Best practices for Classworks with Kindergarteners

Best practices for Classworks with Kindergarteners

Classworks is a valuable tool for kindergarteners as they develop a relationship with technology that will be foundational for the rest of their lives. Using Classworks in the kindergarten classroom enhances students’ comfort level with computers and tablets. This article reviews how you can use Classworks assessments and instructional activities effectively with your kindergarten students.

It's important to keep Developmentally Appropriate Practice (DAP) in mind when determining how to engage your students with Classworks. While students in grades 1-8 spend the majority of their time working independently in Classworks, this is not the case for kindergarten students. 

1st and 2nd Academic Quarters

During the first half of the school year, integrate specific Classworks activities into your small group and whole class instruction planning.  While every situation is unique, we recommend that the majority of kindergarten students engage with group instructional work rather than working independently. 

Let’s look at an example from a kindergarten teacher, Mrs. Jones:

Mrs. Jones is writing her lesson plans for next week and has identified and prepared the core curriculum resources and activities for her students.  Now she can add supplemental materials from Classworks to reinforce and extend learning.  Mrs. Jones presents objectives to the whole class and also uses small group rotations as part of her plan to meet the diverse needs of her students.  She found two types of instructional resources in the Create tab within Classworks: Classroom Math Problem Sets, and standards-based math activities (see below for how to search and assign these activities). She will also use a Classworks offline Enrichment Project.

Mrs. Jones reviewed the “Classroom Math” problem sets and selected “K-4 Count From a Given Number - Kim and Bob Counting Together” because it supplements the math lesson she is teaching this week.  She will use one of the questions during a whole group activity and use her interactive whiteboard to solve the triangle problem while using digital tools and resources.    

Mrs. Jones decided that students would complete the other two problems from this activity during this week’s small group rotations.  To facilitate this, she has printed out these problems and has prepared a copy for each learner.  

She also adds two standards-based math activities:  “Counting Numbers to 20”, and “Counting Objects 1 - 15”.  She chose activities where students count out a number of objects in a game environment.  Mrs. Jones will model how this game works and then call students to the interactive whiteboard to engage with the “Counting Plants” activities with support.  

Mrs. Jones also identified the Classworks Offline Project “Number Book” for her lesson.  

Mrs. Jones' Plan  

Weekly Learning Objectives:

Math :  Count forward beginning from a given number within the known sequence (instead of having to begin at 1). K.CC.A.2

Whole Group

Monday

Classroom Math Problem Set - K-4 Count from a Given Number - Kim and Bob Counting Together (Triangle Question) Mrs. Jones models solving this question from the problem set using her interactive whiteboard.  

Wednesday

Counting Numbers to 20 - Counting Plants Activity - Mrs. Jones will model and then call on students to work through the remaining levels.  

Friday

Counting Objects 1 - 15 - Counting Plants Level 2 Activity - Mrs. Jones will model and then call on students to work through the remaining levels.

Small Group Station A

Small Group Station B

Number Book Offline Project (Students will create pages for their number books)

K-4 Count from a Given Number - Kim and Bob Counting Together (Star Question)

Small Group Station C

Small Group Station D

Number Book Offline Project (Students will create pages for their number books)

K-4 Count from a Given Number - Kim and Bob Counting Together (Diamond Question)


Mrs. Jones also incorporated Classworks activities into her Reading/ELA lesson plans for this week.  She selected the Mini-Lesson from Initial and Final Consonants since it includes brief text samples she can use to model how to isolate initial and final sounds.  She also selected and assigned practice activities from an instructional unit that students will complete during their small group rotations this week.  

Mrs. Jones models how to complete each portion of a Classworks unit for the entire class before having them go to their small group stations. 

Mrs. Jones outlined her plan below. 

Reading/ELA:   Isolate and pronounce the initial, medial vowel, and final sounds (phonemes) in three-phoneme (consonant-vowel-consonant, or CVC) words. RF.K.2.D

Whole Group

Classworks Custom Instruction - Initial and Final Consonants - the Mini-Lesson component 

Small Group Station A

Small Group Station B

Letter Identification 3 - Cave Game Letter Recognition 1

Letter Identification 3 - Cave Game Letter Recognition 2

Small Group Station C

Small Group Station D

Initial and Final Consonants - Word/Bonus Initial P and Word/Bonus Final K

Initial and Final Consonants - Word/Bonus Initial F and Word/Bonus Final T


Mrs. Jones uses this same process as she pulls specific activities from Classworks during the fall semester.  

Winter Academic Screening 

Classworks recommends waiting until the Winter to screen your kindergarten students. This screening window typically occurs at the end of the 1st semester.  So, what does this screening process look like? Take a look at how Mrs. Jones administers the Classworks Universal Screener to her students.  

Classworks recommends waiting until the Winter to screen your kindergarten students. This screening window typically occurs at the end of the 1st semester.  So, what does this screening process look like? Take a look at how Mrs. Jones administers the Classworks Universal Screener to her students.  

The kindergarten team at Mrs. Jones school used their school’s testing calendar and developed this screening plan.  The Classworks Universal Screeners are administered online, Mrs. Jones has been preparing her students for this type of assessment by modeling how to answer multiple-choice questions. She also spends time talking about the purpose of the screener and why it’s important to take time with each question.

Mrs. Jones’ students are familiar with rotating to different stations during their small group instructional time. The assessment plan follows this already familiar process by having students complete the screener using their station schedule during the 2-week testing window.  

Mrs. Jones used the table below to map out when students will complete the Reading/ELA and Mathematics screeners.


2nd Semester

During the second half of the school year, kindergarten teachers continue to integrate specific activities from Classworks into their small group and whole class instruction planning. This is also a time when teachers use the assessment data from the Classworks Universal Screener to help plan small-group instruction.  Many teachers also identify students who are ready to work independently on Classworks’ Individualized Learning Path (ILP) assignments.  This gradual release of responsibility helps to set students up for success in first grade. Let’s look at how this looks in Mrs. Jones’ class:

Mrs. Jones continued to integrate components of Classworks into her whole class and small group plans like she did during the first semester.  

Weekly Learning Objectives:

Math :  Describe objects in the environment using names of shapes, and describe the relative positions of these objects using terms such as above, below, beside, in front of, behind, and next to. K.G.A.1

Whole Group

Classworks Custom Instruction - Shapes - Mrs. Jones will model the Mini-Lesson component

Small Group Station A

Small Group Station B

Shapes - Geometry I Plane Shapes and Playing with Shapes activities

K-15 Describe Name and Relative Positions of Shapes - Max Loses His Things (Star Question)

Small Group Station C

Small Group Station D

Naming Shapes - Match the Shapes and More Plane Shapes activities

K-15 Describe Name and Relative Positions of Shapes - Max Loses His Things (Diamond Question)


Mrs. Jones also incorporated Classworks activities into her Reading/ELA lesson plans for this week.  She selected the Mini-Lesson from Recognizing Words that Rhyme and assigned practice activities that students will complete during their small group rotations this week.  Some of her students will benefit from practice playing the learning games. She will demonstrate how each game works when students rotate to the different stations and encourage students to explain to each other how to win the different games.

Mrs. Jones outlines her plan as follows. 

Reading/ELA:   Recognize and produce rhyming words. RF.K.2.A

Whole Group

Classworks Custom Instruction -Recognizing Words That Rhyme - the Mini-Lesson component 

Small Group Station A

Small Group Station B

Recognizing Words that Rhyme - Shipwreck Game - Listening for Rhyming Words - 3 activity

Recognizing Words that Rhyme-Listening for Rhyming Words - 1

Small Group Station C

Small Group Station D

Recognizing Words that Rhyme - Choosing Rhyming Words -1

Recognizing Words that Rhyme- Patchwork Quilt project


Taking Action on Your Screener Data

Once students have completed the winter screener you’ll have data in Classworks about where each student is ready to learn as well as the Student Screener Summary report that can be printed and sent home to parents. 

Let’s check back in with Mrs. Jones. After the students completed the Winter screeners she noticed that a few of her students are ready for more advanced activities to meet their instructional needs.  She knows that each student’s screener results have generated a Learning Path that consists of skills the students are ready to learn. Mrs. Jones develops a small group rotation schedule that includes weekly time for this group of students to work on these activities. 


Mrs. Jones considered more than the screener results when developing this plan.  She also took into consideration how independent each student is and their comfort level with technology.  She strategically partnered the students so they can support each other.



Over the first weeks of this plan, Mrs. Jones took time to introduce these students to parts of the Individualized Learning Plan screens, she also shared step-by-step videos with this group to prepare them for success.   At the end of each week, Mrs. Jones takes a few minutes to meet with each of these four students and talk through their progress, offer support when they struggle with a specific activity and celebrate their successes. 

How to introduce these students to ILP (modeling videos)

How to monitor student progress on ILP


Spring Academic Screening

The Spring Universal Screeners provide an opportunity to measure the growth of each learner made during the semester. This information is also used as schools begin planning next steps for each student.  Let’s look at what the end of the year screening looks like in Mrs. Jones’ class.  Mrs. Jones and her grade level team found success with the screening plan they used during the winter window so they made very few adjustments.   

The Classworks Universal Screeners are administered online, Mrs. Jones reminded her students about this type of assessment by modeling how to answer multiple choice questions. She spends time talking about the purpose of the screener and why it’s important to take time with each question.  Mrs. Jones’ students are familiar with rotating to different stations during their small group instructional time.  The assessment plan takes advantage of this strength by incorporating the process of completing the screener into the station schedule during the 2 week testing window.  Mrs. Jones used the table below to map out when students will complete the Reading/ELA and Mathematics screeners.

Math

Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday

Friday

Aisha

Malik

Mei

Carlos

Leila

Arjun

Fatima

Omar

Isabella

Amir

Sofia

Raj

Layla

Diego

Zara

Hiro

Priya

Jamal

Aaliyah

Luca

Naima

Kai

Amina

Andre

Sana

ELA

Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday

Friday

Aisha

Malik

Mei

Carlos

Leila

Arjun

Fatima

Omar

Isabella

Amir

Sofia

Raj

Layla

Diego

Zara

Hiro

Priya

Jamal

Aaliyah

Luca

Naima

Kai

Amina

Andre

Sana


Adjusting the Academic Plan

The previous plans Mrs. Jones created meet the needs of most of her students, but after screening, she notices that a few of her students are ready for more advanced activities to better support their instructional needs.  She knows that each student’s screener results have generated a learning path within Classworks with activities the students are ready to learn. Mrs. Jones develops a small group rotation schedule that includes weekly time for this group of students to work on these activities. This will help prepare her students for first grade and their independent work with Classworks.



Mrs. Jones considered more than the screener results when developing this plan.  She also took into consideration how independent each student is and their comfort level with technology.  She strategically partnered the students so they can support each other.  Over the first weeks of this plan, Mrs. Jones took time to introduce these students to parts of the Individualized Learning Plan screens, she also shared step-by-step videos with this group to prepare them for success.  

At the end of each week, Mrs. Jones takes a few minutes to meet with each of these four students and talk through their progress, offer support when they struggle with a specific activity and celebrate their successes. 


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