Marie Apostolou:
Now we have the hospitals, the fire brigade. Lots of language comes out of that as well. I get to hear the oral language that children are using, the vocab. You know, do we all know what a hospital is? Do we know why we have fire brigades? So lots of playing. Lots of playing, lots of questioning for me. The felt stories, we have been talking a lot about stories at the moment about what happens at the beginning of a story, what happens in the middle of a story, what happens at the end of a story. And I had 'Three Little Pigs' and 'Little Red Riding Hood' there, and I said to them, "You can change the end". Because for me it is like, OK, let us see when I come back to you and I ask you, is at the end that you changed? Have you understood that that is the end part of the story? So that is assessing along the way. So there is always lots of planning that goes into what comes out. And it is about concepts that they are learning in the classroom. The other assessment I find really... and it is probably the most authentic assessment, is the speaking and listening, because you are actually walking around and you are listening to children speak.
Can they speak in full sentences? Is it grammatically correct? Listening to other children ask questions, are they actually answering the question? Are they answering correctly? Are they answering in full sentences? So that is really important in foundation. I find play-based learning is the most authentic way to find... It actually assesses that area. So even when we're reporting, for me as a teacher, I always say it's not just the conversations that I have with the child, when we're doing play-based learning, how are they communicating? How are they speaking? What vocab are they using? We have goals every time that we do play-based learning, we have a different goal. And today, one of our goals was to create... to create or discover something different. So we had lots of discussions about that and we talked about that even though you might be doing an activity that you have done before, you can still create something different. Does not have to be the same creation that you did last time.
And what I found really interesting today is when I walked around, children use the word 'create'. I am creating. You know, when I was playing with so and so, I created this. Whereas I think if we did not put that up there as a goal and we did not use the word 'create', that vocab, then they will not use it either. So I find that the vocab, the communication between themselves, when I go in with questions, the assessment I get out of that is authentic.
Luisa Kalejuk:
I had a conversation with a child a few weeks ago, and it was just their vocab, their vocab about architecture, and it blew me away. So it is just knowing that that child is so articulate and has such an amazing knowledge. It is a great way to support them in their writing, to take them further. And although he was not able to spell these words but just to know that he is able to articulate them and therefore encourage him to take his learning to his writing to that next level.
Maria Mandilas:
I have an example of one particular student. It was week two or week three of school, and I had not had the opportunity to sit down with any of the children to read a book as such. But due to play-based learning and during that time, I sat with the little girl and she was reading a book. And if it were not for that time, I would not have known that she was a reader. So yes.
Luisa Kalejuk:
Yes, that was a special moment, wasn't it?
Maria Mandilas:
That's a very special moment. So I discovered something new about that student that I would not have otherwise have probably picked up until a little bit later on when assessment comes into play.
[End of transcript]
Updated