Reflective Analysis of Portfolio Artifact

Rationale/Reflection
NAEYC Standard:
STANDARD 3. OBSERVING, DOCUMENTING, AND ASSESSING TO SUPPORT YOUNG CHILDREN AND FAMILIES
Candidates prepared in early childhood degree programs understand that child observation, documentation,
and other forms of assessment are central to the practice of all early childhood professionals. They a) know
about and understand the goals, benefits, and uses of assessment. They b) know about and use systematic
observations, documentation, and other effective assessment strategies c) in a responsible way, d) in
partnership with families and other professionals, to positively influence the development of every child.
(NAEYC, 2010)
Brief Description of Evidence:
During the summer semester of 2014 in ECED 235 Preschool Practicum I completed a Child Case Study.
The parameters of this assignment were to select a child between the ages of three and four, gain permission
from the childs parent or guardian to observe the child and then make assessments, set goals, implement
lesson plans and record the results pertaining to the selected childs progress. The case study also involved
focusing on the five domains of development and then collecting and creating two artifacts for each domain to
display the child engaging in all of the domain areas. After compiling all of the data, a final reflective narrative
was required in order to show how the child had progressed throughout the case study.
Analysis of What I Learned:
Through completion of this assignment I learned several things about assessment and observation. I
firstly learned that it takes a lot of time and effort! The observing part is easy because all you do is watch the
child and take pictures, but the note taking and analyzing and goal planning and implementation made it so
much more in-depth and difficult. The effort, however, was shown in the results of the case study. It was a
short case study since the course was only eight weeks long, but I was still able to see definable differences in
how the child was at the beginning of the study and how he had developed by the end of the study. I
essentially learned that through observing, documenting and assessing, educators are able to positively
influence the development of their children and that sharing the results with the childrens families allows for
the positive development to go even further.
How This Artifact Demonstrates my Competence on the NAEYC Standard:
My completion of this assignment opened my eyes to the importance of observation and assessment.
This assignment involved several observations and assessments of a selected child and I then had to classify
ten artifacts that I collected into the five developmental domains. I also had to explain why that artifact
belonged in that domain. This assignment showed me how central systematic observations, documentation
and other effective assessment strategies are to the practice of all early childhood professionals. Observation
and assessment are used to gain insight into childrens developmental states and allows educators to create
and implement lessons in order to improve their childrens trouble areas.