Observing, Documenting, and Assessing to Support Young Children and Their Families

Assessment of learning assists educators to develop a picture of each child’s strength, abilities and interests at a point in time. Lastly, assessment as learning occurs when educators provide feedback to children about their learning and development progress on their learning activity. This assessment practice is important in supporting children’s self-efficacy and self-esteem.

The function of assessment in learning and development is primarily to provide a measurable barometer for the students progress.

Assessment is defined as any practice or task that is used to produce information about student learning, and is categorized as either formative or summative (Wallace & White, 2014). There is a distinct difference between the various types of assessments, specifically formative and summative. Formative assessments are informal quizzes that are used to guide instruction

Assessment is one of the main resources of learning. It is key to understanding and developing for both teacher and learners. Here are the different methods of assessments and how I would use them in my organisation.

Ch. 2 – Who are the various users of assessment and its results? What specific instructional decisions can be made based on assessment results? Why must we build balanced assessment systems to support the instructional programs we offer students? This chapter nails down the purpose of assessing, which is gathering information to inform teachers of students of their instruction and learning, respectively. In this way, assessment is individualized to each student and classroom, and because all students/classes are different, it should inform the teachers of what is working or not working in the classroom, which should then influence some sort of change to instruction. This chapter also talks about the different levels of assessment – from the individuals

As a Middle School Language Arts teacher, I have found that assessments are a daily part of our job. Everything that my students do in the classroom ultimately ends up being assessed in some sort of way. I must admit that it can at times be overwhelming for assessments to be such a huge part of our curriculum; I understand the necessity of each one. I haven’t always been focused as intently on assessments. I really didn’t consider the importance of assessments as much. As I gained experience and knowledge I realized that assessing my students provides me with information that makes my job more successful. I believe to effectively teach my students, I must understand and implement the right assessments properly. My assessment philosophy is that to be able to ensure our students are learning and that we are teaching the right way we must include proper assessment for validation. With that being said it is very important to use different forms of assessments to gauge student performance. One of the outstanding features of studies of assessment in recent years has been the shift in the focus of attention, towards greater interest In the interactions between assessment and classroom learning and away from concentration on the properties of restricted forms of test which are only weakly linked to the learning experiences of students (Black 2015) This research supports the idea that assessments

Upon looking for the meaning of “Assessments” on the NAEYC website, I came across several different reasons to way it is important. Assessment is defined as the measurement of what students are learning. Student achievement is defined as how well they’ve mastered certain target skills. Assessments provide educators with both objective and subjective data in order to ascertain student progress and skill mastery. No matter what we are doing in the classroom with our students around we are doing some type of assessment. Now NAEYC says. “Assessments help teachers plan appropriately challenging curriculum and tailor instruction that responds to each child’s strengths and needs. Assessments can also help teachers identify children with disabilities and ensuring that they receive needed services.” And also, “Assessment methods are appropriate for each child’s age and level of development and encompass all areas of development, including math, science, and other cognitive skills; language; social-emotional; and physical. Teachers use assessment methods and

Teachers need to know what the students know and do not know, and the only way to do this is by assessing the students. If the students do horrible on the test then the teacher knows that he/she needs to go over the material again. However if the class passes then the teacher knows that he/she can go on to new material. Assessments can provide teachers with student needs that may need to be addressed. If a student is continuously failing assessments then the teacher can determine how to better the instruction in order for the student to understand what he/she is learning. In elementary school, I would fail tests even after I would study for hours the night before. Once my teacher saw my results and talked to me about it, she changed her instruction approach to help meet my needs and help me understand what I was learning. She would not have changed her instruction without knowing how I was doing on the assessments. When I assess my students, I plan to use these results to help plan further lessons, as well as, changing my instructional methods if it meets the child’s

Assessment is an essential tool in the early childhood classroom. Teachers are always assessing students in the classroom using informal assessment and formal assessment. According to Copple (2009), stated that assessment is “the process of looking at children’s progress toward those goals. Thoughtful attention to assessment is essential to developmentally appropriate practice in order to monitor children’s development and learning, guide planning and decision making, identify children who might benefit from special services or supports, and report and communicate with others, including families.” (p.44).

When I think of the word "assessment" it reminds me of when every four years in school I would be required to take a evaluation test because of my learning disabilities. There are many benefits of observing and assessing young children and I believe that the most important benefit is that you can intervene in a child life if you believe they need help. If we did not have the option of assessing children then more than likely a lot more children would run the risk of not being diagnose with learning disabilities and other problems that might come up. A risk with assessing young children is that you could make the wrong recommendation which in the long run could hurt the child. Some characteristics of certain assessment tools or strategies that

Evaluating student achievement through assessments is used to help teachers know exactly where students are. This practice is vital to the growth and development of a child. Good teachers have always judged and monitored their students' progress through written assessment observations, experiments, written assignments, and research projects. Assessments provide comprehensive information about students’ progress including strengths and weaknesses.

Teachers meet the needs of a diverse student population by differentiating their instruction. It is important to first develop the types of assessments a teacher will use in order to guide her instruction. Moon (2005) stated “allowing for multiple approaches to content, process, or product from an instructional standpoint also allows for multiple approaches from an assessment standpoint” (p. 232). In order for the assessments to inform instruction you have to view assessment in three ways: prior knowledge (before), tracking their learning (during), and measuring their performance (after) (Brimijoin, Marquissee & Tomlinson, 2003, p. 71).

Assessing young children as they move through the steps of their literacy development will help teachers plan for their lessons with a greater outcome for success. Using both formal and informal assessments they can establish the child’s strengths and weaknesses as well as monitor their progress and growth. Assessments can be formative or summative depending on when the assessment takes place. Formative assessments can be administered regularly throughout the school year and assist teachers in monitoring the students’ learning progress. Where as summative assessments measure what the students’ have learned at the end of any selected event. According to Copple & Bredekamp, (2009) “Assessment focuses on children’s progress towards goals that are developmentally and educationally significant” (p. 22). Additionally, assessments can provide the teacher with the

Effective assessment is what I believe to be, the process of gathering and interpreting evidence to make judgements about student learning. Assessment is used by both the learners and their teachers to decide where the learners are at in their learning, where they need to go, and how best to get there. It is the crucial link between learning outcomes, content and teaching, and learning activities. The purpose of assessment is to improve learning, inform teaching, help

Assessment- the term assessment refers to the wide variety of methods or tools that educators use to evaluate, measure, and document the academic readiness, learning progress, skill acquisition, or educational needs of students.