Master's Degree Completed!

Master's in Applied Linguistics completed! Horray!

Defense Coming Up! February 26, 2010

I have written my project for my master's degree in applied linguistics. It is called, "Teachers Guide to Creating And Implementing Kindergarten Culturally Relevant Learning Centers." I think it will be a great resource for K teachers looking for ideas on how to teach young readers to enjoy literacy in my Yukon/Kuskokwim region. I am defending my project in Bethel, Alaska and I am really excited to finish the journey that the program has taken me through.
I have a lot of people to thank; my mom, family, my colleagues, professors, and people who are my dear friends who endured hearing me moan and groan about the process. Thanks for hanging in there! I appreciate it. Quyana!

Project

Hello All Readers,

I am writing to tell you about my new project.  I am working on including culturally relevant story books to our reading curriculum through centers.  Sounds like an exciting idea?  Well, I think so too!  It is going to be a lot of work, but I am ready to do my best to see if I can develop units for K teachers to use as a guideline.

Enjoy spring!

LING 612 Standardized Assessment of the Content Knowledge of English Language Learners K-12: current trends and old dilemmas

Standardized assessment of the content knowledge of English language learners K-12: current trends and old dilemmas by Butler, F.A., & Stevens, R.(2001).
Overview and problem:
Students placed in English as a second language, Limited English Proficient (LEP) in the USA is approximately at 80% based on the teacher-designed and national assessment programs such as the National Assessment of Education Progress.
Reading challenges vs. content knowledge
Approaches to standardized assessment of content knowledge:
Excluding the LEP students from national assessments was the solution in the past. However, this made that population have no representation.
Approaches to include students in testing programs:
Testing in the first language
• Test content translated into first language.
• Translating test into first language.
Accommodations
• See table 1 on pg. 413.
• Modifications of the test
• Modifications of the test procedure
Measuring growth in English
• Some states providing a separate measure of growth in English.
• Some states use growth in English as alternative accountability measures.
• Taking the language test will help LEP students to take the standardized tests.
Discussion
• Developing testing in the first language addresses many languages.
• Difficult to translate tests to first languages.
• Measuring and reporting growth in English and content areas is difficult.
Rethinking research
• Pg. 417 1. When is it appropriate to give standardized content assessments to ELLs? This is, when are the inferences made about the performance of ELLs on standardized content assessments valid?
• Pg. 417 2. Until it is appropriate to give these assessments to ELLs, how do we provide accountability and assure equity?
Areas of discussion for us to discuss:
• Academic language assessment pg. 418

• Opportunities to learn pg. 420

• Focused research on promising approaches to inclusion pg. 421

Conclusion:
• Experts from applied linguistics, language testers, psychometricians, classroom teachers, district, state, and federal officials and other fields of education get together to collaborate. Language testers contribute sound test development principles and evaluate language tests. Translate systematically operational academic language into academic language and guidelines for teachers.

LING 612 Ch 6 Writing Assessment(1996) by O'Malley & Pierce

Writing assessment focus is mainly on the role of the writer, purpose of writing, and writing modifications. Self and peer assessment are key roles in that process. Students can write for their purposes and get feedback on the process.
When my students are first beginning to write, they write exactly like they would if they are recording their transcriptions of stories. Students voice can be heard in the style that their voice comes across. After the transition from pictures to words with pictures, I can see my student's writing developed in their sentences. Some are personal stories, some are about an activity that they participated in such as a boat ride to fish camp or hunting. The stories are dictated and very long. Kids have no problem telling the stories for someone else to record. Once they are in charge of their own words on the paper, they begin to see writing as a difficult process. I am hoping to find ways to help ease that transition for my students to become confident writers.
I hope to implement the process where students go through the process writing beginning on pg. 138 where they do prewriting, writing, postwriting, and conferencing. This can be a discussion about the topic and what they will choose to write about.
Scoring rubrics come in handy at this point, such as Figure 6.1 Holistic Scoring Rubric for Writing Assessment with ELL Students that can show you where your students are at in a glance. My K-1 students will generally be in levels 1 and 2, but it is also a great idea to show them where they will eventually end up as they learn the writing process. This is a great idea for motivation purposes and gets students hooked on writing.
Writing assessments are a great instruction guide. I would love to have a rubric posted and have my students understand the writing process to self-assess and help their peers with the writing process. The more students are exposed to the writing process, the better writers they become. I enjoy hearing my students tell each other about their journals. I am also interested in writing in other content areas and connecting them to our daily lessons in reading,writing, math, and employability skills.

LING 612 Ch 10 Reading Assessment and Instruction by Peregoy, S. & Boyle, O. (2005)

This chapter does a wonderful job of explaining that if assessment is multidimensional, then you and your students have a better opportunity to show progress in more ways. I liked the Figure 10.1 that has a instructional cycle that has these components, assess, instruct based on assessment, re-evaluate, instruct. This cycle is repeated until students are ready to move on to another level.
For non-native English speakers, it is recommended that you find out information about student's prior knowledge, purpose for reading, language knowledge and their prior literacy experiences both in their first language as well as in English. You also have to look at the student's background knowledge which is finding out if they use their background knowledge when they read, language knowledge which is their miscue analysis, word recognition and if they understand the words they are reading, vocabulary in speaking, reading and writing, and comprehension which includes the different levels such as independent, instructional, and frustration from the text that they are reading.
From the informal reading inventories, I find myself using echo reading where you or a tape reads and children echo back the same phrases or sentences. I also use guided reading when I have both my kindergarten and first grade students for my guided reading group. The level of difficulty depends on the students and what lessons I want to emphasize.
I also am a big fan of read alouds and introducing silent sustained reading to my first grade group. They enjoy reading texts and we read books that are at all levels, but mostly focusing on the frustration levels, just to work together through the passages.

LING 612 Reading Assessment Ch 5 by O'Malley & Pierce (1996)

I am pleased to say that I am starting to figure out how to assess and use reading activities as assessment tools to show progress. If I want to test students on retell, I provide retell activities for the students to utilize and they also get lessons on how to practice that skill. Everyday reading experiences should include a variety of methods to help students learn to decode and comprehend their reading assignments. Books should be provided for students to explore their interests and anyone can be included in the process of reading, whether it be a parent, teacher, peer, family member, elder or a toy such a toy or snow machine. Kids have great imaginations to create different settings for them to enjoy literature.
Assessment is a tool to help students, parents and teachers learn about the process that students are going through to learn to read. Students that are English language learners are going to have trouble connecting to the mainstream America's genre of reading, but that does not mean that they will not be able to catch up. It takes second language learners an average of 5-7 years to become proficient in a language. During that time, they can read books that they select and ones that they show interest in.
Teacher's roles as data collectors should provide a variety of assessment tools. The chapter has a lot of reading assessment ideas that you can use or adapt for your particular setting. I am going to try to get more familiar with figure 5.20 on pg 126 to get quality information of what is happening with individual student reading strategies and record that in a portfolio that I will use to share with the student, other teachers and parents.
I had a hard time keeping a portfolio in the past because I just saw it as a collection of work that had no meaning to my students but the idea was my own and only I understood it without providing rubics, checklists or other types of documents that helped others who look at the portfolio understand it. I am pleasantly surprised at my alternative approach to the concept of portfolio in the classroom as a teaching and recording tool for both my students and myself.

Assessing Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Students (2005) By R. Rhodes, S.H. Ochoa, & S. Ortiz

Special Education placement for ethnic and second language learners in the United States has issues to consider to make sure that students who are limited English proficient are not diagnosed as needing special services because of bias and language issues referred to as disproportionality. There has been a study of the past 20 years or so of placement in special education dealing with minority students in various states and the findings suggest that there are more variable to investigate such as instructional factors that affect the quality of the school and teacher experience, referral procedures which are biased toward minorities and lack of prereferral intervention, assessment practices which points out that many school psychologists are not trained to test culturally and linguistically different student populations, and noncompliance with state and/or federal guidelines which assesses linguistically diverse students to be tested in their first language.
With school accountability such a high factor for success of schools, minority students have a greater "one size fits all" approach and therefore being labeled special ed and therefore exempt from the high stakes tests. This also affects promotion and graduation for the minority students, hense the high drop out rate.
Some solutions from the National Research Council (NRC) recommends a "universal screening program" (p.38) which is administered when students show signs of having difficulty in reading. Some factors that would address if bias is a factor is a longitudinal data consisting of how long a family has lived in the US, level of acculturation, birth place of the students, parents, grandparents and their language proficiency. Provide access to bilingual education, bilingual psychologists, and the language of the tests being in the minority student's Native Language.
Funding would also be provided to evaluate assessment methods used for culturally and linguistically diverse students and testing to see if bias is the main reason students are placed in special education.
I am pleased to read that the NRC is taking steps to help students with cultural and linguistic differences be included in the regular classroom and also have access to the gifted end of the special services spectrum.

Dynamic Assessment in the Language Classroom (2005) by Poehner & Lantolf

Dynamic Asssessment (DA) applies Vygotsky's zone of proximal development (ZPD) to help second language learners achieve instruction from assessment assistance and teaching forward to eventually develop background knowledge for students to work on tasks independently. This ZPD approach helps educators to use the student's maturity level to teach skills ahead of time therefore assisting students to learn "when they are ready", in the famous words of Walkie Charles.
DA pedagogical approach is different from formative assessment where scaffolding is used as a possible teaching strategy to help with assessment feedback.
One key term that I read about was Vygotsky's approach to DA, interactionist which is focused on learning over measurement approach. The other approach which is not the focus of the paper is interventionist focusing on a "different score." The interactionist approach has its roots on what the student's potential can be with interaction and focus on student performance.
Basically what I got out of the article was that teaching a student or group of students based on their understanding of the test while they are testing or afterwards, and helping the students self correct is the goal of moving forward. Teachers can focus their feedback for students to develop their understanding of the assessment and thereby giving the student lessons that they are ready for to apply later and to eventually work independently on later based on their ZPD.
My comment on the article is that if we use DA in the classroom to make assessments developmentally appropriate, where does that fit in the limited English Proficient guideline on how to assist language learners with the high stakes test? And if not, how can it not be a factor to discuss and bring up to the state accomodations board?

LING 612 Ch 3 Portfolio Assessment by O'Malley & Pierce (1996)

Chapter three of the O'Malley & Pierce text almost had me thinking that I was going to finally learn how to create and gather information for my assessment portfolio. At this point in the class, I am sold on the type of portfolio I want to create with my students and share the process with the elementary team. Since we already have a portfolio going in writing using the six traits rubric, I thought this would be a great addition using reading to start. I agree with the concept of the student being in charge of their self-assessment and goal setting. I was trying to to figure out how to incorporate the essential elements of the portfolio including samples of student work, student self-assessment and clear stated criteria. In the samples of student work, I want to include how students learn to read and the concepts of print they are applying. I also want to show students their growth over time with their writing. And how they are learning their numbers to apply to addition and subtraction. Maybe this is a huge task, but I remember the whole language approach that we had our content curriculum in the early 1990's. I was told to use portfolios but I never got the training that I needed to get started, so all the work I included in the portfolio folder was work that I thought were showing growth over time in writing and math. I still do not think that is the process to learn how to create and develop authentic assessment and portfolios can be done by given samples and ideas, rather it should be a staff development idea that we need to be trained on and see the process from start to finish, perferably an end product that we can show our students and jump right into teaching and developing the process for incorporating porfolios as a part of the classroom routine.
At this point I am processing how students select their work. There are three kinds of self-assessment which include documentation which contains their best work, comparision which they look at their work and compare it with work done in the past, and integration which showcases their growth in oral and written language.
In the section where the student and teacher works on clearly stated criteria, I am not able to see how my Kindergarten students can come up with goals to set for themselves and how it would be incorporated in my classroom (pg. 36). I have learned the hard way not to jump into new material without getting training on how to use an assessment tool in my classroom. I am not hestitant to learn new things, but I am hestitant to waste my time and confuse my students while I am trying to figure out how to use resources that are manditory or required but forgetting to give me mini lessons on how to develop a resource.
I am having high hopes that I will learn how to create an authentic assessment that includes assessment porfolios and I can use the resource and help the rest of the teachers in my site use this assessment tool. I am especially interested in creating authentic assessment in oral and written language and find ways to include it without spending endless hours trying to figure out the process on my own, without knowing what I am trying to gain in the process.

LING 612 Making Assessment Practices Valid for Indigenous American Students S. Nelson-Barber & E. Trumbull (2007)

When I read this article I was pleasantly surprised to see the similarity between the article's concept and our place-based education philosophy we have right here in Russian Mission, Alaska!! I think like the ultimate purpose of the standardized test goals of the US educational system is to create test questions that typical next door neighbor people can answer. Everyone down states knows that candy don't come to the village from the "post office." Kids here are so cute, when I ask them where did they get their new clothes or their snow racers, they respond, "My dad and my mom got it from the post office." I asked, "oh, does the post office have a store there?" They respond, "no, it come with Jim's truck." Can you imagine the reaction that someone from the test administrator's office would have with that response? I just smile because I know that they they all know that we get most of our stuff from...Walmart. Ha ha.
Having the place-based education here in Russian Mission started when we decided as a whole community with all the entities involved to fix our low level of literacy in our community. We decided as a whole group to get students reading by investing in culturally relevant books and having students learn about their culture in the classroom and making that the focus of the curriculum in the school. With lots of sweat and dedication by the whole group, we are able to raise our reading and writing scores to 60% based on the AYP percentage of how our school is doing. With that score, we have not AYP this year, but I think it is still pretty good, because that is way higher than 20% from the past assessments in reading and writing. By the way, our math score is in that same percentage as well.
I think it is about time that the country is realizing that no matter what the curriculum focuses on and how much time is needed to get students proficient in the basics, we can still get there and have our students proud of who they are and that they know their hertiage and be proud of themselves, instead of having a label that is stamped on their school record that says, "Limited English Proficient." Instead have a stamp that states, "Proud."

LING 612 Who Is Given Tests in What Language by Whom, When, and Where? (2008) G. Solano-Flores

Testing English Language Learners (ELL) is a complex process for validity and reliability purposes. There are factors such as the diverse ELL population that deals with various levels of bilingual definitions and the dialect that the community uses are a couple of factors that makes learning English a HUGE process to overcome, much less pass a standardized test that the USA expects for funding and having its doors open to communities.
There is a one size fits all ELL test that is administered to all students that are learning English with accommodations that are given from supposedly speakers of the school's dialect, but may or may not understand the question accurately to do justice to the interpretation that the student needs in order to be comfortable with the questions asked. Also the procedures used to create a valid test for ELL students is time consuming and the actual measure to test the questions is vast and gives too many variables to focus on questions to help students to understand the test questions enough to pass the English test. Again the linguistic barrier that is present for second language learners is something that needs to be studied and possibly adapted for ELL students to understand the questions without having to figure out the language context as well.
I read about the G Theory created by Cronbach, Gleser, Nanda, & Rajaratnam (1972) and would really like to understand how it factors into pinpointing how academic achievement can be achieved?

Chapter 5, Validity: testing the test. McNamara (2000)

Data is used as evidence of learning. It is all a matter of judgment and how the test is used and if used for the test's purpose. Test validation is when investigation undergoes to see if the procedures were achieved by the judgment concluded, so much like a trial and presenting information to a jury in court. The book gave an example of OJ Simpson's trial. I think the format that you use to see if a test's criteria is met is as important as putting or keeping an individual from jail time.
The validity of assessment procedures and what the test measures should be revisited and revised to meet the needs of your students in any testing situation, whether it be in your classroom or a high stakes test like the SBA or the HSGQE test that the State of Alaska uses to judge schools to see if they are making adequately yearly progress.
The test developer has a huge role in determining the passing and qualifying of the test before giving it to others to use to measure achievement or ability levels.
Test validation should go through an analysis to see if the data it judges is valid and is used for the purposes of the test. Of course, the level that the test is validated will all be based on funding and whether there is money for the test developer to revise the test to make it as valid as possible. This of course takes time and lots of data gathering and willingness to follow through on testing materials.
I see the point of making sure that students are taking valid tests in language. It makes me think of the purposes that tests are used for and how some might be misused to "validate" data.

Ch 2 Designing Authentic Assessment & The Language Assessment Process: A Multiplism Perspective

When designing the authentic assessment for your classroom you have to have collaboration between you, your colleagues, students and parents, and your district. I personally do not think that I am in a position to create authentic assessment that tests for the grade level expectations that we are following in our district and the State of Alaska. Assessment tools need to address the purpose of the assessment, stating the language knowledge being tested, choosing the testing procedures, determining the quality of the of the procedures, interpreting and reporting the results, all the while making sure that your authentic assessment is reliable and valid.
I realize that I have no formal training for creating a test that will show communicative competence and having a constructivist approach which do not test for competition for good grades. The researcher, Kohn (1994) noted that people who are promised extrinsic rewards for an activity "tend to lose interest in whatever they had to do to obtain the reward." This quote has red flags for me for the SBA/HSGQE/IPT testing protocal that the NCLB Act (2001) has as a assessment tool.
I also have problems with the idea of the rubric to grade state tests like writing. It makes me wonder how much formal training the test graders had to become non-biased testers and are completely fair on each and every test that goes to them from the statewide SBA/HSGQE tests that are graded in the state level to make or break AYP.
For me, authentic assessment is a long and careful process that a teacher cannot jump into and decide that they want to create tools that show student growth without including the school, district and parents and students. I am having a hard time believing that I can create authentic assessment that will be included in my assessment portfolio that will be valid and reliable to me and my work setting and district.

LING 612 NCLB by J. Abedi (2004)

Assessment and accountability issues in the limited English proficient (LEP) subgroup of the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act is a major factor to achievement for this group of test takers. This subgroup is not a constant group that stays the same in the many groups that are considered when calculating if a school makes adequate yearly progress (AYP). Abedi gives statistics that argue his points that shows varying percentages that shows that not all schools have the same level of LEP students in each state's school and how that subgroup is measured. In an extreme case with the label, "failing" school the students are looked at as the culprit for the negative label. With that suppose to come extra funding to get the school resources needed to meet the needs of the student population.
Policymakers, lawmakers, and decision makers all need to work together with the federal government to remedy the issues to bring about more effort for fairness into the assessment of and accountability for LEP students.
In my limited experience with the act, I see drop out rates increasing and students being labeled as a number and how it compares to the number that will show the proficiency level, with no funding to help the students with the needs being met. I also heard about students that will be below proficient being "expeled" on the testing window. In my school, we are working really hard and huge efforts by the teachers and parents to help the students do their best on the test. Even when all the students are trying their best and the school focuses on the test, it still can depend on the wellness of the students during the testing period and whether students who were proficient still progress at that level. Attendance, daily lessons, focus on the GLE's, and the amount of material covered in the year can make or break a school. Not only are school labeled as failing, but there is still little or no help to bring LEP students to become fluent English proficient students.

LING 612 Language Testing Ch 2 by T. McNamara (2000)

After scoring the language assessment and finding out what the data tells about second language learners comes looking at the language and how it is used in the test. Test construct usually used in psychology can be used in social content of the testing for language assessment usage. This format tells you how language testing is used in practical application. This process is based on what the test "looks" at to give the results. That look can vary, therefore interpreting the test results and the content of the test varies depending on what the test is looking for.
In the 1960's psychometric-structuralist period which tests isolated skills such as grammatical structure or vocabulary knowledge and some macroskills of listening, reading, writing and speaking.
In the period after the 60's when foreign students started entering the Britain and US universities there was a need for productive capacities for language. This method added the pronunciation, grammar, vocabulary and an understanding of the context as well. This resulted in integrative tests in writing and spoken forms.
In the 1970's an American, John Oller researched two factors in language testing, on-line processing of language in real time and "pragmatic mapping". He came up with the hypothesis which focused on cloze zone testing called "Unitary Competence Hypothesis." This the gap filling reading test. This however did not solve the problem of finding out what the communicative skills that testers have.
Job analysis gives testers opportunity to test in occupation situations where they are going to a foreign country to work focusing on the way to communicate in the job setting and the tools that are available in that setting. At this point in the chapter, I am trying to figure out if I would be interested in taking a test to enter a new university or to get a job in another country where language will be a factor. My question would be, is the test written in the language of the country or is it written in English while focusing on the language content of the new country?
Strategic competence is measuring capacity for strategic behavior in performance such as confidence and preparedness to take risks. This helps to negotiate meaning in context. Understanding the way that the test taker, interlocutors, test designer, and rater interact and come together might get us closer to getting a second language assessement that asesses the whole person in language use and the context used.
My thoughts on this chapter is that I am glad that the cloze method to assess language competence is not the only way to assess students and I am glad that that is realized. This makes me have high hopes that the SBA and HSGQE tests will get on board and realize that one test does not fit all.

LING 612 Moving Toward Authentic Assessment, Ch.1 by O'Malley & Pierce

For years the common way to assess is the ever popular multiple choice. Educators are now looking for alternative assessments that correlates between the lessons in the classroom and the test, all the while giving teachers tools to show them where their students are at and where to go from there. Alternative assessment shows what the student can do, shows growth, and is kind of like a snapshot of what students mastered. Why is the multiple choice no longer a "one size fits all" method to show student achievement? It is because there are other ways to show student growth and assists teachers to help students with unknown skills.
Assessments needed for English as a second language users need to catch up with the research done for authentic testing of the general population of test takers, that population being the varying speakers of English who take the tests in each state. There are six purposes for English Language Learners(ELL): screening and identification, placement, reclassification or exit, monitoring student progress, program evaluation, and accountability. Multiple choice tests given to ELL students does not show what the student's needs are or what their strengths are.
Performance assessment relies mostly on rubrics. This is a good tool for writing and judging exactly what the goals are, but I don't think it gives room for a grade when you have to guess or give someone the benefit of the doubt. I am not a big rubric fan, but I do use it for my writing grade and some math problems.
I do believe in self-assessment as a tool to judge how much effort you put in a subject. When I am average on a rubric, but try my best and work 110% above the project, then I believe that this type of tool should be weighed more than the rubric. However, if students are expected to do folders and packages for their daily lessons with no instruction from the teacher, then that is not a type of self-assessment or self-regulation. To me, this is a cop out for some teachers who teach too many levels and do not make time to have group lessons and small group mini lessons. I know we all are crunched for time and I have to constantly remind myself that concepts that are introduced to my students are new and foreign to my students.
I would like to create a meaningful portfolio but I have yet to find a way to show case my students strengths and have it meaningful for my K-1 class to explain and share with their parents or peers. I would also like to learn more about anecdotal records and reading logs.

LING 612 Language Testing by McNamara

Well hello! Have you ever experienced a language test that you were so excited about that your pulse raced and your appeal for the assessment overtook you to the edge of excitement? No? Me neither. I found the most interesting quote from the chapter to be, "if you are conducting research in language study you may need to have measures of the language proficiency of your subjects." There are two types of language tests that deal with the method and the purpose of the test. The testing purpose ranges from proficiency in the language for real world use and the entry into a field of the language based on a valid test that the test makers work very hard to maintain relevancy.
Tests in language need to know what they are looking for and the theory that it has that relates to the real world. Views on language is unique to the language test and should be considered when creating the tests.
The testing of language undergoes the way that the grammar and pragmatics of language is understood as well as the usage of the language in a social setting is exercised by the language user in order to test for proficiency. Wow, what a concept. I think if I went through the English language test, I would definitely be labeled, "Village English" with coding in Standard English.

LING 612 Assessment (2006) by Pierce

Assessment using the NCLB 2001 law is a struggle not only for second language users, but for our school as well with our student population being mostly English Language Proficient qualified for extra help in the students home language. Having such high stakes set with the act makes students that are low aware of their weaknesses and try to catch the students before they fall through the cracks and drop out. Nothing wrong with that concept, but it is not how the test is interpreted. Schools with failing AYP marks are labeled as so. With labeling, no good can come out of that situation. Labels hurt people.
Lets educate our teachers, provide them with the curriculum and support they need to educate our young. The act obviously did not succeed and therefore we need to learn from the mistakes of the act and make the necessary improvements to get kids back on track. There are so many assessment tools that can be used to capture an image of the knowledge that students have in their funds of knowledge. Relying on one test to make or brake a catagory of student is not doing no one justice to see what each child has the potential to do. Also it is not fair to the English as a second language population when they are brushed aside or made to feel like they are not a part of the school because their scores are not included in the formula. I would not want my student to be in a such an environment.
NCLB act is a strong indication that we need to find better means to assess our students and build up on their strengths while working on their weaknesses. Make children feel proud, lead them in the right direction and have a better tomorrow.

Maori Approaches to Assessment(2007), LING 612 by Lesley Remeka

This article shows that authentic assessment is already going through a journey to "demonstrate" how students are progressing in a unique and cultural way for the Maori people. I found it interesting to read that the assessment is done, not only by the school, but by the community, teachers, and children. The assessment shows how the individual is a part of the whole group of people and that the ways of the people are taught. This is a whole new way to see how people can learn in the school setting. First comes community and then comes the traditional ways of learning the content curriculum.
The point that really made me think that this approach will work is because it is starting in the Maori early childhood centers. Like all learned behavior and the way that young children learn, is started right at the beginning when they are first learning to talk, walk, and become their own little bosses while choosing what to explore. I really am interested to see how the community will buy into the assessment of the program.
My only concern is whether the culture is strong and if the people already practice a strong lifestyle that supports this type of authentic assessment. So many times the desire to practice the culture of old ways is not what is important to a group of people and trying to get it back in that way might put added burden on the young children who depend on adults to teach them the right way to become good citizens of their group.
Authentic assessment is needed and I am glad to see a group from New Zealand taking the necessary steps to head in the right direction and taking charge of what they want the goals of their youth to achieve.