Journal+entry+1

Thursday when I walked in my first grade classroom at Washington Oak Elementary, I was not sure if I would find any types of assessments taking place. I guess I never really thought or looked hard enough at whether or not my teacher was giving my first graders any assessments. When I got in the classroom, I saw a few types of assessments and was actually pretty surprised. I realized that assessments don’t have to be direct and obvious, but that they can be subtle and happening throughout the day without anyone besides the teacher even being aware of it. After my class did their morning reading, my teacher sent the students back with a white board and dry erase marker to practice some handwriting and to practice writing sentences. Before they started writing any words or sentences, she first ordered the children to write out their first and last names. As I walked around the room observing the children I noticed some picking up their dry erase markers and neatly and efficiently spelling their first and last names. They included the capital letters when necessary and had very neat handwriting. Some of the children spelt their names correctly and some other students had trouble spelling their whole names. Before they could erase their boards their names had to be checked by the teacher. I noticed my teacher coming around with a piece of paper with a list of the student’s names, and as she went around to each student, she checked off their name if they spelt their whole name correctly. Some students that didn’t know how to spell their whole names didn’t receive a check mark. For those who didn’t know, the teacher would model for them their whole name on one line and then the student would copy their name two more times beneath the model for practice. My teacher told one child who couldn’t spell her whole last name, “It’s ok, you have a tricky last name. Just remember you have two digraphs in it! You’ll get it soon!” Overall the class did well spelling their whole names. Only three students had trouble with this. Since this was my first time back in the classroom since December, I wasn’t sure whether or not she’d been doing this assessment for a while. Maybe this was the fifth week they have been working on first and last names, or maybe they have been doing it all year and I didn’t notice the assessment taking place. I would consider this an observational assessment because the teacher was coming around and observing their skills and recording it. It wasn’t a sit down test; it was just a fun opening activity that served also as an assessment for the teacher. This observational assessment was to see if they could write their whole names. She told the class, “If you want to go to second grade you have to know your full name!” I think this assessment was effective. The students were in a free environment to take their time to do this task. I felt like this was a fair assessment to all the students. This assessment also helped the teacher get an idea of where they stand, for example how they have improved since the first day. Did they know how to spell their whole name or not? Should she teach the students little tricks to help them remember how to spell their names, or is that not needed? I plan on asking the teacher if she has always assessed the students on their ability to spell their whole names, or if this was something she does just once in a while. I also want to ask her if this name spelling was part of the first grade curriculum.


 * Section 3