Anyone who has ever administered Marie Clay's An Observation Survey already knows how difficult it can be to help the reader understand the process and keep the session flowing from task to task. An Observation Survey: The Video communicates all of this. It is not designed to replace Marie Clay's classic text, but to enrich it, enabling viewers to see for themselves how to deliver the Survey in a reliable, valid, and fair way. Viewers will find lots of helpful advice on supporting the child's engagement, maintaining attention, and dealing with the items that the child is struggling with. Plus, a viewing guide presents full documentation for each demonstration as well as accessible descriptions and comments on each task.

As Marie Clay writes in the updated viewing guide, "When teachers become neutral observers and observe children in systematic and repeatable ways, they discover what children already know and they do not need to waste time teaching those things. They discover where their strengths lie and where to begin instruction. Systematic observation allows a teacher to capture in his/her observations what change has occurred between two testing times, but only if the observations have been made and recorded, scored, and interpreted in standard ways. Measuring gauges should not have elastic qualities." Viewing and reviewing this videotape will help you not only calibrate your own measuring gauges, but also discover new ideas for facilitating the administration task.

Guidebook updated to reflect Observation Survey, Second Edition