LAS

**Learning About Students** - What are some ways we can learn about our students?

1) Cumulative Folder - Look for these things: report cards, IEP cums and records, 504, Home Language Survey, benchmark tests, check CELDT test, state tests, student work samples... This is the folder which contains all of the student's records, information and scores. A teacher can look here for information regarding each student and to learn more about the students. Cumulative folders are legal and confidential student education records. Cumulative folders and all information contained therein are only allowed by law to be viewed by school officials for whom the viewing of the record is required to fulfill his/her professional responsibility. Parents may request in writing to view their child’s records and students over the age of 18 may request in writing to view their own records. All viewers other than school staff must sign the green inspection log. Despite the fact that they contain a great amount of information on the student, these folders take forever to transfer from school to school which makes them hard to rely on for immediate background on a student.

2) Talking to the previous teacher: To discover information about students before the start of the new school year, a teacher may ask the previous teacher(s). This may not be as reliable as observing students first-hand since the previous teacher may have a biased/jaded opinion, but it can be helpful in developing an initial makeup of students. When talking to previous teachers ask them specific questions on how they learn. Each child is different and this teacher may have had a routine or some special way of teaching that helped this particular student. 

3) "About Me" writing assignments. Interest Inventory. 4) Student survey - Ask students interests and outside activities. 5) Goals survey 6) Observation: A teacher may learn about students by observing them. This can happen under many different circumstances such as observation of behavior and academic progress within group settings, within single settings, on the playground, and even in new environmental settings. By observing students, much can be learned about their academic and behavioral patterns; the teacher will receive clues as to what a student struggles with or how a student interacts with you and their peers. Observations bring attention to the academic and behavioral needs/patterns that should be strengthened and those that should be discouraged. Also, if these observations are noted, a teacher has reference/proof to show parents, other teachers, the principal, etc. if that situation arises.  rds 7. Talk to parents or guardians. 8. Spotlight Student. Each week choose a student and invite them and their parents to come and decorate a designated bulletin board. They can share fun facts about themselves, bring in pictures and display an "All About Me" poster. During the week, the children are able to invite a parent, guardian, etc. to have lunch with them and at the end of the week, they are invited to bring a favorite item to share their item. This allows the child to feel special and classmates get to know them better as well as the teacher. 9. A student learning styles questionnaire

Even More Ways To Learn About Your Students:  (http://ncteinbox.blogspot.com/2009/08/five-ways-to-learn-about-students-this.html)
 * **Write about Writing with Analogies **Ask students to reflect on their writing habits and process. Using the resources in this ReadWriteThink.org lesson, you learn much about how students write and about how their attitudes toward writing. Are they confident? Do they have a lot of anxieties about writing? Do they write a lot or very little? This activity will reveal all! Modify the lesson a bit, and you can ask students to tell you about themselves as readers.
 * **Compose Technology Autobiographies** Today's students**have always had computers** somewhere in their community. They may think they spent no time writing during the summer months—until you ask them if they posted blog entries and status updates on Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter. Ask students to tell you about their regular or most significant interactions with technology with this ReadWriteThink.org lesson. Their stories will reveal their 21st century literacy skills.
 * **Keep Writer’s Logs** Use the reflective questions in this ReadWriteThink.org lesson to ask students to tell you about their literacy experiences and attitudes. Begin by asking students to respond to a key question or two about their literacy experiences in the past. Try a question like "How is your reading and writing during the summer different from during the school year?" or "What has been your favorite writing (or reading) experience and why?" The lesson provides for ongoing reflection on the writing students do, a process that will keep you informed about the writers you teach.
 * **Make Reading Plans** You can learn much about students' prior knowledge by asking them to tell you about what they want to do in the future. This ReadWriteThink.org lesson asks students to analyze the reading they've done in the past and make a plan for the future. As you read and respond to their work, you not only learn about their likes and dislikes as readers, but you also help them shape individual reading plans for the weeks to come.
 * **Build a Literacy Gallery** NCTE invites all writers to submit one piece of writing that is important to them to the National Gallery of Writing. Kick off your own gallery by asking students to share an artifact of their writing process that is significant—a favorite pen, something they have written, a diary. Anything. The discussion will reveal much about the students and their experience and habits as writers. After your literary show and tell session, work together to set up a class or school gallery, as part of the National Gallery of Writing.

 =Five Ways to Learn about Students This Fall= The beginning of a new school term means new students -- students we often know little about. How can we learn about their literacy experience quickly? Check out the __five strategies in this week's NCTE Inbox Blog__:
 * __[|Traci Gardner]__
 * __[|View Traci Gardner's blog]__


 * Ask students to explore an extended analogy about themselves as writers.
 * Have students trace their experiences with 21st century literacies in technology autobiographies.
 * Use reflective questions about summer writing to kick off weekly writer's logs.
 * Help students design plans for independent reading, based on favorite reads in the past.
 * Invite students to share artifacts of their reading and writing in the past and build your own gallery of writing.
 * @http://ncte2008.ning.com/profiles/blogs/inbox-blog-five-ways-to-learn