Two weeks ago, I conducted my baseline assessments for kindergarten students in my classroom. I tested them on recognition of upper-case letters, lower-case letters, and numbers 1-20 at random. The results were rather interesting and somewhat expected given what I’d learned to date about the students.
The results of the baseline assessment show a wide range of background knowledge coming into this year. On average, students knew 17 of their upper-case letters. Five of the eighteen students assessed knew all upper-case letters, while seven knew half or fewer.
Lower-case letter recognition was slightly worse. On average, the 18-student class knew 12 lower-case letters when assessed at random. Only one student knew all 26 letters, while nine students correctly identified fewer than half of the letters.
Regarding number recognition, while the majority of the students were able to randomly recognize the numbers 1-10, less than half can do so with the numbers 11-20. Only three students could randomly identify all numbers assessed.
At this point in the year, I had had limited time with the students but the results reflected where I thought they would be as a class. The wide range of results represented in my assessment leads me to believe that recognition skills will be a heavy focus of my research activities, as some students need significant assistance in this area.
Last week I began my first musical activities for my action research project. As part of our literacy centers twice during the week, I rotated groups of five to six students to a secluded area of the classroom where we sang a number of songs related to the letter being studied that day. After the students had experience singing the songs, we would then incorporate clapping in rhythm while singing. As the final stage of the center, we would choose instruments from a small group of percussive instruments and play those in rhythm with the song. The early feedback I received from this center was very positive. The students were enthusiastic about playing the instruments, and some of the students who didn’t seem to be singing songs regularly during circle time felt more comfortable opening up and singing during this center.
Students unanimously said they enjoyed the center as well as all of the instruments and songs that were sung. I tried to select some songs that used the same melody but substituted different lyrics so that students wouldn’t have to learn completely new melodies every week. I made this decision simply because I’ve seen some students struggle with new lyrics for other classroom songs, and I recognized that literacy center time was limited on some days. The emphasis of the center was to try and incorporate music and instruments into letter learning, and I feared that too much variety in the songs wouldn’t allow me to get to everything I wanted to cover in the center.
At this point, my only concern as it relates to action research is assessment. I had originally planned to collect student artifacts on a weekly basis to better monitor learning, and while I still plan on collecting student work as a physical record of their progress, I’m finding that individual assessment at random of letters and numbers will likely give me a better gauge of learning in this environment. The only problem with that strategy is the amount of time it takes to access students in this manner, and the little time we have in the classroom to engage in such assessment. This may lead me to focus on a small group of students with varying recognition levels rather than the entire class.
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Two weeks ago, I conducted my baseline assessments for kindergarten students in my classroom. I tested them on recognition of upper-case letters, lower-case letters, and numbers 1-20 at random. The results were rather interesting and somewhat expected given what I’d learned to date about the students.
The results of the baseline assessment show a wide range of background knowledge coming into this year. On average, students knew 17 of their upper-case letters. Five of the eighteen students assessed knew all upper-case letters, while seven knew half or fewer.
Lower-case letter recognition was slightly worse. On average, the 18-student class knew 12 lower-case letters when assessed at random. Only one student knew all 26 letters, while nine students correctly identified fewer than half of the letters.
Regarding number recognition, while the majority of the students were able to randomly recognize the numbers 1-10, less than half can do so with the numbers 11-20. Only three students could randomly identify all numbers assessed.
At this point in the year, I had had limited time with the students but the results reflected where I thought they would be as a class. The wide range of results represented in my assessment leads me to believe that recognition skills will be a heavy focus of my research activities, as some students need significant assistance in this area.
Last week I began my first musical activities for my action research project. As part of our literacy centers twice during the week, I rotated groups of five to six students to a secluded area of the classroom where we sang a number of songs related to the letter being studied that day. After the students had experience singing the songs, we would then incorporate clapping in rhythm while singing. As the final stage of the center, we would choose instruments from a small group of percussive instruments and play those in rhythm with the song. The early feedback I received from this center was very positive. The students were enthusiastic about playing the instruments, and some of the students who didn’t seem to be singing songs regularly during circle time felt more comfortable opening up and singing during this center.
Students unanimously said they enjoyed the center as well as all of the instruments and songs that were sung. I tried to select some songs that used the same melody but substituted different lyrics so that students wouldn’t have to learn completely new melodies every week. I made this decision simply because I’ve seen some students struggle with new lyrics for other classroom songs, and I recognized that literacy center time was limited on some days. The emphasis of the center was to try and incorporate music and instruments into letter learning, and I feared that too much variety in the songs wouldn’t allow me to get to everything I wanted to cover in the center.
At this point, my only concern as it relates to action research is assessment. I had originally planned to collect student artifacts on a weekly basis to better monitor learning, and while I still plan on collecting student work as a physical record of their progress, I’m finding that individual assessment at random of letters and numbers will likely give me a better gauge of learning in this environment. The only problem with that strategy is the amount of time it takes to access students in this manner, and the little time we have in the classroom to engage in such assessment. This may lead me to focus on a small group of students with varying recognition levels rather than the entire class.
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