Why is Assessment Important?

                                         

   Assessment is important because of all the decisions you will make about children when teaching them. The decisions facing our three teachers all involve how best to educate children. Like them, you will be called upon every day to make decisions before, during, and after your teaching. Whereas some of these decisions will seem small and inconsequential, others will be “high stakes,” influencing the life course of children. All of your assessment decisions taken as a whole will direct and alter children’s learning outcomes.  Below outlines for you some purposes of assessment and how assessment can enhance your teaching and student learning. All of these purposes are important; if you use assessment procedures appropriately, you will help all children learn well.

The following general principles should guide both policies and practices for the assessment of young children:

Assessment should bring about benefits for children. Gathering accurate information from young children is difficult and potentially stressful. Assessments must have a clear benefit—either in direct services to the child or in improved quality of educational programs.

Assessment should be tailored to a specific purpose and should be reliable, valid, and fair for that purpose. Assessments designed for one purpose are not necessarily valid if used for other purposes. In the past, many of the abuses of testing with young children have occurred because of misuse.

Assessment policies should be designed recognizing that reliability and validity of assessments increase with children’s age. The younger the child, the more difficult it is to obtain reliable and valid assessment data. It is particularly difficult to assess children’s cognitive abilities accurately before age six. Because of problems with reliability and validity, some types of assessment should be postponed until children are older, while other types of assessment can be pursued, but only with necessary safeguards.

Assessment should be age appropriate in both content and the method of data collection. Assessments of young children should address the full range of early learning and development, including physical well-being and motor development; social and emotional development; approaches toward learning; language development; and cognition and general knowledge. Methods of assessment should recognize that children need familiar contexts to be able to demonstrate their abilities. Abstract paper-and-pencil tasks may make it especially difficult for young children to show what they know.

Assessment should be linguistically appropriate, recognizing that to some extent all assessments are measures of language. Regardless of whether an assessment is intended to measure early reading skills, knowledge of color names, or learning potential, assessment results are easily confounded by language proficiency, especially for children who come from home backgrounds with limited exposure to English, for whom the assessment would essentially be an assessment of their English proficiency. Each child’s first- and second-language development should be taken into account when determining appropriate assessment methods and in interpreting the meaning of assessment results.

Parents should be a valued source of assessment information, as well as an audience for assessment. Because of the fallibility of direct measures of young children, assessments should include multiple sources of evidence, especially reports from parents and teachers. Assessment results should be shared with parents as part of an ongoing process that involves parents in their child’s education.⁴

Purposes of Assessment

Identify what children know

Identify children's special needs

Determine appropriate placement

Select appropriate curricula to meet children's individual needs

Enjoy,

Ms. Nora Sierra

Early Childhood Coordinator

Kindergarten Teacher

Discovery School

      

The Power of a Good Preschool Math Program

                                                      

All preschool math program requirements and schools look to strengthen math instruction for students across the grades. Parents and educators can play an important role in ensuring that practices that have proven to be effective in promoting math learning are in place:

·        Collect baseline information. Know what concepts and skills a child has already learned so that an effective program of instruction and support can be designed and implemented early in the preschool year.

·        Children will need different types of instruction and support. Teachers will want to meet students “where they are” and tailor instruction to build on the individual child’s knowledge and ability.

·        Make math real. Be sure to reinforce and practice math learning throughout the day, in school, at home, and in the community.

·        Learn math by living math. Focus less on passive learning (such as listening to someone explain and demonstrate), and provide lots of hands-on activities. Young children (and older ones too!) learn by doing.

·        Forge parent-teacher partnerships. Many parents aren’t sure how to teach their preschoolers math at home. Use parent-teacher conferences to discuss strategies that have been successful in the classroom and talk about how these can be reinforced in everyday games and activities at home.

Enjoy,

Ms. Nora Sierra

Kindergarten Teacher

Early Childhood Coordinator

Discovery School

Author Studies for Early Childhood

1. Help students develop their reading skills

Author studies necessarily require lots of reading, giving kids plenty of opportunities to improve their reading fluency. In addition, teachers can use author studies to individualize reading instruction by grouping students according to their reading levels and helping them choose an appropriate author to study.

2. Build critical thinking skills

With author studies, students learn to compare and contrast themes, analyze text and illustrations, and make connections between an author's life and his/her work and between the author's work and the reader's own life and work.

3. Improve writing skills

An author becomes a "writing mentor" for readers as they read and study his/her work and respond to it through a variety of writing. This "mentoring" and students' writing responses can help kids build confidence in their writing and can even inspire them to become authors themselves.

4. Forge a deeper attachment to books

Kids often bond with "their" author, which makes reading a more personal, fulfilling experience. Kids may even want to read books that influenced their author, further expanding their reading experience.

5. Establish a community of readers

Author studies help classes, and even whole schools, form closer connections through shared reading experiences.

6. Expose kids to different types of literary voices and styles

Like adults, many kids prefer a particular kind of book, such as non-fiction, series fiction, fantasy, etc. An author study can be used to persuade kids to branch out. In addition, some authors, including Newbery Medalists Avi and Lois Lowry, write in a variety of literary genres, which makes it easy for kids who do author studies on them to try out different types of reading.

7. Boost information literacy skills

A key component of author studies is researching an author's life and work, using print and online resources. This research provides a built-in opportunity for teachers to teach information literacy skills, especially how to find information sources and determine if they are credible.

8. Plug in easily to the curriculum

Teachers can do a short or long author studies, depending on available time.

9. Make connections across the curriculum

Choosing a non-fiction author is the easiest way for teachers to connect science, math and/or history units with their language arts teaching. But these connections also can be made using elements of a fiction author's books (i.e., setting in a particular time or place, animal or historic characters).

10. Add fun to the school day!

Author studies are an entertaining way to spark students' life-long interest in reading, a particularly important factor for new readers and reluctant readers.

Enjoy,

Ms. Nora Sierra

Early Childhood Coordinator

Discovery School

               THE DISCOVERY SCHOOL 

MARCH READ –A- THON

 

At Discovery School we love to read and we want to motivate our students to continue to discover the wonderful world found in books, where just about anything can happen! Through the DS READ-A-THON our Early Childhood and Elementary (Grades K-5) students will be encouraged to read more often in the classroom and at home.

In organizing this READ-A-THON our objective is to help our students re-discover the joy of reading.  A READ-A-THON  is an event that encourages students and their families to read more, try new books, and have fun doing it. Extensive research proves that children who read for pleasure will gain advantages that last their whole lives. Research also demonstrates with overwhelming evidence that literacy has a significant relationship with a person’s happiness and success. Furthermore, the academic benefits of a strong leisure reading habit are not confined to improved reading ability. Leisure reading makes students more articulate, develops higher order reasoning, and promotes critical thinking – all of these skills for lifelong learning skills!

Our READ-A-THON will take place from March 3 to March 31, 2014. Each student will be given a Reading Log sheet and a special bookmark for this event. The goal is for every student to read as many books as he or she can, and keep a record of his or her reading. Once the sheet had been filled out, each student will need to turn it in to their homeroom teacher, and will be given a new one. The student in each class who, at the end of the month, reads more grade level (or above grade level books) will be honored in an assembly, and will be treated to a special lunch outside the school on Friday, April 4.

We ask our parents to support his initiative at home by providing their child with appropriate books for reading. Parents can borrow books from their child’s class library, check out books from our school library, download (free or purchased) books for their e-readers, borrow from a friend…the possibilities are endless! Let’s face it, parents will LOVE seeing their child lost in the world of a “cant-put-it-down” book! Who doesn't want to bring reading back into family time?! 

Helping My Child Read and Write

                                                                   

You are your child’s first and most important teacher. When you help your

child learn to read, write, and think critically, you are opening the door to the

rich world of learning.

For your child, learning to read can begin with listening to you reading stories

and newspaper articles aloud. Before long, your child will show interest in

reading stories and other materials on his or her own. It is very important to

talk about the ideas in a book or magazine, to ask questions that encourage

your child to think, and to let your child talk to you about his or her responses

to what has been read.

Your child can learn how to read and write more easily with your help. With

regular practice, he or she will develop fluency in both reading and writing. At

the same time, your child will also learn to think critically about the stories or

informational materials that he or she reads.

Families can incorporate literacy activities anywhere – developing literacy is

not just what children do while at school. It is important that you look for

opportunities for your child to learn wherever you are and whenever you can.

Literacy is part of every day in some way, no matter what you are doing or

where you are. Literacy skills are used in all kinds of situations – for example,

when reading food labels, when talking with other children on the soccer

field, when discussing a movie with the family, or when writing lists to be

posted on the refrigerator.

It’s important for you to encourage your child and to show that you have

confidence in him or her. Avoid comparing your child’s performance with

that of other children. Remember that learning to read and write does not

take place all at once. Also, learning to read and write is not always easy, and

children need to know that everyone learns at different rates. Children learn

to read and write over time with lots of practice and with support from parents

and teachers.

Enjoy,

Ms. Nora Sierra

Early Childhood Coordinator

Discovery School

FRIENDSHIP IN THE PRESCHOOL YEARS

                                                              

At age three or four years, your child might be very skilled at interacting with peers, especially if they have siblings close to their own age. But even if they had little experience getting along with other children, that doesn’t automatically, place them at a disadvantage. A child who is a beginner with peers can catch on quickly, while some old hands might need to unlearn behaviors (such as toy snatching) that worked in a previous setting, but not anymore.

In addition to his past experiences, a child’s temperament plays a big role in how easily he gets along with other people. A moderately active, outgoing, cheerful child often has a relatively easy time. A child with high energy and strong impulses often has more negative early relationships until he develops some measure of self-control. A cautious child might spend lots of time observing from a distance, until he’s more comfortable in a given setting. Even then, he might choose to have one or two friends, rather than several. It takes parents who know their children well, and teachers who can work with a range of different children, to make the preschool experience positive for every child.

Friends are vital to early childhood children’s healthy development. Research has found that children who lack friends can suffer from emotional and mental difficulties later in life. Friendships provide children with more than just fun playmates. Friendships help children develop emotionally and morally. In interacting with friends, children learn a lot of social skills, such as how to communicate, cooperate, and solve problems. They practice controlling their emotions and responding to the emotions of others. They develop the ability to think through and negotiate different situations that arise in their relationships. Having friends even affects children’s school performance. Children tend to have better attitudes about school and learning when they have friends to share it with.

Enjoy,

Ms. Nora Sierra

Early Childhood Coordinator

The Importance of MAP Testing

                                                                                   

Why take standardized tests?

Standardized tests are nationally normed. This means that thousands of students take the test and are ranked based on their performance on this test. When your child takes the test, the results indicate where your child is in relation to the thousands of students who were in the norm group. If your child is in the 85th percentile, this means that your child scored higher than 84% of the students in the norm group. This score gives the parents an accurate picture of where their child is in relation to other children of the same age and grade group.
Standardized tests can also be used to track student growth. The MAP test utilizes a RIT score. When your child takes the test in the fall, he receives a RIT score. The goal then is to improve the RIT score by 5 points when taking the test in the spring. Parents who keep the achievement test scores and compare them from test to test will see a legitimate record of student progress.

The MAP results share specifically which concepts in each subject area were mastered and shows the level of mastery. This allows the parent and the teacher to focus specifically on areas of weakness.
How should I have my child prepare for this test?

You should not have your child study for this test. This test is not a part of the child’s grades and should simply be used to indicate where the child is academically at a given point in time. Spending time in preparation may skew the results and prevent the parent and the school from seeing an accurate picture of the child’s academic progress. The student who over-studies in the fall but does not put forth the same effort in the spring may appear to lose ground by scoring lower on the second test. The most accurate picture of where your child ranks against the norm group is taken when the child does not study for the test. The best way to prepare your child for the test is to monitor their schoolwork year round and ensure that they are reaching out for help when their understanding is not certain.
You should also ensure that your child get a good night’s rest. The night(s) prior to taking the MAP test should be pleasant evenings for the child. They should eat a healthy meal, enjoy their evening, and go to bed early. It is essential that a student be fully rested in order to perform at a maximum level when taking the test. Students should eat a healthy breakfast on the day of the test. When taking the test, the student should take a minimum of a fifteen minute break between sections of the test.

Enjoy,
Ms. Nora Sierra
Early Childhood Coordinator

The Importance of Parent-Teacher Conferences

                                                          

Parent-teacher conferences are an opportunity to establish better communication between parents and teachers. Since children are different at home and in school, parent-teacher conferences enable both the parent and the teacher to gain a better understanding of the child, enabling them to be more effective in helping him or her. A teacher, for example, may be very surprised to learn that what she thought was a humorous way of dealing with a child actually makes the child feel belittled. A parent may learn that the teacher feels the child is not giving school his best effort. During a parent-teacher conference, a teacher may learn that the child is distracted because the family is going through a difficult time. Many parents are also pleasantly surprised during parent-teacher conferences to hear how much better behaved their child is in school than at home.

Before the conference 

Preparing for the conference can make the experience more rewarding. Ask your child if he has concerns or anything that he would like you to communicate to his teacher. Depending on the child's age, discuss whether or not family problems should be mentioned. If you are concerned about your child's work, keep copies of material that illustrate your concerns. If only one parent of a two-parent household can attend the conference, it is helpful to take notes or bring a tape recorder to share the findings with the absent partner. In order to gain information about your child's behavior and progress, you might prepare some questions. Here are some possible examples:

Early Childhood 

·         Does he share and take turns?

·         Does he focus during large-group activities? Small-group activities?

·         Is he self-directed in choosing activities during free time or does he need your help?

·         What are his favorite activities?

·         Is he willing to take risks?

·         Is he able to settle conflicts verbally?

·         Does he prefer working alone or with other children?

·         Is he a leader or follower or combination?

Importance of Rhyming in Kindergarten

What is rhyming?
Yes, I’m sure all of you already know that rhyming words sound the same at the end!  :)  It’s a phonemic awareness skill, meaning that it’s all about manipulating oral language.  Rhyming is just a part of phonemic awareness . . . of working with language, sounds within language, and playing with language.

Why is teaching rhyming important?

Oh, teaching rhyming is important for so many reasons!  To begin with, a multitude of research has shown a correlation between rhyming mastery and eventual reading preparedness.  Now, if your child isn’t a rhyming machine right now, please don’t freak out!  This doesn’t mean she’s going to be a below-average reader when she’s older.  It just means that you can incorporate more rhyming activities into your day.  I’ll be touching on that later on this week, so keep an eye out.

On top of that, rhyming helps kids improve their oral language skills overall.  It helps them to playfully manipulate their language, which gives them a kind of “permission” to manipulate language in other ways.  Children have more ownership over their language when they’re encouraged to change it and play with how they speak.

As previously mentioned, rhyming is an aspect of phonemic awareness (awareness of how to listen to, identify, and change around the sounds in spoken language).  Phonemic awareness lays the groundwork for written language.  Rhyming is a precursor to learning how to read and write.

Enjoy,

Ms. Nora

Strategies for Teaching Writing in Kindergarten

 

Kindergarten students enter the school year with varying levels of ability, especially when it comes to writing. As a kindergarten teacher, I’ve seen a range of writing, from scribbling to writing sentences. The key is to begin with where they are. We all know that kindergartners are full of thoughts and ideas. They just don’t know how to express what they’re thinking in writing.

After students are comfortable with the writing process, I begin to introduce them to the mechanics of writing simple sentences. When teaching students about writing, I explain to them that writing is like telling a story on paper. I begin by showing them what their thoughts look like. For example, I have them share an idea while I write it on the chart. In the beginning I emphasize the content of the writing rather than grammatical correctness.

At the beginning of the school year, I introduce my students to writing simple sentences. I like to begin the sentence and have my students finish it. Some starters I use are "I am," "I like," "I can," and "I want." After several weeks of using sentence starters, many of my students are confident and ready to begin writing their own sentences.

Once my students have mastered writing simple sentences, I encourage them to add a little sparkle to their work. For example, if a student writes “I like dogs,” have them explain what types of dogs they like. Continue by guiding them through the creation of a new sentence. For example: “I like brown dogs with curly hair.”

I also like to use this expanding sentence activity when teaching my students to add descriptive words. I model this activity with my students several times to help them understand and master the concept.

 

Writing is a skill that requires daily practice. Each day my students begin their morning by writing in their journals. Students are free to write about a topic of their choice. Journal writing is a great way for your students to practice articulating their thoughts. Journals encourage students to retell or create their own stories as well as to practice fine motor skills and letter formation. Journals can also help teacher’s measure progress and find out more about their students' interests.

 

Enjoy,

Nora Sierra

Early Childhood Coordinator

 

10 Reading Readiness Skills for Kindergarten Kids

Today's parents are often shocked when they come to school for orientation and see what's on the docket when it comes to reading. What happened to a full day of crayons? What happened to unlimited time in the sand box?

Without a doubt, the skills taught in kindergarten today look more like the skills taught in first grade a decade or two ago, especially when it comes to reading.  But fret not, because these high reading expectations for young students are accompanied by very strategic teaching methods, and a meticulous progression of skills that build upon one another. Your child can meet the reading goals set by his teacher, especially if he's on track when he first enters kindergarten. So, is he?

While every teacher and school has their own set of “prerequisites,” there's a set of general reading expectations that most teachers share, when it comes to kids entering kindergarten. Before entering kindergarten, a student well prepared for reading should be able to:

1.    Read her name

2.    Recite the alphabet

3.    Recognize some or all of the letters in the alphabet

4.    Correspond some or all letters with their correct sound

5.    Make rhymes

6.    Hold a book right side up with the spine on the left, front cover showing

7.    Recognize that the progression of text is left to right, top to bottom

8.    Echo simple text that is read to them

9.    Recognize that text holds meaning

10. Re-tell a favorite story

If your child is not quite steady in all of these areas, don't panic! Every child enters kindergarten at a different level and teachers expect a huge variation in the skills each student brings. They're trained to optimize success for each individual, no matter what. According to Lesley M. Morrow, Ph.D. and Distinguished Professor of Literacy at Rutgers University in New Jersey, one of the main reasons kindergarten reading is taught in small groups, is so teachers can easily cater to different levels of reading readiness. More advanced readers can be taught in a way that limits boredom, and more beginning readers at a pace that minimizes frustration.

6+1 WRITING TRAITS IN KINDERGARTEN

Young children can and do write. They want to show others what they know. Children

move through three states of scribbling for writing according to Clay (1975). In the first stage

they scribble for pleasure. In the second stage children acquire the knowledge that written

symbols convey meaning and they believe adults can read their writing. The third stage includes

mock letters and beginning letter sounds. The children describe their messages by what they

hope they have written.

Along with writing, children draw. Drawing is one of the primary ways children

communicate. There are also stages of drawing. These stages include: scribbling, preschematic,

schematic, gang, pseudo- naturalistic and the period of decision (Lowenfeld 1987) Kindergarten

students are typically in the preschematic or schematic stage. The preschematic stage is

characterized by symbols constantly changing. The schematic stage is characterized by objects

sitting on a baseline and child’s active knowledge of the subject. The amount and quality of

detail also progresses from a minimal stage to increasing attention to more specificity working its

way towards greater elaboration and patterning (Carroll 2003).

According to Karnowski (1986) young writers use drawing to explain their writing and

they use it as a prewriting strategy. Drawing helps children plan and organize the written text.

Often students will draw first in order to get their thoughts on paper. After the thoughts are

drawn the children can use their picture to remember their story and write it down. Vygotsky

(1978) stated that children’s drawings capitalize on the narrative impulse that emerges in their

earliest drawings, on their tendency to create story drawings and on the talk that surrounds and

supplements the drawing events.

There is a correlation between children’s drawing levels and writing readiness because

both are grounded in making shapes, lines and symbolic representation (Carroll 2003). As

writing progresses, so does children’s reading readiness. Children learn to read and write most

easily when they encounter texts that they themselves have authored (Sidelnick, Svoboda 2000 p

175) Teachers must capitalize on this knowledge to help create great readers and writers.

Teachers of these young students must remember several guidelines when allowing

students to write. Teachers need to know what their students understand about communication

and writing upon entering school. With this knowledge teachers can help foster writing in their

class. Teachers need to redefine their idea of writing. Writing in the early years takes many

forms and all must be valued and encouraged if a teacher wants to see growth in all their

children. Teachers must also understand that children use everything they know about

communication in oral language, art, music and drama to make sense of the writing process. The

children use familiar communication systems to add depth and meaning to their newly acquired

skill of writing (Karnowski 1986).

Children will make progress with their drawing and writing if they are provided with

time, materials, information, and freedom to invent meaningful language (Hayes 1990).

Children need to be immersed in a literacy focused environment in order to foster their writing

skills.

Children in an environment that fosters writing should be given different occasions to

write. These opportunities will provide students with extending their writing knowledge.

Children should at times use a sketchbook/journal where they can freely write and draw what

they want to. They also should attempt drawing by diction. It requires another level of

processing skills. A third type of drawing is drawing by request. A topic is given to the children

and they must write or draw about it. All of these help children to become great writers.

Great writers use certain qualities when they write. These qualities have become known

as traits. 6 Trait writing is a “hot button” topic in schools throughout the world.

 

What is 6 Trait Writing?

6 Trait Writing began in 1983 when a school in Oregon wanted to assess student writing as well as teach writing. They wanted an instrument that would provide accurate, reliable

feedback to students and teachers that would help guide instruction. In order to understand what

10

good writing was a group of teachers read hundreds of papers written by students. They agreed

upon six qualities that demonstrate great writing. The qualities, now known as traits are,

· Ideas (details, development, focus)

· Organization (internal structure)

· Voice (tone, style, purpose, and audience)

· Word choice (precise language and phrasing)

· Sentence fluency (correctness, rhythm, and cadence)

· Conventions (mechanical correctness)

· And another has now been added. . .presentation (handwriting, formatting, layout)

These traits became the foundation for the descriptive criteria used to define qualities of

good writing at different levels of achievement. Rubrics were created to assess the writing done

by students.

 

Enjoy,

Ms. Nora Sierra