Recently I posted this photo to my Instagram:
It’s a close up of my data wall that I’m trying for the first time this year, and many of my followers wanted to know more, so here you go!
My administration is really pushing for data meetings, data-driven instruction, and data tracking by students and teachers. (I’m sure your is, too.)
Although I know data is extremely important, it can be a lot to manage. The data poster that I’m trying this year was simple to make, and will hopefully be beneficial to both me and my kiddos.
I got this idea from my team leader. I take no credit for her brilliance!
First, I printed reports (STAR scores) that ranked my students based on state standards. STAR provides like a million types of reports, but standards are the easiest to organize.
There are 9 big math standards for 2nd grade, and then we chose the 9 ELA standards that we spend the most time on throughout the year. (This is because 23 standards is too much to chart, and symmetry is a great thing.)
I found an old sticker book that has tons of those little circle stickers. Each row of stickers is a different picture.
I allowed the students to pick a row of stickers to represent them. It actually worked out perfectly that each row has 10 stickers, one for my key and 9 for the standards.
Although the colors are different, the pictures are the same for each student. (Next time, I will plan better beforehand and buy better stickers so that each student’s sticker is more obvious!) For example, say Bobby picked the thumbs-up stickers. I would stick one of his thumbs-up stickers on my paper, and write his name next to it so I know that those stickers represent him. Then, Bobby and I would talk through each standard and he would put 1 thumbs-up sticker in either the below, within, or above box for each standard, depending on his scores.
Ta-da! Data at a glance.
I can easily see where my class’s strengths and weaknesses are as we begin a new school year together.
Students can easily see which standards they need to work on, and which skills they shouldn’t waste time practicing.
However, it’s private. Students don’t know which sticker belongs to who, except for their own. The teacher key that I made will stay in my data binder for referencing as needed.
