From the Top Down and From the Ground Up: Getting Everyone on the Same Page Through Professional Development

1. From the Top Down and From the Ground Up: Getting Everyone on the Same Page Through Professional Development Bev Engel Vicki Rexroat

2. Oklahoma & Authentic Assessment • History of State Projects • Nationally Recognized Program to Develop a Framework for Programs • Focused Portfolios • Visionary Leaders • Implementation of Leadership Academy II • Investing in people

3. Introducing Authentic Assessment through Entry Level CDA Courses • Early Education: Pathway to CDA • Online CDA Classes • Oklahoma Department of Career Technology Education’s Early Care Programs (Daytime Programs)

4. Leadership Academy II: Prerequisite for Focused Portfolios • In-depth education opportunities for Directors to move beyond the basics • Requiring Directors to accompany their Teachers to learning sessions • Everyone uses the same language • Everyone has the same basis for understanding child development, documentation, and implications for curriculum

5. Introducing Teachers to Observation & Assessment • Accessible and User Friendly Methodology • Does not overwhelm learners • Allows time to interact with children • Encourages asking questions to expand children’s experiences • Helps teachers step back from continuous interaction with children to see what children KNOW and CAN DO • Observing is not a separate task – it relates to all aspects of classroom decision-making • Anecdotal notes inform the planning of activities and family/teacher communication

6. Breaking Down the Big Assessment Picture • Understanding that milestones and benchmarks are not achieved all at once • Dissecting milestones • Getting more skillful at using milestones in all aspects of program planning • Teacher’s documentation and intentional planning based on recognizing partial achievement of milestones

7. Working on Milestones • When you stop focusing on themes, you start focusing on development • Focusing on development gives the teachers a better feel for individual needs and the class as a whole; ensures developmental appropriateness • Planning of experiences becomes intentionally tied to observed interests and developmental levels • Behavior management decreases when curriculum is individualized and children are known to be interested in the activities provided

8. Portfolios as Basis for Staff Development: Philosophy to Practice • Observations, anecdotal notes, and resulting portfolios give teachers and directors concrete samples to compare to program philosophy • Identifying practices that do and do not support the program’s philosophy provides a basis for reflection and discussion of appropriate classroom and teacher practices.

9. Dissecting Milestones • Engages in dramatic play easily, cooperating with other children, and showing lots of imagination and interest. (5’s) • Interacts with one other child, each pretending within the same scene or context. • Engages in dramatic play with one other child, verbalizing what the scenario is and what is going to happen. • Engages in dramatic play with one other child, making suggestions and listening to the other child’s suggestions about what will happen. • Engages in dramatic play with more than one child, making and listening to suggestions, adding content, and bringing in new props as play unfolds. • Engages in dramatic play with others, bringing in scenes/themes from previous days and building on them.

10. Moving Beyond the Basics of Authentic Assessment • Observing and Creating Portfolios • Focused on Milestones • More intentional (not a scrapbook) • Demonstrating a Greater Depth in Understanding the Evolution of Children’s Competence and Skills Mastery • Helps teachers at all levels develop professionally

11. A Planning Matrix Using Developmental Milestones3 & 4 year old groupGoals = Milestones that children are working on. Themes may be used alongside milestones, but not in place of them. Thinking, Reasoning, Problem Solving Milestones Uses one object to stand for another (3) Groups objects - 2 or more attributes (4) Small or large group Activities Pretend you are going to the beach; what could you use to play in the sand instead of a pail and a shovel? Look around the room. Outdoors Uses cardboard tubes from wrapping paper for fire hoses. Children use platform on the climber as deck of their pirate ship. Put all the objects that go together in a pile. Collects pebbles, rocks, shells and sorts them into self-selected categories.

12. Teacher/Child Interaction • Questioning during observation to deepen understanding of the child’s thinking process • Enhances teachers’ comprehension of what it is that they are seeing

13. Bev Engel, Early Childhood and Organization Development Consultant engelschrodt@earthlink.netand Vicki RexroatCoordinator and Instructor of Early Care and Education ProgramCaddo-Kiowa Technology CenterFort Cobb, Oklahomavrexroat@caddokiowa.comAll Power Point slides used in this presentation can be found at:www.focusedportfolios.com

14. Focused Portfolios: A Complete Assessment for the Young Child and the accompanying CD-ROM Focused Portfolios Electronic Companion are available from Redleaf Press: www.redleafpress.org