So those of you who know me in my real life know that I am DATA CRAZY! I keep specific data on EVERYTHING and I use it to drive my instruction and groupings. Literally, you will see me teaching with a checklist in hand to make sure I can eyeball kids who need it!
So this week while looking at my DIBELS data I realized something... check this out...
Do you notice what I notice, that I have never noticed before? This student met in all three areas that we are told to focus on (FSF, PSF, NWF) but did not Benchmark overall... she came up Yellow Strategic? Really?
After asking around and getting no real answer, I started really to think about what this means and came up with this (someone even told me to take it up with DIBELS... LOL).
Even though a child can be OK in each individual area, they can still be strategic because strategic means "keep an eye on this one." If you look at the LNF she scored a O and the WWR is also O and so they are right.. I need to keep an eye on her. For once, I realize that the Composite Score is just as important as each individual test (because ultimately I would like to NOT have any red or yellow dots, as when you look at the chart your eye attracts to the colors and not the numbers, making it look as if my kids did not do as good as they actually did!)
How is knowing this going to change how I teach? Believe it or not it really is. Before realizing this I was like "Oh LNF don't really count AND WWR don't either" so I taught but did not really emphasize it through routine practice. Boy was I holding myself back! If this student had scored in those two areas, her composite score would have been higher and she would have had a green dot at the end of the row! Duh!
I am going to stop here for now... just to keep you intrigued! I have several conversations about DIBELS in my head that are coming down the pipeline that include freebies and ideas to get your students where they need to be!
PS - Did I tell you all over at Empowering Little Learners? I don't think I did? But I had 100% of my class make benchmark!
(Well... let me tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth... I had 2 students who joined my class during DIBELS benchmark week who came from Mexico and did not speak any English... needless to say, I have 2 red marks. But the district did not count those two students when analyzing my data because of this fact. A big deal was made of it... I was completely jazzed 100% of my students up to that point made it and that my district was sane enough to recognize those two kids were not valid scores. And I was the ELD class with my fair share of challenges. Anyways... more to come on how I pulled that off!)
OK... that's all for now! Make sure you follow through RSS or email you don't miss a thing!
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