A&E

Assessment and Evaluation is key to the success of this design. In this Saturday School model, the assessments will be authentically alternative. They will be well-recorded assessments in the records of the program for future consultation, but will not be formal in the tradition of schools. The assessment results should be discussed with the parents at least twice each school year, for their information as well as for feedback for the children as they learn. New methods may be tried if old ones are not working. The flexibility of work at home can be an advantage. For example, tools such as DVD's, CD's, and Cassette tapes of music and stories can be used at home for entertainment for all the family. If books do not work, perhaps these technologies will.

Within the context of learning culture, the first priority in the program, there are multiple meanings for common knowledge. Words may be used differently in different Latin American countries. The same holiday may be celebrated differently. Foods may be prepared similarly, but eaten with different accompaniments. Multiple meanings of learning will be acceptable, in fact searched for. Personal history can be compared with written history, which may mean the poor man's view will be compared with the educated upper class man's view.

Learning will be an active process, and for the young children, hands on. As many activities as can be will be active projects and in three dimensions. Continually the learner's knowledge will be called upon to set the stage for further knowledge. Connecting to experience will be the key to unlock the lesson plan. The rooms will be full of art and entertainment, or in terms of assessment tools--projects and presentations.

The way each child learns language will be observed just as closely as the language acquisition. The same will be true for history and culture learning. Once the method of learning is known then the teacher may design the next lesson specifically for the children.

As the children explore, inquiry will be encouraged. Open-ended questions will be used in lessons, as well as openness to questions from students. Curiosity will be rewarded with excitement and exploration for the whole class--with such a wide goal as to learn a whole language; it does not matter in what order it is learned. As the children age lessons may be more concrete, but in the beginning preschool stages curiosity will be encouraged in all aspects.

As the children age a certain purpose of lessons will be made clear to facilitate learning and key concepts. Within the purpose though, creative discourse will be encouraged.

All abilities will be assessed, not just cognitive. The manner in which the children approach, for example, problem solving may be automatically transferred to English as a Second Language learning skill. The cognitive skills must have a strong base to stand on and will not stand alone when evaluating a student.

Assessment will be subjective, as the children will be working so closely with one teacher, but will be well guided and documented. The teachers will be well trained in assessments and evaluations. Projects can be evaluated, and the child would be assessed in more ways than just looking at class work answers. The way in which each child learns would be documented.

The learning will be shared with direction from the teacher. The children will be allowed to pursue, within the general purpose, learning of their choice. If there were technological materials available online that they could use they may have more to choose from, but at present the materials would be reading, games, and cultural history storytelling. Recording their discoveries would also be a big part of the learning process and entail writing in Spanish.

Collaborations would be greatly encouraged, as the native speakers can help each other in many ways that the teacher may not be able to. Positive behavior would be encouraged and modeled. Collaboration as a concept would be taught and fair play would be part of that setup. It would be through the children's interests that the learning would begin.

Key to the process as well would be peer assessments and assessments of the teacher by students and parents. Feedback must be constant and constantly addressed in order to best fit the learning styles of the students. If it is part of the process from the very beginning it will never seem out of place.