Assessment in the Senior Classes

Are you heading to the Senior Classes in September. Here are some ideas for your assessment folder.

Set Up:
If you are lucky enough to have a filing cabinet, I would add one suspension file per student. I had a similar set up in infants and I could hand the file over to their next teacher at the end of the year. In the Suspension file you could add some square cut folders for each student for literacy, reading records or ongoing assessments.

Report Cards:
If possible get a copy of the report cards from June. I read through the cards and highlighted any areas that were of interest to me. You could also use their results for groupings at the start of the year if the class are totally new to you. By October you will be able to set the groups up based on your own observations.

Assessments:
There are many different assessments for 5th & 6th class. I have used the Schonell Reading and Spelling test in September and repeated it another 2-3 times during the year. Similarly I also use the Ballard and Westwood tables test in September and revisit it again later in the year. You could also add your own tests or copies of their work for observations.

Self Assessment
Self Assessment is highly important in the Senior Classes, it will develop the children’s intrinsic motivation and confidence. There are lots of different types of self assessment for Senior classes. In Science I like to use a concept map. At the beginning of the topic I get the children to create a concept map with all the vocabulary they have and where possible to link them. We revisit the concept map at the end of the topic and with a different colour pen the children can add more information or vocabulary. They can also write a reflection at the end to show what they learned during the topic. It is an alternative version of KWL charts.

Reading Records:
In my class I use reading records to keep track of the different books they are reading in Book Club or for reading challenges. I also ask the children to add new and interesting words to their reading record. I file their reading record at the end of the Book Club in their file. It shows their progress throughout the year and can be handy to have for parent teacher meetings.

These are only examples of content for your Assessment folder, of course your school might have their own policy for the Continuum of Support so it is important to check that out first.

If you have any questions please send me a PM.

A.M.

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