Early Grades Reading: Student Assessment Stages: Fill & Download for Free

The major issues which call educators to consider them are the the developmental appropriateness of specifics learnings at certain ages. This remains a factor that gets inadequate attention. For instance: the early grades are prime time for learning history from the stories that are told them in historical narratives. It is also a fertile stage for memorizing information (e.g., State and international capitals), poetry, number facts, geometry, and classical references (e.g., mythology). Instead we insist they develop critical thinking skills at this age, an area much more developmentally appropriate in middle school. This has been part of the educational research literature since the work of Piaget. Thus, in education there is a large disconnect between research findings and curriculum development.Another issue is student assessment. Before the No Child Left Behind legislation, teachers were focusing on gathering reading responses and writing samples to assess progress in student learning and problem solving. After NCLB the famous Common Core Curriculum emerged and teachers began to question student readiness to take on the CC. Also the element of competition and attention to test scores began to drive the curriculum, instead of educational considerations. This was characterized by strange developments, such a real estate moguls meeting with school principals to stress the effect of test scores on real estate values and teaching test taking skills to the abandonment of age appropriate content learning.So the questions of what to teach and when to teach it still remain largely ignored by administrators, while jurisdictions wage the battle for high stakes test scores. As a society we are asking ourselves what our goals are and who we want to be.

Like Steven, I am UK based, and he has given you an excellent answer. My experience is ABRSM based; I both took these exams, and now submit pupils for them. It should be pointed out, however, that there are other UK exam bodies, one of them being Trinity-Guildhall. Both carry equal status in terms of accredition, but their requirements are not identical and their are endless arguments as to which Board is the harder, no concrete conclusions ever being reached.One of the toughest Music Boards is said to be the one in Australia, but I have no personal knowledge of their exam system. I looked into the Yamaha Graded system and discovered that it works "back-to-front" to the British one in that whereas Grade 1 ABRSM is the easiest of the 8, with Yamaha it is the highest; moreover I believe their system has about 15 grades (but don't quote me on that!).With ABRSM it is a requirement that Grade V Theory be passed before one can ascend to higher grades (although there are alternatives in Practical Musicianship and a Jazz subject).As Steven has said, the actual technical difficulty of the pieces within each Grade is by no means uniform. This allows candidates to choose a piece that suits their particular strengths. For example, some students may have an excellent technical equipment, but be somewhat lacking in terms of expressive maturity; a good teacher while certainly not neglecting areas that need work, will also suggest which pieces ultimately are most suitable to put before an examiner.In an ABRSM exam there are three lists, A, B and C, and candidates must select one piece from each. However, there are also alternatives provided in other books should none of them be to their liking. List A will generally contain pieces from the Baroque and Classical Eras, List B Romantic and list C 20th/21st century, including Jazz!All exams include scales and arpeggios, Aural Tests and Sight Reading, so it is a truly rounded assessment. While a Grade 1 exam might last only 10 minutes, at Grade 8 it could last 30; because at this stage you are expected to play a whole movement of, for example, a Beethoven Piano Sonata (though one at a lower level of difficulty than Diploma). The ABRSM publishes guidelines as to the criteria used in assessment, and these become more severe as the Grades ascend. In particular, failure to keep going in a higher grade (VI-VIII) will rob you of a Pass (there are three categories: Pass [100 +], Merit [120+] and Distinction [130+], with a maximum of 150 marks attainable). This does not mean that a performance must be note-perfect; but you are expected increasingly to have the maturity to KEEP GOING. In addition, a lack of expressive awareness will also earn a failure.Statistically, thousands of children in the UK take the early grades, but the figure drops dramatically above Grade V, and those who go to these higher levels will often be intending to study music at "A" level (16-18 range) and even pursue it in Tertiary education. If they do, an upper Merit in Grade 8 in their Principal instrument will often be a requirement if wishing to undertake Music Performance. That said, this qualification will only earn them an Interview, and they will be required to give further demonstration by audition. However, it should be added that the specifications of the various Institutions of Higher Education do vary in these matters.One rather shaming aspect of ABRSM exams, though it is hard to avoid, is that the greater proportion of their examiners are first study pianists, yet they will be assessing anything from a guitar to a tuba. In other words, not necessarily possessing specialist knowledge of a particular instrument. It should also be noted that they examine without the music in front of them, writing comments AS THE CANDIDATE PLAYS.If you are a "savvy" teacher, it is possible to "play" the system. To give an example, I had a 15 year old student who was struggling with a piece in the C list (20th century). I told her to switch to one in the alternative list, and to choose one of the quirkier ones of ambiguous tonality. In the event, she still had places of problem; however I advised her: "Keep going, and don't flinch when you play wrong notes, because it is highly unlikely that the examiner has heard the piece many times. She won't KNOW when you play wrong notes." She didn't know, and she gained a 29/30 for the piece + Distinction.

This last school year, I had to switch mid term from teaching a class of 2nd graders to a double level of pre-K and Kindergarten students. First time of my career that I got to teach under first grade, and oh boy was I taken aback by the sudden turn of events. So yeah, I feel you.The good thing is that here in France, even though mandatory education starts at 6 years of age and so 1st grade, the vast majority of children are schooled from 3 years old or even earlier, so that the education authority has produced pretty consistent guidelines for early childhood education. I'm gonna share here what helped me, and I hope will help you, to craft pedagogically worthy activities engaging my students into fundamental learning.First way to organize the teaching and learning has been to identify a limited amount of base competences to be acquired and sort them in a few relevant blocks. Those are, as of now :1/Understanding and manipulating language in both oral and written forms.This block will focus mainly on oral comprehension, expression, code learning starting with the ABC, and later on on phonology, and engaging the reading and writing process.Between 3 and 5 years old, a good head start for students will be to get engaged in reading by listening to (many) stories from a diversity of children books, and refining both their understanding and oral expression by verbalizing about those stories (retelling, discussion, etc.), with the support of abundant illustrations. They will also learn their ABC and to progressively associate written capital letters to their name and sound, starting with letters from their name for example.2/Acquiring first tools to structure learning.I.e. logic and primary math.While 3 years old probably won't dive straight up into calculus, my pre-K students were able to do additive complements by the spring semester. Numeration skills build up quick which is pretty satisfying for both you and them. They learn how to count to 5, 10, 30 or even more depending of their individual knack for it, associate numbers and quantities with tokens or fingers, tell their age, and recreate term to term collections of objects (getting 5 red cubes to match 5 blue ones for example).But that block also cover a lot of logic and spatial perception skills, that will be enabled by manipulating blocks of different shapes and sizes, solving puzzles and playing construction games, both freely and according to models. I can give you advice on quality material for those if you're interested further.3/Artistical and creative expressionObviously this is a huge chunk of primary learning in early childhood. This covers both musical and plastic activities. On the latter, students will progressively learn a full panel of techniques , tools and effects to sustain creative intentions. They move from early scribble-like traces to more structured representations, compositions and decors. Diversifying media and supplies make for precious sensory experiences. Although creativity and imagination are encouraged here, art will be a wonderful way of refining graphic and fine motor skills. Drawing the stick figure is a milestone of both representation abilities and acquisition of the mental body map.4/Physical activitiesPE is a daily ritual in early classes. Students first develop motor skills by experiencing a variety of ways to move themselves (running, sliding, crawling, rolling, jumping etc), and engage in collective play through circle dances and classic courtyard games. More technical abilities such as introducing a ball play come further along. Along with motricity PE is a place to learn how to act within a group, oppose and collaborate according to rules, express oneself through one's body (dance, mine, etc), regulate emotivity, measure and engage in reasonable risk, and engage in controlled physical contact. This is also a privileged occasion for focusing on spatialisation skills.5/Exploring space, time and environment.As much as it can sound that all loose ends where jammed into that last block, this is actually another big deal of early childhood education to accompany students from a self-centered family world into a world of social beings with commons marks and references. Little kids never seem to stop asking if it's lunch or pick-up time already and never seem to know when or where they are… at that age they solidify cycles by learning to navigate the different times of the day (mostly through rituels and routines), naming the days of the week, the seasons of the years, moving forward to the formalisation of the date of the day. They learn how to follow or give relevant and precise spatial instuctions. They also explore natural cycles and form early distinction between living and still.Those guidelines seemed solid enough for me to elaborate activities with clear learning objectives and thus get myself out of the babysitting feeling. But teaching such early grades also teached me a great deal, pedagogy-wise. I got that learning was truly happening around the clock at that stage, while I couldn't expect the same level of formalization I was used to in later grades.Young students haven't internalized many behaviors and norms of the school universe, and are far more driven by their own interest than by their educator’s instructions. That's why play is going to be such a central element of learning at that age. Sure enough the general ambiance of a 3 to 5 years old classroom is bound to be very, very different than that of a 2nd or 3rd graders. But they can learn a great deal in a relative mess, as long as their early rhythms are accounted for.Such young children can't focus for large amount of time. You want to alternate short collective times (circle times) of no more than 2 to 10 min with slightly longer, but more engaging, activity times of 10 to 30 min. Repetition will make up for all the prepping time required by such a daily schedule : you'll learn to reinvest a good activity with adding minimal twists to it. Routines are crucial to get everything to run smoothly and will solidify working and learning habits along the way. Since so much of the learning is verbal or manipulation-based, you'll find your own way of keeping track and traces of each students progress without relying that much on the usual written trace of later elementary school.If your teaching is intentional, progress is going to show further along, regardless of the feeling of mess and confusion you can have at the moment. Teaching toddlers is different and will stay different. Such a radical change definitely can make you feel you're outside of your element but I do not think your teaching abilities have been any diminished by it. You just have to learn to assess your results in another way, and come to the realisation that amazingly enough, children effectively learn anyway.Good luck to you !