Kei Tua o te Pae

Which assessments from our setting make valued aspects of the arts visible to teachers, children, families, and whānau?
What opportunities for experiencing the arts in the wider community are evident in the children’s assessments?
How do teachers include the practices in the arts that children are experiencing outside the centre in their assessments?
Are there opportunities for children’s portfolios to become artistic artefacts? How does this happen?
Do our assessments that include the arts refl…

These books on symbol systems and technologies for making meaning employ three lenses to analyse the exemplars:

a lens focused on assessment practices, referring to the definition of assessment as “noticing, recognising, and responding” from Book 1 of Kei Tua o te Pae;
a Te Whāriki lens;
a lens that focuses on the symbol systems and technologies for making meaning – literacy (oral, visual, and written), mathematics, the arts, and information communication technology (ICT).

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 Well-being/Mana Atua strand:

"The health and well-being of the child are protected and nurtured. Children experience an environment where: their health is promoted; their emotional well-being is nurtured; they are kept safe from harm.4

Ko tēnei te whakatipuranga o te tamaiti i roto i tōna oranga nui, i runga hoki i tōna mana motuhake, mana atuatanga … Kia rongo ia i te rangimārie, te aroha, me te harikoa, ā, kia mōhio ki te manaaki, ki te atawhai, me whakahir…

The exemplars are followed by annotations that provide focused comment on each exemplar. These annotations follow a standard question-and-answer format.

What’s happening here?
The answer gives a brief description of what’s happening in each exemplar.

What aspects of [the area specified] does this assessment exemplify?
The answer refers back to the explanations in the exemplar book’s front pages. It explains why this assessment was chosen. (The exemplar may also illustrate other aspects of asse…

This resource is titled Kei Tua o te Pae, a line from an oriori (lullaby) by Hirini Melbourne. There are a number of images in this oriori that can be applied to development, learning, and assessment for learning.

Mason Durie (2001). “A Framework for Considering Māori Educational Advancement”. Opening address to the Hui Taumata Mātauranga, Turangi/Taupo, 24 February, page 5.

2 Paul Black and Dylan Wiliam (1998). Inside the Black Box: Raising Standards through Classroom Assessment. London: School of Education, King’s College, p. 13. (See also Book 10).

"A great deal of concern has been expressed about the need to respond further to the behaviour and emotional problems of young children growing up in…

1 Ministry of Education (1996). Te Whāriki: He Whāriki Mātauranga mō ngā Mokopuna o Aotearoa/ Early Childhood Curriculum. Wellington: Learning Media.

2 Tilly Reedy (1995/2003). “Toku Rangatiratanga na te Mana-matauranga: Knowledge and Power Set Me Free …”. In Weaving Te Whāriki: Aotearoa New Zealand’s Early Childhood Curriculum Document in Theory and Practice, ed. J. Nuttall. Wellington: NZCER, p. 68.

3 Rangimarie Turuki Pere (1997). Te Wheke: A Celebration of Infinite Wisdom. Gisborne: Ao Ako…

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…

19 June

Here are Alice and I taking a browse through her portfolio. “I know the words,” Alice keeps saying to me. We look at each page. “In the family corner I like to play with my friends, Finn and Taylor,” says Alice running her finger along the line of words.

The next page is an old story of when Alice was beginning to write her name. “I do it now and I already have my birthday and I know how to do it.”

The next page is when Alice had been playing “Doggy, doggy, who’s got the bone?” On see…

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."

Early Childhood Learning and Assessment Exemplar Project Advisory
Committee and Co-ordinators, 2002 (emphasis added)

Exemplar books 5, 6, and 7 ask the question: “What difference does assessment make to children’s learning?” These exemplar b…

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.

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…

A repertoire of practicesThe following are some aspects of participating in ICT that might be noticed, recognised, responded to, recorded, and revisited. Not all of these aspects are represented in the exemplars, but teachers may be able to locate them in their own settings and write their own exemplars.

In her book Pedagogy and Learning with ICT, Bridget Somekh comments:

"The sub-title of this book is “Researching the Art of Innovation” because my interest is in finding ways of assisting…

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…

Children's names: Matiu and Heremaia

Date: 23 July

  
A Learning Story

Belonging

Mana whenua
Taking an Interest

Nanny came into Kindergarten today with Matiu and Heremaia. They were both proudly holding the pūrerehua they made with Nanny at home.

“Hoatu ki a whaea,” says Nan. Matiu gives me his pūrerehua.

“You know what it's made of?” he asks, smiling at me.

“I'm not too sure, Matiu, can you tell me?”

“I made it from fish heads, me and Nanny, see?”

“Were the fish heads n…

Pathways to bicultural assessment practice will have the following features:

Acknowledgment of uncertainty: Teachers will be willing to take risks and to acknowledge that the pathways are not clearly marked out. Advice from the community and reciprocal relationships with families will provide signposts and support.
Diversity: There is not one pathway; there are multiple pathways. However, all early childhood settings will be taking steps towards bicultural assessment practice.
Multiple perspect…

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…

1 Ann L. Brown, Doris Ash, Martha Rutherford, Kathryn Nakagawa, Ann Gordon, and Joseph C. Campione (1993). “Distributed Expertise in the Classroom”. In Distributed Cognitions: Psychological and Educational Considerations, ed. Gavriel Salomon. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, chapter 7, pp. 188–228 (quote from p. 217).

In this chapter, Ann Brown and colleagues write about classrooms as being communities of learners. This research is in a school context, but early childhood centres can be u…

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…