The design of teaching in my classroom doesn't require much formal assessment. There are times, of course, that I'm assessing in accordance to the requirements of an IEP, but for my use, usually I'm using assessments that are designed to simply monitor the student's progress. To do this, I use informal observations and make notes of the student's progress that will be addressed later. I've never in the past used a progress report. But currently I'm doing a lesson plan that is addressing important techniques essential for finding successful solutions to word problems. This IS the first small group lesson that I've taught that I believe a formal report would be appropriate.
The small group of students that I'm working with has learning needs that vary from day to day. In one lesson, they will understand one concept but not another, and in the next lesson the other concept is easily understook but NOT the one that was originally understood. Using a formal record is making it much easier to recognize what concepts needs to be addressed at every lesson and those concepts that require only the occasional review.
It sounds so simple, which is probably why I've ignored taking the time to design a formal progress report all along, but taking an extra couple of minutes every day saves hours in the grand scheme of things. (And the student's progress is regularly noted and noticeable!)
No comments:
Post a Comment