When you think about assessments, you probably think of a student sitting at a desk with a pencil filling in little bubbles on a test form. However, assessments in Kindergarten are a WHOLE different ballgame. If you've ever had to give Kindergarten students a “fill in the bubble” kind of test, you know how tough it is to get an accurate representation. That's why I want to share a more straightforward way to give assessments, that will provide you with the data you need to make decisions surrounding your class. Today, I'm talking all about assessments in Kindergarten and what you need to know to make a plan for assessments.
Why one-on-one assessments work best for Kindergarten
Giving a whole group assessment just does not work for Kindergarten. Is it possible? Yes, I've had to do it before and it's difficult. If you are able to, I highly recommend doing mainly one-on-one assessments for formal assessments. Formal assessments typically use some standard, rubric, or grading system to assign a grade. These assessments are the ones that will give Kindergarten students a grade that goes in their quarterly report card. By sitting down with each student individually, you are able to make sure that the answers they are giving are an accurate representation of what they know. I liked to do all my one-on-one formal assessments during small group time, once a quarter.
Starting with a beginning-of-the-year assessment
At the start of the school year, it is helpful to do a short beginning-of-the-year assessment to get to know each student and where they are. You can use these pre-assessments as a guide to show where to start your instruction and how to form your small groups starting the year off. This beginning-of-the-year assessment for Kindergarten is exactly what I used. It is just one page and all you need is some upper- and lower-case flashcards, as well as number flashcards. I also asked students some questions to get to know them, like “What is your favorite food?”. That also helped keep the students at ease when completing the assessment with me. It should only take about 5 minutes to complete it! This is the first piece of assessment that I keep for each student.
You can find it here: Kindergarten Pre-Assessment Form
Why you need to complete a pre-assessment
Do you HAVE to pre-assess? I totally said those exact words during my first year of teaching. I felt like I didnβt have enough time to pre-assess. Whatβs the point of it anyways? We are only grading the post-assessment, we should just focus on that. Well, I was wrong.Β Pre-assessments can tell you so much about each student, and the class as a whole. It shows where your students are at with the specific skills you are covering for the quarter. For example, if most of them have already mastered the skill, then you will need to change your instruction and possibly your scope and sequence to challenge them a bit more. It also shows which students have a good understanding and which ones don't, which is helpful when forming small groups for centers.
Creating a Pre- and Post-Assessment
For the assessment, I used the same skills but made the pre- and post-assessment just a tad different. For example, if students are blending CVC words, I may have 5 CVC words for the pre-assessment and a set of 5 different CVC words for the post-assessment. Your pre- and post-assessment can fit on one page to make it easier. I had one page for phonics and one page for math per unit. This is what a sample pre- and post-assessment looked like for the Short Vowels Phonics Unit.
Now, I didn't JUST have phonics and math for my assessments. The grades for writing and reading comprehension were completed by using a checklist or rubric.
Quarterly Writing Assessment
I used this writing checklist when grading students' writing samples. Quarter 1 skill was handwriting and writing first and last name, Quarter 2 was writing a complete sentence about a topic, Quarter 3 was writing 2 sentences about a topic, and Quarter 4 was writing a First, Next, Then, and Last sequence. You can read more about how I used that checklist here.
Quarterly Reading Comprehension Assessment
For reading comprehension, we focused on a different skill each quarter, and students were assessed on that skill. Quarter 1's skill was character and setting, Quarter 2 was identifying the story's beginning, middle, and end, Quarter 3 was problem and solution, and Quarter 4 was retelling the story with writing or drawing.
First, I would read a story with my small group. Next, I would ask my students one-on-one to name the character or setting of the story or whatever the skill was. Usually, I just had them whisper it in my ear, but you could pull each student aside individually and ask, while the other students are working on something else. I would just mark a checkmark or X, whether or not they had it correct or not on a checklist.
Using a Data Binder to keep everything organized
Keeping your assessments in a single place is important so that you ALWAYS know where your students are. Every year, I created a BIG data binder that housed all the formal assessments, as well as work samples, informal checklists, exit tickets, and more for math and literacy. You will want to have a tab for each student and keep ALL their assessments together. It does seem like a lot of work to put together, however it ends up saving you so much time.
I remember a parent came in asking why their student was struggling to read CVC words, even though we had been learning it for almost a month. I was able to show them the pre-assessments, weekly informal assessments, as well as other work. I told her that it seems like they are not progressing but actually, they were making progress! That parent was SO impressed with all the βevidenceβ (her words, not mine) that I had ready to go in my data binder. These assessments will really guide you in making the right decisions for your students. You will feel SO prepared when parent/teacher conference time comes!
I hope this was helpful in creating an assessment plan for your Kindergarten classroom!
