The On-Your-Feet Guide to Real-Time Assessment for In-the-Moment Instructional Decisions

Kidwatching 2.0

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Although data meetings, data walls, and data folders are common structures schools use to better understand the needs of their students, kidwatching — a term coined by Yetta Goodman in the 1980s that carries significant weight today — provides the purest form of student data and significantly impacts our decision making.

Kidwatching is critical to a student-centered classroom. When we kidwatch, we observe students, taking notes on what we see students doing and hear them talking about. We analyze our kidwatching data to find patterns over time. 

This On-Your-Feet Guide provides:

• A clear protocol for deeper observations, evidence collection, and inquiries about your students
• Guidance on developing a personal, practical system for observing and taking notes
• Lists of questions to guide your observations and data collection throughout the day, in whole- and small-group time and during individual work time
• Links to two downloadable templates for capturing kidwatching notes
• Formative assessment ideas that allow students to make their thinking and understanding visible

Use the strategies in this on-your-feet guide to make instructional decisions based on students’ interests, strengths, and challenges.

On-Your-Feet Guides (OYFGs) provide you with the ultimate “cheat sheet” to implement effective change in your classroom while in the moment of teaching. Designed for accessibility, and providing step-by-step guidance, the OYFGs are written by experts who take research-based practices and make them doable for the busy teacher. 

Each On-Your-Feet Guide is laminated, 8.5”x11” tri-fold (6 pages), and 3-hole punched.

Use the On-Your-Feet Guides
• When you know the “what” but need help with the “how”
• As a quick reference to support a practice you learned in a PD workshop or book
• To learn how to implement foundational practices
• When you want to help your students learn a specific strategy, routine, or approach, but aren’t sure how to do it yourself