Let me start by saying this, I believe that if you are to truly embrace play as a pedagogy and student driven learning our old ways of using assessment need to discarded. Assessment that 'tests' what a child knows, even when they are not developmentally ready has no place in our classrooms.
Basically if we are obsessed with measuring, we will never be able to truly embrace the beauty of individualised learning and developmentally appropriate practice. There is no way I can embrace play and the ethos behind it and then think it is appropriate to assess a child on print concepts at six, given that in my individualised environment, based on development, this child may not have yet started engaging with any formal learning around print, because I know they are not developmentally ready. What would I be proving?
All I would be proving is that according to the 'test' my children are not doing well. We all know this is not the case, the test is simply not testing something these children are ready for. It would be like me turning up to work tomorrow and being tested on my handstands, I would fail dismally, but what would that prove and how would trying to teach me to do a handstand help me as a learner? Nothing as it is likely there are many important foundation skills that would need to be put in place for me before I was even anywhere near ready to learn to do a handstand. And is it likely that handstands are my most important next learning step? Have I had input into this?
This is true for our little learners, assessment of skills they are not ready for yet or not at all interested in are a waste of their time and ours and only go on to reinforce to these learners that they are somehow not good enough.
I have no idea why our system is so obsessed with using assessment in this way, proving what a child can not do, when we already knew that, rather than describing what they can do and setting reasonable next steps. I mean imagine if I was put into handstand recovery based on the fact that I can't do one, would it really be of benefit to me if this simply wasn't something my brain or body was ready for or if I had no desire to improve as I felt removed from the process?
I am absolutely not against assessment, not at all, in fact I use assessment almost all day every day and love it. Assessment is just framed differently, it is seen as learning and for learning. Children play an active role in this process without even knowing it.
I know more about my children now than ever before and when they turn six, I certainly don't need a six year net to give me standardised comparative data, in fact I can write an accurate description based on them as a learner without the need for the stress that this 'test' causes.
Does this mean I never use diagnostic testing like this? No of course not, but this is woven into our day in ways that are appropriate to the individual and based on where they are at developmentally. In the way our class operates, with individualised pathways it is entirely possible that I could use elements of a six year net if I felt that using that would give me genuinely useful information.
It is interesting because the more I have come to see assessment as 'just part of' our daily programme, the more useful it has become to me. The more I start to view it in this way the less aware I become when I am actually engaging in an assessment task because if feels just like the learning process, not something separate or at the end, but something part of the whole, something natural, useful and dynamic that helps me to learn more about the child and the child to learn more about themselves. It has all just become about the evolution of the learner in our classroom, part of the cycle of their growth and this is why I shy away from the word assessment, because it still conjures up images of end point tests and summative judgements. When I use the word assessment in relation to what we strive for I am talking conversational, diagnostic, dynamic, narrative, observational and always involving the child and shared with the whānau as much as realistically possible so that they are also part of the process. We are aiming for description over comparison.
My ultimate aim is to be able to use one piece of 'assessment' for many purposes. For myself, for the child and for the family. Seesaw as a sharing tool has made this aim entirely possible and relatively easy.
For assessment to be purposeful it has to be a shared process of growth, of progress, of step by step success. Shared and owned by the child and family as much as it is of use to me. However it does not have to be a hugely time consuming process and there is one key tool above all others...the teachers ability to notice, recognise and respond. It is our understanding of next steps, of the learning process, of how to respond to need, of noticing even the smallest detail that may be a hurdle for a child and putting in place something to help them that is absolutely crucial..there isn't one assessment tool that can tell you something you are not yet skilled enough to understand.
And so the burden is on us to learn, to learn constantly about the brain, about how it learns to read, to understand the building blocks of literacy, to get a real grip on maths, what happens in the brain when we learn maths, what number sense entails. It is up to us to understand how the brain develops, to know what the child is ready for and not ready for. It is up to us to understand social and emotional growth, to know what it looks like when a child feels unsafe and may have an insecure attachment. It is up to us to understand dispositions, competencies, how to encourage values development...to recognise how old the children in front of us 'actually' are. It is up to us to be constantly learning and if we are doing it right, assessment processes should guide us to these questions that we can ably investigate and begin to understand a little more each time.
When I talk assessment I am very much thinking dispositional and 'academic' dependent of the developmental stage of the child and what is right for them. There would be little point assessing reading if the child has not yet starting engaging with learning to read, however there are building blocks behind this process that we can be using as 'marks in the sand' and therefore the very important point here is that assessment may look different for each child in the class...and so it should. To allow myself to do this I have created some building block documents based on my own research and experience. These are below.
These documents help me to engage with a child where they are currently up to and to set small next steps. The element at the bottom of the last chart is crucial though, if a child does not feel safe and happy, if they have an insecure attachment or are displaying significant behaviour issues, they will not be ready to learn, or focus here needs to be emotional and relational, forming a strong trusting connection and allowing the play based environment to work its magic. In the instance a child is not secure, engaging in or trying to force any sort of academic learning (at any age) is a waste of time and we need to understand this.
And so, what have I discovered so far about quality assessment. Quality assessment is that which informs us, the whānau and involves the child. Quality assessment informs next steps and may even highlight areas for further investigation when it comes to learning needs. Quality assessment is based on the understanding that learning is not linear and will often lead us to branch out or circle back before moving forward. Quality assessment should be so embedded within the learning process in our classroom that it may not even be recognised as assessment by the observer. Quality assessment is transparent, without hidden agenda and quality assessment happens because it is useful and necessary, if it isn't, it does not happen at all. Most importantly there is no one fit suits all, assessment may look different for each learner according to their current learning path and needs. Quality assessment is not comparative, it is based on growth and progress for the individual learner and therefore tools may be used to assist the learning journey of one child, but not needed for another as they are at a different point in their learning journey.
What I have also come to realise is that it is hard to make this type of quality assessment work in a classroom that is teacher directed and bound by timetables. It works in a classroom that is student driven because the teacher is free to do what makes us most effective, notice, recognise and respond. A student driven classroom frees the teacher to work individually with children or with small groups, making this type of non-linear assessment work.
So what is it we currently do in our Year 0-2 classroom?
- We allow children just to be, just to settle, we spend at least half a term getting to know them, noticing interests, dispositions, urges establishing their level of security within our classroom and taking time to deliberately create strong trusting relationships.
- We share dispositions/urges/interests/social emotional development through posts on seesaw. Using these dispositions as a guide. We aim to write a longer narrative supported by video or photos twice a term for each child. Dependent on the child's needs these may start to be based on academic growth.
These narratives are literally only a few sentences and have been a more manageable way of incorporating narrative assessment for us, in a big class it can be quite overwhelming to feel that we have to write a full learning story. We reserve longer learning stories to whole class items in our learning journal.
A couple of examples below:
During his time in the 'Space' yesterday, -------practised writing his name. It would be great if you could also practise at home, so the correct formation of the letters is consolidated. On Thursday it is also a day that I like to sit and chat with each of them. ------certainly likes to talk about superheroes, especially Spiderman. He enjoyed colouring some pictures of spiderman in, making sure he used the correct colours for the suit. ------- gets on well with all his fellow classmates and is kind and caring. This is a great disposition to have.😄
This is ------ story from yesterday in her writing journal. She is able to draw a picture and tell us what her story is about. It is great to see her use some words that were modelled on the board to help her write her story. We have seen greater persistence, when completing tasks in the class. As -----has become more comfortable in the classroom environment, she also appears more resilient, and will keep trying even when she finds the task hard. This has been wonderful to see!
A volcano 🌋 3D art inspired by a unique big idea 💡 once again. This inspired a lot of learning about volcanoes and dinosaurs today! The persistence and focus required to complete these is quite remarkable.
- After half a term we start to engage one on one with a child on developmental goals, establishing where they are at, and where we need to meet them. These goals are here and will be played around with according to the needs of the child. We will also share the how and the why on seesaw as the children moves through them. Once fortnight we will meet individually with the child to check in with where they are up to. Until children have moved onto the early literacy section of these developmental goals, these are of paramount importance and our most important form of assessment.
- As appropriate developmentally we use samples of 'writing' to talk to children about what they are doing really well and what their next steps are, these are shared with whānau as well. We use this to 'assess' growth.
- As a child is developmentally ready (has working memory well established) we start to give them a number goal which we share with home and conference one to one with. These number goals are broken down from the i-kan. We meet with children one on one once a fortnight to check in with how they are going and provide feedback and next steps.
- Throughout play we take a lot of photos and videos and use these to guide reflections. We share a lot of these photos and videos on seesaw to build up a whole picture of the child, their strengths, interests and urges.
- Throughout Number Agents we will video strategies and use these to guide our reflections with the child and whānau.
- When children are ready start reading, we actively use the decodable texts to guide next steps, sharing videos of our sessions with whānau or writing a narrative about next steps. We will conduct a running record when we feel this is sensible to do so, and will be useful to us, however actually asking children why the self-corrected, or how they solved that word is very valid and useful information.
Each child has an individual learning journey where all this information is compiled over time.
Using these approaches we can form a nice well rounded picture of the child that we can confidently share with parents when we have learning conferences. We have a depth of understanding about a child that we did not have before and it has really come from simply slowing down and appreciating the nature of development.
Is this the be all and end all? No of course not, we are still on our journey and will always be learning and growing. Our ultimate aim is to be able to create a respectful and knowledgeable picture of growth about each and every child that clearly shows their strengths, passions, urges and captures who they are. A picture that clearly says "I SEE YOU"
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