As a first grade English Language Arts and Social Studies teacher, I created an end of the week assessment to measure students spelling and on-grade level reading comprehension skills. In my Kindergarten classroom, I adapted the assessment to Kindergarten readiness for spelling and reading. In my fourth grade classroom, I've continued to adapt the assessment to meet measurable expectations and rigor, including a weekly assessment of spelling, writing and reading comprehension.
Qualitative: Fourth Grade End of the Week Assessment (September 2017- November 2017)
The end of the week assessment is a teacher created assessment, which measures students weekly mastery of spelling, writing, and reading comprehension skills. The end of the week assessment follows the same format each week, students are expected to spell twenty-one words, write a paragraph to demonstrate knowledge of our social studies learning or shared-inquiry text, and use close reading skills and strategies when interacting with a reading comprehension activity. The assessment aligns with Common Core Skills, RL.4.1, W.4.2, and W.4.4 and provides a weekly checkpoint for each student's growth towards Common Core standard mastery and fifth grade readiness. At the beginning of the school year, students received a master spelling list, which lists twenty-one words per week for students to study, each week, including strategies to study each word. During the daily literacy warm-up students practice close reading strategies and identify where she or he found each answer in the text. For the paragraph portion throughout the week students are developing an idea about a concept either in a text or social studies learning and at the end of the week students are expected to be able to articulate their own learning in paragraph form.
End of Week Assessment Rationale
The end of the week assessment is a teacher created assessment that is similar to the easyCBM assessment. It measures students' foundational reading and writing skills each week. When I was a first grade teacher the end of the week assessment, included a sight-word spelling test and a reading comprehension assessment, as a Kindergarten teacher the end of the week assessment, included a sight-word spelling test with a sentence and over time included a joining reading comprehension assessment. Now, in fourth grade the end of the week assessment, includes a twenty-one word spelling test, paragraph writing measuring mechanics and content understanding for social studies and a close reading assessment. The weekly assessment allows me to measure weekly mastery and growth in foundational reading skills and content knowledge, in addition to tracking student progress one week at a time.
End of Week Assessment Examples
Students receive a list of twenty-one spelling words at the beginning of each week, learn a social studies topic, and participate in daily close reading comprehension activities. The end of the week assessment, measures students' comprehension of all twenty-one spelling words, the social studies topic of the week and their ability to read closely for effective text comprehension. The end of the week assessment is given at the end of each week. The assessment is taken whole group and follows the same format each week:
Spelling Test - The teacher reads each word orally twice and gives a sentence example for each word. Following the oral dictation the student individually spells each word on his or her own paper, silently.
Writing Assessment - Students receive a prompt, which encourages students to demonstrate their content knowledge from their social studies learning during the week. Students are instructed to answer the prompt using paragraph form in the space provided on the assessment, silently for 10 minutes.
Close Reading Assessment - Students receive 8 minutes to read the passage closely, showing their thoughts throughout the text and where he or she found each answer, silently.
The assessment follows the same format each week with increasing complexity. I chose this method because I believe the three common core aligned skills measured, RL.4.1, W.4.2, and W.4.4, are integral components for students fifth grade reading readiness.
Please note: Accommodations for students with written individual education plans are given to ensure each student's success and demonstrated growth on the end of the week assessment. The accommodations, include extended time, oral and written dictation, and a word bank for a modified spelling test depending upon the student's ability.
I chose the assessment examples below because each assessment example illustrates a pattern of student growth on the end of the week assessment from the month of September to November this school year. The explicit growth for each assessment is detailed in the annotations below.
End of Week Example #1
The student for end of the week assessment example #1 has demonstrated mastery of the end of the week assessment. On his week 9 assessment, our most recent assessment in the classroom, the student has spelled a majority of his words correctly, written a strong paragraph with content knowledge and read closely to answer a majority of questions correctly. The student on his week 9 assessment received a one-hundred percent, including bonus points for applying his math skills to solve an equation along with a spelling word, which correlated with our recently learned vocabulary. The student has demonstrated growth from his end of week 4 assessment, in which he earned an eighty-eight percent.
End of Week 4 Assessment
On end of week 4 assessment example #1, student spells 19/21 words correctly, receives 5/5 full points on his paragraph, and earns 6/8 on close reading because he does not apply adequate close reading marks. Consequently, on the rubric the student is encouraged to study each spelling word and read each question closely in addition to the passage.
End of Week 9 Assessment
On end of week 9 assessment example #1, the student spells 17/21 words correctly, receiving five bonus points for his application of his math facts with the spelling word "thirty," the student writes a paragraph and begins a second, demonstrating his growing comfort as a writer. Lastly, on his close reading assessment he is a more intentional close reader indicating where he is finding each answer in the text. The assessment demonstrates growth on each skills measured, respectively.
End of Week Example #2
The student for end of the week example #2 demonstrates growth on her end of the week assessment from week 4 to week 9. The student increases fourteen percentage points, demonstrating growth as a writer and close reader on the week 9 assessment. On the week 9 assessment the student received an 88 % spelling 19/21 words correctly, writing a full paragraph with content specific knowledge and information. Additionally she is adding close reading marks to indicate where she is finding each answer in the text.
End of Week 4 Assessment
End of week 4 assessment example #2 demonstrates the student's starting performance on the end of the week assessment. She began the school year a confident speller, but she is still emerging in her ability to write and read texts closely. On the rubric, the student is encouraged to keep up the hard work with spelling and reminded to answer in paragraph form when completing the writing assessment and to read closely indicating in the text where she is finding each answer.
End of Week 9 Assessment
End of week 9 assessment example #2 demonstrates the students growth as a writer and close reader. The student is writing a full paragraph to answer the prompt using content specific knowledge to show her learning and on close reading, the student is demonstrating where she is finding her answers in the text. The assessment demonstrates growth on each skill measured, respectively.
End of Week Example #3
In end of week example #3, the student is still progressing in his mastery of the end of the week assessment. Nevertheless, the student has grown seven percentage points since the week 4 assessment. On the student's week 9 assessment he is growing in his ability as a speller, writer, and close reader. The student will need to continue to implement feedback and study his spelling words each week to ensure his end of the week assessment growth.
End of Week 4 Assessment
On the end of week 4 assessment example # 3, the student receives a 13/21 for his spelling, a 3/5 for his paragraph because his writing is not formatted correctly and lacks specificity, and 7/8 on his close reading, which includes non-specific close reading marks. The student demonstrates a need for growth in his spelling words and sharing his knowledge gained from social studies to write his paragraph.
End of Week 9 Assessment
On the end of week 9 assessment example #3, the student demonstrates improvement. He spells three more words correctly, receiving a 16/21, he shares good ideas and details from his learning using paragraph form, earning a 3/5, and the last section he begins to add text notations, which show where he is finding each answer in the text. The student has more room for growth, but as shared on the student's rubric, the assessment demonstrates improvement and growth.