Lynn writes: i have found that initial assessments are always skewed. the kids are not comfortable with me at the beginning of the year and i think that has a lot to do with they way they perform on fluency, for example. does anyone else find that to be true?
Pam writes: I agree. I give multiple intelligence survey and learning preference survey. The school requires a Lexile. However, I hold off until I've been with the kids for about a month. By then, they are comfortable & realize that I want to help them. I then do individual running records (takes forever), but is a good way to document. I try to do these once per quarter on all students, but more frequently on my struggling readers. I also do individual & small group conferences on writing needs. These are determined from the students' actual writing (essay, journals, narrative, etc) - these are sometimes grammar based and other times revolve around specific needs per the 6 + 1 Traits of writing. I found I get more bang for my buck if I hold off and do ice breakers, team building activities, and tons of repeated review of class procedures and expectations. :o) Pam/6th gr./FL An education isn't how much you have committed to memory, or even how much you know. It's being able to differentiate between what you do know and what you don't. Anatole France (1844 - 1924) ________________________________________________________________________ Email and AIM finally together. You've gotta check out free AOL Mail! - http://mail.aol.com _______________________________________________ The Literacy Workshop ListServ http://www.literacyworkshop.org To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/lit_literacyworkshop.org. Search the LIT archives at http://snipurl.com/LITArchive
