Margaret Carr?

[Guest]

Hi All,

 

I am reading ( not for a course just for fun, ha!) a book by above lady on Learning stories and assessment.

I believe a lot of the EYFS is based on her work in new Zealand?

 

Anyway, I like what she's saying which is basically (I think) that observations over time in a well-contextualized situation are more meaningful than formal assessments.

 

I am also reading a book at the moment about the Reggio approach which obviously has a lot of similarities to M.C and Co.

 

But mind in a muddle.... hard to let go of some of my 'tried and tested over 15 years' teacher habits.

 

I run a new Pre-school and when we opened in Sept. we did lots of observation (and still do) but I also found I just wasn't getting to know the children's true abilities in this way across all areas. Was also very aware that it is easy to mis-read a quiet child or energetic child and write them off as not capable in certain areas when in fact they are.

Anyway, we did some 1:1 assessments of the children- they tried to write their name, drew a self portrait and we did a very relaxed, fun, number assessment.

 

This of course threw up lots of surprises, a very young quiet boy who is very gifted with number, a girl who can write extremely well etc.

Those assessments have proved invaluable to us and have illuminated our planning again and again.

 

Now four months later I still feel I don't have a total handle on who knows most of their sounds or who knows/doesn't know colours or who has very poor scissor skills because in our total free choice environment some children choose never to do these sort of activities.

 

Arrrgh! I am self-reflecting to the max. and no longer know what's right and what's wrong.

 

Please don't anyone say 'there is no right and wrong'!!! I know that but how do you embrace the above approaches whilst at the same time knowing exactly where a child is at in their learning????

[Pimms o'clock?]

I belive that our EYFS curriculum has been based on Te Whariki the New Zealand EY curriculum that has been around since 1996, whether this is intentional or accidental I don't know. But it has been something that interested prior to the CGFS. I'm not sure but Margaret Carr was involved from the begining I think?

 

If you are into reading at the moment the link below is for the Te Whariki Curriculum, might be worth a look if you fancy.

 

 

http://www.educate.ece.govt.nz/~/media/Edu...ads/whariki.pdf

[Guest]

Don't we need a mixture of approaches? Observations, getting to know the child really well as a key worker and some specific assessments all build up a picture. Even then, you can be filling in a child's record and think 'I don't know that about Billy. I'll find out'. That doesn't mean the approach has failed, it just means you are learning more and more about the child all the time. I hope that makes sense, but I think we have to be practical and not be slaves to any one theory.

[Marion]

I have been lucky enough to hear Margaret Carr speak about her work on learning stories twice. She really is an inspiring lady.

One of the videos she showed last year was a member of her research team all dressed in red carrying a bag of red objects and a clipboard asking the children "what colour is...?" She then asked them to jump hop stand on one leg etc .. while she ticked off each point on her list

Professor Carr's point argument, well made, was what did it really tell us about the children?

Her colleague Wendy Lee's work is also really interesting I think it is the Learning Wisdom project concerning children's conversations about their own learning

[Guest LornaW]

I heard Wendy Lee speak at Pen Green last year and she was inspirational. I had the following information recently which may be of interest to people. If anyone wants the attachments I would be happy to attach them here.

 

Dear Lorna,

 

In June this year I presented a keynote at the Pen Green Conference "Making Children's Learning Visible" on 'In the Spirit of Adventure: Pursuing your Passions'. As a consequence I was given the list of all the participants who attended. I sincerely hope you do not mind receiving this email from me, which is to tell you of the work we are planning to offer in England in 2010.

 

Educational Leadership Project Ltd is excited to inform you about the unique opportunity to take part in a professional development programme on narrative assessment in Early Childhood Education during May and June 2010.

 

We offer you and your team the opportunity to strengthen and deepen your knowledge and understanding of narrative assessment. Narrative assessment fosters learning, makes learning visible and adds complexity to children’s thinking and their learning environment. It is crucial that teachers learn to recognise, analyse and capitalise on the precious moments when learning occurs. Research in New Zealand has shown that effective professional development around narrative assessment has had significant improvements for children’s learning outcomes.

 

Our group of passionate, highly skilled project facilitators is experienced in delivering professional development around narrative assessment. All seven project facilitators have been on this “journey” over the past 10 years and among our team we now have almost 200 years of experience in Early Childhood Education. All seven of us are contributors to the New Zealand National Resource on Early Childhood Assessment and we have all been deeply engaged in this work over the last decade.

 

For several years, I and Professor Margaret Carr have co-directed a national project on assessment in early childhood settings Kei Tua o Te Pae Assessment for Learning: Early Childhood Exemplars. The final outcome of this project was a resource with 20 books; the final five books have just been published this year. The final series was focused on the literacies including oral, visual and written literacy, the arts, ICTs and mathematics. I am currently working with Margaret to publish a new book on learning stories, which we hope will be published by November 2010.

 

Attached to this email you will find the following resources:

 

· A flyer introducing ELP

· Our month-long in-centre programme available for May 2010

· Our conference programme ‘Do you let me fly?’ available for June 2010 (the layout of the flyer is in draft)

In addition, we can offer day seminars in June 2010. These one-day seminars could focus on learning stories or planning stories or any of the workshops around assessment listed in the ‘Do you let me fly?’ conference programme. These seminars are a fantastic opportunity to allow your team a more in-depth investigation of the conference topics over a whole day with a small group. They are also excellent to re-fresh or further your team’s interest in a specific topic.

 

During our last trip to England in 2009, we received a large amount of interest in the provision of a professional development programme and, at this stage, we are writing to ask for indications of interest in some or all aspects of our programme. This will then allow us to follow up with costings, depending on the numbers and the programme you are interested in. All seven project facilitators will be in England for the month of June and a smaller group for the month of May.

 

Because we will only be in England for a limited number of days we recommend securing your and your team’s place in any or all of our programmes as soon as possible.

 

Do not hesitate to contact us for any further questions.

 

We look forward to hearing from you.

 

Best regards,

 

Wendy Lee

 

Wendy Lee

Director

Educational Leadership Project

42 Malcolm Street

PO Box 24 100

Hamilton

New Zealand

 

 

Phone: 0064 7 856 8708

Fax: 0064 7 858 4448

Mobile: 0064 21 4777 52

Website: http://www.elp.co.nz

[Guest lucyevans]

Wendy Lee is conducting 2 days of training in March this year at the Early Excellence Centre in Huddersfield

http://www.earlyexcellence.com/downloads/t...ation_stage.pdf

 

I am writing a dissertation on the pro's & cons of the Learning Story approach... if anyone's trialled the approach (or the similar ACE Project set up by Bertram & Pascal) which also focuses on assssing learning dispositions rather than skills & knowledge, I'd love to hear your experiences.

 

Many thanks,

Lucy

 

 

I heard Wendy Lee speak at Pen Green last year and she was inspirational. I had the following information recently which may be of interest to people. If anyone wants the attachments I would be happy to attach them here.

 

Dear Lorna,

 

In June this year I presented a keynote at the Pen Green Conference "Making Children's Learning Visible" on 'In the Spirit of Adventure: Pursuing your Passions'. As a consequence I was given the list of all the participants who attended. I sincerely hope you do not mind receiving this email from me, which is to tell you of the work we are planning to offer in England in 2010.

 

Educational Leadership Project Ltd is excited to inform you about the unique opportunity to take part in a professional development programme on narrative assessment in Early Childhood Education during May and June 2010.

 

We offer you and your team the opportunity to strengthen and deepen your knowledge and understanding of narrative assessment. Narrative assessment fosters learning, makes learning visible and adds complexity to children’s thinking and their learning environment. It is crucial that teachers learn to recognise, analyse and capitalise on the precious moments when learning occurs. Research in New Zealand has shown that effective professional development around narrative assessment has had significant improvements for children’s learning outcomes.

 

Our group of passionate, highly skilled project facilitators is experienced in delivering professional development around narrative assessment. All seven project facilitators have been on this “journey” over the past 10 years and among our team we now have almost 200 years of experience in Early Childhood Education. All seven of us are contributors to the New Zealand National Resource on Early Childhood Assessment and we have all been deeply engaged in this work over the last decade.

 

For several years, I and Professor Margaret Carr have co-directed a national project on assessment in early childhood settings Kei Tua o Te Pae Assessment for Learning: Early Childhood Exemplars. The final outcome of this project was a resource with 20 books; the final five books have just been published this year. The final series was focused on the literacies including oral, visual and written literacy, the arts, ICTs and mathematics. I am currently working with Margaret to publish a new book on learning stories, which we hope will be published by November 2010.

 

Attached to this email you will find the following resources:

 

· A flyer introducing ELP

· Our month-long in-centre programme available for May 2010

· Our conference programme ‘Do you let me fly?’ available for June 2010 (the layout of the flyer is in draft)

In addition, we can offer day seminars in June 2010. These one-day seminars could focus on learning stories or planning stories or any of the workshops around assessment listed in the ‘Do you let me fly?’ conference programme. These seminars are a fantastic opportunity to allow your team a more in-depth investigation of the conference topics over a whole day with a small group. They are also excellent to re-fresh or further your team’s interest in a specific topic.

 

During our last trip to England in 2009, we received a large amount of interest in the provision of a professional development programme and, at this stage, we are writing to ask for indications of interest in some or all aspects of our programme. This will then allow us to follow up with costings, depending on the numbers and the programme you are interested in. All seven project facilitators will be in England for the month of June and a smaller group for the month of May.

 

Because we will only be in England for a limited number of days we recommend securing your and your team’s place in any or all of our programmes as soon as possible.

 

Do not hesitate to contact us for any further questions.

 

We look forward to hearing from you.

 

Best regards,

 

Wendy Lee

 

Wendy Lee

Director

Educational Leadership Project

42 Malcolm Street

PO Box 24 100

Hamilton

New Zealand

 

 

Phone: 0064 7 856 8708

Fax: 0064 7 858 4448

Mobile: 0064 21 4777 52

Website: http://www.elp.co.nz

[Marion]

I've heard Wendy Speak a couple of times and she really is excellent. We adopted Learning Stories in nursery and reception in September and they really are worthwhile. Wingate unfortunately I'm no longer in EY so won't see the first year completed.

[Guest lucyevans]

How have you adapted the format for the EYFS? The Learning Stories approach focuses on observing and developing children's learning dispositions - which is very different from the EYFS, where the emphasis is on observing children's skills and knowledge.

 

Do you find it more time consuming than your previous method?

 

The Learning Story approach has been criticised for being too subjective ie. it is open to the interpretation of the person writing the story. Although, Margaret Carr suggests this can be overcome if a number of practitioners contribute to the story, but again that is time consuming.

 

Many thanks,

Lucy

 

 

I've heard Wendy Speak a couple of times and she really is excellent. We adopted Learning Stories in nursery and reception in September and they really are worthwhile. Wingate unfortunately I'm no longer in EY so won't see the first year completed.

[Marion]

Our Learning Stories are loosely based on the format used by Paddy Beales and are primarily stories for parents to enjoy.

Not every minute detail is recorded just the main really important events. Learning stories can be quite short pieces or several pieces linked together. After writing the learning scenario the practitioner comments on the child’s (children’s) learning and suggests plans for future work. All staff contribute to build up a picture of the child's time with us and we don't link events to EYFS outcomes.

[Guest lucyevans]

Thanks for this, it will be useful for my dissertation :-)

 

Do you do other observations linked to the EYFS outcomes to meet Ofsted requirements? Or were Ofsted happy with the learning stories? Where would I find more about Paddy Beals format?

 

Thanks

 

Our Learning Stories are loosely based on the format used by Paddy Beales and are primarily stories for parents to enjoy.

Not every minute detail is recorded just the main really important events. Learning stories can be quite short pieces or several pieces linked together. After writing the learning scenario the practitioner comments on the child’s (children’s) learning and suggests plans for future work. All staff contribute to build up a picture of the child's time with us and we don't link events to EYFS outcomes.

Edited January 28, 2010 by lucyevans

[Marion]

From OFSTED

 

The EYFS says that everyone, including childminders, must make observations on the children. We do not expect long written notes or ask that you take time away from the children to make the observations. Simple notes can form part of the assessments you carry out and share with parents and other partners.