Who Didn't Get It? ... Daily Data Tracking

When I first started teaching, I struggled with finding the time to reteach. After administering an assessment, I would have a group of students who clearly had not mastered the material, and it always seemed like a cruel game of catch up to get these students back on track.

After my first couple of years, I knew I had to make a change. My goal became to catch the misconceptions as quickly as possible. This was the year that I implemented daily exit tickets to assess the day's lesson. I knew that just assessing wouldn't be enough; I needed a system to track this data and a plan for reteach for any student that needed it. As a result, I developed the system that I used through the end of my career in the classroom, my Exit Ticket Bin.

The bin contains a file folder for each objective which is labeled with the tek (objective) number and a short description.  Example: 4.4A - +/- whole numbers and decimals

I also color code my folders with red folders being readiness teks (tested more often) and manila folders being supporting teks. Stapled to the inside of each folder were tracking sheets with current class lists. The tracking sheet initially just contains the objective and student names...

 As I teach the objective, I keep track of student progress on exit tickets and quizzes on the tracking sheet. I always include the date and a short description (two or three words) that describe what specific part of the tek is assessed. I record students' scores for each progress measure to track their understanding of the material. Student scores can be a percentage, but they can also be a simple yes or no or they can be written as a fraction. The format isn't important, what's important is that the information clearly shows you which students need more support with the current topic. At the culmination of the unit, I also include data on each student's performance on the unit assessment. Rather than include an overall score, I record the percentage correct on each objective assessed on each of the folders. For example, if teks 3.2A, 3.2B, and 3.2C are all included in the unit 1 assessment, I would enter unit 1 assessment data in all three of those folders. The data entered is the percent correct each student earned on the questions specific to the folder's objective. The example below shows that there were four questions covering 5.2B on the given assessment.  

So why is tracking all of this data important? 

This data gives you clear guidance on which students need to be retaught in a small group setting so that you can address the misconceptions before moving on to the next lesson. For most students, a quick reteach in a small group is enough to get them back on track. My system was to keep the exit tickets of any students who did not perform according to my expectations (realistically, this changed for each ticket...sometimes I expected 100%, other times 66% was enough for me to consider it a "passing grade"). For some students, just reworking through their exit ticket with some assistance was enough to understand the content. Others required a more lengthy review, and a few would always require continued spiral review for the topic. There are tons of ways you can use this data to address the misconceptions, but the first step to reteach is to identify the students that need to be retaught.

This system was one of the key components of starting my small group instruction based on continuous student performance data. This system has been adopted by all teachers at my current school, and I hope that, with time, it will really contribute to a data-driven mindset at my campus!! I hope this can be a useful tool for some of you as well!