Friday, March 29, 2013

One Grumpy Bunny

Oh Friday. I've been looking forward to you all week! I'm posting this stuck in traffic (don't worry- voice to text!) and Andrew has to work ALL weekend so I'm already a little grumpy this morning but I thought I'd swing by and let you know that I'm putting my stuff on sale this weekend too. And I know you're supposed to just pick five items, but since I only have about five items I just decided to put everything on sale. And I know I've been the most negligent blogger ever lately, but I have a post in the works about all the stuff we've been doing with Olivia this week. Check back later for some fun with that silly piglet.

Click below to go to my store because I can't figure out how to link the picture from my phone. Oh geez. I need coffee...

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Jeremie-Tharp


Sunday, March 10, 2013

Holy Assessment Time, Batman!

Have you guys been assessing like crazy lately? Does it make me strange that I actually sort of like the assessment piece of the job?  Besides those few kids who get stuck on the format and who need it modified for them, I've found that good, kid-friendly assessments can give us awesome information about what they still need and even where we can begin the reteaching process.  On the other hand, I've been staring at a stack of papers to grade all weekend and that isn't so exciting, but it is a means to an end.

Here is a link to the set of assessments that I created for my district to use for Quarter Three, although they really could be used at any point throughout the year. They are all short little two page assessments, with a few rubrics, writing samples, and checklists thrown in.  I've just given them in my classroom and tried to work out any kinks or change any wording that was confusing but would love to hear feedback. I also made a set that we used to assess at the beginning of the year, a set for Quarter 1 and a set for Quarter 2.  They're almost all different, but a few of them- Sight Words and Speaking and Listening- stay the same.

Here is a link to their listing.



And here is a free sample of one of the assessments so you can see what the assessments sort of look like.  This is the Past Tense Verbs Assessment. What do you think? Just click on the picture to download it.


Happy testing friends!

Tuesday, March 5, 2013

Character Adjectives FREEBIE

As I've been assessing my kids with all of the new assessments I JUST finished (more about those later), I'm finding that they straight up STINK at giving adjectives that describe characters that are actually supported by the text. What the heck? I totally thought they had that. Double dang.  So, since we're deep in the heart of all things Seuss this week, we're gonna choose our favorite character, list some adjectives that describe them, and then write how we got that idea.  I thought maybe someone else could use it, too, so here it is. Just click on it to download it. If you do find it useful, tell me how it worked so I can use it that way, too!