When I read this assignment about sharing a positive example how research has benefited children all I could think about was Teaching Strategies GOLD. I use to work for Teaching Strategies, LLC while living in Maryland and was part of the implementation team when GOLD was developed. Through extensive research in the early childhood field, the authors of Teaching Strategies GOLD found that there needed to be an on-going observational based assessment for birth through Kindergarten. I believe that this assessment has helped and continues to help many teachers in keeping track of children's development and learning all through the early childhood years. Children benefit from GOLD because they are learning and developing the skills they need to become successful lifelong learners.
I am now on the other side of GOLD and using it in the classroom & observe how successful it truly is. The best part is when I see families excited about GOLD and want to learn more about the assessment.
Here is the link to the Research of Teaching Strategies GOLD
http://www.teachingstrategies.com/content/pageDocs/teaching-strategies-gold-assessment-research-foundation.pdf
Reference
Teaching Strategies, LLC (2013). Retrieved from http://www.teachingstrategies.com/
That is very exciting being able to be a part of something so extraordinary. I believe this is something that should be done all over the country monitoring how our children are learning and how much they can learn from birth to kindergarten. I believe we often put limits on how much children are able to learn and limit how far our children will go in society.
ReplyDeleteLorren,
ReplyDeleteWhat an interesting job you held in working for Teaching Strategies LLC. Now you get to see the benefits of this assessment tool first hand as a teacher. The first sentence of your post caught my eye because I work for the State of LA in the child development section and much work is being done in finding assessment tools to be used in all early childhood programs. That includes private child care, early head start, head start and public preschool programs. This will begin in the 2013-2014 school year. The gossip on the street is that Teaching Strategies GOLD is going to be used. I did not know anything about this tool and now I hear about it from you. Thank you for the link. I will be looking into this. I may even email you if I have any questions.
Mary Jo
As someone who has been using The Creative Curriculum for many years, I do know the benefit of having resources that work and support children's growth and development. Having this curriculum and assessment tool has been extremely beneficial to the children we work with and care for.
ReplyDeleteSidebar-I have actually been considering leaving child care and going to work for Teaching Strategies. I have been thinking about the flip side of what I do and was curious to experience the curriculum development side.
Lorren,
ReplyDeleteVery interesting post. What a great experience you have had. I think that the use of authentic assessments on children to gather information on their development is so important and benefits not only researchers but the children as we learn how to adjust teaching strategies to meet their needs. Thanks for sharing!