Teachers, how do you assess the level of your incoming class?

[Delicateflower]

I'm just curious as to the nuts and bolts of it. Like, for how long do you cruise before you start thinking they'll have adjusted to the school environment. Do you sit with each child in turn and ask them questions? Do you give out a middling difficulty assignment and then give some kids easier and other harder and then repeat until you've got them all placed? I just think of our preschool class x2 arriving in a classroom and someone has to figure out what they know and what they need to learn. Let alone how you teach them once you discover you have a range from not fully verbal to reading books for ten year olds!

[stik]

Most kindergartens in the US do some form of pre-screening that attempts to assess kids' skills. It's not perfect, but it is intended to identify students who may need additional services, like IEPs, before the year begins. So at the very least the pre-verbal kids *should* be identified before the year begins.

I don't know more about the specifics because I don't teach K, but I do know that the teacher doesn't start the year without any information at all.

[Momily]

I can only speak for our school, but I'll tell you how we do it in Kindergarten.

We think of the first six weeks of school and an instructional unit, and the theme for those six weeks for every grade level is, essentially, school. Kids are learning their friends names; they're learning the procedures that they use for using the water fountain, or going to the bathroom, or putting away your crayons when they start; they're learning the games that they play to encourage teamwork and the expected way to apologize to a friend when you've hurt them by mistake . . . Most of these things are general enough that they're appropriate for every child, regardless of level, and while they're doing them the teachers are assessing kids oral language, and how they work in groups and follow directions, and how well they write their names on their paper etc . . .

In addition, teachers are giving lots of open ended assignments. For example, in Kindergarten, reader's workshop starts with piles of familiar story books, that they've already heard read aloud several times. Some kids are looking at the picture and naming items, some kids are retelling the story with various amounts of detail, and some kids are reading them word for word. Teachers are circulating, and listening and making notes while the kids are doing this. Similarly in writing they might pass out paper and ask the kids to draw their family and write about them, you learn quickly who can draw representationally and who can't, who can scribble random strings of letter like symbols, whose is printing a shaky MOM and DAD, and who is writing sentences.

Finally, we schedule larger blocks of choice time in the beginning of the year then they'll have later. This serves two purposes. One is that it lets the kids explore the materials freely so that later when they're supposed to do assigned tasks with them they won't be so distracted. The other is that it lets the teachers pull each child one at a time and test them on various tasks. They start easy and go until a child hits their ceiling.

By the end of the six weeks of school, teachers are ready to put together reading groups and differentiate in other ways.

[AllisonR]

Wow, momily, thanks for the detailed reply. Very fascinating.

[elsie123]

I always consider the first 6 weeks of school as an adjustment period, even for my returning students. I do several short groups sessions a morning for the first week, so I can show them lots of activities they can do. Then I watch. Information from close observation is my best friend!

Either one of my staff or myself is always sitting and taking notes on what kids are doing and how they are doing with it.

I also interview every child before they enter my class, and have a home visit with them. Both these encounters are invaluable for me to assess what kids are interested in and their level of skill.

[Delicateflower]

Thank you for the detailed reply, Momily. Elsie, wow! Do you do the home visit on your own time? That's dedicated!

Originally Posted by stik

Most kindergartens in the US do some form of pre-screening that attempts to assess kids' skills. It's not perfect, but it is intended to identify students who may need additional services, like IEPs, before the year begins. So at the very least the pre-verbal kids *should* be identified before the year begins.

I don't know more about the specifics because I don't teach K, but I do know that the teacher doesn't start the year without any information at all.

Our school doesn't, which is why I'm interested in how they manage it.

[eepster]

Originally Posted by Momily

For example, in Kindergarten, reader's workshop starts with piles of familiar story books, that they've already heard read aloud several times. Some kids are looking at the picture and naming items, some kids are retelling the story with various amounts of detail, and some kids are reading them word for word. Teachers are circulating, and listening and making notes while the kids are doing this.

If a student was already reading silently, how would you know if s/he was reading?

[elsie123]

Originally Posted by Delicateflower

Thank you for the detailed reply, Momily. Elsie, wow! Do you do the home visit on your own time? That's dedicated!

It's technically in my contracted days per year, but it is pretty much on my own time. I choose 3-4 days each summer for parents to pick from for their visit. All the teachers at my school are required to do this. it's actually really nice!

[Bekka]

Originally Posted by eepster

If a student was already reading silently, how would you know if s/he was reading?

Good question!

[LynnS6]

In our school, the teachers pull each child out an give them a ~15 minute test for reading (the DIBELS, if you care to look them up). They have a substitute come in and take the class that day.

It's leveled for the different grades. So, for example, the Kindergarteners would be asked to identify upper and lower case letters and maybe sound out a few single syllables (nonsense words). They wouldn't expect kids to be sounding out, but they would note if they were.

For the upper grades, they actually give them pretests in reading and math to gauge where they are. So, ds got something like 28% on the pretest for math at the beginning of the year. That's about what the teacher expected, since most of the stuff were things they were going to cover, not things they had already covered in 2nd grade.