Observation, Assessment, and Record Keeping
Domain 9 treats observation as the engine of the method. The exam tests the difference between description and judgment, the common recording tools, how observation drives presentation planning, and what may be shared.
Observation principles
- Observation precedes every other decision: environment, lesson, and record all follow from what is seen.
- Observe the whole child - work choices, duration, repetition, movement, language, social contact, posture.
- Sit still at the child's level, do not comment, and do not become part of the scene.
- Hold one observation question at a time and focus it on a single behavior.
Recording tools
- Anecdotal record: a short objective narrative of one incident - what was said and done, in sequence, without interpretation.
- Running record: a continuous window of time with timestamps.
- Checklists and curriculum inventories for lessons presented and mastered.
- Portfolios and dated work samples, dated by the child rather than the adult.
- Presentation log: what was given, when, and how it was received.
Description versus judgment
Write 'He chose the same tablet twice and set the name card beside it', not 'He was confused'. Interpretation belongs in a separate planning note, flagged as inference, and no decision should rest on a single anecdote.
Worked example
A daily log reads: 'Maya, 11 April, 9:15–9:50. Thirty-five minutes with the brown stair. On the first attempt she placed the eighth prism incorrectly; after the stair collapsed she rebuilt it without help. She did not look up when the group was called.' Reasoning: duration and self-correction are the data. The plan is to offer the next related material in two days and to record sustained concentration as her strength. 'She worked well today' would be unusable for planning.
Traps that cost marks
- Evaluative language such as lazy, distracted, or good in the record.
- Relying on memory at the end of the month.
- Recording only finished products, never cycles of repetition.
- Using records to test or rank children.
- Discussing a child's records casually; confidentiality applies.