DISCUSSION: DEVELOPMENTALLY APPROPRIATE ASSESSMENT PRACTICES

Criteria:

Write a 2-3 sentence position statement (format for position statement below) for each of the five areas of the NAEYC developmentally appropriate approaches stated in the Instructor Guidance (initial post)-samples highlighted in green below

*Five areas of the NAEYC Developmentally Appropriate Approaches:

1. Creating a community of learners

What you may want to include:

• Each member of the community are valued

• Relationships are important

• Each member of the community respects and is accountable to others

• Practitioners design and maintain physical environment to protect the health and safety of the learning community members,

specifically in support of children's physiological needs

• Practitioners ensure members of the community feel psychologically safe

2. Teaching to enhance learning and development

What you may want to include:

• Responsible for fostering the learning community through their teaching

• Know each child and the most significant people in their life

• Responsible to know the curriculum goals

• Plan for learning experiences to attain goals across the domains and disciplines

• Plan daily activities to promote learning and development

• Possess skills and strategies they are able to draw on

• Know how and when to scaffold children's learning

• Know how and when to use the various learning formats

• Provide extended learning experiences

• Make experiences in classrooms responsive to ALL children and their needs

3. Planning curriculum to achieve important goals

What you may want to include:

• Desired goal that are important in children's learning and development have been identified and clearly articulated

• The program has a comprehensive, effective curriculum that targets identified goals

• Teachers use the curriculum framework in planning to ensure there is attention to important learning goals

• Teachers make meaningful connections in the learning experiences

• Teachers collaborate with those teaching in preceding grades and share information

• Practitioners plan curriculum for infant and toddlers

4. Assessing children's learning and development

What you may want to include:

• Ongoing, strategic and purposeful

• Focus on children's progress towards goals that are developmentally and educationally significant

• System in place to collect and make sense of assessment information (formative assessment)

• Methods are appropriate to the development status and experiences of young children

• Look at what children can do independently and with the assistance of others

• Input from families and children's own evaluations of work

• Tailored to a specific purpose

• Decisions have a major impact on children (enrollment, placement, etc.)

• Appropriate follow-up to screenings that identify special needs

5. Establishing reciprocal relationships with families

What you may want to include:

• Mutual respect, cooperation, shared responsibility and negotiation of conflicts toward achieving shared goals

• Practitioners work in collaborative partnerships with families

• Family members are welcome in classroom

• Teachers acknowledge a family's choice and goals for child

• Teachers and families share knowledge of child to understand child's development and learning

• Practitioners involve families as a source of information about child

• Program links families with a range of services

NAEYC Format for Position Statements

1. State topic

2. Pick a side

3. Provide evidence that supports your side (research, opinion) using at least 3 supporting pieces.

4. If problem, provide an alternative solution and why you believe it could work.

Sample Position Statement for ONE area (Created by Instructor): According to the NAEYC (2009), developmentally appropriate practices to assessment include creating a community of learners. I agree with this area of focus:

• Each member of the community are valued (school personnel, students, families, and the community)

• Teachers must establish a classroom environment that is safe for learners (including physical and psychological safety)

Because I support ideas stated for creating a community of learners, I will create a classroom management system to ensure community members are valued and a classroom environment is structured that promotes physical/psychological safety. (Jaruszewicz, 2013 and ASCD, 2015)

Sample Position Statement from ONE area (From Instructor Guide): The school administration wants to implement a school uniform policy because so many students are dressing inappropriately for class. I am against the school implementing such a policy.

• School uniforms will take away student rights.

• School uniforms are expensive.

• One hundred kids were surveyed and 85% were against uniforms.

I understand the issue that high school kids are wearing inappropriate clothes to school. However, instead of implementing a formal

uniform, a less drastic suggestion should be considered first. One solution could be to make the current dress code stricter.