Assessment, continued

Language Arts/Literacy

EXPECTATION 1: Children listen and respond to environmental sounds, directions and conversations.

Jack does all of this without any difficulty.

EXPECTATION 2: Children converse effectively in their home language, English or sign language for a variety of purposes relating to real experiences and different audiences.

He converses with every person he meets. Every one. He asks lots of questions and loves to learn new words.

EXPECTATION 3: Children demonstrate emergent reading skills. (This expectation is divided into three subcategories: print awareness, knowledge and enjoyment of books, and phonological awareness.)

Print awareness: Jack can recognize most, if not all, letters of the alphabet. He recognizes certain words in various contexts, such as his name, "stop" and "exit". He can point out certain words in the text of books, such as "max," "bump," and "ha ha."

Knowledge and enjoyment of books: When we read books, he knows how to hold the book right side up and turn the pages correctly. He has certain books he has memorized. He usually does not retell his own version of the story, but enjoys saying the words exactly, sometimes echoing me as I read. Occasionally I will ask a question about the story or his feelings, and he clearly has an understanding of what's going on.

Phonological awareness: Jack loves to play with language. He makes up rhymes using real and imaginary words. He makes alliterative jokes.

EXPECTATION 4: Children demonstrate emergent writing skills.

This is an area where I can imagine we will see substantial change relatively soon. Jack just recently started enjoying activities where he traces letters and other shapes, and he pretends to "write" with chalk on the driveway. This writing mimics an older neighbor who can write his name, but the "writing" is just vertical lines. He doesn't usually ask me to write for him. I need to give him more opportunities to play with letter stamps, magnets, etc.

Mathematics

EXPECTATION 1: Children demonstrate an understanding of number and numerical operations.

Jack can count to 10 reliably; sometimes he can go up to 20. He understands one-to-one relationships, and can add and subtract small amounts by counting.

EXPECTATION 2: Children develop knowledge of spatial concepts, e.g., shapes and measurement.

Jack can identify shapes reliably. He uses language to describe relative distance, position, and direction. His understanding of shapes has not carried over into three dimensional objects, e.g. he would say a cube was square. He has shown some interest in measurement, but he doesn't understand it yet. He pretends to use a ruler or a scale, but doesn't actually refer to the number measured, and often doesn't understand what is to be measured; e.g., looking at a scale to see how old he is.

EXPECTATION 3: Children understand patterns, relationships and classification.

He can classify very well, but doesn't understand patterns in any context that I have noticed.

EXPECTATION 4: Children develop knowledge of sequence and temporal awareness.

He understands our daily routines as a sequence. He knows the order of the songs on his favorite CD.

EXPECTATION 5: Children will use mathematical knowledge to represent, communicate and solve problems in their environment.

The big problem to be solved is sharing. If someone else has more, Jack will notice and ask for the same as the other person. He can also solve spacial problems well, figuring out how to turn something around to make it fit in a space, or whether there is enough room in a container to add more.