WAP: Assessment

In another course I took, we read the book Teaching With Poverty in Mind by Eric Jensen. I recall one of Jensen’s top factors for school success was gathering high-quality, hard data. Jensen believes that rather than just using state and district tests as a measure of success, high-performing schools “generate their own high-quality, useful data on an ongoing basis and provide immediate feedback to both students and teachers” (2009, p. 73). I remember this vividly because it confirmed something I believe in - that formative assessments are crucial and should be done frequently. Formative assessments give real-time feedback on ways to improve student performance by showing gaps in learning. The data that is received through formative assessments give teachers information that is current and useful and helps them make changes as necessary.

As a kindergarten teacher, assessment overall is critical. Kindergarten teachers are starting at the base of learning, and it is imperative that teachers have a firm grasp of where students are starting from and then how they develop through the year. As we know, with any sort of learning difference, early intervention and diagnosis can make a very big difference, and with good assessment, a teacher can do just that. I often think of kindergarten as a little seed that is being planted. It is on the kindergarten teacher to give the seed water, the proper soil, and sunlight, but also to watch the seed and make sure it is growing - if not, changes must be made. Without assessment, how can one tell?

When I think of assessment, as I mentioned, I am more concerned with formative assessments. In many public school kindergartens, DIBELS and DIALS are done as screening assessments. These are already created and easily put into a spreadsheet on the computer. I’m more concerned with creating a portfolio of the student throughout the year - something that contains the frequent formative assessment information that is done. Something that I can look back on and possibly share with other school team members and/pr parents. I would love a way to highlight the progress a student is making, as well as have a comprehensive record I can review to look for challenges that may pop up.

While I have already highlighted this app in the past, I really can’t think of a better one to use for the kind of assessment I’d like to craft. I believe Seesaw is really ideal for so many things, chief among them creating a portfolio for a student. Previously I discussed how wonderful Seesaw can be for the student as scribe, especially in the early childhood classroom. However, now I would like to focus on Seesaw for assessment collection. Within Seesaw, each student can have a “student journal,” where notes, photos, videos, files, etc. can be added. Truly, the possibilities are endless. Let’s say for example you do a sight word test with your student. You can add a note to the student’s journal that says “Lily read 20 sight words today.” You can then expand within that note with text (such as “did not recognize ‘the’ or ‘his’) or if it is quicker, even record a voice note. Or perhaps you are doing writing samples with the class. Of course, you can save the physical piece of paper - or, you could take a photo of the work and save it to the student’s Seesaw portfolio. You could also record video or audio of the child doing any task: reciting letter sounds, reading, counting, etc. Imagine recording a student 4 times a year and being able to track the progress through this. It is so much more effective than simply taking notes. Having a resource like this to share with your team or the student’s family is amazing. Being able to really see or hear the progress gets the point across so much better than trying to explain without examples. Additionally, if there is a learning difference, you can show the issue through multiple samples. 

Here is an example I quickly made with my daughter reading a poem she wrote. It took about 30 seconds to add this to her "journal" in Seesaw. If she was a student, I could have her reading multiple times during the year, and then compare them toward the end of the school year:

As you can see here, I took a photo of her poem to also add to her journal, and have the option to add voice notes, a caption (which I did with the date and assignment), drawings, etc. You can really use this however suits you best.

In using this as your assessment and portfolio for your students, it would be essential to be clear with parents/guardians what Seesaw is exactly. They would need to know that it is private - that no other students or families can see their student's work. Also, you can let them know that you can share the portfolio with them at the end. Other troubles that may arise may be simply finding the balance between remembering to document and documenting too much. While you want to document as much as possible for your formative assessments to inform your future teaching, you also want to be mindful of not constantly taking photos and videos.
Going back to Eric Jensen, he used the acronym SCARF to describe how to best gather and use data. He believes in order to be useful, data must be specific, continuous, accurate, relevant, and fast. I really appreciate this because the very idea of “data” can be overwhelming for teachers, especially when facing so many other challenges, but Jensen is able to parse it down into basic and relevant steps and pieces. Using a program like Seesaw, you can easily do the “best” data gathering. As Jensen says, having hard data is imperative for a high-performing school. Anything that makes it easier and faster should be utilized, which is why I plan to use Seesaw in my classroom.