MISS KINDERGARTEN IS IN DA HOUSE!

With the first week of school being oh-so crazy, I asked one of my bloggy heroes to guest post for me today so I could give my brain a break.  I am super stoked to have her gracing little old Teacher Idea Factory with her UH-MAY-ZING presence (it’s like Christmas morning in August I tell ya), so without further delay, I give you the one and only . . .   

Hi Everyone! I’m Hadar from Miss Kindergarten and I’m super excited to be guest blogging for Kelley today. I stumbled across her blog months ago and fell in love with it! Her passion for teaching is undeniable and I learn so much from her! So thanks, Kelley, for having me here today!

I want to share with you guys a super easy progress monitoring tool that I use with my students during whole group lessons. All you need to make this super easy tool is a plastic sheet protector, a green sheet of paper and a red sheet of paper. That’s it!! Hold the papers back to back and slide them into the sheet protector and you’re done!

I keep these tools {I really need a name for them!} in a basket by our whole group learning area and pass them out when I need to assess my students’ learning. I will usually use them for yes and no questions {show me green for yes and red for no} and my students hold up the cards to show me their answers. I can look around real quickly to see who “gets it” and who doesn’t and it’s easy for me to see someone who likes to change his/her answer after seeing the others 😉

Then my students take their cards to their desks during independent practice. If they feel like they can do the work on their own and are “ready to go” they place it at the corner of their desk with the green side up. If they’re not sure what to do, or get “stuck” during the activity, they place the red side up. This shows me who I need to help as I walk around the classroom. I’ve taught them that they need to still try even if they are stuck because there’s only one of me and lots of them! If I see 5 or more red signs I might pull that group off to the side and work with them together. The other students know that when they finish their work, they can also walk around and find students who need help. They love to assist their classmates and my class learns that we’re all in this together.

I hope this was helpful! Come stop by my blog for other classroom tips and tricks!