The Classroom Plan - Essay Example

My Preschool room Plan Crystal M. Patterson ECE 101 Introduction to Early Childhood Education Catherine Norwood January, 17, This classroom plan reflects my own ideas on how I believe preschool-aged children learn and develop. It presents my own personal philosophy gleaned from theories conceptualized by Piaget, Vygotsky and Gardner. This philosophy serves as the foundation for the development of a developmentally-appropriate curriculum, assessment and learning environment that I believe will be most conducive to the optimal learning of preschoolers. Teaching preschoolers is quite a challenging career! Many things need to be considered in order to come up with a program that will truly benefit young children so they grow and develop into self-propelling, confident and contributing individuals to a society they would be joining as they grow. My Philosopy As I have grown and become a mother, my philosophy on children, how they learn and grow has evolved. Personally, I have witnessed my children grow stage by stage and what each stage entailed in their development. It is amazing how one moves from one stage to another. Physically, it is obvious, but cognitively, it takes a while to realize that they grow out from being babies sooner than I expect. I believe that there are certain skills that develop per stage and that they learn from developmentally-appropriate activities before they can progress to another level. I have also learned that children are capable of learning if they are just trusted enough to be let go to explore and discover things for themselves and even solve simple problems on their own. In allowing them such, it communicates to them is respect for their own learning styles. I also believe in nurturing children’s body as well as mind. Providing balance in stimulating and nurturing all developmental aspects is the responsibility of their parents and teachers. Theories Depicting My Philosophy An educational approach that adheres to a constructivist philosophy, is usually based on the theories of Piaget or Vygotsky. A Piagetian-based classroom promotes discovery learning, sensitivity to childrens readiness to learn, and acceptance of individual differences (Berk, 2008). A Vygotskian-based classroom on the other hand, emphasizes assisted discovery, in which both teacher guidance and peer collaboration are virtually important (Berk, 2008). Taken together, both will highly benefit the preschool child. I also subscribe to Howard Gardner’s (1983) Multiple Intelligence theory. It has motivated educators and ordinary people to think that each person has a giftedness that makes him special in his own way. Gardner claims that intelligence is not limited to the cognitive domain, as traditionally conceptualized. He views it in a much broader sense to include the individual’s affective, social and creative domains. He has come up with a number of intelligences a person possesses within him, as follows: Linguistic intelligence – this has to do with how a person uses words to express himself well verbally or in print. Some people just have a natural flair for speaking or writing. They keep their audience in awe of how they use language and how such language influences them. Logical mathematical intelligence – this is what is usually studied by cognitive psychologists and educators, how the mind works with logic, reasoning and mathematical accuracy. This relates to critical thinking and analytical skills. Gardner calls it the traditional scholastic intelligence, which schools and intelligence tests gave too much focus on. Musical intelligence – this is the ability to create, perform and appreciate music. Gardner rates this equivalent to the other intelligences and refuses to call them mere talents, relegated less than intelligence. Spatial intelligence – this is the capacity to visualize and concretize how one plans things in terms of space and location. Bodily-kinesthetic intelligence – This is the ability to solve problems, express oneself or achieve many goals using one’s body. Interpersonal intelligence – involves good interpersonal and social skills. The ability to understand, motivate and relate to people from all walks of life. Intrapersonal intelligence – this is one’s capacity to understand oneself and being comfortable in introspection. Not many people can be mature enough to accept one’s weaknesses, strengths, desires and fears and make the most of it. Naturalist intelligence – this intelligence bonds an individual with nature- knowing and being able to distinguish plant and animal creatures from one another and being able to feel and predict changes in the environment. The Preschooler The preschool child manifests rapid growth and development in all areas. The following table depicts some of these skills and characteristics: Table 1: Developmental Characteristics of Preschoolers Developmental Areas Characteristics of the Preschool Child Physical (Fine and Gross Motor Development They are learning to use and test their bodies to see what they can do. They enjoy moving their body through space by walking, running, hopping, jumping, rolling, dancing, climbing and leaping They like participating in fine motor activities such as drawing, coloring, painting, cutting and pasting (Morrisson, 2009, p. 263) Socio-Emotional Development They are learning “to control their emotions and behaviors, to delay gratification and to build positive social relations with each other” (Morrisson, 2009, p. 266) Cognitive Development They are growing in their ability to use symbols, including language They are not yet capable of operational thinking (ex. reversible mental actions) They are one-tracked minded They do not possess conservation thinking skills yet They are egocentric (Morrisson, 2009, p. 266) Language Development Language skills grow and develop rapidly. Their vocabulary and sentence length increase They add helping verbs and negatives, ex. “I don’t want apple”. Sentences become longer and more complex They learn to use nouns or subject clauses, conjunctions and prepositions to complete their sentences. (Morrisson, 2009, p. 267) In view of the aforementioned developmental characteristics, adults should design developmentally-appropriate activities to hone their skills. The following table gives examples of such: Table 2: Examples of Developmentally-Appropriate Activities for Preschoolers Developmental Areas Examples of Developmentally-Appropriate Lessons & Activities Physical (Fine and Gross Motor Development Arts & Crafts Activities such as Mask-making out of paper bags; Printing with sponges and paint; Collages out of various scrap materials such as eggshells, cut-up paper and beans. Playing “Dodge Ball” Socio-Emotional Development Making “thank-you” cards for their parents and loved ones Role-playing stories told to them Cognitive Development Counting and sorting objects according to size, shape and color Playing “I Spy” word games Playing simple board games Following a simple graphic recipe when preparing food Language Development “Writing” their own storybooks and telling it to their peers Show & Tell Activities Assessment “Assessment is the process of collecting information about children’s information, learning, health, behavior, academic, progress, and need for special services. (Morrison, 2009 p.61). Assessment methods either fall under the more traditional approaches that expect students to regurgitate information previously fed to them or authentic assessment that traverse a wider range of academic disciplines and skills as well as assessment approaches that attempt to evaluate the “whole child” in a wide span of application of his knowledge and abilities (Darling-Hammond et al, 1993). Wiggins’ (1991) description of what authentic assessment should be is that it involves “engaging problems and questions of importance and substance in which students must use knowledge (and construct meaning) effectively and creatively (p. 39). Thus, it involves the use of higher-order thinking which is far useful in the end than mere knowledge of information which most traditional assessment methods measure. Consistent with constructivist philosophy, authentic assessment entrusts the reins of learning to the students. They “are required to provide rigorous intellectual commitment and perseverance, and teachers must continually connect student’s previous and current knowledge to the emerging curriculum. The relevance of curriculum to student interests therefore cannot be planned, because the learners’ interests and experience cannot be assumed nor completely evaluated in advance” (Wescombe-Down, n.d., n.p). This gives the students more power in the acquisition of learning. Using prior knowledge, they are encouraged to invent their own solutions and try out their own ideas and hypotheses with the able support of their teachers. This way, they can indulge in concrete experiences that focus on their interests. The process of searching for information, analysing data and reaching conclusions is considered more important than learning facts. According to the National Association for Education of Young Children, “excessive use of standard test is especially inappropriate”. Standardized achievement test by itself cannot fulfill the major purpose of assessment for young children. Multiple-choice or short answer tests not do stress reading, writing, and math skills. Instead, especially for preschool-aged children, teachers’ observations are essential to their assessment. Systematic observations determine a child’s cognitive, linguistic, social, emotional and physical development (Morrison, 2009 p. 69). What is more developmentally-appropriate for preschoolers is the use of Portfolio Assessment because this shows a much more realistic and concrete reflection of a child’s development in skills and knowledge. Portfolios are a compilation of a child’s work. The portfolios entails of work samples, products and observations. Each portfolio is vastly different. Examples of what is in a portfolio are written work, artwork, journal etc. Teachers and parents discuss children’s portfolios at parent teacher conferences to see evidences of progress. Teachers are also using digital portfolios. They may use these to complement the original portfolio of the child or alone. The Curriculum An integrated curriculum consists of a number of strategies applied to deepen meaningfulness and support conceptual development (Bredekamp and Rosegrant, 1992). Today, many educators use curriculum webs as a response to children’s pursuits and interests. Webbing is one model of curriculum integration and is a valuable resource for interconnecting school activities. Designing curriculum webs can provide an overview of an entire unit of study. Webs are common tools used by teachers to create a tentative plan and generate ideas for classroom activities and projects from an observed interest or theme. A thematic organization is a model, which integrates skills, facts, materials, activities and subject-matter knowledge revolve around a unifying theme (Brewer, 2001). Themes provide coherence and allow young children to understand meaningful relationships across subject and skill areas. Using themes as an instructional tool organizes learning around basic concepts and ideas and creates a general framework, which serves as a basis for relating content and processing information from a range of disciplines. The curriculum web below shows at one glance the direction of an early childhood curriculum. I designed it for children aged 3 to 5 years. The topics are all inter-related, and can flow from one to another and back. This integrated curriculum presents a number of possibilities and directions that the class can take. It can touch on multiple subject areas at a time and be designed to cover all subject areas (Language Arts, Science, Social Studies, Math, Arts, Music & Values) while developing all developmental domains in the child: Physical, Social, Language, Cognitive, Emotional & Aesthetic with the concepts and activities planned out. As always, one must first consider if the children are interested on the topic or not (Fraser, 2000). Although this curriculum web covers all subject areas, a plan that gives emphasis to literacy and numeracy may begin with the biblical story of how God made the world. The story of Genesis tells of how God made the world in seven days, with one part of nature a day at a time. As per literacy development, teachers may ask students about the sequence of events (which happened first, next, last). At the same time, this may boost numeracy skills specifically learning about ordinals (first, second, third… all the way up to seventh day). All the time, lessons do not deviate from the main theme of the natural world. Many stories about animals are readily available for children to enjoy. Telling stories with a great plot involving good treatment of animals impart golden values. The teacher may chart stories as to the elements of the story such as the characters, qualities of each character, plot and setting. Later on, the children may play out the story through a role-playing activity. Teacher may teach related animal songs or even do animal arts and crafts to use as props for the role-playing activity. Children may do the activities in a play-like manner, allowing them to contribute their ideas culled from their own thinking and understanding of the story (Cromwell, 2000). Activities such as those previously given are examples from a preschool program that adheres to the constructivist theory. This stems from theories of Piaget and Vygotsky. Chaille (2008) argues that constructivism believes that children are constructing knowledge on their own and the learning environment considers and respects that. “In a constructivist classroom, children understand that they are building their own theories and constructing their own knowledge through interaction with knowledgeable adults and other children.” (Chaille, 2008, p. 5) This has much value in helping children use their minds well. Constructivist curriculum helps promote thinking, problem-solving and decision-making in children making them flexible and creative thinkers (Cromwell, 2000). The Child-Centered Environment This curriculum envisions implementation in an environment organized by teachers to be rich in possibilities and provocations that challenge children to explore, problem-solve, usually in small groups while the teachers act as keen observers or recorders of the children’s learning. Teachers get to balance their role by sometimes joining the circle of children and sometimes objectively remaining outside the loop (Pope Edwards, 2002). Teachers are on hand to provide assistance or further challenge children’s thinking to push them to optimize their potentials. They also observe children’s behaviors to see which of their needs need to be met (Lambert & Clyde, 2000) and design opportunities to address such needs either through the curriculum or through their social interactions. Billman and Sherman (1997) recommend teachers to note down their observations in their journal so they can review them and adjust accordingly the curriculum to better suit the developmental needs of their students. In general, the physical environment should reflect the goals and expectations of the teacher. It will also dictate somehow to the children how they will behave in the classroom (Brewer, 2001). According to Boulton-Lewis & Catherwoods (1995), when the quality of the physical environment declined, teacher restriction and control increased, the teacher’s behavior became less friendly, the students became less interested and involved, classroom rules increased, and conflict among children increased. Likewise, Kepler (1995) observed that the learning environment influences, and directly contributes to, children’s behavior and levels of learning. The physical environment should be one that is open and stimulating in order to encourage children to participate, explore, and learn. A stimulating environment provides the teacher with many opportunities to observe where a child’s interests lay as well as those areas the child may be tentative in exploring (Danoff, Breitbart & Barr, 1977). The environment should also be flexible, spontaneous and accommodating to children’s play. This is essential in a preschool classroom. This implies that teachers should allow for adequate space and an array of creative materials. Furniture should be child-sized, durable, comfortable, and organized in such a way that would be easy to rearrange depending on varying classroom needs. Basic classroom furniture includes tables and chairs, shelves, cubbies or similar storage units, sofas, and pillows. The foregoing discussion has shown the painstaking efforts needed in creating a holistic and developmentally-appropriate preschool program. It aims to tap all the multiple intelligences of the child. Indeed, I welcome the challenge of teaching the youngest students, as I know I have an important task – that of helping mold young people into the confident, self-propelling and contributing adults they should grow up into! References Berk, L. (2008). Infants and Prenatal through Middle Childhood (6th edition). Boston: Allyn and Bacon. Billman, J. & Sherman, J.A. 1997, Methods for recording observations of young childrens behaviour, in Observing and Participating in Early Childhood Settings: A Practicum Guide, Birth Through to Age Five, Allyn & Bacon Bredekamp, S and Rosegrant, T., (eds), 1992. Reaching potentials: Appropriate curriculum and assessment for young children, vol. 1, National Association for the Education of Young Children, Washington, DC. Boulton-Lewis, G., and Catherwood, D., eds. (1995). The early years. London: Pitman Publishing. Brewer, J. (2001) Introduction to Early Childhood Education. Allyn and Bacon. Chaille C. 2008, Big Ideas: A Framework for constructivist Curriculum, in Constructivism across the Curriculum in Early Childhood Classrooms, Pearson Education, Sydney Cromwell, E.S. 2000, Nurturing Readiness in Early Childhood Education: A Whole-Child Curriculum for Ages 2-5, 2nd edn, Allyn & Bacon, Needham Heights, MA Danoff, J., Breitbart, B., and Barr, E. (1977). Open children: for those interested in early childhood education. New York: McGraw Hill Co. Darling-Hammond, L, Einbender, L., Frelow, F. & Ley-King, J.l (1993), Authentic Assessment in Practice: A Collection of Portfolios, Performance Tasks, Exhibitions and Documentation Fraser, S. 2000, Authentic Childhood: Experiencing Reggio Emilia in the Classroom, Nelson Thomson Learning, Ontario Gardner, H.,(1983) Frames of Mind: the theory of multiple intelligences London: Heinemann Lambert, E.B. & Clyde, M. 2000, Program planning for 3-5s: A spherical framework, in Rethinking Early Childhood Theory and Practice, Social Science Press, Katoomba Kepler, L. (1995). Quick-and-easy learning centers: science. New York: Scholastic Inc. Morrison, G. S. (2009). Early childhood today (11th ed.) Upper Saddle River : Pearson. National Association for the Education of Young Children (1997). Developmentally appropriate practice in early childhood programs serving children from birth through age 8: a position statement of the National Association for the Education of Young Children. Washington: National Association for the Education of Young Children. Pope Edwards, C. 2002, Three Approaches from Europe: Waldorf, Montessori and Regio Emilia, Early Childhood Research and Practice, Spring 2002 Vol 4, No.1. Retrieved 14 January 2010 from http://ecrp.uiuc.edu/v4n1/edwards.html. Wescombe-Down, D. (n.d.), “Constructivism, mainstream teaching and scientific knowledge from the classroom perspective.” Retrieved on 14 January 2010 from http://www.unisanet.unisa.edu.au/11788/science1/constructivism/MSMSASTA05. doc Wiggins, G. (1991) “Task” Design Ideas, Principles and Guidelines. Geneseo, NY: Center on Learning, Assessment and School Structure. Read More