Mid-Year Assessments

Hi Friends!
It's that lovely time of the year again... mid-year assessments. Over the years I've heard lots of moaning and groaning about this topic, but it's actually something I really enjoy. It must be the teacher geek in me! I like it because it's the time where I can see all of the work we've put in over the past 5 months finally paying off. Don't get me wrong,  I see the growth in snippets each week from progress monitoring, weekly assessments, or when I read with my kids for a minute or two during guided reading each day, but when I do my mid year assessments I see tons of growth in comparison to where they started! I also like it because it's 1 on 1... a time to connect with my kids in a quiet setting.

I do three different assessments. First, I do the DRA  assessment. I only have a K-3 kit, so for most of my students this is a great assessment. It's not helpful for those kits who tested out of the kit at the beginning of the year. I wish we had the higher level DRA assessment on our campus, but we don't. Today I was so excited {and relieved} when I tested one of my kiddos (who came to me a little over a half of year behind ) and he tested exactly where 2nd graders should be right now. That means he made a whole years growth in just 5 months!! I was so proud of him!! It tells me that what I'm doing with him works!! :-)

The next assessment I do is with our FRY sight words. Up until now, our 2nd graders were supposed to have the 1st 500 words mastered. While we teach and practice many of those words in class, many of the words have to be learned on their own at home. My students did really well on this assessment. It's a reflection of their hard work {and their parents} at home.







Finally, the assessment I leave for last is our FAIR {Florida Assessment In Reading}. About four or five years ago it took the place of DIBELS in Florida schools. I haven't started to FAIR test my students yet. I'm going to begin as soon as all of my DRA tests are done. My thoughts are mixed as far as FAIR goes. I've seen some discrepancies in the reading passages. There are a few passages on the 1st and 2nd grade test which are clearly way higher than they are supposed to be. I'm also not thrilled that students are given a probability of reading success strictly based off of how many words they can read in 45 seconds{list is in the picture above}. Other than that, it's pretty good information, but I don't use it strictly in isolation. DRA is an excellent supplement for it.

The thing I struggled with up until a few years ago was classroom management during my tests. I had a hard time figuring out what to do with my other kids while was testing. I used to have busy work packets and tons of interruptions, lots of clips moving down. My poor former kids!  For the past 3 years, I've been doing Daily 5. I absolutely love doing the Daily 5 in my class because my kids are completely independent, they know exactly what is expected of them, and they do it. Plus, it's benefiting them and they're not bored with busy work! If you haven't tried it, I highly recommend it!!

So that's my mid-year assessment routine. What's yours? What do you love& what could you live without? I'd love to know!

Happy Monday!
-Jackie-

If you haven't stopped by our giveaway post, check it out. There are tons of prizes to be won!!!!

Where do I begin?

Oh boy... it's August!
One week and counting until I can finally return to school and get my classroom in order. I feel really good about how I left it in June, so set up shouldn't be too bad. Since my daughter's birthday and party are officially over, it's time to start thinking about the new school year.
I feel slightly overwhelmed this year, since I am changing grade levels. Luckily, I don't have to move. There are so many grandiose ideas I have throughout the summer, but when reality hits, I have to reign my thoughts in and focus on just a few.
Here's my list: Bucket Filling: we're starting conscious discipline in my school, however I think bucket filling will be a very nice compliment to the program while we begin implementing conscious discipline. In order to implement this I have to 1. Chose a bulletin board space 2. Print out all the amazing printables I've found on these AWESOME blogs! 3. Figure out "buckets". 4. Buy the books
Rocking Chair Makeover Two days ago I scored this nice rocking chair from a neighbor who is moving away. I would like to give it a really cute makeover. I want it to be cute, but not overly colorful.I'd like it to be kind of neutral to match any theme I chose throughout the next few years. This year my decor scheme is Zebra stripes with Lime green and Hot Pink accents and some black and white polka dots thrown in for fun. I need some "pinsperation", so I'll do some stalking later.
Printing Printing Printing
I've found so many fabulous printables this summer! I have a master folder with hundreds of awesome ideas, posters, centers etc... I must make a new folder of things that I need right now, print and laminate them.
Math Work Stations by Debbie Diller
This is an idea that I love, but I don't have the book yet (yikes!!!). I have to order it ASAP, and get the ball rolling. I am confident that I have the materials that I'll need to build the stations. Along with that awesome rocking chair, I also scored these two shelving units from my neighbor. I think they would be the perfect place to store all of the station bins. I have just the place for them in my classroom too. I really like our Envison Math program, but I think my students also need some extra hands on practice. I hope the workstations provide this "extra" something. I may not implement them until the second quarter this year, I guess I'll play this by ear. Any math station advice would be awesome!! =)
Daily Five and Cafe'
Fortunately I've implemented both last year, and by looping, the majority of my kids will know what to do. =) I just have to brush up on both and figure out how I'll integrate it with my new second grade curriculum.

It's been a nice and relaxing summer. I've enjoyed every second with my little girl, and I've loved stalking blogs and pinterest, but it's time to get to work!! =)
Happy Blogging and Happy New School Year!!!
-Jackie-

Word Work

My kids last year absolutely LOVED word work! For my first year using Daily 5, I wanted to make word work easy, and simple to follow through with. The first thing I had to do was gather the materials that my students could choose from. Here are some pictures of the materials we used.








After I gathered the materials, I placed them in clear rubbermaid shoe boxes,labeled the boxes, and stored them on a shoe rack on my counter. The shoe boxes and 2 shoe racks also hold all of my classroom supplies (pencils, crayons, glue, markers, colored pencils) and math manipulatives.


Each week, I made a list of words for my kids to learn. I used my own spelling words (based on the phonics from Houghton Mifflin), the vocabulary words from Houghton Mifflin, and the High Frequency words from Houghton Mifflin. I would make 10-15 copies of this list and keep them in clear plastic protective sheets. I kept these words in a basket right next to all of my word work materials.

My students would make the words using ONE material of their choice. Once these words were made, then my students could make words that they already know, words from my word walls (or around my room), or words from their books.

While I felt like this was pretty effective, I still think there is more that I can incorporate into word work . I borrowed the book "Word Matters", by Fountas and Pinell from my reading coach at my school. I am hoping I can get some other ideas from this book in order to "spice up" my word work choices. If you have any suggestions, please feel free to suggest them!

Happy Blogging!
-Jackie-

Daily 5 and Cafe' Linky Party

Kelli at pray teach love( http://prayteachlove.blogspot.com/ ) is having a linky party about Daily 5 and Cafe'.

Last year was our first year implementing this glorious system.We wish we would have had these books when we first started teaching. Our lives would have been SOOOOOOO much easier, and our classes would have become even better readers.

In my class, I only have time for 3 rounds of Daily 5. Read to self is a NON-NEGOTIABLE, and it can be done during any round. The other two choices are their preference, however they have to complete word work at least 3 times per week, they have to read to someone at least 2 times per week they have to do computer reading(listen to reading) at least 2 times per week, and they have to do work on writing at least 2 times per week. See my schedule in the previous post to see how I fit in my 3 rounds of Daily 5 as well as my Cafe' and Houghton Mifflin mini lessons.

In order to seem not so long winded *smile*, I am going to write about Read to Self today, and other dailys in the next few days.

Read To Self- at the beginning of the year, I provided my students with cardboard book boxes from Ikea.

On the first day of school, the students decorated them, and they were REALLY cute, but they fell apart relatively quickly. I sent a letter home with the students in hopes of them bringing in their own book boxes. 16/18 students actually did, so it worked out well.
Inside the book boxes, my students keep 4-5 good fit books from my classroom library, 1-2 good fit books from the school library, the text book from Hougton Mifflin, and 3-4 guided reading books on their correct DRA level.
I taught this daily first, and we practiced it for a while before we brought other dailys into the mix. I wanted to make sure they understood the urgency of why we read to self. They got it, and by the time October came, their stamina was up to 25-30 minutes.
Since I am looping with 15 out of 18 kids , I hope to just pick up where we left off this past year. I will probably gain 3 new students so I will rely on my old students to be mentors to those new students. I will still take it slow in the beginning, and I will make sure any bad habits that they had from last year are squashed.

Check back for more Daily 5 and Cafe' postings! I am working on editing my pictures so I can post them.

Happy Blogging!!
-Jackie-