Well let's all be real for a minute, Twin Tuesday is suppose to post on TUESDAY...but when it is the last week of the first grading period...your days get all mixed up! So give us a pass on this one:)
This week's topic...DATA!!!!!!!
Certainly, I am not the only teacher out there that thinks the word "data" MIGHT be slightly over-used...especially when dealing with six and seven year olds...right?
Molly and I are tackling the ever so fun topic of DATA this week!!! Let's see just how "twin" we can be, as we explain how we use data in our classrooms. Keep in mind, we do teach at the same school...so some of our "twinness" is completely out of our control.
NWEA MAP Testing: Last year, was the the first year students in 1st grade took the test. We only take the Math portion. At times, I wonder how beneficial the Reading portion would be...did I really just say that I might want my students to take another assessment? However, we don't...so onward. MAP Math scores are used to create Math Workshop groups across the grade level. We look at the different areas tested and find our scores for the area that we are currently teaching and use NWEA reports website to find the RIT score for that individual area. I should also add, we do take into account our own personal observations and gut feelings, as well. We have 5 groups, with the two lowest groups having less students, in order to provide more support. We change any students that are showing HUGE gains or losses, about mid way through a six week span. After six weeks, we will change our focus and regroup according to the scores from that RIT band.
We also use the screener from NWEA, which I am proud to say that after we had focused solely on Number ID and counting since the beginning of school, only 3 of my 22 students, scored below a 90%. YEA!!!!
DIBELS: First Grade does Benchmark testing on LNF (Letter Naming Fluency), PSF (Phoneme Segmentation Fluency), and NWF (Nonsense Word Fluency). Truthfully, I find value in these tests, however I do not use these three tests to dictate how I group my students. I have and still feel that many students can and are actual readers even if they can't read nonsense words:) So I use DIBELS as one indicator, when grouping for Reading Stations.
SIGHT WORDS: We (my amazing) first grade team divide the first 100 sight words into four lists of 25 words. We roll them out approxmiately every four weeks and have them all introduced by the time we go on Winter Break. Last year, I found the great resource, Sight Word Star by Jen at Teacher by the Beach. This resource has it all from flashcards, to assessment checklists, to practice sheets, and a great note to send home to parents on what to practice.
DIBELS/Sight Words/Classroom Observations: This is how I create my Reading Station groups! As I stated earlier, I don't always feel that one test should determine how a student is grouped.
There you have it! Data at a glance! Did I miss some? Oh, I am sure!!! But these are the ones fresh in my head! That's the 1st grade take...now head to check out the Kinder take with
Molly at Miss K's Little Rays
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