Welcome, co-learner and co-teacher!

Welcome to Butte College and CDF40 (Observation & Assessment)!

My name is Dr. Shaun-Adrián Choflá, and I will be serving as your co-learner and co-teacher in the Fall 2024 semester that officially begins on Monday, August 26. I am checking in early to help you get settled before our class begins.

With care,

Dr. Choflá

(Él/Him/Them)

COURSE INFO

Let's talk about Observation & Assessment!

Every child has different strengths and challenges, interests, skills, and approaches to learning, thinking, and doing. Careful observation and genuine assessments are essential to understanding what individual children are currently able to do and what they might need to support their acquisition of new skills and healthy development. In turn, this information can be used to foster individual growth, inspire learning, provide families with crucial information, and support an enriching triad of relationship between the child, family, and teacher

The course you are about to take, Observation and Assessment (CDF 40), will involve you in examining and honing your observation skills and developmentally appropriate assessment techniques to understand young children better. During the course, you will learn what it means to observe authentically and assess young children, analyze ways to collaborate with and learn from families in culturally responsive ways, and learn some key strategies involved in collecting, compiling, and interpreting meaningful observation-based assessment data.

Get ready for an amazing, surprising, and perhaps even transforming experience as you learn a more refined way of observing and seeing young children more fully.

I look forward to learning with and from you during the upcoming semester!

MY TEACHING PHILOSOPHY

Dr. Chofla with workshop participants behind him smiling and waving

My teaching philosophy is that, just like you, I am both a co-learner and a co-teacher and that together, as a learning community, we will build knowledge together. All of us in this class will be learning with and from each other.

This teaching approach reflects how I teach and what it means to me to be a teacher. Four goals underpin my philosophy: (1) increasing student self-efficacy and personal empowerment, (2) differentiating

instruction to support diverse learners, (3) ensuring that curricula are relevant and meaningful, and (4) providing authentic collaboration and community-building opportunities.

My philosophy and these four goals describe the essence of my teaching philosophy, not just for this class but all of my classes, whether at the community college, graduate school or even when learning with and from young children.

COLLECTIVE
EXPECTATIONS

Six people holding an individual puzzle piece, placed together creating a blue connected rectangle

What you can expect from me

I will be vulnerable and take the same types of risks that I ask you to take.
I will provide you with a clear, organized course designed to ensure you meet our course goals meaningfully.
I will provide a mixture of resources and engaging activities to meet your learning needs.
I will be actively present in your learning. I will respond to your canvas messages and emails promptly and provide timely feedback on your assignment submissions.
I will reach out to you when I feel you might need support.
I will treat you with dignity and respect and be flexible to support your individual needs.
I will view my own mistakes as an opportunity to learn and grow and embrace all feedback you graciously share with me.

What I will expect from you

You will be open to taking risks, with the understanding that disequilibrium, those feelings of fear we feel doing new things, are an important aspect of our growth and development.
You will strive to be an active co-learner in this course and strive to meet due dates.
You will maintain an open line of communication with me, so I understand how to support you. You will reach out with questions as soon as, if not before, you begin to feel confused or frustrated.
You will strive to regularly contribute to collaborative activities to ensure other members of our learning community have ample opportunity to read/listen, reflect, and respond to your ideas.
You will treat your co-learners with dignity and respect, understanding that wherever others are right now in their learning, at this moment, is exactly where they need to be.
You will do your best to have patience with technology and yourself in navigating it. There will be hiccups; expect them. Let me know, and we will get through them together.

CO-LEARNING PARTNERSHIP

Hands holding earth and a small plant budding

As a co-learner and co-teacher in Observation & Assessment, your voice is needed, wanted, valued, and critical to our collaborative learning journey.

The environment in this class should be one of safety; therefore, it is important that we collectively respect one another’s thoughts, ideas, and feelings and listen with an engaged and caring ear.

In a class where there is more participation, you might experience moments of disequilibrium. These moments of imbalance can be challenging, and they can create tensions and conflicts within us and our interactions with others. Disequilibrium is a positive aspect of our development because out of disequilibrium comes real learning. To this end, we must all take risks to grow effectively and become fully empowered humans and future professionals who can support others in validating and transformative ways.

Communication Essentials

Image illustrating different types of communication

Once you log into Canvas after the semester starts, my preferred method of communication is Canvas messages.

Because I am in Canvas so often, I respond to Canvas messages incredibly quickly, typically within minutes or hours, but during super busy days, it might take me up to 24 hours from Monday-Friday.

But, if you need to reach me prior to the start of class, please email me at choflash@butte.edu.

Contact Me

RESOURCES

Starting something new can be overwhelming. I get it! Before logging into the canvas or starting the semester, I thought you would want to know what books you need to access for our class.

Textbooks:

We will begin reading our textbook in Week 1. I suggest you order it from the Butte College bookstore. If you can only get one book first, I suggest you buy them in the listed order.

1) Curtis, D. (2017). Really seeing children: A collection of teaching and learning stories. Lincoln, NE: Exchange Press.

Do you need help accessing this book? I have purchased and placed ten copies of this book in the Butte College library. They might also have an electronic version. For help, contact the Butte College library.

2) Gronlund, G. & James, M. (2013). Focused observations: How to observe young children for assessment and curriculum planning. (2nd ed.). St. Paul, MN: Redleaf Press.

There will be a free online access link in our online classroom to access this resource through the Butte Colege library.
I have also purchased and placed physical copies of this book in the Butte College library. For help, contact the Butte College library.

STEPS TO SUCCESS

Whether you have had experiences working with (or raising) children or not, you are in the right class. And I am so glad you joined me!

How do you plan for and study in this class?

Succeeding in college has a great deal to do with self-management. As you settle into class, here are some things that will help you organize your time.

Start early each week: We will step through each weekly module together, which is broken into many small chunks. So, jumping in early (on Monday) and working on one to-do item at a time is key!
Stay together and connected: Students often take online classes because they are convenient. (I myself am a student taking online classes as part of a graduate program.) But I also know staying together and connecting with me and your co-learners (your classmates) is helpful. We are in this together!
Reach out for help: If you have a question or are struggling, please don't hesitate to reach out. I care about your success but don't always know you are struggling.

COURSE GOALS

Each college course has what we refer to as Student Learning Outcomes or course goals. Think of these as an umbrella under which everything in this class will sit.

Once we start our class, I will be breaking these down a bit for you in smaller pieces, but for now, the following provides you with a broad understanding of where we are going in this class.

Throughout our semester, you will, in many ways:

Differentiate between various observation and assessment tools according to their purpose and validity.
Demonstrate basic formative and summative assessment techniques.
Apply knowledge of development and other influencing factors to interpret observations and assessments.
Use standardized observation and assessment tools to evaluate quality in environments, interactions, and curriculum.
Discuss logistical challenges, biases, and preconceptions about observing and assessing children.
Demonstrate how observation and assessment are used to plan for and adjust learning experiences.
Describe legal and ethical responsibilities in relation to observation, assessment, documentation, and recordkeeping.
Discuss the role of partnerships with families and other professionals in utilizing interpretations of observational and assessment data.

Assignments

Reading

Media

Lectures

Discussions

SUPPORT FOR YOU

We all need help at one point in life; indeed, we all need support resources when balancing life and school. Here is only a small collection of resources we have available at Butte College. Please let me know if you need someone else, and I will be happy to support you. I will also provide a more comprehensive list in our canvas classroom.

You can also call the friendly folks at the Butte College call center at 530-895-2511, who can provide you with additional information and assistance.

READY?

Three kids with helmets on, all with lightbulbs on top

You can log into the Canvas classroom and begin our course on Monday, August 26, at 7 AM. I look forward to meeting you then!