The Creative Curriculum The Teacher’s Role

The Teacher’s Role: Observing Children Guiding Children’s Learning Assessing Children’s Learning

Observing Children Useful observation notes should be objective and factual. Avoid interpretations and assumptions: Labels (shy, vivacious, creative) Intentions (wants to…) Evaluations (good job) Judgements (beautiful, sloppy) Negatives (didn’t can’t won’t)

Observing Children Do: Include facts about what you see and hear: Descriptions of an action Quotations of language Descriptions of a gesture Descriptions of a facial expression Descriptions of a creation

Objective or Subjective ? Example 1 Carlos is being mischievous today. He purposely splashes the water on the floor and on others. He checks to see if I am watching him, then laughs at other children.

Example 1: Is Subjective Example 1 uses a label (mischievous) and makes judgments (he purposely splashes the water, checks to see if I am watching him, laughs at other children). The teacher could not know if Carlos was watching out for her or if he was laughing at the other children.

Example 1: Objective Carlos plays with the waterwheel. Some water falls on two of the other children’s shoes. He looks at me, then looks at the other children and begins to giggle.

Example 1: Objective The objective observation includes only the facts of what Carlos did (plays with waterwheel), what happened (some water falls on the other children’s shoes) and his reaction (he looks at me, then looks at the other children and begins to giggle.) Accurate notes include all the facts about what a child did and said in the order they happened.

Guiding Children’s Learning The Developmental Continuum is the teachers guide for making the observation process systemic. The Developmental Continuum lays out the progression of development in each developmental area (social/emotional, physical, cognitive, language) It is made up of goals and objectives. (Refer to chart p.42)

Assessing Children’s Learning Assessment is the process of gathering information about children in order to make decisions. Assessment can serve many purposes: - to support learning - to identify special needs - for program evaluation and monitoring trends - for program/school accountability

3 Steps to Assessment Process Collecting facts Analyzing and evaluating the collected facts Using what you have learned to plan future lessons

The Teachers Role - A Continuous Cycle Observing, guiding and assessing children’s learning is an ongoing process. Teachers collect facts, analyze and evaluate what they say about the child’s development and then use the information to plan for each child. Teachers than implement their teaching plans, continue to observe and document what children do, and the cycle continues.