Choosing the Proper Assessment Scenarios

Purposeful assessment drives instruction and affects learning. Assessment is an integral part of teaching and learning. Purposeful assessment practices help teachers and students understand where they have been, where they are, and where they might go next (Guiding Principle 3: Purposeful assessment drives instruction, 2016). Assessment provides educators, parents, and families with critical information about a child’s development and growth. Assessment can Identify children who may need additional support and determine if there is a need for intervention or support services ("Early Childhood Assessment: Resources for Early Learning", 2017).

This is 4-year-old Henry’s first being in a school setting. During the parent/teacher conference his teacher expressed to the parents that Henry needs guidance to start tasks as well as to complete them. His parents share that they believe he is underachieving. He tends to avoid fine motor skills, particularly drawing and writing, and seems to have difficulty managing Lego blocks. He finds it hard to socialize appropriately with other children, and will sometimes have outbursts of temper, particularly when frustrated, and cries frequently. His parents were given behavioral advice from an agency partnered with the school and started in an occupational therapy program to help with fine motor and perceptual skills. Now 5 years old, Henry’s parents are reporting that things have worsened. He is not completing task and needs more prompting to stay focused.  He is continuing to underachieve and still experiences problems with socialization, but he is very interested in geography and world political events.

Sammie is a 1st grader who lives with both parents.  She demonstrates no medical problems. Sammie has attended the same school since Pre-K.  Sammie’s teacher reports she is having problems with reading; she is not meeting the district’s reading expectations.  Sammie can read most words, but struggles decoding those she does not know. Her fluency rate is low, and she struggles with comprehension. Currently, Sammie is struggling in mathematics and spelling. Sammie met all reading expectations in kindergarten, but lagged behind until the end of the year. She does well with math skills, but fails to be successful when given word problems to solve.  Simple math sheets seem to be when Sammie scores the highest in mathematics. With modified spelling lists, she is still not successful.  She struggles spelling basic 1st grade words, and at times, misspells common sight words.

References

Early Childhood Assessment: Resources for Early Learning. (2017). Resources for Early Learning. Retrieved from http://resourcesforearlylearning.org/fm/early-childhood-assessment/

Guiding Principle 3: Purposeful assessment drives instruction. (2016) Retrieved from http://dpi.wi.gov/sites/default/files/imce/cal/pdf/guiding-principles3.pdf

Policies and National Regulations and Standards for Early Childhood Education

North Carolina has an office known as the office of early learning which focuses on grades pk-3. This office supports children by promoting other linkages for reforming early education for North Carolina's children. The standards used for early childhood is Foundations which describes goals for all children’s development and learning, no matter what program they may be served in, what language they speak, what disabilities they may have, or what family circumstances they are growing up in. Foundations provides age-appropriate goals and developmental indicators for each age level (infant, toddler, and preschooler). The link to this information can be found at http://www.dpi.state.nc.us/earlylearning/

NAEYC believes that policy makers, the early childhood profession, and other stakeholders in young children’s lives should “construct comprehensive systems of curriculum, assessment, and program evaluation guided by sound early childhood practices, effective early learning standards and program standards, and a set of core principles and values: belief in civic and democratic values; commitment to ethical behavior on behalf of children; use of important goals as guides to action; coordinated systems; support for children as individuals and members of families, cultures,1 and communities; partnerships with families; respect for evidence; and shared accountability.” (p.2) Foundations and one of NAEYC positions align in the belief of using goals as guides. Foundations has goals in areas such as literacy, mathematics, social-emotional, cognitive, and physical. The goals set for each age level serves as a guide for activities and lessons. As someone who has used Foundations I feel that all those teaching early childhood should use this to serve as a guide for planning activities and lessons. Everyone in the early childhood community should be using the same guides to ensure that everyone is one the same page. Guides should be research based.

1.      How can teachers use assessments to enhance cooperative learning?

2.      How can assessment in early learning be enhanced?

3.      What are some ways to create portfolios using assessment information for parents and next year’s teacher to see?

4.      What are some things you can do to ensure that all children are being assessed?

References

Akers, L., Atkins-Burnett, S., Monahan, S., Carta, J., Wasik, B., & Boller, K. (2015). What Does it Mean to use Ongoing Assessment to Individualize Instruction in Early Childhood? (1st ed.). Retrieved from http://www.acf.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/opre/what_does_it_mean_to_use_ongoing_assessment_to_individualize.pdf

National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC). (2003). Early Childhood Curriculum, Assessment and Program Evaluation. Retrieved from https://www.naeyc.org/files/naeyc/file/positions/CAPEexpand.pdf.

National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS). (2012). Early childhood generalist standards. (3^rd edition). Retrieved from http://boardcertifiedteachers.org/sites/default/files/EC-GEN.pdf.

Office of Early Learning. (2016). Dpi.state.nc.us. Retrieved from http://www.dpi.state.nc.us/earlylearning/

Scholar Practitioners as Program Evaluators

I am exciting about the course Evaluating and Supporting Early Childhood Programs because I would like to help my county form or complete evaluations. The county that I currently work in seems to always be adapting the latest curriculum in some subject area. However little to no evaluations are done to check the effectiveness of the newly adapted curriculum.  This course can also show me how to evaluate my effectiveness in my own classroom and ensuring that what I am doing is aligning with my programs vision. One question I have is with some evaluations already being in place within certain program how do you go about having those tweaked to become better?

After completing this course I believe I can impact the process of evaluating program quality by creating a well-planned and carefully executed evaluation for my county’s Pre-K program. This course will show be how to create an evaluation that is inclusive and replicable.

Fostering Classroom Communities

The title of the dissertation is Preschool Teachers’ Perspectives on Caring Relationships, Autonomy, and Intrinsic Motivation in Two Cultural Settings.

Explanation of the study

This qualitative study explored prekindergarten teachers' viewpoints on caring relationships and how these relationships affect children's independence and enthusiasm in prekindergarten in two cultural settings: one city in China and another in the U.S. Data was collected from prekindergarten teachers in both locations using a qualitative interviewing research strategy (Tian, 2012). Tian’s (2012) study asked the following research questions (1) how do preschool teachers in each cultural setting understand and construct caring relationships with and among children in their classrooms? (2) What are preschool teachers’ understandings of and experiences in fostering autonomy and intrinsic motivation in preschool children in each cultural setting? (3) How are teachers’ experiences in caring and their relationships with children influenced by cultural and social contexts? There was a total of 20 participants, 10 in Portland and 10 from in Shenzhen. Each participant participated in an interview. Data was collected and evaluated based off of the information given in the interviews. This study helps the education world because an improved understanding of independence could help educators expand their practices and accomplish the shared goals of education, for example meeting the developmental needs of young children.

Resources

Some important resources for this study was the actual interview questions used for the participants. The 20 participants also served as a resource. Bowlby was another resource that created a solid foundation for the conceptual framework which was attachment theory.

Supportive learning environments

Tian’s (2012) study is significance because it offers opportunities for educators to learn from one another as well as reflect on their own beliefs about education for young children. Teachers’ opinions about learning and teaching are affected by their increasingly global knowledge and changes in each society because of the influence of global trends in education.  In order to accomplish the common goal to advance education for children, it is vital to be aware of the role of culture in teachers’ viewpoints and beliefs on education.

References

Tian, X. (2012). Preschool teachers' perspectives on caring relationships, autonomy, and intrinsic motivation in two cultural settings (Order No. 3503047). Available from ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global. (1000524245). Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com.ezp.waldenulibrary.org/docview/1000524245?accountid=14872

 

Introduction

My name is Temeka Thatch. I was born and raised in Greensboro, NC. I am currently a Pre-K teacher in Greensboro, NC. This is my first year back in Pre-K. Prior to this I taught kindergarten for five years. All of my experience has been in Title 1 schools, which serve those considered to be low class. I chose early childhood because I believe it is vital to have a strong educational foundation. I have known for a while that teaching is my life's calling. I've been working with children ranging from birth-kindergarten since the age of thirteen. At the age of thirteen, I also knew that I would one day go on to graduate from college with a bachelors', but I also knew I couldn't stop there. It is my desire to pursue an advanced degree because I am committed to lifelong learning, and I want to advance in my career. I am currently working towards a Doctorate in Early Childhood. I wish to one day teach at the colligate level, equipping future educators for the classroom.

Connecting With My Community

This quarter has been somewhat of a challenge with me trying to get back in the swing of school and balancing everything else in my life. For me this is a busy time because it is the end of the school year.  I am grateful for everything that I have learned thus far. I am now able to look at my daughter and look for milestones. My family looks at me as a resource for family members with younger children.

My passion is ensuring that pre-k is mandatory in my home state of North Carolina. This passion grew from me watching many children come into my class behind because they did not attend a preschool program through our county schools. This children struggle to catch up throughout the year often times not meeting the end of year goal.

I would love to connect with colleagues, however I share a similar experience like Stacie. Fear often holds me back from connecting with others.  I would like to change things around by overcoming fear. I would like to thank everyone for sharing during these past weeks, your insights have been very helpful to me. I look forward to working with everyone in future classes and wish you all the best of luck! Keep pressing towards your goals and dreams!

Your Personal Language and Literacy Development Journey

One memory that I have is with my own child. At seven months she begin trying to repeat words and sounds that she heard. You could make out her saying “dada”. She also tried to say her uncle’s name Samuel and John. She would match up the syllables to their name. I wanted to make sure she that she has a love for reading so I not only read to her but I encourage everyone around her to read to her as well. She has also found a love for the letter a song I let her listen to on YouTube. Through this class I have a better understanding of language milestones for my child. According to research I have found it is good that I allow her to listen to letter sound songs. Before infants are ready to speak their first word, they listen attentively to the sounds around them (Pence Turnbull, K. L., & Justice, L. M., 2012).  The articles and information from the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association was very helpful in helping me know what my child should be doing at each age category.  

One topic I would like to know more about and advocate for is effects of the lack of preschool programs. According to “The State of Preschool Yearbook”, North Carolina lacks access to preschool, however, the programs that they do have received a perfect score of 10 in quality. North Carolina only serves 23 percent of its 4- year- old. NEA, which is the National Education Association, has the same belief as me, which is that public schools have a duty to be the main provider of preschool programs, and supplementary funding should be allocated to fund them in the same way as K-12 schools. It is my desire that all students will have a successful educational journey. Achievement in school influences success in life.

 

References

Pence Turnbull, K. L., & Justice, L. M. (2012). Language development from theory to practice (2nd ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson, Inc.

Pre-K Access Lacking in Many Rural States, Report Says ... (n.d.). Retrieved from http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/rural_education/2014/05/pre-k_access_lacking