When I Think of Child Development …

When I Think of Child Development I think of the whole child.  As I complete my early childhood development class I have a better understanding of the three domains that intervene together creating the whole child. My knowledge has deepened and my ideas have changed regarding children and their places in our future society.  Reflecting back on course resources I have chosen the following quotes.

Let us put our minds together and see what life we can make for our children.

—Sitting Bull, Hunkpapa Lakota Sioux chief

Can you only imagine what possibilities our children could explore if we as parents, teachers were all in one accord preparing their future.

Every child is gifted. They just unwrap their packages at different times.

—Anonymous

This is so true. I understand after raising two daughters and teaching early childhood.

There are no seven wonders of the world in the eyes of a child. There are seven million.

—Walt Streightiff, American author

We as adults can learn from children. They explore with open minds and curiosity. Through their eyes everything is huge.

Assessing the Whole Child

One of the most important ideas to remember is “What is the purpose of the assessment?  What information are you trying to gather and what is the intent of the assessment?” A teacher may assess her class at the beginning of the year to establish activities and reading centers to help establish student achievement.   A teacher will then assess periodically throughout the year to evaluate student progress, how well her children are learning, and students learning styles.  These assessments do not always have to be standardized test.  Some have said that performance assessment is anything that requires students to “do” something as opposed to filling in a bubble on an answer sheet (Stewart).   To assess the whole child a proactive teacher will incorporate portfolios, performance tasks, journals, and projects both written and oral. Using some of these tools, a teacher will be able to identify a child’s strengths and weaknesses. 

While I was researching topics I ran across this web site concerning assessing teachers and not the students. I couldn’t help but to read on. I particularly liked this statement: Importantly, looking at student test scores is not the way to assess teacher quality.  Different classes have different students, different tests produce different results, students will test differently on different days, etc.  Instead we should be looking at what teachers do (Kruse).  We are often judged or assessed by individual’s performance and not the big picture.  There are many obstacles we are faced with and no control over them. 

I believe assessing for both students and teachers needs to have a purpose and it needs to be fair.

Reference

Kruse,  Jerrid W. Teaching as a dynamic activity

Retrieved June6,2011rhttp://educatech.wordpress.com/2011/01/09/assess-the-teacher-not-the-students/

Stewart, Patrick. ().  UCLA Center for the Study of Evaluation.  ASSESSING THE WHOLE CHILD.

                Retrieved   June 6, 2011,  http://www.cse.ucla.edu/products/guidebooks/wolekid.pdf