What is the Definition of Common Assessment?

By Jennifer Hardy

Too often educators use the term "common assessment"  "CFA" interchangeably with district assessments and benchmarks.  This communicates a false identity to the purpose, design and research behind common formative assessments.  “[Common assessments are] not standardized tests, but teacher-created, teacher-owned assessments that are collaboratively scored and that provide immediate feedback to students and teachers.” —Douglas Reeves, CEO and founder, The Leadership and Learning Center.  Common formative assessments or CFA's are focused intentional check-ins developed by teachers who are giving the assessment.  CFA's help teachers determine if core instruction was effective based on the the level of rigor and learning criteria the teachers are delivering and assessing.  These assessments are designed through the collaborative efforts during a content grade level professional learning community for the purpose of driving instruction.  CFA's should focus on a few learning targets, aligned to the standards, 5-10 questions per target, with the same criteria for delivery and grading.  Rubrics for learning criteria should be established during CFA development.

Benchmark assessments are helpful for informing instruction and to look for gaps in the instruction, however too much time between instruction has lapsed for immediate formative data.  Nor, are benchmarks typically designed by the teachers giving them to students.  Benchmark data is wonderful for progress monitoring students and establishing the level of questions and rigor that are aligned with curriculum standards.

Students do not have to know it is an assessment!

What can a common assessment look like?

1. Game
2. Exit Ticket
3. Poll
4. Survey
5. Anticipation guide
6. Short Answer
7. Writing Sample
8. Daily Essential Question
9. Group Activity
10. Learning logs
11. Summaries
12. Thinking Maps
13. Quiz
14. Various Checkpoints During A Project

Serving Onslow County Schools since 2002, Jennifer Hardy has taught third through sixth grade students.  In her current role as an Instructional Coach, it has truly been an honor to support students and staff across the district.  She has a passion for teaching that is fueled through her zany little girl, Ava.  She is a third-grade product of Onslow County Schools and every decision Mrs. Hardy makes, every battle she chooses to fight, is never initiated without trying to view the outcome through her daughter's big blue beautiful eyes!

Reader Response Notebooks

By Katie Head

If you are anything like me, organization, fonts, and neon paper make your teacher world go round! I love my Reader Response Notebooks and hope you do too! See the Freebie below to print out your own tabs.

First, I organize my notebooks into four categories: Reading Log, Reader Response, Anchor Charts, and Shopping List.  *For the K-2 teacher, I modified the Shopping List section to a Word Wall.

Set up: When I introduce my journals, I precut my tabs (on neon paper, of course!). I use clear tape to reinforce the tabs after they are glued down. My co-worker laminated them first and it worked just as well. I have students (roughly) count out a different number of pages for each tab; this is based
on a 100-page notebook.

Reading Log: about 15 pages

I teach them how to highlight lines and use quotation marks for repeated titles.

Reader Response: about 40 pages

This is where we do most of our responses and activities after our minilessons. This might include a post-it progression, context clues vocabulary chart, or written responses.

Anchor Chart: about 35 pages

This is pretty self-explanatory… students create their own anchor charts as we review the charts that are up in our classroom. I always let them use colored pencils, markers, etc. and they LOVE it! It is great to encourage these as a reference throughout the year.

Shopping List (and Book Shopping!): about 10 pages

The Shopping List is a place for students to write their “shopping” list for books they would like to read. They make a chart for book titles and author names. My wonderful coworker and I introduce new titles during our Book Shopping Day. (This of course includes shopping bags, sunglasses, and
Madonna’s Material Girl playing in the background. ;) We preview a few texts and the students write the titles down in their Shopping List. Here’s a look at the Google Slides presentation we have up in the background.

Thanks for spending some time learning about my Reader Response Journals. Happy teaching!
Reading Journal Tabs
Reading Journal Tabs 1


Katie Head is a 3rd grade teacher at Barringer Academic Center in Charlotte, NC. Katie has been teaching at 3rd grade at BAC for 3 years.  Prior to that, Katie lived in Chicago. There she taught 1st and 4th grades at Marion Jordan Elementary in Palatine, IL for 8 years. She received her Master’s in Reading through Concordia University in Chicago. Katie iscurrently working on her AIG certification through Queens University