Assessments

      The right concepts that I'm applying towards my students being assessed (as mentioned in Ch. 12) are using most of the steps of the Problem Solving Model, giving different types of assessment, and preparing students for high stake testing. I currently don't have any students with IEPs and therefore, do not have to accommodate or modify assessments for students with disabilities.  I've just received permission from one child's mother that I can go forward with referring him to A-Team (my school's problem solving team) for the gap between class expectations and his low academic performance. I'm still waiting on permission from another child's mother to go forward with referring her to the A-team process.  Both children's areas of concern have already been identified with their classroom grades and being screened and submitted for RTI in Math and Reading. I'm using positive reinforcement incentive charts for both with trying their best and staying focused on quizzes and tests.  I have them in the front and away from the peers that could distract them.  For my whole class with assessments, I offer checklists, rubrics, running records, interviews, quizzes, unit tests, projects, presentations, cooperative group activities, and hands-on activities for a variety of given assessments.  When it comes to high-stakes testing, my students are in 2nd grade and do not have to take PASS.  However, they did have to take CoGAT and ITBS testing this past Fall and complete MAP testing in the Fall and Spring.  We go over test-taking strategies such as using time wisely, double checking answers, using best-option guessing, reading all the answers before making choice.  I also show them empathetic understanding of possible pressure during these kind of tests and we go over ways to reduce anxiety. 
      Unfortunately, there are areas of weakness in my assessing.  One is how often I give a wide variety of assessments.  I also don't consistently send home weekly a printout of grades from my gradebook.  When it comes to exploring and implementing interventions for my below average students, I don't collect as many work samples as I should.  When it comes to referring students to A-Team, I tend to wait until the last minute in case they start to make adequate progress in the classroom.
      To help with giving different types of assessments more often, it's going to require taking the time to plan out rating scales, checklists, and rubrics and sharing these with the students before they're assessed.  While I do send home grades, it would be nice for the parents to count on a chart of organized data every week to be best aware of how their child is doing.  For my low achieving students that I'm thinking of are going through with A-teaming, I should make copies of work samples for my files before sending them home. When a concern arises about how a child is doing compared to an on-level student in my class, I need to take steps faster with implementing interventions and having ongoing evaluations of the interventions.  This will give me more confidence of when exactly the child should be A-teaming instead of feeling like it was done too late in the school year.  I plan on coming back to this post to keep myself in check with what needs to be done to better assess my class.