Timothy
O’Keefe provides insightful information about kidwatching and its application
in the classroom. He emphasizes the
importance of quality over quantity when it comes to collecting data on our students. The culture of education has become so
focused on data-driven information that I believe it is sometimes easy to
collect data on a student and fail to reflect on how to use the data
meaningfully to help guide the student’s progress. The data can become more important than the
student. I love the practice of
kidwatching because it gives me the opportunity to be more aware of my
students’ reading interests and habits.
In conferences with parents, I can give a more accurate description of
their child’s reading interests and progress towards reading goals. O’Keefe uses the term “coaching” to refer to
the instruction he gives to individual students during conferences. During my “coaching” sessions with students,
I can help hesitant readers explore a genre of literature they are unfamiliar
with reading or guide students to read books that are more appropriate to their
reading levels. I can also make a
student aware of their off-task reading behaviors and help them to become a
more engaged reader. One strategy that I
want to try that is mentioned in the article is using observational notes for
writers’ workshop. I have never
attempted kidwatching during writing, but I believe it will be helpful to
notice students’ writing habits, interests, and areas of improvement. Collecting this data will give me ideas for
writing mini-lessons and help me to keep more accurate notes on how my students
are progressing in specific writing skills.
O’Keefe makes a wonderful point when he explains that a letter grade or
a percentage correct on a reading test does not define a student as a reader or
give the teacher useful information on how to better instruct the student. O’Keefe states, “ Sitting with a child and
watching and listening carefully may be the best thing we can do to get to know
our students as readers (O’Keefe, 1997, p. 2).
I plan to continue the practice of kidwatching in my classroom, but I
want to collect more meaningful information to know my students better as
readers and writers.
India I agree with your statement: The culture of education has become so focused on data-driven information that I believe it is sometimes easy to collect data on a student and fail to reflect on how to use the data meaningfully to help guide the student’s progress. I would love to see how you will apply what you learn from your Kidwatching observations. The information you collect can also be applied to your SLO.
ReplyDeleteIndia, I agree with you 100%. We don't need any more data, what we need is time and thought to spend analyzing the data to determine what our students need and then to use it to guide our instruction. I loved the quote from this article that basically said if the assessment data isn't beneficial for teachers or students we shouldn't use it. I appreciate how you are implementing kidwatching in your classroom and have started keeping informal or "anecdotal" notes during your writing conferences to help provide students with feedback and to inform your teaching. Thanks, Dawn
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