First, let me say I am trained in Math Recovery (MR) and MR's stages of development in 5 areas of early mathematics fit very nicely into a data wall. This is where I got my ideas and put them on a large board. My principal loved the data wall.
But for those of you without the training, who are seeking something for your PLC or to base your goals on, you can use your standards across grades to formulate your data wall.
Let's use the idea of counting forward and backward for students in K-1 and even K-2. A data wall for counting forward would have the levels of 1) I can't count to 10. 2) I can count to 10. 3) I can count to 20. 4) I can count to 50. 5) I can count to 75 and 6) I can count to 100. Of course you can level it in any increments you choose. Some report cards for kindergarten already have the levels with the end of year goal to be counting to 100 according to the CCSS. You can even have 7) I can count to 120 or beyond for showing students in kindergarten who are advanced and need enrichment.
At the first data day in my building the kindergarten teachers brought data on counting to the meeting. They put sticky notes for every student showing their independent level of counting forward. We looked at who was on track to meet the card marking expectation of counting to 25 by November and who was not counting to 10 yet. Interventionists and paras were assigned students who were not yet counting to 10 independently for a tier III intervention, and the classroom teachers kept an eye on the students who could count to 10 but not 20 for a tier II intervention. The students already meeting the card marking goal of counting to 25 were not worried about and were not put into a group or assigned an intervention.
When students in tier III moved levels, the para or interventionist moved the sticky and sent a quick email on the progress and moved that student to a tier II intervention to be in a group with the classroom teacher. Communication was quick and easy. If the teacher said the student was not counting to 10 in the classroom, the person who worked with that student was called upon to see why, when he/she did it during intervention. Sometimes it is the way things are worded from teacher to teacher. Sometimes the para needed to see how the classroom teacher expected the performance to look. No offense but sometimes paras will support or hint and not really know they are doing anything wrong. Some students just need to see that the teacher is asking them the same thing they were doing in their small group or one-on-one.
The levels we used for counting backward for kindergarten were way less rigorous. Math Recovery only expects a first grader to count backward from any number within 100 so we decided for kindergarten we would look for counting down from 10 by mid-year and counting down from 20 by end of year. This is not a CCSS but we thought it a goal worth fighting for and kindergarten said they count backward anyway in regular instruction.
The first grade team used this same data wall but their levels for counting backward were 1) I can't count back from 10. 2) I can count back from 10. 3) I can count back from 20. 4) I can count back from 50. 5) I can count back from 100. Again, you can level it in any increments you choose. You can even have 6) I can count back from 199 or beyond for showing students in first grade who are advanced and need enrichment.
Counting back by ones is not specifically stated in the CCSS but we all know students who can't subtract, can have issues with counting back. It also translates to one more/less and ten more/less.
Here is a table (click here) to show what all this means. I hope this makes sense and gives you an idea on how to make a data wall that can be used for instruction, intervention and celebrating growth. Just pick an area, level it out in increments, and you will have a data wall!
