Week 10 How Many Lizards is a Fish?

Carter, one of our preschoolers, asked us this morning "How many lizards is a fish?" This question may sound strange, but when considered in the context of child-led investigation, it makes perfect sense. These investigations occur when one of the children has an idea, an inspiration that they begin to think about, talk about, and work out in their minds and through their experiences. Soon, others become interested and before long there is a group of seekers working together, and engaging the staff to get involved in assisting the children until an answer is found.

Carter has spent the past couple of weeks pondering the size, weight, breadth and depth of things. He began trying to create measurement tools to capture his thoughts. Soon others were interested and beforewe knew it, the class was measuring EVERYTHING. Interject one common house lizard, or skink, into this equation. Said skink happened to wander into the school the other day and appeared in the preschool room. Carter quickly went about the task of capturing this skink. While the skink was eventually let free, along the way, he further inspired Carter.

What emerged was a yard stick of sorts that uses lizards as the unit of measure. When he asked us today, "How many lizards is a fish?" he was in fact using his lizard measuring stick to measure the fish in the fish tank. The answer he concluded? It depends upon the fish. Our largest fish in our tank today is about 3/4 of a lizard long. Carter was intrigued by this outcome and when we left the room he was going about the business of adding partial lizard measurements to the stick.

This interaction with Carter brought us to thinking about the ways that we measure a child’s progress as a school. The standard measures used by traditional centers seem inadequate to capture the depth of the child. If we were to only use, for example, the standard developmental milestones we would miss the richness that defines our kids and allows them to shine as individuals. We view child development not just as a series of landmarks to be achieved, but as richly varied experiences through which children construct their understanding of the world. In this, just as learning is an active process in which the child interacts with his or her environment, assessment is also an interactive process between the teacher and the child, in which they enter into a conversation, or exchange of ideas. The teacher gains an understanding of the child’s present level of performance and then facilitates or extends the child’s knowledge of a concept or task. The information gained through the assessment process directly affects the curriculum or experiences offered to the children. Assessment and learning are not separate experiences. Rather, they are linked in the continuous process of learning and interacting experienced by the child.

Our portfolio system is our tool for observation and assessment. Just as we utilize it as a learning tool for our children, we also use it to evaluate ourselves. Our portfolio system is also a work in progress for us as a school as just as it is for each of our children. We are constantly searching for ways that we can modify or fine-tune it to better reflect who the child is and who we are as educators. This week, we were invited to participate in a training on Creative Curriculum given by our Orange County technical assistant. The focus of the training was the importance of observing children and connecting these observations with curricular goals. This was a validating experience for us because much of what was presented to us as “best practice” by the state experts in child development directly reflects what we are doing every day in our classrooms.

This week a group of us also attended a talk on the importance of project-based learning given at the Duke School. The Duke School has been providing research-based, child-centered educational opportunities for children for over twenty-five years and we consider them our heroes and mentors. The talk was so affirming because it again talked about the importance of hearing and seeing the children- or “kid watching”- in order to encourage their growth. We must observe them in order to be able to offer them the support that they need to search further. It is critical that we encourage children in their seeking so that they may solve their own problems and find their own answers- we are just support staff in their wonderful, magical process. In this, by allowing Carter the freedom to pursue his investigation and extend his concept of measurement, we were given the privilege of witnessing the power of learning happen right before our eyes.