Organizing Marks for Outcome Based Report Cards

If there is one thing I have learned from my short time as a teacher it is that you can never get too comfortable with what you are doing because someone is bound to come along and change it!

As I head into report card time again I find myself scrambling trying to figure out where I put my assessments and what marks to give my students. I am usually a very organized person and in my first year of teaching I spent a lot of time creating a marks book that worked for me. Then last year my district made the shift to outcomes based reporting which has resulted in a year and a half of me trying to find a new way to organize my marks book. Hence the scramble... it took a while to find one.

If you are not familiar with outcomes based reporting it is a method of reporting where teachers mark and report on specific outcomes which come from the Program of Studies or States Standards document. I think it's great to be able to show parents exactly what has been learned, what topics/skills students understood well, and what topics/skills require more practice. The challenge comes in finding a way to organize my marks in a way that makes sense and ensures I have enough assessment for each of the report card outcomes.

After months of searching I think I have finally found a method that will work for me! It is so simple I cannot believe it took me this long to find it but now that I have I feel way more relaxed and organized.

Here is my breakthrough!

(Sorry about the horrible picture.. hopefully you can see enough of it that it makes sense.)

 I cannot take credit for this idea as I heard about it at our Teacher's Convention but still thought I would share it with you.

This is the marks book page I am using for our current unit on Measurement. It fills half a page and I print one for each student. In the left hand column are the outcomes that I will teach in the unit. Along the top of the page are the assessments I will use to determine students' marks. Of course I also leave room at the bottom to add any comments or observations I feel are necessary.

Sure it takes a little planning before hand to decide what I am going to take in for marks and what I am going to use to guide future teaching but the pay off, for me anyway, is totally worth it. The grey spaces show that the assessment in the top row does not connect to that specific outcome. I try to make sure each outcome has at least 2 assessments that I can use to report on student learning so that if a student has a bad day it doesn't effect their overall mark.

At the end of the unit I take any assessment pages I can (in this case it would be everything except their math journal pages) and attach it to the marks book sheet. That way I have everything together if a parent wants to see how I came up with the mark given on the report card.

It is definitely not rocket science and doesn't use any fancy technology but I find it helps keep me accountable with my marking - I tend to put it off a little too long - and keeps my student assessments organized and handy.

If you would like a copy of the template feel free to email me or leave a comment below and I will gladly share it with you!

Welcome to the Balancing Act

Wow! I am just starting to realize how long it has been since I posted anything to my blog. Thank you to those who have still been stopping by to check it out even with no new posts showing up. In true teaching fashion life has become completely crazy these past weeks. My husband and I are the athletic coordinators at our school and have been coaching all our 5/6 sports teams for the past few years. This year we had a number of our junior high students ask if we could have a 7/8 team as well. We tried to find some parents to help out with coaching but had no luck. So without really considering what we were getting ourselves into we agreed to coach 4 teams between the two of us. Needless to say it has been a crazy start to 2014!

All this has served to remind me how important it is to maintain a work/life balance. I love the opportunity to coach because it means I get to interact with more students from the school. Extracurricular activities mean so much to students which makes it worthwhile for me to volunteer a little extra time each year. However as I am learning this year there comes a point when you have to say no and pull back a little for the sake of your own energy and passion.

For any of you who are new to teaching I would like to give you the following advice - Find something you are passionate about, whether it is sports, art, music, board games, or something else, and introduce it to your students. Don't be afraid to volunteer some time for extracurricular because I can promise you the benefits will outweigh the time costs. My husband and I love coaching sports and have been able to set up a wonderful athletics program at our school. The joy we see in the students' faces makes the volunteer time completely worth every minute.

In the same breath, don't be afraid to say no if you are feeling overwhelmed by the amount of work and time being asked of you. If you are being stretched too thin you may find your passion dwindling and the time you spend with the students begins to feel like more work.

As teachers we have so many opportunities to work with students and help them find activities they are passionate about. For me that opportunity is coaching and I love every minute of it! How about you?

Words Their Way

Have you ever found yourself looking at a resource you have been using and wondering if there is something better out there? This year I found myself asking that question when it came to the spelling program I was using. Don't get me wrong, the program I had been using might work great for someone else but I found it didn't quite work for my teaching style. I had heard a lot about the Words Their Way program and knew a couple of other teachers in my school had been using it so I decided to give it a whirl. Like anything else it is still a work in progress to get the hang of everything involved but I am slowly getting the hang of it.

If you haven't heard of the program before take a look at it here. What I love most about it is that it works with kids at their level. It starts off with a diagnostic spelling test that identifies students strengths and needs. Using this information students are placed in groups based on where they are at and then off they go. The other great thing is that students practice their spelling words independently with only a little guidance from the teacher which means I can help out the students that need a little extra guidance. One thing I have learned about this program is that it requires a level of organization in order to make it flow smoothly so I figured I would show you how I organize it in my classroom.

 First of all to keep the word lists organized I colour code my groups and then copy their weekly lists onto corresponding coloured paper. This way I can simply grab the next week's spelling packet and know exactly what list goes where. In my district we send our printing to a central printing office and it takes a few days to get there and back so I always make sure to have more than one week at a time. When I get my lists back I take a few minutes to organize them into weeks and then store them in my handy green drawers (I love Ikea!).

  

Now for the teaching portion:

On Monday I hand out the sorts to the students and they get busy cutting it out. I give each student two copies of the sort - one for at school, and one to bring home for practice. For the classroom activities each child has a plastic envelope to keep their supplies organized. These envelopes have their name and a coloured square in the corner so I know whose envelope it is and what group they belong in. In each plastic envelope are the following materials:

- an envelope to hold the cut apart sort

- a journal for students to write down their sorts and record their word work activities

- a dry erase bingo sheet (more about this in a later post)

- a laminated keyboard

As the groups are cutting out their words I begin calling groups over one at a time to the learning carpet. Here we quickly go over the sort for the week, read through the words, and go over any teaching points needed for students to understand the patterns.

 Once students have finished with me they take their words and complete the sort on their own. They then begin working on two other "must-do" activities: a written sort where they record their sort in their journals, and three sentences which each use at least one of the spelling words. We only work on spelling for about 15-20 minutes a day so completing the "must-do" activities usually takes our Monday/Tuesday.

As students complete the required activities they bring me their journals so I can check their work. If their written sort and sentences are done correctly they can begin working on earning a spelling bingo by completing different word work activities with their words for the week.

When students complete a bingo activity they show me and I sign off on their bingo sheet. For every bingo they earn the students earn a ticket in a weekly draw for a prize.  If they complete the entire bingo sheet they can earn five draw tickets. We usually keep the bingo sheets for a month or so before erasing them and starting over again. Check out my Word Work and Spelling Bingo post for more info on the activities and draw prizes. 

Finally at the end of the week students are given a spelling test of randomly selected words from the week's sort. I give the students an independent writing or reading task based on lessons from the week to complete while I am giving the spelling tests to each group. Most of the time students are able to work quietly and independently without help and I can quickly call each group over to the learning carpet and give them the spelling test. 

The first couple of weeks were a little chaotic and required some teaching and reteaching and reminding of the expectations during our spelling times. By now the students have gotten the hang of it and it is working like a well-oiled machine. As always there may be some squeaks and kinks to work out with certain students but as long as you are consistent they will eventually get the hang of it. 

Wow! Another long post - I seem to have a hard time keeping things short but hopefully this will give you some insight into how to potentially run Words Their Way in your own classroom.

Activities Like... New Ideas... and Kind Hearted-Teachers

Hi all I am linking up late to the We Are Thankful Linky Party over at Blog Hoppin'. It has been a crazy couple of weeks and I have kind of ignored blogging so now I am trying to play catch up by doing a 3-in-1 post for this linky. I am Canadian so technically Thanksgiving has already passed for me but I loved the idea of sharing some ideas with the attitude of being thankful. I have learned so much from being connected to other bloggers and stealing borrowing ideas to use in my classroom and it has been wonderful! I am so thankful for all those who take the time to share their lessons, ideas, and wisdom by blogging. Thank you!

Activities like math centers get my students excited for math, keep them practicing basic skills, and allow me to teach in small groups using math rotations. This is my first year doing math centers and math rotations and my first attempt in September was not as smooth as I hoped. Since then I have taken a break, regrouped and set up some new centers.  I have been working hard over the last couple weeks to get my new math centers set up and organized. Finally they are ready to go and I am so excited! Now as we start our next math unit I can jump back into math rotations and differentiate my lessons. Hooray for being able to teach my students in small groups based on where they are at while the rest are kept focused and busy with math centers!!

All my centers activities fit neatly into one container and can simply be laid out during center time.

As I was putting my math centers together I was trying to figure out how to keep everything together with the little space, time, and money that I have. My centers in September were kept in basket containers but I found students had a difficult time knowing where everything went when they were putting things away. I have found a cheap and easy method for keeping centers small, compact, and easy to move from space to space.

Students take the plastic sleeve to their desk with their center packet and have all the materials they need.

My new idea for organization in the classroom is using plastic page protectors to keep everything together. We have been using these for our spelling program so students can keep all their spelling materials together in one spot. These plastic envelopes are great because they are durable, clear (which I find helps students keep their materials neat and tidy), and can be written on. In spelling my students are placed in different groups based on where they are at so I simply coloured the top corner of their plastic sleeve so they know what colour group they are in. It is such an easy way for me to pull out their stuff and know immediately what group they are in, what they have been working on, and where they need to go next.

The coloured blocks on the corner of the packet let me know what group the student is in.

I have also used these for all my new math centers which is great because all the centers materials fit in two baskets and take up way less room. Students simply grab the plastic sleeve for their center, take it to their working area and get to work. All the materials are kept in the plastic sleeve which is kept closed with a paperclip. I know they don't look that pretty and there are a lot of containers, plastic drawer stands, and other great ideas for centers however I have limited wall space in my room (lots of cupboards) so I like to keep things small and compact. Best of all they are inexpensive so if one of the plastic sleeves gets ruined I can simply replace it with a new one for about $0.15.

This center contains vocabulary cards, play money, a dry erase crayon and dry erase page to write on.
 Everything a student may need to complete the center.

Finally as my contribution to the Kind-Hearted Teachers part of this linky I am including some of my math center pages as a freebie. Many of my materials are from other teachers so I don't feel like I can share them but if you are looking for some great math center ideas please send me an email or leave a comment and I will gladly direct you to some of the places where I found my center ideas.

Thanks to Blog Hoppin' for this wonderful opportunity to link-up and share!

Guest Bloggin'

This summer I posted about completing a sliding bulletin board project in my classroom. It has been so good to share something I created and have so much positive feedback.

Many people complemented them and asked for more information. Jenny over at Luckeyfrog's Lilypad asked me to be a guest blogger and create a post about the bulletin boards. I am so grateful for the opportunity to work with another blogger and share a little of myself with her followers. For a complete breakdown of the bulletin board DIY head on over to her blog and check it out! 

Giving Math Rotations a Spin

This summer as I was surfing the many different teaching websites I stumbled across the idea of using math rotations over at 3rd Grade Thoughts. The more I read the more excited I became. Last year I found I had a difficult time differentiating my math instruction and had thought about trying to work in small groups but wasn't sure how to start. Stephanie's blog posts gave me an idea of how to get going.

After a month of introducing the concept to the students we have finally completed our first few weeks of full Math Rotations. Right now I'm trying to convince myself to stick with it. It is definitely going to take some getting used to. I have learned that I am still developing the habits and pre-planning necessary to make these rotations work. On the plus side though the students love it. They are always more excited when they see Math Rotations on the schedule instead of plain old Math class. It  has not gone as smoothly as I hoped but I am learning first attempts seldom do so I am going to share with you some of my thoughts, reflections and plans for moving ahead to try and make this system work for me and my students.

First of all I have to say that I am loving the chance to work with smaller groups of students. I feel I have a much better grasp of where students are at and how I can help them which is great. One thing I need to work on though is ensuring my high group is feeling challenged in their learning and my lower groups are able to complete the practice sheets provided by the curriculum. I am still trying to decide how I am going to deal with this. I find it is a common issue to have in math - one group finishes the required work in 10 minutes and another group needs 40 minutes to do the same sheet. I might try giving the lower group fewer required questions (they need to finish part a and b of each question) to complete and see if that works. If they finish the required amount early they can try to complete the rest of the questions. As for the higher group I am hoping to gather a collection of challenge sheets that will push them beyond our current curriculum to ensure they don't get bored. Like I said... still working it all out.

The other aspect of this that is fairly new to me is the Math centers portion of it. In the last couple years I have spent more time putting literacy centers together and haven`t really gotten around to Math centers. Our curriculum has lots of hands on activities and games scattered throughout so I never really felt the need to use centers before however with Math Rotations centers are pretty much a necessity. For the first month I tried to have centers related directly to our unit of study however I found students seemed to be getting bored with them since it was a lot of the same thing over and over again. I think when I change them up I will try to have centers dealing with different math skills I think are important. That way they get extra practice as well as some exposure to concepts we will be covering later in the year. One thing I do know is I will be spending some a bunch of time figuring out new centers in the next couple weeks. How do you plan/organize your centers? I would love to get more ideas on how to keep it as simple as I can for myself. 3rd Grade Thoughts has some great ideas but I am always looking for more.

Finally I am re-evaluating how I have organized my centers. So far it has worked fairly well and the students always seem to know where they are supposed to be and what they are working on I'm just not sure I like how I move the kids through the centers. Right now I am using a checklist to keep track of what center

students have completed and am trying to constantly remind them to keep track of things in their Math journals. It's slightly chaotic and I feel there has to be an easier way. I think I may try putting together center packets and having students use their Math duo-tangs to move through the centers. I will still use the clips with their names and move them from center to center but my hope is if they have everything in advance they can be a little more independent and move through the centers themselves.

Wow... that was a long one. Basically my thoughts on Math Rotations are this:
1. They require a lot of pre-planning to ensure you have everything ready to go.
2. It takes work to keep it organized and to update the centers on a semi-regular basis.
3. They are totally worth it if you want a way to differentiate your instruction and keep students engaged in different math activities during class!

Social Studies Journals

I am so excited for Social Studies this year. Usually Social Studies is way down on my list of subjects but this year I am going at it a different way and I can't wait to see how it turns out. In our curriculum we learn about countries around the world: Peru, India, Tunisia, and Ukraine. The students really enjoy learning about new cultures and trying to picture how people in different countries live. I think I get an added bonus at our school because we live in an incredibly diverse community (my last class had 23 students from 11 different countries) so students already get to hear about different places and cultures.

Last year I used the classic textbook, discussion, worksheet/posters approach that seems to fit with Social Studies. However I noticed that my students, especially the boys, lost interest in what we were learning after about 15 minutes or so. This year I want to avoid that. It means a little more work on my part but I am excited to try my take on a Social Studies learning journal.

The students all have a journal which they will use to record what we learn. Rather than give them pages of information we will focus on 1-2 key ideas per lesson. I hope to use a bunch of pictures, videos, and stories to bring these different cultures to life. Basically the idea is more experience, less research. We will use different foldables, diagrams, and reflection questions to record what we have learned throughout the year. As well I have at least one big project planned for each unit. Our first country is India so we will be making paper lanterns for the Diwali festival of lights! Anyway we haven't actually started this part of our curriculum yet since we just finished up our Mapping unit to help us understand a little more about the world and its geography. I will keep you posted on how it goes though!

So why am I writing about these journals when I haven't even tried them yet? Because we decorated the covers today last week (it just took me this long to take pictures of them) and I love how they turned out! I gave the students clip art relating to the different countries and the overall themes of our curriculum so they could colour and decorate their journals. Students then got a chance to organize the pieces in whatever way they wanted so their journals could still reflect who they are as individuals. They are so colourful and the kids did such a great job that I just had to share them with you.

Here they are:

Stay tuned to see what happens on the inside!