I LOVE looking at data and organizing it. I am likely in the minority here, but something about looking at colorful spreadsheets (hello conditional formatting) and finding patterns in all of it makes my teacher heart so happy.
Now, the collecting part of data I could go without. But in today’s classrooms you can’t really avoid that so I try to make it as simple and painless as possible. One way I’ve done this is by creating an assessment that I can use for progress monitoring AND beginning of the year data collection to get an understanding of where my kindergartners are coming in at.
In today’s post I’m going to show you how I go about collecting beginning of the year data, how I organize it, and what I use it for when I’m done. I also give you a FREE Google Sheet that is pre-formatted for collecting the data on this assessment.
Collecting the Data
As I said, assessing students is not my favorite thing in the classroom and I am lucky enough to have an assistant for part of the day so I have her help me since I collect all of this data one-on-one. If you have another adult in the room with you who is able (and you feel comfortable allowing them to assess) I would really recommend this!
This is the assessment I use – Kindergarten Beginning of the Year Assessment. It is a quick, simple way to assess a variety of literacy and math kindergarten readiness skills. This is just used as a starting point in my classroom to gather baseline data.
I start with the math skills. I have found that most incoming kindergartners have a bit more background knowledge with this and can help them feel more confident and comfortable with me before moving on to literacy skills. I also like to collect the data over the course of two days, sometimes three depending on the kids. Trying to collect all of it in one day is likely going to overwhelm you and the students.
Organizing the Data
After I have completed all the assessments, I put everything into a Google Sheet. I have mine pre-formatted so it color codes the students’ scores for the different categories. This makes it easy to visually group my students by ability level and I can identify right away which kids may benefit from extra support.
If you would like a copy of my Google Sheet – grab one for free HERE!
If you are not a Google school, this is something you can still utilize as long as you have a Google account! If you don’t want to use this, I would still recommend an Excel spreadsheet or even an old school teacher gradebook. I find color coordinating makes it easier and quicker to interpret the data. Having an electronic copy also makes it easy to share with other staff or pull up in meetings.
How to Use the Data
Once I’ve completed my spreadsheet, it’s time to put this data to use. My main goal is to start grouping my kids based on ability. Because my Google Sheet automatically color codes students based on their scores it’s super easy to see where my kindergartners strengths and weaknesses are.
I look for patterns in the data based on skills.
- Is there something that most of my kids are red & yellow in? This is something I’m going to want to start putting into my whole group lesson plans right away.
- Is there a group of kids that is really struggling with letter names or sounds? I’m going to begin an intervention right away.
- A handful of my students already know most if not all of their letter sounds? Excellent, I’m going to pull out some of my blending VC and CVC word materials for those kids.
I’m able to pinpoint any of my students who I think might benefit from extra help right away either across the board or in a specific skill, and I simply copy & paste their results into their own Google Sheet to begin progress monitoring. You can even re-use the same assessment for progress monitoring data collection!
I hope this post has helped you find some joy in collecting data! While I know it isn’t everyone’s favorite thing to do in the classroom (nobody became a teacher to give tests all the time), I do hope I have given you some tools to make data collection in the kindergarten classroom easier & more efficient.
