Transcript Critical Components of Early Learning (Pre-K/K)

CRITICAL COMPONENTS OF
EARLY LEARNING CATCH-UP
(PRE-K/K)
September 13, 2011
PURPOSE FOR COMING TOGETHER
To examine the foundations of Early Learning
 To explore and reflect on being on Early Learning
Teacher
 To provide time to plan and design an emergent
curriculum and assessments
 To reflect on and respond to data

OUR DAY
Early Learning
What are the foundations of Early Learning?
Early Learning Teacher
Who am I as an Early Learning Teacher?
Emergent Curriculum
Why and how can the curriculum be emergent?
EARLY LEARNING
What are the foundations of Early
Learning?
PLACE MAT ACTIVITY
1. Individually think and write down words and
phrases related to the foundations of Early
Learning.
2. With your table, discuss and write down the
common trends in the centre of your placemat
PRINCIPLES OF EARLY LEARNING
Children
as Competent Learners
Holistic Development and
Learning
Strong & Positive Relationships
Stimulating & Dynamic
Environment

Early Learning Program Guide
THE EARLY LEARNING BRAIN
EARLY LEARNING
One of the human brain’s most amazing capacities
is its ability to sculpt itself based on what it
experiences.
Wolfe & Nevills, 2004
MAKE TIME
EACH DAY
TO...
CREATE
Provide freedom to
create.
 Encourage creativity.
 Make time for
creativity.
 Creating is NOT
limited to visual arts.
 Realize the
importance of process
not product.
 Creative play can
become messy...

Creativity and imagination are the key to
producing life long learners.
- Robert & Michelle Root-Berstein, Sparks of Genius
MOVE
Children must move
in order to learn.
 Outdoor play is
important – rain or
shine!
 The three main
learning styles are:
visual, auditory &
KINESTHETIC

Movement is the door to learning.
-Paul E. Dennison, Brain Gym
SING
Sing to the air! It
doesn’t need to be a
performance.
 Songs are “hooks to
hang a memory on.”
 We always remember
the songs we learned
from our childhood.

INTERACTIONS - LANGUAGE
Problem solve.
 Extend language.
 Explore & ask
questions.
 Powerful interactions.

If you want to have intelligent
conversations with children, give your
own assumptions a rest, put on your
listening ears and hear what a child is
really saying.
- Jane Healy, Creating Intelligent Conversations
with your Children
OBSERVE
Be engaged with all
their senses.
 Develop awareness.
 Take time to notice
what is happening in
the world around us.

If you want to do something good for
a child...give him an environment
where he can touch things as much
as he wants.
- Buckminster Fuller in Letter to Children on Earth
LITERACY
Children who grow up
to be readers are
children who have
been read to.
 Our goal is not to “get
to the end of the book”
but rather to instill of
love of reading and of
stories.
 Allow for children to
interrupt the story
with questions and
comments.

PLAY
Playing is learning
and learning is
playing.
 Play is inquiry.
 The foundation of play
supports the house of
higher learning.

EARLY LEARNING TEACHER
Who am I as an Early Learning
Teacher?
PERSONAL REFLECTION
Personal Reflection
Discover
your
attitudes
and
habits of
mind.
What
changes
would you
like to
see?
THE EARLY LEARNING TEACHER
AS THE: OBSERVER & LISTENER
OBSERVER AND LISTENER
Becoming a field researcher in child development
 Appreciating the details of children’s complex
play
 Observing before intervening or reacting
 Listening to accommodate (or value) children’s
ideas
 Listening to legitimize the child’s point of view

THE EARLY LEARNING TEACHER
AS THE: DOCUMENTER
DOCUMENTER
Prekindergarten
Kindergarten
Holistic Learning
- pages 28-33
(Early Learning
Program Guide)
Observable Items
- pages 24-27
(Children First: A
Resource for
Kindergarten)
 Intellectual
 Socio-emotional
 Physical
 Spiritual
Intellectual
 Socio-emotional
 Physical
 Spiritual

WHAT ARE OBSERVABLE ITEMS?
How will these holistic
observations influence
you as an observer,
listener and
documenter?
ALIGNING DOCUMENTATION WITH…
Prekindergarten
Kindergarten
COR
Outcomes
Early Learning
Principles
Early Learning
Principles
THE EARLY LEARNING TEACHER
AS THE: ASSESSOR
ASSESSMENT
Effective educators continuously assess the degree to
which children are achieving the curricular outcomes.
Evidence is gathered through observing, documenting,
and interpreting to reveal what children have learned
from experiences both inside and outside the
classroom.
PURPOSE OF ASSESSMENT
To collect evidence to guide daily planning
(Assessment for Learning).
 To assist children in becoming aware of their thinking
(metacognition) and to make it visible by documenting
the learning process (Assessment as Learning).
 To record evidence of children’s learning to report to
caregivers and to in-school and school division
administrators (Assessment of Learning).

DOCUMENTATION FEEDS ASSESSMENT
Documentation provides a transparent process of how
children make meaning of ideas and develop theories.
PROOF
 Documentation provides information about children’s
learning and progress. CONTINUUM OF
LEARNING
 Documentation is used to make children’s learning
visible. METACOGNTION

DOCUMENTATION PANELS
The Power of Documentation in the Early Childhood
Classroom
 Sharing

Experimenting with Colour
PPK.1 Analyze the effects of various forms of energy, including light, sound, waves, head, and magnetism, and the
effects of forces.
Here’s how we did it . . .
Elliott – We needed milk and we needed some milk and we needed some dish wash.
Lukas – We put the milk in. And then we put the colours in.
Keely – For our experiment, first we got a bowl and then we got milk, we poured the milk into the bowl and then what we
did, we put all the colours of food colouring in and then we got straws to blow it and then we put dish soap in.
What happened when we put the dish soap in?
Elliott – The colours moved and they changed to brown.
Lukas – It moved the colours.
We poured milk in.
We put in food colouring.
We blew it with a straw
EVALUATION
Evaluation compares assessment information against
criteria based on curriculum outcomes for the purpose
of communicating to students, teachers,
parents/caregivers, and others about student progress
and to make informed decisions about the teaching
and learning process.
Reporting of student achievement must be based on the
achievement of curriculum outcomes.
THE ASSESSMENT CYCLE IN THE EMERGENT
CURRICULUM
Listen
and
Observe
Prepare
Learning
Document
Assess
Evaluate
AUTHENTIC ASSESSMENT


Authentic assessment clearly assesses the outcomes
in a context that reflects the actual learning
experience. In other words, we assess in the exact
same way we have invited students to learn.
Authentic assessment also invites us to ask how
students may come to apply the knowledge and skills
they have gained and assess them based on that
information.
ASSESSMENT PLAN
An assessment plan clarifies the learning
destinations through establishing criteria.
 It clarifies how evidence of learning will be
collected – through products, observations and
conversations.
 An assessment plan is realized over the course of
an entire unit and, ultimately, over the course of
a year.
 It aims to provide multiple opportunities for
students to demonstrate their learning.
 It clarifies how students will be assessed
formatively and summatively, how they will be
offered feedback and how their progress will be
reported.

IN THE NORTH EAST SCHOOL DIVISION WE
BELIEVE:






that effective instruction depends on high quality assessment.
Therefore, we expect all assessments to provide accurate and timely
information about student achievement. Each assessment must adhere to
standards of quality that all staff know and follow.
the primary purpose of assessment is to improve student learning.
It is the expectation of the NESD that all assessments will be directly
linked to specific student learning outcomes, use assessment methodology
appropriate for the subject/grade level, and will allow for the effective
communication of results.
that assessment can serve as a powerful form of instruction. By
involving students in the assessment and evaluation of their own
achievement under direct supervision, teachers can use assessment and
feedback to help students progress towards meeting the expected learning
outcomes for each subject, at each grade level.
that a variety of assessment tools are considered appropriate for
use within the NESD. Any ‘grade’ should include varied forms of
assessment.
that a differentiated approach allows all students to be assessed
on student learner outcomes in a manner that is appropriate to
each individual.
that achievement and behavior should be assessed and reported
separately.
THE EMERGENT CURRICULUM
Why is the curriculum emergent in
Prekindergarten and Kindergarten? How can
this be done?
THE EMERGENT CURRICULUM
In Emergent
Curriculum,
teachers plan in
response to the
children’s
interests and
concerns, and
curriculum
expands into
genuine inquiry,
as children and
teachers together
become
participatory colearners through
multiple ways of
learning and
creating (in
drawing, dance,
clay, wire, and so
forth) so that new
cultures of
identity and
classroom
citizenship
develop from it.
Emergent Curriculum in the Primary
Classroom,
Carol Anne Wien
THE RENEWED CURRICULUM
2010 Saskatchewan
Curriculum
 2009 Children First:
A Kindergarten
Resource
 Play & Exploration

RESOURCES:
MINISTRY VIDEO

https://www.edonline.sk.ca/webapps/moecurriculumBBLEARN/index.jsp?view=kindergarten&subpag
e=4&lang=en&XML=kindergarten.xml
The emergent curriculum is based on observing
children’s emerging interests; listening to
conversations; or observing actions to determine
possible topics for exploration. A direction is
decided if it aligns with curriculum outcomes,
children’s interest is high, and if the focus has
enough scope to include children’s ideas. The
educator and children plan the experiences in
coordination with the reflective lenses to construct
understandings. Children investigate and explore
ideas as the educator continuously reflects on and
makes meaning of children’s behaviors. Ideas
and investigations can be revisited to gain deeper
understanding.
EMERGENT CURRICULUM PLANNING
 What
interests, ideas and questions do
children have?
 What context will we use to make the
learning meaningful?
 What outcomes from subject areas will be
included?
 How will we know when students achieve
outcomes?
 How do we set up the environment,
conversations, and play to enhance the
learning?
NESD PLANNING ORGANIZER FOR
PRE-KINDERGARTEN AND KINDERGARTEN
Stage 1: Beginning with the End in Mind
STAGE 2: CRITICAL EVIDENCE OF
UNDERSTANDING
STAGE 3: LEARNING PLAN
DAILY PLANS
Daily plans are designed around observing,
documenting, and interpreting the actions of
children and their achievement of the outcomes.
Each day needs to be well-planned and yet
flexible enough to allow opportunities for children
to explore their interests and work towards
achieving outcomes. Plans are adjusted in the
light of observation and negotiations with
children.
SCHEDULES
Sufficient time for children to carry out their
exploration is characterized by large blocks of
time. While young people have difficulty
attending to adult talk for long periods of time,
children are capable of extended periods of
engagement activities matched to their interest
and ability level. It is also important to
remember that too much structure will hamper,
rather than help, children’s learning.
BALANCE
Active
Individual
Routine
Self-Initiated
Family Engagement
Quiet
Group
Free-Choice
Educator-directed
Community Engagement
PLANNING TIME
 Developing
Emerging Curriculum Contexts
What questions are children asking?
 What ideas or interests have the children been exploring in play?

 Big

Ideas
What do you want children to understand through the four dimensions of
Holistic Development?
 Unpacking

Outcomes
What are the outcomes that align with the context?
 Understandings

& Essential Questions
What understandings and questions are necessary to develop children to learn?
 Creating

Assessments
How can your documentation support outcomes through a continuum of
learning?
 Preparing





the Learning Plan
What materials/resources are already available for the children related to
their interests and the outcomes?
What can you add to the environment to support children’s investigations
through play and further develop their thinking and understanding?
What conversations, questions, and language strategies will be presented?
What play and activities will be stimulated to enhance the learning?
How can you incorporate family and community into the context?
NESD SUPPORT MATERIALS
http://www.nesd.ca/~currcorner/
SASKATCHEWAN MINISTRY OF
EDUCATION
https://www.edonline.sk.ca/webapps/moecurriculumBBLEARN/index.jsp?view=kindergarten&subpage
=4&XML=kindergarten.xml
REFLECTION
Here’s what…(I learned).
So what…(does this mean to me as an Early
Learning Teacher)?
Now what…(do I need to do)?