Endless Assessments

       We have been in school for 19 days, and I spent many hours doing assessments this week.  In the perfect fantasy kindergarten world that the lawmakers imagine, teaching continues during the assessment weeks.  But in my real world, that is not exactly how it goes.  Oh, there is still teaching going on, but my assistant is teaching the whole group while I work one on one with each of the 21 kids.  I assessed letter naming and first sound fluency last week -- "What is the first sound you hear in  the word _____?"  This week I've been checking to see if they know a word, a letter, a period, a capital letter, etc. etc. etc. as they read thru some little books. I pretty much have to take them individually down the hall to a quiet room while Mrs. A. takes care of the other 20. Luckily, she is a wonderful teacher, but you just can't do much  small group teaching by yourself.  I have also assessed naming numbers and shapes, word recognition, and letter sounds.  So I have a real good picture of what each child knows, and that is helpful. But I'd rather be teaching!  I will be working on progress reports this weekend to share all this information with their parents, then we can go back to our previously scheduled program!
         On the bright side, some of them started writing actual sentences this week.  That is a huge step for little kids. and a big thrill for their teacher. Quite a few can read the color words now, several passed the first list of sight words, and we gave out award certificates to those today.

         Next week we will start our apple theme in preparation for our first field trip to the apple orchard. That will be a lot more fun than assessing.

       Still reading!