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Wednesday, January 16, 2013

Teaching Grammar Part 4...Assessments

Happy Hump Day, everyone! And, welcome to Part 4 of Grammar Week!
Today, I will discuss how I formally and informally assess whether or not my students have mastered the grammar skills I've taught them. During station time, I try to walk around and monitor how the game playing is going. I always ask the student in charge of the answer key to keep me posted. As I mentioned the other day, I also ask grammar related exit questions. Of course, checking their recording sheets helps me, too. I always remind my students to use the grammar skills taught in every writing assignment. I constantly praise those who remember to add strong verbs and who capitalize proper nouns, and, I gently remind those who forget, to go back and add them them in.

To assess my students formally, I use my Weekly Language Review Sheets for first graders.



There are 30 review sheets included and they cover the language common core standards. The review sheets cover the same information each week, however, as the weeks go on, they increase in difficulty, with the words and sentences becoming more challenging to read. The children are able to master the concepts because they are exposed to them every single week. The sheets are filled with countless high frequency words, consonant digraphs, inflectional endings, and irregularly spelled words. They can be used in whole groups, small groups, as assessments, or for homework. They really help me know who may need additional help with a specific skill. If you click on the image below and download the preview, you will see Lesson 29.



For my second graders, I use my these Grammar Review Sheets.



There are only 10 of them and I don't begin using them until February or March, or, once I'm done introducing all the skills. My students do one about every other week. The lessons start off easy and then gradually increase in difficulty. Like the first grade sheets I mentioned above, I find the children have a better chance of retaining all the skills introduced because they are doing these assessment sheets so often. I don't give them time to forget!

Another way I assess my students for mastery, is to add a grammar component to my writing rubrics. Earlier in the week, I showed you a story that one of my first graders wrote about Snowmen at Work. Here is the rubric I used to grade that assignment.

The top one is the one I used for first grade and the bottom one is the one I used for second grade. If you would like a copy for yourself, just click here to download one. Whenever I take a grade for writing, I always use that same assignment to get a grade for grammar. I just add whatever skills we've been working on to the writing rubric. Then, after I'm done grading, I quickly meet with each student to discuss why they earned the grade they did.

And, that's how I assess my students in grammar without having to give boring tests!

Tomorrow, I'll showcase some of the books I have on hand that help to teach grammar. And, you are all invited to link up a blog post that explains how you teach and assess grammar. I am really looking forward to learning some more great ideas! You can use this button in your post when you link-up.
See you tomorrow!

6 comments:

  1. Lori,
    Your rubrics are awesome! I haven't used anything like that before specifically aligned to grammar so this new unit is perfect!
    Great teaching post as always!
    Julie
    First Grade Critter Cafe
    Betto411@gmail.com

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  2. This is such a great chain of posts Lori! It sooo helps teachers on what to look for and is quick and easy. Love it!
    ~Christy
    Fluttering Through First Grade

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  3. I love the rubric! Thanks for sharing all these amazing ideas Lori.

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  4. I love the series of posts! Thanks for sharing and inspiring :)

    Tammy
    The Resourceful Apple

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  5. Love these posts. I am anxiously awaiting your post on grammar.

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  6. I didn't know there was a Snowman at Work!! HOW did I not KNOW this! I am so glad I clicked on this post at the Teaching Blog Addict linky! Thank you for the freebie rubric! I LOVE the idea of the Great Grammar linky!
    Kim
    TheVeryBusyFirstGraders

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Thank you for taking the time to comment. I love to read them!

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