Please, don’t be spooked by the Halloween themed words in this blog post. We’re just having a little fun in the spirit of the season. We thought it was pretty frightening how many teachers were unaware of the fact that we now have over 700 pre-loaded assessments in the Test Explorer. We are not trying to trick you, I promise. You read that right, ESGI treats you to over 700 pre-loaded assessments provided by some of our amazing friends.
To access these great assessments, just log into ESGI and go to Test Explorer. You can search by title, subject, or by the name of one of our friends. In today’s Tuesday Tips, Rochelle shows you how to navigate Test Explorer. Check out the video below.
As an added treat, we have Halloween and Thanksgiving Guiding Readers comprehension tests written by Deedee Wills to match the following titles:
Halloween:
GR Bat Loves the Night
GR Pumpkin Circle
GR Pumpkin Jack
GR Scarecrow
GR Scaredy Squirrel
GR Creepy Carrots
GR Stellaluna
Thanksgiving:
GR A Turkey for Thanksgiving
GR In November
GR The Relatives Came
GR Turkey Trouble
Search for them in the Test Explorer and add them for free to your ESGI account. Don’t use ESGI yet? Sign up for a free 60-day trial!
Wondering who these mysterious assessment authors are? Well, let me introduce you to them (you’ll probably recognize some of them from their blogs):
Adam Peterson is a kindergarten teacher and vlogger known for his social media channel Teachers Learn Too (@teacherslearn2). He has taught kindergarten for the past 13 years in Illinois and has recently started traveling the country as a presenter of all things Kindergarten! Click here to see the list of his Illinois KIDS tests.
Kim Adsit is an international teacher/presenter who brings her 30 years of Kindergarten experience to bear on helping other teachers become better teachers. Kim and her daughter Megan host a blog called Kindergals where they share their everyday experiences as classroom teachers. Click here to see the list of her Differentiated Math Series tests.
Mary Amoson is a national early childhood speaker, blogger, and teacher from Georgia. Her popular blog, Sharing Kindergarten, is followed by thousands of early childhood educators from all over the world. Click here to see her list of Pre-K through 3rd grade sight words assessments.
Chris Barrett has shared the complete series of assessments that belong to the Delaware KAP (Kindergarten Assessment of Progress) test, all written to the Common Core State Standards. After using 3 years of data to perform a complete item analysis on each question, the state of Delaware approved the KAP as a Level B Alternate Assessment for their DPAS II Teacher Evaluation Program. Click here to see her list of K-CCSS & Deleware KAP assessments.
Heidi Butkus created phonics assessments directly tied to her world-renowned HeidiSongs instructional resources. Heidi is a credentialed Reading Specialist with over 25 years experience in the Primary classroom. Click here to see her list of Heidi Songs and Grade 1-2 sight words assessments.
Kathy Crane has been teaching Kindergarten for over two decades and has also taught at the preschool college levels. She has published 13 books on reading, writing, and math, and works as a freelance author. You may know Kathy from her blog, Kindergarten Kiosk. Click here to see her list of Pre-K and K-CCSS assessments.
Dr. Jean Feldman has over 45 years experience in education as a classroom teacher, author, and consultant. Dr. Feldman has an M.A. in Early Childhood and a PhD in Curriculum and Instruction. She has a new blog called Happies 4 Teachers that you should check out to get creative activities that help make teaching and learning FUN! Click here to see her list of Kindergarten “Happies” Series assessments.
Jayne Gammons made a test for every Common Core standard for Kindergarten! The wording of these tests is aligned to the performance levels of the Georgia Kindergarten Inventory of Developing Skills (GKIDS). From 1995-2000 she was the Senior Editor for The Preschool Mailbox magazine. She now writes on her Smart Kids blog. Click here to see her list of K-CCSS and GA GKIDS assessments.
Carolyn Kisloski has been a teacher all of her adult life, spending most of those years in kindergarten. She currently teaches kindergarten at Apalachin Elementary School, in the Owego Apalachin School District in Upstate New York. She has written two books with Dr. Jean Feldman. You may have seen her blog, Holding Hands and Sticking Together. Click here to see her list of Kindergarten “Happies” Series assessments.
Vanessa Levin shares her custom Preschool and Pre-K assessments based on her many years of experience as a Pre-Kindergarten teacher in the public school system. All of her tried and true, teacher-created tests are available in her comprehensive assessment library. You may know Vanessa from her blog, Pre-K Pages. Click here to see her list of Pre-K and Trailblazer assessments.
Palma Lindsay has taught grades T.K.-8 in California over the past 38 years, spending over half of those years in kindergarten or Transitional Kindergarten. Palma has shared the complete series of her custom Transitional Kindergarten tests. These tests are created with consideration to both the preschool foundational standards and the Kindergarten CCSS. You may know her from her KFundamentals blog. Click here for a list of her Transitional Kinder assessments.
Marsha McGuire has been teaching PK and Kindergarten in Michigan for the past ten years. She believes that all children have the right to feel successful and challenged, and has consistently reinforced this through differentiating instruction for the students in her classroom. You may know her from her Differentiated Kindergarten blog. Click here to see a list of her Ball Sight Words (Dolch) assessments.
Crystal Radke has taught kindergarten in Texas for the last six years and has worked in the field of education for over ten years. Crystal has created 57 custom ELA and Math tests especially for Texas teachers. All of Crystal’s tests are aligned to the TEKS and designed to make your life much easier. You may know her from her Kreative in Life blog. Click here to see a list of her Texas Kinder TEKS assessments.
Greg Smedley-Warren has created assessments to use with his ABC BOOTCAMP and NUMBER BOOTCAMP curriculum resources as well as assessments that he currently uses in his classroom to assess his students and adjust his teaching to meet the needs of his students! Greg has been teaching for 11 years. He has taught 5th grade, 2nd grade and kindergarten as well as teaching in Ecuador for two summers. You may know him from his blog, The Kindergarten Smorgasbord. Click here to see a list of his Kinder Math and ELA assessments.
Donna Whyte is an Education Consultant, expert reading teacher, presenter, and author. Her experience includes work in Pre-K through 6th-grade classrooms, and support for struggling readers and writers at all levels. She has created a reading continuum assessment series in ESGI which allows teachers to quickly diagnosis reading steps that determine a student’s skill level and their specific needs required to move forward in literacy. You may know her through her blog, The Smartie Zone. Click here to see a list of her Reading Aptitude Continuum assessments.
Deedee Wills created Kindergarten CCSS Assessments to provide an easy and efficient way to track and report student progress, create small groups and develop effective intervention strategies using real-time item analyses. She taught four years in second grade before she was asked to help launch their Balance Literacy adoption in her district. She served as a Literacy Coach for two years. You may know Deedee from her blog, Mrs. Wills Kindergarten. Click here to see a list of her K-CCSS and Guiding Math & Reading assessments.
Alive Studios provides Reading and Math Software Learning Kits for PK-3. They are the world’s first company to develop a supplemental curriculum for early education utilizing Augmented Reality technology (3D without glasses). You can check out their website for more information. Click here to see a list of their Letters Alive and Math Alive assessments.
Lee Con Ángel by Kishmorr Productions, LLC is the online supplementary Spanish reading program and App which gives students in Pre-K through 2nd grade the opportunity to develop reading skills at their own pace. Check out the free demo on their website. Click here to see a list of their Spanish Reading Program assessments.