Kei Tua o te Pae

1Media statement from New Zealand-born winner of the 2000 Nobel Prize for Chemistry, Professor Alan MacDiarmid, Foundation for Research Science and Technology, New Zealand, 18 May 2005.
2 Early Childhood Learning and Assessment Exemplar Project Advisory Committee and Co-ordinators, 2002.
3 Dorothy Singer and Jerome Singer (1990). The House of Make-Believe: Children’s Play and the Developing Imagination. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, p. 19. Vivian Gussin Paley’s books also offer som…

In Book 4 of this series, “Jak builds a wharenui” is an exemplar of children making a contribution to their own assessment.

"Jak approached me in the back room and asked if I could help him build something. We sat down together and talked about what he would like to build. Jak started to put a base down. “What could this be, Maya?” Jak asked me. “I’m not sure, but maybe it’s the floor of a building,” I replied. “Look around you, Jak. What could this be?”

Jak carefully looked at the pictur…

What’s happening here?
Three children are each building their own block structure, complete with cars and wooden people. The children need to work out a satisfactory way of distributing the available girl figures between them.

What does this assessment tell us about the learning (using an Exploration/Mana Aotūroa lens)?
This is an example of three children negotiating and compromising as they work alongside each other. It is a common occurrence in play in an early childhood centre that there ar…

Introduction - He kupu whakataki

Indeed, it was in this [research] process that we came to recognize – in practice as well as in theory – the critically important role of dialogic knowledge building in fostering the dispositions of caring, collaboration and critical inquiry that are at the heart of our vision of education.1

This book collects together early childhood exemplars that illustrate the assessment of learning that is valued within the curriculum strand of Communication/Mana Reo, keep…

The exemplars in this book illustrate possible ways in which assessing, documenting, and revisiting children’s learning will contribute to educational outcomes in the curriculum strand Exploration/Mana Aotūroa.

Assessments value spontaneous play initiated by children and comment on the learning taking place in such play, for example, making decisions, posing and solving problems, thinking creatively, and using the imagination.
"The concept of “what might be” – being able to move in percept…

Introduction - He kupu whakataki
"Exemplars are examples of assessments that make visible learning that is valued so that the learning community (children, families, whānau, teachers, and beyond) can foster ongoing and diverse learning pathways [emphasis added]."

Early Childhood Learning and Assessment Exemplar Project
Advisory Committee and Co-ordinators, 2002

This book is about one of the purposes and consequences of documented assessment in early childhood education. We know that…

Another way of looking at the assessment of continuity is as an ongoing record of continuity and change in competence. Over time, a child’s competence in a range of areas becomes more secure, more widely applicable, and more complex. As competence becomes more secure, the child teaches others and increasingly relies on invoking competence to follow through tasks, make sense of the world, take on roles, solve problems, and engage in further learning. When competence becomes more widely applicable…

Paul found a rakiraki (duckling) on the road as he was walking to school. Whaea Margaret asked Paul if she could bring the rakiraki to the centre to show the tamariki. He agreed, and Whaea Margaret brought the rakiraki to the centre.

She introduced the rakiraki to the tamariki at morning mat time and told them that he had lost his mother. The tamariki were fascinated with the rakiraki and gathered around the new addition to the fold. The staff suggested we give him an ingoa (name), and the tama…

In practice, assessment for learning – noticing, recognising, and responding – may be non-verbal (a gesture, a frown, a smile), verbal (a comment, a conversation), or documented (written down, photographed, displayed). These three modes of communicating and representing can be described as languages. The language of teaching contributes to the assessment culture of the setting in at least three ways. Firstly, discourses of identity and achievement describe a particular view about what it is to b…

The principles of Te Whāriki apply to both assessment and curriculum, and the assessment of children’s participation in ICT keeps this in mind. Assessments provide useful information for teachers, families, and children, enabling and informing pedagogy that will strengthen all dimensions of participation in ICT. Assessments take place in the same contexts of meaningful activities and community practices that have provided the focus for curriculum. Families are included in the assessment and in t…

The story so far... Over the past year the kindergarten has been involved in a programme of bicultural development as part of our special focus on biculturalism. During this time the children have been involved in kapa haka and have demonstrated their learning through performances at Te Waitawa House and at the kindergarten for the new entrants class from school. We have also been becoming familiar with a range of Māori stories from the past and te reo me ngā tikanga Māori.

Last year we were fo…

IntroductionThe exemplars in this book should be considered in conjunction with the discussion in Book 16. A definition of mathematics and statistics in The New Zealand Curriculum includes the statement:

"Mathematics is the exploration and use of patterns and relationships in quantities, space, and time. Statistics is the exploration and use of patterns and relationships in data. These two disciplines are related but different ways of thinking and of solving problems. Both equip students w…

The logging industry: Conner shares his knowledge

Connor brought some photos from home to share with his friends.

They were about his dad’s machinery that he uses when he works in the bush.



Connor showed the photos to his friend Daniel.

“This is a harvest line hauler. It pulls out logs off the hills into the skid. My daddy’s skidder pulls out logs from the bushes, too. It has chains or else it will get stuck in the mud.”

 

“They use waratahs in the bush and grapples and skidders. A wara…

Jak uses pictures as a reference point against which to assess his construction for himself: he is able to make his own judgment about the quality of his block building. The ambitious design also provides its own evaluation: the roof, delicately balanced to come to a point, doesn’t collapse. This is an example of self-assessment. It is also an example of the teacher writing down an occasion when she says “I’m not sure”, modelling for Jak that being uncertain is part of the process of learning (a…

Child’s name: Stevie

Learning storiesAt one point this afternoon Stevie was very upset. I asked “What’s wrong Stevie – why are you sad?” He told me he was sad because someone told him he couldn’t play on the pirate ship. I took his hand and said, “That’s very upsetting – and they told me I’m not allowed either – because girls aren’t allowed!”

Victoria piped into the conversation “Me too!” “Wow, how did it make you feel when they said that, Victoria?” I asked. “Sad,” she said. “Well that ship n…

Micah and Jak had built a construction with blocks and then added treasure. Suddenly Micah left, followed by Jak, who then returned and with great delight slid into the construction and it collapsed. Micah came in and was very disappointed. Jak said to him, “It’s okay – we will build another one,” and they did.

This time they began with the beads and the blocks together from the beginning and they included the beads as they built it in a very clever way. Micah had a beautiful golden buckle and…

20 May: I’d like Caroline to have a sense of independence – i.e., not always needing to be with me or her caregiver – time alone, or with other children and no caregiver close by would be good. Not sure how to develop her independence but I don’t want to have created a “clingy” baby either!! Jennifer.

Margaret and the other teachers at the centre had noticed that Caroline preferred to be held by adults and Jennifer agreed that this was not a new issue for Caroline. Jennifer and Margaret also di…

This is an exemplar of learning that is distributed across or “stretched” over people, places, and things: the teacher, the place (in this case the photograph of a place), and the things (the blocks). Jak appears to be exploring how three-dimensional objects can be fitted together and moved in space, also ways in which spatial information can be represented in photographs and used as a guide for building. Jak uses analogy (it’s like a skeleton) to make sense of the teacher’s explanation. This ex…

Group learning storyOctoberAfter reading the story about Hinemoa and Tūtānekai, we talked about the carvings in the whare of Tūtānekai and what each part of the wharenui was called in te reo Māori. We talked about how they could have been made.

Grayson said, “Special carvers made them with hammers and knives.” The other children agreed.

Azia asked if she could make a whare. I said, “Sure. What do you think you could use to make it?”

Grayson said, “You could use the ice block sticks like I did…

8 NovemberIt is so hard to believe for all of us that our beloved marae has been burnt down. The children are constantly talking about it. Many drive past it each day to come to kindergarten. The teaching team has engaged in much dialogue with the children and together they have come up with a plan. Not just some ordinary plan, a marvellous plan indeed.

This is what has been decided at our morning meetings with children. Whaea Taini has lost so many precious things and so why not make her somet…