Learning Interview 1. What is your favorite activity at school?

I like readingrecessmathwritinglanguage artsartgymmusicand aftercare I like them in that orderbut reading is my favorite 2. What is your favorite book? SpongeBob! SpongeBob The Great Escape and The Thermostat

3. What do you find the hardest about school? The libraryits hard to sit down that long

4. What is the most important thing you have learned this year? Mathlike divisionmultiplicationsubtractionand addingoh! And math facts for sure Oh!...I also learned comparing and contrasting The best thing I learned was from a bookjust because youre different doesnt mean you cant fit in Elmore...the book is called Elmore

5. If there is one thing you could learn about this year, what would it be? I dont know

This interview revealed a lot about Anthony not only as a person, but also as a learner. In particular, it demonstrated that Anthony seems to have a passion for school, especially the subject of reading because whenever he talked about reading his face lit up with a smile. This interview also revealed that Anthony is starting to form particular interests when it comes to literature with his love of books with the character SpongeBob. Andrew was very open and comfortable talking about the things he has learned this year, and seems to understand that he has learned some very important lessons both that pertain to academics and to life in general. He demonstrated that he is developing in his increasing ability to understand and use language to communicate information, experiences ideas,

feelings, opinions, needs, questions; and varied purposes with his openness and expressiveness during the interview (Puckett & Black 297) . Anthony proved to be a very bright and carrying child who seems to love the experience he is having at Gearity Elementary.

Running Record #1 (Day #1) Time 4:00-4:07 p.m. Action Jumping Rope Verbalizations/Actions Andrew walked over to the jump rope bin and pulled a rope out. He put the jump rope in his hands and began to jump over it. He jumped 12 times in a row and then tripped over the rope when another boy came and tapped him on the shoulder. A boy asked him if he wanted to play with his dinosaurs and Andrew replied okayjust let me jump some morek? Andrew began jumping rope again and completed 21 without tripping or stopping. He then put the jump rope back in the bin and walked over to the table where the boy was sitting with the toy dinosaurs. Domain Physical Health and Development (Gross Motor Skills)

4:07-4:15 p.m.

Playing dinosaurs with a friend

Andrew sat on the bench at the table and said okaywhich one do you want to be? Andrew waited for the boy to choose the tyrannosaurus dinosaur and he then grabbed the other dinosaur saying Ill take the stegosaurus. The boy Andrew was playing asked him if he could see the stegosaurus and Andrew replied with okaybut can I play with yours? and the boy replied yah.

Social & Emotional Development (Cooperation)

Andrew then moved the tyrannosaurus (with left hand) toward the stegosaurus saying grrr and making a biting motion with his mouth. A girl came over and asked if she could play and Andrew said Notheres only two dinosaurs...just me and Tommy* are playing. 4:15-4:27 Drawing A student volunteer approached Andrew Creative Arts ( Art) and Tommy and asked them if they Literacy (Writing) wanted to draw a picture about the dinosaurs and Andrew replied okayI guess so Andrew got up from his seat and moved over to the art table with Tommy and the student volunteer and sat down. Andrew took one piece of paper from the stack and eight markers (red, orange, purple, green, blue, black, yellow and teal green). He then began to draw the outline of a dinosaur using the orange marker (using left hand). He filled in the picture and then took the brown marker and made triangular marks on it. He then took out the green marker and made a tyrannosaurs outline and colored it in with green and black. He drew an orange and brown stegosaurus and a green and black tyrannosaurus. He drew a circular shape next to the tyrannosauruss head with the word rawr written in the middle of it. When he was finished drawing he walked over to the student volunteer and asked her how do you spell tyrannosaurus and stegosaurus? The student dictated the spelling of both words to Andrew and he copied the letters underneath each picture.

Running Record #2 (Day #2) Time 4:02-4:08 p.m. Action Playing checkers with a friend Verbalizations/Actions Andrew is sitting at the game table with a friend. They are playing checkers and he is the red pieces. Andrew looked at the board with a lot of concentration while tapping his fingers on the table. He moved one of his pieces and said mmmokyour turn. He did one more move on the board and then said Im bored.lets do legos. Andrew put all of the pieces back in the game box and placed it on the shelf. Andrew walked over to a table with two bins of legos and sat down opposite of his friend. He took a lego mat out one bin and grabbed a handful of legos out of the other bin (using left hand) and placed them in front of himself. His friend asked him what he was making and he replied a skate park Andrew started his creation by placing Domain Social & Emotional Development (Cooperation)

4:09-4:19 p.m.

Playing legos with a friend

Creative Arts (Art) Social & Emotional Development (Social Relationships and Cooperation) Language Development (Speaking and Communicating)

skinny lego pieces around the edge of the lego mat. He then took four moderately sized lego pieces, stuck them together, and placed a triangular piece in front of them. His friend asked him to show him how to make a ramp like his and Andrew showed him. He also said lookthis part is the rampyou have to make this part highok? (Also language development) Andrew then continued making his skate park and included three other stacked forms of lego towers. Andrew got up out of his seat and walked over to a group of three boys and said, come here. Two of the boys followed him back to his table and he said II made thisisnt it a sweet skate park? The director of the aftercare program then walked over to Andrew and his group of friends and said Can you all please pick up the legos when youre finishedwe dont leave messesIm not cleaning up after you.Andrew replied with yes mam.

4:19-4:23

Clean up

Andrew began to take apart his lego skate park by taking off the four towers first and pulling the pieces apart. He then put the lego mat and pieces into their correct bins and then walked over to the director and said Im done cleaning up...can I use the computer? The director replied noPeter is using ityou can wait and Andrew replied with a sigh and said okay (his face had a frown and he walked slowly back to the table)

Social & Emotional Development (SelfControl)

Story This particular story writing told a lot about Andrews abilities in the domain of literacy development. Anthonys story writing sample shows that he can combine drawing and writing, but writing can stand alone to convey meaning which is a widely held expectation in learning development for children who are seven to nine years old (Puckett & Black 83). This story sample also emphasizes that Anthony can spell multi-syllabic words correctly which is demonstrated by his correct spelling of President, homeless, people, and donate (English Language Arts Content Standards 127). He also demonstrates that he can use end punctuation marks and use correct capitalization with his use of commas and periods at the end of every sentence and his capitalization of the beginning of every sentence and the word I (English Language Arts Content Standards 127). Along with these, Andrew also demonstrates that he can develop a clear main idea for writing and use a wide range of simple, compound and complex sentences (English Language Arts Content Standards 98). He exemplifies growing understanding of these two specific domains when he uses the theme of helping others for his story about being president and when he uses sentences like If I was the President I would stop the smoking, raise the sigarret prices, and give money to the homeless people.This artifact gives the impression that Anthony is progressing in his cognitive development, especially where literacy is concerned. This particular artifact also demonstrates the constructivist learning theory because Andrew is an active participant in this learning process because he is using his own ideas about what it would mean to be president to him, which also makes this a child-initiated type of learning.

Illustration The illustration that Anthony created also gives a lot of insight into his artistic development. Anthonys drawing of multiple human beings suggests that he is increasingly develop*ing+ forms, such as a human form, and repeat*s+ it over and over and continues to name what has been drawn through his writing of the names Jasmin and Dartanian over two of the draw bodies. These are both widely held expectations in aesthetic and artistic development for children age seven (Puckett & Black 78-79). This artifact reveals developmentally appropriate practice characteristics because children in this age group often express their ideas through both writing and illustration.

Writing Sample This artifact of a description of a drawing about the book The Giant Pumpkin by Joy Cowley exhibits much about Andrew as a learner. It is about a man and a woman an a big big big big big pumpkin. Andrew demonstrates that has mastered high frequency words like about, man , it, is and big, but that he can also spell more complex words like woman and pumpkin. This writing sample also demonstrates that Andrew is far along in his progression from using scribbles, shapes, or pictures to represent ideas, to using letter-like symbols, to copying or writing familiar words such as their own name (Puckett & Black 298). Andrews use of the words woman, pumpkin and man, for instance reveal that he is continuing to develop a rapidly increasing vocabulary of sight words, which is another widely help expectation in the intellectual development of children age seven (Puckett & Black 83). One challenge of Andrews that becomes evident is that he has difficulty with using language for writing that is different from oral language, mimicking writing styles of books when appropriate (English Language Arts Content Standards 99). This is shown through his exaggerated use of the words big and pumpkin, where he adds extra letters to convey that the pumpkin he drew was large in scale. Generally, Andrew shows signs of progression in the literacy domain and reveals that he is towards the end of Piagets preoperational stage due to his application of his new knowledge of language (Puckett & Black 12).

Numeracy Sample This numeracy artifact gives clear insight into Andrews abilities in the domain of mathematics. Andrew demonstrated that he can count money and make change using coins and paper bill to ten dollars (Mathematics Academic Content Standards 60). He displays this by correctly matching the coin amounts to their counterparts in the snack shack menu. For example, when he added the quarter, dime and three pennies, which equal thirty-eight cents, he correctly matched that amount to the answer in the box above. This artifact also shows that Andrew demonstrates increasing interest and awareness of numbers and counting as a means for solving problems and determining quantity through his ability to count money correctly (Puckett & Black 298).

Art Project This lego art project by Andrew gives great insight into his abilities in both the domains of creative arts and approaches to learning. This particular artifact was created under Anthonys love of legos my prompt of can you build me a lego sculpture?. Andrews use of the legos to create a sculpture of varying towers shows that he is progress[ing] in abilities to create drawing, paintings, models and other art creations that are more detailed, creative, or realistic (Puckett & Black 299). He also shows that he is develop*ing+ growing abilities to plan, work independently, and demonstrate care and persistence in a variety of art projects due to his taking twenty-two minutes to complete the project (299). Andrew also reveals that he approaches tasks and activities with increased flexibility, imagination, and inventiveness as well as, shows growing capacity to maintain concentration over time on a task, question, set of directions or interactions, despite distractions and interruptions (301). This artifact reveals characteristics of being developmentally appropriate because Anthony

has a passion for creating lego structures, which makes this particular assessment meaningful to him. This artifact illustrates that Anthony is currently in the industry versus inferiority stage of Erik Eriksons psychosocial development due to his interest in constructing and creating from a variety of media and his seeking to be engaged in what they perceive to be real tasks (14).

Reflection This assignment has given me a lot of food for thought as far as informing my philosophy of authentic assessment. My philosophy of authentic assessment is that teachers need to strive to use the kinds of assessment that is both meaningful and developmentally appropriate. Prior to this class, I had thought of authentic assessment as mainly observing children while they play or giving them the opportunity to participate in real life scenarios, but I have also learned that its much more than that. While taking the time to create the many assessments for Anthony to complete I was given the opportunity to become exposed to all the different ways assessment can be made to be authentic. For instance, I incorporated his interests by using legos for an art project and choosing a book about pumpkins for him to draw and illustrate a picture on. I think a large part about authentically assessing is simply trying to root the assessment in something the child is interested in or has a passion about. I think that using this kind of technique could encourage the child to not only complete the task to the best of his ability but also be much more meaningful. This assessment portfolio has had an everlasting impact on how important it will be for me as a future educator of young children to be informed and knowledgeable. I think one very important thing I learned while creating assessments for Anthony, was how much knowledge an educator must know concerning the emotional and social development of the children they are working with. I needed to make sure that I focused my assessment towards where Anthony was developmentally, to make certain that I wasnt choosing to assess him on something that would be too easy or too challenging. I think that this aspect of assessment can be challenging, but that is extremely important and should not be overlooked. While I completed this assignment, I found that I am a now a big believer in creating a classroom environment that encourages children to enjoy and have a passion for learning, and have found that authentic assessment would be a vital part of creating that atmosphere. Throughout this assignment, I tried to

incorporate state academic standards in areas like mathematics and language arts, but also tried to find a balance by making the assessments interesting and meaningful to the child. I found that creating that balance was challenging but ultimately worthwhile because Anthony was nearly always eager and excited to participate. This particular challenge was probably the most eye-opening part of the project for me as far as creating authentic assessments. This project provided a lot of substantial insight as to my professional development. I appreciated being given the opportunity to partake in the rewarding and eye opening work of assessing a student. This project really informed me on what it will take to run authentic assessments in my own classroom. I feel that even with the small amount of time I spent with Anthony, that I was able to see a lot of his strengths and weaknesses as a student, just like I will be doing when I have a classroom full of children. I also believe that this assessment portfolio made me realize once again that a teacher is always learning and growing along with her students because just as I was assessing Anthony, I was also assessing myself. A teachers education is never over because each child I will interact with will teach me something new about education, and myself, which is an opportunity I truly am looking forward to having. I really enjoyed being given the opportunity to use the skills and knowledge I have gained in this class in a real life setting with a child. This portfolio project provided insight into the world of assessment and the challenges and rewards that come along with it.This project truly made the textbook and the content areas come to life right before my eyes. This was an experience I am sure I will not soon forget as I continue to form my philosophy on authentic assessment. I once again I feel that John Taylor Grattos quote below sums up how I will continue to view my role as a future educator.
School should be a combination of academic and personal self-interest, it is in encouraging a student to be who they are and to strive towards his or her passions that we will truly be able to unlock a students full academic and god given potential. Whatever an education is, it should make you a unique individual, not a conformist; it should furnish you with an original spirit with which to tackle the big challenges, it should allow you to find values which will be your road map through life; it should make you spiritually rich, a person who loves whatever you are doing, wherever you are, whomever you are with; it should teach you what is important, how to live and how to die.

Table of Contents
Title page..X Table of Contents.Page 1 Learning InterviewPages 2-3 Running Records (#1 & #2).Pages 4-6 Story and Illustration.Pages 7-9 Writing Sample..Pages 10-12 Numeracy SamplePages 13-14 Art Project.Pages 15-16 Reflection..Pages 17-18

Learning Interview

Running Records

Story &
Illustration

Writing Sample

Numeracy Sample

Observational Assessment of Young Children

Portfolio Assignment Hannah Kam ED 225 3/24/2012