assessments

  • Informal assessments: What do your students know?

    Before you can start any kind of project or theme exploration it is important to know what your students already understand about that particular topic.  You don’t want to teach them things they already know, but you do want to be able to build upon the current knowledge and understanding.  So how do you find this information out? There are a number of strategies that you can use, and all are considered informal assessment. Ask them.  This seems really simple, but, have you ever gone up to a preschooler and said “What do you know about the farm?”  You probably get a blank stare, not because they don’t know anything,…

  • Preparing for preschool conferences

    April is almost here, and in my world April means parent-teacher conferences.  Since I’m getting ready, I thought I would share my assessments process and all of my materials with you, get ready, this is going to be a long one! I start with three different assessments – yes, three.   First, the portfolios.  Each of my students has a digital portfolio, you can read more about them in this post and this post. Their digital portfolios are shared with their parents, so they can view them any time, but for their last conferences before kindergarten I print everything and put it in a binder.  These portfolios include a page for…