BG1, Beginning Proficiency, 4th Grade

Round One Co-Investigation Conversation (Excerpt)

OBSERVER: Kai, let’s start with your big goal. I’ve read your Reflective Guide, so I have some sense of how you’re approaching your goal. First off, I’m wondering if you ended up using diagnostics once school started.

Kai: No. I decided that I really knew enough at that point to just get started. I did a remedial first unit for both reading and math and that gave me assurance that they were about where I thought they were. I guess for reading I kind of did a diagnostic because I tested each kid’s fluency to see how many words per minute they could read. But for math I just had a good sense of how far behind they were from their assessment scores.

OBSERVER: Can you describe for me how your goal is aligned to the key standards?

Kai: For me, that looks different for reading and math. For reading I monitor fluency, so I’m looking at speed or accuracy. To monitor that, I will test their fluency throughout the year. Grade-level fluency would be 80 words per minute but since they’re expected to increase by about 30 words per minute per year in lower elementary grades, they’ll have to improve by about 45 words per minute from where they started in order to grow by a year and a half. I’ll also monitor things like comprehension—how well they understand the text and read questions about the text, by using passages and questions from the released standardized tests. Again, I want them to increase 1.5 grade levels from their performance on last year’s standardized test. Also the 4th grade level standards call for them to know 400 sight words from a sight word index.

OBSERVER: And for math?

Kai: For math it’s extremely important that I catch them up as close to fourth grade math skills as possible because math starts to get much more complex in fifth grade. Our school uses the EveryDay Math curriculum, which breaks down standards by what students should know completely (called “secure goals”), what they should probably know (“developing secure goals”), and goals they are still working on (“developing goals”). So I’ll expect my students to master 80% of the secure goals and the developing secure goals.

OBSERVER: And what are the skills your students will need to achieve that goal? Can you describe them for me?

Kai: Well, I know that our scripted math curriculum is aligned to the standards because that’s why the district used it. I’ve read over the standards and the scope and sequence for the scripted program and they definitely match up.

OBSERVER: And how will you assess their progress?

Kai: I’ll monitor their progress each and every day with the formal and informal assessments that come with my curriculum, and I will continue to do that throughout the year, culminating in a big end-of-year final assessment that will combine all of the skills we learned all year.