Who has time for drama?I have so much stuff I need to teach that I can’t afford to spend time letting the kids act out goofy little skits.Have you heard these excuses before? Have you used t

There are so many opportunities to assess learning. When do you assess learning? How do you assess learning. Here are a few of my favorites. Here are more places to find out about assessments. Enjo…

The debacle of taking grades.... I know some teachers that take a grade on EVERYTHING. Meaning, everything the kids do, they take a grade on and put in the "gradebook." I can't do that. BUT, I do use everything as an informal assessment. I used to have these nice, LOOOOOONG, drawn out plans for small groups. I was really proud of my plans for my small groups. But, then I realized I was missing out on some great teaching opportunities because I HAD to do those plans. lol Well, I decided to try something new and I've "thrown out" those lesson plans and started using our work throughout the day as a "telling" for what I need to do for small groups. I do it for both reading and math - if I see there are a handful of kids that are having trouble with a concept, then I will pull them back. Or if it's after I've already done my small groups, then I will do it for the next day. OR, if I have almost an entire class do it?? Then it'll just be a whole group lesson. Here - I happen to have an example from this week, that I actually took a picture of. Last week, when we were doing Sarah's er, ir, ur pack, I used one of the activities as an informal assessment, which will lead to my vocabulary lesson next week... They were doing the word sort, and I noticed that almost EVERY person did this...... SO, I'm guessing that they don't know the words "lurk" or "smirk" - lol. So, I will be using those two words as one of my vocab words... well, the correct spelling of lurk anyway - ha! Click the pic to down load - and there are "directions" for box for in the download for ya. In case you were wondering where I got the spelling activity - it came from Sarah Kirby Let me tell you, I will own ALL her word work packs eventually! lol In fact, this week we're getting ready to use her /oo/ pack. She has some really great ideas in them! There are certain people/sellers that have year-round activity packs...and I have them ALL Like Kathy Law's Color By Codes Sailing Through First's Super Sentences Yvonne' Math Journal Prompts and Anna's Math Journal Prompts Katie's Busy Teacher Denise's Printables Pack Lisa's Monthly Thematic Graphic Organizer and now Sarah has been added to that list. Also, this week, we've been working really hard on our 3-digit numbers, especially with all the skills in my Numbers Every Day pack - and as we've been doing it, I've been making a few tweaks....I just uploaded a revised version - go snag your updated version if you've bought it! I've actually been updating a lot of packs lately - you've seen the Thunderstorm pack and my Bear Snores On pack that I've recently updated. Next on my list to do some major updating are some of my first packs.... Don't forget - tomorrow is the big TpT Super Bowl Sale! (the extra percentage is only on the 3rd - but my store will still be on sale for the 4th) Make sure when you check out you put in "super" as the code to get the extra 10% off my sale prices! Here are few of my favorite things :)

Today’s Wednesday, and that means it’s one day closer to being break for me. And for the rest of you, only three more days ’til the weekend! Today’s post offers you another …

Sometimes it feels crazy overwhelming to keep assessing students and know exactly what they do/don’t understand. That’s where these quick and easy formative assessment ideas comes in! M…

In this guest teacher post, Tammy Anfang describes a writing framework to improve student learning. Making the Invisible Process of Reading and Responding Visible About ten years ago when I taught my first Special Education inclusion class, one of my 7th grade students approached me and asked, directly and honestly, “When you tell us to visualize or ‘play the movie in our minds’ when we read, how do I do that?” I stood there and thought to myself, “You just do it.” At that moment I realized I

Easily Compare Formative Assessment Tools To make it easier for teachers to choose the best tool for the job, I've created the Formative Assessment Comparison Guide. There are so many great choices for teachers and students when

These dynamically created Pre-Algebra Worksheets allow you to produce algebraic expressions worksheets.

A free, visual self assessment rubric to help students communicate understanding.

Having just temporarily recovered from working on report cards, I thought I'd share a little about a technique I use for grading student wor...

Practice, review and assess student understanding of man-made and natural resources (and renewable and non-renewable resources) with this easy sort. great as a review or center work! 2 versions available for easy differentiating. NEWLY INCLUDED: Digital version of the sort as a drag and drop google slide activity. Smaller sort: Renewable vs Non-renewable resources, and an 8 question multiple choice review! Thanks! Check out these other natural resource products! Renewable or Nonrenewable Resources Sort Review, Assess, Center How are Natural Resources used? (renewable & non-renewable) Sort, Center

It amazes me how much class size affects my teaching and my students. I started the year with 31 students. I just lost my second one at the beginning of this week, so I'm down to 29. I've had 2 kids out all week on long vacations and 2 more out sick. So I've had a class of 25 ALL week!! It's been a big difference. Even though the ones gone are little angels and I still have all the hard ones, it really makes a BIG difference!! Our district and researchers keep telling us that class size doesn't make a difference but I have to beg to differ with them. It makes a HUGE difference in first grade. With a smaller class I can spread myself out more- work with more kids, more often, for longer periods of time. We can get more done- 25 kids take less time to finish an assignment than 31. With all the activities we do in first grade through out the day it can really add up. With less kids, fighting for my attention, I can give more attention to those that really need it. During class discussions, there is more participation by more kids. The shyer kids start to open up. It just feels more like a close knit community rather than a big city. I can hardly imagine what it would be like to teach less than 20. What a dream!! Back to reality. Our school has been doing training in SIOP this year. It stands for Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol. You can find out more HERE. It actually is training in teaching English Language Learner but our school does not have a very high percentage of ELLs. We actually have only 3 out of 180 in our grade level. But the SIOP model is really best practices and a great review in how to teach better. With the new common core our principal thought is would be a great help. We've had to do lesson studies and just finished one yesterday. Our team did ours on Synonyms. It's great to collaborate and work together as a team developing and analyzing a lesson. Here's a practice page we used and a cute song we found. I don't know who to give credit for the song but our kiddos really liked it. Click HERE if you'd like to grab a copy. Hey, believe it or not but it's FRIDAY tomorrow- again! Gotta love FRIDAY! I hope you all have a GREAT one.

Let's say that your principal called you into his office and sat you down. Then he said these words: "What formative assessments are you performing for your current math unit?" Would you know what t

Test outside the box.

Ideas and materials for assessing English Language Learners. Help get an idea throughout the year of your students language level.

Visit the post for more.

The beauty of differentiating math instruction is that there is not one single strategy or approach to meeting the needs of your students. I've had several e-mails asking how I teach and differentiate math in my classroom- some specifically relating to how I use the Investigations series. To be completely honest with y'all, I rarely open up an Investigations teaching manual and don't use Investigations student workbooks {we had the choice to order them or not}. I know some school districts make you use your adopted math series/workbooks on a daily basis, but I am fortunate enough to have permission to supplement like crazy to teach the standards. With this being said, there are many fabulous games/ anchor activities my students love playing from Investigations {Five in a Row, Counters in a Cup, Roll and Record, etc} and some of the units have awesome ideas that align to our standards- geometry and measurement are two of my favorites! I supplement my lessons with these, but I'm not a textbook teacher. I truly enjoy finding resources from all over the place & of course, making my own!!! I'm also blessed to have the support and guidance of an amazing math coach who goes out of her way to provide my grade level with awesome lesson ideas!! One of the most recent standards I taught was how to identify what is 1 more/less and 10 more/less than any given number up to 100. The first thing I did before teaching this skill was preassess to find the basic level of understanding for each individual child. Let me tell you, I LOVE some clicker assessments!! It amazes me how you get instant data/graphs on individual students, as well as your entire class. However, the old fashion paper and pencil way also works, too!! Once I have the preassessment results, I map out my leveled groups. I typically have 3 leveled groups. Tier 1 (needs a lot of support/remediation with grade level standard): involves hands-on, scaffolded tasks, manipulatives are used so they can "see" what they are doing, a parapro or teacher heavily facilitates this group. Tier 2 (progressing towards the grade level standard): hands-on task, mostly independent with some teacher facilitation, manipulatives offered if needed, involves some higher order thinking questions or activities. Tier 3 (mastered grade level standard and needs a challenge): hands-on task that involves taking the standard to a higher level of thinking, often involves creating, designing, comparing/contrasting, investigating, sorting, etc I think it's important to stay away from giving the challenge group *Tier 3* more work, but rather work that engages them to really "think deep". I personally believe that the activity in this group should also center around the grade level standard. I'm constantly referring to Bloom's Taxonomy when planning out activities for these smarties. My {Start to Finish} Math Lesson Breakdown Day 3 of teaching -1, +1, -10, +10 Calendar/Math Journal After calendar{I use a simple one on my SMARTboard}, I go right into math journal time. I love it when a prompt aligns to the standard I am teaching that day, but I also use ones that review previously taught standards just as much in order to keep skills fresh. Below is the math journal prompt I used for this lesson- Day 3~ Number Neighbors. This lil' prompt alone is differentiated because students pick their own number and show/explain their own thinking to figuring out the problem. I have used prompts at the beginning and end of a lesson. I prefer to use them at the beginning right now. They are a nice problem solving warm up!! I give my kiddos about 5-10 minutes to work out the problem & then we share our work using our document camera that projects the journals on the SMARTboard. You can click the picture to download the number neighbor journal prompt. If you like it, I sell sets of these cut/paste prompts in my TpT store! Check out what my sweet customers are saying about them!! I almost have a complete year of prompts...spring ones will be posted soon!! Most of them contain more prompts on a page, but these were big ones!! **math journal time saving tip** Cut all of the prompts out, paper clip them together, and store in a big ziploc bag. Put a prompt on your students' desk each morning for them to glue into their math journal {spiral notebook) as a part of the morning routine. When it is time for math, the kids open their math journal & are ready to problem solve. Saves tons of time!! Whole Group For this particular lesson, the math journal prompt lead us into a great discussion about the essential question shown below. The essential question is just the standard in a question format. It was the first slide in my whole group SMARTboard activity. 99.9% of the time I begin a lesson by looking at the EQ, highlighting the important vocabulary, and making sure my students know the standard we are working on- takes usually no more than 5 minutes. Then I get my students "hooked" with a fun & engaging activity. The purpose of this is to get them super excited about what we are learning!! For this lesson, I had the students put together their very own 99's chart puzzle {You could also use a 100's chart.}. I differentiated this activity by making the puzzles range from 4-15 pieces. I also whited out numbers to make it more challenging for some!! Yes, I made 22 different puzzles for this lesson, but it was so much fun!!! I put each puzzle in a big ziploc bag {labeled with students' names} with a white piece of paper inside for them to glue the puzzle on. If you wanted to simplify this, you could pair your kids up to put a puzzle together. The reason I wanted each child to create one was so they could use it as their tool for the rest of the lesson. However, I encouraged students to collaborate and help each other put the puzzles together. They also had completed 99's charts available to use as a guide. You could really see who "mentally" knew how to put together a chart and who needed support, as well as who was using the number neighbor standard to help them and who was not. Hello, formative assessment!! Here's the slide where I introduced the "hook activity"! Working together to help put their puzzles together!! Completed 99's chart puzzle!!! YEAH!! After everyone had their chart put together, we discussed the patterns we noticed in the 99's chart (really focusing on -1, +1, -10, and +10 patterns). Then we played a little game to review the skill as a whole class. I made this pitiful SMARTboard lesson. I have NO talent what.so.ever making SB's cute. BUT it focused on the standard & that's what matters the most, right?!?! To play the game the students had to press the number generator to get a random number, find that number on the number grid and represent it with base ten blocks on the place value mat. Then they rolled the number neighbor die {-1, +1, +10, -10} and changed the number to show what they rolled on the chart & with the base tens. While we were working on the SMARTboard, the kids were also at their desks using base tens/place value mats, a 99's chart, and marker boards to show their work. That way everyone was interacting with the game whether they are at the board or not. During this time, we would have lots of "think, pair, share" time to explain our thinking, restate the standard, answer the eq, etc. in mixed ability groups {my desks are arranged in groups of 4-5}. After we played the game for 25 minutes or so, I showed the students the results from our clicker preassessment and formative clicker assessment from the day before this lesson (same test to measure growth). Having students be a part of seeing their growth and knowing where they need to improve is HUGE at my school!! What's funny is my kids love seeing these graphs!! Differentiated Groups Now it's time to get into our differentiated groups! The last slide in my SMARTboard lesson explained the groups' tasks. As you can see, I use different colored stars to give each group a name. I put a colored star sticker on each child's desk so they quickly know what group they're in. It's super easy to say, "purple stars over here", "green stars at the front table", etc. Star colors change all the time ( every 2-3 days based on progress = flexible grouping). My students know they are in a group that is going to help them understand the standard better. Here's what my loves were doing in each group.... Tier 1 {green stars}- This group continues to play the SMARTboard game with me at the front table using base ten blocks/place value mat and marker boards to show their work. We focus on -1 and +1 first and then practice -10 and +10. Tier 2 {purple stars}- I noticed this group of students had mastered identifying what was -1 and +1 than a number, but they has some difficulty with -10 and +10. They played a game called 10 more and 10 less roll. All you need to play this game are number cards & dice labeled -10 and +10. You can buy blank dice to label {here}. Click on the picture to download the game. Tier 3 {orange stars}- This group made their own number puzzle flipbooks. I gave the students blank flipbooks and number grids to make their puzzles. They glued the puzzle on the front flap and had to create an answer key underneath it. Once they were done, they had a friend try to solve their puzzles! I wish I had a picture of a completed one....bummer!! They were so cool. I will see if I saved one in my classroom tomorrow & post a pic of it!! I had a parapro facilitate the orange and purple star groups. If you don't have a parapro, I recommend trying to get a parent volunteer if possible ( I know in some cases that is hard to find). The groups lasted about 20-25 minutes. If students were not finished with their work, they continued working on it the following day. Whole Group Summarizing Time To summarize this lesson, I went right back to the essential question slide and discussed with the kiddos what they were doing in their groups to help them understand/answer the essential question. We talked a lot about the strategies they used to identify the number neighbors. Lastly, I gave each student a "ticket out the door"..aka..slip of paper with a problem on it. This was very similiar to their math journal prompt. They gave me their "tickets" as they were lining up to go to the restroom. This was another great (and quick) formative assessment to see who was or was not understanding the standard on an independent level. Whew! I wrote a book. Sorry!! If you made it this far, I love ya!! I really hope this crazy long post helps you see how I differentiate a math lesson from beginning to end in my classroom. Please let me know if you have any questions in the comment section & I will answer them in a Q & A follow up post!! Here are a couple more printables/games to go with teaching how to identify number neighbors. Just click on the pictures to download!! 1 more and 1 less roll Number Neighbor Roll Frame by Fancy Dog Studio One of my goals this summer is to start creating differentiated math units for all of the first grade common core math standards! I can't wait to get started on them!! Right now, I'm working on Dr. Seuss themed math and literacy centers that would be perfect for your first graders to celebrate Dr. Seuss' birthday while also practicing important first grade skills. I hope to have this packet posted by the 20thish!! Happy Thursday!!! P.S. I apologize for the poor quality of the pics...all I had was my phone on me for most of them!!

Certain tasks are inherently rigorous, including reading idea-dense content, debate, using the writing process and even note-taking.

This simple switch has saved me so much time and effort every time I do a speaking assessment with my Spanish students. Check out this idea for giving speaking assessments while using rubrics in Google Forms. The set-up and student expectations walkthrough make it so easy to implement!

1568 views on Imgur: The magic of the Internet

Whether they're completed on a piece of paper, a tablet, or a whiteboard, exit tickets are a powerful tool to use in your classroom. Exit tickets are formative assessments that provide a quick snapshot about your students' learning and understanding of a topic faster than any other tool in the classroom.

If you are set on mastering assessment language, here are some tips and resources to help you use the best words at the right times.

Interpersonal speaking is an advanced communicative mode. Consider whether it is appropriate to assess and to practice interpersonal speaking in language classes.

This worksheet is a great way for students to learn how to break down words into syllables. It's also a fun way for them to practice clapping out the syllables. Syllables Worksheet

Check out this list of engaging ideas, books, and resources to help teach 2nd grade economics standards to your second grade students.

Practice pronouncing the German words for colors, and then color in various things with the correct color.

Hello Everyone! I love helping first graders express themselves through writing. For me, the first semester of first grade is all about cre...

I've been asked to share my assessments and those that I use. Assessments are snapshots of a child's current ability to perform a certai...

Alternatives to homework... #edchat #unionrxi #homework

These second-grade worksheets cover a wide range of subjects such as science, Math, and English to supplement your child's education. Our grade 2 math worksheets compliment our second-grade program.

Click on the picture for free download from TpT. I've been thinking a lot about formative assessments lately. Formative assessments are all about gathering information from your students - during instruction - in order to inform your teaching. The most obvious place to gather that information is from student work (click HERE to see a post about that), and it can be a lot of fun. Another place to gather information is also from your students. But now you have to get inside their brains, and find out how they assess their own learning. How in the world are we supposed to do this? And why is it important? Let's tackle the importance question first. Studies show that students who are partners in their own assessment show increased engagement in all subject areas, and are more likely to become life-long learners. Also, students who are taught to analyze their own learning show increased motivation to learn. Well, that's enough to convince me. It just makes sense, and I think we can agree that this is important. So the next question is, how do we do this? Here's the bad news. Most students don't walk into your classroom knowing how to assess themselves. In fact, many adults have trouble with metacognition. Here's the good news. Metacognition can be explicitly taught. In fact, every teacher I know is already doing this (though perhaps we are not always aware of the fact that we are teaching metacognition. haha). We model reading strategies such as activating prior knowledge, summarizing, finding the meaning of a word through context, and stopping and rereading, just to name a few. Click on picture to see Pin. Here's another great Pinterest idea. If you have not invested in a tap light, it is fabulous for modeling reading strategies! Just tap the light on when you stop reading to model what you are thinking. Run to Walmart and get one. You won't be sorry. The only downside is that students will remind you to use it every time you interrupt your read aloud. So if the phone rings in the middle of the book, be prepared for 26 voices to yell, "Turn on the light first!" when you go to pick up the phone. When it comes to math, those of us teaching the Common Core State Standards are modeling the 8 Math Practice Standards (see that post, HERE). These practices are vital to teaching students to monitor their own mathematical thinking. We model ourselves not giving up, even when something is difficult to master (MP1), or looking for a shortcut (MP8), etc. (I have to share this... the other day, one of my students was struggling with a math concept. I asked him if he could find a shortcut to use. He looked up at me and said, "I'm going to use the long cut, because I really want to learn this.") So what about metacognition as it relates to self assessment? Well, we have to model that, too. And here is where it gets fun. We get to model for our students that we make mistakes. All. The. Time. Then we walk them through the thought processes involved in fixing the mistakes. I want my students to see mistakes as something positive - as the poster says, mistakes are proof that you are trying! Here are some ideas: Model mispronouncing a word, catching yourself, and then correcting it. Make a mistake on a math problem. Model how to find the correct answer. Revise something. Decide (out loud) in the middle that it is not quite right. Then fix it. Stop in the middle of a sentence and ask, "What am I doing right now? Am I on task? What is my strategy for learning?" © 2011 woodleywonderworks, Flickr | CC-BY | via Wylio In the past I have used the idea of Marzano's levels of understanding for the process of self assessment. I gave each student the "stoplight" colors to keep on their desks (red - I need help, yellow - I'm trying, green - I can do this), but I felt as though I needed more than color coded paper. I've also used the number system (A student who holds up one finger needs help, and so on), but I wanted to use them together, with the addition of light bulbs to signify learning. I checked on Teachers Pay Teachers, and there are many excellent versions, but nothing quite matched the picture in my mind. So I made my own. (So here you can see my own version of self assessment posters, a rubric, and cards for students to keep in/on their desks. There's also a notebook page. Click on the picture to take you to my TpT store and see for yourself, if you like.) This process of going from 'not knowing' to 'trying' to 'understanding' to 'explaining' also has to be modeled for students. Here are some ideas: Model those mistakes, and why they are a good thing. Model that it's okay to ask for help. Model that everyone is different, and some people need more practice than others. (I use drawing for this one, because I'm terrible at it, but I still try. And I need lots of practice!) Model that being on #1 is not a bad thing. It just means that you haven't learned something yet. (I use the Spanish language for this example. Sometimes I don't even want to try, because I know I will make mistakes. About half of my third graders are bilingual, and when I mispronounce something, they let me know!) Model the difference between explaining how to do something and simply giving the answer. Thank you for reading along as I think about my thinking (and teaching). I truly believe that writing this blog is helping me to become a better teacher. I'm sure that most of you are light years beyond me in this journey, and I'm humbled by the fact that you choose to read my meanderings. I hope you can use the free posters at the beginning of this post, and I hope you will come back again to read some more. Next time, I'll show you my new KWL charts. And KWHL charts, too. Happy Self Assessment and Metacognition,

What to teach complete ESL beginners? Having an ESL beginner curriculum guide certainly helps! It is like a roadmap of what to teach in that first year.