Evaluacion sin examenes

Discover Waldorf Education: Stress-free Evaluation and Assessment "No Child Left Behind" has solidified the ranks of those who believe that high-stakes testing is the only way to advance education. We examine the innovative Waldorf approach to assessment in which learning outcomes are judged in myriad ways -all of them child-friendly, and all of them effective.Roots or Leaves? Waldorf teachersare fond of characterizing their method of assessment by relating a story about a King and his trusted, though somewhat dull steward. One day the King, having to leave his palace and venture on a journey of several months' duration, asked his steward to look after his beloved rose garden. Unfamiliar with flowers and their care, the steward asked what his most essential task would be. "Above allthings," replied the King, "Be sure that the rosebush roots receive enough water." Much to the King's great surprise, he returned some months later to a rose garden in which not one living plant remained. "My instructions could not have been simpler!" he cried to the shamefaced steward, "What have you done?" "Exactly as you commanded," was the steward's response. "Every day we pulled up the rosebushesto determine and examined their roots. If the roots were dry we watered them well and returned the plants to the soil." As the King knew well, there are other ways to determine if the roots are receiving sufficient water! Wilting leaves, desiccated buds or withering flowers would all have been adequate indicators that water was needed. And, above all, using these indicators would eliminate theneed to destroy the plant in order to understand it. Educators active in the Waldorf school movement are convinced that most contemporary methods of assessment of children in levels K through Eight take the "Pull Up The Roots" approach. With the zeal of the steward, they undermine the very abilities that they seek to evaluate. The Waldorf method of evaluation might be characterized as the "Look AtThe Leaves" approach. To facilitate this indirect and qualitative assessment method, several important elements must come into play: --The "Class Teacher." In the Waldorf system, this is an individual who remains with the same group of children from grades one through eight. A relationship is thereby cultivated in which the teacher comes to know the children, their "learning styles" and theirdevelopmental needs in a comprehensive manner. --The "Patient Parent." We are a culture devoted to "instant gratification" and geared up for short-term results. Just as the Class Teacher commits herself to the long-term development of the child, so must the parent be willing to put a number of culturally-determined anxieties aside and accept an educational method that

allows the child's capacitiesto unfold gradually. Rather than acting as the passive consumer of evaluative judgments made by the school, the Waldorf parent is asked to be an active part of the assessment process. --A closely-knit "Community of Evaluators." In making her evaluation of the child, the Class Teacher has to work with a group of special-subject teachers who can speak of the child's progress and so contribute to thetotal picture of the child. Other class teachers are in turn active in mentoring and assessing the class teacher's judgments. --A variety of assessment instruments and methods. Eschewing the graded quiz or the standardized test as the only "objective" methods, the school community must be willing to work with a "portfolio" style approach that includes the child's drawings, paintings, knitting,facility of movement, musical skills, oral expressiveness etc. as factors that are no less important than the more easily determined powers of cognition and verbal memory. --Conversations. As the above criteria must make clear, the Waldorf assessment method is time and labor intensive in nature. It cannot function without numerous meetings and conversations between teacher and teacher, and teacher...