Assessing Early Learners
J2 Training - Janet Corder & Joan Gore
What is Formative Assessment?
- Gives teachers information to drive instruction
- Provides ongoing feedback
- Helps students identify their strengths and weaknesses
Formative Assessment Tools
ESGI
ESGI - A simple and secure assessment platform that allows teachers to conduct one-on-one assessments. Use the pre-loaded tests, or create your own assessments, to quickly gather student performance data and automatically generate multiple reports. New math and ELA assessment that align with 2nd Grade TEKS was recently added.
Receive a free 60-day trial by going to:
esgisoftware.com/start and use the promo code J2Training
GAFE for Littles
Christine Pinto is a kindergarten teacher who is passionate about sharing how primary students can use Google Apps and other technologies.
Christine's Share Forward Templates is a collection of
Google Templates for members of her PLN to share activities. Add your favorite activities and/or use these!
Follow Christine at:
@PintoBeanz11One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish Sorting in Google Slides
Quizizz
Quizizz is very similar to Kahoot, except the questions appear on the students' devices.
For early learners, you can have images as your answer choices.
Also, Quizizz has a Read Aloud feature that reads the questions and answer choices to the students using Chromebooks, laptops, desktops, and mobile devices.
To turn on the Read-Aloud, open the game settings menu on the student device. Several different languages are supported and if students change their language settings, the Read-Aloud feature automatically adjusts the pronunciation to match the selected language
Flipgrid
Flipgrid is a video response tool that is used to create discussions among all students within your classroom. Teachers post a topic or question via text or video and then the students respond to the prompt. Flipgrid also gives students the ability to comment on their classmates' responses.
Key Features:
- All of your videos are located in one location.
- You can Freeze a Topic to continue sharing the videos but prevent new recordings.
- Student comments can be turned on or off.
Flipgrid Tutorials/Blog Posts:
- Tony Vincent's Review of Flipgrid - with helpful tips
Flipgrid makes it easy to create video QR codes by Tony Vincent
Vocaroo
NearPod
Nearpod is an engaging presentation tool that allows students to be actively involved in the lesson. Nearpod also gives teachers the ability to assess learners’ understanding throughout the lesson using multiple types of activities.
- Open www.nearpod.com.
- Click on the Enter CODE button.
- Type in the Code the teacher gives you.
- Wait for the teacher to begin.
Nearpod also has an App for most devices!
Write Reader
WriteReader increases students' digital writing skills and creativity. Students can use tablets, Chromebooks, or computers. Teachers quickly set up their classes and give students the code. Best of all books can be emailed to parents.
Wordwall
When you are on the Wordwall home page, go to the Community tab and search for a topic. Once you find a game you want to try or send to your students, look under Switch Template to see what other interactives are available for that topic.
Click the Share button to send the game to your students.
Examples:
Plickers
You only need the Plickers app downloaded on one IOS or Android device to scan the student responses.
Check out lots of info on Plickers here.
Ideas for altering Plickers Cards for younger students can be accessed here.
AutoDraw
AutoDraw lets you turn your doodling into art! Use this Google whiteboard tool to draw your best picture of something and the machine learning algorithms try to figure out what you are attempting to draw. It then matches your doodles, squiggles, and lines with drawings in its database. The possible matches will be displayed in a list at the top of your drawing canvas. If you like one of those options, you simply click on it and AutoDraw replaces your drawing with the selected image. You have the option to download or share your picture by clicking on the 2 horizontal lines in the top left corner of your canvas.
Seesaw
Seesaw allows students to document their learning as it occurs, reflect on the learning and evaluate their progress. Seesaw is free, but there are paid options available.
PreK - 2 Google Templates
Bingo Baker
Playing Bingo Baker is a great way to teach and assess skills in the classroom. There is a free version, but if you want to use images, you will need to buy the lifetime subscription for $14.99.
- Click bingobaker.com/view/849059 to open a Bingo game.
- On your device.
- Click the Free space.
- Click the answers to the problems as they are called out.
- Shout Bingo if you win!
Here is another Bingo with words and images bingobaker.com/view/640936
Geoboard (App and Website)
Download free Geoboard task cards:
- Geoboard Challenge Cards
- Geoboard Shape, Letters, Numbers and Objects Task Cards can be found here.
- Geoboard Shape Pattern Cards
- Geoboard Shapes
- STEM Geoboard Challenges (must enter email address to download)
Chatterpix Kids App
Examples:
Khan Kids App
PhotoSpeak App
Shadow Puppet EDU App
To create an ABC Book:
- Each student is assigned a letter of the alphabet to illustrate. They must write the letter and draw a picture of something that begins with that letter.
- After students have completed their illustrations, the teacher takes a picture of each drawing.
- The teacher then has each student record the name of their letter and what begins with that letter. Example: "A is for alligator".
- You will want to create a beginning and ending slide for your book, such as a class picture or a sign that says Mrs. Smith's Class Alphabet Book.
- When the book has been recorded, you have several sharing options to choose from within the ShadowPuppetEDU app.
Click on the "ideas" icon within the Shadow PuppetEDU app for integration ideas. Here are a few of our favorites:
- Sequencing - Tell about a process or event by using transition words (e.g., the schedule for the day, a timeline of historical events, etc).
- Summarizing - Take a picture of the book cover. Students record a summary of the book.
- Reading fluency - Students record themselves reading the text.
- Creative storytelling - Students work together to develop a story, take photos, and record a narrative.
- Self-published authors - Students write, illustrate, and record original stories, poems, or ABC books.
- Readers theater - Students draw pictures to match their assigned part of the story. Order the pictures and have students record their lines.
- About Me presentations - Makes for a fun beginning of the year activity.
- Show and tell - Students share interesting things related to the curriculum being studied.
- How-to tutorials - Create step-by-step directions for how to achieve the desired outcome (e.g., how to make cookies).
- Community & culture - Create slideshows of community workers or leaders, holidays around the world, or cultures and customs.
- Math word problems - Students create word problems such as, "In this photo, there are 3 red blocks and 2 green blocks. The total number of blocks is 5 because 3 plus 2 equals 5."
Examples:
More Apps
- Teach Me: Kindergarten ($1.99)
- Teach Me: 1st Grade ($1.99)
- Teach Me: 2nd Grade ($1.99)
And Just For Fun...Bongo Cat
Bongo Cat - There are just no words to describe it! Jump in and just play! Make sure your sound is up as high as it will go!
Try out these songs:
Happy Birthday to You
1 1 3 1 6 5
1 1 3 1 8 6
Ode to Joy - Ludwig van Beethoven
5 5 6 8 8 6 5 3 1 1 3 5 5 3 3
5 5 6 8 8 6 5 3 1 1 3 5 3 1 1
3 3 5 1 3 5 6 5 1 3 5 6 5 3 1 3 1
Also, try Google's Blob Opera for more fun!