Yesterday I wrote about why I decided to switch over to electronic anecdotal notes. Below is a sample draft document. I actually have 8 separate documents breaking down reading and writing by language and grade level. I may eventually need to look into a system where I can just have one document per grade level with a way to filter the way I want to look at data at any given moment (such as Spanish writing or English reading). In this document I placed an example English and Spanish draft on the same page, but they are actually in separate documents. I will also tab to a new row for each date to easily navigate between dates.
At the top of the document I left a space for language goal with the target literacy skill. For example, some students are avid readers in English able to read from a wide variety of genres and lengths, while in Spanish they are still developing vocabulary and find realistic fiction to be their best fit books right now. While they are able to transfer their reading strategies between languages, unknown vocabulary in some genres such as fantasy, make it hard to access it in their second language. Yet, other students are still developing comprehension strategies in both languages. By having a language goal at the top I will be able to maintain a focus on each student's strenghts and weaknesses in each language. Then I have columns for date, type (with codes), notes and next step. In this reading document I will write information that I gain from conferences, reading response letters, book clubs, and blogging.
When I open any given document there is a table with a class list to record dates that I meet with each student. I found that with a general table although I might have been meeting with students in a balanced manner when looking at meetings in general I had some gaps when looking at it broken down by language. I am hoping to be more mindful of when I meet with students by filtering out by language. In addition, I plan on highlighting the names of students that I want to meet with for various reasons. For example, if I notice through a book letter that a student is struggling with a book, I can make note of what I discovered in their individual chart, and then highlight their name to remind myself to check their anecdotal notes and conference with them.
As with any new system, I am sure that I will be making at least some adjustments, but as I mentioned, I have high hopes that it will be what works for me long term. I am thankful to all of the authors and bloggers who inspired me along the way to develop my system, such as The Two Sisters, Patrick Allen, and Two Writing Teachers. By sharing their ideas I was able to try out different suggestions and then adjust and mold them into my current set-up.
Electronic Anecdotal Notes
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