Data Driven Teachers

Research shows that students who monitor their own learning are higher achievers. By incorporating the Student Led Conference activity into your next parent-teacher conference, you will help students gain responsibility in their own learning process. The activity begins with students rating themselves on a series of work habits and behaviors. Once done, students then identify their strengths and weaknesses and develop goals for themselves based on their self-reflection. Students compose an e

Do you need students to practice the skills assessed with the DRA or DRA-2? I created this document as a way to instruct students of the components of the DRA assessment and fell in love with how easy it is to incorporate into most reading lessons. The Reading Response document asks for students to use literal and inferential skills in addition to metacognition while reading a student-selected or teacher-selected passage.

The Poetry Structures Book Project can fit into any poetry unit as a final assessment tool. Students create a poetry book following the directions in this document. Student engagement is increased when students are able to celebrate themselves as writers.

This is the most useful lesson plan grid you will ever have! Completely customizable! It is in a Word Document so you can change it to fit your schedule. Each subject area includes a spot for the lesson objective and Common Core Standards. All you need is to type in your lesson plans and go!

Reading with the Writer's Eye is a quick form that allows students to record what they learn from analyzing mentor texts. This document fits best with narrative texts and essays. I used this in conjunction with Lucy Calkins Units of Study. The students found this to be much easier than using a writers notebook to record what was learned from mentor texts. (Another document like this is available for informational text use.)

Reading with the Writer's Eye is a quick form that allows students to record what they learn from analyzing mentor texts. This document fits best with expository/informational texts and essays. I used this in conjunction with Lucy Calkins Units of Study. The students found this to be much easier than using a writers notebook to record what was learned from mentor texts. The double-sided document works well by completing one side with teacher assistance or in small groups and the other side i

I created this activity sheet to help hold students accountable for praticing spelling words and incorporated it into the Word Work portion of our ELA block. Students choose a variety of activities that meet multiple intelligences. With more choice, student engagement increased with use of this document.

This quarter-page form can help collaborative teams (general education and special education) teachers identify what accommodations and modifications are necessary for students on particular assignments. The information can be used to inform teaching teams as well as parents and report card grading.

The best reading log! With this log, students record their at-home reading and provide a rating along with the reason they chose the reading material. A useful log that won't bog down students; it will help readers track their reading!

Need a way to assess your students' independent reading? Search no more! This rubric is a compilation of research-based ideas and real classroom experience in upper elementary classrooms. After discussing the elements of the rubric and expectations for your classroom's independent reading, this rubric allows you to monitor and assess student behaviors and reading skills. A must-have for today's classes!

I created this sheet for students to record their work and answers for a morning warm-up set of math review problems. By having students show their work, record answers, and check with a parter, the student accountability of their warm-up increased significantly. I printed two copies and ran these back-to-back, used for two weeks, and recorded a participation grade in math for student effort.

The rubric serves to help better understand how a child is assessed with the report card. Combined with IEP goal progress, this rubric will help teachers and parents understand what goes into the grades reported on the card marking.

When working in professional learning groups to unwrap special education standards, a peer review of the ranges of complexity and learning targets is important. This form can guide your collaborative discussions, clarify standards components, and solidify standards knowledge for consistent instruction.

How do you manage student jobs for an upper elementary classroom? These printable tags will fit any need you have! You can print, laminate, add a magnet or clothespin, or simply use in a pocket chart. Used for several years, these classroom job tags remind students of what responsibilities are included in their assigned jobs.

Want a clever way to encourage students to write clear directions? This project encourages students to create their own board game and write the directions that correspond to the game. The project focuses on writing and reading skills for steps in a process. Student engagement runs high with this project! This project can be assigned for cooperative or independent work.

The scientific method is a key set of procedures students must know at the elementary level. This quiz allows teachers to assess student knowledge of the steps. Used as both a pre- and post-test, students are asked to list the steps in order and provide their own explanation of the step. This allows teachers to see if students actually understand the concept of each step in the process rather than relying on memorization skills.

I have sent this survey home to families prior to the beginning of the school year. It allows me to get to know the children and their homelives before school begins. I am then able to plan for student academic and social needs even before the first day. This has been a huge help in starting the school year on the right foot!

This quick activity invites students to create their own service learning project in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. Students are required to reflect on the project and the impact their service made.

Unwrapping Essential Elements is a document that can help guide your staff into dissecting special education standards into ranges of complexity and learning targets. This unwrapping process will bring clarity by allowing your staff to have a strong collective agreement about each standard and what it means for teaching and learning.

For special education staff - Many of the special education standards ranges of complexity are not defined at the classroom level. This form will help guide educators into breaking the standards down into the learning ranges for student ability groups.