Kei Tua o te Pae

One way of looking at the assessment of continuity is as a record of the ongoing development of the learning community. Sometimes records of continuity will be from the viewpoint of the teacher, sometimes the child, and sometimes whānau and the wider community. It is not always possible to see the full picture of continuity because frequently only one perspective is documented.

In the exemplar “Like something real”, the assessments include a widening of the “real” community to include visiting…

"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

Book 5 emphasises the importance of inviting all members of a child’s learning community to participate in assessment. For children supported by an early in…

Assessment for learning implies that we have some aims or goals for children’s learning. Te Whāriki provides the framework for defining learning and what is to be learned. The goals and indicative learning outcomes are set out in strands.

Families and whānau know their children well. They must be included in the mutual feedback loops that contribute to informal and formal assessment in early childhood settings. In the case of infants and toddlers, parents and whānau are often able to fill gaps in the teachers’ understanding or to explain the learning with reference to events and circumstances beyond the early childhood setting. They are able to widen the horizon, to extend the view of the other adults in the child’s life. This bo…

The following exemplars in other books can also be viewed from an Exploration/Mana Aotūroa perspective.

Book 1: Electricity in the wall; Who knows?

Book 2: Aminiasi sets himself a goal; George gets to where he wants to be; “Write about my moves!”; Monarch butterfly adventure; The mosaic project; Letters from the teacher, letters from the parent; Assessments in two languages; A shadow came creeping

Book 3: Making jam; Pihikete’s learning; Micah and his grandfather

Book 4: Dom rebuilds; Louie…

Who are we documenting for? Who should we be documenting for?
How do our assessment practices make valued learning visible to teachers, to children, and to families and whānau?
In what ways do assessment examples from our early childhood setting reflect socially and culturally valued roles in the community?
Have the families contributed to the development of our learning community? In what ways? How do we make this possible for families where English is not their first language?
Do our assessmen…

12 MayThis morning Isaac came to me and said, “We need to have a meeting for boys only. We want to plan something only for boys.”

“Sounds like a good idea,” I said. “When would you like to have the meeting?”

“Today,” responded Isaac. “What time?” I asked. “Nine o’clock,” said Karl.

“Well, we have already had nine o’clock, today,” I said. “How about twelve-thirty this morning? After we’ve tidied up?”

“Yes. That will be okay,” said Isaac.

“You’ll need a notice so that all the boys know about…

Introduction - He kupu whakatakiThe strands of Te Whāriki
"This curriculum is founded on the following aspirations for children: to grow up as competent and confident learners and communicators, healthy in mind, body, and spirit, secure in their sense of belonging and in the knowledge that they make a valued contribution to society." 1

This book introduces the section of Kei Tua o te Pae/Assessment for Learning: Early Childhood Exemplars that focuses on the five strands of Te Whāriki.…

Ballard, Keith (1993). “A Socio-political Perspective on Disability: Research and Institutional Disabilism”. New Zealand Journal of Educational Studies, vol. 28 no. 2, pp. 89–103.
Bevan-Brown, Jill (1994). “Intellectual Disability: A Māori Perspective”. In Disability, Family, Whānau and Society, ed. K. Ballard. Palmerston North: Dunmore Press.
Bruder, Mary Beth (1997). “The Effectiveness of Specific Educational/Developmental Curricula for Children with Established Disabilities”. In The Effective…

The sociocultural framework that informs Te Whāriki (see Book 2) is a useful perspective for understanding the teaching and learning and assessment of symbol systems and technologies in the early years.15 Young children learn languages, literacies, symbol systems, and communication technologies by participating in them in a range of family and community contexts (including early childhood settings outside the home), where the purposes and ways of “doing” literacy, mathematics, the arts, and ICT…

The exemplars in these books are about assessments carried out in everyday contexts. A major purpose of documentation is that it will inform everyday, undocumented, interactive teaching and spontaneous feedback, making children’s interactions richer and more reciprocal. The curriculum is at its best when activities and conversations are sited in meaningful contexts.

The following is an example of a typical everyday episode in a childcare centre, which happened to be recorded by a visiting resea…

10 February

Zalaluddin is a Malaysian boy, Sajed is from Afghanistan and Art is from Kosovo. They are good friends and take care of each other.

Sajed and Zalaluddin were driving the truck. They left Art behind and Art was looking unhappy. I asked him, “What is the matter?”

He said, “I like to play with them and drive the truck. They do not want to have company.”

I asked him if he would like to have another truck and play with it but he wasnʼt happy about it and said, “No no no! I like to pla…

Te Whāriki  elaborates on the Contribution/Mana Tangata strand as follows:

Ko te whakatipuranga tēnei o te kiritau tangata i roto i te mokopuna kia tū māia ai ia ki te manaaki, ki te tuku whakaaro ki te ao … Kia mōhio ia ki ōna whakapapa, ki te pātahi o ōna whānau, ki ōna kaumatua me ōna pakeke … Kia mōhio hoki ki a Ranginui rāua ko Papatūānuku, ā rāua tamariki, me ngā kōrero mō rātou.4

Opportunities for learning are equitable and each child’s contribution is valued.

Children experience an en…

This is the first of five books on assessment in the domain of symbol systems and technologies for making meaning.

In the Reggio Emilia programmes in northern Italy, symbol systems are described as "one hundred languages" for making meaning and communicating.1 Carlina Rinaldi writes about listening "to the hundred, the thousand languages, symbols and codes we use to express ourselves and communicate, and with which life expresses itself and communicates to those who know how to l…

Group learning storyOn the foreshore to the east of Howick grows a large pōhutukawa tree known by the Ngāi Tai people as “Te Tuhi a Manawatere” – the mark of Manawatere.

It is said that this ancestor came from Hawaiki. Tradition states that he did not come by canoe, but that he glided on the ripples of the waves on the back of a taniwha. He came by way of Thames and Maraetai and then to what is now known as Cockle Bay. There he landed by the large pōhutukawa tree and made his tuhi (mark) thereu…

The most comprehensive review of research on formative assessment in recent years was carried out by Paul Black and Dylan Wiliam at King’s College, London.21

Black and Wiliam define formative assessment as follows:

"In this paper, the term “assessment” refers to all those activities undertaken by teachers, and by their students in assessing themselves, which provide information to be used as feedback to modify the teaching and learning activities in which they are engaged. Such assessment…

Introduction - He kupu whakataki
When a child moves from a family to a classroom, when an immigrant moves from one culture to another, or when an employee moves from the ranks to a management position, learning involves more than appropriating new pieces of information. Learners must often deal with conflicting forms of individuality and competence as defined in different communities … I am suggesting that the maintenance of an identity across boundaries requires work and …[t]his work … is at th…

"Assessing or observing children should take place in the same contexts of meaningful activities and relationships that have provided the focus for the holistic curriculum … Assessment of children should encompass all dimensions of children’s learning and development and should see the child as a whole."

Te Whāriki, page 30

Sociocultural approaches to assessment:

construct “communities of learners”
support the ongoing development of learning communities with a philosophy of whanaung…

The exemplars in this book supplement those in Book 2 where the four principles of Te Whāriki are discussed and exemplified separately. Learning communities that are empowering take a holistic approach to learning. They are constructed through responsive and reciprocal relationships with people, places, and things as well as through involving whānau and community. All the principles are integrated in the development of a community that will foster ongoing and diverse pathways of learning.

Asses…

E Tipu e Rea nā – Hirini MelbourneTranslation by Mere Skerrett-White

Moe mai rā e te hua
I tō moenga pai
Kaua rā e tahuri
Taupoki ki roto i tō papanarua
Kia mahana ai

Ka tō te marama e tiaho nei
Ka hī ake ko te rā
Kei tua o te pae

Tipu kē ake koe
Me he horoeka
Torotika ki te rā
Whāia te māramatanga
O te hinengaro
O te wairua

Kia puāwai koe ki te ao
Ka kitea ō painga

Sleep my loved one
in your comfortable bed.
Don’t be restless.
Snuggle up safe and sound in your
duvet so that you are warm.…