Readers Are You Ready? The Race Is On!

This is my teams year to be evaluated by our administrator.  We have the option to work in a group or solo.  Being that we work well together, it seemed logical to do our evaluation together too.  We re focussing on some of the CCSS.  We each picked standards we wanted to address and then created visual displays to  motivate students to work towards mastery of specific standards.  My two partners decided to do a racing theme for our sight words.  As the students learn more words, the number on their race car changes an they move along the track towards the finish line.  For our grade level, our kids have 40 sight words.  I've come to realized that this isn't a lot compared to other kindergartens nation wide.  For us, it is an achievable goal.  For those who have already mastered the kindergarten words, they are then given the first grade list.

To make my display, I grabbed some black butcher paper from the art closet and cut way strips, then stapled together.  I had some yellow tape that I used for the finish line and I used white correction tape for the lines.  I have no idea where the cars came from, my co-workers made them for me.  I just use a dry erase pen to change the numbers and a tac to hold it on the track.  I added the red number cards to the top to help gage where the students are.  My kids love this and anxiously wait their turn to see if they can move up the track.

Assess Quickly and Save a Tree
I assess several kids a day.  It only takes a few minutes for each kid.  I have several different versions of  our sight words inside plastic sleeves.  As they read down the list of words, I am putting a dot next to each word read correctly only matching plastic sleeve.  I use a dry erase marker.  After the student reads the words, I quickly count how many and record it on my master data sheet.  I then erase the dots and am ready for the student.  This eliminates lots of paper and I only have to worry about keeping track of my master data sheet.

This week we are progress monitoring and I will be doing some quick check-in assessments.  Hard to believe there are less than 45 days left in the school year.  The race is on to teach everything under the sun and hope it sticks during summer vacation!