Formative Assessment: Foundational Skills
Foundational skills are a set of skills, often identified in curriculum standards, as essential building blocks students need to master in order to become fluent readers and writers. In primary grades, these include phonological awareness, phonics, and fluency. In Pre-Kindergarten, our focus revolves around the alphabet, letter-sound relationships, and in mathematics, number sense and concepts. My approach to solidifying these concepts includes embedding these skills in daily routines, integrating them with thematic content in learning centers in order to provide increased opportunities for students to interact with the material, and assessing students in authentic environments, to capture a realistic, valid snapshot of their performance.
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Formative Assessment: Whole Group
Whole group instruction centers around the core areas of mathematics and reading comprehension, in the form of read-aloud. Because of this, my paraprofessionals are responsible for recording anecdotal notes, which I use for documentation in students' Teaching Strategies Gold (TSG) online portfolio, as well as to plan follow-up instruction. Anecdotal notes can take the form of a checklist, depending on the skill being assessed, or simple annotations of student responses when asked comprehension questions during story time.
The sample on the right is an example of an anecdotal note taken by my aide during read aloud of the text, Click Clack Moo. She records the interrogative presented by me, either to the group as a whole, or as a cold call to a specific student. The notes also indicate the response from the student, as verbatim as possible, or if a non-verbal response was elicited. Following instruction, my aide and I analyze the notes collaboratively, in order to discern which TSG indicators can be tagged and documented, denoted by numbers besides the response (i.e. 17a) Additionally, my paraprofessional indicates, using check marks, which pieces of evidence have been uploaded.
This form of assessment is invaluable to my daily practice for several reasons. First, it gives me the flexibility to instruct without being hindered by the task of note taking. I can push my students' thinking in the moment using follow-up questions, ans the anecdotal record gives me a sense of the depth of their understanding. Also, the document gives me a record to refer back to. As I analyze and upload student responses digitally, the "hard copy" is accessible as I make instructional adjustments. Further, in pre-Kindergarten, most of our work is "in the moment", and very rarely relies on the traditional pencil-paper work. Having this sample of oral language is a useful tool when sharing student work and discussing progress with students' families, or collaborating with my grade level Professional Learning Community (PLC).
Formative Assessment in Centers
Due to the emphasis on instruction through play in pre-Kindergarten, much of my formative assessment occurs in learning centers, or in small group instruction, in order to allow students to interact with the material in a hands-on way. Activities in centers typically align to the unit theme we are studying, and the materials therefore reinforces the content while providing the students an opportunity to practice the foundation skill.
By the end of their four-year old year, students should know at least 26 letters, which can be combination of upper and lower case letters, as well as between 10-20 corresponding letter sounds (Teaching Strategies GOLD). This can be a very demanding standard, and further necessitates the need for daily exposure to letters and the letter-sound relationship. When organizing center materials for each thematic unit, I consciously include or create materials that target this year-long goal.
The picture to the left shows two students working in the puzzle center to match pictures of various items to the corresponding letter that the item's beginning sound. For instance, the student has matched a picture of a penguin and a plane to the letter Pp bucket. The letter cards are pictured in apple buckets for our Fall unit.
This type of assessment is useful for me because it allows me to see what students are capable of doing at an independent level. Students are able to engage in self-directed activities and peer conversations, giving them a sense of initiative, all while allowing me to observe and offer suggestions. This setting is ideal to ask clarifying questions and have students explain their thinking. Pushing students to engage in meta-cognitive processes helps me assess if and where there are break-downs in their application of the skills. Additionally, formative assessment in centers enables me to given immediate, qualitative academic feedback that is tailored to the student's specific needs. For many of my young learners, constructive feedback is more effectively received in the small group center setting, as they get multiple opportunities for success, which builds their self-confidence.
Formative Assessment in Small Group
Formative assessment also occurs during small group and individualized instruction, as the setting is better suited to specific students' needs. I often use formative checks in this setting in order to maximize a student's focus and attention, in order to garner the most valid information. Reaching my students when they are at their best is important to build a realistic picture of their progress towards their goals and objectives. Small group assessment allows me to differentitaite for my students with exceptionalities and provide accommodations as necessary.
The video to the right shows a student engaging in individualized formative assessment. This student has an individualized education plan (IEP), and receives classroom and testing accommodations, such as repeated directions. In this video, I am assessing the student's acquisition of letter names, by asking him to identify a given letter in a group of 5-6 Phonics Faces letter cards by pointing. This exercise also assesses the student's use of oral language, as he is mostly non-verbal, and allows me to provide a model for corresponding letter sounds, which he subsequently imitates.
Engaging Students in Formative Assessment
One of the most important aspects of assessment in the classroom is engaging students in the process. Students must be the driver of their own educational path, while I seek to be the supportive partner that helps navigate them through their journey. By including my students in their formative assessment of their foundation skills, I see increased motivation, as well as stronger investment in their BIG (or year-long goals). Students begin to see the connection between these goals, and the whole classroom experience (Teach for America, 2014). Additionally, including students in the assessment process gives me an opportunity to display the data in a meaningful way. Each student has access to their personal tracker, and as a class, we celebrate our collective success following each assessment period.
Each student receives a personal letter identification and letter sound tracker, as pictured above left. During individual formative assessment, the student is shown a letter card, either upper case or lower case. If the student produces an accurate response, they use a dot marker to denote the correct letter/sound. Each assessment period is denoted by a different color dot maker, and recorded at the bottom. The picture at the above right, illustrates a class-wide tracker for letter identification/sounds that corresponds to each child's individual record.
This assessment form serves two purposes: it not only engages the learner in the experience, but also gives me an additional data point for TSG documentation. Foundational skills are the main focus of district and school wide goals and benchmarks, but also are required objectives in the TSG system. Therefore, this assessment streamlines the data collected for all interested parties. The individual records allow students to clearly see how much progress they've made towards their goal, while I use the class tracker as a catalyst for whole group discussions and celebrations around our work ethic and effective strategies. These conversations give students an opportunity for self-reflection as well as peer feedback, as students share out the behaviors and mindsets that have been instrumental in their success during this assessment period.