Bridging

Jie-Qi Chen, Ph.D., holds the Barbara T. Bowman Professorship in Early Education at Erikson Institute. Beginning as a teacher in various classroom settings, from toddlers to middle school, she has devoted three decades to teacher professional development. Dr. Chen founded the Early Math Collaborative at Erikson, a groundbreaking initiative that revitalized early mathematics education and empowered teachers to emphasize foundational math concepts. Her career spans expertise in early math education, classroom assessment, the educational impact of multiple intelligence theory, and teacher development. With 17 authored and edited books, translated into multiple languages, her contributions are widely recognized. Dr. Chen's previous roles include Fulbright Senior Specialist in Education, consultant to the United Nations Children's Fund, and membership in boards such as Scholastic Education's Early Childhood Advisory Board and the National Association for the Education of Young Children's Governing Board. Currently, she serves as a director at the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards. Gillian Dowley McNamee, Ph.D, is professor emeritus of child development and early childhood teacher education at Erikson Institute, Chicago, IL. She has worked with early childhood teacher candidates during their preparation for public school teaching as well as long term with teachers working with children growing up in challenging social and economic situations. Gillian has carried out professional development initiatives with teachers across the United States, Europe, Taiwan, several regions of China, Turkey, and Kyrgyzstan. She speaks nationally and internationally on how teachers can listen to young children in order to become the teacher young children need to secure their future. Dr. McNamee's expertise is in language and literacy development, and in the work of Russian psychologist, L. Vygotsky as applied to early childhood settings. She has worked extensively with the story telling and story acting activities developed by Vivian Paley. She has been a Spencer Fellow with the National Academy of Education, and recipient of one of the first Sunny Days Award from Children's Television Workshop/Sesame Street Parents for her work developing an innovative early childhood teacher preparation program.

List of Tables and Figures Foreword by Samuel J. Meisels Preface Acknowledgments About the Authors Section I. A Guide for Teachers 1. Introduction to the Process of Bridging Assessment and Teaching Bridging in Classrooms Overview of Bridging Distinctive Features of Bridging Bridiging for Preservice and Inservice Teachers Overview of the Bridging Handbook 2. Assessing the Content of Children's Learning Diversity and Individual Differences Diverse Curricular Areas Promoting Underlying Concept Development Key Concepts and Skills Performance Rubrics Learning Profiles Actual and Potential Development 3. Assessing the Process of Children's Learning Approaches to Learning Defining Approaches to Learning Rubrics to Measure Working Approaches Sources of Variability in Working Approaches Working Approaches in the Bridging Process 4. Activity as the Unit of Analysis in Bridging Assessment Unit of Analysis in Child Assessment Activity as the Unit of Analysis in Bridging Assessment Conceptual Framework of Bridging Bridging Activities as Basic Activities Bridging Activities and Play 5. Task Parameters in Bridging Assessment Task Parameters in Bridging Assessment Task Goals Key Concepts and Skills Materials Social Arrangements Structure of Tasks Summary 6. Teacher Roles in Bridging Assessment Overview of Teacher Roles Decision Maker Participant Observer Interpreter Translator Integrating Roles and Teacher Development Bridges to Effective Teaching Section II. Implementation of Assessment Activities 7. Implementing Bridging Implementing Bridging in the Classroom Context Becoming Familiar With Activity Protocols Planning the Assessment Conducting Bridging Activities Interpreting the Assessment Results Linking Assessment to Teaching Activities: Language Arts and Literacy What We Know What Bridging Provides Why These Three Activities Standards and Language Arts and Literacy Bridging Activities Reading a Book-Child's Choice and Teacher's Choice Dictating a Story Acting Out a Story Activities: Visual Arts What We Know What Bridging Provides Why These Three Activities Standards and Visual Arts Bridging Activities Experimenting With Crayon Techniques Drawing a Self-Portrait Making Pattern Block Pictures Activities: Mathematics What We Know What Bridging Provides Why These Three Activities Standards and Mathematics Bridging Activities Creating Pattern Block Pinwheels Solving Pattern Block Puzzles Exploring Number Concepts (Counting, Subtracting, Estimating, and "Fair Share"-Simple Division) Activities: Sciences What We Know What Bridging Provides Why These Three Activities Standards and Science Bridging Activities Exploring Shadows and Light Assembling a Nature Display Building a Model Car Activities: Performing Arts What We Know What Bridging Provides Why These Three Activities Standards and Performing Arts Bridging Activities Moving to Music Playing an Instrument Singing a Song References and Recommended Readings Facilitator's Guide to Bridging and Teacher Development Inservice Professional Development Professional Studies for Preservice Teacher Candidates Building a Community of Learners Index

"Blends holistic authentic assessment with purposeful, specific assessment experiences that are also child- and classroom-friendly." -- Vicki Hawley, Minnesota Early Literacy Training Coordinator "Unique in that it offers a way for teachers to examine both the content and the process of young children's learning. It also offers a more comprehensive assessment of the whole child by looking at multiple areas of skills and development." -- Lisa A. McCabe, Cooperative Extension Associate "A unique and valuable offering to teachers interested in being lifelong learners. Places emphasis not only on assessment of content areas, but even more on the learning/teaching process and how to smoothly link the assessments to planning and implementing curriculum." -- Katherine Taddie Kelly, Literacy Coach and Reading Interventionist "Not only explains the reason for the assessment process, the research base, and current trends in assessment practices for early childhood, but also offers easy-to-use assessment tools that address the whole child." -- Kathryn Sharp, Instructor "Fifteen activities across five curricular areas provide guidelines for 'bridging' observations of children to classroom teaching practices, helping teachers assess development, effective learning techniques, and helping them to predict future learning techniques and trends." -- California Bookwatch, August 2007