Performance Objective: This assignment will provide teacher candidates with the opportunity to collect information related to the young children with whom they are working. This includes information on the children’s developmental levels, special interests, special needs, social relationships, cultural backgrounds.
Instructions:
It is in your best interest that you select your focus child for this assignment. Use a pseudonym for the child, and any other persons identified in the report. Description should be based on and supported by your observation. Teacher candidates are expected to not only give statements of your child but also share the observations from which your statements derive.
To ensure sufficient time to prepare an ‘A’ level report, you should begin this assignment as soon as possible. Remember that over the course of the semester, you will learn much about young children, and this information should be reflected in your report.
You might find that you will need to observe the child during times different from your assigned practicum time to get needed information on the child. Be prepared to ask your mentor teacher for information related to the child.
Please review the grading rubric to ensure you have met all of the child observation content requirements. Edit your work before submitting the report.
Report: Please pay attention to the modified instruction
Write a detailed description of the child.
- The written description should be based on and supported by a myriad of observations you did so far during your practicum. Teacher candidates are expected to provide statements of the child’s information, social, cognitive, emotional and physical levels, special interests and needs. Provide observations (data) on which the statements are based.
- Due to the suspension of the field experience, if you lack observation data to describe the specific area of child’s development, please share the information you lack and how you would plan to acquire the information if you were this child’s teacher.
- When discussing the child’s developmental levels, you must tie information about the child with content discussed in this course. You may reference this information by reviewing your textbook and other required readings when writing the report.
- Your report must be double-spaced, Times New Roman 12 point font, 1 inch margins on all sides. Your report must be a minimum of 6 double-spaced pages. Please be aware that your paper will be much longer than the minimum in order to cover all the required information. Your paper should include ALL but not limited to the following:
- Child’s demographic information age, grade, and gender, family background (family members and homework help, race…). You can/should use the information you learned from assessment.
- Developmental levels
- Physical: relates the child’s motor (fine and gross skills, for example, how well the child writes, glues, uses scissors and small objects to build) development, the child’s preferences in this domain (do they use right or left hand to write, throw ball, etc.), general health (height, weight, energy, illness), dental.
- Cognitive: relates the child’s performance in reading, writing, math, and other subjects, memory, creativity, language used, speaking skills. Your assessments for Early Literacy classes and mini-lessons you have conducted with the child can be used to support the child’s cognitive development.
- Social/Emotional: relates to interactions with others (teachers, peers, and you), friends with… leader, follower, etc.. It also can relate how the child handles events in their life via emotional responses, responses to reprimands and other children, self-esteem, child’s personality type, etc.
- Adaptive (daily living): Adaptive skills refer to the skills used for daily living, such as dressing, eating, toileting and washing. During early childhood your child learns to dress and undress himself without assistance, use utensils for eating and can pour some liquid without assistance. Your child also becomes able to use buttons and snaps and can take care of toileting independently. I think this is hard to do. Please try your best to describe your observation.
To secure most of the information on the child’s developmental levels, please use the children’s portraits in our textbook to help you with the developmental levels.
- Child’s interests: It’s a good idea to know your focus child’s interests (likes and dislikes) at the beginning of your practicum. You can use the information you learned for
- Special needs (the areas he/she needs more than the typical help – in academic, social, emotional and/or physical areas; does the child have an IEP). Identify the source of the information you present. You may be assigned a child that does not need more than typical help so discuss that child based on the areas you were asked to work on by the teacher.
Child Observation Report
Name: Grading: ______/100 point
| Components | Unacceptable | EMERGING | Acceptable | Target |
| Grade, gender, and age, family background 10 pts INTASC 2 ACEI 3.2 | Candidates do NOT provide student’s grade, age, and gender 0 | Candidates inadequately provide student’s grade, age, and gender 1-7 | Candidates provide adequate information about student’s age, grade and gender 8-9 | Candidates provide adequate information about student’s age, grade, and gender 10 |
| Developmental level PHYSICAL 15 pts INTASC 2, 3 ACEI 3.2 | Candidates do NOT understand the student’s physical development, and record no observations. 0 | Candidates have an inadequate understanding of the student’s physical development, with inadequate observation 1-9 | Candidates know and understand how the student differs in his/her physical development and show the understanding with one observation as support 10-13 | Candidates know and understand how the student differs in his/her physical development and show the understanding with two or more observations as support 14-15 |
| Developmental level COGNITIVE 20pts INTASC 2 ACEI 3.2 | Candidates do NOT understand the student’s cognitive development, and record no observations 0 | Candidates have an inadequate understanding of the student’s cognitive development, with inadequate observations 1-14 | Candidates know and understand how the student differs in his/her cognitive development and show the understanding with one observation as support 15-18 | Candidates know and understand how the student differs in his/her cognitive development and show the understanding with two or more observations as support 19-20 |
| Developmental level SOCIAL/ EMOTIONAL 20pts INTASC 2, 3 ACEI 3.2 | Candidates do NOT understand the student’s social/emotional development, and record no observations 0 | Candidates have an inadequate understanding of the student’s social emotional development, with inadequate observations 1-14 | Candidates know and understand how the student differs in his/her social emotional development and show the understanding with one observation as support 15-18 | Candidates know and understand how the student differs in his/her social/emotional development and show the understanding with two or more observations as support 19-20 |
| Adaptive 10 pts | Candidates record no observation on adaptive skills 0 | Candidates record in adequate observation on adaptive skills 1-7 | Candidates record adaptive skills with observation support 8-9 | Candidates record adaptive skills with two or more observation supports 10 |
| Special interests and needs 20pts INTASC 3 ACEI 3.2 | Candidates do NOT understand student’s interests and special needs and failed to give any examples of interests and needs. 0 | Candidates have an inadequate understanding of student’s interests and special needs and failed to adequately present details, only gave one example of each. 1-14 | Candidates know and understand student’s interests and needs and show this understanding by presenting two examples of each. 15-18 | Candidates know and understand student’s special interests and needs and show the understanding by presenting two or more examples of each. 19-20 |
| Mechanics: Sentence structure, grammar, spelling, and punctuation coherence ACEI 2.1 5 | Candidates misused English language conventions in written report (5 or more errors) 0 | Candidates misused English language conventions in written report (no more than 3-4 errors) 1-2 | Candidates used English language conventions in written language forms in the written report (no more than 2 errors) 3-4 | Candidates exhibit a high level of competence in the use of English language conventions in the written report with no errors 5 |
