Easy-Peasy Formative Assessment with "Gimme 5!" and Freebie Poster Set

One of the keys to being able to differentiate instruction and keep groups fluid is good ol' formative assessment. Sure, I use exit slips and quizlets and such, but my go-to is a 'Gimme Five' approach.

Kids show, using the fingers on one hand, on a scale of 1 to 5, where they are in their understanding of a concept or ability to work a computation. Super simple, right? Not so much. What I found is that without some definition, 5 (or 3, or 1) meant different things to different kids, so I decided to standardize them. I looked on Pinterest and found a few anchor charts with ideas about what each number of fingers meant. I read them over, made some adjustments, and popped them into a poster set for my classroom. 

Now, a two is a two and a four is a four, and we're all speaking the same language, which makes it easier to get help to the kids who need it and helpers that can be trusted to actually be helpful. 

Are kids shy about showing a finger or two? They can be. Usually, I make a joke while I'm asking, which helps. I'll say something along the lines of,"Okay, guys, quick! Gimme 5! On a scale of, 'Oh, I got this!' to, 'Woman, what are you talking about?!' where are we?" even if we've done it a bunch. Some will laugh and that takes the edge off. Remember, in any classroom, things are only a big deal if you make them one. Risk-taking classrooms don't fret over a two, especially at the beginning of something.

Clicking the poster below will hook you up with the Google doc with the set.

Thanks for hanging out on The Big Kids' Hall today! I hope you find this useful!

Grouping for Differentation Without Losing Your Mind

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So, you've decided (or it was decided for you. In our school, we call this being 'voluntold'.) to take on Guided Math, or Math Rotations, or whatever you want to call it. Bottom line is, most of your instruction will take place in small groups. This sounds daunting, but, in the long run, when done well, will make your classroom a more engaging place, better able to meet individual needs. This is a good thing. Now what?

Here's what you don't want to do: In a staff meeting last year, a friend, colleague, and generally competent teacher said - yup, right out loud - "I don't need all of that data crap. I know where my kids are." and in doing so, violated two Cardinal rules. 1. If the bosses ears turn red, for the love of Pete, shut up. Now. and 2. 'Knowing where your kids are' is very subjective and very general. Sure, Andrew is quite a mathematician.  Is he good at every single skill? What about my EC kids? Are they bad at everything? Of course, the answer is no.

In order to group well, you need to get down to the nitty-gritty. You need to know specifics. You need data.

Now, in her defense, this colleague has 3 boys of her own under the age of 7. She's up to her eyeballs, and gathering data is one more #$%& thing she's got to do. What she needed to know is that it doesn't have to be a big deal. It can be easy.

Five Easy Rules for Grouping

1. Keep It Fluid.  You are not grouping for the year, or even the unit. My units are broken down into very small chunks, often a single skill, like Adding and Subtracting Fractions with Different Denominators. I expect my groups to last between 4 and 7 days, and then I'll assess, which means I'll probably regroup. This accomplishes a couple of things, one, it keeps kids where they need to be. You can't build a house on a foundation of sand. If this is a foundational skill or one I know is hit hard on the state test, kids will stay with it until it's under control. Others move on. Two, it keeps everything positive. Finding yourself in a buzzard group from time to time isn't a big deal, because it isn't permanent. In the end, you'll find that pretty much every child will be a red robin, a bluebird, or a buzzard (How's that for a throwback?) at least once, and that makes a big difference in everyone's attitudes. It puts focus on skills, rather than identity.

2. Keep It Short.   It doesn't take 20 problems to know whether or not a kid can already do long division. It takes 3 or 4. Don't make yourself crazy by creating yourself a ton of grading. Again, if you think of your groups as being for a single skill, that's all you've got to collect data for. This also keeps you from spending a boatload of time in assessment.

3. Keep It Simple. See above. Assessments can be a lot of things. Three or four problems on a sheet, a prompt in a notebook ("Write down everything you remember about fractions." or "What does a 6 in this place represent? How do you know?") or even the quiz you plan to give at the end of this skill. (Seriously, they're not going to memorize the answers.) There are plenty of pre-assessments available on TpT, but you really don't need to go to that much trouble and expense to create groups.

4. Keep It Data-Driven. Yes, you'll have kids, and even parents, who will want to know what happened if a kid who's usually an achiever find him/herself in an "I don't get it." group. These conversations always go easier if you can say, "Here's what I noticed when you did your pre. No worries, we'll get it tackled." rather than "Well, I just don't feel like you're getting it." When you talk data, the kids learn to do that, too, and their conversations change. They generalize less. (I'm really good at whole number division, but I need work on dividing fractions." vs. "I suck at math.")

5. Personality Does Play In. The number of high/middle/low groups is likely to differ as you go through the curriculum. If I've got two middle groups and two personalities that need separation, obviously that's going to happen. Have I ever bumped a kid up or down a group so that those personalities aren't together? You bet. Not often, but if the grouping is likely to disrupt everyone else, sometimes you've got to do what you've got to do. (You may even have behavior data to support it.)

A Bonus from a Veteran Teacher: Four groups seems to be, in any subject, the most any  one teacher can handle. Any time I (or anyone else I know) tries for five groups, it all goes very wrong. I've attempted it with both math and word study. Five's too many. Just don't go there.

I hope this takes some of the stress out of getting yourself ready to make the jump to differentiated teaching (whichever of its many names you might be using.) Questions? Vet teacher experiences that might help newer teachers get it right? Let me know!

Expert Lists: Getting Everyone the Help They Need (First in a Series on Differentiation)

Are you interested in differentiating the instruction in your classroom? My team has been doing it - and reasonably well - with math instruction for a couple of years now, and we've seen a genuine payoff. This is the first in a series of blog posts about how it can be done with less stress. First up, what to do when kids need help, but you're busy?

One of the difficulties of differentiating and offering choice in the classroom is the fact that there's only one of me. I've heard rumors of people having crazy things like TA's in upper grades, but that's never been my experience. It's one of me, 25 of them, and I'm usually busy with a small group.

That's some ugly math.

One of the benefits of tracking data, then, is knowing who's an expert at each skill. Those are my tutors when someone's stuck and I'm with a group or when there's a very few kids who can't get their heads around something and need some work before they re-quiz..

How do I decide who's an expert? In our state, the cut score for our End of Grade testing for math is around a 77. With that in mind, we always set our in-class quiz goal at 80%. If a child has assessed a skill with 80% proficiency, he or she is an expert on that topic.

How do kids know who's an expert and can help? Expert lists hang on the side of their desks. Forgive these for not being a prettied-up version. Making a snazzy template is something I'll get done this summer, but for now, it's good ol' notebook paper: (Look below! I've gotten one done now!)

Aren't some lists longer than others? Doesn't that cause problems? Not really. So much of that depends on you. Over the years, I've learned two things:  

1.  Data doesn't judge. It's just a thing. As long as you don't treat it as a judgement, it doesn't become one. Kids totally cue off of you on this. "You've got a 60 on something? Well, now you know what you need to work on. How can we help?" is healthy. "Oh, my goodness; he just can't graph that! What will people say?" causes drama.
2. No one's list is ever empty. Everyone, even my EC kids, are bangin' at something. They're proud of their lists, even when they don't like this one:

Yeah, occasionally we get cocky, but like we say down South, "It ain't braggin' if you can do it." He can. It's not a problem (and I let him keep the list as-is) because he's a very good-natured kid who is a patient and thoughtful tutor. He is the kids' go-to guy.

At the risk of some snark... Does it occur to anyone to tell the kid with great hands to drop the football at recess more often because his skills make other people feel bad? Of course not. Every kids has talent; each should be allowed to shine.

Finally,
Are kids obligated to tutor? No. I've got a girl whose expert list is also complete. She'll tell you in a skinny second, "I just don't have the patience for it. If you've got a specific question, fine. If you don't have a clue, I'm going to get frustrated with you." We respect that

In all, having kids, whose expertise is backed with data, available to help out others is huge in letting me work easily with small groups and making individual work time profitable for everyone. It has helped my class develop a sense of teamwork and camaraderie and maintain our "Clarkelings never leave a man behind." attitude.  

Hey - here's that jazzed up version:

 It's a freebie! You should just be able to right-click it and save it. It was made at U.S. paper size. Keeping it legal: Clip art and font credits:

                                 
 Anyway, I hope you'll find this helpful in your quest to differentiate the work in your classroom! Next Up: How do I group kids?
 




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