Description

ASSIGNMENT 08 E03 Curriculum Development Directions: Be sure to make an electronic copy of your answer before submitting it to Ashworth College for grading. Unless otherwise stated, answer in complete sentences, and be sure to use correct English, spelling and grammar. Sources must be cited in APA format. Your response should be four (4) pages in length; refer to the ″Assignment Format″ page for specific format requirements. 1. Using the guidelines in Chapter 16 of your textbook, choose a thematic topic for a group of 3-year-old children. In a two-page response, explain why you selected the topic, and discuss how it is age-appropriate, individually appropriate, and socioculturally appropriate for these children. Give specifics. 2. Using the guidelines in Chapter 16 of your textbook, choose a thematic topic for a group of 8-year-old children. In a two-page response, explain why you selected the topic, and discuss how it is age-appropriate, individually appropriate, and socioculturally appropriate for these children. Give specifics.

 

cHAPTER 16 Organizing Children’s Learning Over Time

 

 

Learning Outcomes

After reading this chapter, you should be able to:

 

Construct a daily schedule to support children’s learning each day.

 

Utilize themes and projects to enhance children’s learning over multiple days.

 

Provide answers to common questions about themes and projects.

 

The children gather a variety of leaves for their collection. With their teacher’s help, they create a graph depicting differences in the color, size, and shape of the leaves.

 

The children create a classroom book in which they draw, dictate, and write descriptions of trees and leaves seen on a recent nature walk around their school.

 

The children visit a local nursery to gather information about trees and discover which types of trees are most appropriate to plant on their playground.

 

A lively discussion takes place when the teacher asks the children to predict what will happen to two large trees as spring arrives. She records the group’s predictions, and encourages the children to observe the trees carefully over the next few weeks and record their observations. Children wonder why one tree has sprouted buds while the other has not. Why do some trees have smooth bark and others rough? These questions lead to individual and collective investigations by the children (also known as project work) that lasts several weeks.

 

These are typical activities you might see occurring in any early childhood classroom from preschool through the second grade. All involve handsedusson.comon experiences for children and support children discovering information about trees. Children are also engaged in observing, comparing, counting, predicting, remembering, roleedusson.complaying, expressing ideas, and developing fineedusson.commotor skills as they participate in such activities.

 

This type of learning does not happen by chance. Teachers must carefully plan such activities into a daily schedule that breaks each day into manageable chunks for children to navigate. This schedule provides the framework through which the curriculum is delivered and determines how children and teachers spend their time. Creating an effective daily schedule is so important to children’s learning that it is one of the specified criteria for what constitutes developmentally appropriate practice (NAEYC, 2009). Let’s begin by examining what is needed to plan a complete day for children from their arrival to their departure.

 

Constructing a Schedule that Promotes Learning

A welledusson.comdesigned schedule helps children and teachers know how to be successful throughout the day. There are certain activities that occur each day; largeedusson.comgroup times, smalledusson.comgroup times, outdoor times, and others. Arrival, departure, dressing, eating, resting, and toileting are additional routines you must incorporate into each day’s agenda (Gordon & Browne, 2013).

 

Each part of the day represents learning opportunities for children. Sometimes addressing goals through classroom routines comes about naturally as a result of children’s actions and interests. However, teachers also intentionally plan ways to make sure routines support the curriculum. How they structure the environment, the materials they provide, and what they say to children all make it likely that certain program elements will be stressed. For example, consider how the teacher Mrs. Baum planned for children’s learning during snack time using the strategies presented in Figure 16.1.

 

 

FIGURE 16.1 Intentional Planning for Snack Time

This teacher’s plans for snack time are simple but intentional. They add substance to the snack routine and make it more likely that a variety of domains and goals are covered (Epstein, 2007). Of course, there are times when children take a planned lesson in another direction, as happened on Friday when the children quickly gravitated from describing their snack to talking about a problem that had just happened in the block area. In this case, the teacher followed the children’s lead and supported their problemedusson.comsolving discussion. She kept her “adjective idea” for another day when it might be more relevant to the children. As it happened, she still had opportunities to support language learning, albeit in a different way than she had initially intended.

 

Best Practices

Although no one schedule fits every child, teacher, or program, there are principles of best practice that distinguish effective schedules from ineffective ones. Five criteria provide the key to creating an appropriate schedule:

 

Consistency

 

Pacing

 

Time management

 

Balancing variety and familiarity

 

Integrated learning

 

Consistency

A consistent schedule gives children a sense of security and helps them to more successfully predict what to expect and how to behave (Hemmeter, Ostrosky, Artman, & Kinder, 2008). The best daily schedules follow a similar pattern day after day. In other words, if Monday begins with Greeting Time, it helps if the same is true on most days. Children also benefit when the sequence of events remains approximately the same each day—for instance, centers time, followed by circle time, followed by outdoor time, followed by lunch and rest. This kind of consistency gives children a sense of predictability and provides continuity from one day to the next.

 

Pacing

Pacing refers to how children experience the speed of the day. Just like Goldilocks, children need a schedule that is paced “just right”—not too fast and not too slow. Schedules that require children and teachers to rush from one activity to the next are exhausting. A too slowedusson.compaced day can lead to boredom and subsequent less appropriate behaviors. The best schedules consider children’s individual needs while also providing structure and a sense of purpose.

 

Get Homework Help Now