Developmental Assessment
Each child develops differently and in their own way. There are many theories on how children develop and in what stages they develop. In the following paragraphs I will discuss the physical, cognitive & language development, and emotional and social development of Anna*, a student in my pre-student teaching classroom.
Anna is a second grader in Mrs. Gorgen’s classroom at the Mineral Point Elementary School. Mrs. Gorgen’s classroom is one that is full of community. Mrs. Gorgen makes sure all students feel welcome and that they can share anything with her or their classmates. The classroom is set up for student involvement and interaction. There are lots of spaces for students to work together. One of Anna’s favorite places is the area that allows for student collaboration.
Anna’s physical development is right in line with other students her age. Her large motor skills seem to be developed well. Some of her small motor skills are not as quite developed, but I think those will come with time. One area where she could use some improvement is with using a pencil. Her grip isn’t the best, and she has a hard time erasing. I think with time and practice it will become easier for her.
When I observed the second grade classroom they were in class the whole time, their recess was after I left. Since I don’t observe their recess it is hard to determine her level of activity. During class she seems to have the same level of activity as the rest of the children. She gets excited when something new happens and tired when she has had a long weekend. Anna’s favorite activity is the Daily 5. Whenever there isn’t time for the Daily 5 or when there is only time for one round instead of two she always groans. Even though Daily 5 is her favorite, she does have one favorite part. Read to someone is always her first choice if she gets the chance.
Anna’s cognitive development is stronger in some areas than others. In her reading and writing she is a little behind that of the other students in the class. She has difficulty with sentence structure, but does seem to do well with other parts of sentences. For example she does just fine when working with proper nouns, verbs, etc., but has difficulty with punctuation. Anna really struggles in Math. Although she does struggle greatly some days are worse than others. This is the strange part about her cognitive development. For example she can easily count by 2’s but has trouble with addition. One day she can count by 10’s and the next it’s like she had never been taught that concept before.
My cooperating teacher asked me to work with Anna during the daily math warm-up. I helped her every day for almost six weeks. One thing that she finally got the hang of during this time was telling time; unfortunately I know that she doesn’t seem to retain information very well, so I don’t know how long that she will remember how to tell time. I hope that her cognitive development starts to grow, and that she will excel in school. I think that first we need to find a way for her to learn the information in a way that she will remember and retain it.
Anna’s language development seems to be much better than her cognitive development. When speaking, she uses all parts of speech including verbs, adjectives, etc. When she speaks it sounds the way that we speak in the English language. She doesn’t use made up words or speak in a different sentence structure. Her speaking is a lot better than her writing, and I think that with time, all the information and usage that she gets from speaking will trickle down to her writing. Anna is really good at using her language to express emotions as well. When she is upset with someone she tells them. She knows how to use her language to express herself.
When thinking about the concrete operational stage and how Anna would fit into it, I once again see parts that she fits and others that she doesn’t. She does think more logically than children that are younger than her. For example she would know that if you change the shape of a ball of play dough, it’s still the same amount of play dough. However her ability to reverse operations is very limited. When we were working with base ten blocks, she had trouble with realizing that ten tens equaled one hundred. Even if we placed the ten blocks on top of the hundred blocks, she had difficulty as soon as we removed them. For these reasons I think that Anna is more aligned with the preoperational stage in the area of reversibility, because she cannot easily reverse things.
Anna’s personality is one that is kind and caring. She gets along with almost everyone in her class, and is always willing to help when needed. Even when she is having a bad day, she is kind to her classmates and friends. Her emotional maturity goes right along with her personality. She is able to express her feelings with her words and in positive ways. Even when she gets angry with someone she tries expressing her feelings first before moving to the teacher. I have only seen one instance where she become upset easily and I feel that this was because she had a long weekend and was already having difficulty getting along with this particular student.
Her interaction with classmates and the teacher throughout the day is constant, sometimes even when she is not supposed to be interacting. She loves hearing from the other students at her table and finding out what they did the night before. The teacher never seems to have huge discipline problems with her though. She usually asks her to be quiet and pay attention to what she is doing and Anna does just that.
Self-esteem is extremely important in young people. Young children like Anna are learning how to feel good about themselves, and almost anything can disrupt that learning. Anna seems to have a pretty good self-esteem though. When I was working with her on her daily math warm-up, she was so proud of herself when she got it right. I could tell because she would look at me and her face would just light up. She is proud of herself when she accomplishes something new. Her self-concept on the other hand is not as developed as her self-esteem. She seems to blend in with the rest of the students. She wants to do what other students do, and be like some of the other students.
Scaffolding is something that the teacher does a lot of with Anna. Since her cognitive development is a little less developed, she needs help building up to a higher point of learning. The teacher starts small and works with Anna to help her scaffold her learning. She learns a little bit at a time until she understands the whole concept. In Erikson’s stages of psychosocial development Anna would fall under the industry versus inferiority: primary grades and part of elementary school. She is able to operate in more than one system. The systems she is involved in include: school, sports teams, and her family just to name a couple.
In conclusion, I believe that Anna’s cognitive development needs a little help, and over time I think she will get to where she needs to be. Through the help of the teacher and scaffolding she will learn little by little and accomplish a lot. The next stage in Piaget’s theory is the formal operations stage, and with help learning about the abstract, I think that Anna will get there. Anna has already made her way through about half of Erickson’s stages of psychosocial development as well. She will need help though to make her way through the rest of the stages or she may remain where she is right now. Anna is a great girl with a great personality that will grow up to do wonderful things.
*Student’s name is changed
Anna is a second grader in Mrs. Gorgen’s classroom at the Mineral Point Elementary School. Mrs. Gorgen’s classroom is one that is full of community. Mrs. Gorgen makes sure all students feel welcome and that they can share anything with her or their classmates. The classroom is set up for student involvement and interaction. There are lots of spaces for students to work together. One of Anna’s favorite places is the area that allows for student collaboration.
Anna’s physical development is right in line with other students her age. Her large motor skills seem to be developed well. Some of her small motor skills are not as quite developed, but I think those will come with time. One area where she could use some improvement is with using a pencil. Her grip isn’t the best, and she has a hard time erasing. I think with time and practice it will become easier for her.
When I observed the second grade classroom they were in class the whole time, their recess was after I left. Since I don’t observe their recess it is hard to determine her level of activity. During class she seems to have the same level of activity as the rest of the children. She gets excited when something new happens and tired when she has had a long weekend. Anna’s favorite activity is the Daily 5. Whenever there isn’t time for the Daily 5 or when there is only time for one round instead of two she always groans. Even though Daily 5 is her favorite, she does have one favorite part. Read to someone is always her first choice if she gets the chance.
Anna’s cognitive development is stronger in some areas than others. In her reading and writing she is a little behind that of the other students in the class. She has difficulty with sentence structure, but does seem to do well with other parts of sentences. For example she does just fine when working with proper nouns, verbs, etc., but has difficulty with punctuation. Anna really struggles in Math. Although she does struggle greatly some days are worse than others. This is the strange part about her cognitive development. For example she can easily count by 2’s but has trouble with addition. One day she can count by 10’s and the next it’s like she had never been taught that concept before.
My cooperating teacher asked me to work with Anna during the daily math warm-up. I helped her every day for almost six weeks. One thing that she finally got the hang of during this time was telling time; unfortunately I know that she doesn’t seem to retain information very well, so I don’t know how long that she will remember how to tell time. I hope that her cognitive development starts to grow, and that she will excel in school. I think that first we need to find a way for her to learn the information in a way that she will remember and retain it.
Anna’s language development seems to be much better than her cognitive development. When speaking, she uses all parts of speech including verbs, adjectives, etc. When she speaks it sounds the way that we speak in the English language. She doesn’t use made up words or speak in a different sentence structure. Her speaking is a lot better than her writing, and I think that with time, all the information and usage that she gets from speaking will trickle down to her writing. Anna is really good at using her language to express emotions as well. When she is upset with someone she tells them. She knows how to use her language to express herself.
When thinking about the concrete operational stage and how Anna would fit into it, I once again see parts that she fits and others that she doesn’t. She does think more logically than children that are younger than her. For example she would know that if you change the shape of a ball of play dough, it’s still the same amount of play dough. However her ability to reverse operations is very limited. When we were working with base ten blocks, she had trouble with realizing that ten tens equaled one hundred. Even if we placed the ten blocks on top of the hundred blocks, she had difficulty as soon as we removed them. For these reasons I think that Anna is more aligned with the preoperational stage in the area of reversibility, because she cannot easily reverse things.
Anna’s personality is one that is kind and caring. She gets along with almost everyone in her class, and is always willing to help when needed. Even when she is having a bad day, she is kind to her classmates and friends. Her emotional maturity goes right along with her personality. She is able to express her feelings with her words and in positive ways. Even when she gets angry with someone she tries expressing her feelings first before moving to the teacher. I have only seen one instance where she become upset easily and I feel that this was because she had a long weekend and was already having difficulty getting along with this particular student.
Her interaction with classmates and the teacher throughout the day is constant, sometimes even when she is not supposed to be interacting. She loves hearing from the other students at her table and finding out what they did the night before. The teacher never seems to have huge discipline problems with her though. She usually asks her to be quiet and pay attention to what she is doing and Anna does just that.
Self-esteem is extremely important in young people. Young children like Anna are learning how to feel good about themselves, and almost anything can disrupt that learning. Anna seems to have a pretty good self-esteem though. When I was working with her on her daily math warm-up, she was so proud of herself when she got it right. I could tell because she would look at me and her face would just light up. She is proud of herself when she accomplishes something new. Her self-concept on the other hand is not as developed as her self-esteem. She seems to blend in with the rest of the students. She wants to do what other students do, and be like some of the other students.
Scaffolding is something that the teacher does a lot of with Anna. Since her cognitive development is a little less developed, she needs help building up to a higher point of learning. The teacher starts small and works with Anna to help her scaffold her learning. She learns a little bit at a time until she understands the whole concept. In Erikson’s stages of psychosocial development Anna would fall under the industry versus inferiority: primary grades and part of elementary school. She is able to operate in more than one system. The systems she is involved in include: school, sports teams, and her family just to name a couple.
In conclusion, I believe that Anna’s cognitive development needs a little help, and over time I think she will get to where she needs to be. Through the help of the teacher and scaffolding she will learn little by little and accomplish a lot. The next stage in Piaget’s theory is the formal operations stage, and with help learning about the abstract, I think that Anna will get there. Anna has already made her way through about half of Erickson’s stages of psychosocial development as well. She will need help though to make her way through the rest of the stages or she may remain where she is right now. Anna is a great girl with a great personality that will grow up to do wonderful things.
*Student’s name is changed