assignment

Authentic Assessment Methods

In this chapter, you will encounter several alternative, or authentic, methods of assessment and will experience firsthand their teacher-friendly attributes. Before beginning, however, it is important to note that just as with standardized tests, there are precautions to take and shortcomings to guard against. Thus, when you engage in any of these authentic methods, you should keep the following points in mind:

Avoid making assumptions about the child or children you observe. Do your best to keep your mind neutral during observational and other methods.

Take care when using descriptive words. They can be biased, just when you should be neutral.

Do not label children, either in a positive or negative way. It is not helpful to think of a child as "the good one" or "the rowdy one."

Take time to examine your own biases before, during, and after your observation. Avoid favoritism. Do you prefer some children over others? Again, stay neutral.

Do not let background information keep you from being objective. There is infor­mation you possibly need to know, but it may have little to do with the upcoming assessment.

Realize your own limitations as a beginning assessor, or even as a more experienced one evaluating a new child. If possible, get a second opinion from another professional to determine if you understand situations the same way (Clark and McDowel, n.d.).

Following are some of the major early childhood authentic assessment methods. They are presented in alphabetical order, beginning with anecdotal records.

Anecdotal Records

Narrative descriptions, or what might be thought of as stories about children's behaviors, are called anecdotal records. As with most stories, they are typically written in the past tense. Anecdotal records are usually fairly brief, but longer accounts can be useful as well. They are probably at their most accurate when written in the moment, but of course, teachers frequently do not find time to write the story until later. In such a case, it is most helpful to write a few quick reminder notes to be used when sufficient time becomes available.

Anecdotal records are especially helpful for teachers when descriptions of children's behaviors can be better understood by knowing exactly where and when they happened. Anecdotal records are useful when a child engages in a behavior previously unobserved, such as taking first steps or speaking in a complete sentence; they are equally useful for recording behaviors that set a child apart from others, whether the experience demonstrates giftedness or is a cause for concern. Communication with children's families about their children's behaviors can be helped through anecdotal records, particularly if they are well done. What constitutes a high-quality anecdotal record has itself been the subject of much research and commentary. The following observations and suggestions are adapted from Fleege (1997), Gullo (2005), and Wortham (2006):

Anecdotes should be records of direct observation only, not hearsay from someone else.

Anything written should be accurate and specific. No essays or journal-style writing.

Anecdotes should be recorded as soon as possible after an observation.

Behaviors should be written in objective, non-judgmental language. Interpretations are written later, either in a separate column or in a different document.

The description includes information about what happened both where and when, as either or both of these might offer clues to a child's behavior.

Feelings, attitudes toward learning, emotional development, physical problems, cogni­tive disabilities, and exceptional capabilities can all be discovered through the use of anecdotal records, especially if the items on this list are attended to.

Figure 6.1 shows how an anecdotal record might be used on a day when a child has entered the classroom unusually upset and without explanation. Note that in this example, three columns have been drawn. The one on the left provides information about where and when the behavior took place, as well as which children were involved; the middle column is used for the anecdote, or story; and the column on the right is used for the writing of comments, or interpretations, about the story.

Figure 6.1: Anecdotal Record Example #1

Note in Figure 6.1 that physical descriptions are given, but that judgmental words such as angrily, pouting, or sadly were not used. Even in the comments section, conclusions are put on hold until the upcoming parent conference. This anecdote describes a brief moment of the day. It is possible that the teacher will make more notations as the day progresses, though an anecdote is typically a record of a single observation and so a new record form may be used.

In the next example of an anecdotal record, there is no space for commentary. Comments can be added in a separate document later, the anecdote can be filed with other similar observations for a group analysis at a future point, or discussion might take place first with other teachers or the children's families. The story in Figure 6.2 includes four kindergarten children, but its focus is on Bjorn, who is new today.

Figure 6.2: Anecdotal Record Example #2

Being able to observe and document a child's first day provides helpful information that can be combined with other observations in the near future. Such documentation will be useful to teacher and family alike as they evaluate Bjorn's acclimation to his new surroundings. In a case such as this one, the teacher might well decide not to write anything evaluative until after a first conference with Bjorn's family members. Then, comments will no doubt be decided upon jointly, with all parties having access to the result.

Checklists

A checklist is a list of items tied to a single concept or set of skills, with the purpose of determining which items have been achieved. Checklists are straightforward and both quick and simple to use. All that is necessary is to observe the presence or absence of a listed criterion or behavior and mark those present with a check or an x. Checklists help observers document all areas of children's development—cognitive, social, emotional, and physical—as well as specific areas of academic progress. They are especially useful when there is a long list of criteria or behaviors to be observed. Checklists can be used to observe a single child or a group. Some are available commercially, while others are created by teachers, schools, or centers as needed.

Checklists do have some disadvantages. Commercial versions may not accurately reflect the needs of a particular group of children. If programmatic changes are made based on the findings of a commercial checklist, they may well be inappropriate (Gullo, 2005). Yet teachers may feel too insecure in their knowledge about developmental expectations to be at home in the creation of a list. In addition, checklists give no information about how well established a behavior is; it may be here today and gone tomorrow, or vice versa (Fleege, 1997). There is no information provided by a checklist about the quality of something that has been checked. For example, a checklist devoted to a teacher's behavior might report that the teacher reads stories to the children every day before recess, but it will not tell if the stories are read well. Finally, checklists usually lack information about context (Fleege, 1997). How children behave is always influenced by the environment in which they live, work, and play. This includes the people around them. How a child performs may relate to what they ate for breakfast, whether the night before provided enough sleep, or whether he or she would rather be playing somewhere else and with different friends. For all these reasons, checklists might be said to work best when they are combined with other methods of assessment, possibly as a final check to provide an overall view of a child's strengths and needs.

Figure 6.3 demonstrates what a school- or center-made checklist might look like. It might be given in late spring to children who will soon attend kindergarten, and would most likely be a final follow-up to previous assessments. It would be helpful to share with parents who are, no doubt, wondering if their child is ready for the next important educational step.

Figure 6.3: End of preschool checklist

Note that in this checklist, a space for comments is provided. This is one way to handle the disadvantages attached to the simplicity of checklists. Look back at the checklist now and see if there are any items you think would be checked differently depending on the child's environment as defined in the previous paragraph. Are there any items that would not provide sufficient information just by being checked off? Or will this checklist do a good job of telling the teacher and family everything they need to know about the listed items?

No doubt you use or have at some time used checklists to organize your own life. The satisfaction felt by completing tasks or achieving goals can be felt by children too, and checklists provide one way to accomplish this through self-assessment. One busy second grade teacher decided to create a checklist for memorization of subtraction facts. She placed it in the math center for children to use, along with flash cards for practice and testing. The students were totally on their own for assessing each other. All of them enjoyed being teacher, and they especially liked celebrating the completion of the challenge with an oversized gold star.

Rubrics

Rubrics provide a highly organized structure for assessment and evaluation. They can be used for anyone from infancy to adulthood. They can be as simple as a checklist or as complex as a multi-part rating scale (a rubric with degrees of competence indicated). Definitions of rubrics vary, but here are three useful ones:

"A guide listing specific criteria for grading or scoring academic papers, projects, or tests" (Merriam-Webster, 2012).

"Behavioral indicators that describe different levels of performance in a range of curricular activities. Each level of performance marks a developmental step toward mastery of specific skills or concepts" (Chen & McNamee, 2007, p. 8).

"[A] printed set of guidelines that distinguishes performances or products of differ­ent quality. . . . A rubric has descriptors that define what to look for at each level of performance" (Wiggins, 1996, p. vi, 5).

There are different types of rubrics, depending on an evaluator's reason for creating one. Here are two that are useful for early childhood educators:

Performance rubrics: These provide a way to assess a child's performance "on a continuum that measures key concepts and skills" (Chen & McNamee, 2007, p. 22). As an example, a first grade teacher might wish to evaluate student performance during child-choice reading time. Ratings could range from "no participation" to "initial attending to print" all the way to "independent reader." Once the criteria are chosen and entered in the rubric, all the teacher must do is make check marks next to each child's performance level.

Developmental rubrics: These rubrics acknowledge that children's development is on a continuum that occurs over time, perhaps months or even years. Developmental rubrics may well deal with performance, but attention is paid to the long term. For example, the teacher might want to assess children's ability to use logical thinking in problem solving, something that begins to emerge in the primary years. A developmental rubric might include assessments on such skills as classifying and ordering objects, organizing information, forming concepts, analyzing concepts, and estimating (Gullo, 2005).

Rubrics provide an organized and efficient way for teachers to assess children's progress, but they can also be used for self-evaluation, both for the children and for the teacher. For children, such an experience provides scaffolding on their way to self-regulation and understanding school expectations. For teachers, self-evaluation can lead to more competent and satisfying teaching experiences.

Other advantages of rubrics include their flexibility and adaptability to new situations. If a teacher finds that one is not working well, the rubric can be amended quickly and easily. A disadvantage can sometimes be that an individual student's performance does not fall within the structure of the rubric. This does not happen often, but it generally emerges as a problem with a student who is unusually creative or academically gifted. One aspect of rubrics that can be seen as either an advantage or a disadvantage is the fact that they require much thoughtfulness, planning, and development up front, but once created, they are generally quick and easy to use.

Following are some examples of rubrics that may be encountered in an early childhood setting. All except the child-created version contain rating scales. Figure 6.5, for example, shows a developmental rubric for assessing infant motor skills. It would be particularly useful in a room with babies between 4 and 7 months old. The teacher records the date on which the infant performed or became proficient at each skill in the appropriate box. You will want to make sure that the boxes are large enough for inserting comments.

Figure 6.5: Rubric Example #1

Figure 6.6 shows another example of a rubric; this one appropriate for determining whether kindergarten students have met state performance standards.

Figure 6.7 shows an example of a rubric that might be used for assessing education students such as yourself. It is adapted and condensed froma university model and evaluates students in a school setting.

Our final example shows a rubric that could be created jointly between a teacher and his or her grade 1 class. The teacher might first ask the children to discuss their goals and to choose the two that they consider most important. The teacher could then create a document from an agreed-upon model, probably drawn on the class whiteboard, or the children could write in the criteria and faces themselves from a teacher-made template. Figure 6.8 presents two criteria that a sample group of first graders thought were important. Note that while the teacher may have a separate set of goals, he or she may decide that the self-evaluation process takes precedence over his or her assessment choices.

Figure 6.8: First grade math rubric

Running Records

A running record tells what a specific child is doing as the event takes place. It details everything that is observed over a predetermined period of time. It is written in the present tense, rather than in the past tense as anecdotal records are. In addition, the running record tends to include more minutiae, often requiring the use of abbreviations to keep up with everything that is going on.

Running records have their origin in the work of Marie Clay of New Zealand, most famous for her success in teaching Maori children to read as no one before had been able to. Running records were created to track the progress of low-achieving first grade readers who were participating in Clay's Reading Recovery program (Clay, 1994). Reading Recovery as an early intervention for children who do not easily succeed at grade level reading skills has been adopted by English-speaking countries worldwide and is also available in Spanish. A Reading Recovery teacher is specially trained and is often someone who will enter a classroom temporarily to work one-on-one with a child, thus freeing the regular teacher to focus on the class as a whole.

It is not expected that readers of this chapter are, or will become, trained Reading Recovery teachers. Running records, however, can be used for any number of subjects and behaviors. They can provide a minute-by-minute description of what a child does, thus leading to a better overall understanding of that child. Without having a second supervising adult available, however, trying to focus on a single child for even a few minutes may be close to impossible. Because the results of learning more about individual children can contribute powerful clues to foster their development, running records are worth attempting. A few ways to make them happen might include the following:

If there is no extra adult in the classroom, try teaming with a teacher in a neighboring classroom. It may be possible for one person to supervise both groups for a while as the other teacher does running records.

If a few children come early or stay late so that supervision of the larger group is not necessary, grab those few minutes.

During a class time that is split into centers of interest or free play, create a running record center that consists of only teacher and child. It should be placed in such a way that supervision of the entire class is possible.

Figure 6.9 provides an example of a running record with a group of 12 2-year-olds. There are three adults present, making such observation possible. The focus is on Orville, whose behaviors in the past two weeks have been troubling. He seems to initiate every social interaction, with child or adult, by ramming himself or a toy into the other person.

Figure 6.9: Running Record Example #1

Note the difference between what is written in "Observed Behaviors" and in "Comments." The former simply and briefly describes Orville's behaviors. The latter allows for speculation and considerations for what to do next. If you were Angela, how would you approach Orville's mother this afternoon? How could you talk with her about this potentially delicate topic so that she will see herself as an ally rather than feeling defensive?

1. Krogh, S. (2013).  A Bridge to the Classroom and Early Care: ECE Capstone  [Electronic version]. Retrieved from https://content.ashford.edu/