Learning Standards as Tools for Assessment and Literacy Development in Kindergarten

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Learning Standards as Tools for Assessment and
Literacy Development in Kindergarten

• Present by
• Gayle Mindes
• DePaul University
• George Morrison
• University of North Texas

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Best Practice

• Learning is multi-dimensional
• Developmental areas are inter-related
• Kindergarteners are competent
• Development is individualized
• Expect range of skills across children
• Active exploration
• facilitates learning

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Starting with State Standards

• Apply word analysis and vocabulary skills to
  comprehend selections.
• Apply reading strategies to improve understanding
  and fluency.
• Comprehend a broad range of reading materials.
• Understand how literary elements and techniques
  are used to convey meaning.

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• Read and interpret a variety of literary works.
• Use correct grammar,
• spelling, punctuation, capitalization, and
• structure.
• Compose well-organized and coherent writing for
  specific purposes and audiences
• Communicate ideas in writing to accomplish a
  variety of purposes

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Texas Kindergarten Learning Standards

• READING
• recognize that print represents spoken language
  and conveys meaning,
• such as their own name, and
• signs such as Exit and Danger
• recognize upper and lower case letters in print
  and understand that print represents language
• manipulate sounds in spoken words (phonemic
  awareness)

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• decode simple words using letter-sound knowledge
• identify words that name persons, places or
  things, and actions
• learn new vocabulary words through selections
  read aloud
• retell or act out important events in a story
• gather important information and ask relevant
  questions.

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Texas Kindergarten Learning Standards

• WRITING
• write their own name and each letter of the
  alphabet
• write messages using their knowledge of letters
  and sounds
• record or dictate questions, ideas, stories
• write labels, notes, and
• captions for illustrations,
• possessions, charts, and
• centers.

Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS)
Learning Standards for Texas Children
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Talents of Young Children

• Judy
• Harold
• Luis
• Arturo
• Phillip
• Adriana
• Jonathan

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Parts are cast

• Boy who is never chosen for anything
• Ill be the pig
• There is no pig in Cinderella
• Ill be the pig
• What does the pig do
• The pig demonstrates Cinderellas words
• Fulgham,R. Cinderella Updated

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Do we have room for the pig in our classrooms?

• What accommodations are necessary
• Can the pig feel secure
• What is the teachers role
• Where do content issues fit

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Enhance Talents

• Scaffold the task
• Set up learning centers
• Create supportive learning climate
• Differentiate outcome expectations

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Scaffolding

• Adjusting support during a teaching session
• Direct instruction
• Breaking down the task into manageable units
• Suggesting strategies
• Offering rationale for using strategies
• Gradually withdraw support
• Turn over responsibility to the child

Examples Working a puzzle Tying shoes
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Scaffolding Uses

• Cues symbols, words, or phrases to help student
  recall
• Cues over-reminders, such as Starts w
• Probes
• Look for reasoning behind an incorrect response
• or ask for clarity when the response is
  incomplete

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• Redirects
• Pose the same question to a different student
• Holds accountable later
• check back with the student who responded
  incorrectly
• to make sure that child has correct answer
  (privately)
• Walsh, J. A. Sattes, B. D. (2005) Quality
  Questioning. Thousand Oaks, CA Corwin Press

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Scaffolding Strategies

• Sit and listen closely
• Ask questions
• What have you tried so far
• What do you think will happen if
• Can you find a way to

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• What are you thinking about?
• Im wondering what you meant when you said
• Can you tell me why you decided to
• Can you tell more about
• Why do you think it happened that way?
• How would you explain?
• What questions do you have now?

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• When do you feel good about a piece of work you
  have done?
• When do you like to work hard on something?
• Do mistakes help you learn? How?
• Do other people help you learn? How?

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Non-verbal support

• Eye contact
• Facial expressions
• Body posture
• Hand signals
• Physical distance
• Silence (wait time)

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Benchmarks

• Make predictions based on cover, title, and
  pictures.
• Connect text to prior experiences and knowledge.
• Engage in shared/independent reading of familiar
  predictable text.

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• Understand that pictures and symbols have meaning
  and that print carries a message.
• Demonstrate understanding of concepts about
  books (i.e., front and back, turning pages,
  knowing where a story starts, and viewing page on
  left before page on right).
• Demonstrate understanding of concepts about print
  (i.e., words, letters, spacing between words, and
  left to right).

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• Demonstrate phonological awareness (i.e., rhymes
  and alliterations).
• Demonstrate phonemic awareness (i.e., segmenting
  and blending syllables and phonemes, and
  substituting sounds).
• Demonstrate alphabet knowledge (i.e., recognizes
  letters and their most common sounds).
• Read one syllable and high frequency words.

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• Retell information from a story.
• Respond to simple questions about reading.
• Compare/contrast a variety of literary works.
• Demonstrate understanding that different text
  forms are used for different purposes.
• Demonstrate understanding of literal meaning of
  stories by making comments.

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• Understand the structure of a story.
• Recognize narrative, informational texts and
  rhymes.
• Show independent interest in and knowledge about
  books and reading.
• Comprehend and respond to fiction and
  non-fiction.

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Projects

• My family
• My school
• My neighborhood
• My community

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Assessment Artifacts

• Autobiography
• Booklet
• Book Jacket
• Book Report
• Commercial
• Brochure
• CD Cover
• Collage

• Diagram
• Graph
• Dialogue
• Graphic Organizer
• CD Cover
• Diary
• Tall Tale
• Radio Announcement

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• Monument
• Oral Report
• Role-Play
• Outline
• Photo Essay
• Sculpture
• Play or skit
• Poem
• Television Newscast
• Display
• Animation

• Artifact Collection
• Drawing
• Fairy Tale
• Illustration
• Journal
• Map
• Toy

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• Presentations or dramatizations
• Include photos, video clips, sound, writing
• Require a tell the story product
• Write what a good ___________ looks like
• Demonstration of concept
• Create demonstration for younger student
• Create a product based on the concept
• Create a how-to manual

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7 Guidelines for Authentic Assessment

• Assess children based on their actual work.
• Assess children based on what they are actually
  doing in and through the curriculum
• Assess what each individual child can do.
• Make assessment part of the learning process.
• Learn about the whole child
• Involve children and parents in a cooperative,
  collaborative assessment process
• Provide ongoing assessment over the entire year.

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Authentic AssessmentRecommended Practices for
Young Exceptional Children

• Teachers and families collaborate in planning and
  implementing assessment.
• Assessment is individualized and appropriate for
  the child and family
• Assessment provides useful information for
  intervention
• Teachers share information in respectful and
  useful ways
• Teachers meet legal and procedural requirements
  and Recommended Practices guidelines.

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Current Practices in Kindergarten Assessment

• Report cards align with curriculum standards
• Progressing satisfactorily
• In progress
• Not yet observed or introduced
• Narrative describing
• Social emotional development
• Work habits
• Literacy and math development

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LEVEL 1 SAMPLE TASK/STRATEGY
LEVEL 1 SAMPLE TASK/STRATEGY
List the names of the main characters in the
story.
repeat
label
define
name
RECALL
who
list
what
identify
when
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LEVEL 1 SAMPLE TASK/STRATEGY
LEVEL II SAMPLE TASK/STRATEGY
Break the story down into different parts.
subdivide
categorize
ANALYSIS
sort
separate
breakdown
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LEVEL 1 SAMPLE TASK/STRATEGY
LEVEL III SAMPLE TASK/STRATEGY
Compare the themes of these two stories.
compare
distinguish
COMPARISON
relate
contrast
differentiate
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LEVEL 1 SAMPLE TASK/STRATEGY
LEVEL IV SAMPLE TASK/STRATEGY
If I wanted to make this character more
believable, how might I do it?
conclude
deduce
apply
INFERENCE
predict
what if
infer
anticipate
speculate
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LEVEL 1 SAMPLE TASK/STRATEGY
LEVEL V SAMPLE TASK/STRATEGY
Evaluate this story. Is it well written? Why or
why not?
evaluate
critique
debate
judge
EVALUATION
argue
assess
recommend
appraise
defend
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RUBRICS

• Scoring guides that differentiate among levels of
  performance

• Purposes
• To access performance based on pre-established
  criteria
• To make teachers expectations clear
• To enable children to participate in the
  evaluation of their own work

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 A good scoring rubric will

• define excellence,
• as well as plan how to help students achieve it.
• Communicate to students what constitutes
  excellence,
• and how to evaluate their own work.
• Help teachers and other raters be accurate,
  unbiased, and consistent in scoring.

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Elements of a Scoring Rubric

• Traits or dimensions that form the basis for
  judging the students response
• Precise definitions and examples, to clarify
  each traits or dimensions meaning and purpose

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• A scale of values on which to rate each trait or
  dimension
• Standards of excellence for specified performance
  levels, including examples/models illustrating
  each level

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Designing Rubrics

• What is the best response?
• Brainstorm all the qualities of this response.
• Make a checklist of all the criteria.
• Select formatanalytic or holistic.
• Describe the levelsexemplary to poor or novice
  to expert.
• Define the four point-scale.

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Analytic rubric

• Assesses product through consideration of
  essential features
• Acts as framework for teacher and student

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Holistic rubric

• Assesses on basis of overall impression.
• Does the performance/product work?
• Am I convinced?

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Activity

• Brainstorm the best chocolate chip cookies
• Texture
• Appearance
• Contents
• Smell
• Hall, E.W. Salmon, S. J. Chocolate chip cookies
  and rubrics Helping students understand rubrics
  in inclusive settings. Teaching exceptional
  children, Mar/Apr, 2003, 8-11.

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Selecting or creating a rubric

• Does it relate to the outcome(s) being measured?
  Is there anything extraneous being measured?
• Does the rubric include all the important
  dimensions of the students performance?
• Do the criteria reflect current conceptions of
  excellence?
• Are the categories/scales well defined?

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• Is there a clear basis for ascribing scores at
  each scale point?
• Can the rubric be applied consistently by
  different raters? Is it manageable?
• Will students, parents, and other stakeholders
  understand it?
• Is it developmentally appropriate? Apropos the
  students special learning needs?

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When selecting or creating a rubric

• Can the rubric be applied to a variety of tasks?
• Is the rubric fair and free from bias?
•  

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Sharing

• What works in your school?
• What challenges you?