Movenote for Fluency Self-Assessment

Reading fluency is critical for reading success and is a component of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS).  Students should have many opportunities to hear fluent reading through teacher-led read alouds, as well as, opportunities to practice for the development of greater fluency.  Fortunately resources abound for how to accomplish this task that can be found on the Internet (such as Scholastic.com and ReadingRockets.org).  Repeated readings, partner reading, and Reader's Theater all make their way into my third-grade class at various points in the year.

The third-grade Expeditionary Learning Module 1 Unit 2 focuses on developing fluency using the text Thank You, Mr. Falker as an introduction.  Later, students are also provided texts on their reading levels to practice.  When it came time for this lesson, I wondered how I could make my assessment of their fluency easier and how the students could self-assess their own fluency.

Lately, I have been experimenting with web-based programs and Chrome apps for my students to use for presenting knowledge and creating tutorials. Last year,  I used Movenote with a group of students during a Math lesson.  The students were helping a local yoga instructor with ways she could arrange 24 yoga mats in equal rows in her studio.  One of the project requirements was that they had to find a way to communicate their solution to her.  That presentation can be found here.  Movenote is easy to use and works seamlessly with Google Slides.

Once I decided to use Movenote as a way to record my students' oral fluency, the set up was easy.  I found passages from Readinga-z.com that were on each child's independent reading levels. Then I took screen shots of the texts and put each picture in separate Google Slides files. I shared the file with the specific students for which that text was appropriate (I would love to use Doctopus for this in the future).

First thing in the morning I showed a few students the steps the class would need to follow when we did the EL lesson later. I have learned to capitalize on my students' helpfulness and they provide the much needed assistance because I am the only teacher in the room.  This what they did:

1. Add the fluency Google slide to students' Drive accounts.
2. Download Movenote for Education from the Chrome Store.
3. Agree to give Movenote access to Google accounts.
4. Give permission for Movenote to use the web cam and microphone (make sure to agree to the permission request that pops up at the top by the address bar).
5. Click on the plus sign to choose the Google slide you want to use.  
6. Press record!
7. When you are done click Save and Preview... it is that easy!

My students emailed me the Movenote link and I made a Google Sheet of the links for my class. 

Students later listened to their reading and self-assessed their reading using a fluency rating sheet I got from Scholastic.  After having time to practice over the next two days, students rerecorded themselves. This week we will watch both and make comparisons. After making comparisons, we will set goals and continue reading with partners.  

Student-generated Assessments Using Google Forms and Scratch

     Last school year was my first year of teaching third grade after teaching first grade for 11 years.  Let's just say that there are not many similarities to teaching emergent readers and readers in the intermediate grades.   I admittedly was a little unsure about how guided reading works in third grade when I first started.  Now that I am fully immersed in the Common Core State Standards (CCSS), I am very aware of what skills and strategies I should be imparting and I am learning every day how to accomplish this feat.
     As a teacher interested in educational research, I have been looking at books and articles dealing with motivation.  No matter what grade I teach, there are always reluctant readers and I am striving to find out how I can motivate them to take risks and develop an interest in reading.  As I incorporate technology into my classroom, I notice how interested some students get in my lessons, and in particular some of the reluctant readers mentioned previously.
     The way I look at it, incorporating technology can allow a chance for innovative thinking, ownership of the work, and above all choices.  Students love choices!
     So when six of my third-grade boys were done reading The Most Beautiful Place in the World by Ann Cameron, I asked them what are they going to do now that they have read this book? Some other students wrote a commercial for why you should read The Hundred Dresses by Eleanor Estes (see video here), so what were they going to do now that they completed the book.  Some decided to make a "test" of the book using Scratch and the other group decided to make a multiple choice test using Google Forms.  This "project" was a great window into the minds of my students and how they understand and perceive assessment.  Future lessons in book clubs later focused on moving beyond asking and answering questions that can be found explicitly in the text (CCSS RL.3.1).
     The first group that read The Most Beautiful Place in the World wanted to make a test using Scratch.  We have some avid coders in the class and they jump at any opportunity to use Scratch. They had to figure out how people would respond. The test (available on the class website) was the stepping stone for future "tests" and really illustrated the progression of learning and problem-solving. Later on, one of the students shown below made a test about our research on China.  He used a different format and other students collaborated to figure out how to program in the progression of points.

    The second group that read The Most Beautiful Place in the World started their final project by writing questions in their reading notebooks. Next, they wrote incorrect answers that may trick their test takers with distractors.  Once this was accomplished, I gave them a quick tutorial on using Google forms and they went to work creating their online assessment.

    The multiple choice group had to come up with the post on the class blog letting others know their test is available.  Now do we have any takers to read the book and take the test?


    These experiences later influenced how the class ended our online research of China.  Seeing the level of motivation, collaboration, and focus that these students demonstrated had me rethinking how the class' knowledge would be assessed.  Stay tuned to find out the results of my next experiment.