Blog #5-Authentic Assessment

The opposite of fun-loving is  sad, unhappy, depressed and unpleasant.  These are emotions that we want to avoid seeing children feeling about school and their education.  We want to begin to build their foundation with success as they begin their academic journey.  As Fiore (2012) states, “When any observer tries to capture a full, accurate picture of a child, it is impossible to capture every single detail of any given situation.  Whether it is because a teacher is looking down at her paper while jotting down notes, or because a video camera is angled a certain way and therefore misses one corner of the classroom(p.1).”   What makes an assessment authentic is true and raw in the moment captures of children at play.  According to Google,

“Authentic assessment is the measurement of "intellectual accomplishments that are worthwhile, significant, and meaningful," as contrasted to multiple choice standardized tests. Authentic assessment can be devised by the teacher, or in collaboration with the student by engaging student voice.” 

DIAL-4, Brigance, Work Sampling, and TS gold are just a few assessment used in early childhood education.  Each program, whether for screening or for assessing,  has its strengths and weaknesses.
When I think about the screener, DIAL-4, that we use in our program, and the assessment program, WSS, I can't help but wonder why they chose these specific programs?  From other co-workers, DIAL-4 has been around for quite some time.  However, the teachers would be the ones who administered this testing.  I feel that this would be more fitting and more age-appropriate because of the relationship and rapport that the child already has with their kumu.  Now, we have testers who come to do the administering.  I've had a child kick and scream when it was his turn to go with these "aunties" to play.  We would make the children feel as comfortable as possible to get the most accurate results from these tests.  However, recently, I'm now conflicted with that being said.  

Here is another scenario: We currently have a child that has not spoken a word to us, the kumu, or his peers, from the beginning of the school year until now.  He loves school and goes home and cannot stop talking about all the things he does in school, according to mom.  Which leave us wondering and scratching our heads as to why this child does this?  At first, we thought maybe we needed to build that bond and relationship with him to get to know him and make him feel comfortable with us.  But then, it wasn't.  His mom tells us that he comes home and cannot stop talking about all the wonderful things he does in school.  We know he loves school, and that he can talk and communicate with words.  So we had him on a plan and was concerned for safety purposes because in a situation where this child may need help, he will not communicate that to us. We were very concerned and thought maybe it could be a delay.  But then, when he went with the tester to do his DIAL, he actually scored very high for his age.  He nods and responds non-verbally and so we just continue to support him by asking him questions that he will at least respond to us by nodding.  As for his safety, we're still wondering how we can help this child use his words to communicate with us.  Any suggestions anyone has as far as how we can support this child?
          As for WSS, this tool can be useful in guiding our curriculum and pin pointing where each child's strength and weaknesses are.  We use this program daily to note down what we observe children doing throughout the day.  Sometimes, however, we don't catch simple indicators that children are doing daily because we are so focused on getting through our checklist, on top of keeping kids engaged and then trying to be proactive throughout the day rather than being reactive.  Although, we found ourselves being reactive during centers because of the way our program is scheduled. Because we are providing care from 7:00 am to accommodate parents who need the early drop off, we have children in centers from 7-8:30, when we are told to start our core program.  Then we open up centers again throughout the day, and mind you, our program runs all the way until 5:00pm.  These accommodations are supposed to be for families who really need the early and late drop off and pick up.  However, we do have families who take advantage of this opportunity as a "day care." Therefore, some children are there from 7-5.  Now for a 3 year-old, that is too long of a day for them.  But we have no control over that, and so we have to work extra hard as teachers to find ways to engage children during these long days without them getting bored. Any suggestions on this topic?  What are your thoughts on how we could keep children engage during these long days?  And so, we also only change out centers once a month.  Therefore, the materials we provide will only capture their attention and interest for so long.  Any help here?