Goal-Setting & Pre-Assessments

I'm seriously psyched about monitoring progress alongside students this year!

As described in the Welcome Back post, we're dedicating more time than ever to thoughtfully and explicitly setting the purpose and tone for the school year. The student Reading Data & Goals capture sheet is a key part of that plan.

Students will keep this sheet in their portfolios and update it at the end of each unit. If that ends up being too ambitious, I’ll scale back to updates during interim and report card windows (eight times a year). I'm always trying to find the balance between instructional time and reflection time.

My hope is that students will become more invested in the class when they can track and

reflect on their own progress. I’d love to hear fewer comments like, “My friend is in art right now making a clay pot" and "I'm not suffering through this class today!” Okay, just one kid made both of those remarks. He had a 0.0 GPA, so I didn’t take it personally... but he wasn’t totally wrong either. I do battle attrition. My class does consume a coveted elective period. Let’s be real: it’s hard to compete yoga, basketball, guitar, or functional art on a Friday morning. I've got to ensure students see value in the class, and ultimately, functional literacy.

Pre-Assessments

You'll notice the Reading Data & Goals neatly aligns with the all four pre-assessments, making it easier to track growth.

• Phonology Pre-Tests Part I and Part II

  • I created these based on our unit quizzes. They directly inform my small-groups and serve as an efficacy check.

  • Each section represents a different unit.

  • They’re split into two parts simply because of length—I like to start grading Part I while students take Part II. And I think students would have heart attacks if I gave them a test packet that thick the first week of school.

  • Estimated time: Two 45-minute periods

• Morphology Pre-Test

  • Another efficacy check, this time focused on morphology.

  • I didn’t break it down by unit for efficiency’s sake. Instead, I want to know if students understand the concept of a morpheme or can identify parts of speech. If they can’t, it’s not relevant whether they recognize a few random morphemes.

  • Estimated time: Less than one 45-minute period

• DIBELS

  • Thank you to the University of Oregon for providing these materials! If you’re not familiar with DIBELS, their website is a fantastic resource.

  • I find DIBELS especially helpful for collecting baseline data and benchmarks. It’s a great cumulative tool for assessing accuracy, fluency, the alphabetic principle, and basic comprehension.

  • I typically begin at the third-grade level, since that’s the highest level that still includes both nonsense word fluency and word reading fluency.

  • Estimated time: They’re quick! I can usually assess all the major areas for each student in under 10 minutes.

• The Phonology Awareness Screening Test (PAST)

  • Another free and valuable resource!

  • This tool assesses phonemic awareness exclusively. While DIBELS covers this too, I started using PAST before adopting DIBELS and never switched over. Plus, DIBELS' Phonemic Segmentation Fluency stops at first grade.

  • Estimated time: Less than 10 minutes per student.

  

By pairing targeted pre-assessments with an intentional goal-setting system, I’m not just collecting data. I’m empowering students to take ownership of their learning. This structure lays the foundation for personalized instruction, meaningful growth, and hopefully, a shift in how students view reading. If even one more student sees this class as a path forward rather than an obstacle, all the planning will be worth it.