Data, Data, Data

I AM A DATA GUNKIE!  There I said it, it's out in the open.  I can't hide from it any more.  Everything is about data.  In a way, it makes me sad....there was a time when I focused just teaching..oh, I could always tell you where my students were at, who needed to work on what and who had mastered what. But now, now I sit anaylize everything! (Can you tell it's been a data weekend?)  And my Firsties can too.  They know that data is important..it's our first math unit (graphing) and we talk about it every day.  They talk about it everyday.  They support each other in their learn through it, we celebrate when a Firstie moves reading levels, we talk about/write rubrics and we use them.  Each of my Firsties has a "Data Portfolio". Inside their portfolio, they have a graph for their DRA2 level, sight word levels, and "red word" levels.  The Firsties are the "caretakers" of their portfolio..oh they don't keep it in their desk but they are responsible for making and interpreting their data.  Unknowingly, they take their scores and set goals for themselves.  We have a "Great Readers Have Great Goals" wall.(oh, what a great mini-lesson to share with you!)  On the wall, each Firstie has their picture up and every month they write a new reading goal knowing from our Reading Workshop conferences and what the data "tells" them would be a good focus.  It's interesting how many of them pick the goals I would write up for them.  It makes me feel good to know all of the stress love of going through the end of our 2nd trimester data is worth it...my Firsties will love adore the new color coded bar graphs I made for them!