Brandirteran.weebly.com



Brandi R. TeranMay 7, 2014TTE 303, Sonya GachesBenchmark *Note: For this written report, a pseudonym has been used for the child and the members of her family. Description of the child:Amy is a female who is currently 4 years old and attends the preschool classroom Monday-Friday from approximately 8 am-4: 30pm. Amy has short curly hair, a very girly personality, and loves to talk about anything that she is currently interested in. Her family has recently moved about 5 years ago to Tucson from Panama, and currently moved closer to the childcare center and now they walk to and from school. Amy lives with her mother and grandmother and spends some nights during the week with her father. Amy’s mother, Adrianna, works with people with special needs and is studying psychology at Pima Community College. Daniel, Amy’s father, recently got a new job at a call center. Daniel is also very musical and plays in an orchestra from time to time. In the household, Amy’s grandmother only speaks Spanish, and Amy’s mother speaks both English and Spanish. Lately, Amy has been talking more Spanish with both her mother and grandmother. When she is with her father she only speaks English. Throughout the course of this year, Amy’s mother has been available to all my questions and willing to work with me for my course assignments. She has also always been flexible to meet with me throughout the week for our home interactions. As the relationship continues to grow, Adrianna now approaches me for questions and concerns regarding Amy and exchanges in conversations with me on a daily basis even if she is in a hurry. It has truly been a joy to work with this family and their amazing and intelligent 4 year old. Development of the Child:The documentation that has been taken shows growth in all areas of Amy’s development. Not only has this development occurred because of what Amy learns at school, but also what Amy is being taught at home. Both of Amy’s parents are very invested in her language and literacy development and continue to help her in all aspects. Amy constantly pushes herself to think outside of the box and challenges herself during school. I have had the pleasure to witness this amazing growth happen both inside and outside of the classroom. Language Development Growth:As a part of documentation, at our center “Teaching Strategies GOLD” is used to evaluate each child’s progress. During Winter 2013, when Amy was still 3 years old, her individual report shows her ranking a lot higher than where most kids her age should be. Now, in the spring, it is shown that in many areas Amy still ranks above or right where she needs to be such as: comprehending language, using expanding and expressive vocabulary, and engaging in conversations (TSG Spring 2014). From several observations, Amy’s strongest area of development is language. Amy asks a lot of questions and loves to be asked many questions while engaging in conversations with adults or peers. Her language is always very vivid and far away from telegraphic speech. In order to get her point across she uses many sentences and words in order to do so. On March 27, 2014 Amy was sitting at breakfast and said “oooo apples.. yum! Yum for kayum. Yumpy for kayumpy” (anecdotal notes). Amy is well aware of language and the ways it is used to express what is needed. She enjoys playing around with language a lot to see if she can make up words of her own. On April 21st, I noticed that Amy’s speech had increased dramatically. While playing with friends at house area, Amy puts two chairs together and grabs a blanket and lies down on the chairs. She says: “this is not a good bed for me to lay in. I think this is like a twin size bed and the box spring isn’t much comfortable”(anecdotal notes). Amy continues to grow in language development as she uses correct terminology to refer to specific objects. Amy is able to listen and understand increasingly complex language and she incorporates the language she hears when she is playing. Language Development Strengths: Amy’s strengths in language development would be engages in conversations and uses an expanding expressive vocabulary. Throughout the day, Amy engages in conversations with adults and peers about what she is doing or expressing what she has done when making art or building structures. She also uses correct terminology when trying to express herself or referring to specific objects. As we see in her language development growth Amy refers to the bed she has made as a “twin size” bed and states that the “box spring” isn’t very comfortable. Language Development: areas for future growthOne area for future growth would be working on grammar issues in language. Amy often has grammar mistakes when talking such as “the box spring isn’t much comfortable”. These are understandable mistakes that children make during early language acquisition. Through watching Amy engage with her peers, I have noticed that she too notices she is not using correct grammar, as it sounds funny to her. Through language modeling and re-stating what she is saying using correct grammar, I think Amy will be able to begin correcting these mistakes. Language Development ActivitiesHome-Based Activities: Through my home visits on January 30, 2014, I learned that Amy and her mother enjoy doing different activities together when they go home from school. Many of these activities are having tea parties or playing “school”. In order to help Amy’s language development, I would suggest that Adrianna take this as a learning opportunity to make sure she models correct grammar to Amy and use mirror talk. When using silly words, Amy can connect these silly words to phonemic awareness. School-Based Activities:In order to continue Amy’s language development at school, I would suggest having read alouds with Amy where open-ended questions can be asked. Through these open ended questions and talking about the book, Amy can practice her language skills. While Amy is having engaging conversations, teacher can demonstrate correct technical language and grammar structure. Cognitive Development Growth:Amy’s cognitive development growth has grown in the areas of making connections, solving problems, and recognizing and recalling information. According to her TSG in Winter 2014, Amy was excelling in all areas in the cognitive aspect. As of Spring 2014, she continues to excel in multiple areas or within the meeting range. Amy is able to solve problems with her peers (TSG). On April 3, 2014 Amy approached a teacher explaining how she was upset. She said: “I really want to play ball, but they’re not letting me”. The teacher then asked her how she could solve that problem. Amy decided to approach her friends and said: “I really want to play ball with you guys”. Her peers responded by explaining that they were using them and she then suggested if they could share and her peers agreed too (anecdotal notes). On March 28, 2014 Amy and I sat down in house area. She asks “when are you going to my house again?” I let her know I should be going soon, if I did not go to her house, we would be taking a trip together to the library. She then became very curious about why I would only go to her house and not the other children’s. After explaining why, she said: “at my other house you only went two times and in this new house you went two times too” (anecdotal notes). At first I was confused because I recalled visiting her house 3 times but forgot that one of the visits in which I went, Amy was not present, therefore to her it only felt like I had been there twice. Through this observation, there is proof that Amy is really observant and recalls situations and events really well. Cognitive Development Strengths: Through cognitive development, recognizes and recalls would be a main strength that Amy has. In the observation of her growth, Amy is able to recall information from before and apply it to her reasoning. She was able to recall an event that I had forgotten about and she clearly remembered that I had only visited her house twice before she moved. During home interaction on March 12, 2014 Adrianna also mentioned Amy remembering events that happened months ago and talking about them now or using the information and applying it to things she is doing (anecdotal notes). Cognitive Development: areas for future growth An area for future growth in cognitive development would be her ability of spatial reasoning. On April 3, 2014 while exploring with Legos, the teacher asked Amy different spatial questions using a tall tower of Legos and a small Lego. Amy was able to place the smaller Lego behind the tower, next to the tower, under the tower, in front of the tower, beside the tower and in back of the tower. When the teacher asked to place the Lego above or beneath the tower, Amy was unable to do so (anecdotal notes). Cognitive Development activities: Home Based Activities: An activity to consider continuing cognitive development would be: using materials at home, such as toys and having Amy put them into categories such as color, size, shape, and texture to measure classification skills. School Based Activities:In order to continue cognitive development, an activity to consider would be playing a shape, color and object memory game with Amy to see if she is able to apply attention, memory and recalling skills. Emotional Development Growth Amy’s emotional development continues to grow every day as she experiences different situations in the classroom. Responding to emotional cues and stating feelings has been a major area of growth. From Winter 2013 to Spring 2014, Amy has continued to show evidence in developing emotionally (TSG). On April 7, 2014, Amy hurt her friend on accident. She immediately apologized and said, “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry”. Her friend kept crying and then Amy proceeded to ask, “How can I make you feel better?” Amy was very persistent to make sure that her friend knew she was sorry and wanted to make her feel better” (anecdotal notes). While playing in house area on April 29, 2014 Amy started crying because her friend had accidentally hit her. Before a teacher could approach the situation her friend apologized for what he had done. Amy calmed herself and said, “I don’t like when you hit me with your hand on my face because it really hurt”. Her classmate apologized once again and Amy expressed herself by saying that didn’t make her feel better. Her friend then asked her what he could do to make her feel better and Amy said “I would really like it if you drew me a picture”. The other child said okay and leaned in to give Amy a hug. After they both hugged each other, Amy wiped her tears off her face, and continued playing while her friend drew the picture (anecdotal notes). Emotional Development StrengthsAmy is able to solve problems out with other friends in the classroom when there is a conflict. She is also very vocal and states her feelings when there is something wrong such as saying “I didn’t like when you hit me with your hand on my face because it really hurt”. She is also able to have self-control to work out the problem and not react aggressively towards situations but would rather fix them. Emotional Development: Areas for future growth Although Amy is able to control her aggressiveness and not retaliate when a conflict arises, an area for future growth would be her controlling her anger. When there are conflicts with peers, Amy states her feelings but does it in an angry/bossy tone of voice. Emotional Development ActivitiesHome based activities: From several home interactions throughout the course of the semester, I know that Amy and her mother read a lot of books together. An activity to consider for emotional development would be reading books about self-control and temperament. School based activities:An activity to consider continuing emotional development would be to have a conflict solution kit. When situations/conflicts occur, before approaching them Amy can go over to the kit and choose a way she can calmly approach the situation. This will continue to help her respond calmly towards situations but can also teach her how to approach situations without a lot of anger. Physical Development GrowthLooking at Amy’s individual child report in TSG, she has made a constant growth from Winter 2013 to Spring 2014. She continues to score above or in the range where she should be. Amy shows growth in demonstrating traveling skills, using writing and drawing tools, and demonstrating gross-motor manipulative skills. When observing Amy’s fine motor skills, we see that she is able to use her fingers and hands or adjust her grip when trying to complete tasks. On February 27, 2014, Amy used her fingers and hands to handle a set of children’s chopsticks during a cooking activity (anecdotal notes). On March 12, 2014 Amy painted butterflies with watercolors. At first, she held the paintbrush several different ways until she was comfortable grasping it with three fingers. She was able to continue making her picture. When teacher asked Amy to write her name on the back of her painting with a marker, Amy grasped the marker immediately using three fingers and wrote her name (anecdotal notes). Amy’s gross motor has made tremendous amounts of growth. On March 25, 2014 Amy jumped off the climber and landed on two feet (anecdotal notes). On April 21, 2014 Amy climbs and jumps down on the playground, her and a friend run over to a teacher to let her know about a bug. Amy and a friend go back to the climber. Amy holds on with both of her legs and lets go of her upper body and lets it hang. Amy goes to play monkey in the middle with other students. She throws the ball over to the other person until they finally catch it and she is now in the middle (anecdotal notes). Physical Development Strengths This year, Amy has increased in her interests of writing, which has impacted her fine motor skills. Amy constantly uses pens, pencils, crayons and markers to write her name or other peers’ name. Her interests in learning how to write has helped her gain strength in pencil grip Amy has a lot of strength in her legs, when playing outside on the climber she jumps off of different levels of the climber and lands perfectly with two feet. Physical Development: Areas for future growth Amy is able to use pencils, markers, crayons, and pens when writing but has trouble using other objects such as paintbrushes. An area for future growth would be working on hand grip when using large paintbrushes and thin paintbrushes. On April 2, 2014 Amy caught, threw and kicked a ball. She was a little hesitant to catch the ball at first (TSG anecdotal notes). An area for growth would be to help Amy practice arm strength such as catching and throwing. Physical Development Activities Home based activity:Fine motor: I am aware that Amy has a journal at home and workbooks that she uses. In order to continue fine motor development, I would suggest completing activities in the workbook using different writing tools that are different sizes to help handgrip. Gross motor: In order to continue her gross motor physical development, I would suggest taking Amy to parks to have her keep continuing gross motor movements. Playing fun games at the park such as catch or tag. School based activity: Fine motor: art activity using different sizes of paintbrushes (thin, fat, short, long). Have Amy draw a picture and explore different sizes of paintbrushes and model ways to hold paintbrushes to continue physical development. Gross motor: During outside time have Amy jump rope, and make hop-scotch games for her to continue her physical development. Social Development Growth: Through observations collected, Amy shows growth in social development as she interacts with peers, forms friendships and manages conflicts. On April 16, 2014 Amy and a friend played princesses in house area. They gave each other names such as Sophia the First and Pirate Fair Princess. They pretended to live in a castle and they had to save a scientist (anecdotal notes). Amy is able to cooperate with peers and make agreements on their play. On April 30, 2014 Amy sat in block area with her friend. Alice was sitting in her tumble chair and Amy would bring over blocks. While playing, Amy would ask her friend which blocks she wanted to use and Alice would shake her head yes and no. When Amy would ask questions and Alice would answer correctly, Amy would hug/kiss/gently touch Alice’s hand and say, “good job, you did it, you’re so smart, I love you! (anecdotal notes). Alice is a child in our classroom who has cerebral palsy. Amy is very understanding of her condition and is always around her presence while playing in the different areas of the room. Social Development Strengths: Amy’s biggest social development strength is her ability to form relationships with peers. Her ability to approach different classmates and begin playing with them is evident that she has good cooperation skills. Social Development: Areas for future growth Amy has been with her classmates for a year. She is comfortable around them and has formed special relationships with each one. On April 9, 2014 Amy was dropped off early and Room 4 students were in the classroom because of ratio. Amy did not want to play with these peers and preferred to play alone. An area for future growth in social development would be to have Amy begin to initiate conversations with children who she doesn’t know very well but still be able to approach them. Social Development Activities:Home based activities: From my first home interaction on January 30, 2014 I recall Amy’s mom saying she would like to involve Amy in play dates with co-workers children. I think this would benefit Amy continue her social development as she begins to meet new peers and forms relationships with them. School based activities: In observations taken as anecdotal notes it is evident that although Amy gets along with all her peers, she engages more with the other girls in the classroom. In order to continue her social development I would plan play centers that include interests of both genders so Amy can have more engagements with peers from the opposite gender. ConclusionThrough anecdotal notes, and Teaching Strategies Gold it is evident that Amy is strong in all 5 learning domains. As she continues learning and engaging in activities she will continue to grow in each one of these domains. Amy is an intelligent 4 years old who strives and continues to grow dramatically as she progresses throughout the year. She has major strengths in each aspect of learning and it has been a pleasure getting to know this child and her family. I will forever treasure this experience in my heart as Amy taught me more about life and learning that I could have ever taught her. ................
................

In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.

Google Online Preview   Download