Observation Items - Miami-Dade County Public Schools

1 At small-group time, J. tells his teacher, Look Michelle, I painted thesetoo. At small-group time, J. tells his teacher, Look Michelle, I paintedthese too. At small-group time, J. tells his teacher, Look Michelle, Ipainted these too. At small-group time, J. tells his teacher, LookMichelle, I painted these too. At small-group time, J. tells his teacher, Look Michelle, I painted these too. At small-group time, J. tells histeacher, Look Michelle, I painted these too. At small-group time, J. tellshis teacher, Look Michelle, I painted these too. At small-group time, his teacher, Look Michelle, I painted these too. At small-group time,J. tells his teacher, Look Michelle, I painted these too. At small-grouptime, J. tells his teacher, Look Michelle, I painted these too.

2 At small-group time, J. tells his teacher, Look Michelle, I painted these too. Atsmall-group time, J. tells his teacher, Look Michelle, I painted these too. At small-group time, J. tells his teacher, Look Michelle, I painted thesetoo. At small-group time, J. tells his teacher, Look Michelle, I paintedthese too. At small-group time, J. tells his teacher, Look Michelle, Ipainted these too. At small-group time, J. tells his teacher, LookMichelle, I painted these too. At small-group time, J. tells his teacher, Look Michelle, I painted these too. At small-group time, J. tells histeacher, Look Michelle, I painted these too. At small-group time, J. tellshis teacher, Look Michelle, I painted these too. At small-group time, his teacher, Look Michelle, I painted these too. At small-group time,J.

3 Tells his teacher, Look Michelle, I painted these too. At small-grouptime, J. tells his teacher, Look Michelle, I painted these too. At small-group time, J. tells his teacher, Look Michelle, I painted these too. Atsmall-group time, J. tells his teacher, Look Michelle, I painted these too. At small-group time, J. tells his teacher, Look Michelle, I painted thesetoo. At small-group time, J. tells his teacher, Look Michelle, I paintedthese too. ObservationItemsPreschool child Observation RecordHigh/Scope EducationalResearch FoundationObservationItemsPreschool child Observation Record2nd EditionPublished byHigh/Scope PressAdivision of the High/Scope Educational Research Foundation 600 North River StreetYpsilanti, Michigan 48198-2898 Phone: (734)485-2000; FAX: (734)485-0704 Web site: ,E-mail: Editors: Nancy Brickman; Holly BartonGraphic Design and Production: Margaret FitzGerald, Metaphor Marketing; Kazuko Sacks, Profit MakersPhotography: Gregory FoxCopyright 2003 High/Scope Educational Research Foundation, 600 N.

4 River St., Ypsilanti, MI rights reserved. Except as permitted under the Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this work may bereproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photo-copy, recording, or any information storage-and-retrieval system, without prior written permissionfrom the publisher. High/Scope is a registered trademark and service mark of the High/ScopeEducational Research 1-57379-190-3 Printed in the United States of America10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1iContentsIntroduction 1I. Initiative 3A. Making choices and plans 4B. Solving problems with materials 5C. Initiating play 6D. Taking care of personal needs 7II. Social Relations 9E. Relating to adults 10F. Relating to other children 11G. Resolving interpersonal conflict 12H. Understanding and expressing feelings 13 III. Creative Representation 15I.

5 Making and building models 16J. Drawing and painting pictures 17K. Pretending 18IV. Movement and Music 19L. Moving in various ways 20M. Moving with objects 21N. Feeling and expressing steady beat 22O. Moving to music 23P. Singing and Literacy 25Q. Listening to and understanding speech 26R. Using vocabulary 27S. Using complex patterns of speech 28T. Showing awareness of sounds in words 29U. Demonstrating knowledge about books 30V. Using letter names and sounds 31W. Reading 32X. Writing 33VI. Mathematics and Science 35Y. Sorting objects 36Z. Identifying patterns 37AA. Comparing properties 38BB. Counting 39CC. Identifying position and direction 40DD. Identifying sequence, change, and causality 41EE. Identifying materials and properties 42FF. Identifying natural and living things 431 IntroductionThis guide includes the entire Preschool ChildObservation record (COR) assessment tool plusan explanatory discussion and examples for eachCOR item.

6 It is designed to help you interpret andscore your anecdotal notes on children s behavior tocreate an accurate, useful, objective, and compre-hensive developmental profile for each child . The 32 Preschool COR Items presented and described here cover key dimensions of child devel-opment in the following six COR categories: initia-tive; social relations; creative representation;music and movement; language and literacy;and mathematics and is devotedto each of the 32 COR Items ; it provides a develop-mental sequence for that item broken into five lev-els of behavior. Brief explanations are given for eachitem and level, followed by two or more examplesof child anecdotes per level. This material will en-able you to choose the COR item and level that bestfit the behavior you have captured in each childanecdote or portfolio item. (Portfolio Items may in-clude children s creations, writing samples, photos,videotapes, and audiotapes that you have collectedas samples of children s work.)

7 In addition to illus-trating the COR behavior levels, the examples pro-vide models of the objective, specific notes that aremost effective for documenting children s progresswith the Preschool COR system. (For instructions foranecdotal note taking see the COR User Guide.)For more information on the child develop-ment framework that is the basis for the PreschoolCOR s developmental sequences see Educating YoungChildren: Active Learning Practices for Preschool andChild Care Programs,Second Edition, by MaryHohmann and David P. Weikart (2002), availablefrom High/Scope Press. Because the Preschool CORwas developed in conjunction with the High/Scopeeducational approach (the curriculum described inEducating Young Children),the COR is well-suited forassessment in programs using this , since the COR is based on widely acceptedviews of child development and learning, it can beused for assessment in any developmentally orient-ed early childhood program, regardless of the pro-gram s words of explanation are needed to helpyou to make the best use of the behavior levels foreach item and the examples of developmental anec-dotes provided.

8 First, unless otherwise indicated, theCOR levels are written with the assumption of cor-rectness. That is, if the item level reads child uses aposition word, this means that the child must usethe word correctly to be scored at that level. If it isnot necessary for the child to accomplish the task orbehavior correctly, this will be explicitly stated inthe level statement itself or in the accompanyingIntroduction2notes. Keep in mind, too, that the examples provid-ed often describe more than one child , although theanecdote usually belongs to just one child . Inmost cases the wording of the example will make itobvious which child is intended as the focus of theanecdote. In Items where this may ambiguous, thefocus child is indicated in brackets after the exam-ple. If all the children in the example are doing thesame thing, as in some social play examples, youcan assume that the example might be entered in allof their individual records.

9 For further guidance inusing this manual as you write anecdotes and com-plete the COR assessment process, see the PreschoolCOR User nature young children are inquisitive, enterprising,and motivated to take action to pursue their interestsand ideas. Through everyday choices, plans, and decisions,children initiate personally meaningful activities that en-able them to learn not only about the physical world butalso about themselves and others as learners and adventur-ers. By acting on these initiatives, children gain confidence in themselves ascapable persons and in others as supportive participants. As children developover time, they strengthen their abilities to communicate their intentions,solve problems that occur in their own activities, and coordinate their ideasand activities with choices and problems with care of personal needsINITIATIVES ocial Relations Creative Representation Movement & Music Language & Literacy Mathematics & ScienceAObservation Items4 Level 1.

10 child indicates a choice by pointing or someother child expresses choices, decisions, and plansthrough simple actions, such as pointing, going andgetting an object, or just starting an activity with noprompt. 12/1 At planning time, when asked what he is going to do atwork time, Dylan points to the puzzles. 2/5 During work time in the block area, Carlos asks Markwhat he is going to put on top of the boat. Mark goes to theshelf, picks up the tub of cars, and brings it back to the 2. child expresses a choice in one or twowords. The child states a choice or plan by using a word ora short phrase. The child may state this plan in re-sponse to adult prompting, as long as the adult hasasked an open-ended question ( What will you doin the art area? ) rather then a yes-no question ( Doyou want to color? ). 11/19 During planning time when her teacher asks her whatshe will use at work time, Cayli answers, Pegs.