I couldn't agree more that a child's social, language, cognitive, and physical development affect the assessment process. When I give assessments to my students, I want to consider their differences. Each child learns in a different way and may also need to be assessed in a different manner. Even when you are giving assessments in the upper grades, you should be considerate of how the student is feeling and if they are having a good or bad day.
Chapter 13 discusses assessment in kindergarten. On page 138, it states, 'children are being assessed more often and at younger ages, often with profound effects on their educational futures.' This is something that wasn't done fifteen to twenty years ago. They did assessments but it didn't have the affect that it does today. Today, assessments for any grade can have a great affect on a child and their learning. There are so many things to consider when assessing students. 'To assess appropriately and effectively, a teacher must understand at least when and how to use assessment; how a child's development can affect the assessment process; and the intersections among assessment, program evaluation, and curriculum and teaching.' This is something that I will take into consideration when giving assessments. I want to be able to get the most reliable results I possibly can. The next point that I found important is the reasons why we assess. We assess to better understand a child's overall development, to monitor children's progress through the curriculum, and to identify children who are at risk for academic failure or who may need special education services. The next item of the text that I found important was found under child development. 'A major problem with kindergarten assessments is that most do not meet the standards for reliability and validity' (pg 140). This is due to the differences in the children. Some children have never been exposed to the school environment and some children have been in preschool and daycare for numerous years. The last part of this chapter that I found to be helpful was the principles guiding assessment practices. It gave a good guideline to use in my classroom assessments.
Brandy, I also think that it is important that teachers realize that it is important and necessary to assess their students often and at younger ages. I think that is why I maybe tend to gravitate more toward the informal assessments, they just lend themselves a little bit better to being more flexible to where you can alter them to fit your needs for whatever it is that you are assessing for. Understanding the development of any given child is obviously of extreme importance, otherwise, how are you going to know where to begin with their instruction? I agree with you on the differences between children being the reason that many of them don't meet certain standards. The assessments need to be modified to fit each child as well as it can and take into consideration that child's individual differences.
Chapter #12 of the K Today text was all about assessment in kindergarten. I think that this is a very important topic for people that are thinking about going into teaching to cover. For me, this is the part about teaching that I am most unsure of, so anything that I am able to read becomes helpful for me. As usual, there was a lot of good information in this chapter that I find very beneficial and have learned a lot from. I think that it is really important for future teachers to realize that it is not necessary to have another set of papers to fill out and write on for every single student every time that you decide an assessment needs to be done. Before I understood the differences between formal and informal assessments, I thought that this is what had to happen in order for assessment to occur. While I realize that formal assessments are necessary, I believe that whenever it is conducive to do so, I will use informal assessments to measure the progress of my students. I think that they often give the teacher a better perspective of where the student is actually at in their development rather than measuring their performance according to what is “normal” for their grade level. Like I said, I know it is important and necessary to use both, but I think I will tend to gravitate more toward the informal assessments more often. I also really liked that there was information stating that in order for the assessments to be accurate, if there are cultural or linguistic differences, that has to be taken into account and modified in order to get an accurate picture of where the child is at developmentally. While that should kind of be a no-brainer, I still think it is important that it was discussed to ensure that teachers understand that it is absolutely necessary to make sure those modifications of the assessment are made. In the community that I am from, I am sure that this is very common because we have a large and growing Hispanic/Mexican population. While many of the children can speak English when they enter the public school system, there are still those that are emergent English speakers or those that know very little. I also really liked reading the section regarding special needs. I think that this is very important and it is only going to continue to grow in importance as more and more students that are in school today are being identified as students with special needs. The assessments that are done determine seven different things. They are: 1) whether the child is referred for special educational services and additional assessments 2) whether the child actually has a developmental delay, sensory disability, or health-related problem 3) whether the child is eligible for special education services 4) how the child should be taught within the given program 5) where the child should receive their services and what type of services are needed 6) whether the child is making appropriate progress or not 7) if or to what extent the child has achieved the educational and/or developmental outcomes that are desired. Obviously, all of these things are really important factors regarding special education for a student with special needs. As a teacher, it is important to realize the different factors of the assessments done that dictate whether the student receives services, what kind of services are received, where those services are received, etc.
Response to KaylaBishop I also fear assessments. My problem is not just how to assess your students but what to do with those results. Isn’t it great that we don’t have to constantly make, give, and grade paper tests. Informal tests are the way to go. I know that there are times when formal assessments may need to be done but I’m not sure when those times are. Your right, it is so important to make sure our assessments are culturally and linguistically sensitive. I’m glad the book covered that area well. This area, as well as the children with special needs as you mentioned definitely need their assessments gone over with a fine tooth comb to make sure it will account for any special needs of the child and gives an accurate picture.
Erin Flax This chapter was helpful in that it slightly lessoned my fear of assessments. That vignette on page 138 was so sad and so true. It was easy in my previous experience to love to work with the smart and well behaved students. They got more positive attention and we would try harder and be more creative in our working with them. But this is the opposite of how it should be. Of course we should be great teachers for all students but the students who are behind academically as well as the students with behavior, emotional, mental, and physical disabilities need us more. I will consciously make a choice in my classroom to focus a good chunk of my positive attention to those who are starving for it. Page 141 had interesting information on how some assessments are created with “decoys.” This is when the first option looks right (it is right), but there is another, better answer. I have a class right now that does that but of course we are in college and should be able to handle it. Of course it even trips me up sometimes. It was good to be reminded that kindergarteners are not ready for this type of assessment. It is not an appropriate form of assessment for kindergartener students.
Page 143 stated “When a close relationship exists among curriculum content, instructional strategies, and assessment, then instructional goals, views of teaching, and theories of how children learn and develop are articulated and aligned.” This was just showing how teachers creating their own assessments that follow what they are teaching, are the best. If we teach a lesson or unit with an objective in mind that ties to a standard and then assess their knowledge of that objective they will learn much more about it.
I agree with your statement about the smart and well behaved students. It is easier to work with them and they do get more positive attention it but is important to treat all students the same. Student who are behind should be getting just as much, if not more attention during class time. Great Post, Erin!
Sometimes I feel like I never get enough information about assessment. I think this chapter pointed out several things that I knew, but didn’t really think about. I knew that assessments were to find out about a child’s overall development and used in monitoring. However, I didn’t really think it being used for identifying children at risk – which is somewhat ironic considering I worked in Part C for so long. I liked the section on readiness. My cousin held her son back in another year in preschool because he just was not mature enough for kindergarten. Although he was older than all of the kids now, he is doing so much better. The second year of preschool really helped him out. In Oklahoma, they are considering all day preschool next year. I still haven’t decided if I think it is a good idea though. I hope that they give more opportunities for playtime so these four year olds can just “unwind” so to speak. The final thing I really liked was the chart on page 145, Principles guiding assessment practices. I agree that Assessments should value families. As a prospective teacher, I feel like the more a family can be involved the better relationship that parent(s) will have with the school system.
I think, especially with boys, it isn't bad to hold kids back a year. If that means it gives them a little more time to develop and mature it can only help them. I knew several parents that looked at holding their child back as a bad thing. Now their children are struggling in kindergarten.
I agree with you about the readiness of the child. I have a younger brother that stayed in preschool for 3 years because of his speech. He is also one of the older ones in his grade but he is catching on and really advancing in all subjects. It was only beneficial for him to wait one more to start kindergarten because he speech was not quite there and he would of had a hard time communicating to learn. You did a great job on your post!
I loved the chart on page 145 as well. I need to copy it too. I also agree that teachers should remember that students come from all walks of life - they work at different speeds. However, I think that at the same time those are the students that could be pushed a little harder without forgetting to push the high level kids equally.
Page 139 gives great reasons for assessing children in kindergarten. The first is to better understand their overall development. The second reason is to monitor their progress through the curriculum, and finally to identify children who are at risk for academic failure or who may need special education services. It is important to remember why we are assessing our students throughout the year and what assessments are used for. I will remember these when assessing my own students in the future. On page 140, the text states that most kindergarten assessments do not meet usual standards for reliability and validity which causes most students to be misplaced if only standardized assessment results are used. I thought this quote was very true, especially in the kindergarten world. “A childs level of social, language, cognitive, and physical development affects the assessment process, both in assessing children and in interpreting the results.” It is important to remember that all children learn at different speeds and in several different ways as well. I use this information to my advantage in my future classroom and remember that all areas of development come into play when assessing a child. I also thought the assessing special populations section was important. Cultural and linguistic diversity is increasing in our classrooms, which brings new challenges for assessment. As teachers, our assessments shouldn’t be biased towards linguistic or cultural differences. Also, materials and procedures for these assessments should be carefully chosen. I will use this information to help myself create assessments for those students who are culturally or linguistically diverse.
I agree that if you only use standardized assessments you can misplace children based on the results. It is so important to do informal assessments everyday in the classroom to see where the child really is performing. Some children may just flat out refuse to do a task when prompted and this can skew the results. That same child may do that task while playing and that is why it is important to always be observing children during the day and taking notes.
It is very important to be very observant of your students. In a class I had last semester it was mentioned to have some sort of system to make observational notes about your students.One idea that was mentioned was using colored notecards with students'names on a ring. It was easy to access and you are able to keep track of informal assessments for your students.
Assessment has three main goals, to better understand the children’s overall development, monitor the children’s progress through the curriculum, identify children who are at risk for academic failure or who may need special education services. Some assessment tests range from readiness tests, developmental screening tests, achievement tests and diagnostic tests. These can be either formal or informal. I was lucky enough to attend a developmental screening with the Hays Area Children’s Center and gained some valuable experiences from there. I saw a huge range of children being tested, those who were definitely ready to enter formal schooling and those who needed to receive support from the professionals before entering school. I was surprised at how simple the tests they performing, ranging from hopping on one foot, counting blocks, separating colored blocks, copying a picture, matching pictures, to indentifying body parts. In the book it talks a lot about how different the students who will be entering our classrooms are. The group is not homogeneous; they are culturally and linguistically diverse. “Children’s backgrounds have a profound influence on their knowledge, vocabulary and skills.” Pg. 143 How we assess children needs to account for these differences, and needs to be unbiased. Overall from this reading I gained a lot of insight on assessments used for younger students, but the main goal of all teachers should be making assessments that benefit all children.
Your experience visiting the Hays Area Children's Center must have been so cool! It's really something that children's experiences prior to formal schooling can be so different and that it can affect them so long term. The quote you included in your post brings a lot of that knowledge to light. Home really is the place where education begins. Assessments should benefit all children, and they should be ongoing.
The first thing I really liked about this chapter was the example story it gave in the beginning. It gave a new perspective on why children would benefit from kindergarten, even if they seem too young. My question would be whether or not this would be beneficial to all the children? I feel like sometimes children mature with time, and eventually their brain is able to accept a concept it couldn't before. I did like how the chapter explained the different variables the formal kindergarten entrance assessments don't take into account. Children may know the answer but be confused by the answer or they may be impulsive in their answer and not reflect on what is right. The last thing I enjoyed was the advantages to informal assessments. It noted that the teacher is able to focus on the individual child and pick an assessment that will fit them.
On p. 139, the reasons for assessment are discussed. The first reason being to understand overall development. The second being to monitor progress throughout the curriculum. The third being to identify those who are at risk for academic failure or qualified for special services. I find it important to understand why assessment is so involved in the curriculum. On p. 141-143, the text discusses the different types of assessments. I never realized how many different assessment procedures there are! I am an advocate for informal assessment because I think it's important to consistently know where your students stand throughout the year. However, I can really see the benefit of formal assessments. Formal assessments are those that can measure a child's understanding in a standardized way so that the teacher can compare a child to another child. These results can be beneficial in grouping students together for key learning time. The following lists the four types of assessment used in kindergarten: developmental screening assessment, diagnostic assessment, readiness assessment, and achievement test. The last thing that I am going to touch base on is on p. 144-146. There is a list that begins on the bottom of p. 144 and continues onto p. 146. This list addresses children with special needs and details seven decision points that are related to the assessment of these students. Assessment for children with special needs should be something that is really taken into consideration. It's important to not label children so early in their lives that the label becomes a deterrent for the rest of their educational career. Children with special needs should be assessed regularly, through both informal and formal procedures, because it is imperative that they are receiving adequate attention and services. This chapter addresses things that are really important to success for kindergarteners and teachers. Assessment is so integral to education these days. Ensuring that we are vigilant of student progress is so important. This chapter had a wealth of information.
Kimberly, I would have to agree with your comment about assessments being very important to education these days. With state standards, being so important when the children reach third grade, getting them used to assessing and making sure they are prepared at a young age is vital. Assessments are also a good way for us, as teachers, to assess our own teaching to see if the children are getting the information that we are delivering.
A good point brought up on page 140 is the readiness of the children. Readiness is a term used to describe who prepared children are to begin "formal schooling." Personally, I think this is one of the main factors to be considered before entering kindergarten. The child may be "smart" or ahead of other students, but if the mentality of the child is not ready for formal schooling quite yet then they won't learn to their full potential. I can use this in my classroom by assessing to see if the child is ready and if they are not talk with the parents about the situation.
Another important point made was on page 144 talking about modifications with cultural diversity. We must remember that children from different cultural or linguistic backgrounds do not behave or respond similarly to assessment questions. This is important to remember when assessing because if we are getting different odd results or behaviors it may be because they aren't understanding. I can use this by making sure to make modifications if need be.
The last fact that I found interesting was on page 145 where it stated that assessments hold benefit children. Some teachers assess and only find the negatives, but we should be assessing to see what the child knows or can improve on and find activities that will benefit the child and improve their results. I can use this in my classroom by making sure that I am not assessing in a negative manner rather to see if there is even anything that needs to be worked on with the child in a different way.
Tamra I like what you said about making the assessments centered around the kids and making sure they are relevant. It reminds me of the saying about judging a fish on wither or not they can climb a tree. The tests have to be based on knowledge the students know and given in a way that the child will be able to understand. I also agree with your statement on finding the positives in students when they take the tests. There can be a lot of attention put on students to have the best score and not enough attention put on students who did better then they did last time.
From a young age I hated the idea of assessment and dreaded the days that I had to take them in school. This chapter of the K: Today book gave me a better idea of assessment in the kindergarten year and the different kinds that can be used. The first section of the chapter that stuck out for me was the part that explained the three purposes of assessment. The first purpose is to better understand a child’s overall development. The second is to monitor the child’s progress through the curriculum and lastly, to identify children who are at risk for academic failure or who may need special education services. The second part that helped clarify the assessment process in kindergarten is the explanation of formal and informal assessments. Formal assessments are standardized and the children are being compared to all of the other children their age. Informal assessments can simply be a portfolio kept of the child’s work to reference back to for progress. The last part of this chapter that will be especially useful for me in the future as a teacher will be the chart on page 145. This chart shows the general principle to go by when assessing in early childhood. The six principles that they have provided are that assessments should be beneficial, assessments should have a specific purpose and be reliable, valid, and appropriate for that purpose, they should recognize the developmental limitations of young children, they should be age-appropriate, linguistically appropriate, and should value the families. These ideas, along with many others in this book will make the process of assessing kindergarten children a breeze when it comes to that point. I didn’t have a lot of knowledge before, but I have a lot more now.
Chapter 13 Blog Chapter 13 discusses assessment in kindergarten. This chapter was full of very helpful information. This chapter discussed some of the issues that are brought up when it comes to doing assessments in kindergarten. It opened up the discussion by using a vignette in which a woman’s grandson was accepted into kindergarten based on the results of his assessments in which he was able to identify shapes and colors. The grandmother brings up a great point when talking to the teacher and asking her why is it that students who do know certain information are accepted into kindergarten and those students who do not know the information, are not accepted into the program when they are the ones that are in greater need of learning, more so than the other student. I think this grandmother made a very good point and one that makes a lot of sense. It is surprising that this is not viewpoint held by all early child educators. This chapter also discussed readiness and I think this goes along with the vignette I mentioned above. The author discusses two interpretations of readiness, with the first one being that the child is assessed to find out if they are ready to attend school, and the other interpretation is that the child is assessed to see what types of educational experiences the child is ready for so that the curriculum can be modified to meet the needs of the child. I feel that the first interpretation could definitely have a negative impact on children. The second interpretation seems to be one that goes along with what I have been learning about in each of my education classes in that we need to be able to meet the developmental and educational needs of our students and we figure out what those needs are by using the appropriate assessments. This chapter also brought up three reasons why we do assessments. The first reason is so that we as educators are able to better understand the students overall development. The second reason is to be able to monitor the progress of the student .Lastly, the reason we use assessments is to use them to identify students who may be at risk for failure as well as those who made need special education services.
This chapter was interesting to me because it testing kids is one think that I am not looking forward to. After reading this chapter I found a lot of info that I want to us in the future. I like the idea of having assessments informal because it is less stressful and helps an educator see what a child knows when they are not under pressure. Something else that caught my eye was that assessments are a good thing and it allows a teacher to know where the students are so she knows what to work on more or less. Children come form many different backgrounds and having a screening will help educators know the best way to serve the child. In my future class room I want to us tests to encourage the students to see how much they have learned.
I agree I was not one that wanted to test children either but however it was not just the testing it was the boundaries that they at times place with the formal tests that I have not always agreed with. Many children learn differently and at times standardized test do not do our children much justice as it relates to their knowledge or ability to learn material.
In chapter 13 I learned a lot of good things and information that I knew some of but not in dept as the chapter gave to me. Assessments have always been a touchy thing for me because i have not always agreed with them. The first is the difference between formal and informal. Formal assessments are like standardized tests that are given to compare one child's performance to that of another. Informal assessments include performance, academic, developmental etc. The main reason for these assessments are to understand the child and their development as a whole, secondly it is to monitor a child's progress as you are working through curriculum, and lastly it is to help identify those children who are struggling and could be at risk for failing. I like that you can create your own informal assessments that are not strictly designed like formal test to monitor your children without placing the standard boundaries around them. This is something that I will definitely get creative and use in my classroom.
Secondly is Readiness, this term is used to describe how prepared or ready a child is for Kindergarten. Although many view readiness as a determination as to whether a child should enter Kindergarten it is simply to me a tool used to see how you should instruct that child. It is important to know where they are initially so you may know where to began with the child to ensure success.
Lastly there was the Developmental constraints. This is recognized as assessments that are poorly matched assessments with the developmental skills of the child. It is simply unrealistic assessments for children that at many times can set them up for failure. I will make sure that I do not place these constraints on my students however I will make sure to be conscious of what they need and how to educate them with realistic expectations.
I couldn't agree more that a child's social, language, cognitive, and physical development affect the assessment process. When I give assessments to my students, I want to consider their differences. Each child learns in a different way and may also need to be assessed in a different manner. Even when you are giving assessments in the upper grades, you should be considerate of how the student is feeling and if they are having a good or bad day.
ReplyDeleteChapter 13 discusses assessment in kindergarten. On page 138, it states, 'children are being assessed more often and at younger ages, often with profound effects on their educational futures.' This is something that wasn't done fifteen to twenty years ago. They did assessments but it didn't have the affect that it does today. Today, assessments for any grade can have a great affect on a child and their learning.
ReplyDeleteThere are so many things to consider when assessing students. 'To assess appropriately and effectively, a teacher must understand at least when and how to use assessment; how a child's development can affect the assessment process; and the intersections among assessment, program evaluation, and curriculum and teaching.' This is something that I will take into consideration when giving assessments. I want to be able to get the most reliable results I possibly can.
The next point that I found important is the reasons why we assess. We assess to better understand a child's overall development, to monitor children's progress through the curriculum, and to identify children who are at risk for academic failure or who may need special education services.
The next item of the text that I found important was found under child development. 'A major problem with kindergarten assessments is that most do not meet the standards for reliability and validity' (pg 140). This is due to the differences in the children. Some children have never been exposed to the school environment and some children have been in preschool and daycare for numerous years.
The last part of this chapter that I found to be helpful was the principles guiding assessment practices. It gave a good guideline to use in my classroom assessments.
Brandy,
DeleteI also think that it is important that teachers realize that it is important and necessary to assess their students often and at younger ages. I think that is why I maybe tend to gravitate more toward the informal assessments, they just lend themselves a little bit better to being more flexible to where you can alter them to fit your needs for whatever it is that you are assessing for. Understanding the development of any given child is obviously of extreme importance, otherwise, how are you going to know where to begin with their instruction? I agree with you on the differences between children being the reason that many of them don't meet certain standards. The assessments need to be modified to fit each child as well as it can and take into consideration that child's individual differences.
Chapter #12 of the K Today text was all about assessment in kindergarten. I think that this is a very important topic for people that are thinking about going into teaching to cover. For me, this is the part about teaching that I am most unsure of, so anything that I am able to read becomes helpful for me. As usual, there was a lot of good information in this chapter that I find very beneficial and have learned a lot from.
ReplyDeleteI think that it is really important for future teachers to realize that it is not necessary to have another set of papers to fill out and write on for every single student every time that you decide an assessment needs to be done. Before I understood the differences between formal and informal assessments, I thought that this is what had to happen in order for assessment to occur. While I realize that formal assessments are necessary, I believe that whenever it is conducive to do so, I will use informal assessments to measure the progress of my students. I think that they often give the teacher a better perspective of where the student is actually at in their development rather than measuring their performance according to what is “normal” for their grade level. Like I said, I know it is important and necessary to use both, but I think I will tend to gravitate more toward the informal assessments more often.
I also really liked that there was information stating that in order for the assessments to be accurate, if there are cultural or linguistic differences, that has to be taken into account and modified in order to get an accurate picture of where the child is at developmentally. While that should kind of be a no-brainer, I still think it is important that it was discussed to ensure that teachers understand that it is absolutely necessary to make sure those modifications of the assessment are made. In the community that I am from, I am sure that this is very common because we have a large and growing Hispanic/Mexican population. While many of the children can speak English when they enter the public school system, there are still those that are emergent English speakers or those that know very little.
I also really liked reading the section regarding special needs. I think that this is very important and it is only going to continue to grow in importance as more and more students that are in school today are being identified as students with special needs. The assessments that are done determine seven different things. They are: 1) whether the child is referred for special educational services and additional assessments 2) whether the child actually has a developmental delay, sensory disability, or health-related problem 3) whether the child is eligible for special education services 4) how the child should be taught within the given program 5) where the child should receive their services and what type of services are needed 6) whether the child is making appropriate progress or not 7) if or to what extent the child has achieved the educational and/or developmental outcomes that are desired. Obviously, all of these things are really important factors regarding special education for a student with special needs. As a teacher, it is important to realize the different factors of the assessments done that dictate whether the student receives services, what kind of services are received, where those services are received, etc.
Response to KaylaBishop
DeleteI also fear assessments. My problem is not just how to assess your students but what to do with those results. Isn’t it great that we don’t have to constantly make, give, and grade paper tests. Informal tests are the way to go. I know that there are times when formal assessments may need to be done but I’m not sure when those times are. Your right, it is so important to make sure our assessments are culturally and linguistically sensitive. I’m glad the book covered that area well. This area, as well as the children with special needs as you mentioned definitely need their assessments gone over with a fine tooth comb to make sure it will account for any special needs of the child and gives an accurate picture.
Erin Flax
ReplyDeleteThis chapter was helpful in that it slightly lessoned my fear of assessments. That vignette on page 138 was so sad and so true. It was easy in my previous experience to love to work with the smart and well behaved students. They got more positive attention and we would try harder and be more creative in our working with them. But this is the opposite of how it should be. Of course we should be great teachers for all students but the students who are behind academically as well as the students with behavior, emotional, mental, and physical disabilities need us more. I will consciously make a choice in my classroom to focus a good chunk of my positive attention to those who are starving for it. Page 141 had interesting information on how some assessments are created with “decoys.” This is when the first option looks right (it is right), but there is another, better answer. I have a class right now that does that but of course we are in college and should be able to handle it. Of course it even trips me up sometimes. It was good to be reminded that kindergarteners are not ready for this type of assessment. It is not an appropriate form of assessment for kindergartener students.
Page 143 stated “When a close relationship exists among curriculum content, instructional strategies, and assessment, then instructional goals, views of teaching, and theories of how children learn and develop are articulated and aligned.” This was just showing how teachers creating their own assessments that follow what they are teaching, are the best. If we teach a lesson or unit with an objective in mind that ties to a standard and then assess their knowledge of that objective they will learn much more about it.
I agree with your statement about the smart and well behaved students. It is easier to work with them and they do get more positive attention it but is important to treat all students the same. Student who are behind should be getting just as much, if not more attention during class time. Great Post, Erin!
DeleteSometimes I feel like I never get enough information about assessment. I think this chapter pointed out several things that I knew, but didn’t really think about. I knew that assessments were to find out about a child’s overall development and used in monitoring. However, I didn’t really think it being used for identifying children at risk – which is somewhat ironic considering I worked in Part C for so long. I liked the section on readiness. My cousin held her son back in another year in preschool because he just was not mature enough for kindergarten. Although he was older than all of the kids now, he is doing so much better. The second year of preschool really helped him out. In Oklahoma, they are considering all day preschool next year. I still haven’t decided if I think it is a good idea though. I hope that they give more opportunities for playtime so these four year olds can just “unwind” so to speak. The final thing I really liked was the chart on page 145, Principles guiding assessment practices. I agree that Assessments should value families. As a prospective teacher, I feel like the more a family can be involved the better relationship that parent(s) will have with the school system.
ReplyDeleteI think, especially with boys, it isn't bad to hold kids back a year. If that means it gives them a little more time to develop and mature it can only help them. I knew several parents that looked at holding their child back as a bad thing. Now their children are struggling in kindergarten.
DeleteI agree with you about the readiness of the child. I have a younger brother that stayed in preschool for 3 years because of his speech. He is also one of the older ones in his grade but he is catching on and really advancing in all subjects. It was only beneficial for him to wait one more to start kindergarten because he speech was not quite there and he would of had a hard time communicating to learn. You did a great job on your post!
DeleteHi Jessica!
ReplyDeleteI loved the chart on page 145 as well. I need to copy it too. I also agree that teachers should remember that students come from all walks of life - they work at different speeds. However, I think that at the same time those are the students that could be pushed a little harder without forgetting to push the high level kids equally.
Page 139 gives great reasons for assessing children in kindergarten. The first is to better understand their overall development. The second reason is to monitor their progress through the curriculum, and finally to identify children who are at risk for academic failure or who may need special education services. It is important to remember why we are assessing our students throughout the year and what assessments are used for. I will remember these when assessing my own students in the future.
ReplyDeleteOn page 140, the text states that most kindergarten assessments do not meet usual standards for reliability and validity which causes most students to be misplaced if only standardized assessment results are used. I thought this quote was very true, especially in the kindergarten world. “A childs level of social, language, cognitive, and physical development affects the assessment process, both in assessing children and in interpreting the results.” It is important to remember that all children learn at different speeds and in several different ways as well. I use this information to my advantage in my future classroom and remember that all areas of development come into play when assessing a child.
I also thought the assessing special populations section was important. Cultural and linguistic diversity is increasing in our classrooms, which brings new challenges for assessment. As teachers, our assessments shouldn’t be biased towards linguistic or cultural differences. Also, materials and procedures for these assessments should be carefully chosen. I will use this information to help myself create assessments for those students who are culturally or linguistically diverse.
I agree that if you only use standardized assessments you can misplace children based on the results. It is so important to do informal assessments everyday in the classroom to see where the child really is performing. Some children may just flat out refuse to do a task when prompted and this can skew the results. That same child may do that task while playing and that is why it is important to always be observing children during the day and taking notes.
DeleteIt is very important to be very observant of your students. In a class I had last semester it was mentioned to have some sort of system to make observational notes about your students.One idea that was mentioned was using colored notecards with students'names on a ring. It was easy to access and you are able to keep track of informal assessments for your students.
DeleteAssessment has three main goals, to better understand the children’s overall development, monitor the children’s progress through the curriculum, identify children who are at risk for academic failure or who may need special education services. Some assessment tests range from readiness tests, developmental screening tests, achievement tests and diagnostic tests. These can be either formal or informal. I was lucky enough to attend a developmental screening with the Hays Area Children’s Center and gained some valuable experiences from there. I saw a huge range of children being tested, those who were definitely ready to enter formal schooling and those who needed to receive support from the professionals before entering school. I was surprised at how simple the tests they performing, ranging from hopping on one foot, counting blocks, separating colored blocks, copying a picture, matching pictures, to indentifying body parts. In the book it talks a lot about how different the students who will be entering our classrooms are. The group is not homogeneous; they are culturally and linguistically diverse. “Children’s backgrounds have a profound influence on their knowledge, vocabulary and skills.” Pg. 143 How we assess children needs to account for these differences, and needs to be unbiased. Overall from this reading I gained a lot of insight on assessments used for younger students, but the main goal of all teachers should be making assessments that benefit all children.
ReplyDeleteYour experience visiting the Hays Area Children's Center must have been so cool! It's really something that children's experiences prior to formal schooling can be so different and that it can affect them so long term. The quote you included in your post brings a lot of that knowledge to light. Home really is the place where education begins. Assessments should benefit all children, and they should be ongoing.
DeleteThe first thing I really liked about this chapter was the example story it gave in the beginning. It gave a new perspective on why children would benefit from kindergarten, even if they seem too young. My question would be whether or not this would be beneficial to all the children? I feel like sometimes children mature with time, and eventually their brain is able to accept a concept it couldn't before. I did like how the chapter explained the different variables the formal kindergarten entrance assessments don't take into account. Children may know the answer but be confused by the answer or they may be impulsive in their answer and not reflect on what is right. The last thing I enjoyed was the advantages to informal assessments. It noted that the teacher is able to focus on the individual child and pick an assessment that will fit them.
ReplyDeleteOn p. 139, the reasons for assessment are discussed. The first reason being to understand overall development. The second being to monitor progress throughout the curriculum. The third being to identify those who are at risk for academic failure or qualified for special services. I find it important to understand why assessment is so involved in the curriculum.
ReplyDeleteOn p. 141-143, the text discusses the different types of assessments. I never realized how many different assessment procedures there are! I am an advocate for informal assessment because I think it's important to consistently know where your students stand throughout the year. However, I can really see the benefit of formal assessments. Formal assessments are those that can measure a child's understanding in a standardized way so that the teacher can compare a child to another child. These results can be beneficial in grouping students together for key learning time. The following lists the four types of assessment used in kindergarten: developmental screening assessment, diagnostic assessment, readiness assessment, and achievement test.
The last thing that I am going to touch base on is on p. 144-146. There is a list that begins on the bottom of p. 144 and continues onto p. 146. This list addresses children with special needs and details seven decision points that are related to the assessment of these students. Assessment for children with special needs should be something that is really taken into consideration. It's important to not label children so early in their lives that the label becomes a deterrent for the rest of their educational career. Children with special needs should be assessed regularly, through both informal and formal procedures, because it is imperative that they are receiving adequate attention and services.
This chapter addresses things that are really important to success for kindergarteners and teachers. Assessment is so integral to education these days. Ensuring that we are vigilant of student progress is so important. This chapter had a wealth of information.
Kimberly, I would have to agree with your comment about assessments being very important to education these days. With state standards, being so important when the children reach third grade, getting them used to assessing and making sure they are prepared at a young age is vital. Assessments are also a good way for us, as teachers, to assess our own teaching to see if the children are getting the information that we are delivering.
DeleteA good point brought up on page 140 is the readiness of the children. Readiness is a term used to describe who prepared children are to begin "formal schooling." Personally, I think this is one of the main factors to be considered before entering kindergarten. The child may be "smart" or ahead of other students, but if the mentality of the child is not ready for formal schooling quite yet then they won't learn to their full potential. I can use this in my classroom by assessing to see if the child is ready and if they are not talk with the parents about the situation.
ReplyDeleteAnother important point made was on page 144 talking about modifications with cultural diversity. We must remember that children from different cultural or linguistic backgrounds do not behave or respond similarly to assessment questions. This is important to remember when assessing because if we are getting different odd results or behaviors it may be because they aren't understanding. I can use this by making sure to make modifications if need be.
The last fact that I found interesting was on page 145 where it stated that assessments hold benefit children. Some teachers assess and only find the negatives, but we should be assessing to see what the child knows or can improve on and find activities that will benefit the child and improve their results. I can use this in my classroom by making sure that I am not assessing in a negative manner rather to see if there is even anything that needs to be worked on with the child in a different way.
Tamra I like what you said about making the assessments centered around the kids and making sure they are relevant. It reminds me of the saying about judging a fish on wither or not they can climb a tree. The tests have to be based on knowledge the students know and given in a way that the child will be able to understand.
DeleteI also agree with your statement on finding the positives in students when they take the tests. There can be a lot of attention put on students to have the best score and not enough attention put on students who did better then they did last time.
From a young age I hated the idea of assessment and dreaded the days that I had to take them in school. This chapter of the K: Today book gave me a better idea of assessment in the kindergarten year and the different kinds that can be used. The first section of the chapter that stuck out for me was the part that explained the three purposes of assessment. The first purpose is to better understand a child’s overall development. The second is to monitor the child’s progress through the curriculum and lastly, to identify children who are at risk for academic failure or who may need special education services.
ReplyDeleteThe second part that helped clarify the assessment process in kindergarten is the explanation of formal and informal assessments. Formal assessments are standardized and the children are being compared to all of the other children their age. Informal assessments can simply be a portfolio kept of the child’s work to reference back to for progress.
The last part of this chapter that will be especially useful for me in the future as a teacher will be the chart on page 145. This chart shows the general principle to go by when assessing in early childhood. The six principles that they have provided are that assessments should be beneficial, assessments should have a specific purpose and be reliable, valid, and appropriate for that purpose, they should recognize the developmental limitations of young children, they should be age-appropriate, linguistically appropriate, and should value the families.
These ideas, along with many others in this book will make the process of assessing kindergarten children a breeze when it comes to that point. I didn’t have a lot of knowledge before, but I have a lot more now.
Chapter 13 Blog
ReplyDeleteChapter 13 discusses assessment in kindergarten. This chapter was full of very helpful information. This chapter discussed some of the issues that are brought up when it comes to doing assessments in kindergarten. It opened up the discussion by using a vignette in which a woman’s grandson was accepted into kindergarten based on the results of his assessments in which he was able to identify shapes and colors. The grandmother brings up a great point when talking to the teacher and asking her why is it that students who do know certain information are accepted into kindergarten and those students who do not know the information, are not accepted into the program when they are the ones that are in greater need of learning, more so than the other student. I think this grandmother made a very good point and one that makes a lot of sense. It is surprising that this is not viewpoint held by all early child educators.
This chapter also discussed readiness and I think this goes along with the vignette I mentioned above. The author discusses two interpretations of readiness, with the first one being that the child is assessed to find out if they are ready to attend school, and the other interpretation is that the child is assessed to see what types of educational experiences the child is ready for so that the curriculum can be modified to meet the needs of the child. I feel that the first interpretation could definitely have a negative impact on children. The second interpretation seems to be one that goes along with what I have been learning about in each of my education classes in that we need to be able to meet the developmental and educational needs of our students and we figure out what those needs are by using the appropriate assessments.
This chapter also brought up three reasons why we do assessments. The first reason is so that we as educators are able to better understand the students overall development. The second reason is to be able to monitor the progress of the student .Lastly, the reason we use assessments is to use them to identify students who may be at risk for failure as well as those who made need special education services.
This chapter was interesting to me because it testing kids is one think that I am not looking forward to. After reading this chapter I found a lot of info that I want to us in the future. I like the idea of having assessments informal because it is less stressful and helps an educator see what a child knows when they are not under pressure.
ReplyDeleteSomething else that caught my eye was that assessments are a good thing and it allows a teacher to know where the students are so she knows what to work on more or less. Children come form many different backgrounds and having a screening will help educators know the best way to serve the child.
In my future class room I want to us tests to encourage the students to see how much they have learned.
I agree I was not one that wanted to test children either but however it was not just the testing it was the boundaries that they at times place with the formal tests that I have not always agreed with. Many children learn differently and at times standardized test do not do our children much justice as it relates to their knowledge or ability to learn material.
DeleteIn chapter 13 I learned a lot of good things and information that I knew some of but not in dept as the chapter gave to me. Assessments have always been a touchy thing for me because i have not always agreed with them. The first is the difference between formal and informal. Formal assessments are like standardized tests that are given to compare one child's performance to that of another. Informal assessments include performance, academic, developmental etc. The main reason for these assessments are to understand the child and their development as a whole, secondly it is to monitor a child's progress as you are working through curriculum, and lastly it is to help identify those children who are struggling and could be at risk for failing. I like that you can create your own informal assessments that are not strictly designed like formal test to monitor your children without placing the standard boundaries around them. This is something that I will definitely get creative and use in my classroom.
ReplyDeleteSecondly is Readiness, this term is used to describe how prepared or ready a child is for Kindergarten. Although many view readiness as a determination as to whether a child should enter Kindergarten it is simply to me a tool used to see how you should instruct that child. It is important to know where they are initially so you may know where to began with the child to ensure success.
Lastly there was the Developmental constraints. This is recognized as assessments that are poorly matched assessments with the developmental skills of the child. It is simply unrealistic assessments for children that at many times can set them up for failure. I will make sure that I do not place these constraints on my students however I will make sure to be conscious of what they need and how to educate them with realistic expectations.