Assessments

Well, it's that time of year (again) where I assess my students in reading and math and see where they stand how much progress they have made since the fall. One area of difficulty with my first graders seems to be with the Common Core Standard of "representing and interpreting data."

My students first worked in small groups and sorted objects onto large sorting mats.



Most of them can sort and graph like champions, but cannot put into words what they have done or describe the data on the graph. What always seems to blow them away provide some difficulty is the dreaded "how many more ______ than ______" when comparing groups of objects on a graph. So, I made up a way to assess them working with a group and one-on-one with a sort-and-graph recording sheet.

grab your copy here

Here are some students using their recording sheet to show how they sorted their objects.



This allowed me to easily see who still simply sorted just by colors and who was using higher-level thinking skills to group their objects by other attributes. I was pleased with how well my students did using the sentence frames on the recording sheet.

I hope someone finds this useful!

What kind of activities do you use to help your students with sorting and/ or graphing?

Thank you, Debbie, over at Rainbows Within Reach for the link up!