Anecdotal Records

What is it?
A detailed descriptive narrative recorded of a specific student
behavior or interaction. The observations create formative
data that teachers can use to differentiate instruction toward
student needs.

Who does it help?

This is a strategy that can be used to create differentiated
instruction for students with a a specific learning disability,
but it can also be valuable to assessments for all students.

Key Benefits
This technique provides authentic assessments to help
teachers create formative assessments of their
students.

Procedures:
1) A teacher observes a specific student behavior.
2) The teacher immediately documents that behavior or
action.
3) In recording the behavior, the teacher documents the
observation free of bias. For example, rather than
saying, John is having trouble writing, a teacher would
say, John did not properly form 4 of 6 As and 7 of 8
Bs during handwriting. He is having difficulty
maintaining his pencil position, which is impacting his
ability to properly forms the letters.
4) The teacher then files the record according to her
organizational system that will allow her to easily use the
group of records for individual assessments.
5) Teacher can use either written or computerized
anecdotal records

Johnson, M. Hayden #6

HANDY TIP!
Break classes up into 4 groups. Plan to make Anecdotal
Records of the students in each group on a given day of the
week with Friday reserved for students absent during the
week.

Sticky or Digital Organization of notes

Organization of the records is critical to strategy success.
Some ideas include:
a) Notecards Keep note cards handy while working with
students. As you observe your students document your
observations and store them in a note card filing system
for easy grouping and access.
b) Electronic Many new electronic systems are now
available for taking notes. These systems have the
advantage of adding tags for easy reference and
grouping as well as capturing student behavior with
multiple media.

Bibliography
McFarland, L. (2008). Anecdotal Records: Valuable Tools for
Assessing Young Children's Development. Dimensions Of
Early Childhood, 36(1), 31-36.
Bates, C. c. (2013). How Do Wii Know: Anecdotal Records Go
Digital. Reading Teacher, 67(1), 25-29.
doi:10.1002/TRTR.1178
Boyd-Batstone, P. (2004). Focused anecdotal records assessment: A tool for
standards-based, authentic assessment. Reading Teacher, 58(3), 230-239.
doi:10.1598/RT.58.3.1