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Accreditation听Standard 4: Assessment of Child Progress

Teachers鈥� knowledge of each child helps them to plan appropriately challenging environments and activities that are tailored to the children鈥檚 strengths and needs. Assessing children regularly is essential to build that individualized knowledge鈥攁nd to identify children who may benefit from more specialized supports. This article offers practical tips for you to engage in systematic, observation-based assessment by keeping anecdotal records on each child.

With so many required assessments, it鈥檚 understandable why the word itself may bring up negative feelings for teachers. But understanding the different types of assessment and how you can use them to support your reflection and planning is important.

High-stakes summative assessments are used to gauge children鈥檚 learning against a standard or benchmark. Summative assessments are often given at the end of the year and are sometimes used to make important educational decisions about children.

In contrast, formative assessments are ongoing and tend to be based on teachers鈥� intentional observations of children during specific learning experiences. Many teachers find formative assessments most useful when planning learning experiences, activities, and environments. Your notes about what children are able to do while they engage in real-life tasks such as block building, retelling a story, or climbing on a playground structure provide a wealth of information. Getting started with the quick, easy strategies in this article will help you develop a system for taking useful notes. These notes will ground your teaching decisions and enrich children鈥檚 portfolios with examples of their everyday learning.

From notes to records to planning

Anecdotal records are brief notes teachers take as they observe children. The notes document a range of behaviors in areas such as literacy, mathematics, social studies, science, the arts, social and emotional development, and physical development. When recording observations, it鈥檚 important to include a concrete description and enough details to inform future teaching strategies. For example, a statement such as 鈥淭he student was on task鈥� provides no information about the task or the behavior, but a statement like 鈥淭he student built a tower from colored cubes, creating an AB pattern after looking at a card that showed a similar alternating pattern鈥� provides concrete evidence.

To avoid vague notes, list the associated learning center or subject area and include a specific description of what the child is doing. Of course, time is always a concern in preschool classrooms, and children move quickly from one task to the next! Abbreviations can help capture detailed observations in an efficient way.

For example, instead of stating, 鈥淟eah uses inventive spelling,鈥� an anecdotal note could include an abbreviation for the center Leah is playing in and evidence of her inventive spelling: 鈥淟eah鈥擠P [dramatic play center]鈥擶rote grocery list: BACN, aGS, sreL.鈥� (If time is short, Leah鈥檚 teacher could also take a photo of Leah鈥檚 writing and embed it along with the anecdotal record in Leah鈥檚 portfolio.) The evidence in Leah鈥檚 note gives insight into the consonants and vowels she is learning and the letter forms she can produce. It also aids the teacher in better understanding Leah鈥檚 progress on the continuum toward standard spelling, helping her be more informed about how to support Leah instructionally.

When taking anecdotal records, it鈥檚 important to consider word choice. Statements that begin with words like can鈥檛 or doesn鈥檛 promote a deficit view and do not support future instructional planning. For example, the statement 鈥淟ogan doesn鈥檛 identify all his letters鈥� is very different from 鈥淟ogan identifies the uppercase letters A, B, G, N, L, T, Z.鈥� Writing what children can do ensures that instructional decisions are grounded in children鈥檚 strengths.

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Organizing and managing your anecdotal records

Daily anecdotal notes can be quick to write and easy to file and organize. They should also serve as the basis for reflective practice.

Be selective about the behaviors you observe. Having a specific focus can help you pay attention to the most important details during observations, making your anecdotal records more useful for planning or for individualizing future instruction. In addition, it removes the unreasonable expectation of documenting everything for every child every day.

One suggestion for getting started is to divide the class into small groups of about five students. Assign each group a day of the week, and then concentrate on observing just those five students on their assigned day. These daily focus groups are a good way to organize and manage record keeping鈥攁nd they prevent children from slipping through the cracks. Here are a couple examples of anecdotal record-keeping systems that use daily focus groups.

Post-it notebook

A Post-it notebook uses a form for each child that has six boxes. Teachers often choose to label the boxes Reading, Writing, Math, Science/Social Studies, Social/Emotional, and Other, but the form can be tailored to highlight any content areas or learning domains that you choose! As you make observations, record them on a sticky note and place it on a clipboard. At the end of the day, transfer the notes to the child鈥檚 form in the appropriate category. Keep the forms in a three-ring binder with dividers separating each daily focus group, or organize the forms alphabetically.

Index cards

The index card system uses individual index cards color-coded by daily focus group (for example, Monday鈥檚 group is assigned green index cards, Tuesday鈥檚 group is yellow). Use a binder clip to keep each group鈥檚 index cards together, then use the cards throughout the day as you capture and record observations on group members鈥� individual cards. At the end of the day, file the cards in a box, and then pull the cards for the next day.

You may choose to record literacy behaviors (or any other content area you鈥檙e emphasizing) on one side of the card and math behaviors (or another content area) on the other side. Additional cards can be used to capture behaviors in other areas, or a card can be subdivided. Once a child鈥檚 card is full, issue a new one. You can also easily take the cards outdoors when observing and recording children鈥檚 social interactions on the playground.

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Reflecting and using anecdotal notes

A manageable system (like those described earlier) makes it easy to collect the information you need to reflect about what the children are learning. Reflection and anecdotal notes should be tightly linked and should serve as the foundation for instructional planning, helping you think more deeply about children鈥檚 growth and learning. Also, reflecting on these records allows you to generate questions and hypotheses that fuel additional observations and anecdotal records.

Adopting a child-centered approach to assessment helps you view students from a strengths-based perspective and match teaching to individuals鈥� needs. As a result, children receive more tailored instruction as you become better informed about each child鈥檚 progress. Reflecting on anecdotal notes can also help you with grouping decisions. Small groups in the classroom should be flexible, and using observational data can assist you in re-forming groups to mirror children鈥檚 changing needs.

You may find it useful to write out your reflections and add them to a child鈥檚 collection of anecdotal records; as months go by, being able to review both anecdotal notes and timely reflections can be very informative. The information collected from the anecdotal records can also be transferred to more formal assessments, like developmental checklists.

When a challenging situation arises, such as a child not making progress as expected, you can share your notes and reflections with colleagues to generate new ideas about lessons and activities to try. And if a comprehensive or diagnostic assessment seems called for, you have a rich set of records to share with families and specialists.

Anecdotal notes are also a great source of information when meeting with a family. During a family conference, you can use ancecdotal notes to provide the family with concrete examples of their child鈥檚 learning and development and give them insight into their child鈥檚 school day. The information can also assist in communicating to families the variety of ways they can support their child at home. Additionally, being able to share detailed descriptions of a child鈥檚 cognitive and social behaviors during a conference and in other communications can help families better understand their child鈥檚 learning trajectory.

In closing

Developing a manageable system for taking and using anecdotal notes in the preschool classroom is the foundation for reflective practice and intentional instruction. A well-organized system frees you to focus on the children instead of on the 鈥渉ow to鈥� aspects of record keeping. Notes with clear language, abbreviations, and evidence provide concrete documentation of children鈥檚 emerging behaviors, knowledge, and skills, and they also ground your ongoing reflective practices. This type of intentional, supportive assessment contributes to children鈥檚 learning and development.

Read more about anecdotal records in the longer version of this article, 鈥�Anecdotal Records: Practical Strategies for Taking Meaningful Notes,鈥� in the July 2019 issue of听Young Children.