Teachers need to learn new ways of assessing student development and parents must take an active role in their children’s learning, educators and parents were told Saturday at the first Early Childhood Symposium.
The symposium, held at the relocated Joseph E. Hill Education Center, was sponsored by the Evanston/Skokie School District 65 Educational Foundation and the Childcare Network of Evanston.
“All parents want their children to do well, but you need to put something in,” said keynote speaker Patricia Edwards, a professor at Michigan State University. “Whatever your children do is what you do.”
The purpose of the symposium was threefold: to show off the new center, 1500 McDaniel Ave.; to inform parents and professionals about the new Evanston Early Learning Standards, and to bring community early childhood programs together, said Martha Arntson, executive director of the Childcare Network.
About 30 educators and 15 families attended the symposium throughout the day. The morning’s activities focused on training early childhood educators to understand and use the new Early Learning Standards, which the District 65 Curriculum Advisory Council adopted in August. District 65’s early childhood standards target preschool and kindergarten students.
Judy Helm, a professor at National-Louis University, trains early educators on this innovative method of assessment. Her keynote speech and later talks addressed her “windows on learning” program.
Educators often see assessment as just tests that are separate from teaching, Helm said. But children are diverse and learn differently, so they should be examined in many ways.
“Assessment must be integrated with the curriculum,” she said. “It should go along with teaching. It shouldn’t be hanging out there — it should not be another task.”
Helm’s program, called documentation, includes observing children, looking at created products and maintaining portfolios that contain their work. By opening these windows to learning, educators can develop their teaching and change their teaching styles to suit children’s individual needs, she said.
Edwards, the afternoon speaker, focused on the need for parent involvement in children’s learning.
“Teachers around the world tend to say the same thing when they say what they want from parents,” she said. “They overwhelmingly said to read to children.”
Edwards discussed her work on developing reading programs.
Many children cannot connect with school, because they have poor literary foundations, she said. Parents become upset with teachers for their children’s failures, but teachers alone cannot help students, which is why reading to children is vital.
But more than 27 million parents cannot read simple bedtime stories, Edwards said. Part of her program teaches illiterate parents how to read so they can help their children.
Various discussion sessions following both speeches highlighted the new standards for educators and parents, explored Helm’s program more deeply and explained how parents can be more involved with their children’s education.
In between speeches families could attend the Family Resource Fair. The fair about 30 childhood care and education programs available in Evanston. Groups had informational brochures, bulletin boards for parents and games and activities for entertaining children.
