Developing Decision-makers: Involving Kindergartners in Their Own Assessment

Developing Decision-makers: Involving Kindergartners in Their Own Assessment



Gayle Mindes
Professor and Chair, Teacher Education, DePaul University, Chicago


As kindergarten teachers, you are accustomed to the notion that young children learn about social studies and social skills through the structure of school. You invite children to make decisions, solve problems, and elaborate on their interpersonal skills and strategies. You support these budding decision-makers by involving them in establishing rules for the classroom that respect the rights of individuals, promote the "social good" of the classroom, and facilitate the transition from home to school. All of these guided experiences take place in an increasingly complex milieu of diverse values, customs, and early childhood experiences. You see this work as contributing to the development of self-esteem and support for friendship rituals as kindergartners expand their social horizons and learn to function in the world of school.

Thus, kindergarten teachers are accustomed to promoting self-reflection in young children regarding their personal behavior. "How do you think he feels?" "Why do you think she is crying?" "How can you help your friend here?" "Why do you think the blocks tumbled down?" "What are the rules for this learning center?" "How many kindergartners can work together on making this cake?" Through these daily dialogs with individuals, small groups, and the whole class, children come to understand the responsibility that they have for monitoring their social interactions in the school setting. They learn to reflect on ways of negotiating conflict, conforming to group norms, and otherwise engaging in the social world of school.

In these situations, as you promote reflection, judgment of appropriate behavior in the classroom, and monitoring of self in social/emotional situations, you can build on this philosophy of child decision-making in the academic arena. The goal, then, is to promote reflective learners. To become reflective learners, young children need to be involved in decision-making. The kindergarten classroom offers many opportunities for such reflection and decision-making. At the beginning of the year, this process may start with teacher prompts such as, "When you painted this picture, what did you want to show?" "Look at the way you wrote your name on September 10th; do you see any differences today, October 10th? How would you describe these differences? When you set out to survey your family members about their favorite apple, how did you ask the question?" Through such interaction, you introduce the idea that children can judge the adequacy of their own schoolwork.

Kindergartners can ask critical questions of themselves in the interest of improving or changing the nature of their own work. One area where you are accustomed to seeing children think about their work and judging its effectiveness is in early literacy activities.

Reflection and Judgment in Language Arts
You are accustomed to promoting self-reflection when you use concept of story activities in the development of language arts and involve children as critics of each other's work with such questions as: "What did you like best about Sally's story?" "What would help you to understand the story better?" "What do you think might happen next in Sally's story?" "Sally, does this seem like a possible next step?" Through teacher-mediated, respectful interchanges among peers, children learn to see their work in relationship to others. They can ask themselves: "What is the effect of my story on the audience?" "What might I add to make it more interesting, less upsetting, or friendlier?" Through these discussions, in small groups, the large group, or one-on-one, the emphasis is on judgment. From this beginning, it is only short steps to helping children learn to develop and use rubrics for other academic areas.

Rubrics
In an article titled "Chocolate Chip Cookies and Rubrics," Hall and Salmon (2003) suggest that teachers select a concrete activity to help children learn how to participate in the development of rubrics to judge their work. The steps for rubric building include the following: In making chocolate chip cookies, the class can describe the qualities of the ideal cookie—crisp or soft, an even distribution of chips, golden brown, not burned on the edges, etc. Next, the class develops a categorization for the judgment of the cookies: taste, form, etc. Finally, the class decides whether to judge each attribute individually or to judge holistically—pass or fail. That is, can a cookie be "good" if it excels on only one scale, or is this a product that must be evaluated in terms of the whole? Through this activity and others that focus on the concrete, kindergartners become accustomed to judging their work and deciding about its quality and value.

Applied to story development or expository narrative, rubric elements might include: Therefore, the activity here is to assist the kindergartners in deciding how they will be able to judge whether the story told or written has a main idea. Alternatively, in the case of nonfiction story development, can the reader learn more about turtles, for example, from the narration or writing? In the case of giving directions for using the computer station, for example, should the children write a paragraph, or would a list form be better? In addition to involving students in the judgment of single activities to promote reflection about learning, teachers can help young children see evaluation in action when a learning unit begins. This pre-test of knowledge, skills, and experience establishes the philosophical commitment to formative assessment.

Formative Assessment
Formative assessment is assessment done along the way while conducting a learning activity. This in-process assessment will help teacher and student know whether a unit on Philadelphia history, which is part of the kindergarten state-mandated goals, must be modified for the whole classÑno one has visited the Liberty Bell—or whether only the child who moved from Chicago last week may need some extra attention. Or perhaps, in the case of a unit on the community that is typically part of the kindergarten social studies curriculum, teachers and students will need to assess prior knowledge for all or part of the social studies objectives. For example, if beginning economics are incorporated as part of the social studies curriculum, some children may need more practice in discussing or demonstrating the concept or value of "fair" applied to the division of food products, based on their experiences at home or in preschool settings (Mindes & Donovan, 2001).

Teachers and students together assess who might need to work with a partner to facilitate learning the content of a unit, or who will need some extra assistance from the teacher or extra practice at home. All of these judgments applied by groups and individuals are formative assessment that involves young children in setting goals and making decisions about learning. Thus, children are empowered as decision-makers and as managers of their own learning (Chappuis & Stiggins, 2002). In addition, at the beginning of a unit, teachers might show examples of anonymous exemplary work so that children can practice developing and applying rubrics and gain a guide or orientation of where they are going. A formal way for you to collect information about prior learning is with self-evaluation forms. This tactic helps children learn to think about their knowledge and experiences as related to academic expectations.

Self-evaluation Forms
Such evaluation occurs in schools where young children experience learning as a problem-solving approach to knowledge acquisition and where diverse learning styles are appreciated. Thus, they can learn early on about the link from curriculum to assessment to reporting through modeling provided by the teachers. For example, teachers can develop self-evaluation forms, using text or pictographs, for children to fill out.

Morrow (2001) suggests a form that includes items related to letters and sounds, reading, and writing. Items may include: "I know all the letters of the alphabet." "The things I need to learn how to do better." "The things I do well." Assessment becomes a part of everyday classroom activity, using these paper-and-pencil self-evaluation forms. These forms grow out of classroom discussions with young readers and writers of kindergarten age as teachers ask children to be involved in planning the evaluation of activities.

In an activity called "I Can Paint a Picture," kindergartners listen to a story, and then they receive the assignment to draw a picture about the story or to draw a picture of a new ending. Before children begin the activity, they develop a rubric for successful completion of the assignment (Mindes & Donovan, 2001). This kind of self-assessment, whether at the beginning of a unit or at the beginning of an activity, helps children place their learning activities within the "big picture" of day-to-day activities. Another way to promote this understanding of learning in context is with the use of curriculum mapping.

Curriculum Mapping
Curriculum mapping (Jacobs, 1997) shows graphically what content and which skills will be the focus of a given unit. This map, often a tree drawing, illustrates the concepts and goals for the learning. For example, as you plan a unit on the environment for your kindergartners, what are the important concepts to cover—conservation, social responsibility, disposal of waste, etc.? How will you convey these concepts to your kindergartners? What teaching and learning strategies will you use to ensure learning? How will you assess accomplishment of the goals? How will the kindergartners see what is important to know? How will they know that they have accomplished the goals of instruction?

By mapping the curriculum with the students at the beginning of a unit, you will help them develop learning organization skills and provide them with keys to evaluating their own knowledge acquisition. If they begin by knowing what the essential questions are about the environment, their learning can be focused and directed. Daily reinforcement of the unit in action will occur as you separate directions from the objective. In addition, informing students why they need to learn what comes next and how this connects to future learning facilitates knowledge and skill acquisition. You may even wish to display the learning objectives in the classroom.

With these guideposts, kindergartners can practice their formative evaluation skills. Accordingly, as they formatively assess their own learning through self-evaluation or class discussion, young children also can use reflection and decision-making to summatively document and evaluate their learning. This documentation of learning frequently occurs in the creation of portfolios.

Portfolios
Portfolios serve as documentation for assessment information. Teacher observation, informal assessments, and student work products are collected, reviewed, and shared with parents and students. The portfolios are a more dynamic record of child practice than are records of formal screening tests and other measures (Mindes, 2003). One example of a student-developed portfolio is the reflective portfolio. The collection of this portfolio provides a common ground for children, teachers, and parents as they think about learning holistically. "I have a picture to show you. You are a good drawer. The sun looks really good with the rays coming out" (Smith, 2000, p. 208).

The collection and development of portfolios is the most current way to link teaching and assessment. Most approaches to the collection of portfolios suggest that the process be as important as the products stored. Teachers and students must think critically about what to include in these folders/boxes/baskets or electronic files.

One system of assessment that includes a portfolio and that meets the highest standards is The Work Sampling Systemª (Meisels, Jablon, Marsden, Dichtelmiller, & Dorfman, 2001). This assessment system contains developmental guidelines and checklists, covers all curricular areas, and provides for the development of summary reports. The standards-based system can be modified by teachers and school districts for local or state needs, and the system includes children with special needs in its approach. Finally, it models the involvement of young children in portfolio development. As part of the portfolio process, regardless of the system used, young children learn that part of the documentation process is the sharing of information with teachers and parents. Thus, student-led conferences are the next logical step in learner decision-making.

Student-led Conferences
As part of a school-wide emphasis on student responsibility for authentic learning and assessment, you may wish to explore the development of student-led conferences (see, e.g., Guskey & Bailey, 2001). This approach helps children recognize the link from learning to evaluation to communication to others, and therefore removes some of the mystery of the accountability process. Furthermore, students learn at an early age to assume responsibility for their own progress and the display of it. Of course, you must help children organize their work for presentation. Teachers can easily accomplish student-led conferences in programs where portfolios and holistic approaches to instruction are used. Children accustomed to preparing for class presentations that include evaluation would be able to state, for example, the following in a student-led conference:
This graph clearly illustrates that I can display the data from the survey that I conducted on my neighbors' favorite toothpaste. The key is here and the bars are clearly marked. My classmates were able to understand by viewing the graph which toothpaste is most popular in my neighborhood. Next, the students can begin to learn to organize a presentation for parents that reports their personal learning progress: I want my parents to know these things about my progress in______. They need to know that I can now work in a group cooperatively. I can document this by including evidence_________.
A good place to begin thinking about student-led conferences is during the portfolio display process. Even if the child's responsibility for the conference is minimal, the portfolios allow a beginning step toward this authentic assessment approach. This focus builds on reflective learning for all aspects of being a student and gives voice to student accomplishment. The portfolio can be a useful adjunct to this process.

Summary
Through all of these approaches—judging social-emotional progress, group adjustment and conformance to school routines, rubric development, self-assessment, curriculum mapping, documentation with portfolios, and student-led conferences—kindergartners are learning to be decision-makers. They are practicing self-reflection. This empowers them to be learners who are accustomed to conducting formative assessment, learning as part of a process that involves revision of work products, and being "in charge of their own destiny."

References
Chappuis, S., & Stiggins, R. J. (2002). Classroom assessment for learning. Educational Leadership, 60(1), 40-44.
Guskey, T. R., & Bailey, J. M. (2001). Developing grading and reporting systems for student learning. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.
Hall, E. W., & Salmon, S. J. (2003). Chocolate chip cookies and rubrics: Helping students understand rubrics in inclusive settings. Teaching Exceptional Children, 35(4), 8-11.
Jacobs, H. (1997). Mapping the big picture: Integrating curriculum & assessment K-12. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.
Meisels, S. J., Jablon, J. R., Marsden, D. B., Dichtelmiller, M. L., & Dorfman, A. B. (2001). The Work Sampling Systemª (4th ed.). Ann Arbor, MI: Rebus Planning Associates.
Mindes, G. (2003). Assessing young children (2nd ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall/Merrill.
Mindes, G., & Donovan, M. A. (2001). Building character: Five enduring themes for a stronger early childhood curriculum. Boston: Allyn & Bacon.
Morrow, L. M. (2001). Literacy development in the early years: Helping children read and write (4th ed.). Needham Heights, MA: Allyn & Bacon.
Smith, A. F. (2000). Reflective portfolios: Preschool possibilities. Childhood Education, 76, 204-208.
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