The Attack of Testuall

Once upon a time in a kingdom far away there was a small, country school. This school was a happy place, filled with smiling children, teachers, parents, and administrators. Everyone looked forward to the time they'd spend together at the school because they did great things every day. They sang songs and read stories. They solved problems together and learned about the world around them. They had kickball tournaments and chatted over lunch.

Although the school was a happy place, there was a terrible problem. In a cave nearby there lived a fierce dragon named Testuall. He lived off of other people's fear and stress. His entire existence was based upon sowing the seeds of anxiety. Testuall only came out once each year--during state testing. But whenever he visited the school Testuall tried his best to turn the happy little place into a den of negativity.

One day he soared right into the building and warned the teachers that he was going to cause trouble. He wanted them to be nervous, and they were, but they armed themselves and prepared for battle. They attended planning sessions and training meetings. They assured the students of their readiness, and prepared all the necessary materials. Everyone was ready.

Then the test day arrived. Just as he'd promised, Testuall tried to ruin the school's peaceful atmosphere by wreaking havoc with their new computerized testing system. The administrator stayed calm, ensuring the teachers that they would be victorious over Testuall. The teachers swooped in to reassure the children and ward off further attacks from the dragon.

"Error Code!" Testuall cried out as the first group of students logged in to test, but the mighty testing proctors were ready for his advances. Armed with error code fixes and phone numbers to call in help, they quickly thwarted Testuall's attempts. Over and over, Testuall attacked. He issued a Java update 10 minutes before testing would begin, but the teachers rallied together and updated the lab in record time. He tried cutting the power to the computers, but the savvy teachers solved that problem with a battery back-up and a phone call. Testuall even tried numerous connectivity errors, but still the teachers prevailed. Through it all, the students remained calm and collected, knowing that their teachers would eventually slay the evil dragon Testuall.

As the students finished testing for the day the teachers turned their attention to the beast, intending to end his antics for good, only to see him fleeing the school building like a scared mouse. "Chase him! We can't allow him to get away!" shouted a proctor. But it was too late. Testuall was zooming through the air back to his cave. But as he flew, he turned his head and bellowed, "I'll be back!"

The people of the school knew that Testuall would be back, but they were no longer worried about him. They had prevailed against him this day and knew that the next attack would be even easier to win. Victory was theirs!

Guided Math Chapter 8

I once had a college professor tell a story about a particular language in which the word for "teaching" and the word for "learning" were in fact the same word. She went on to discuss the cyclical and interwoven nature of teaching and learning, and posed a curious question: If there is no evidence of learning, can we say that there has been teaching?" I've gone back to that lecture in my mind often and pondered her question, especially as I read this chapter about assessment.

A knee-jerk reaction some teachers may have when students don't learn material is "Well, I taught it!" but the fact is that we must use formative assessment to ensure that students are actually learning.

In this chapter Sammons says, "Assessment in Guided Math classrooms is ongoing and informs instructional decisions. The strong links between teaching, learning, and assessment are evident." I would venture to generalize the same is true for all the subjects we teach. Ongoing assessment is crucial for helping guide students to leaning outcomes.

As I read this chapter several key points kept recurring in my mind:

• Feedback should be specific: Students need to know what they are doing right, as well as what the next steps are to further learning. I couldn't agree more! This was one of the key points I learned and practiced as a Reading Recovery teacher, so the connection with math made perfect sense. 
• Feedback should be timely: We've all done it, right? That stack of papers that need to be graded but doesn't get finished until 4 or 5 days later? I do try very hard to grade things right away and hand them back immediately because quite frankly, by the time the Tuesday folder goes home, the feedback is not so important anymore. Not just in math, but in every subject, I've found that when I can get the papers back to the students very quickly, they become a teaching tool!  
• Provide examples of what success looks like: This one has been a no-brainer for me in writing instruction, but is a little hard to wrap my brain around in math. I'm having trouble figuring out exactly what sorts of samples or exemplars I'll need...Are they like the example problems I complete for students when modeling? Are they the finished graphs I make to show students how to make their own? 
• Involve students in their own assessment: I do this some, but feel like I could improve in this area. I do a lot of formative assessment in which I ask students to rate how well they understand the concept, or maybe text in something they've learned or are wondering about with our ActivExpressions, but I feel like I could tackle this aspect of assessment better during conferences and small groups. 

Want to read more about Guided Math? Check out our book study hosts:

Chapter 1: Primary Inspired

Chapter 2: Third Grade Gridiron

Chapter 3: Making It as a Middle School Teacher

Chapter 4: Once Upon a Teaching Blog and Sweet Seconds

Chapter 5: Toad-ally Exceptional Learners and Pitner's Potpourri

Chapter 6: Barrow's Hodgepodge and Reaching for the Top!

Chapter 7: Mrs. Patton's Patch and Thinking of Teaching

Chapter 8: Primary Inspired

Assessment in the Writer's Workshop and a Freebie!

Do you have a great Writer's Workshop going (or planned) but are not sure how to go about assessing your students? One of my readers suggested I post about this very topic, so here goes! I am a firm believer in writing and writing every day. My students write every day about self-selected topics and sometimes to prompts that I give them. They spend a lot of time writing, and while I recognize how important this is, it is sometimes difficult for all of their hard work to be reflected in their Language grade...I feel like since my students are spending so much time writing, they should get credit for their hard work (or the other way around, if necessary). The problem is, how do you GRADE writing?! We've all heard horror stories about little writers' hopes being dashed to shreds due to a sea of red marks on their papers. Maybe we've even been the victims of such grading. So, here's the way I do it. I've based my system off of Aimee Buckner's Notebook Know-How. This is a fabulous book that you just have to read! She is a real teacher who's written about real lessons in her classroom. Very practical and easy to use.

I've chosen to grade the Writer's Notebook. I do this using a rubric about twice during a nine-week period. It may seem overwhelming, but if you conference with your students often, you already are very familiar with what is in their notebook, so it isn't as time-consuming as you might think at first.

I like this method because it gives me an overall evaluation of the writer and their work as a whole, rather than ONLY grading one or two pieces of writing. (I may still grade a piece or two of writing during the nine weeks, especially to get them ready for our open-ended responses to state testing).

I evaluate 5 categories: Flexibility/Fluency, Thoughtfulness, Frequency, Grammar/Usage, and Writing Behavior.

• Flexibility/Fluency: I expect students to write in a variety of genres and topics. I also expect them to at least try some of the strategies they're learning in mini-lessons and complete most of their entries. This takes lots of modeling!  Most of us may have one or two strengths as writers, but its important for our writers to be flexible and fluent, especially at this young age.  I watch out for if they are only writing about a certain topic or in one genre, or if they start a new piece every day without returning to finish it. 
• Thoughtfulness: This one can be tough, but its important for students to be thoughtful writers. Are their entries superficial, only scratching the surface of a topic? Or are they deep with well-developed topics? Is there evidence that the writer has spent time thinking and planning through their piece or did he or she simply jot something down to be finished in a hurry? This category is perhaps the most subjective, but I use it because I want my students to continually dig deeper as writers. 
• Frequency: I expect my students to write about a page per day. Some days there will be less and some more, but it will usually equal to at least a page per day. This amount helps promote their writing fluency. If a student has only written a few lines each day there is a definite red flag! Is there trouble with letter formation or spelling, slowing the student down? Does the student have trouble generating topics to write about? 
• Grammar/Usage: This is one of those sticky points among some teachers, but I believe that using correct grammar, usage, mechanics, and spelling is extremely important! (Be truthful...how many times do you shake your head and mentally correct something you read on the Internet? I know I do :) I expect students to use what they have learned in their own writing. For example, if we've learned that an interrogative sentence ends with a question mark, I expect that students put question marks at the end of interrogative sentences in their writing. They must spell word wall words and spelling words correctly. If they've learned that the letter I is always capitalized, then it should be written that way. In short, I expect them to put into practice the mechanics of writing they've learned up to that particular point. 
• Writing Behavior: This is more of a daily observation by the teacher. Is the student using time wisely by getting started right away and writing/working the whole time? Does he or she follow classroom procedures so that others aren't disturbed while writing? This doesn't mean that as soon as we begin, students put pencil to paper and don't stop until I ring the bell or call "time." I tell my students that it is okay to stop and think, to go back and reread other entries, or notes from mini-lessons. They know they may get a dictionary or thesaurus or look up a word on-line if they need to. But as a teacher, I can tell when they are doing those things for real and when they're displaying avoidance behaviors.  

So, there you have it! If you read this entire post, kudos to you! Sorry it was so long, but I had a lot to say on this topic. Now, grab your freebie below! I made a black a white version for making copies and some color versions if you want to print those. I was thinking about printing a different color for each grading period onto sticker paper and sticking them into the notebook on the back of the last entry up to that point. That way I have a record the student and I can easily refer to when conferencing and determining what they need to work on. 

I basically rate each category with a 4, 3, 2, or 1 then add up the total points and multiply by 5. The product is the student's grade.

Update: I removed the embedded doc because every time my page loaded it went down to the doc instead of staying on the top of the page. You can access it here:  Writer's Notebook Evaluation

How about you? Do you have a great way to assess notebooks or single pieces of writing? I'd love to hear how you handle assessment in your writing block.

Integrating Technology into the Language Arts Classroom

I'm so excited to be presenting at AETC again this year with my good friend Cara (Teaching My Calling)! We're collaborators, colleagues, fellow 4th grade teachers, and we sometimes feel like we share a brain. (Maybe the rhyming names have something to do with it?)  We, like many of you, share a passion for using technology in meaningful ways to engage our students and make learning meaningful. If you're at AETC this year, hopefully we'll get to meet up during our session or some other time. If you're not there you can still check out our livebinder full of resources and examples we plan to share during our session:

Integrating Technology Into t

Give Your Anecdotal Records a Face Lift with Google Forms

Okay, I know it's not Monday, but I'm linking up with 4th Grade Frolics: Monday Made It! linky party to share this awesome tool I just made. I couldn't wait until Monday to share!

Do you take anecdotal notes when conferencing with kiddos? Looking for a way to organize them and really be able to use your notes to drive your instruction? Google Forms is the answer for you. I love to conference with my kiddos during Self-Selected Reading time. What I DON"T love are the records and notes that I scribble down in my horrendous  messy chicken scratch. In the past, I've kept this giant notebook with a tab for each student. Behind each tab was a set of conference sheets that I used to write notes during our reading conferences. Sounds great, right? It was, until I tried to start pulling data for skill-based groups. Plus, all of that paper...!

Enter this fabulous idea for tracking data---Google Forms! 

I created a Google Form, emailed it to myself, then opened it on my iPad. I then saved the link to the form on my iPad home screen so that I can access the form at a touch. Here's what the actual form looks like:

So, now instead of calling the kiddo to the table where my giant notebook resides or lugging my notebook all over the classroom, I can easily go to the student with my iPad and jot notes into my form. I can also easily access the data through the spreadsheet on my computer. Here's a sample I made:

Another great feature about using the Google Form is that you can click on Form, then choose Show Summary of Responses, and there are great graphs which summarize your data!


I found this amazing idea on Karyn's Doing the Daily Five blog. (Click here for her original post). Thanks, Karyn! I can't wait to try it out next year!

If you'd like to see the actual form, you can click HERE. 

For a better look at my spreadsheet, click HERE.

Its Beginning to Look a Lot Like Test Time!

 

Walk in any classroom in my building and you'll see something similar: posters and alphabet lines completely covered, desks in neat, little rows, computers completely unplugged from the wall. Children stare in wonder..."This looks really different! Mrs. Kilgo, do you have to even cover up our class rules? Surely they don't think we could cheat off them?" Unfortunately, I do have to. It's ridiculous of course, but everything that has print or numbers must be covered up.(Notice my book baskets are turned backwards). Even the kiddos desks have to be emptied. *Sigh*

While I was doing all of this, I thought I'd share a tip that might help someone out there. Instead of spending hours pulling posters down, then putting them up again, or using lots of paper to cover each item, I decided a few years ago to go green and use old sheets! It is *so* much easier than the "old" way of preparing the room. 

They're very easy to hang, and even easier to pull down when testing is over. All of my bulletin boards remain intact! Simply cut a small hole near the edge of your sheet. Then put a paperclip in the hole. Hang the sheet by slipping the paperclip under the ceiling tile. You're done!