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Educators implement effective practices in areas of planning, instruction, assessment, evaluation and reporting.

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Assessment And Kindergarten Children

Assessment is a tool for measuring a child’s growth and development during the year. The biggest challenge with kindergarten children is they can not read or write yet. Academically, it is difficult to collect hard data. Often I would ask myself, “What is the best way to gather information? How can I make sure my assessments are valid and reliable?”

 
New Media And Assessment

The above images assessed a boy’s understanding of the lesson’s math objectives. The child’s assignment was to find objects that were shorter, the same size, and longer than his object (blue straw). In my practicum, I often explored photography and video for assessing my students. Within a single lesson, I found it was impossible to document every single student or project. Often, there was only enough time to document a sampling of the students.

Issues Regarding Sampling

What is the best use of a sample assessment? Looking back, I tended to sample the “stronger” items and excluded weaker ones. This made the assessment of my own teaching incomplete and unreliable. Would it be more effective to sample only the struggling students? Would this be fair to the other children? How can I possibly make more accurate assessments of my own teaching — and also with my students learning — within the new media technologies?

Moving Forward

Because of the enormous possibilities of the new media, I will continue to explore mixing new technologies and assessments into my lessons. With my comfort, skill and background in computers, I will continue to grow in this area.