January 9th will mark the beginning of the second benchmark assessment period for all kindergarten and first grade students. Each student will be given a one minute oral assessment to check his/her progress on early literacy and numeracy skills using the Aimsweb assessment tool.
The literacy assessments for kindergarten include being able to name and say the sounds of the letters of the alphabet in random order, saying the sounds they hear in a word (ex. sounding out a word to spell) and sounding out a nonsense word to read. First grade assessments include saying the sounds they hear in a word, sounding out a nonsense word to read, and reading 3 different passages.
The numeracy assessments for kindergarten and first grade are basically the same, except the numbers 0-10 are used for kindergarten and 0-20 are used for first grade. Students are assessed on their ability to identify those numbers in random order, identify which number is bigger, and name which number is missing before or after a given number. Oral counting to 100 will be checked for both grade levels.
A school-wide assessment team administers the assessment. Members of the team include Mrs. Case, Mrs. Shepard, Mrs. Vehige, Mrs. Terbrock, and Ms. Powers and a few other staff members to be determined at a later date. These teachers will not be having class during the benchmarking period, which typically takes 5-7 days.
You can help your child by spending 5-10 minutes each evening reviewing some of the basic skills. Better yet; make your car rides fun during the holiday season by having your child count or look for letters or words they know on signs, etc.
Have a safe and happy holiday,
Mrs. Case