Let's Talk about the Struggle of Formative Assessment for k-2 (Part 1)

I'm going to record my thoughts about the process of analyzing my student's writing for my personal narrative unit.  First, I don't think it was a completely unsupported assessment.  I did this with some instruction but little assistance during my first week of writing workshop.

I think it is important to record the process to understand the amount of thinking and time it takes for teachers.  That way, when other teachers start the process, I am able to assist them with learning about formative assessment and the power in setting curriculum that meets the needs of the learners instead of going through the units pacing within a "one size fits all approach."

To begin, looking over the stages of development developed by Lucy Calkins and recently published in the Writing Pathways:Performance Assessments and Learning Progressions k-5 is completely overwhelming.  I can't imagine the implications for teachers.  This text alone could be a book study for a staff for a whole year!