I agree that kids aren't warmed up to you in the beginning, and that can skew the results somewhat. However, I think it is important to so assessments at the beginning to get an idea of what they can do. It will give you a starting place. Sure, some of the kids you will quickly find out they can do more than their initial assessment, and that's fine.
In my Reading Clinic grad class we discussed this because we tutored a student intensely, one-to-one behind two-way glass. We discussed how they wouldn't be warmed up to you, but those initial assessments still are very important. For that class, because of the limited amount of time in a semester, we had to start the assessments right away. In my own classes, I usually wait a week, but not usually more than that. On 10/8/07, Pam <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > 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 > -- - Heather "The world of books is the most remarkable creation of man. Nothing else that he builds ever lasts. Monuments fall; nations perish; civilizations grow old and die out; new races build others. But in the world of books are volumes that have seen this happen again and again and yet live on. Still young, still as fresh as the day they were written, still telling men's hearts of the hearts of men centuries dead." --Clarence Day "While the rhetoric is highly effective, remarkably little good evidence exists that there's any educational substance behind the accountability and testing movement." —Peter Sacks, Standardized Minds "When our children fail competency tests the schools lose funding. When our missiles fail tests, we increase funding. " —Dennis Kucinich, Democratic Presidential Candidate _______________________________________________ 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
