The first week of school is exciting, but it can also feel overwhelming. As teachers, we want to get to know our students, build classroom routines, and begin meaningful instruction. The last thing most of us want is to spend hours administering assessments that leave students exhausted and take valuable instructional time away.

The good news is that you don't need to test every skill to understand where your students are. By using a combination of quick screening activities, classroom observations, and purposeful conversations,you can gather the information you need to plan effective instruction—without turning the first week into a testing marathon.

Whether you're a general education teacher, interventionist, or special education teacher, here are the five areas I focus on during the first week of school.

1. Start with Classroom Observations

Before I administer a single assessment, I spend time simply watching my students.

• How do they approach new tasks?
• Do they follow multi-step directions?
• Can they work independently?
• How do they interact with peers?

These observations often tell me just as much as formal assessments. A student who struggles to get started may need executive functioning support, while another who avoids reading activities may be masking difficulties with decoding.

Observation also helps establish a baseline for classroom behaviors, attention, and learning habits that will guide future instruction.

2. Use Quick Reading Screeners

Rather than administering lengthy reading tests immediately, I begin with short assessments that target foundational reading skills.

I look at:

• Phonemic awareness
• Letter-sound knowledge
• Decoding
• High-frequency words
• Oral reading fluency (when appropriate)

These assessments typically take only a few minutes per student but provide valuable information about where instruction should begin.

Research consistently shows that early identification of reading difficulties allows educators to provide targeted intervention before learning gaps widen. Screening measures should be brief, reliable, and used to inform instruction—not simply collect data.

3. Gather Meaningful Math Data

In math, I focus on understanding students' mathematical thinking rather than how many problems they can complete.

Some of my favorite beginning-of-year activities include:

• Counting tasks
• Number sense checks
• Place value assessments
• Basic fact fluency
• Mental math conversations

As students explain their thinking, I learn much more than I would from a multiple-choice test. Listening to their reasoning helps identify misconceptions that may not be obvious from correct or incorrect answers alone.

For younger students, a simple counting activity or quick place value check often provides enough information to begin planning small-group instruction.

4. Collect an Authentic Writing Sample

One of the easiest ways to learn about students is to ask them to write.

I keep the prompt simple:

• Tell me about your summer.
• What are you excited to learn this year?
• Describe your favorite place.

These writing samples reveal much more than handwriting.

They provide insight into:

• Sentence structure
• Vocabulary
• Spelling
• Organization
• Grammar
• Fine motor skills

Best of all, students often view this as a fun getting-to-know-you activity rather than a formal assessment.

5. Listen to Students Talk

Some of the richest assessment data comes through conversation.

During partner activities, morning meetings, and read-aloud discussions, I pay attention to students' oral language skills.

• Can they answer questions using complete sentences?
• Do they use age-appropriate vocabulary?
• Can they explain their thinking?

Oral language provides a strong foundation for reading comprehension and written expression. These informal conversations help identify students who may need additional language support before academic challenges become more apparent.

• Remember: Assess to Inform, Not to Label

The purpose of beginning-of-year assessment isn't to assign students a label or determine what they can't do.

Instead, it's about answering one important question:

• What does this student need from me right now?

When we focus on gathering meaningful information, we can begin targeted instruction much sooner.

Research supports using screening assessments as one component of a comprehensive instructional framework. The National Center on Intensive Intervention recommends using brief, valid screening tools alongside teacher observations and ongoing progress monitoring to identify students who may benefit from additional support.

Less Testing, Better Teaching

The first week of school should be about building relationships as much as gathering data.

Quick assessments, authentic classroom activities, and thoughtful observations provide a clearer picture of student needs than hours of formal testing alone.

When teachers use assessment purposefully, students spend less time testing and more time learning.

And that's exactly how the school year should begin.

Chat Soon-

References

National Center on Intensive Intervention. (2024). Screening Tools Charts. U.S. Department of Education.

National Center on Improving Literacy. (2023). Universal Screening: K–2 Reading.

Fuchs, D., & Fuchs, L. S. (2006). Introduction to Response to Intervention: What, Why, and How Valid Is It? Reading Research Quarterly, 41(1), 93–99.