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You've prepped your room, purchased new materials, met parents and students at Open House and survived a first full week of school. Success! As you look at the twenty or more smiling faces, you might be asking yourself, "Ok, what now?" I have asked myself this question year after year. It doesn't matter your level of experience, this is a whole new group of students with unique needs and learning styles. It should feel right if you feel like you are starting over. An important Beginning of the Year task, along with creating a classroom community and establishing routines, is to build student portfolios. There are many portfolios for different purposes, but the BOY portfolio will focus on one student and include pieces of baseline data in a variety of academic areas, communication with parents, information about learning styles and some goal setting. Each portfolio will be unique to the learner. The beauty is that after you have collected this information, you can better plan your instructional approach and differentiate instruction in the classroom. Who is your most developing reader? Who will need more challenge and acceleration in math? Who learns best with tactile or kinesthetic activities? Answering these and other questions will give you a major advantage while teaching. One of the most important advantages is the gift of time. Teachers are always begging for more time, and so many feel rushed during the school day. Understanding your students' data will help take some of the guess work out of planning. Secondly, you will be making 100's of decisions a day. A collection of student data and work samples will build your decision-making confidence. Finally, its just good practice getting to know your students and documenting it. I have included a potential checklist to get your portfolios started, as well as guides to complete other BOY assessments in your classroom.
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AuthorAmy is the Instructional Partner at Bridge Point Elementary. Her blog will focus on creating a successful workshop model in the elementary classroom. Archives
October 2018
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