Welcome to part 3 of my blog series “7 Tips for Easy & Successful Small Group Instruction in a Middle School Math Classroom”. This article focuses on tip #4: Data and how to find, use or create efficient and actionable formative assessments.
If you missed the previous two articles, check them out for more tips and strategies to maximize your impact with small group instruction.
Part 1, “7 Tips for Easy & Successful Small Group Instruction in a Middle School Math Classroom” is a detailed introduction to the 7 major areas to focus your energy when designing or improving your small group instruction.
Part 2 in the series focuses on Tips 1-3: Commitment, It Might Get a Little Messy, and Timing & Structure.
No matter how you choose to organize and structure small group instruction in your classroom, data is an integral part of planning and design. Data should drive your decisions for how to group students and what stations or rotations are needed to best address student needs and maximize growth.
Tip #4 Data, this is a big one!
This is one of the most important components of successful small groups and one we can really get lost in.
Teachers encounter so much data! State standardized tests, District Benchmarks, screeners, tests, quizzes, summatives… The list goes on and on.
We’re told to assess often. Pre-assess, post-assess, warm-ups, entrance and exit tickets, observation… Great! We have lots of ways to assess, collect lots of data but, what do we do with all of that data?
Take a minute to think about all of the data you collect on a daily basis, weekly basis or monthly basis.
Then ask yourself how much of that data you actually use to drive your instruction, differentiate your instruction, individualize and personalize learning?
I know, many assessments are required by our schools and school districts (over assessing is a whole other conversation!). We can’t immediately do anything about those required assessments.
I challenge you to look closely at the formative assessments you give and ways to make them as efficient and actionable as possible.
Think small, think targeted, think small chunks of content. I challenge you to create and implement assessments that provide you the most actionable data in the shortest amount of time. That way you’re saving time that you can use for students to learn! More is not always better! Longer, with lots of questions isn’t always best.
There are so many options out there to help you create your new and or improved, targeted and efficient assessments. In the last fifteen years, I’veI tried so many programs and assessment strategies. The following are some of my favorites that I’ve used myself in my own core and tier 2 / 3 pullout classes.
Edulastic
I love Edulastic! If you haven’t heard of Edulastic or haven’t tried it yet, check it out. And, as a bonus, Edulastic has joined forces with Go Guardian and Pear Deck.
I use Edulastic for all of my pre- and post-assessments, quizzes and fast-checks. I’ve also used Edulastic for test preparation and review. Edulastic is one of the most comprehensive, versatile assessment programs I’ve used.
Side tip: I frequently will print my assessments for students to show their work and then enter their answers into the program for time-saving autograding!
So, back to Edulastic and all of the valuable tools the program provides. Here’s my top 3!
First, Edulastic has an extensive question bank. I’m talking 1,000s of questions! And, the search component is so great! You can search by grade-level, domains and standards.
Second, Edulastic has over 20 question types for math alone! We’re talking multiple choice, short answer, true false, drag and drop, matching, graphing and more. If you don’t find the question you want, it’s easy to make your own using one of the many question types provided.
Finally, data. Edulastic has extensive reports providing so many options of viewing and analyzing data. There’s also a great class view that shows you in real time class average, question by question data and individual student data. I use this, in presentation view, to show students how we’re doing as a class and have question by question data conversations. The presentation view hides student names with random names and protects identities. You can also zoom in to just the graph and question by question data if you want to further protect student identities.
Edulastic offers a free teacher account and a paid, premium version. There’s so much more to the program. Check out Our Story – Edulastic to learn more about the company and program. To have a tour of the free teacher account and learn how the program works go to Edulastic 101. Edulastic has so many training options, supports, videos and lives. Give it a look, you won’t be disappointed!
Built in Program Assessments
There are many computer-based programs available. For example, Freckle, Renaissance, Moby, Scootpad, Edmentum, IXL, etc. And more come out all the time. Each program has tools for collecting data.
Explore your program’s options or before choosing a program, check out the assessment options. You want tools to create assessments that give you the data you need and are easy to use and assign.
Data that you can use immediately needs to be short and targeted. Also important is the ability to assign by standards, and even better, by substandards or smaller focused areas within the standard. Differentiation and individualization!
Also, take a close look at the reports options. Reports need to be easy to read and easy to personalize.
I’ve used Freckle for years (started using the free version of Front Row). The program provides multiple options for collecting data from benchmarks, to 10-question quizzes and 5 question exit tickets. You can search by standard and even more specifically by smaller more focused areas within the standard. Options like this are great for individualizing student learning.
No program is perfect. There are many programs to choose from and more coming every year. Two things I look for are ease of use and student engagement. Find what works best for you and your students.
Google™ Forms
Google Forms has great options and it’s free! Google Forms are easy to create, personalize, have many question options and are self-grading. There’s also some valuable data with graphs, question analysis and exporting to Google Sheets.
If Google Forms is your jam, check out my Strategically Targeted Assessments specifically designed to save you time and provide you efficient, actionable data. Available in printable and digital versions for the best of both worlds. Students can show their work on the printable assessment, then enter their answers into the digital form. You get to see their work and get immediate data from the self-grading digital version.
Whiteboards and Other No-Tech Formative Assessment Options
Whiteboards are a great way to increase engagement with no-tech! There are many options for boards. You can buy boards, paint desks with whiteboard paint, put boards on the walls, so many options. For years I used cardstock in sheet protectors, super inexpensive and easy to keep in a student binder. Recently I’ve started buying very thin whiteboards with the coordinate plane on one side. These are also perfect to three-whole punch and place in student binders.
For a while I was obsessed with sticky notes. All sizes of sticky notes! Easy (kind of) to print on and great to have in the classroom for discussion and review. Bring some movement in too!
Whatever formative assessment format you choose, remember to choose easy to make, easy to grade, targeted, actionable!
Need more ideas and or inspiration?
Here’s some articles to check out.
25 Formative Assessment Options Your Students Will Actually Enjoy
7 Smart, Fast Ways to do Formative Assessment
27 Easy Formative Assessment Strategies for Gathering Evidence of Student Learning
Small Groups Grow Students!
If you haven’t yet implemented some type of small group instruction, data-driven stations or rotations, intervention into your classroom plans, please start now!
The benefits are huge! Increased engagement, individualization and differentiation to name a few.
And data is the foundation of the planning process. Choose data collection strategies that are efficient, actionable and whenever possible, engaging.
Need a way to organize all that data and track your small group rotations and stations? Download for FREE my Small Group Data Tracking, Charting and Organizational Tool Kit. You’ll receive multiple forms, charts and trackers to help you get started and stay organized.
Are you an interventionist or tutor? Check out my free guide “6 Myths About Middle School Math Intervention” (and How We Can Do it Better!). Making math intervention as engaging and successful as possible is my passion!
