Guiding Young Children’s Development
Required Resources
Course Text: Assessing and Guiding Young Children’s Development and Learning
Chapter 6, “Compiling and Summarizing Information”
Chapter 7, “Interpreting Assessment Information”
Chapter 9, “Organizing for Assessment” (p. 165–1 66)
Optional Resources
Web Article: “Choosing an Appropriate Assessment System”
http://www.naeyc.org/files/yc/file/200401/shillady.pdf (PDF document)
Web Article: “Routine Use of Standardized Tests for All Young Children”
http://www.ncrel.org/sdrs/areas/issues/students/earlycld/ea5lk10.htm
Web Article: “Developmentally Appropriate Assessment”
http://www.ncrel.org/sdrs/areas/issues/students/earlycld/ea5lk2.htm
Application: Child Observation Project: Part 4—Developing a Portfolio Plan
In your Week 3 Application, you conducted two observations as a part of your Child Observation Project. As you have been learning, the purpose of this project is to help you better understand and develop knowledge and skills related to effective observation and assessment strategies. Therefore, the project does not provide a holistic picture of the development and learning of the child whom you have been focusing your project on. Additionally, observation and assessment knowledge, skills, and data have little meaning in isolation—it is only when they are a part of ongoing assessment that they truly can be used for the intended purposes of supporting development and learning.
Portfolios represent “organized, purposeful compilation of evidence documenting a child’s development and learning over time” (McAfee & Leong, 2007, p. 100). Building portfolios requires careful planning that takes into account appropriate expectations for children’s learning and development and children’s unique developmental patterns and preferences. For this Application, you will have an opportunity to develop a plan for building a portfolio, by describing additional data and related strategies that you would need in order to complete a comprehensive assessment that covers all the developmental areas of one child’s development and learning.
Note: You will not be collecting the data that you identify in your plan.
Plan
Review Pages 97–101 of Assessing and Guiding Young Children’s Development and Learning, and begin thinking about the required evidence and individualized samples you might include in your portfolio plan.
Download and print the form:
Portfolio Plan
Implement
In the left-hand column, list the following areas of development and learning you will be including in your portfolio plan. These include:
Large Muscle Development
Small Muscle Development
Basic Concepts of Mathematics, Science, and Social Studies Cognitive Development – Thinking
Language Development—Oral Language
Language Development—Literacy Development
Personal-Social Development—Personal Development
Personal-Social Development—Social Development
Note: You can use more than one row for each area of development and learning.
Review Figure 6.1, and identify the types of items that you will select for each area of development and learning.
In the right column, indicate your plan for selecting items. Include when items will be selected and who decides what items should go into the portfolio.
Reflect
Review your Portfolio Plan and relate your development of the plan to what you have learned about planning for effective assessments by considering:
How implementing the Portfolio Plan could contribute to your knowledge of the child whom you selected for your Child Observation Project.
Any additional information, not covered in the Plan, that you feel would add to your growing knowledge of the child whom you selected for your Child Observation Project.
For this assignment, submit:
Your Portfolio Plan
A summary of the Reflection citing examples from your Learning Resources to substantiate your ideas and thinking.
Assignment length: 2 pages
Portfolio Plan
Child’s First Name:
Goals of this Plan:
Area of Development and Learning
(Note: You can use more than one row for each area of development and learning.)
Types of Items
Plan for Item Selection
