Week 13: Assessment

The story of Sarah was enlightening and yet factual. I felt like I really know the child. In addition, I felt like her teacher, researcher, mother and Sarah herself, know her core frame work.
Once during a preschool graduation the teacher’s of the prekindergarten class did verbal stories on each child in their classroom. I remember feeling so engaged and excited about each child graduating. The preschool stories really bring you into the heart of a child. Each child uniquely framed with individual talents. The children were proud of whom they were and the parents were nodding in agreement.
In a summary of a comprehensive literature review on formative assessment, Black and Wiliam (1998, pp.14-15) advocated approaches that focus on several essential elements and include the development of habits of life-long learning. They state:
"The evidence we have presented here establishes that a clearly productive way to start implementing a classroom-focused policy [for raising standards] would be to improve formative assessment. This same evidence also establishes that to do this would not be to concentrate on some minor or idiosyncratic aspect of the whole business of teaching and learning.
Rather it would be to concentrate on several essential elements, namely
1) the quality of teacher-pupil interactions
2)the stimulus and help for pupils to take active responsibility for their own learning
3)the particular help needed to move pupils out of the ‘low-attainment’ trap, and
4)the development thereby of the habits needed by all if they are to become capable of life-long learning."
It has been researched that it’s effective for children to follow the same teacher for a few years. The positive side to this is that the teacher knows her students well and can create a platform of learning tailored to their needs. The students also understand the structure of the classroom, and if they have a good teacher, are actively engaged in learning.
Much of the teachers’ time, in the beginning of the school year either formally or not formally, is getting to know her students. If each student came with a “learning story” and all the information it contains, this would bridge the beginning of the year gap.
I thought it was very interesting how Sarah had the same desires, likes and ambitions from a young girl to an older girl. These ambitions just became more defined. If we, as teachers, can tap into the DNA (so to speak) or the frame work, of the child and set them on the course of learning early in life. Encouraging their strengths, not labeling their weakness, I think we’ll find these children grow up to be better more self initiated learners.
To me it seemed that her mother was very supportive of her being herself and not trying to create her into someone else. She noted that she wished they would have the “learning story” assessment in the older grades.
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Facilitating Child Friendships
November 17
"Adults need to take a more active role in many ways, than in the past, in helping children to learn how to be friends and what you do to be friends, because they're having less spontaneous opportunities to interact with peers in positive give-and-take ways."

It is true that child’s play has changed in the last 20 years. So many activities that children use to engage in “one on one” are changing to interaction “side by side” play.

When I was young the neighborhood children would all play outside, hide and go seek, baseball, football, climbing trees etc. We would have to communicate and figure out what we were going to play. There would 20 to 30 children playing every night. Today my children play outside only under supervision. When they have friends to the house often they play the WI side by side, or one will be on the computer and other doing something else. The time for play has lessened, but what effect will this have on the next generation?