PRESENTED BY:

DENISE WASKOAND

BECKY COFFELT

Power of Observation

Welcome

Our day will go from 9:00 to 12:00

We will have a break half way through the morning

Logistics Bathrooms-Turn right and go down the hall Water cooler is out side the room in this lobby Pop machines-Turn right and go around the corner

Getting to Know Each Other

It’s time to line up-based on your years, months, or days experience.

The more experienced get to be at the front of the line, “newbies” head to the back of the line.

Introduce yourself to those around you.

Let’s do a KWL Chart

K is for Know-Tell us what you already know about assessment

W is for What-What do you hope to learn today

L is for Learned-Hopefully at the end of the morning you can state some of the facts you have learned about assessment

Children’s Work is Play

What’s the letter on your name tag? P for participant (You get to play with play-dough) O for observer (You get to observe and take notes) T for teacher (You will get a script to follow)

Let’s do this for 4-5 minutes

Now let’s do it again with a different teacher script

Let’s discuss the differences between the 2 sessions

Group Discussion Questions

How did your observations vary between the 2 interactions?

How did the student feel in each interaction?

What changes were there in teacher behavior?

How do we KNOW what children learn and how do we HELP them learn?

Time for a Break

Be back in 15 minutes for more information on being a great observer!

Creative Curriculum and Assessment

We are now going to look at a video on assessment

Look at what the teacher does to collect information on the students.

Discussion

Questions to Help You Get to Know Children to Help You Get Better Observations

What is the child’s health and physical development?

What is the child’s temperament?What are the child’s skills and abilities?What are the child’s interests?What is the child’s culture and home life?How does the child approach learning?How does the child use language?How well does the child interact with others?

(Taken from The Power of Observation, page 14-15)

What You Bring as the Observer

Your culture Beliefs about child rearing and the way children

should act Beliefs about appropriate ways to communicate Beliefs about child independence

Your Individuality Temperament Interests Feelings

Your Professional Expertise(Taken from The Power of Observation, page 32-41)

Being Objective in Your Observations

Focus on individual children

Focus on the child’s behavior-what you can see

Listen to children and what they say

Listen to families and what they tell you about the child

Guidelines for Observation

Observe over timeWatch children in varied situations

Social settings Time of day Individual preferences Degree of choice Level of competence

Keep track of what you seeObserve in and out of action

(Taken from The Power of Observation, page 42-52)

Ways to Record Observations

Brief notes on mailing labelsBrief notes on index cardsBrief notes on a daily logAnecdotal notesRunning recordsMatricesRating ScalesTalliesDiagrams, sketches, photographsAudiotapes and videotapes

Now Let’s Practice

You will be given a scenario and you will give a thumbs up if it is a good observation or a thumbs down if it needs some work.

Ready?

Examples 1 and 2

Mandy is in the book area. She read the book If you give a Moose a Muffin after hearing the teacher read it at large group. She turns pages and works from left to right, telling her own version and says “the end.”

John can’t count to 10.

Examples 3 and 4

When the guest speaker came into the room, Angela was shy and stayed by the teacher during group.

Writing center – John announces that he is making a birthday card for mom. Uses markers, stickers, and red paper and writes HAPY BRDY MOM and reads, “happy birthday mom.

Examples 5 and 6

When we put all the rocks in one cup, it tips over. There are 1,2,3,4,5,6,9,12 rocks!

Martin was frustrated so he threw the puzzle

Time to Practice

Look at the following videos and write your objective observations.

After each observation, you can compare notes with your neighbors

Winding Up

What is your role in observing/assessing in your classroom? You need to have these discussions with the staff in your classroom

What have you learned today? What other questions do you have?Next Steps - circle, triangle, square