' needs. I need to use their grades to plan my instruction for math and reading groups for the following weeks. It is hard to find time to continue teaching new content while going back and reteaching information to students that struggled with the old content.
I am going to try to analyze my students' assessments each week and use the data in their reading and math groups. I want to be able to focus on what skills they are struggling with. I want to make sure my students understand the current content before moving on to new content. I want to make sure my students are given multiple opportunities to show what they know through pretests and other types of assessments. Many of my students have test anxiety, so I want to make sure they are given opportunities to show what they know through different types of assessments.
Whitney,
ReplyDeleteI think we would all benefit from giving pretests before we start a new unit. It might save us some time. You make a great point about using assessments to guide our instruction. I know we're supposed to do this, but we all need to be onboard at planning time and compare where we need to reteach. Maybe we could use these scores and plan some reteaching time. If we have students struggling with the same skills, we could group them together for reviewing.