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DR. JEFFREY TRAWICK-SMITH: You hear a lot
these days about the importance
of observing
young children in early childhood settings.
I know you may be thinking,
"I'm always observing;
what's new or different about that?"
Well, watch while early childhood educator
Dr. Sudha Swaminathan reveals how to get
some really useful results from your observations.
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>> DR. SUDHA SWAMINATHAN: Observation is a very
important part of an early childhood classroom.
Teachers are constantly observing,
and sometimes they're observing
just to make sure everything's okay,
children are safe and everything's going right.
Teacher: Hey, Annaliese and Ty, everybody ok?
Yeah? Ok.
PATTY GARDNER: What I 'm trying to do
is make sure the children are safe
in the classroom,
and I am constantly paying attention
to things that are going on,
and make sure they're doing activities
that are furthering their learning
and social development.
Patty: We're going to head to music.
>> DR. SWAMINATHAN: Spontaneous observations,
like what Patty just did,
occur in the classroom all the time.
But there are other times
when teachers pre-plan their observations.
They take the time to decide:
What is it I need to observe for each child?
And they set the time and the environment,
and they plan for it.
The more intentional a teacher is,
the more pre-planned she is,
the more she focuses on what she needs to learn
about each child ahead of time,
and then goes to the classroom
with all the necessary tools to observe the child.
Then they learn much,
much more about the child.
Teacher: You're working hard there, Matt.
DR. SWAMINATHAN: When teachers pre-plan
their observations,
they usually have a specific goal in mind.
They may have noticed that a certain child
has some kind of trouble in the classroom.
This could be trouble interacting with other children,
so they want to observe and document
to see how they could help that child.
Or it could be a child has trouble
learning a particular skill,
so they're going to focus on observing the child
and tailoring their instructions to help the child.
Teacher: Now I want you to write...
Dr. Swaminathan: Or they could do a formal assessment of the child
so that they could incorporate that assessment
into the portfolio to share
with the parents and administrators.
Let's take a look at how three teachers
go about planned observations
with specific goals in mind.
KATHY PIQUETTE: We have this one little boy
this year who is 4 years old, who is very,
very good at the computer,
but his social interactions are a little bit delayed.
He preferred to play mostly by himself.
NARRATOR: Through her thoughtful observations,
Kathy realized what was needed to help improve
Joey's social interactions.
KATHY PIQUETTE: So what we did is we would set up
situations at the computer
where there was always another child with him.
NARRATOR: Kathy devised this intervention
after observing Joey in a variety of situations.
Once he started using the computer with other children,
he became more comfortable
interacting during free play and at other times as well.
Sofia conducts weekly writing workshops
with her preschool class and is especially interested
in the progress of children who will
be going to Kindergarten in the fall.
Earlier she noticed that Marissa
was having trouble grasping the pencil,
and so today she has planned to observe Marissa
and to give her extra instructions
on how to hold the pencil.
SOFIA CORTEZ-GOMEZ: With this specific child
I am observing her at the writing workshop
a little bit more because I want to be sure
she is able to do this,
and she's able to grab the pencil a little bit better...
NARRATOR: Over the next few weeks
Sofia continues to observe Marissa
and notices that the instruction has helped
Marissa improve her writing ability.
Now, Marissa is ready for Kindergarten.
DR. SWAMINATHAN: Our last example
is a formal assessment.
Teachers are expected to assess their children,
to document their learning
in all the different domains of development.
This is expected by administrators,
and this is also something they share
with the parents of the children.
Planned observation is the core
of all formal assessments.
NARRATOR: Teacher Nancy Hines has been
casually observing 4-year-old Salvatore
for the past few weeks to see
if he is ready to read.
Today she has prepared a well planned observation
to formally assess his reading ability.
NANCY HINES: I'm looking at Salvatore
and I'm interested in how he looks at books and print.
What I would do is pick a particular book
that I know Sal's familiar with.
I would have some props there for him
to see if he can retell the story.
And then Sal would read the book
and retell the story for me.
Child: The three little pigs...
NANCY HINES: I would look at the benchmarks,
which is what we use for our assessments.
If he follows through and does all the things
that I'm hoping that he does,
hopefully he'll probably be at the end of the benchmark,
meaning he's ready
for the beginning stages of reading.
NARRATOR: While Nancy had a sense of Salvatore's
reading readiness,
she knew that these informal observations
needed to be backed up with concrete evidence.
By planning and carrying out these observations,
she can now confirm with confidence
that Sal is learning to read.
Child: The three little pigs...
NARRATOR: Nancy is using her systematic observations
of Sal's reading progress
as assessment data for his portfolio.
Planned observations can produce data
that become part of the child's portfolio
for school records and to share with parents.
DR. SWAMINATHAN: Observing children
and documenting their growth
is a very integral part of early childhood education.
So all caregivers should focus on
planning their observations
and documenting children's growth,
because ultimately, that's what's going to help them
learn what the child is capable of doing,
what the child has potential to grow into,
and how they as a teacher
can help that child reach their potential.
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