Planning a schedule for observations

[pinkfox]

Your Assignment Module Number and Heading: CHCPR509A
Your Assignment Type: Standard Question
Currently Working in Childcare? No
Your knowledge: Basic Knowledge

Your Question?
Prepare a schedule to ensure that all the children that you work with are included in your observations

What is your answer so far or What have you done so far as an attempt to solve this question?
The example that has been shown to me in the book has a table with names, method of obs, who is responsible for undertaking the ob, the area of development to be observed and the day. Except for doing observations for my assessment tasks i have not done these at my centre. We now do learning stories and have a list for the month to make sure all children have at least one learning story done for them.

Description and Message:
My question is when i plan a schedule how often do i need to observe the areas of development for each child, are all areas covered in one week or as in my book will each child have a different area to be observed weekly? Sorry if i sound vague, everyone at work that i have spoken to seems to have forgotten the finer details that i need for my assessment. I understand having a focus group each week, but how do you determine what areas to observe?

Thanks very much!

[Lorina]

Hi There,

When I am doing observations for my group of children I don't necessarily plan on what areas of development I am going to observe. I just observe the child during an experience then which ever area of development fits in with the observation I will mark off... You will most likely find that within one observation itself there a a couple or more developmental areas which can be observed.

I typically do one observation per child per month... So, monthly you can observe each developmental area per child.

Hope this helps,

,
L.A

[Natura]

Lorina.
I am not sure if my question fits in this thread.

You say that you tipically do one observation per child per month. That's if the child attends 4 or 5 days a week to the center.

What about those children who only attend once a week to twice?

I would appreciate your help.

Natura.

[Lorina]

What about those children who only attend once a week to twice?

While working with the Framework and having gained more experience with it, I don't really schedule which child I'm going to observe on a specific day. So. for example on Tuesday I know I would need to do 3 observations - so throughout the day I will observe any 3 children within the group and add a written observation on 3 children who display significantly learning... From here, then I can do my follow up on the children I have observed. It's much easier and I find it much more authentic. Although, children who attend 1 day a week will need to be observed on that specific day... I do keep a note on the children I have observed as well as the outcomes achieved so I don't lose track. Also, this way child are more likely to have more than 1 observation recorded during the months time. Sometimes children will have 2 observations recorded for the month rather than just the one...

It's also a good idea to get the other educators in the room involved because their interpretation of what they observe a child doing can be completely different from what your interpretation can be so the child's learning gets evaluated and reflected upon in many different ways...

Hope this makes sense,

,
Lorina