NinaWitJournal4

Nina Witel EDC 452: Dr. Pete Adamy Assessment Journal #4 03/10/09

In my first grade classroom, anecdotal records are used many times by my cooperating teacher. Anecdotal records are written notes made by teachers that display the progress of a student’s work and ability levels in each subject area. They can be written daily, weekly or at any given time and are very helpful for teachers in many ways. These records can help the teacher evaluate what level a particular student is on based on their math, reading or writing skills as well as a helpful note for the teacher to give to the parents if they ever have questions regarding their child’s progress. My cooperating teacher creates her own anecdotal records for her classroom. She creates a checklist with each student’s name and writes the subject that she is assessing on the top of the chart. Each week when I work with the students and observe the teacher I am able to see how she assesses the students using her anecdotal records. She not only quizzes the students during the morning meeting, but she also asks students individual questions to see if they are paying attention. Anecdotal records help my cooperating teacher pace herself throughout her lessons. If a child does not seem to understand a question being asked, the teacher patiently waits and helps the child through the question until a correct answer is found! The teacher also keeps these records on file to show the resource teachers how the children who need extra help are doing in the classroom. The principal and parents also are able to see these records if they ever need to. The teacher also is able to practice difficult areas in literacy centers or creates extra time to go over material that is difficult for the students. I was there last week and observed a student who had trouble with a word wall word. The teacher realized that this student continually had trouble with spelling the word so she had the entire class spell each word together. She knew by looking at her records that the student needed extra help with spelling. I feel by having anecdotal records in your classroom it makes it extremely easy for the teacher to understand each student’s ability level. These records can be passed on to the teachers in the upcoming years which will then help them teach the students, because they will know what areas are difficult for them. I know when I am a teacher I will take anecdotal records so I will be able to help my students as much as possible with what they need.

Section 3