[senco-forum] initial assessment of pupils' difficulties

Dear Barbara,
      Thanks for that - it sounds a good idea.
             In my sons' primary school (150 pupils KS1 & 2)  all pupils were set an extended free writing task each year. The head and senco then sat down together and graded them. In this way they could check progress for each child from reception to yr 6. Their assessment was not just a tick box level type thing but allowed for subjective response relating to what makes a good piece of writing - the wow factor rather than mechanical features of accuracy.
  Janet

Barbara Blaney <BLANEY at chalvedon-barstable.com> wrote:
  As a secondary SENCo, I am thrilled to have a colleague now who was a
primary SENCO; she introduced an idea last year which is going to be
great.

All Year 7-9 pupils are asked to write a "story" entitled The Open Door
in an English lesson. General reminders are given about punctuation etc
but not much more. All pupils do this and teachers mark and level. The
pupils do the same title every year under the same conditions so that
progression can be seen. As 9 of our English teachers are either GTPs
or NQTs this has been a great help to them. The department has produced
exemplar levels from last year's set of stories to help level. We have
many pupils coming in at level 3 and a fair number at level 2 as well as
level one and P levels.
Hope that is of help.

Barbara

-----Original Message-----
From: senco-forum-bounces at lists.becta.org.uk
[mailto:senco-forum-bounces at lists.becta.org.uk] On Behalf Of Janet
Barlow
Sent: 12 September 2006 15:25
To: senco-forum
Subject: [senco-forum] initial assessment of pupils' difficulties

Dear All,
As it's the start of a new term I am trying to assess the year 7 - 9
pupils ( in a very gentle way), one-to-one, and will be getting them to
do:
*10 mins free writing - to get a writing speed score and look at
spelling, sentence structure, vocab etc.
*Silent reading - words per minute and brief questioning 'What was
that about...'
*Non word reading - single syllable words and 2 syllable words
*possibly some phonological type work - segmentation, blending and
spoonerisms
*a dictated piece to look at spelling (any suggestions?)
* some sort of short reading comprehension - I'm a bit stuck for
suitable passages

I hope to get an overall picture of strengths and difficulties and
then target my work around this.
Does anyone have any other suggestions?
What do other people do?
I teach both primary and secondary so am interested in all ages.
Best wishes
Janet
trying for a more organised start to the term...