Assessments & Portfolio

 


When assessing your preschooler, my advice would be to set up your assessment space first before your child sits down.  I have said it before in the Set Up post, making a preschool aged child wait uses up their limited attention span and creates room for unwanted behaviors.  You may want to split the assessment up into two or three sessions depending on your child’s attention span.   

Be prepared. 


Build a portfolio for the school year.  The portfolio is like a scrapbook of your child's progress through the school year.  Have your labelsbinder, and sheet protectors prepared to save these precious ‘beginning of the year’ samples.  Colect finished worksheets and art as you go.  Don't forget to take pictures of the activities that aren't on paper, too!  Conduct the assessment three times in the school year to track progress.    

Follow cues and don't be afraid to stop for snacks and dance parties! 

For you both! ๐Ÿ˜†

Next, set the tone as if this were a time for you two to play games.  Avoid using the term, assessment or test.  This may make them nervous or uncertain about how to proceed and what is expected of them.  What we want is natural conversations and encouragement from you.  As your child responds to your game of questions, be careful about revealing if they are right or wrong.  Avoid saying, “Correct!” or, “No, you know this one, try again.”  You may want to use phrases like, “Ok, keep going!” and... 

Give lots of smiles. 

Lastly, the alphabet, numbers and other symbols that normally go in any sort of order or song, should be for this purpose, in random order. You are looking for an authentic prior knowledge base line, not if they recall songs or route memorization.  



Below are assessments that you can choose from depending on your child's age and how in depth you would like to assess.  Choose the form that best suits your child's  level.  



• This option is a condensed version of the links below.

๐Ÿ’™Assessment for PreK (a thorough assessment for a 4 year child with previous preschool experience) 
    

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