Early Childhood Center of the Month: St. Peter, Schaumburg IL

Our meeting this month, was held on November 12, 2015.  Director Kristen Blinn and her staff, graciously opened their early childhood center to our network meeting. Kristen opened with a devotion focused on all the "hats" that we wear as teachers (we appreciated her real hats labeled all around the room!)  Before diving into the topic, we talked about New Starts New Believers stories. If you have a story, please share! One resource discussed was the book "Joining Jesus on His Mission: How to be an everyday missionary" by Greg Finke.  Our topic focused on informal and formal assessments.  The following information provides some resources in regards to assessment:

Online Assessments 

http://www.mychildnow.com (purchased program)
http://www.esgisoftware.com/ESGI/ (purchased software)
http://www.onlinecor.net (purchased software)

Articles:
15 Ways to Incorporate Formative Assessment! (Fantastic article by ASCD)
http://www.weareteachers.com/blogs/post/2015/08/21/15-ways-to-know-when-your-students-aren-t-getting-it-a-guide-to-formative-assessment

 The Action Pack on Assessment:

https://images.magnetmail.net/images/clients/ASCD/attach/EL_Action_Pack_on_Assessment_ASCD.pdf

 Preschool Assessment:

http://nieer.org/resources/policybriefs/7.pdf

Books

-Assessment of Young Children: A Collaborative Approach, by Lisa B. Fiore

-Six Simple Ways to Assess Young Children, by Sue Y. Gober

Behavior App: Class Dojo

Additional Assessment Tools:

- Send a form home for parents to complete before school begins. Then, at the start of the school year, the teacher can use this information to have a background of what the child’s areas of interest or challenges may be.

-Utilize Twitter, Facebook, or blog sites to share with parents what their child is learning

-Portfolios

-Narratives

-Parent co-op schools have the opportunity for parents to actually see what the child is learning

-Pictures with images and standards

-Conferences

-Journals

-Anecdotal Records

-Checklists / Rating Scales

-Observations

-Pictures! Take a picture of a child's "pencil grip" if you are concerned about a child's fine motor development and share/discuss with the parent.

-Testing: Readiness Tests, Screening Tests, Achievement Tests

Examples of Standardized Language and Early Reading Measures for Young Children:

DIBELS (Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills)

IGDI (Individual Growth and Developmental Indicators)

Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test

TOPEL (Test of Preschool Early Literacy)

Online Assessment Forms

-http://prekinders.com/assessment-forms/
-http://www.supportingproviders.com/forms/childassesment/AssessmentPreschoolers.pdf

Early Childhood Center of the Month: St. Peter, Schaumburg