How to Make a Progress Monitoring Tub

Let’s first start with the container. As teachers, we LOVE containers, tubs, and all things cute storage. I love this ice cube chest from Amazon. It is large enough to hold file folders, but it is still small enough to carry around easily.

I have various lists and rings filled with all of the things that I would commonly assess my students on. These might be lists of letters, numbers, decodable words, or sight words. They are easy to pull out and quickly assess a student’s progress.

I also have quick counting, math fact, and math computation assessments.

I have several kids who are excellent at memorization. I use nonsense words to assess them on their ability to decode words that follow typical spelling patterns. I keep these on word rings, as well as printed lists, just like real words.

I keep a clipboard with all of my informal assessments. I use these to assess move-in students and students being evaluated. It helps me get a quick snapshot of their strengths and weaknesses.

You can click here to find these informal assessments on TpT.

I always try to keep a handful of pencils and my favorite pen in my progress monitoring tub. Typically, if I’m assessing something, it is in the hallway during my prep. I need to have everything that we will need to make that assessment faster. They’ll need a pencil to solve math problems and complete a spelling test, depending on the tests that I need to give them.

Depending on the student and the assessments you give, assessing them could be tough. I like to keep stickers or other motivational rewards handy. You never know when you might need them in order to bribe a student to get the results you need.