One of the ways to assess young children is to observe them while they are doing their daily school activities. For instance, you might observe how they complete a puzzle, play with other children or tell and listen to stories. This assessment technique offers a comprehensive means of monitoring the children's social, emotional, physical and academic progress. The purpose is to access the skills, knowledge, behavior and accomplishments of the child across a wide variety of activities.
Portfolio assessment involves collecting the child's work that reflects or shows his performance, progress, achievement, weaknesses, experience, knowledge and skills acquired over a period of time. It provides more information because it represents a variety of modes, which shows the depth of a child's development and competence. The selection, design and evaluation are performed by both the child and teacher. This promotes motivation and ownership in the children as they feel they are part of the assessment. The portfolios can also be used to show parents how their young children are progressing.
Anecdotal notes are a type of record-keeping in which a teacher records a child's actions, behaviors and learning over time. The records account for everyday events in a child's life at school. The records are strictly objective, and you can use them to create a complete developmental picture of the children. They should be brief and accurate. For example, "Joan, 5, recited the memorized words today as she pretended to read to her dolls."
Checklists are assessment techniques that help you follow the children's growth and progress by creating a profile of each child's progress. Make the checklist consistent and reliable by giving a justification for each action performed by the child. Checklists cover domains such as mathematical thinking, physical development and language and literacy, and they are designed to reflect developmentally appropriate practices. You can use the checklists over a long period -- one year, for example -- to create profiles of children's individualized progress in acquiring knowledge, mastering important behaviors and developing skills.