Posts
The Whole Child
1. Considering a commitment to viewing young
children holistically (i.e., a commitment to "the whole child"),
what, if anything, do you believe should be measured or assessed? Explain your reasoning.
I believe that family history should be
assessed because it will give us as
educators and idea of how the children are raised, what the culture is, what
things they have been exposed to, how they value relationships, what limitations if any, medical history,
2. In what ways are school-age children assessed in
other parts of the world? (Choose a country or region of the world for which
you have a personal affinity.)
I choose Europe and children in Europe are
assessed through testing. According to Cassidy
(2008)”Primary school pupils have to deal with unprecedented levels of pressure
as they face tests more frequently, at a younger age, and in more subjects than
children from any other country, according to one of the biggest”.
I feel that testing is not always the
best way to assess a child. I feel that some children have testing anxiety and
therefore may not do well with testing. I feel that a child’s progress should
not be assessed by testing alone.
References
Cassidy,
S. (n.d.). Our children tested to
destruction English primary school pupils subjected to more tests than in any
other country. Retrieved from
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/education/education-news/our-children-tested-to-destruction-779790.html
I think looking into a child's family situation would be very helpful to a teacher. I have a student this year who just came in one day and said "my mom is in jail and I won't see her until school is out." Every single day this little boy tells me how much he misses his mom. The first time I was speechless because I myself could not imagine sitting at home after school one day and my mom getting taken away right in front of me. Now, we have different things in place to help him cope. I know it does not make things any easier for me but at least he knows the people at school are here to help him. Needless to say, he does not care about anything at all. His grades are very low, he is losing friends because of his behavior and his appearance is always a mess. I feel in this situation the grandmother, who is now taking care of him, should have approached me making me aware of his situation so we could have been helping from the beginning.
ReplyDeleteYou have definately sparked my interest with assessing a child's family history! That is a wonderful idea as it will give you an idea of how a child will function. I do agree that taking a test is just not enough to determine how a child performs academically because they do tend to freeze up during test time. Most are not engaged during the test and will mark anything on those test papers just to say they are done. It can be overwhelming for them as some of those test can be so long and boring to them. I enjoyed your post!
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