Assessing The Right Way!

Many of schools get caught up with making sure the students can pass a standardized test and leave the creativity of a student behind. As educators, we need to rethink our intelligence. This includes understand the student’s ability and capability. Students should be assessed but using different learning styles to fit their need. Learning styles is a way a person perceives information educational using one or more methods. For instance, learning through auditory, visual, kinetics or tactile methods is a way to help children understand. You could use oral assessment for verbal learners, and for visual students use symbol such as graphic organizers. As educators, you have to accept each child learns differently, and we must adapt. For assessment, another convenient tool would be to incorporate examples from the child's environment. When you can bring good exterior experiences to the students, they seem more interest in what they are learning and understand. I think you can reach students with different muti-intelligence is to use more variety of assessments.

In South Africa, School Age children take an assessment in informal assessment such as observing oral, practical and written activities that the learner does independently. Also, formal assessment is a written test. All assessment is suiting the different learning styles and ability levels of all learners. The form(s) of assessment should also be grade and age-appropriate.

In addition, assessing young children should meet the student’s needs, not what the teacher’s manual tells us what to do.

Department: Basic Education Republic of South Africa (2011) Retrieved November 20,2011, from http://www.education.gov.za/Curriculum/CurriculumStatements/tabid/166/Default.aspx

R.M. Felder and R. Brent, "Understanding Student Differences." J. Engr. Education, 94(1), 57-72 (2005). An    exploration of differences in student learning styles, approaches to learning (deep, surface, and strategic), and levels of intellectual development, with recommended teaching practices to address all three categories

Poverty.....

“Poverty is the state of one who lacks a usual or socially acceptable amount of money or material possessions.”( Britannica, 2011)

With the many changes to our economy, the US is seeing a lot of poverty stricken families. I work in an Early Head Start program where we serve low-income families. I have the opportunity work with a variety of cultures that are in poverty. One family in particular I worked with was extremely poverty stricken. They were a family of 5 and with 3 children under the age of 4. The mother struggled to maintain the living environment while the father looked for work in another state. The living condition was in a mobile home that needed to condemn from the lack of repaired needed, no heat, unsafe and clearly unlivable for the family. It is a rental, and the slum lord did not care about the living condition as long as he was getting the money. The mother had to find ways to keep her family safe and warm. She would have all kids sleep in their clothes at night with a space heater. For safety, she would put the dresser against the door and pray that no one would hurt them. The mother would very sad a lot because she came to this country for a better life and everything was not what she thought it was. Her children would see her cry a lot and she missed her husband. The children seem very happy at times, but I observed the children being sad when the mother would cry. At the ages of the children, they could sense something was different, especially with the father not there. The children medical needs where not being met because they were living in poverty. The mother did not take them to the doctor because she was not concern with that because of everything she was dealing. As being a part of the program, we worked with this family to better the situation. We connected the mother with resources in the community that could help her, and made a referral to the doctor for medical service. We connected the father to job resources where he was able to get a job and move the family. Also, we have a license mental health specialist on staff that was able to talk with a parent on improve their emotional health. Once the family moved, they happier and the children seem to be progressing developmentally. The mother was back working with her children. The children seem more responsive to the mother and happy that the father was there every day. This was such a success story for our program. From helping the family become self-sufficient, the child’s development had improved.

The poverty rate in Mexico is the #1 stressor. I’ve learned the children in Mexico are experiences the same stressor as the US. For kids, poor health from poverty meant affliction for life. The children were severely sick at an early age due to lack of medical treatment. Many common diseases cause the children death in Mexico. From poverty, I believe the children developmental domains become delayed. Having access to the basic needs such as food, safe shelter, and medical treatment will foster the development; along with the family being emotionally stable. What is being done to minimize poverty is creating a Conditional cash transfer (CCT) programs. CCTs consists in cash rewards in exchange for investments in education, health or food. It should help fight child malnutrition and nurture social capital. The conditions can then vary from sending a child to school to looking for a job in order to receive that money.

Berrebi, D. (2011, July 07). Poverty in mexico: economic crises. Retrieved from http://www.poverties.org/index.html

Poverty in the United States - Britannica, the free encyclopedia. (n.d.). Retrieved from http:// Britannica.org/wiki/Poverty_in_the_United_States