Assessments are apart of our daily teaching there is no way around it, so I wanted to give you some of my favorite formative and summative assessments I do in my classroom to gain data on my preschoolers. :) Assessments look a little different in the preschool age but I'm here to tell you it is possible!
What is formative assessments?
Formative assessments are used to monitor student learning and provide ongoing feedback that can be used by the teacher to improve their teaching and by students to improve their learning.
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Here are some of my favorite formative assessments:
1. Monitoring
Preschool teachers constantly observe their class to assess whether everyone is grasping a concept or engaged in a lesson. Monitoring can occur in whole-group activities or during playtime. If several students are struggling with a particular skill, the teacher can use their observations to form a small group or provide one-on-one guidance.
* this is where it is helpful to have access to paper to write down their names.
2. Games!!
We play alot of games in my classroom, from High-Ho Cherry-O to different versions of Bingo, alphabet games and numeral games. Did you know that you can have "Snowball Fights" indoors? Write down numbers 1-20 and when a student catches a snowball they have to say the number, this could be use for colors, shapes and alphabet letters!!
3. Parent Communcation
Before Parent Teacher Conferences I send home a survery asking parents about their child and what they are seeing at home and what questions they may have. I find this survery is very useful at conferences to keep the conversation going and helps me know what parents might asks me before we start and I can gather materials to help them at home. I have linked the survery I use here, the best part is IT'S FREE!!
4. Flash Cards
Are a great way to get information on your data quick and easy without students knowing. I have a ring of shapes, colors, numbers and alphabet letters by my classroom door and before we leave the classroom I grab one of the rings and as we are waiting for the older grade levels to pass or waiting on friends to get out of the restroom we practice. The great thing about these flash cards (besides the fact that they are FREE), is you can make them unique for your studnets and what they need to work on!
5. Classroom Polls
Even at the preschool age, my students get embrassed to admit that they are not mastering a concept or skill. So I give each of my students three pieces of paper with their name on them and I ask them "How do you feel about ____ (subject here) and students can place that color card in my mail box when they are ready to answer. This takes extra time to explain to your students what the colors mean, so that you don't get all three of the colors in your mailbox. But if my preschoolers can do it so can you!
6.Physical Response
Preschoolers are often more physical than they are verbal, physical responses are effective formative assessments. Students who understand a concept can clap, while those who don't understand might stomp.
7. Self Assessments
Much like the classroom poll, give studnets a scale (I use this one with the faces) and then record their response in their data binder with the date and any comments students may have said about why they picked that face.
8. Anecdotal Notes
As students are working in learning centers or are working on an activity I go around and take notes on how my students are interacting with eachother, the materials in the classrom and or the activity at hand. I can then put these notes in their data binder and use DRDP Standards to mark where my students currently stand
9. Small Groups
Small Groups are great for you can group similar students together to work on a particualr skill and really know what each student knows, and not what their peer may know. This is also great to help those who are shy to open up more and get talking.
10. Asking Questions?!?!!
When my students are working in Learning Centers, I walk around and ask them questions about what they are doing and what would happen if they did this or that. Questioning is a great way to promote deeper thinking. I found this website very helpful in understanding the importance of asking questions.
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What is summative assessments?
The goal of summative assessment is to evaluate student learning at the end of an instructional unit by comparing it against some standard or benchmark.
Below are some of my favorite summative assessments:
*In most of the things that I assess my students over are included in our curriculum checklists and in the Pre-K Assessment. I have linked information on those two down below.
1. Portfolio- I love using portfolios in my classroom to show student growth and improvements over the school year. This is a great way to mark student progress and somewhere to store the student examples. Below are things you can find in my student's data binder.
- Emerging Language and Literacy Curriculum (ELLC)- this is the curriculum we are using at my school.
- Pre-K Assessment
- Alphabet Letter Chart + Sound
- Number Chart
- Name writing
- Self- Portraits
- Studnet Work
2. Checklists- These are quick and easy to do as students are working in the classroom. I like to do my checklists while my students are at learning centers and if I come up to something I'm not sure they can do or i've seen them do I call them over and we do the activity. I have linked below one of my favorite assessments I use in my classroom to store in my student's data binder.
3. Bar Graphs!
My school is a Leader In Me (LIM) school and part of LIM is for students to track their own goals and so I use the assessments linked below for two different data tracking goals. The first one is to track the number of alphabet letters my students know and the second is for them to mark the sounds. I can tell you that my preschoolers LOVE seeing the progess they are making in my class.
Letter Name and Letter Sound Assessments
4. DIAL-4
To qualify for my Title 1 Preschool class, children need to score a 39% or below. We give the DIAL-4 during our Early Childhood Screenings that we have in August (before school starts) and in May. At the end of the year students who are not going to kindergarten get rescreened to see growth. The DIAL-4 assesses Motor, Concepts, Language, Self-Help, and Social Development skills.
5. Social Emotional Assessment- I love this assessment because it is EDITABLE and I can make it unique to each of my students to target certian goals while also seeing what older grade levels are looking for in terms of Social Emotional.
6. Preschool Checklist- This is a great checklist to have as you go through each of your students to mark if they are understanding the concept. I have these laminated at each of my centers, and when I walk around during learning centers I take them down and mark the progress my students are making in those areas and then put that information in their data binder.
Checklist that are included in this FREE handout:
- Gross Motor
- Fine Motor
- Health and Safety
- Creative Arts
- Social Emotional
- Literature
- Informational Text
- Foundational ELA Skills
- Writing
- Speaking and Listening
- Language
- Math
- Science
7. Pocketful of Preschool- Is a great resource to use to find assessments, you are looking for along with dramatic play center ideas and fun circle games. The great thing about her assessments are that they are easy to use and go along with common standards in an Early Childhood Classroom.
8. Children and the Preschool Assessment- This is a great resource to get familiar with why we have assessments in school and it's broken down by age level, so even if you do not teach preschool you can see what assessments looks like at your grade level.
9. NAEYC is a great resource for educators of young learners to go learn about the importance of ealry childhood education and to give ideas for things you can do in your own classroom.
When I was doing my studnet teaching in Clinton part of their curriculum they used came from Learning Without Tears. From the weeks I was in that classroom I could see that the students really enjoyed the lessons and activites part of Learning Without Tears