Assessments are very important. They provide teachers with valuable information about each student: what each student already understands and what they are struggling with. Assessments don’t just help you understand what students do and don’t understand; they help teachers analyze student growth and can help teachers improve their teaching methods.
However, especially in K-2 classrooms, assessments are not always easy. As a teacher who has taught in Kindergarten, 1st, and 2nd grade, I know the struggle of assessing K-2 students (especially reading assessments) because they almost always have to be done one-on-one. Where does a teacher find time to assess each student one-on-one? What is the rest of the class doing while the teacher is assessing? These are the hard problems that teachers often have to find solutions to, and it’s not easy. Along the way, I found a few things that were helpful to me as I tried to make one-on-one assessments work in my classroom. Keep on reading to learn of my secrets that can hopefully benefit you in your classroom.
- VOLUNTEERS: Ask for parent volunteers! – Many parents are eager to help in classrooms but just need to be asked. Depending on what you feel comfortable with, you can either have parent volunteers do a portion of your assessment, OR you can have them read books aloud to the class while YOU assess students. I personally usually like to do most if not all of the assessing myself because it helps me get a better picture of each student plus you’re able to make sure the assessment was performed with fidelity, but if you’re comfortable with parents assessing, this may be a great option for you. I would recommend having parents sign a confidentiality agreement if they do help with assessments just to be on the safe side. Otherwise, parents are perfect for reading books aloud for the class, while you assess. I recommend assessing students in the hallway so that they aren’t distracted by the book being read aloud.
- ONLINE BOOKS: Use Vooks, Epic, or Story Online – all of these websites are amazing classroom tools. These websites will read books aloud to the class. Just project it to a screen and let it do its thing. I’ve sometimes used these websites to play books in the morning time as students arrived at school and it is so helpful in keeping students engaged and quiet in the morning time. These websites are also great when you need to do one-on-one assessments. Let the books play while you assess students. I would recommend using some noise-canceling headphones for your students to wear while they are assessed so they aren’t distracted by the book, or if you feel you are able, you can step into the hallway to assess students as well.
- CATCH-UP DAY/FREE FRIDAY: Another option is to have Free Friday. This works like a “Catch-up Day” where students are able to catch up on any work that they missed or haven’t fully completed yet. Students completing all their assignments get to have “Free Friday.” This is a great time to assess students. Again, I recommend using noise-canceling headphones for the students being assessed to help them not get distracted while they are assessed.
- ADDITIONAL COMPUTER TIME: Schedule additional computer time in the computer lab – This may not be an option for you or you may only have an opportunity for additional computer time at random times throughout the year, BUT if your school does allow this, it is so helpful to schedule extra computer time. Have students work on something specific, use Epic, or whatever program subscriptions your school has, and assess students while the rest of the class is busy on the computers. This is the easiest way to get assessments done very quickly. Students are all usually quiet when on computers, and there is a lot less chaos going on, making it easy to assess students very quickly.
- LITERACY GAME DAY: Literacy game day is something that my students usually beg for. All you need is some engaging phonics or reading games, and your students will be entertained while practicing reading skills. My students typically behave really well during these times because they know if they don’t, we’ll end our game time early. This makes it easy to assess students. As long as students understand how to play each game, this is a really great option and can help you assess students quickly. I would also recommend using noise-canceling earphones for students being assessed – that is, if they are getting distracted.
If you would like game recommendations, I will link some of my favorites below:
- Snap it up! – This game is a really fun and easy game for students to learn. This is available on Amazon – click here to view
- Phonics Three in a Row – This is such a fun partner game. It plays just like tic tac toe, except students must read the word in the box in order to place their “x” or “o” in the spot – click here to view
- Speed & Read – I love this game option because it can be played with a group or individually. Students roll the dice, move around the board, read the word, then find the clipart that matches the word they read, and then place a game chip over the clipart. They work to get 4 in a row. – Click here to view
- K-2 Phonics Games Mega Bundle – This includes all the phonics games listed in my shop. If you want a wide variety of games, this is a much cheaper option than purchasing games separately – click here to view
- Flashcard Games – I have a blog post you can view that talks about several fun games students can play with any flashcard set – click here to view
- CENTERS/WORK CHART – This works better for MOY or EOY testing because students will already be familiar with centers or a work chart in your classroom. How this works is that instead of having a “teacher table,” you’ll just call individuals to be assessed. This is typically when I assess students most frequently, but this is trickier to do at the BOY before students start centers.
- PREP TIME – Using your prep time is a last resort but sometimes necessary. Don’t sacrifice your whole prep time, but take 5 minutes of your prep time to assess 1-2 students while the class is at specials. This will add up over time and before you know it, you can make it through your whole class of students.
- Write each student’s name on the assessment sheets you need completed. This will help you keep track of which assessments still need to be completed (or use the tracker in my assessment pack).
- If you have a literacy team at your school, I would recommend asking for assistance with assessments at the beginning of the year. Typically, the literacy team isn’t up and running until after assessments anyway, so this isn’t too unreasonable to ask and would save you a LOT of class time.
Finding a good assessment that gives you a clear picture of each student’s strengths and weaknesses is so important. It is also very helpful if you’re able to track students’ progress throughout the year to measure growth. Grouping students for centers can also be tricky.
What if I told you there was an assessment that does all three of these things…because it’s true, there is!
Check out the K-2 Assessment Bundle in my shop! Click here to view the assessment.
