Tracking Student Progress
Tracking Student Progress is important because it allows me to celebrate successes with my students and tailor my instruction to where they are at. I track student progress in four ways in my classroom: I use a mastery tracker, create graphs and share assessment data, use organizational systems, and have individual student conferences throughout the quarter.
Mastery Tracker
Schoology is the online grade book system that my school uses. Schoology is a powerful tool because it has a built-in mastery tracker. I can link activities to specific state standards or even link specific test questions to one standard. This gives me incredible data that illustrates my students’ mastery over the standard. Data from the mastery tracker indicates students’ mastery by assigning each student a letter grade, calculates how many students achieved mastery, and how many students were not assessed. The mastery tracker is a major factor that helps me instructional decisions based on student data. One trend that emerged from examining the data tracker was centered around Pennsylvania standards BIO.1.2.1 and BIO.1.2.2. A majority of my students, 53 out of 95, did not master this standard based on their test scores. We spent an additional week reviewing RNA and I elected to assess students' understanding of RNA through student presentations. The mastery tracker is a very important tool that allows both student and teacher to track and monitor progress.
This is my mastery tracker. Along the top you see the specific state standard and the classes over all average. Clicking on the objective provides information about how many students achieved mastery, exceeded expectations, meet expectations, and were not assessed. This is a powerful tool that promotes data driven instruction in my classroom.
Creating and Sharing Assessment Data
After every chapter assessment, I create a graph that shows the grade distribution for the assessment and displays the class average. This promotes growth for both my students and I. Sharing assessment data allows us as a class to track progress from one chapter assessment to another. Additionally, sharing assessment data serves as a talking point for a discussion about performance. I show each class how they performed compared to my other classes and we discuss factors that led to the differences in the class average. I critically look at assessment data, reflect on how I structured the learning process, and how many students achieved mastery.
Class average 47.8% Median 55 Mode 89
Class average 72.3% Median 74 Mode 84
Class Average 81.6% Median 83 Mode 82
Ogranizational Systems
Organizational systems are in place in my classroom to help my students stay organized and work more efficiently. I use bins to ensure all of my students’ important assignments are kept in a safe place. Each period has its own bin and I examine the contents in the bin every Friday. Students use the bin to store their Do Now, unit vocabulary, notes, and to turn in homework and classwork. At the start of every period, one student grabs the bin and distributes the class’s Do Nows and vocabulary and at the end of the period, a different student collects all of the assignments and places them back in the bin.
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I use a filing system to save my students' work in a permanent and safe place that is only accessed by me. I have two filing systems. The first filing system is reserved for students with IEP’s. Each student has their own tab and I store all major assignments for that student there. This creates a record of the student’s progress in my class and can be used in IEP meetings to demonstrate what the student’s ability is.
The second filing system I have is a large filing cabinet where I store the following: Chapter Assessments, Quizzes, Claim Evidence and Reasoning Essays, SMART Goal Sheet, and Completed Test Correction Sheets. I use organizational systems for my students’ for two reasons. The first is to allow them to do test corrections and test make-ups easily. The second is to demonstrate their progress throughout the school year and serve as a record of their performance. Storing and organizing student work gives students the opportunity to view scores and monitor the progress they have made throughout the school year. During our most parent-teacher conferences, I brought each student's chapter 1 assessment and chapter 3 assessment. For most of my students, they scored significantly better on chapter 3 than chapter 1 and I was able to show their parents the growth and progress their student has made since the beginning of the school year.
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These are the bins I use to store student work. There is a bin for every period that I teach. Students have access to the bin throughout the class.
This is picture of my filing system for students with IEP's. All graded work for each student is store in the tab with their name on it.
Individual Student Conferences
At the beginning of the school year, I give each of my students a SMART goal worksheet and I ask students to create a SMART goal that can be achieved within this school year in my classroom. I collect the SMART goal worksheets and make a copy of them; I keep one and file it the filing cabinet and the students get theirs back. I have two student conferences throughout the quarter; one towards the middle of the quarter and one towards the end of the quarter. I have students engage in a group activity and while they work, I call students back to my desk one at a time. Prior to the conference, I pull out several items I have stored in the filing cabinet. I bring in their SMART goal worksheet, most current Do Now, a recent quiz, and two chapter assessments. The conference is a time for us to discuss the student’s performance thus far and strategize ways I can better support them moving forward. I like to end the conference by providing each student with a few action steps they can complete to raise their grade, such as attend test corrections after school next week. During my first student conferences this year, we reviewed their chapter 1 assessment and chapter 2 assessment. I had students analyze their performance and brainstorm strategies to improve their grade on their next chapter assessment. These conferences were extremely beneficial to my 6th graders who needed help developing studying skills. Student conferences help me build stronger relationships with my students and encourage students to monitor their progress and learning throughout the school year.
This is a SMART goal worksheet filled out by one of my sixth grade science students. The student indicated they wanted to earn A's because that will make their family proud of them. At our conference on 10/04/2019 the student had all A's!