If you’re an elementary teacher, then you’ll probably agree… Education has become far too data-driven. Busy teachers are being asked to spend too much time looking at numbers when they know in their hearts that the true measure of student success can not be found solely in charts and graphs. Documenting student progress, however, is a very important component of best practice teaching. This post will share 5 reasons why documenting student progress during the school year is essential, suggest meaningful ways to do it, and offer resource suggestions to support you.
5 Reasons to Document Student Progress
Below are 5 reasons for documenting student progress during the school year.
1. Monitor Student Progress
This point is probably the most obvious reason why you should document student progress, but for good reason. You want to compare apples to apples or oranges to oranges – not oranges to apples. Document where the student started the year and then compare that to where they are at when the year ends. This gives you a great model of overall growth.
Do you need a way to compare your students’ writing throughout the year? Consider using my writing prompts. The similar format throughout the entire years provides comfort to the student and allows you to see growth. Another great writing tool for documenting student progress is the seasonal writing assessments.
2. Improve Your Instruction
When you document student progress during the year, you’re able to see what else the student needs. We know it’s incredibly important to differentiate instruction to meet students’ needs – whether in the classroom or at home. Tracking data and progress throughout the year will allow you to better meet your students’ needs.
3. Promote a Growth Mindset and Goal Setting
When you document student progress throughout the year and conference with students about their progress, you are promoting a growth mindset. Regardless of where a child is starting, you can help them improve their growth mindset by showing them the progress they have made throughout the year.
Along with this growth mindset, you can encourage your students and help them set personal goals for their learning. For example, if you are using my math assessments, you can meet with each student after they complete the assessment to discuss future goals or even to improve their score. Each of these resources offers three versions of the same test, so they’re a great way to promote and document student progress.
4. Communicate with Families
You and your students’ parents are on the same team. And many times it’s great to be able to show the exact progress a student is making. Samples of work are a great way to do this. When you document student progress, you can show this to parents and families at conferences, open house, or other meetings as they come up during the school year. One great example you can use to show parents and families the progress their child is making is by using my paragraph of the week writing samples. These showcase learning and improvement over time.
5. Evidence of Effective Teaching
Today many teachers have to prove they are being an effective teacher. This can be hard to do if you fail to document student progress. Prove you’re an effective teacher! Keep student work samples and show them off! Include copies of them in your teacher evidence portfolio. You just never know when your next stellar evaluation could cause you to get a pay raise, more respect within the building, or more!
How to Document Student Progress
Below are 3 ways to document student progress in your classroom.
1. Take Pictures
Pictures are a great way to document student work. They are such a powerful tool that provide so much information. Whether it’s a student presenting their biography project or the finished pumpkin book project, a pictures reveals a story that words simply can’t. Be sure to consult your school district’s policy on taking photographs.
2. Use Student Portfolios
Student portfolios are a great way to collect and display student work over the course of the year. They can take the form of binders, folders, or digital folders. You can decide what works best for you and your students this year!
3. Give Benchmark Assessments
Benchmark assessments are tests given 2-4 times during the school year to evaluate students and measure their progress toward achieving grade-level standards. They are often given across a grade level, whole school, or district. They are sometimes also called interim assessments or benchmark tests. See examples of them by checking out my math benchmark assessments. These are another great way to document student progress!
Resources for Documenting Student Progress
Documenting Math Progress
Below are tools that will help you with documenting student progress towards math proficiency.
1. Math Benchmark Assessments
Math benchmark assessments are assessment tools that supports teachers in monitoring their students’ progress toward grade level math standards. Teachers use this information to design differentiated data-based lessons to meet students’ needs. It’s also a great way to get a snapshot of students; current abilities and document them.
| 
| 
|
 | | |
| 
| 
|
| | |
2. Math Quick Checks
These math quick check assessments are a great tool for documenting students’ growth. They are formative assessments that help teachers quickly assess students and identify those who require intervention, so they can easily provide appropriate data-driven instruction and remediation. They are a great way to get a snapshot of where students are at with a specific standard or skill. They can be used as math exit tickets as well!
| 
| 
|
| | |
| 
|
|
| | |
Documenting Writing Progress
Below are tools that will help you with documenting student progress towards writing proficiency.
1. Seasonal Writing Assessments
These seasonal writing assessments are a great way to watch your students grow over the course of the school year. They provide you with a snapshot of how students are performing in the fall, winter, spring, and summer. They are a great way to document student progress!
| 
| 
|
| | |
| 
| 
|
| | |
2. Monthly Writing Prompts
These monthly writing prompts are a great way to see how students writing skills are growing from one month to the next. They are a great fast finisher activity and writing center. Students love using the prompts to craft unique stories! The resources are available per month or as a 10-month bundle.
3. Paragraph of the Week Assignments
Paragraph of the week is a great way to document student progress. It is a proven, step-by-step, scaffolded system. It makes teaching kids how to improve sentence structure and write a paragraph easy by guiding them through the writing process. These resources are available by genre or as a bundle.
| 
|
| |
| 
|
| |
In closing, we hope this post about documenting student progress was helpful! If you enjoyed it, then you may also me interested in the following posts:
