Back to School Assessments

We are already back to school!  Which for me means lots of assessing to do to find out where students are so we can get them moving forward.  I do the kindergarten and first grade beginning of the year assessments.  For kindergarten, I will be assessing them on letter identification and sounds, print concepts and phonemic awareness.  

I have put together a binder this year to keep all that data together in one place for each class. 

Each binder will have data organized by whole class so that I can see in one snapshot what the entire class might be low on.  

Also, I will include scores for each individual student to help the classroom teacher and myself differentiate to reach students in their low areas.  Click on the picture below to see the new sheets I am using the year.

I cannot wait to use this new system.  It is going to save me so much time having all my data together.  I will assess the students at the beginning, middle, and end of the year to see the progression.  

I also bound my letters this time for students to flip through as I assess them.  The letters will not get lost or out of order now.

It was actually a lot of fun putting these binders together.  And this is what made it fun- my new binding machine from My Binding!  Tarragon contacted me and asked about sending me something for my class to try out.  That was a definite yes from me!!

I was so excited when these two boxes showed up on my front porch!  We have a binder in our school, but it is down 2 l-o-n-g hallways and not always in its place.  I knew I could put this one to work!

This binder was so easy to use!  I got my assessment binder copied, placed a few pages in the binder at a time, and pushed down on the handle.  So simple!  

This binder is light, but sturdy and not at all big and clunky like our old binder.  It even has a way to lock the comb open while you add your papers.  That was a very handy feature!  There are white combs and clear combs instead of just plain black.  It will be great having my own binder and combs in my room to use whenever I need one!  You need to check out their products. Among many other items, they have 3-ring binders, comb binders, laminators, shredders, etc... Click here and it will take you right to their website.