We made it to day 90, the half-way point for the 180-day standard curriculum maps. Following the Texas standards and Common Core, which mostly overlap, I did my best to guide the girls for those 90 days.
Keeping the pace was less important than learning, but we all know that schools at all levels enforce timelines: quarters, semesters, and academic years. Complain as much as I do about the emphasis on calendars over content mastery, educational systems in every Western nation adhere to artificial timetables and tests. (If you believe our system is too structured, just try the British, French, or German models!)
The reality is simple: When our daughter re-enroll in public schools, those schools will assume certain skills and knowledge. That’s why we are following state and common national standards.
Assessment is not a meaningless, bureaucratic exercise.
Research links meaningful assessment, carefully chosen content, and effective teaching strategies. Teachers plan assessments as they choose content and develop lessons. These aren’t separate aspects of teaching and learning.
Meaningful assessment reveals what skills and knowledge need to be reviewed. (All learning should be reinforced, too, as good teachers scaffold content.) Assessment isn’t about the student, it is about the complete learning situation.
If I find that most students are missing a knowledge question on an assessment, then I need to revise how I teach that knowledge. If some students are missing the knowledge, I ask myself what the students have in common. Learning is a collaboration between the students and teacher.
With two students who are in different grades, we needed an effective, proven, set of assessment tools.
The girls are maintaining journals for each subject. They write age-appropriate reports, illustrate their knowledge, and present reports. We do hands-on projects, observing how the girls perform.
Our approach is working well enough, but the girls will be taking standardized tests in the future. We need to also teach them about those forms of assessment.
How do homeschooling families assess their children and record legitimate results of the assessments?
Books on assessment for K-3 students are expensive, most costing $50 or more. These books have low average review scores, so I was hesitant.
We looked at various online choices. The Discovery K12 website offers some basic assessment exams, but these aren’t as detailed as I wanted. Khan Academy, which we like a lot, doesn’t offer Common Core assessments for elementary grades. Some other sites I checked include Learning A-Z and Edulastic.
IXL (“I eXceL”) looks promising. We do use the printed math materials for our youngest daughter and I am considering the Grade 3 materials. Online, the IXL Common Core program (math, language, science, and social science) is $19.95 for the first child and $4 for each additional student. I like IXL’s combination of print and online materials, but $300 per year was outside our budget for now. If we continue homeschooling, IXL will be considered as an online supplement.
Varsity Tutors had the best free assessment tests. The tests are short enough that our girls finished them in 20 minutes or less per exam. To compare the tests to what is taught, we asked the third grader to take all the earlier exams. She did great on them, with the strengths and weaknesses corresponding to our experiences with her. She struggles with word problems in math, for example. We don’t need any additional tutoring help, yet, but I liked the Varsity Tutor content, too. If we needed assistance, we’d compare their offerings to other supports.
For now, we’re sticking with workbooks, Khan Academy, and some Adventure Academy time when the girls finish their homework early. The Shell Education books remain my favorite workbooks, complemented by worksheets from Evan-Moor and Teacher Created Resources (formerly Teacher Created Materials).
The girls both need help developing language skills. They’re doing well in other subjects, except when reading comprehension gets in the way. We read daily, but language processing challenges result in some learning delays. When they master reading, other subjects will fall into place, I’m sure.
We have a good idea of what our daughters need: time, patience, and encouragement.