Data Tracker

My school this year decided they wanted us a teachers to be keeping track of data that represents student learning. That's not always the easiest thing to do, but I have given my Latin I students a template that looked like this:

I've never been much of a numbers-minded kind of lady, but I do like to know where my students feel they are - which, to my mind, is frequently more important than where they actually are. My mother always used to say, "Arianne, it's not what you say, it's how you say it." For students, it often doesn't matter nearly as much what they know as how they feel. This template lets me see a few things:

1. how long it generally takes a class to get a certain piece of information comfortably. Some things take longer than others.

2. which things I'm teaching more and less effectively.

3. how my students feel about a topic, and what they want reinforced.

It also lets my students note, over time, their own progress. They forget, when they get really good at something or when it becomes natural to them and other stuff becomes the struggle, where they came from. As we do this over time, they get to watch themselves make progress, actively, and remember that at some point they didn't feel that way.

I collect it on Fridays, look through it, make any notes I need to make (e.g. first period can greet people but is having trouble with the weather), and then give it back on Monday. I don't grade it. It's for them. The last box we will fill out after we've moved on to something else, because then they've had time to digest and they're no longer in stress mode trying to internalize the information. It lets them - and me - see what they feel like when they've had a break from direct focus on something.