Session 2 Part 4

Managing Classroom Assessments Teachers give lots of different assessments, to monitor students progress The testing needs to be carefully planned,, thoughtfully managed and incorporated into the classroom routines Good testing programs have three characteristics – Efficiency – Ease – integration

Managing Classroom Assessments three characteristics – Efficiency When you are testing and scoring, you can’t be teaching and planning- Although assessment is necessary, do not waste time testing with unnecessary test Make the test worthwhile, and productive

Managing Classroom Assessments three characteristics – Ease Teaching is very time consuming, planning, teaching, communication with parents, preparing materials Try and make testing as easy as possible, graded by paraprofessionals- sometimes graded by themselves and charted by themselves Have the same routines for test, do not make them so complicated that you have to waste 20 minutes explaining it each time you give a test – integration

Managing Classroom Assessments three characteristics – Integration- assessments can be integrated in the normal routines of the class in two ways – through daily observation during instruction and through Observation you can observe fluency, accuracy during reading, accuracy during independent work Brief assessments- students can get into the practice of doing daily probes of about a minute or so are very useful- helps reduce anxiety as well.

Managing State Test State test have a significant impact on schools and students- teachers need to be prepared to administer these assessments – Teacher needs to familiarize them self with the procedures Testing materials even though you cannot get the test books ahead of time, you can get the administration manual, read over it understand your role

Managing State Test State test – Specific you should be familiar with are How long students have What supplies the teacher needs to have and what the kids need to have What can be on the walls How do you get them, test security What about kids that finish early What about collecting and returning the tests What about bathroom breaks How do you work extended time How do kids get to the small group assessment area

Managing State Test State test – Specific you should be familiar with are Provide students with as much information as possible to help reduce anxiety Tell students it is a team, do your best Be familiar with any accommodation on an IEP

Progress monitoring Progress Monitoring Began with special education but Soon will become a universal design practice It only makes sense- even the best curriculum and teaching practice may not work for every students For these reasons, Progress monitoring will be needed

Progress monitoring Progress Monitoring allows the teacher – to teach unlearned materials – Provide alternative content or methods – Allows for early detection of errors – Should be sensitive to incremental progress

Progress monitoring Progress Monitoring best when it is done several times a week or even daily It does not have to be very time consuming Some of the things teachers can do to make progress monitoring more efficient are Establish routines Create assessment stations Prepare assessment materials Organize materials Involve others Data displays

Progress monitoring Establish routines – Consistent routines brings predictability to students Have at same tie during class- either every Friday or Tuesday first thing, every day three at the end of class Have the same rules. Everything off your desk, no hats, no computers, every other seat if at a table- once they get into the habit, it will require very few cues to get started

Progress monitoring Assessment Stations – Are small areas of the classroom set apart, sometimes with a partition, where a students can take a tests individually or with a teacher – The test can take place simultaneously as other activities take place in the room, things like instruction – Can have people cycle through it and have different assessments for students at different levels

Progress monitoring Preparing Assessment Materials – Assessment must match what you have instructed – If no match, test lacks validity – Present material on test as it was presented in class, no time to introduce new presentations – No need to create new test if commercial material is available- just make sure as you instruct it matches the presentation – Do not use 4/2= if you taught 4÷2=

Progress monitoring Preparing Assessment Materials – You can search for reading and math probes online – Try to keep probes at equal difficulty – There is a national website – Computer programs can help. Microsoft have features that provide summary data for print document, words in the document and the reading level ( never saw)

Progress monitoring Organize Materials – Once you have assessment materials developed, the hard part is done. It is very frustrating to to not be able to locate or remember you had materials – Organizing the materials solves this problem

Progress monitoring Organization – Share with your partner how you organize materials

Progress monitoring Organization – Color coding is good – Folders – DVDs – Three ring Ring Binders Color code all one unit the same thing or all one skill, word recognition or comprehension

Progress monitoring Involving others – The professional part of assessment is in the design and the interpretation of the results. – Once a teacher designs it, others can administer it. This frees up the teacher for instruction – It could be a para/aide, a parent or a students teacher. The teacher can then interpret the results

Progress monitoring Data Displays – the most common method for recording grade is a grade book, – However, carts are more affective, if you use a Excel spreadsheet you can have both – Two types of charts are used in special education Equal interval Standard celebration

Progress monitoring Data Displays Equal interval the difference between each spot on the chart is equal, it goes up one or two Standard celebration- it looks at the percent change that a child has experienced. If day one a child knew one word, on day tow two words, that is 100%, if day three he knows 4 that is 100 %. If by day five he know 6 that is 50% gain.

A spreadsheet A spreadsheet like pages or excel allows you to enter your data like a grade book, but then graph it as well Graphs allow you to see all types of changes

DateFluency 9/1555 9/1658 9/1765 9/1862 9/1965 9/2269 9/2370 9/2471 9/2572 9/2876 9/2982 9/ /189 4/1292

Progress monitoring

DateJohnTimmy 9/ / / / / / / / / / / / / /29275

Fluency of B group

Interpreting Data We know that students do not perform on test at optimum level all of the time With special education students, How do you determine if progress is sufficient or if a change in instruction needs to take place You can apply several different rules to the process

Interpreting Data

Aim LineTommyTimmyTina

Developing the Aim line Determine a grade level starting point for example 60 Determine a grade level ending point- 135 Then divide the range (75) by the number of weeks you have 25 = 3 The the first column of your data base would be 60,63,66,69, 72,75,78,81,84,87, 90, 93, 96, 99…. Increase by three till you reach 135.