Stages in developing mentally handicapped children's pretend play are outlined and techniques for assessing a child's play development are described. (SBH)

The paper discusses the teacher's use of such informal techniques as observation and checklists to detect students' particular instructional or behavioral needs, to detect areas of strength or weakness, and to formulate remedial programs. (Author/SBH)

This article presents a comprehensive model of daily, classroom informal writing assessment that is constantly linked to instruction and the characteristics of proficient writers. Methods for promoting teacher, student, and parent collaboration and their roles in dialoguing, conferencing, and reflection are discussed. Strategies for including…

Presented is a checklist developed by the Austin Early Childhood Special Education Program to help teachers evaluate children's classroom behavior and coping skills. It is explained that results of the checklist should provide information on such factors as possible underlying problems experienced by a student, situations in which a student…

Presented is the technical report on development of the Observational Checklists for Referral (OCR), developed to assist teachers of young children in identifying problems that interfere with learning, making appropriate referrals to other professionals, and communicating with parents and professionals. Sections cover summaries of external…

Presented is a manual for program assessment of the deaf-blind child's development. In the introduction, it is stressed that the manual is not intended to be a curriculum guide and that scale items are not designed to replace the objectives and activities of the child's curriculum. Assessment checklists are color-coded according to the following…

Many early childhood educators are beginning to experiment with and use portfolio assessment. Teachers are also observing young children at play and documenting their play activities for assessment purposes. Close observation of sociodramatic play gives teachers accurate perspectives on young children across the developmental domains of…

A 2-year project investigated the ability of secondary school teachers to identify the top 10 percent of students in each of four subjects, English, French, physics, and mathematics. The students were tested on a wide range of aptitudes and attitudes at the beginning of their third form (ninth grade). Teachers were asked to list students they…

Early childhood educators recognize the importance and validity of observing children's activities in the classroom, documenting them in an organized format, and assessing them in relation to the range of expected outcomes for children in that grade. Experienced teachers, however, know that the process of observing, documenting, and assessing…

Answers parents' most common questions about alternative assessment. Discusses: why there is a need for change in the way students are evaluated; what alternative assessment is; how parents can recognize the components of an alternative assessment; when alternative assessment occurs; and how alternative assessment contributes to children's…

Bucks County, Pennsylvania intermediate unit (IU) programs for the gifted are discussed in terms of Pennsylvania standards for the gifted, pupil selection methods, and IU services for the gifted and talented. Among topics covered in a section on program standards are guidelines for selecting gifted pupils (from kindergarten through the grades);…

In contrast to standardized tests, which do not accurately reflect the achievement of young students, portfolio assessment is a valuable tool for documenting a student's development. Portfolio assessment can be conducted formally or informally through observation or by interview. Documentation of observations can take the form of checklists,…

Intended for instructors of English as a Second Language (ESL), adult basic education, and workplace literacy, this manual focuses on three questions: What is authentic assessment? What are the steps in planning authentic assessment? How is the learner involved? Section 1 discusses some components of authentic assessment. In doing so, it addresses…

In the second year of a project investigating the ability of secondary school teachers to identify high-ability students, two questions were addressed: what student characteristics influenced teachers' judgments, and why checklists appeared to have little impact on teachers' judgments. A structured approach was developed to study student…

Intended to help classroom teachers develop basic orientation and mobility skills in young visually impaired children, the curriculum guide contains five interrelated sections that deal with body image, basic sensory concepts and abilities, motor coordination, sensory modalities, and pre-cane skills. Each section contains a brief introduction and…