On Managing Assessment

My assessment management tool in action

When I talk to other French teacher, the thing we seem to struggle most with is organizing our assessment.  I think most FSL teachers have a handle on what they want to assess, but organizing that for sometimes hundreds of students is daunting.  It was for me, anyways.

Still, one thing that I am always struggling with is capturing an accurate view of my students' progress.  More than that, as a newer teacher, I couldn't keep all the expectations in my head.  In French class, a lot of my planning of activities include the expectations-- but often, I am assessing spontaneous conversations, so it is important for me to have quick access to the expectations, and their relation to the Achievement chart (A-Chart). 

Many veteran teachers shared with me that they use a class list to record and track their students' progress.  I thought that was a great idea, but I did not have the confidence that I would remember exactly what I was assessing for, being new to the FSL curriculum.  I decided to try and create a tool that works for me for Assessment purposes.  I knew that I would have to create a cheat sheet to help me track the curriculum expectations that I would need to teach.  So, I came up with this:

  

Click the picture for a larger view

My assessment tool is 2-sided, I couldn't get away with one page.  On the one side is a table that includes my class list, a section to record what activity I am marking, a breakdown of the grades I use and a section for the assessment "codes." 

The back of my sheet is a "Cliff notes" version of the FSL curriculum for the grade I am teaching.  This is an example of the grade 5 FSL curriculum that came out recently.  Each of the expectations are bundled and organized according to where I felt they fit in the Achievement Chart (Page xx-xx).  I like the way the new curriculum is organized, it makes fitting each expectation into the chart easier as the expectations are already clustered thematically.  For example, I know that all "3.1" expectations have to do with French culture and contributions to the world.

The "code" I use on the front, are based on the heading of the A-Chart, with a number for the order on my chart.  The expectations and their strands that fall under that section in the A-Chart are below my "codes" bundled.  I know that if I am assessing an oral activity, that something "coded" "C1" or Communication 1 covers the expectation B 1.2 or B 1.3, because I note which strand the expectations belong to beside the expectation number.

Throughout the term, I can look at the tool, and note which expectations I am missing, and therefore what I have to teach.  The bottom of my second page helps me plan my activities.  I made sure to copy some of the teaching strategies and suggestions from the curriculum on my tool, to help me plan meaningful and expectations-based activities. 

I find that having the expectations handy while I teach is useful.  At-a-glance, I can see which expectations my students excel at and struggle with, and this informs my planning.  All in one place!  What do you use to manage your assessment data?

If you are interested in downloading a copy of my Assessment tool to try and create one of your own, click here.  If you are interested in me sharing an editable version of my tool, please let me know in the comments, and I will upload it once I get to my school computer!