The document describes the evolution of assessment tools created by teachers to help new students acclimate to the classroom. It starts with a Teacher Checklist to help teachers and students get to know each other and the classroom environment. The teachers realized the checklist could be more specific. They created exit slips for students to provide feedback on lessons and note what help they need. Checklists were then developed for math and reading/writing based on standards to assess student understanding and identify areas needing more support. The checklists allow for quick assessment of student performance and differentiation of instruction.

1. Our Journal Our story of creating Inclusive Spaces. Chapter Two–Assessment Evolution

2. Dear Journal, Today we realized that our project had a foundation in the Teacher Checklist. This tool helps the teacher and the student get to know each other as well as the classroom environment. We could only imagine that any student who comes into a new class faces the challenge of not knowing what to expect. As teachers it is our job to make the children feel comfortable and welcome in our communities whether they are with us one period a day or all day. Many teachers are caught off guard when a new student is brought to their door. Sometimes we know when a student will join us, and sometimes it is a complete surprise. Our goal was to lessen this feeling of frustration. We created a tool that could be used as a reminder of what is necessary to make a new classroom community feel welcoming to any child.

3. We realized that we cannot make assumptions that our practices are in place in other classrooms. Our revised Teacher Checklist is more specific. Our original Teacher Checklist was created based on our classrooms and the routines and procedures that we had in place.

4. Dear Journal, Using the Teacher Checklist as our springboard, we thought about what else a teacher would need in order to provide an enjoyable educational experience for all of his or her students. At our TCICP spotlight sessions, we were often reminded that we had to be sure our project revolved around classroom assessments, fitting, as that was the title of our inquiry spotlight. We got the idea to create an assessment that would allow us to see what our students took from a lesson, and what they needed and wanted help with. The creation of the exit slip held students accountable for their learning but also helped hold us accountable to them for our teaching.

5. This was a lesson on the components of a sentence. This student used this box to let me know he needed help with multiplication. Not something we were working on in this lesson, but something I could work with him on in a small group. After speaking to the student I made a note so I was clear as to what he meant.

6. Dear Journal, Now that we had our Teacher Checklist and an assessment to monitor the students’ learning, we wanted to create tools that could be used to quickly assess students’ performance in the classroom for both teachers and students. Using the programs that our school embraces, we were able to create checklists that could be easily accessed and utilized by the teachers and students. First, we started with a math checklist since this was the most common subject area for students to join a new class. The checklist was grade specific. We created a checklist for each unit in our math program, in which the major points were highlighted. But, this turned out to be quite the task to create because there were so many units. So we thought about the bigger picture and a more universal idea, the Common Core State Standards. Now we had a way to assess the students’ understanding of grade appropriate math concepts and we could highlight the areas in which we needed to provide students with more supports. On to reading and writing… We use a workshop model when teaching these subjects, so we thought about the expectations we had for our students during each part of the workshop model. Here we are holding the students accountable for their learning once again by assessing their organization and use of appropriate supplies as well as using their independent time effectively. The conference notes section allows the teacher to differentiate instruction. The teacher may use this section for their strategy or guided reading groups.

7. This was our original checklist! For some grades the number of standards that need to be met is rather large. For teaching purposes we combined standards that were similar. Revised checklist based on Common Core Standards!