LING 612-Coles-Ritchie

Rameka, L. (2007). Maori approaches to assessment. Canadian Journal of Native American Education, 30, (1), 126-144.

My overall impression of this article is that it is fully loaded of practical and meaningful ideas for assessing native students. I like the fact that the whole process from traditional to modern assessment form were reforms by the Maori. Who better than to educate and assess the Maori children but the Maori educationists and their own language experts. It makes sense that the empowerment of their people begins with their own leaders taking charge of their curricula and assessment. Another strength in their process to education and language reform was the fact that they begin in the early childhood at the zone of proximal development of the children.
There is much that I would like to share from this article with my coworkers. One idea is to form committees to evaluate what is working and to create little programs to address needs and areas needing strengthening. I see the need in my site however, I am not in the position to suggest the need and if it doesn't come from this particular Instructional Leader and his own creative ideas, other ideas coming from me or another native teacher tends to be dismissed, disregarded, and in most cases ignored.
One quote that I really connected with in this article is, "I come not with my own strength, but bring with me the gifts, talents, and strengths of my family, tribe, and ancestors."(p. 9). This speaks to the funds of knowledge that student come in with. A great point in chapter one of McNamara's book Language Testing stated that assessment has evolved more into a humanistic approach and less impositional. This article confirms that notion that students here are assessed to show what they know and not focused on the "deficiencies" that assessments have emphasized.
I did not struggle with any concepts here, but it was a little hard to keep up with the Maori words and their meanings as they related to certain aspects of the assessment process. I do understand that each component was related to the Maori as a person and not just a student in school. That was more of the funds of knowledge being addressed.
In closing this was a great beginning article to read as we begin this Assessment class. I like how this article sets the purpose of me as a reader, linguist, educator, and researcher. I take from this article a more centered approach to assessment in terms of meeting the needs of the human and not to view results as "deficiencies" but to highlight their strengths and their funds of knowledge.