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Guided Math

Kindergarten Math Assessments

Kindergarten math assessments were always such a headache for me. I tried so many different ways of assessing and had a hard time finding a way that would work for these young kids, while also being accurate. It’s very different assessing a kindergartener who knows the math skill but can’t read the problem than a student who doesn’t understand the math skill.

Hopefully these math assessment ideas will help you come up with a way to accurately assess your students while sparing you the headache I had!

$Kindergarten math assessments can be tricky. It's very different assessing a kindergartener who knows the math skill but can't read the problem than a...$

Math Assessments in Kindergarten

If you’re a kindergarten teacher, you already know how short a kindergartener’s attention span is. It’s unlikely that you’ll be able to give whole group, unit tests that are more than one page. I tried this and had very small class sizes and it still was a nightmare. There’s always one or two (or five) that are off in lalaland, not paying attention to what problem you’re on in the math test or just looking at their neighbors paper to pretend they’re following along.

It’s also very unlikely that you’ll be able to give one on one assessments for every standard to every student. There are too many other things teachers and students do throughout the day to give that much time and attention to math assessments.

Which brings me to exit tickets. Exit tickets are short one or two problem, half sheets of paper that are ideally given after every lesson. They are quick and simple so students can focus on the task before losing attention. There is only one set of directions for students to solve either one or two problems that go along with what they learned during the lesson.

When you give an exit ticket, you get immediate feedback. That way, you can pull whatever students did not understand the skill and work more closely with them during the next lesson. That immediate feedback helps you know what students you need to work one on one with. Most likely you won’t be able to work one on one with everyone for every standard.

Beginning of the Year Assessments

Kindergarteners come to you at so many different levels. Depending on if they went to preschool or not, you may be teaching some how to count, while others are ready to start adding and subtracting.

Something super helpful that I did was assess their math skills right in the beginning of the year. That helped me figure out who was at what level and where I should place them when we started guided math.

These are the skills I assessed in the beginning of the year:

Counting
Writing numbers
Identify Shapes

During the Year

You already know that it’s important to assess students throughout the year. We had report cards 4 times a year, so although I was formatively assessing students every day, I had specific assessments I did before completing report cards.

Some ideas for kindergarten math assessments during the year:

Exit tickets – Give an exit ticket after every (or mostly every) lesson to gage student skills. This will tell you when they master the concept.
Quarterly verbal math assessments (for standards like – can count to 100)
Take parts of the end of chapter or end of unit tests that the teacher manual provides and give certain problems throughout the quarter or year
Use guided math in your classroom so you can easily formatively assess students when they’re at your group. Write down these observations in a checklist.

End of the Year Assessments

At the end of the year, to get a comprehensive understanding on what concepts students have mastered, I re-assess standards that certain students did not understand the first time I assessed. (Of course, you teach concepts over and over and over but sometimes students just take a little longer to fully grasp a concept.)

So, at the end of the year, I looked at my assessment binder, where I held all my check lists and exit tickets and I marked off who needed to be assessed for which standard. Usually there are only a few students in each standard (depending on your class size) who need to be re-assessed.

Standards Based Grading

Standards based grading is simply when students get “graded” on if they meet a standard or not instead of getting a letter grade in different subjects. When I taught, we used standard based grading so students earned W’s for working on a standard. They earned M’s for meets standard. E’s meant they exceed the standard or N’s for not at grade level.

Here’s how I assessed for standards based grading while using guided math!

Common Core Math Assessments

If you are interested in using exit tickets in your classroom, you can purchase exit tickets for the entire year for all Kindergarten Common Core Standards in my TpT Store.

Essential Beginning of the Year Assessments in Kindergarten

Assessments are crucial when beginning the year (especially in Kindergarten) because students come to your class at so many different levels. Some students know how to read and write already whereas other students might not know the alphabet or their numbers yet.

I like to assess my students in the first few weeks so I know where their baseline is. I like to look at the assessments from the beginning of the year to gauge what they’ve learned when I do mid-year assessments and end of the year assessments.

The assessments you do in the beginning of the year will help you determine your small groups during guided reading and guided math.

Essential Beginning of the Year Assessments

Letter Recognition and Letter Sounds

This is the first assessment I do with students as it is so important to know if you have a group that knows letters and sounds or if you have a group that needs to be explicitly taught each letter and sound. I’ve found that each year is different. Some years, I’ve been able to quickly go over letters and sounds with the entire group and teach letters and sounds more thoroughly during small groups to my struggling students. Other years, I’ve had to majorly slow down and spend significant class time going over each letter and what sound it makes.

The assessment I use is a freebie in my store! I pull students one on one and directly ask them the letter (both uppercase and lowercase) and sound.

Reading

My school uses Fountas and Pinnell for our reading assessments. After I assess all students knowledge on letters and sounds, I assess students, who have shown they know majority of the letters and sounds, on their reading. This system works for me as I’ve found that if students don’t know their letters or the sounds, they don’t know how to read. It saves me time and it saves them from giving me blank, questioning stares when I ask them to give it their best shot at what the page says.

As I mentioned, we use Fountas and Pinnell but if you school doesn’t use this or doesn’t have a reading program, there are many options available on TpT. Just search – reading assessments for __ grade.

You may be interested in my guided reading bundle when you start using your assessments to form guided reading groups!

Math

To assess your students in math, your math program may have a beginning of the year assessment. You may also be interested in my beginning of the year math assessments freebie. I like to assess students on their number identification, if they can write numbers, if they can count/ how high they can count and shape identification.

These math assessments help me when forming our first guided math groups.

Everything You Need to Know to Launch Guided Math in Your Classroom

How to Write Differentiated Lesson Plans to Use During Guided Math

How to Assess Student Learning During Guided Math (Standards Based Grading)

What assessments do you use in the beginning of the year?

All Your Guided Math Questions Answered: A Collaborative Post with Sam Ripley

I am so excited to share this post because I’ve been collaborating with an amazing teacher, Sam Ripley. Sam and I met on Instagram through a comment pod and realized we share the same enthusiasm for using guided math in our classrooms. She’s a fourth grade teacher in North Carolina who teaches full-time, creates for TpT and runs a blog. Visit her blog Fantastically Fourth Grade for other teacher inspiration.

Once we found out how much each other values guided math, we decided we wanted to get together and answer any questions about this teaching strategy. We’re a good duo because she has an upper elementary view-point, where I have the lower elementary. Although we teach very different ages, it’s interesting to see that much of the way we implement guided math is very similar! I hope this Q&A answers all the questions you have and helps you feel confident starting guided math in your own classroom!

$Have you heard about guided math but still have some unanswered questions? This Guided Math Q&A post will answer all your questions and give you the confidence to begin using this amazing teaching strategy in your classroom.$

Q&A

What does your rotation schedule look like?

Danielle (lower elementary): During our guided math time, I start with a 5 – 10 minute introduction of what we’ll be doing in math that day. I only briefly state what the objective is as they’ll get direct instruction when they meet with me. I also explain the workbook page for the “At Your Seat” station and tell them the game for “Hands On”. If it’s a new game, I introduce that here. Then, I dismiss students to go to their center. For 15 minutes I meet with a group while the other groups are independently working. After 15 minutes is up, I’ll meet with another group for 15 minutes and the other groups switch centers as well. My centers spell out M.A.T.H. M – Meet with Teacher, A – At Your Seat, T – Technology and H – Hands On. I meet with two groups a day, so I each lesson takes two days.

Sammie (upper elementary): I start with a 15-20 minute whole group mini-lesson that introduces the topic for the day or reviews the topic that we have been learning about. Then, we have 4 different rotations that are 12-18 minutes each depending on the group and depending on how long the mini-lesson was. I use the M.A.T.H. acronym for my rotations. M is for Math Facts and I often use this rotation as a review rotation. A is for At Your Seat and this rotation I use for students to practice the skill being taught that day. T is for Teacher and this is when they meet with me to learn the skill. H is for Hands On and I normally use this rotation for technology but sometimes will throw in a hands on game instead. The order of the rotations doesn’t matter as much. The only one I think matters is having the students go to the “At Their Seat” Rotation after the “Teacher” rotation. This way students can practice the skill they learned in the group with me. One additional thing about my schedule is that I meet with groups in the first 3 rotations and use the 4th rotation to pull a group for remediation or check the “At Your Seat” activity. This has been so helpful but it would depend on the amount of students in your class. You may need all 4 rotations to meet with groups if you have more students.

Do you have a schedule for the students to see the rotations?

Danielle (lower elementary): I do have a schedule that students can look at to see where they’re going, however, I tell them where their group goes each time we start and when we switch. This schedule is displayed on the whiteboard at the front of the room.

Sammie (upper elementary): Yes, I hang up a schedule on the wall, but have also put a schedule up on the Smartboard before too. I use the M.A.T.H. Acronym for my rotation schedule and shapes for my groups. The less sides on the shape, the less help they need. This makes it harder for students to figure out group! Each of my students have numbers and I put their numbers under the group that they are in that day. This makes it easy to move students when they need to be moved to another group. These are displayed on cabinets in my classroom that are easy for students to see.

How do you manage math rotations with a large group of students?

Danielle (lower elementary): I only have 15 students in my current class, so it’s hard for me to answer this question however, if you set high expectations and hold your class to them, centers can work with any number of kids. You may want to add a few more centers instead of just using the M.A.T.H. acronym and having four centers. That way, groups don’t get too large.

Sammie (upper elementary): I believe that Guided Math groups are possible with any number of students. The most important part is teaching your students the rules and routines immediately and sticking to them. At the beginning of the year, I am not in a rotation right away as I want to float and help students learn the routine of Guided Math. This definitely helps with the management of groups and especially large groups. Also, it is important that you do not leave your students down time. This tends to be when they goof around and they get out of the routine. One more thing that has helped me with bigger groups, is having different spots in the room for each rotation. This helps spread students out a little more and giving more movement in the rotations.

What does your first group do for their At Their Seat rotation when they have not had instruction from the teacher yet?

Danielle (lower elementary): When I begin guided math, I introduce what we’ll be learning in math that day and then I explain the workbook page or pages that students will do at their seat. A lot of our math concepts are reviewed over and over in our math program, so often the pages don’t need a lot of explaining. If I think that a page from our workbook would be too hard for students to just go do on their own, I have them bring their workbook when they meet with me and after I teach the skill, they work on it at my table so I can help when they need it. When this happens, I give students something else to do “At Their Seat”.

Sammie (upper elementary): I always meet last with my highest group. So, they are the first group to have the At Their Seat Rotation. This group normally doesn’t need as much help with the skill. I always tell them to try it and when they meet with me in the last rotation, we go over at least some of their At Their Seat practice/ activity. Also, I differentiate the At Their Seat rotation. If it is a completely new skill, then I can give this group something review or something that we have already learned that may link to our new skill to do at this rotation.

Do you do math rotations every day?

Danielle (lower elementary): I do guided math Monday through Thursday. I split each lesson into two days because I meet with 2 groups a day and I have 3 groups total. On Fridays, we do math games that reinforce the concept we’ve learned that week or a previous concept we’ve learned. I also don’t do them on weird weeks like a holiday week or a short week where our schedules get all mixed up because of extra school events that are going on.

Sammie (upper elementary): Most days, but there are exceptions like testing days, review days and sometimes introduction days. I love to review with whole class math games. So, sometimes at the end of a unit, I will not do math rotations the last day or two before the test to play a whole group math game. Also, occasionally, I will start a new skill with a whole group lesson instead of math rotations if I feel like there is an activity or lesson that is best taught as a whole group. Overall, I stick to the math rotations daily to keep the routine and my students really do enjoy math lessons more when we do math rotations!

Now it’s my turn to ask… Do you feel confident to start using guided math in your classroom?

I hope this post answered all your questions about guided math so you can begin using this amazing teaching strategy in your classroom. If you still have questions, please leave them in the comments so we can answer them. If you’re interested in other guided math blog posts, you can find lower elementary and upper elementary links below. Enjoy!

Lower Elementary Guided Math Resources:

Everything You Need to Know to Launch Guided Math in Your Classroom

How to Write Differentiated Lesson Plans to Use During Guided Math

Guided Math Centers: What are students doing when they’re not meeting with me?

How to Assess Student Learning During Guided Math (Standards Based Grading)

Upper Elementary Guided Math Resources:

3 Easy and Quick Differentiation Ideas for Math Rotations

Keeping Track and Using Data in Math Rotations

5 Math Rotation TPT Stores you Must Check Out

How to Assess Student Learning During Guided Math (Standards Based Grading)

As a kindergarten teacher, I’ve struggled with how to assess my students. We use standards based grades for our report cards so students get an “M” for meets standard, “W” for working toward standard or an “E” or “N” for exceeds or not at grade level. This has always been tricky for me because I never knew the best way to assess for these standards. I felt like each year, I would try something different, and I would end up scrambling during report card time to ultimately assess each student one on one.

I struggle because I can’t just give a kindergartener a stapled packet test and tell them to go. (If you’ve ever tried to give a kindergartener a test, you know what I’m talking about!) And, as much as it’s nice to assess students one on one, I hated feeling like I was scrambling to assess and then get grades in on time. Finally, after 4 years in my kindergarten classroom and playing around with different ways of assessing, I’ve found an assessment strategy that works for me and my kindergarteners. And the best part is that it fits into my guided math schedule!

$Are you stuck on how to assess your students during guided math? Check out this post to read about the way I assess my kids. Included in this post is a FREEBIE that will get you started with your own assessments!$

How to Assess Student Learning During Guided Math

Exit Tickets

After I teach a lesson in guided math (I take two days per lesson, read more about my guided math schedule here) I give my students a one or two question exit ticket. This is just a quick assessment of what we’ve just learned, that students can complete in a couple minutes. This gives me an idea of who has mastered the standard and who still needs some support. This is also an easy way to assess kindergarteners because there’s only one direction.

Assessment Binder

I organize my exit tickets in a binder that is organized by standard. Each time I give an exit ticket, I put all the students who still need support with the particular standard on top and the students who have mastered the skill underneath. That way, I can quickly look at the stack of exit tickets and know who needs more support when we visit the standard again or when it comes to report card time.

Standards Checklist

Most of the kindergarten standards can be assessed through my exit tickets, however, some are just easier aloud. For these standards, I created a checklist with each student’s name and a box for the standard. When the end of the quarter is near, I pull students one on one (or my assistant teacher helps me) and assess them aloud.

How do you assess your students for math? Any kinder teachers have strategies that helps them assess based on standards? Comment below!

For more about guided math…

Everything You Need to Know to Launch Guided Math in Your Classroom

How to Write Differentiated Lesson Plans to Use During Guided Math

Guided Math Centers: What are students doing when they’re not meeting with me?

Guided math is one of my favorite times to teach. I love that students (even in kindergarten) can be independent while navigating through different centers. Meeting with students and tailoring lessons to their levels is so important and I love that I can reach more learners by using small groups. But what do students do when they’re not meeting with me? Read on, to check out the guided math centers in my classroom.

You might want to read my other guided math posts…

Everything You Need to Know to Launch Guided Math in Your Classroom

How to Write Differentiated Lesson Plans to Use During Guided Math

$Want to know what students are doing during guided math when they're not meeting with the teacher? Check this post out for the other centers incorporated in guided math. FREEBIE included!$

Guided Math Centers: What are students doing when they’re not meeting with me?

I use the M.A.T.H. acronym for our guided math schedule.

M – Meet with Teacher

A – At your Seat

T – Technology

H – Hands On

You can read about what students are doing when they meet with me here.

When students get to the hands on station, they get to play math games! I like to choose the math game they’ll play because I like to put out a game that connects with whatever skill we’re learning. I get my math games from TpT.

Check out my math game membership available in my TpT store! This membership will include all the math games I create (games I’ve already created and future games I create).

$Want to know what students are doing during guided math when they're not meeting with the teacher? Check this post out for the other centers incorporated in guided math. FREEBIE included!$

How to Write Differentiated Lesson Plans to Use During Guided Math

When I first started using guided math in my classroom, I was a bit overwhelmed thinking of all the lesson plans I would have to create to tailor lessons to each group. Now that I’ve used this teaching tactic in my classroom for almost a year, I’m here to tell you it’s not as intimidating as you may think! This post will help when writing your differentiated lesson plans to use when students meet with you.

$Do you want to use guided math in your classroom but don't know how to write differentiated lesson plans? Use these tips when creating the perfect plan for your differentiated groups.$

Planning Process

At the beginning of the year, I sat down with my teacher guide (we use Math Expressions) and my computer. I opened a spreadsheet and basically wrote out a pacing guide of where we should be during which week of the school year so I would hit every topic. I cover between 2 – 4 lessons in a week and often combine different parts of different lessons. Remember a teaching guide is just a guide. You need to hit the standards, not every part of every lesson.

Once I broke down the year and planned where we should be and when, I made it easier for myself to plan each week of the year. Now when I plan, I plan specific lessons for each week and refer to my yearly plan for what content I need to cover.

When I plan our weekly math lessons, I first look at the goal of what I want students to be able to do and then I tweak the lesson based on the group of students I’ll be working with.

$Do you want to use guided math in your classroom but don't know how to write differentiated lesson plans? Use these tips when creating the perfect plan for your differentiated groups.$

Meet With Teacher

I use the M.A.T.H. acronym for my guided math schedule. Read about the acronym and how to launch guided math through this post.

The way I differentiate is through this meeting time with my small groups. I have three groups (low, on level, high) and meet with each group twice a week.

How to Plan with Differentiation

The best part about using guided math in the classroom is being able to meet all your students needs by tailoring your lessons to their level. I do this by planning exactly what I’ll be doing in each group. When I look at a lesson, I write down the standard being covered and what I want them to be able to do.

Then, I look at what the lesson suggests on how to teach whatever concept is being taught. For my lowest group, I do a lot of hand holding. We go over each step together and practice again and again until I feel like the group can try one on their own. For my on level group, I do one or two problems with them and then give them a chance to try multiple on their own. My high group usually only needs me to explain what we’re doing and then I can give them the freedom to complete problems on their own while I observe and step in when I need to.

I also differentiate for each group by adding a little complexity to whatever concept we’re learning. See the example below for a better idea of how I add complexity to each group. A key idea about differentiation is that you tweak the learning to add rigor, not add more work.

An Example

$Do you want to use guided math in your classroom but don't know how to write differentiated lesson plans? Use these tips when creating the perfect plan for your differentiated groups.$