One way teachers can assess how their students are doing and where there are gaps in understanding different concepts is by data tracking. The information you can learn from the data you collect is invaluable to help you know where to focus your instruction the most. It’s also beneficial in that you can determine how to group students and differentiate them according to their needs. Check out this earlier blog post about other math resources.
let students track their own data
Just as gathering data is useful to you as the teacher, it’s also very useful to your students. But I’m not referring to your data, but the data that students can track about their own learning.
For most students, especially the little ones, the grade that they are earning seems to come from thin air. They understand that their grades come from the work that they do, but they really have no way of knowing how they’re doing at any given moment.
How Students Benefit
When students track their own data, they can immediately see where they need to improve. Each I Can statement serves as a guide to show them what they need to learn.
Research has shown that students who track their own data are more intrinsically motivated and are more liable to really take ownership of their learning. Whether you have them color in a graph, or place checkmarks next to the I Can statements, the visual of their progress is easy for them to see. They will enjoy physically tracking their progress!
How Teachers Benefit
Of course, the way that students track their data isn’t as valid as the data that you keep track of. However, by looking at their data sheets you should immediately be able to tell who needs help or reinforcement and with which standard.
This information is invaluable when it comes to planning. It will enable you to group students according to which concept they’re working on. Differentiation becomes much easier!
Students should enjoy tracking their data. It shouldn’t be just more work that they have to do. To make it fun and engaging, you need kid-friendly ways for them to keep track.
I’ve put together a super easy, motivating resource for students to track their own data with. Who doesn’t like cupcakes?
This system has each of the 1st grade standards for Math broken into more manageable I Can Statements. Each I Can Statement is written on a cupcake along with the corresponding standard. The students color in the cupcakes when they obtain mastery of that standard/skill.
There are several options for ways to use this resource. Students can color in parts of the cupcake based on their mastery of the standards. Or they could color in the whole cupcake after they’ve achieved mastery. A third option is to use the polka dots, bottom, and top of the cupcake to represent 3 different mastery levels.
This resource is a fun way for students to track their data and they’ll look forward to being able to color in their whole cupcakes!
Do you let your students track their own data? What do you use? Please share in the comments.
