chapter
stringlengths 1.97k
1.53M
| path
stringlengths 47
241
|
|---|---|
Learning Objectives
By the end of this chapter, you should be able to:
• Explain the 5-2-1-0 recommendation.
• Discuss physical activity recommendations for young children.
• Examine both undernutrition and overnutrition as forms of malnutrition.
• Describe ways early care and education programs can educate children about nutrition.
• Distinguish food allergies from food intolerances.
• Identify strategies early care and education programs can follow to plan for caring for children food allergies, food intolerances, and iron deficiency anemia
Licensing Regulations
Title 22 Regulations that relate to this chapter include:
101227 FOOD SERVICE
• Food selection, storage preparation and service shall be safe and healthful and of the quality and quantity necessary to meet the needs of children.
101230 ACTIVITIES AND NAPPING
• Each center shall provide for a variety of daily activities including quiet and active play, rest and relaxation, eating, and toileting.
101238.2 OUTDOOR ACTIVITY SPACE
• There shall be at least 75 square feet per child of outdoor activity space.
Introduction
Healthy active living includes eating healthy foods, staying physically active, and getting enough rest. Developing healthy habits starts in early childhood. Eating well and being physically active helps a child continue to grow and learn.588
Healthy Active Living
Research tells us that the way young children eat, move, and sleep can impact their weight now and in the future. Early childhood is an ideal time to start healthy habits before unhealthy patterns are set.589
Many children in the United States do not follow the recommendations of the Dietary Guidelines for Americans. According to the CDC, on average, children consume too much fat, saturated fat, and sodium and not enough fruits, vegetables, or calcium. Children obtain 33%-35% of their calories from fat and 12%-13% from saturated fat (above the recommended levels of 30% and 10%, respectively). Only 16% of children ages 6-11 years meet the recommendation for total fat intake; only 9% of children meet the recommendation for saturated fat intake.590
Young children depend on parents, caregivers, and others to provide environments that foster and shape healthy habits. Early care and education programs have a responsibility to promote growth and development, make healthy foods available, and provide safe spaces for active play. Staff can help children and families by encouraging and modeling healthy eating and physical activity at the center and by providing suggestions for small, healthy steps at home.591
5-2-1-0 Message
The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommends that pediatricians counsel parents and patients at every well-child check on diet and lifestyle goals as a part of obesity prevention initiatives (Hassink, 2010). These recommendations, initially put forth by the Maine Youth Overweight Collaborative obesity prevention program “Let's Go! 5-2-1-0”, have been promoted locally and nationally for broad consumption (Rogers and Motyka, 2009).592
Engaging Families in 5-2-1-0 Recommendations
Share the recommendations with families with these tips.
5 Fruits and Vegetables a Day
• Go for the rainbow. Each month, pick a color from the rainbow and try to eat a new fruit or veggie of that color (green, purple, orange, yellow, red). It's a great way for little ones to learn colors while you're all eating healthy.
• Whenever possible, let your child help get fruits and veggies ready to serve. Maybe he can wash an apple or mix the salad. Your little chef may be more likely to try foods that he helps to prepare.
• Ever feel like fresh fruits and veggies are just too expensive? Try using frozen ones for a few meals every week.
2 Hours or Less of Screen Time a Day
• A great way to cut down on screen time is to make a "no television (or computer) while eating" rule.
• If your children are watching TV, watch with them. Use commercial breaks for an activity break—hula hoop, dance, or come up with a crazy new way to do jumping jacks.
• If you need a break and want to let your child watch TV, set a timer for 30 minutes. You can get a lot done and you'll know how long they watched.
• Television in your child's bedroom might seem like a convenience but watching TV close to bedtime can affect your child's ability to sleep.
1 Hour of Active Play or Physical Activity a Day
• An hour of active play might seem like a lot but you don't have to do it all at one time. Try being active for 10–15 minutes several times each day.
• What were your favorite active games when you were a child? They might seem old school to you but they'll be new to your child. Try one today.
• Rain or bad weather has you stuck in the house? Don't let it keep you and your child from being active together. Try one of these fun activities:
• Have an indoor parade.
• Set up a scavenger hunt inside.
• Start your own indoor Olympics—who can jump on one foot the longest or do the most sit ups?
0 Sugary Drinks a Day
• Serve milk with meals and offer water at snack time.
• Let your child pick their favorite "big kid" cup to use for water.
• Think plain water is too boring? Try adding a fruit slice (like orange) for natural flavor.
• Avoid buying juice—if it's not in the house, no one can drink it.
• If you're still trying to cut sugary drinks down to zero, keep up the great work! Young children should never have soda pop or sports drinks but if you choose to give juice, please remember:
• make sure the label says 100 percent fruit juice.
• limit the amount to one small cup a day (4-6 ounces if you measure it out).594
Physical Activity
Good activity habits begin early in children’s lives. As early as infancy, adults can help children grow lifelong healthy play habits. Children learn from adults, they should model being active and participate with children when possible.
Infants should spend a lot of time on the floor (and out of equipment that limits mobility). This time allows them to reach, and kick so they can reach important milestones like crawling and sitting up.
Even very active toddlers need environments that support movement and activity and intentional opportunities to be physically active. Things like dancing, jumping, and taking walks are great ways to keep them moving.595
Childhood and adolescence are critical periods for developing movement skills, learning healthy habits, and establishing a firm foundation for lifelong health and well-being. Regular physical activity in children and adolescents promotes health and fitness. Compared to those who are inactive, physically active youth have higher levels of cardiorespiratory fitness and stronger muscles. They also typically have lower body fat and stronger bones. Physical activity also has brain health benefits for school-aged children, including improved cognition and reduced symptoms of depression. Evidence indicates that both acute bouts and regular moderate-to-vigorous physical activity improve the cognitive functions of memory, executive function, processing speed, attention, and academic performance for these children.
Youth who are regularly active also have a better chance of a healthy adulthood. Children and adolescents do not usually develop chronic diseases, such as heart disease, hypertension, type 2 diabetes, or osteoporosis. However, current evidence shows that obesity and other risk factors for these diseases, such as elevated insulin, blood lipids, and blood pressure, are increasingly appearing in children and adolescents. Exercise training in youth with overweight or obesity can improve body composition by reducing overall levels of body fat as well as abdominal fat. Regular physical activity also makes it less likely that these risk factors will develop and more likely that children remain healthy when they become adults.
Preschool-aged children (ages 3 through 5 years) should be encouraged to move and engage in active play as well as in structured activities, such as throwing games and bicycle or tricycle riding. To strengthen bones, young children should do activities that involve hopping, skipping, jumping, and tumbling. Although the specific amount of activity needed to improve bone health and avoid excess fat in young children is not well defined, a reasonable target may be 3 hours per day of activity of all intensities: light, moderate, or vigorous intensity. This is the average amount of activity observed among children of this age and is consistent with guidelines from Canada, the United Kingdom, and the Commonwealth of Australia.
School-aged youth (ages 6 through 17 years) can achieve substantial health benefits by doing moderate and vigorous-intensity physical activity for periods of time that add up to 60 minutes or more each day. This activity should include aerobic activity as well as age-appropriate muscle- and bone-strengthening activities. It appears that, as in adults, the total amount of physical activity is more important for achieving health benefits than is any one component (frequency, intensity, or duration) or specific mix of activities (aerobic, muscle strengthening, bone strengthening).
Children and adolescents should meet the key guidelines by doing activities that are appropriate for their age. Their natural patterns of movement differ from those of adults. For example, children are naturally active in an intermittent way, particularly when they do unstructured active play. During recess and in their free play and games, children use basic aerobic and bone-strengthening activities, such as running, hopping, skipping, and jumping, to develop movement patterns and skills. They alternate brief periods of moderate- and vigorous intensity activity with periods of light-intensity physical activity or rest. Any episode of moderate- or vigorous intensity physical activity, however brief, counts toward the key guidelines for children and adolescents ages 6 through 17 years. For preschool-aged children, activity of any intensity counts, including light intensity.597
Pause to Reflect
What were some of your favorite physical activities as a child? Why did you enjoy these? Are they included in Table 13.1?
Table 13.1 – Examples of Physical Activities for Children598
Type of Physical Activity
Preschool-Aged Children
School-Aged Children
Moderate-Intensity Aerobic
• Games such as tag or follow the leader
• Playing on a playground
• Tricycle or bicycle riding
• Walking, running, skipping, jumping, dancing
• Swimming
• Playing games that require catching, throwing, and kicking
• Gymnastics or tumbling
• Brisk walking
• Bicycle riding
• Active recreation, such as hiking, riding a scooter without a motor, swimming
• Playing games that require catching and throwing, such as baseball and softball
Vigorous-Intensity Aerobic
• Games such as tag or follow the leader
• Playing on a playground
• Tricycle or bicycle riding
• Walking, running, skipping, jumping, dancing
• Swimming
• Playing games that require catching, throwing, and kicking
• Gymnastics or tumbling
• Running
• Bicycle riding
• Active games involving running and chasing, such as tag or flag football
• Jumping rope
• Cross-country skiing
• Sports such as soccer, basketball, swimming, tennis
• Martial arts
• Vigorous dancing
Muscle Strengthening
• Games such as tug of war
• Climbing on playground equipment
• Gymnastics
• Games such as tug of war
• Resistance exercises using body weight or resistance bands
• Rope or tree climbing
• Climbing on playground equipment
• Some forms of yoga
Bone Strengthening
• Hopping, skipping, jumping
• Jumping rope
• Running
• Gymnastics
• Hopping, skipping, jumping
• Jumping rope
• Running
• Sports that involve jumping or rapid change in direction
One practical strategy to promote activity in children is to replace sedentary behavior with activity whenever possible. For example, where appropriate and safe, families should walk or bicycle to school or the bus stop instead of riding in a car. Rather than only watching sporting events on television, children should participate in age-appropriate sports or games.
• Children who do not meet the key guidelines should slowly increase their moderate-to-vigorous physical activity in small steps and in ways that they enjoy. A gradual increase in the number of days and the time spent being active will help reduce the risk of injury.
• Children who meet the key guidelines should continue doing moderate-to-vigorous physical activity every day and, if appropriate, become even more active. Evidence suggests that even more than 60 minutes of activity daily may provide additional health benefits for school-aged youth.
• Children who exceed the key guidelines should maintain their activity level and vary the kinds of activities they do to reduce the risk of overtraining or injury.
Children with disabilities are more likely to be inactive than those without disabilities. Families of children with disabilities should work with a health care professional or physical activity specialist to understand the types and amounts of physical activity appropriate for them. When possible, children with disabilities should meet the key guidelines. When they are not able to participate in the appropriate types or amounts of physical activities needed to meet the key guidelines, they should be as active as possible and avoid being inactive.
Engaging Families in Their Children’s Physical Activity
Share the recommendations with families with these tips.
Children under 6 need to be active naturally!
• Aim to keep them moving 3 hours a day — and more is better
• Limit time when they’re just sitting around (like screen time)
Kids and teens ages 6 to 17 need at least 60 minutes every day. Most of it can be moderate-intensity aerobic activity. Anything that gets their heart beating faster counts. At least three days a week, encourage your kids to step it up to vigorous-intensity aerobic activity.
Use the “talk test” to find out if activity is moderate or vigorous. When you’re being active, try talking:
• If you’re breathing hard but can still have a conversation easily, it’s moderate-intensity activity.
• If you can only say a few words before you have to take a breath, it’s vigorous-intensity activity
As part of their daily 60 minutes, kids and teens also need:
• Muscle-strengthening activity At least 3 days a week; anything that makes their muscles work harder counts — like climbing or swinging on the monkey bars.
• Bone-strengthening activity At least 3 days a week; bones need pressure to get stronger. Running, jumping, and other weight-bearing activities all count.
Some ideas:
• Encourage active play with friends
• Get them involved in active chores
• Sign them up for free or low-cost sports or classes
• Take walks
• Dance while dinner’s cooking
• Show them your favorite ways to move.
Most of all, help them find activities they really like to do! Help them get active now, and they’ll build healthy habits for life.
Share the Move Your Way tool to get kids more active at https://health.gov/MoveYourWay/Get-Kids-Active/600
Nutrition Education
Lifelong eating habits are shaped during a child’s early years. Teachers of young children have a special opportunity to help children establish a healthy relationship with food and lay the foundation for sound eating habits. Nutrition education and activities help set children on the path to a healthful lifestyle. Providing nutritionally balanced meals and snacks and integrating nutrition education and healthy eating habits in the home and early childhood.
Nutrition education for preschoolers fosters children’s awareness of different types of foods and promotes exploration and inquiry of food choices. Lifelong habits with foods are developed during early childhood. Through nutrition education in preschool, teachers encourage children to include a wide variety of foods that provide adequate nutrients in their daily diet.
Through knowledge, children become aware of different foods and tastes, some of which are familiar and others that are new. As they explore various foods and food preparations, they develop likes and dislikes and begin to make choices based on preference. Both nutrition choices and self-regulation of eating—that is, eating when hungry, chewing food thoroughly, eating slowly, and stopping when full— involve decision-making skills.
As children begin to understand the concepts of food identification and categorizing, teachers may describe how specific foods help our bodies. Children may better understand the overall benefit of food in terms of it helping them grow, giving them energy to run and play, and helping them to become strong. As children begin to understand internal body parts, teachers can initiate discussion of more specific food benefits.
Children need to understand that various foods help the body in different ways and that some children have specific food allergies.
For those with allergies, certain foods are potentially harmful to them. Teachers should encourage tasting and eating a variety of foods to obtain adequate nutrients for growth and development. “Variety” may mean foods of different color, shape, texture, and taste.
As children gain an understanding of different foods, they can begin to categorize foods in other ways, such as by food groups (e.g., bread, fruits, meat) or the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) MyPlate food guide for young children. MyPlate reflects the 2010 Dietary Guidelines and replaces the MyPyramid for Preschoolers. Every food is all right, but some foods help the body more than others; therefore, people may eat some foods more often than others. Food models, combined with visual aids such as the Food Pyramid49 and integration of the topic with daily nutrition activities (e.g., mealtime, snack time, cooking activities), can help children begin to understand that some foods are eaten more frequently than others.
Here are some things that teachers can do to help educate children about nutrition:
• Introduce many different foods.
• Recognize and accommodate differences in eating habits and food choices.
• Provide opportunities and encouragement in food exploration.
• Integrate nutrition with other areas of learning through cooking activities.
• Show children where food is produced.
• Set up special areas to represent nutrition-related environments, such as grocery stores, restaurants, open-air markets, food co-ops, and picnics.
• Integrate nutrition education with basic hygiene education.
• Model and coach children’s behavior by eating from the same menu and encouraging conversations during mealtimes.
• Encourage children to share information about family meals.
• Serve meals and snacks family-style.
• Encourage tasting and decision making.
• Provide choices for children.
• Offer a variety of nutritious, appetizing foods in small portions.
• Encourage children to chew their food well and eat slowly.
• Teach children to recognize signs of hunger.
• Discuss how the body uses food.
Children learn about food and develop food preferences through their direct experiences with food (i.e., handling, preparing, eating) and by observing the eating behaviors of adults and peers. The goal in preschool is that children will learn to eat a variety of nutritious foods and begin to recognize the body’s physical need for food (i.e., hunger and fullness).
Through modeling, repeated and various exposures to food, and social experiences, children begin to develop eating behaviors that can prevail throughout life.602
Pause to Reflect
Reflect on how you will support children’s nutrition education. What will be most natural/easiest for you to do from this section? What might you have to be more intentional about (what might be more challenging or less natural)?
Understanding Malnutrition
When children do not receive proper nutrition it affects their physical health and wellness. For many, the word “malnutrition” produces an image of a child in a third-world country with a bloated belly, and skinny arms and legs. However, this image alone is not an accurate representation of the state of malnutrition. For example, someone who is 150 pounds overweight can also be malnourished.
Malnutrition refers to one not receiving proper nutrition and does not distinguish between the consequences of too many nutrients or the lack of nutrients, both of which impair overall health. Undernutrition is characterized by a lack of nutrients and insufficient energy supply, whereas overnutrition is characterized by excessive nutrient and energy intake. Overnutrition can result in obesity, a growing global health threat.603
And if the cause of overnutrition is a diet that features food that is not nutrient-dense, a child could experience both overnutrition (too many calories) and undernutrition (inadequate micronutrients).
Undernutrition
Although not as prevalent in America as it is in developing countries, undernutrition is not uncommon and affects many subpopulations, including the elderly, those with certain diseases, and those in poverty.604 Undernutrition is most often due to not enough high-quality food being available to eat. This is often related to high food prices and poverty. There are two main types of undernutrition: protein-energy malnutrition and dietary deficiencies. Protein-energy malnutrition has two severe forms: marasmus (a lack of protein and calories) and kwashiorkor (a lack of just protein). Common micronutrient deficiencies include a lack of iron, iodine, and vitamin A.
Undernutrition encompasses stunted growth (stunting), wasting, and deficiencies of essential vitamins and minerals (collectively referred to as micronutrients).605 Even moderate undernutrition can have lasting effects on children's cognitive development. When children are hungry or undernourished, they have difficulty resisting infection and therefore are more likely than other children to become sick and to miss school. They are irritable and have difficulty concentrating, which can interfere with learning; and they have low energy, which can limit their physical activity. Some reports have estimated that millions of children in the United States experience hunger over the course of a year but no scientific consensus currently exists on how to define or measure hunger.606 The term hunger, which describes a feeling of discomfort from not eating, has been used to describe undernutrition, especially in reference to food insecurity. 607
Food Insecurity
Food insecurity is defined as the disruption of food intake or eating patterns because of a lack of money and other resources. In 2014, 17.4 million U.S. households were food insecure at some time during the year. Food insecurity does not necessarily cause hunger, but hunger is a possible outcome of food insecurity.
The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) divides food insecurity into the following 2 categories:
• Low food security: “Reports of reduced quality, variety, or desirability of diet. Little or no indication of reduced food intake.”
• Very low food security: “Reports of multiple indications of disrupted eating patterns and reduced food intake.”
Food insecurity may be long term or temporary. It may be influenced by a number of factors including income, employment, race/ethnicity, and disability. The risk for food insecurity increases when money to buy food is limited or not available. In 2016, 31.6% of low-income households were food insecure, compared to the national average of 12.3%. children with unemployed parents have higher rates of food insecurity than children with employed parents. Racial and ethnic disparities exist related to food insecurity. In 2016, black non-Hispanic households were nearly 2 times more likely to be food insecure than the national average (22.5% versus 12.3%, respectively). Among Hispanic households, the prevalence of food insecurity was 18.5% compared to the national average (12.3%).
Neighborhood conditions may affect physical access to food. For example, people living in some urban areas, rural areas, and low-income neighborhoods may have limited access to full-service supermarkets or grocery stores. Predominantly black and Hispanic neighborhoods have fewer full-service supermarkets than predominantly white and non-Hispanic neighborhoods. Communities that lack affordable and nutritious food are commonly known as “food deserts.” Convenience stores and small independent stores are more common in food deserts than full-service supermarkets or grocery stores. These stores may have higher food prices, lower quality foods, and less variety of foods than supermarkets or grocery stores. Access to healthy foods is also affected by a lack of transportation and long distances between residences and supermarkets or grocery stores.609
Overnutrition
Overnutrition is a form of malnutrition (imbalanced nutrition) arising from excessive intake of nutrients, leading to an accumulation of body fat that impairs health (i.e., overweight/obesity).610 Overnutrition is an epidemic in the United States and is known to be a risk factor for many diseases, including Type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, inflammatory disorders (such as rheumatoid arthritis), and cancer.611
Overweight and Obesity in Childhood
Obesity means having too much body fat. It is different from being overweight, which means weighing too much. Both terms mean that a person's weight is greater than what's considered healthy for his or her height. Children grow at different rates, so it isn't always easy to know when a child has obesity or is overweight.612 Obesity is defined as a body mass index (BMI) at or above the 95th percentile of the CDC sex-specific BMI-for-age growth charts (See Appendix O).613
In the United States, the percentage of children and adolescents affected by obesity has more than tripled since the 1970s.614 Obesity prevalence was 13.9% among 2- to 5-year-olds, 18.4% among 6- to 11-year-olds. Childhood obesity is also more common among certain populations.
• Hispanics (25.8%) and non-Hispanic blacks (22.0%) had higher obesity prevalence than non-Hispanic whites (14.1%).
• Non-Hispanic Asians (11.0%) had lower obesity prevalence than non-Hispanic blacks and Hispanics.615
Many factors contribute to childhood obesity, including:
• Genetics.
• Metabolism—how your body changes food and oxygen into energy it can use.
• Eating and physical activity behaviors.
• Community and neighborhood design and safety.
• Short sleep duration.
• Negative childhood events.
Genetic factors cannot be changed. However, people and places can play a role in helping children achieve and maintain a healthy weight. Changes in the environments where children spend their time—like homes, early care and education programs, schools, and community settings—can make it easier for children to access nutritious foods and be physically active. Early care and education programs and schools can adopt policies and practices that help young people eat more fruits and vegetables, eat fewer foods and beverages that are high in added sugars or solid fats, and increase daily minutes of physical activity.616
Nutrition Concerns During Childhood
To keep children well, it’s also important to be aware of common nutritional concerns during childhood. Two of those concerns are food allergies and intolerances and iron deficiency anemia.
Food Allergies and Food Intolerance
Food allergies impact four to six percent of young children in America. Common food allergens include peanuts, eggs, shellfish, wheat, and cow’s milk.617 Recent studies show that three million children under age eighteen are allergic to at least one type of food.
An allergy occurs when a protein in food triggers an immune response, which results in the release of antibodies, histamine, and other defenders that attack foreign bodies. Possible symptoms include itchy skin, hives, abdominal pain, vomiting, diarrhea, and nausea. Symptoms usually develop within minutes to hours after consuming a food allergen. Children can outgrow a food allergy, especially allergies to wheat, milk, eggs, or soy.
Anaphylaxis is a life-threatening reaction that results in difficulty breathing, swelling in the mouth and throat, decreased blood pressure, shock, or even death. Milk, eggs, wheat, soybeans, fish, shellfish, peanuts, and tree nuts are the most likely to trigger this type of response. A dose of the drug epinephrine is often administered via a “pen” to treat a person who goes into anaphylactic shock.
Some children experience a food intolerance, which does not involve an immune response. Food intolerance is marked by unpleasant symptoms that occur after consuming certain foods. Lactose intolerance, though rare in very young children, is one example. Children who suffer from this condition experience an adverse reaction to the lactose in milk products. It is a result of the small intestine’s inability to produce enough of the enzyme lactase, which is produced by the small intestine. Symptoms of lactose intolerance usually affect the GI tract and can include bloating, abdominal pain, gas, nausea, and diarrhea. An intolerance is best managed by making dietary changes and avoiding any foods that trigger the reaction.619
Caring for Children with Food Allergies
Staff who work in schools and early care and education (ECE) programs should develop plans for how they will respond effectively to children with food allergies. Although the number of children with food allergies in any one school or ECE program may seem small, allergic reactions can be life-threatening and have far-reaching effects on children and their families, as well as on the schools or ECE programs they attend. Any child with a food allergy deserves attention and the school or ECE program should create a plan for preventing an allergic reaction and responding to a food allergy emergency.
Studies show that 16%–18% of children with food allergies have reacted to accidentally eating food allergens while at school. In addition, 25% of the severe and potentially life-threatening reactions (anaphylaxis) reported at schools happened in children with no previous diagnosis of food allergy. School and ECE program staff should be ready to address the needs of children with known food allergies. They also should be prepared to respond effectively to the emergency needs of children who are not known to have food allergies but who exhibit allergic signs and symptoms.
The symptoms of allergic reactions to food vary both in type and severity among individuals and even in one individual over time. Symptoms associated with an allergic reaction to food include the following:
• Mucous Membrane Symptoms: red watery eyes or swollen lips, tongue, or eyes.
• Skin Symptoms: itchiness, flushing, rash, or hives.
• Gastrointestinal Symptoms: nausea, pain, cramping, vomiting, diarrhea, or acid reflux.
• Upper Respiratory Symptoms: nasal congestion, sneezing, hoarse voice, trouble swallowing, dry staccato cough, or numbness around mouth.
• Lower Respiratory Symptoms: deep cough, wheezing, shortness of breath or difficulty breathing, or chest tightness.
• Cardiovascular Symptoms: pale or blue skin color, weak pulse, dizziness or fainting, confusion or shock, hypotension (decrease in blood pressure), or loss of consciousness.
• Mental or Emotional Symptoms: a sense of “impending doom,” irritability, change in alertness, mood change, or confusion.
Children sometimes do not exhibit overt and visible symptoms after ingesting an allergen, making early diagnosis difficult. Signs and symptoms can become evident within a few minutes or up to 1–2 hours after ingestion of the allergen, and rarely, several hours after ingestion.
Children might communicate their symptoms in the following ways:
• It feels like something is poking my tongue.
• My tongue (or mouth) is tingling (or burning).
• My tongue (or mouth) itches.
• My tongue feels like there is hair on it.
• My mouth feels funny.
• There’s a frog in my throat; there’s something stuck in my throat.
• My tongue feels full (or heavy).
• My lips feel tight.
• It feels like there are bugs in there (to describe itchy ears).
• It (my throat) feels thick.
• It feels like a bump is on the back of my tongue (throat).
Some children may not be able to communicate their symptoms clearly because of their age or developmental challenges.
Emotional Impact on Children with Food Allergies and Their Families
The health of a child with a food allergy can be compromised at any time by an allergic reaction to food that is severe or life-threatening. Many studies have shown that food allergies have a significant effect on the psychosocial well-being of children with food allergies and their families.
Families of a child with a food allergy may have constant fear about the possibility of a life-threatening reaction and stress from constant vigilance needed to prevent a reaction. They also have to trust their child to the care of others, make sure their child is safe outside the home, and help their child have a normal sense of identity.
Children with food allergies may also have constant fear and stress about the possibility of a life-threatening reaction. The fear of ingesting a food allergen without knowing it can lead to coping strategies that limit social and other daily activities. Children can carry emotional burdens because they are not accepted by other people, they are socially isolated, or they believe they are a burden to others. They also may have anxiety and distress that is caused by teasing, taunting, harassment, or bullying by peers, teachers, or other adults. School and ECE program staff must consider these factors as they develop plans for managing the risk of food allergy for children with food allergies.
Food Allergy Management in Early Care and Education Programs
School and ECE program staff should develop a comprehensive strategy to manage the risk of food allergy reactions in children. This strategy should include (1) a coordinated approach, (2) strong leadership, and (3) a specific and comprehensive plan for managing food allergies.
1. Use a coordinated approach that is based on effective partnerships. The management of any chronic health condition should be based on a partnership among school or ECE program staff, children and their families, and the family’s allergist or other doctor.
1. The collective knowledge and experience of a licensed doctor, children with food allergies, and their families can guide the most effective management of food allergies in schools or ECE programs for each child. Close working relationships can help ease anxiety among parents, build trust, and improve the knowledge and skill of school or ECE program staff members.
2. Provide clear leadership to guide planning and ensure implementation of food allergy management plans and practices. This may be the administrator or the person that coordinates health services for children (health consultant, school nurse, etc.)
3. Develop and implement a comprehensive plan for managing food allergies. To effectively manage food allergies and the risks associated with these conditions, many people inside and outside the school or ECE program must come together to develop a comprehensive plan, called the Food Allergy Management and Prevention Plan (FAMPP). See Appendix P for a checklist that programs can use to evaluate their response to food allergy emergencies.
The FAMPP should address the following five priorities:
1) Ensure the daily management of food allergies for individual children. a) Identify children with food allergies. b) Develop a plan to manage and reduce the risk of food allergy reactions in individual children, usually called a food allergy Emergency Care Plan (ECP). The ECP should be written by the child’s physician and confirmed with the parents. It should include: i) A recent photo of the child. ii) Information about the food allergen, including a confirmed written diagnosis from the child’s doctor or allergist. iii) Information about signs and symptoms of the child’s possible reactions to known allergens. iv) Information about the possible severity of reactions, including any history of prior anaphylaxis (even though anaphylaxis can occur even in children without a history of prior anaphylaxis). v) A treatment plan for responding to a food allergy reaction or emergency, including whether an epinephrine auto-injector should be used. vi) Information about other conditions, such as asthma or exercise-induced anaphylaxis that might affect food allergy management. vii) Contact information for parents and doctors, including alternate phone numbers for notification in case of emergency 2) Prepare for food allergy emergencies. a) Set up communication systems that are easy to use (intercoms, walkie-talkies, cell phones, etc.) b) Make sure staff can get to epinephrine auto-injectors quickly and easily c) Make sure that epinephrine is used when needed and someone immediately contacts emergency medical services d) Identify the role of each staff member in an emergency e) Prepare for food allergy reactions in children without a prior history of food allergies. f) Document the response to a food allergy emergency 3) Provide professional development on food allergies for staff members. a) Provide general training on food allergies for all staff. b) Provide in-depth training for staff who have frequent contact with children with food allergies. c) Provide specialized training for staff who are responsible for managing the health of children with food allergies on a daily basis. 4) Educate children and family members about food allergies. a) Teach all children about food allergies b) Teach all parents and families about food allergies. 5) Create and maintain a healthy and safe educational environment. a) Create an environment that is as safe as possible from exposure to food allergens. b) Develop food-handling policies and procedures to prevent food allergens from unintentionally contacting another food. c) Make outside groups aware of food allergy policies and rules when they use school or ECE program facilities before or after hours. d) Create a positive psychosocial climate (one that prevents bullying, teasing, and harassing).
Early care and education programs are responsible for the health and safety of children with food allergies. Through the collective efforts of school and ECE program staff members, parents, and health care providers, children with food allergies can be assured a safe place to thrive, learn, and succeed.621
Gluten Intolerance and Celiac Disease
One particular intolerance to be aware of that may affect children in early care and education programs is gluten intolerance. Gluten is a protein found in wheat, rye, and barley. It is found mainly in foods but may also be in other products like medicines, vitamins, and supplements. People with gluten sensitivity have problems with gluten. It is different from celiac disease (see below), an immune disease in which people can't eat gluten because it will damage their small intestine.
Some of the symptoms of gluten sensitivity are similar to celiac disease. They include tiredness and stomachaches. It can cause other symptoms too, including muscle cramps and leg numbness. But it does not damage the small intestine like celiac disease.
Researchers are still learning more about gluten sensitivity.622 A more serious concern surrounding gluten that has more acknowledgment in the medical field is celiac disease.
Celiac Disease
Celiac disease is an immune disease in which people can't eat gluten because it will damage their small intestine. If they have celiac disease and eat foods with gluten, the immune system responds by damaging the small intestine. Gluten is a protein found in wheat, rye, and barley. It may also be in other products like vitamins and supplements, hair and skin products, toothpaste, and lip balm.
Celiac disease affects each person differently. Symptoms may occur in the digestive system, or other parts of the body. One person might have diarrhea and abdominal pain, while another person may be irritable or depressed. Irritability is one of the most common symptoms in children. Some people have no symptoms.
Celiac disease is genetic. Blood tests and tissue biopsies may be used to diagnose celiac disease. 623 “Many kids are diagnosed with it when they're between 6 months and 2 years old, which is when most kids get their first taste of gluten in foods.”624 Treatment is a diet free of gluten, which is essential to prevent damage to the small intestine.625 So it is critical that their food does not contain and is not contaminated with gluten. Because gluten is found in many foods, reading nutrition labels will be vital. Preparing food away from gluten containing food is also required to prevent cross-contamination. Gluten free versions of foods and gluten-free recipes will help early care and education staff (and families) to protect the nutritional well-being and health of children with celiac disease.
Pause to Reflect
What are five things you think every adult that cares for children should know about food allergies and intolerances?
Iron-Deficiency Anemia
Iron deficiency anemia is the most common cause of anemia in the United States.626 This condition occurs when an iron-deprived body cannot produce enough hemoglobin, a protein in red blood cells that transports oxygen throughout the body. The inadequate supply of hemoglobin for new blood cells results in anemia. Iron-deficiency anemia causes a number of problems including weakness, pale skin, shortness of breath, and irritability. It can also result in intellectual, behavioral, or motor problems.
In infants and toddlers, iron-deficiency anemia can occur as young children are weaned from iron-rich foods, such as breast milk and iron-fortified formula. They begin to eat solid foods that may not provide enough of this nutrient. As a result, their iron stores become diminished at a time when this nutrient is critical for brain growth and development.
There are steps that parents and caregivers can take to prevent iron-deficiency anemia, such as adding more iron-rich foods to a child’s diet, including lean meats, fish, poultry, eggs, legumes, and iron-enriched whole-grain breads and cereals627 and foods high in vitamin C, which helps the body absorb iron efficiently.628 Although milk is critical for the bone-building calcium that it provides, intake should not exceed the recommended daily allowance (RDA) to avoid displacing foods rich with iron.629
Summary
Early care and education programs can create environments that protect children’s nutrition and physical wellness by following dietary guidelines and providing nutritious foods that appeal to children and keeping them active. It is important to understand forms of malnutrition that can affect families and children and to understand and plan for nutritional concerns that may affect children, such as food allergies and intolerances and iron deficiency anemia. | textbooks/socialsci/Early_Childhood_Education/Book%3A_Health_Safety_and_Nutrition_(Paris)/Section_IV%3A_Nutrition/13%3A_Protecting_Good_Nutrition_and_Physical_Wellness.txt |
Learning Objectives
By the end of this chapter, you should be able to:
• Describe the changes in nutritional needs as children mature (get older).
• Advocate for the support of breastfeeding mothers.
• Relate bottle-feeding practices.
• Discuss the transition to solid foods and self-feeding.
• Summarize feeding challenges for toddlers.
• Explain effective ways to respond to picky eating.
• Outline the importance of inclusive nutrition policies and practices.
• Identify how to support children with unique nutritional and feeding needs.
Licensing Regulations
Title 22 Regulations that relate to this chapter include:
101227 FOOD SERVICE
• Food selection, storage preparation, and service shall be safe and healthful and of the quality and quantity necessary to meet the needs of children.
• Meal services are elective.
• Between meals, snacks must be available for all children. Snacks will include servings from two or more of the four major food groups.
101527 FOOD SERVICE
• In addition to Section 101227, before and after school programs shall offer nutritious snacks to children.
101427 INFANT CARE FOOD SERVICE
• In addition to 101227, the following shall apply:
• Each infant shall have an individual feeding plan completed prior to the infant’s first day at the center. This plan must be developed by the director, infant’s representative and/or physician.
• The plan shall include: instructions for infant’s special diet, feeding schedule, breast milk or formula, schedule for introduction to solid/new foods, food consistency, likes and dislikes, allergies, schedule for introduction of cups and utensils.
• This plan shall be updated as often as necessary.
• Bottle fed infants shall be fed at least every four hours.
• Infant care centers shall have appropriate food available for the infants.
• The center shall provide only commercially prepared formulas that are stored and prepared in accordance with the label.
• The infant’s representative may provide formula or breast/mother’s milk. Such formula or milk shall be bottled before being accepted by the center.
• Bottles shall be labeled.
• Center may heat formula or breast/mother’s milk.
• Center must keep a supply of nipples. Bottles/nipples can not be shared between infants unless sterilized.
• Infants unable to hold a bottle shall be held by staff for bottle feeding.
• Bottles cannot be propped; infants shall not carry a bottle while ambulatory; a bottle given to an infant able to hold his/her own shall be unbreakable.
• High chairs or appropriate seating equipment shall be used for infants during feeding. Infants unable to sit unassisted shall be held by staff for feeding.
• Bottles, dishes and food containers brought from infant’s home shall be labeled with infant’s name and current date.
• Formula partially consumed in a bottle shall be discarded at end of each day.
• Food shall be discarded if not consumed within 72 hours of date on the container label.
• The infant care center shall not serve honey.
• Commercially prepared baby food in jars shall be transferred to a dish before being fed to the infant. Any food left over in the dish at the end of a meal shall be discarded.
• Mother may make arrangements with center for privacy to nurse infant.
• Bottles and nipples in center shall be sterilized.
• Infants shall not be bathed in, and diapers or clothing shall not be rinsed in the food preparation area.
Introduction
To provide all children the appropriate nutrition, it is important to understand how nutritional needs and feeding practices change as children mature. Children with special needs may have different nutritional and feedings needs. Working with families and medical providers, programs can ensure that they meet each and every child’s needs. Early care and education programs can also support and empower families to provide the best nutrition to their children.
Feeding Infants
Requirements for macronutrients and micronutrients on a per-kilogram basis are higher during infancy than at any other stage in the human life cycle. See the average calorie needs for infants in Table 14.1. An infants’ resting metabolic rate is two times that of an adult. These needs are affected by the rapid cell division that occurs during growth, which requires energy and protein, along with the nutrients that are involved in DNA synthesis.630
Table 14.1 – Average Calorie Needs for Infants631
Sex/Age
Calories
Boys (0-6 months)
472-645 calories
Girls (0-6 months)
438-593 calories
Boys (6-12 months)
645-844 calories
Girls (6-12 months)
593-768 calories
Boys (1-2 years)
844-1,050 calories
Girls (1-2 years)
768-997 calories
During this period, children are entirely dependent on their parents and other caregivers to meet these needs. For almost all infants six months or younger, breast milk is the best source to fulfill nutritional requirements. An infant may require feedings eight to twelve times a day or more in the beginning. After six months, infants can gradually begin to consume solid foods to help meet nutrient needs.
How often an infant wants to eat will also change over time due to growth spurts, which typically occur at about two weeks and six weeks of age, and again at about three months and six months of age.632
Breastfeeding
The dietary recommendations for infants are based on the nutritional content of human breast milk. Carbohydrates make up about 45 to 65 percent of the caloric content in breast milk. Protein makes up about 5 to 20 percent of the caloric content of breast milk. About 30 to 40 percent of the caloric content in breast milk is made up of fat. A diet in high unsaturated fat is necessary to encourage the development of neural pathways in the brain and other parts of the body.
Almost all of the nutrients that infants require can be met if they consume an adequate amount of breast milk. There are a few exceptions, though. Human milk is low in vitamin D, which is needed for calcium absorption and building bone, among other things. Breast milk is also low in vitamin K, which is required for blood clotting, and deficits could lead to bleeding or hemorrhagic disease. Infants are born with limited vitamin K, so supplementation may be needed initially and some states require a vitamin K injection after birth. Also, breast milk is not high in iron, but the iron in breast milk is well absorbed by infants. After four to six months, however, an infant needs an additional source of iron other than breast milk. Therefore, breastfed children often need to take a vitamin D supplement in the form of drops. 633
Supporting Breastfeeding in Early Care and Education
Early care and education programs play an important role in supporting breastfeeding All staff members—despite their comfort or experience with breastfeeding—play an important role in breastfeeding promotion. They have an opportunity to share the facts about breastfeeding with families, and to help them decide what's best for them and their babies.634
You can support breastfeeding mothers when you:
• Talk about why breastfeeding is so good for their infant.
• Tell them you want to care for breastfed infants and support breastfeeding mothers.
• Share other places in the community they can go to for help with breastfeeding.
• Share and discuss resources about breastfeeding.
• Try to time feedings to the mother’s schedule (being sure to respond to the infant’s needs and cues).
• Offer a place to nurse that is comfortable, quiet, and private.
• Communicate about their infant’s day.635
Feeding with Breastmilk in Early Care and Education Programs
Mothers may choose to have their breastfed infants fed in one of several ways when the infant is in child care including:
1. mother uses her breaks to come to the child care site at feeding times to nurse her infant;
2. child care provider gives the infant the breastmilk that the mother has expressed on a previous day.
Follow the feeding method that the mother chooses. Feeding advice such as the use of infant formula should come from the infant's doctor or clinic.
Expressed breastmilk needs to be stored and handled safely to keep it from spoiling. Remind mothers to label, date, and chill or refrigerate their breastmilk right after they express it. Ask mothers to bring the milk in hard plastic bottles.
Ask mothers to bring in enough breastmilk to feed the infant each day. Be sure that each bottle or other container of breastmilk is labeled with the infant's name and the date the milk was expressed. Bottles should have just the amount both you and the mother think the infant will take at each feeding. This amount will be about 2 to 4 ounces of breastmilk for the younger infant. As the infant gets older, the mother can put more breastmilk in each bottle. Keep breastmilk in the refrigerator or freezer until ready to use. Breastmilk that is not frozen, should be disposed of if not eaten within 72 hours.
Thaw frozen breastmilk by running the container under cool water. Do not set breastmilk out to thaw at room temperature. Do not thaw breastmilk by heating on the stove or in a microwave.637 See below for instructions on how to bottle feed an infant.
Although breast milk is ideal for almost all infants, not all mothers will be able to breastfeed and some mothers should not breastfeed (including women with HIV, who are being treated for cancer, or who are taking drugs that are not safe while breastfeeding).
Formula Feeding
Infant formula provides a balance of nutrients. However, not all formulas are the same and there are important considerations that parents and caregivers must weigh. Standard formulas use cow’s milk as a base. They have 20 calories per fluid ounce, similar to breast milk, with vitamins and minerals added. Soy-based formulas are usually given to infants who develop diarrhea, constipation, vomiting, colic, or abdominal pain, or to infants with a cow’s milk protein allergy. Hypoallergenic protein hydrolysate formulas are usually given to infants who are allergic to cow’s milk and soy protein. This type of formula uses hydrolyzed protein, meaning that the protein is broken down into amino acids and small peptides, which makes it easier to digest.
Infant formula comes in three basic types:
1. Powder that requires mixing with water. This is the least expensive type of formula.
2. Concentrates, which are liquids that must be diluted with water. This type is slightly more expensive.
3. Ready-to-use liquids that can be poured directly into bottles. This is the most expensive type of formula. However, it requires the least amount of preparation. Ready-to-use formulas are also convenient for traveling.
Most infants need about 2.5 ounces of formula per pound of body weight each day. Therefore, the average infant should consume about 24 fluid ounces of breastmilk or formula per day. When preparing formula, caregivers should carefully follow the safety guidelines, since an infant has an immature immune system. All equipment used in formula preparation should be sterilized. Prepared, unused formula should be refrigerated to prevent bacterial growth. Caregivers should make sure not to use contaminated water to mix formula in order to prevent foodborne illnesses. Follow the instructions for powdered and concentrated formula carefully—formula that is overly diluted would not provide adequate calories and protein, while overly concentrated formula provides too much protein and too little water which can impair kidney function.638
Feeding with Formula in Early Child Care and Education Programs
Early care and education programs provide commercially prepared formulas to infants, under the direction of the family. Bottles of formula should come prepared in bottles labeled with the infant’s name and the date. Unused mixed formula should not be stored for more than 24 hours.
Bottle Feeding (Both Expressed Breastmilk and Formula)
Always wash your hands before handling bottles or feeding the infant. Use only clean bottles, nipples, and cups. For infants that do not crawl, bottles and nipples should be sterilized. If you need to reuse them, sterilize by boiling in water for 5 minutes or by washing in a dishwasher.
Warm breastmilk and formula by placing the bottle in a pan of warm water or by holding it under warm running water for a few minutes. Do not warm breastmilk or formula on the stove or in a microwave. Microwave heating causes hot spots in the milk that can burn the infant's mouth and throat. These hot spots may stay even if you shake the bottle. And heating also destroys most of the natural substances in breastmilk.
Double-check the labels on bottles before feeding to ensure the infant is getting the correct breastmilk or formula. Always hold the infant when bottle feeding. Try different positions for infants who do not want to take their bottles. Some infants are happier if you feed them in the usual cradle position. Others prefer a different position. Do not prop up a bottle to feed an infant or put an infant in a crib with a bottle. Bottle propping could cause the infant to choke, tooth decay, and ear infections.
Burp by placing the infant high over your shoulder or over your knee. You can also lean the infant forward in a sitting position supported by your hands. Pat or rub the infant's back. This puts gentle pressure on the abdomen to push extra air from the stomach.640
Uneaten breastmilk or formula should be discarded after a feeding as bacteria from the infant’s mouth may have made it into the bottle.
When to Feed
In the early months, infants will need to be fed “on demand”—this means that they are able to feed whenever they are hungry or show hunger cues. Hunger cues are unique to each infant. An infant might:
• Have a specific hunger cry
• Root or look around for food
• Suck on their hand or fingers
• Become irritable or restless
• Repeat a unique behavior to demonstrate hunger
When adults respond to an infant’s hunger cues, the infant can also tell how much food they want and when they are full. This feeding practice supports healthy eating habits, growth, and development later in life.641
Pause to Reflect
Some families put infants on a schedule that dictates when they eat (and even sleep)? Is this compatible with feeding on demand as described above? How might you discuss this with a family?
Introducing Solid Foods
Infants should be breastfed or formula-fed exclusively for the first six months of life according to the WHO. (The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends breast milk or bottle formula exclusively for at least the first four months, but ideally for six months.) Infants should not consume solid foods before six months because solids do not contain the right nutrient mix that infants need. Also, eating solids may mean drinking less breast milk or bottle formula. If that occurs, an infant may not consume the right quantities of various nutrients. If parents try to feed an infant who is too young or is not ready, their tongue will push the food out, which is called an extrusion reflex. After six months, the suck-swallow reflexes are not as strong, and infants can hold up their heads and move them around, both of which make eating solid foods more feasible.642
Knowing When an Infant is Ready for Solid Foods
Here are several ways you can tell that an infant is ready to eat solid foods:
• The infant’s birth weight has doubled.
• The infant can control their head and neck movements.
• The infant can sit up with some support.
• The infant can show you they are full by turning their head away or by not opening their mouth.
• The infant begins showing interest in food when others are eating.
Solid baby foods can be bought commercially or prepared from regular food using a food processor, blender, food mill, or grinder.643 Baby food can be served at room temperature. If it is warmed, it must be stirred to distribute evenly.644
Portion the amount of food you intend to serve the baby (any uneaten food will need to be thrown away after a feeding and use small amounts on an infant-sized spoon. When beginning solid foods, timing is important. To keep mealtimes positive, choose a time when the infant is happy and when you have the patience and time to focus. Offer 1 to 2 teaspoons after a breastmilk or formula feeding. This can increase over time to 2 to 3 tablespoons.
It is normal for infants to refuse new foods. Sometimes it can take 10 to 12 times of offering a food before an infant will accept it. Infants know when they have had enough and may turn their head away. Don’t force them to keep eating.645
As families and caregivers introduce solids, they should feed the child only one new food at a time, to help identify allergic responses or food intolerances. An iron supplement is also recommended at this time.646
Foods to Avoid for Infants
• Never give honey to infants. It may contain bacteria that can cause botulism, a rare, but serious illness.
• Do not give infants cow's milk until they are 1 year old. Before age 1, they have a difficult time digesting cow's milk.
• Avoid foods with added salt or sugar.
• Do not give infants egg white until after they are 1 (egg yolks 3-4 per week are okay)647
Learning to Self-Feed
With the introduction of solid foods, young children begin to learn how to handle food and how to feed themselves. At six to seven months, infants can use their whole hand to pick up items (this is known as the palmer grasp). They can lift larger items, but picking up smaller pieces of food is difficult. At eight months, a child might be able to use a pincer grasp, which uses fingers to pick up objects.648
Serve food that is soft and mashed. Cut food into small pieces (cubes no larger than 1/4 inch) or thin slices that your baby can easily chew and swallow. Avoid high-risk choking foods such as small, slippery foods; dry foods that are hard to chew or sticky; and tough foods. 649
Finger Foods
Here are some good food choices for self-feeding children:
• Soft cooked vegetables
• Washed and peeled fruits
• Graham crackers
• Melba toast
• Noodles
• Soft cooked vegetables
• Washed and peeled fruits
• Graham crackers
• Melba toast
• Noodles
Here are foods to avoid as they are a choking hazard:
• Apple chunks or slices
• Grapes
• Berries
• Raisins
• Dry flake cereals
• Hot dogs
• Sausages
• Peanut butter
• Popcorn
• Nuts
• Seeds
• Round candies
• Raw vegetables650
To minimize choking, ensure that infants are seated while eating. If using a high chair, make sure to use the safety straps.651
After the age of one, children slowly begin to use utensils to handle their food. Unbreakable dishes and cups are essential, since very young children may play with them or throw them when they become bored with their food. 653
Supporting Infant Nutrition
Nutrition during the first year of life is really important. While babies who are breastfed for at least 6 months are more likely to have a healthy weight as they grow up, mothers often report that breastfeeding is harder than they thought. And mothers may be more likely to stop breastfeeding if they feel unsupported and have nowhere to turn for help. And families that choose not to or cannot breastfeed have questions and need support to feed their infants in a healthy and safe way, too. Babies should be ready to start eating simple solids around 6 months. Babies who start eating solid foods too early are more likely to have weight problems as children and adults.654
Early care and education programs can support infant nutrition with the following practices:
• All food brought from home should be labeled with the child’s name and date.
• Part of the care plan that families share with their program and that is updated regularly, should be instructions for feeding. Families should determine how and what their infant is fed (as long as it’s in compliance with licensing).
• Support parents with materials on providing optimal nutrition for their infant (such as the tips just listed).
• Be supportive of mothers who are breastfeeding. For mothers who can come to nurse, provide a space conducive to that. Ensure the breastmilk that is brought to the program is properly labeled, stored, and prepared.
• For infants that are formula fed, ensure that formula is prepared according to the label (or doctor’s instructions).
• Hold all infants during bottle feedings. Not only does this keep them safe, but it is also valuable one-on-one time (caregiving routines are the heart of infant/toddler curriculum).
• Follow the cues of the infant you are feeding (when they are hungry and full).
• When feeding pureed baby food, use a small spoon and make sure you transfer food from a jar into a dish and throw away any uneaten food.
• Have appropriate seating available for infants that are beginning to self-feed (high chairs, booster seats, or enclosed small chairs at a low table)
• Provide unbreakable dishes to serve food to self-feeding infants.
Engaging Families in Supporting Their Infant’s Nutrition
Here are tips you can share with families
• If breastfeeding is harder than you thought it would be you are not alone!
• Lots of people say that breastfeeding just comes “naturally” but for many moms, it doesn’t.
• Going back to work and wanting to get back into a normal family routine can make it hard to stick with breastfeeding. Using a breast pump can help ensure your baby still gets the best nutrition.
• If you need support or help at any time while you are breastfeeding call 1-800-994-9662 (the National Breastfeeding Hotline) for free breastfeeding support.
• Don’t use pillows or other objects to hold a bottle for your baby. This makes it hard for her to spit out the bottle when she’s done - it can cause her to keep eating after she’s full.
• Make sure you take the bottle away if your baby falls asleep. If you let the baby keep the bottle in her mouth when he’s sleeping, formula can stay in her mouth and can damage his teeth or cause her to choke.
• Stick with ONLY breast milk or formula for feeding your baby until she is 6 months old. Unless your doctor tells you something different, adding cereal to a baby’s bottle adds extra calories to her diet that she doesn’t need. 655
• Infants are usually ready to eat solid foods at about 6 months of age.
• If you introduce one new food at a time, you will be able to identify any foods that cause allergies in your baby.656
• Start solid feedings with iron-fortified baby cereal mixed with breast milk or formula. Mix it with enough milk so that the texture is very thin. Start by offering the cereal 2 times a day, in just a few spoonfuls.
• You can make the mixture thicker as your baby learns to control it in their mouth.
• You can also introduce iron-rich pureed meats, fruits, and vegetables. Try green peas, carrots, sweet potatoes, squash, applesauce, pears, bananas, and peaches.
• Some dietitians recommend introducing a few vegetables before fruits. The sweetness of fruit may make some vegetables less appealing.
• The amount your child eats will vary between 2 tablespoons (30 grams) and 2 cups (480 grams) of fruits and vegetables per day. How much your child eats depends on their size and how well they eat fruits and vegetables.657
Feeding Toddlers
Major physiological changes continue into the toddler years. Unlike in infancy, the limbs grow much faster than the trunk, which gives the body a more proportionate appearance. Their physical growth and motor development slow compared to the progress they made as infants. The toddler years pose interesting challenges for parents or other caregivers, as children learn how to eat on their own and begin to develop personal preferences. However, with the proper diet and guidance, toddlers can continue to grow and develop at a healthy rate.
The energy requirements for ages two to three are about 1,000 to 1,400 calories a day. In general, a toddler needs to consume about 40 calories for every inch of height. For example, a young child who measures 32 inches should take in an average of 1,300 calories a day. However, the recommended caloric intake varies with each child’s level of activity. Toddlers require small, frequent, nutritious snacks and meals to satisfy energy requirements. The amount of food a toddler needs from each food group depends on daily calorie needs.
Forty-five to 65% of their daily caloric intake should come from carbohydrates. Protein should make up 5 to 20% of their daily calories. And fat should make up 30 to 40% of their daily intake. Essential fatty acids are vital for the development of the eyes, along with nerve and other types of tissue. However, toddlers should not consume foods with high amounts of trans fats and saturated fats.
As a child grows bigger, the demands for micronutrients increase. These needs for vitamins and minerals can be met with a balanced diet, with a few exceptions. According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, toddlers and children of all ages need 600 international units of vitamin D per day. Vitamin D-fortified milk and cereals can help to meet this need. However, toddlers who do not get enough of this micronutrient should receive a supplement. Pediatricians may also prescribe a fluoride supplement for toddlers who live in areas with fluoride-poor water. Iron deficiency is also a major concern for children between the ages of two and three.659
Self-Feeding
As children grow older, they enjoy taking care of themselves, which includes self-feeding. During this phase, it is important to offer children foods that they can handle on their own and that helps them avoid choking and other hazards. Examples include fresh fruits that have been sliced into pieces, orange or grapefruit sections, peas or potatoes that have been mashed for safety, a cup of yogurt, and whole-grain bread or bagels cut into pieces. Even with careful preparation and training, the learning process can be messy. As a result, parents and other caregivers can help children learn how to feed themselves by providing the following:
• small utensils that fit a young child’s hand
• small cups that will not tip over easily
• plates with edges to prevent food from falling off
• small servings on a plate
• highchairs, booster seats, or small enclosed chairs to reach a low table660
Feeding Challenges in the Toddler Years
During the toddler years, parents may face a number of problems related to food and nutrition. Possible obstacles include difficulty helping a young child overcome a fear of new foods, or fights over messy habits at the dinner table. Even in the face of problems and confrontations, parents and other caregivers must make sure their preschooler has nutritious choices at every meal. For example, even if a child stubbornly resists eating vegetables, parents should continue to provide them. Before long, the child may change their mind, and develop a taste for foods once abhorred. It is important to remember this is the time to establish or reinforce healthy habits.
Nutritionist Ellyn Satter states that feeding is a responsibility that is split between parent and child. According to Satter, parents are responsible for what their infants eat, while infants are responsible for how much they eat. In the toddler years and beyond, parents are responsible for what children eat, when they eat, and where they eat, while children are responsible for how much food they eat and whether they eat. Satter states that the role of a parent or a caregiver in feeding includes the following:
• selecting and preparing food
• providing regular meals and snacks
• making mealtimes pleasant
• showing children what they must learn about mealtime behavior
• avoiding letting children eat in between meal- or snack-times
You are likely to notice a sharp drop in their child’s appetite. Children at this stage are often picky about what they want to eat. They may turn their heads away after eating just a few bites. Or, they may resist coming to the table at mealtimes. They also can be unpredictable about what they want to consume for specific meals or at particular times of the day. Although it may seem as if toddlers should increase their food intake to match their level of activity, there is a good reason for picky eating. A child’s growth rate slows after infancy, and toddlers ages two and three do not require as much food.662
Establishing healthy meal routines is an important step in healthy toddler development. Ideally, mealtimes should take place at regular times, at a table with limited distraction, and children should be encouraged to feed themselves with adult support as needed. 663 Best practices in early care and education include creating positive meal and snack times that are served family-style with adult modeling eating balanced nutrition.
Engaging Families in Supporting Their Toddler’s Nutrition
Here are tips you can share with families:
• Serving sizes for toddlers are much smaller than serving sizes for adults.
• A typical serving size for a toddler drink is 4-6 ounces. Water and milk are the best choices for toddlers
• Your toddler (and you too!) needs food from all five of the food groups—grains, protein, vegetables, fruit, and dairy. Try offering a variety of foods from these groups at meals and snacks.
• Your toddler may eat more some days and less on others. Don’t worry, this is normal! Keep offering regularly scheduled meals and snacks.
• Allow your toddler to tell you when she is full. This teaches them to listen to their body for signs of hunger or fullness.
• Try using child-size plates, bowls, and utensils for “right-size” portions for your toddler. Using child-size utensils also makes it easier for your toddler to eat.
• Encourage toddlers to drink from cups and avoid the use of bottles or sippy cups.
• Limit distractions during meal and snack times to allow your toddler to enjoy the food. Turn off the TV and sit at a table.
• Toddlers get hungry between meals. Snack time is a great chance to feed your toddler healthy foods (like fruits and veggies).
• Remember to have a start and end time for snack time. Toddlers should not be snacking (or grazing) all day.664
Feeding Preschoolers
Children’s attitudes and opinions about food deepen. They not only begin taking their cues about food preferences from family members, but also from peers and the larger culture. This time in a child’s life provides an opportunity for families and other caregivers to reinforce good eating habits and to introduce new foods into the diet while remaining mindful of a child’s preferences. Adults should also serve as role models for their children, who will often mimic their behavior and eating habits.665
MyPlate also provides a guide daily for calories based on sex and activity-level for preschool-aged children (although children’s needs may differ from the average and appetites can vary from day to day).
Table 14.1 – Average Calorie Needs for Preschoolers667
Age
Sex
Activity
Calories
2
Boys & Girls
Any level
1,000 calories
3
Boys
<30 minutes
1,000 calories
30-60 minutes
1,400 calories
>60 minutes
1,400 calories
Girls
<30 minutes
1,000 calories
30-60 minutes
1,200 calories
>60 minutes
1,400 calories
4
Boys
<30 minutes
1,200 calories
30-60 minutes
1,400 calories
>60 minutes
1,600 calories
Girls
<30 minutes
1,200 calories
30-60 minutes
1,400 calories
>60 minutes
1,400 calories
5
Boys
<30 minutes
1,200 calories
30-60 minutes
1,400 calories
>60 minutes
1,600 calories
Girls
<30 minutes
1,200 calories
30-60 minutes
1,400 calories
>60 minutes
1,600 calories
In early childhood, children should still get 45-65% of their daily calories from carbohydrates. Carbohydrates high in fiber should make up the bulk of intake. Their intake of protein increases to 10–30% of their daily calories to support muscle growth and development. High levels of essential fatty acids are needed to support growth (although not as high as in infancy and the toddler years). As a result, the daily recommendation for fat is 25–35% of their daily calories. And they should get 17–25 grams of fiber per day.
Their micronutrient needs should be met with foods first. Families and caregivers should select a variety of foods from each food group to ensure that nutritional requirements are met. Because children grow rapidly, they require foods that are high in iron, such as lean meats, legumes, fish, poultry, and iron-enriched cereals. Adequate fluoride is crucial to support strong teeth. One of the most important micronutrient requirements during childhood is adequate calcium and vitamin D intake. Both are needed to build dense bones and a strong skeleton. Children who do not consume adequate vitamin D should be given a supplement of 10 micrograms (400 international units) per day.668
Feeding Challenges in the Preschool Years
Picky eating is typical for many preschoolers. It’s simply another step in the process of growing up and becoming independent. As long as a preschooler is healthy, growing normally, and has plenty of energy, they are most likely getting the nutrients they need.
Typical Picky Eating Behaviors
Many children will show one or more of the following behaviors during the preschool years. In most cases, these will go away with time.
• Refusal of a food based on a certain color or texture. For example, they could refuse foods that are red or green, contain seeds, or are squishy.
• Only eating a certain type of food. A preschooler may choose 1 or 2 foods they like and refuse to eat anything else.
• “Wasting” of time at the table and seeming interested in doing anything but eating.
• Unwillingness to try new foods. It is normal for a preschooler to prefer familiar foods and be afraid to try new things.669
Helping Families Cope with Picky Eating
Picky eating is temporary. If adults don’t make it a big deal, it will usually end before school age. The following tips are tips to help deal with picky eating behavior positively.
• Let your kids be “produce pickers.” Let them pick out fruits and veggies at the store.
• Have your child help you prepare meals. Children learn about food and get excited about tasting food when they help make meals. Let them add ingredients, scrub veggies, or help stir.
• Offer choices. Rather than ask, “Do you want broccoli for dinner?” ask “Which would you like for dinner, broccoli or cauliflower?”
• Enjoy each other while eating family meals together. Talk about fun and happy things. If meals are times for family arguments, your child may learn unhealthy attitudes toward food.
• Offer the same foods for the whole family. Serve the same meal to adults and kids. Let them see you enjoy healthy foods. Talk about the colors, shapes, and textures on the plate.670
• Make food fun
• Cut food into fun and easy shapes with cookie cutters.
• Encourage your child to invent and help prepare new snacks.
• Name a food your child helps create.671
• Focus on the meal and each other. Your child learns by watching you. Children are likely to copy your table manners, your likes and dislikes, and your willingness to try new foods.
• Offer a variety of healthy foods. Let your child choose how much to eat. Children are more likely to enjoy a food when eating it is their own choice.
• Let your children serve themselves. Teach your children to take small amounts at first. Let them know they can get more if they are still hungry.672
Trying New Foods
It is normal for children to reject foods they have never tried before. Here are some tips to get preschoolers to try new foods:
• Small portions, big benefits. Let children try small portions of new foods that you enjoy. Give them a small taste at first and be patient with them.
• Offer only one new food at a time and ideally with a favored food. Offering many new foods all at once could be too much for children.
• Be a good role model. Try new foods yourself. Describe their taste, texture, and smell to the children.
• Offer new foods first when children are most hungry.
• Offer new foods many times. It may take up to a dozen tries for a child to accept a new food.673
Pause to Reflect
Think back to your childhood. Were you a picky eater or more adventurous? Why do you think that it was? How did your caregivers respond to your eating preferences? Do you have similar preferences now or have you expanded your tastes/preferences?
Feeding School-Aged Children
While calorie needs go up as children get older, until around age 9 (or the beginning of puberty), nutritional needs for school-aged children are very similar to preschoolers. Once puberty begins, there is a period of rapid growth as girls grow 2-8 inches and boys grow 4-12 inches.
Table 14.2 – Average Calorie Needs for School-Aged Children674
Age
Sex
Activity
Calories
6–8 years
Boys
Sedentary
1,400 calories
Moderately active
1,600 calories
Active
1,800 calories
Girls
Sedentary
1,200 calories
Moderately active
1,400 calories
Active
1,600 calories
9–10 years
Boys
Sedentary
1,600 calories
Moderately active
1,800 calories
Active
2,000 calories
Girls
Sedentary
1,400 calories
Moderately active
1,600 calories
Active
1,800 calories
11–12
Boys
Sedentary
2,000 calories
Moderately active
2,200 calories
Active
2,400 calories
Girls
Sedentary
1,600 calories
Moderately active
1,800 calories
Active
2,000 calories
School-aged children should still get 45-65% of their daily calories from carbohydrates. Carbohydrates high in fiber should make up the bulk of that. Their intake of protein remains at 10–30% of their daily calories to support muscle growth and development. And the daily recommendation for fat also remains at 25–35% of their daily calories.
A few micronutrients take on added importance, especially at the beginning of puberty. These include vitamins, D, K, and B12, calcium, and iron. Whenever possible these additional micronutrient needs should be met with dietary choices and not supplements (with the exception of iron).675
School Meals
School-aged children can often eat both breakfast and lunch at school, which can save families time and provide children with nutritious food.
Breakfast
Research has shown that children that eat breakfast do better in school and have higher intakes of fiber, B vitamins, calcium, and other nutrients.676 Refer to Figure 14.7 to see what a school breakfast includes.
Lunch
Lunch is important because it meets 1/3 of the nutritional needs of most children for the day. And kids with healthier eating patterns have better academic performance. And farm to school programs (in 42% of schools) increase children’s access to locally produced foods.677 Refer to Figure 14.8 to see a breakdown of school lunches provide.
Meals and Snacks in School-Aged Care Programs
On school days, children that are in care before school may need to be fed breakfast (if they did not eat at home or will not be eating at school). After school, they will need substantial, healthy snacks. On full days of care, they will need breakfast, lunch, and a snack.
Follow the menu planning advice in Chapter 15. And involve the children in menu planning and food preparation whenever possible and see which of the suggestions in the following feature for families might also be incorporated into the classroom.
Activities Families Can Do with Children
Choosemyplate.gov offers some fun ideas for families to teach their children about healthy eating and engage the whole family in making healthy choices. Some of these include:
• Food critic game where children select a new food to try and rate it on visual appeal, smell, taste, and texture681
• Grocery store bingo where children identify foods they see in the grocery store to try to get a 5 in a row bingo682
• Make food visually appealing by turning it into art
• Kid’s Restaurant: Kids get to plan out the meal, design the menu, and prepare the dish
• Growing a garden (or starting small with an herb box in a window)
• Going to a local farmer’s market or farm stand to find local food options to buy, take home, and turn into a delicious meal.
Making Mealtimes Fun
Here are some tips for families for making mealtimes more relaxed and enjoyable:
• Remove distractions, such as phones, tablets, and turn off the television.
• Have conversations. Use starters like:
• Give each family member the spotlight to share their highlight, lowlight, and “funnylight”
• If our family lived in a zoo, what animals would we be and why?
• If you could have one superpower, what would it be and why?
• If you were stranded on a desert island and could only have one food to eat, what would it be and why?
• Pass on traditions, both the foods and the stories behind them
• Let the children make the choices (from a healthy selection of foods)
• Let everyone help prepare and clean up after meals
• Consider a change of scenery, like a picnic
• Reserve a special plate to rotate between family members, for example on birthdays, when someone gets a good grade, or any other occasion you’d like to recognize.683
Feeding Children with Special Needs
Some disabilities and other exceptional needs may affect children’s nutrition. For example,
• children with cerebral palsy or cystic fibrosis may have different caloric needs
• children with celiac disease or irritable bowel syndrome may have dietary restrictions
• children with cleft lip or palate may have physical difficulties with eating
• children on the autism spectrum may have strong food preferences or aversions
Because each child’s specific needs will vary, early care and education programs should work closely with families, and medical providers as needed, to ensure that they understand and can meet the nutritional and feeding needs of the individual child (not a generalization or assumption about the child might need based on a diagnosis or label).
Nutrition policies and practices should be created to be inclusive of children with special needs. Some general considerations early care and education programs and schools should make to ensure that all children’s nutritional needs are met and that all children experience positive meal and snack times include:
• Ensure that the spaces in which children eat and access to drinking water are fully accessible to all children, including those with mobility impairments (and if needed, assistive devices should be provided).
• Staff should be trained to provide for children who may have additional or differing nutritional or feeding needs so they can work effectively and comfortably with all children.
• Follow any dietary restrictions.685
Summary
Early care and education programs can provide for all children’s nutrition when they understand
• the general changes children have in nutritional needs as they mature,
• common challenges across the different stages of development, and
• strategies that foster positive meal and snack times at each age stage, and
• the fact that children may have diverse and unique nutritional needs
Programs also play an important role in children’s nutrition by empowering families by providing support, information, and resources as they make decisions about how to feed their children. | textbooks/socialsci/Early_Childhood_Education/Book%3A_Health_Safety_and_Nutrition_(Paris)/Section_IV%3A_Nutrition/14%3A_Providing_Good_Nutrition.txt |
Learning Objectives
By the end of this chapter, you should be able to:
• Outline the meal patterns for infants and children.
• Create nutritious menus that follow the meal patterns.
• Describe factors to consider when menu planning.
• Identify a variety of sources of food for each food group.
• Examine individual and cultural food preferences.
• Explain special considerations for planning vegetarian menus.
• Discuss the benefits of family style meal service.
• Relate ways to support families in providing well-balanced foods from home.
• Outline important considerations for buying, storing, preparing, cooking, and serving food safely.
Licensing Regulations
Title 22 Regulations that relate to this chapter include:
101227 FOOD SERVICE
• Food selection, storage preparation, and service shall be safe and healthful and of the quality and quantity necessary to meet the needs of children.
• Full-day programs shall offer a midmorning and midafternoon snack and lunch (may be provided by the family).
• Half-day programs shall offer a midmorning or midafternoon snack.
• Menus must be in writing and posted at least one week in advance.
• Commercial food shall be approved by appropriate authorities.
• All persons engaged in food preparation or service shall observer personal hygiene and sanitation processes.
• Pesticides and similar toxic substances must not be stored with food.
• Soaps and cleaning compounds must be stored separately from food.
• Kitchens and food areas shall be clean.
• All food shall be protected against contamination.
• Necessary equipment includes a sink, refrigeration, hot and cold running water, and storage space. This equipment must be well maintained.
101427 INFANT CARE FOOD SERVICE
• In addition to 101227, the following shall apply:
- Bottles, dishes, and food containers brought from infant’s home shall be labeled with infant’s name and current date. - Formula partially consumed in a bottle shall be discarded at end of each day. - Food shall be discarded if not consumed within 72 hours of date on the container label. - Commercially prepared baby food in jars shall be transferred to a dish before being fed to the infant. Any food left over in the dish at the end of a meal shall be discarded. - Bottles and nipples in center shall be sterilized. - Infants shall not be bathed in, and diapers or clothing shall not be rinsed in the food preparation area.
101438.1 INFANT CARE GENERAL SANITATION
• Each caregiver shall wash his/her hands with soap and water before feeding and after each diaper change.
Introduction
Knowledge of menu planning is essential to providing appropriate nutrition to young children. Early care and education programs must have staff who plan and prepare food that are aware of individual preferences, including vegetarianism, and cultural and religious differences in food choice, preparation, and service. To protect children’s health, proper hygiene and sanitation processes must be followed closely. Only safe food should be purchased. And how that food is stored, prepared, and served must follow proper protocol to prevent foodborne illness.
Menu Planning
Let’s examine several factors that are important for menu planning, including the meal patterns, licensed programs must follow, the importance of variety and balance, and aesthetics.
Meal Patterns
In the state of California, licensing requires programs to follow the meal plan requirements of the Child and Adult Care Food Program and the Healthy Beverages in Child Care Act. Both of these were introduced in Chapter 12. To review, here are the breakfast meal patterns for infants and children.
Breakfast
Table 15.1 – Infant Breakfast Meal Patterns686
Meal or snack
0-5 Months
6-11 Months
Breakfast
4-6 fl oz breastmilk or formula
6-8 fl oz breastmilk or formula
0-4 tbsp infant cereal, meat, fish, poultry, whole eggs, cooked dry beans or peas; or 0-2 oz cheese; or 0-4 oz (volume) cottage cheese; or 0-4 oz yogurt; or a combination*
0-2 tbsp vegetable, fruit or both*
Solid foods are required when the infant is ready. All serving sizes are minimum quantities of the food components that are required to be served.
Table 15.2 – Breakfast Meal Pattern for Children687
Meal or snack
Food Item
1-2 Years
3-5 Years
6-18 Years
Breakfast
Milk
½ cup whole
¾ cup low-fat or fat-free
1 cup low-fat or fat-free
Vegetables, fruit, or both
¼ cup
½ cup
½ cup
Grains
½ ounce equivalent
½ ounce equivalent
1 ounce equivalent
Here is what breakfasts that follow the meal pattern might look like:
Pause to Reflect
Create your own breakfasts that follow the meal plan for each age.
Lunch
And here are the lunch meal patterns for infants and children:
Table 15.3 – Infant Lunch Meal Patterns691
Meal or snack
0-5 Months
6-11 Months
Lunch or Supper
4-6 fl oz breastmilk or formula
6-8 fl oz breastmilk or formula
0-4 tbsp infant cereal, meat, fish, poultry, whole eggs, cooked dry beans or peas; or 0-2 oz cheese; or 0-4 oz (volume) cottage cheese; or 0-4 oz yogurt; or a combination*
0-2 tbsp vegetable, fruit or both*
Solid foods are required when the infant is ready. All serving sizes are minimum quantities of the food components that are required to be served
Table 15.4 – Lunch Meal Pattern for Children692
Meal or snack
Food Item
1-2 Years
3-5 Years
6-18 Years
Lunch or Supper
Milk
½ cup whole
¾ cup low-fat or fat-free
1 cup low-fat or fat-free
Meat and meat alternative
1 ounce
1½ ounces
2 ounces
Vegetables
1/8 cup
¼ cup
½ cup
Fruits
1/8 cup
¼ cup
¼ cup
Grains
½ ounce equivalent
½ ounce equivalent
1 ounce equivalent
Here is what breakfasts that follow the meal pattern might look like:
Pause to Reflect
Create your own lunches that follow the meal plan for each age.
Snacks
And finally, here are the meal patterns for snacks for infants and children:
Table 15.5 – Infant Snack Meal Patterns696
Meal or snack
0-5 Months
6-11 Months
Snack
4-6 fl oz breastmilk or formula
2-4 fl oz breastmilk or formula
0-½ bread slice; or 0-2 crackers; or 0-4 tbsp infant cereal or ready-to-eat cereal*
0-2 tbsp vegetable, fruit or both*
Solid foods are required when the infant is ready. All serving sizes are minimum quantities of the food components that are required to be served.
Table 15.6 – Snack Meal Pattern for Children697
Meal or snack
Food Item
1-2 Years
3-5 Years
6-18 Years
Snack
(choose 2 of the options)
Milk
½ cup whole
½ cup low-fat or fat-free
1 cup low-fat or fat-free
Meat and meat alternative
½ ounce
½ ounce
1 ounce
Vegetables
½ cup
½ cup
¾ cup
Fruits
½ cup
½ cup
¾ cup
Grains
½ ounce equivalent
½ ounce equivalent
1 ounce equivalent
Best practice: Make at least 1 of the 2 required components of a snack a vegetable or a fruit. 698
Here are some snacks that follow the meal pattern:
Pause to Reflect
Create your own snacks that follow the meal plan for each age.
Factors to consider
Menu planning principles include aesthetics, and variety, including color, texture, flavors, shapes, and sizes of food, cost, balance, and nutritional quality, The availability of equipment and staff knowledge and skill to prepare the foods on menus are also important considerations in planning the menu. Along with all of these, an effective menu also considers cost.702
Aesthetics and Variety
How our food is presented, along with texture, consistency, color, shape, and the preparation method, influences how we feel and what we think about a menu. It can even influence our appetite and our interest in eating.703
Select nutritious foods that are contrasting colors and textures. This adds to the visual and chewing appeal. Try to vary the colors of the foods being served. Avoid serving foods that are all one color. For example, select a green, soft vegetable (spinach), a red, crunchy fruit (an apple), and colorful, chewy wild rice to go along with a piece of chicken and a glass of milk. This lends visual and chewing appeal as the children can see different colors and feel different textures as they chew.704
Pause to Reflect
Go back and look at the samples. How well do you think they did with creating meals and snacks that offered variety and were visually appealing? What about the versions you created?
Cost
While well-balanced nutrition should never be sacrificed to save money, early care and education programs must also consider the costs of the menus they plan. One way to save costs is to use cycle menus. A cycle menu follows a particular pattern and repeats on a regular basis. The length of the cycle can vary, but may be 4-6 weeks long and can be different lengths for different meals/snacks (for instance, with breakfast repeating more often than lunches). And they can be updated as needed to include new foods or make other accommodations.705
Cycle menus allow a program to forecast costs, order in bulk, and reduce waste (with tried and tested menus). Cycle menus are often planned seasonally so an operation might have a spring, summer, and fall/winter cycle.706 And buying produce seasonally is often more affordable.
Nutrition and Balance
The most important consideration for menu planning is that it meets children’s nutritional needs. The meals and snacks provided by full-day early care and education program should provide a substantial portion of a child’s daily nutrition. All programs should be supporting children’s well–balanced diet, in which all the nutrients the body needs for proper functioning and energy are taken in. A well-balanced diet contains a variety of foods from all the food groups, as well as all the necessary vitamins and minerals we need. It also means taking in an adequate supply of water for adequate health. A well-balanced diet can be planned by selecting healthy foods from each of the food groups.707
Food Groups
Let’s look at each of the food groups a bit more closely and identify sources for each.
Dairy Group
All fluid milk products and many foods made from milk are considered part of this food group. Foods made from milk that retain their calcium content are part of the group. Foods made from milk that have little to no calcium, such as cream cheese, cream, and butter, are not. Calcium-fortified soymilk (soy beverage) is also part of the Dairy Group. When choosing dairy, fat-free and low-fat dairy are good options for children.708
Sources of dairy include:
• Milk (low fat, fat-free, whole)
• Lactose-free and lactose-reduced milk
• Yogurt
• Pudding
• Ice cream
• Frozen yogurt
• Calcium-fortified soy milk
• Hard cheeses (cheddar, mozzarella, swiss, parmesan)
• Soft cheeses (ricotta, cottage cheese)
• Calcium-fortified juices and cereals710
Tips for Serving the Dairy Group for Children
• Serve unflavored, fat-free, and low-fat milks most often. They have less added sugar and fewer calories than flavored, whole, or reduced-fat milk.
• Low-fat milk, yogurt, and cheese provide much needed calcium. Try making a dip for fruits or vegetables from yogurt.
• Blend dairy into smoothies. Combine low-fat or fat-free yogurt with bananas and cocoa powder for a smoothie, or try milk, ice cubes, and frozen berries.711
Protein Group
All foods made from meat, poultry, seafood, beans and peas, eggs, processed soy products, nuts, and seeds are considered part of the Protein Foods Group. Select a variety of protein foods to improve nutrient intake and health benefits, including cooked seafood. Meat and poultry choices should be lean or low-fat.712
Sources of protein include:
• Beef
• Pork (ham, pork chops)
• Lamb
• Veal
• Poultry (chicken, turkey)
• Beans (black, kidney, chickpeas, lentils, navy, pinto, white, soy beans, split peas)
• Eggs
• Canned fish (sardines, salmon, tuna, anchovies, clams)
• Fish (cod, tuna, sea bass, catfish, flounder, halibut, swordfish, trout, mackerel)
• Shellfish (shrimp, lobster, crab, mussels, oysters, scallops)
• Nuts (almonds, walnuts, hazelnuts, pistachios, peanuts, pecans)
• Seeds (sesame, pumpkin, squash, sunflower)714
Tips for Serving the Protein Group for Children
• Choose a variety of protein foods such as seafood, beans, lean meats, poultry, and eggs.
• Limit highly processed poultry, fish, or meat (like hotdogs, chicken nuggets, and fish sticks). Even some “reduced-fat” meats and cold cuts, like sausage, bologna, and salami, may be high in saturated fat and sodium.
• Add beans to children's favorite foods. Add beans and peas to tacos, casseroles, stews, pastas, and side dishes.715
Fruit Group
Any fruit or 100% fruit juice counts as part of the Fruit Group. Fruits may be fresh, canned, frozen, or dried, and may be whole, cut-up, or pureed.716 Intake of fruit juice should be limited to no more than once a day.
Sources of fruit include:
• Apples
• Apricots
• Bananas
• Blueberries
• Cantaloupe
• Cherries
• Fruit juices (100% fruit juice, all varieties)
• Grapefruit
• Grapes
• Kiwi
• Lemons
• Limes
• Mangoes
• Nectarines
• Oranges
• Papayas
• Peaches
• Pears
• Pineapples
• Plums
• Raisins
• Raspberries
• Strawberries
• Watermelon718
Tips for Serving the Fruit Group for Children
• Focus on whole fruits
• Serve a rainbow of choices. Fruit can be a quick and easy way to make meals and snacks healthier and more colorful.
• Choose from fresh, frozen, canned, and dried fruits. Purchase canned fruit in water or 100% fruit juice instead of syrup.
• Limit fruit juice. While 100% fruit juice can be part of a healthy diet, it does not contain the dietary fiber found in other forms of fruit.
• Offer raisins or other unsweetened dried fruit instead of chewy fruit snacks or strips, which usually contain very little fruit. 719
Vegetable Group
Any vegetable or 100% vegetable juice counts as a member of the Vegetable Group. Vegetables may be raw or cooked; fresh, frozen, canned, or dried/dehydrated; and may be whole, cut-up, or mashed. Based on their nutrient content, vegetables are organized into 5 subgroups: dark-green vegetables, starchy vegetables, red and orange vegetables, beans and peas, and other vegetables. While it is not necessary to eat vegetables from each subgroup daily, over the course of a week, vegetables from each subgroup should be eaten to reach ensure the daily intake recommendation of the different vitamins is met.720
2
Sources of vegetables include:
• Artichokes
• Asparagus
• Bok choy
• Broccoli
• Celery
• Collard greens
• Corn
• Cucumbers
• Green lima beans
• Green peas
• Lettuce
• Kale
• Mushrooms
• Mustard greens
• Onions
• Peppers (green, red, orange, yellow)
• Potatoes
• Spinach
• Squash (all varieties)
• Sweet potatoes
• Taro
• Tomatoes
• Turnip greens
• Water chestnuts722
Tips for Serving the Vegetable Group for Children
• Serve a variety of colorful choices. Brighten children’s plates with red, orange, and dark-green vegetables.
• Choose from fresh, frozen, or canned vegetables. Prepare and serve vegetables without added salt or solid fat.
• Try a dip. Kids love to dip their foods. Whip up a quick dip for veggies with yogurt and seasonings such as herbs or garlic. Serve with raw vegetables like broccoli, carrots, or cauliflower.723
• Provide at least one serving each of dark green vegetables, red and orange vegetables, beans and peas (legumes), starchy vegetables, and other vegetables once per week.724
Grain Group
Any food made from wheat, rice, oats, cornmeal, barley, or another cereal grain is a grain product. Bread, pasta, breakfast cereals, grits, and tortillas are examples of grain products. Foods such as popcorn, rice, and oatmeal are also included in the Grains Group.
Grains are divided into 2 subgroups: Whole Grains and Refined Grains. Whole grains contain the entire grain kernel ― the bran, germ, and endosperm. Examples of whole grains include whole-wheat flour, bulgur (cracked wheat), oatmeal, whole cornmeal, and brown rice. Refined grains have been milled, a process that removes the bran and germ. This is done to give grains a finer texture and improve their shelf life, but it also removes dietary fiber, iron, and many B vitamins. Some examples of refined grain products are white flour, de-germed cornmeal, white bread, and white rice.
Most refined grains are enriched. This means certain B vitamins (thiamin, riboflavin, niacin, folic acid) and iron are added back after processing. Fiber is not added back to enriched grains. Check the ingredient list on refined grain products to make sure that the word "enriched" is included in the grain name. Some food products are made from mixtures of whole grains and refined grains.725
Source of grain include:
• Barley
• Bread (all kinds)
• Bulgur
• Cereals (all kinds)
• Cornbread
• Cornmeal
• Couscous
• Crackers
• Millet
• Muesli
• Oatmeal
• Rice
• Pasta (including whole wheat)
• Popcorn
• Pretzels
• Tortillas727
Tips for Providing the Grain Group for Children
• Make at least half their grains whole grains by offering 100% whole-grain cereals, breads, and pasta.
• Vary the choices for whole grains. Rolled oats, oatmeal, brown rice, wild rice, buckwheat, quinoa, wheat berries, and millet are whole-grain foods.
• Choose toppings wisely for toast, hot cereals, pasta, and rice. Instead of adding butter, stick margarine, and regular full-fat cheese, use vegetable oils, low-fat cheeses, or marinara sauce as toppings.728
• Provide at least two servings of whole grain-rich grains per day.729
Oils
Oils are NOT a food group, although they provide essential nutrients. Oils include items such as butter, oils, margarine, mayonnaise, salad dressings. These food items should be used sparingly. Foods such as fish, nuts, and avocados are good choices of fats. Many foods we eat, especially those that are processed, often are high in fat. This should be considered when planning meals.730
Tips for Providing Oils for Children
• Limit serving purchased pre-fried foods to no more than one serving per week.731
Individual and Cultural Preferences
What families eat, how those foods are prepared and served, and the routines surrounding meals and snacks are going to vary in every family. For some children, those will be similar to what they encounter in early care and education programs. And some children will easily adapt to new foods and routines. But gathering information from families on these is one way to have an understanding of the food experiences and preferences children have. Menus can be planned that include familiar foods.
Cultural and Religious Considerations
Some people do not eat various specific foods and beverages in conformity with various religious, cultural, legal, or other societal prohibitions. Many of these prohibitions constitute taboos. Many food taboos and other prohibitions forbid the meat of a particular animal. Some food prohibitions can be defined as rules, codified by religion or otherwise, about which foods, or combinations of foods, may not be eaten and how animals are to be slaughtered or prepared. Some foods may be prohibited during certain religious periods (e.g., Lent), at certain stages of life (e.g., pregnancy), or to certain classes of people (e.g., priests), even though the food is otherwise permitted.732
Families and children may choose to exclude, include, or prepare foods in a particular way according to their religious faith and beliefs. The guidance given in Table 15.7 on food choices for specific religious groups is very general (and does not include prohibited items, such as alcohol that do not apply to children in early care and education programs). There will be individual differences and varying levels of adherence to guidelines which should be discussed for each child with their family. Some people within some of the faith groups identified may not observe the dietary guidelines listed. Prohibitions and restrictions even within a particular faith may change between denominations or branches.733
Table 15.7 – General Guidance for Religious Food Choices734
Religious Affiliation
General Guidelines
Buddhist
• Many are vegetarian or vegan
• Some may eat fish or eggs
• May participate in fasting
Hindu
• Most are vegetarian
• Dairy is usually acceptable
• Those who eat meat, poultry, and fish will exclude beef
• May fast
Jewish
• Pork and pork products are excluded
• Kosher beef, lamb, poultry, and fish (with fins and scales) are eaten
• Shellfish are excluded
• Meat and dairy are never eaten at same meal; dairy may not be eaten until 3 hours after meat or poultry
• Will also exclude gelatin, fats, emulsifiers, stabilizers, and additives from animal origin that Is not kosher
• May fast
Muslim
• Pork and pork products are excluded
• Halal beef, lamb, poultry, fish are eaten
• Dairy products are eaten by most
• Will also exclude gelatin, fats, emulsifiers, stabilizers, and additives from animal origin that Is not halal
• May fast
Sikh
• Many are vegetarian
• Those who eat meat, poultry and fish will exclude beef and possibly pork
• Halal and kosher meat are not eaten
Rastafarian
• Pork and pork products are excluded
• Many will be vegetarian
• Some may be vegan
• Prefer to eat a pure and natural diet so may exclude:
canned or non-organic foods
Seventh-Day Adventist735
• Those who eat meat typically do not eat meat from pigs, certain fish, and other animals that the Bible names as unclean
• Many are vegetarian or vegan
• Encourage drinking a lot of water
Mormon736
• Hot drinks containing caffeine are excluded
Food Allergies, Intolerances, and Medical Issues
As discussed in Chapter 13, some allergic reactions can be life-threatening and some foods can cause major health issues for children, it is vitally important that everyone in the early care and education program that prepares or serves food is aware of these and protects children from consuming food that can hurt them.
Vegetarian Menu Planning
A vegetarian diet does not include any meat, poultry, or seafood. It is a meal plan made up of foods that come mostly from plants. These include:
• Vegetables
• Fruits
• Whole grains
• Legumes
• Seeds
• Nuts
• May include eggs and/or milk if ovo-lacto vegetarian
A vegetarian diet contains no animal proteins. A semi-vegetarian diet is a meal plan that contains little animal protein, but mostly plant-based foods. Vegetarians DO NOT eat:
• Fowl
• Seafood
• Beef
• Pork
• Lamb
• Other animal meats, such as bison, or exotic meats like ostrich or alligator
Vegetarians also do not eat products containing gelatin or rennin (an enzyme found in calf's stomachs that is used to produce many cheeses).
Here are the different types of vegetarian diets:
• Vegan: Includes only plant-based foods. No animal proteins or animal by-products such as eggs, milk, or honey.
• Lacto-vegetarian: Includes plant foods plus some or all dairy products.
• Lacto-ovo vegetarian: Includes plant foods, dairy products, and eggs.
• Semi- or partial vegetarian: Includes plant foods and may include chicken or fish, dairy products, and eggs. It does not include red meat.
• Pescatarian: Includes plant foods and seafood.
Vegetarian diets that include some dairy products and eggs have all the nutrition needed. But the more restrictive the diet, the harder it can be to get certain nutrients.
When a vegetarian’s diet avoids most or all animal foods, close attention is required to make sure there is adequate intake of all of the following nutrients.
Vitamin B12: This vitamin is needed to help prevent anemia. Eggs and dairy foods have the most B12, so vegans may have a hard time getting enough. Sources of B12 include:
• Eggs
• Milk, yogurt, low-fat cheese, cottage cheese, and other dairy products
• Foods that have B12 added to them (fortified), such as cereal and soy products
• Nutritional yeast
• Seafood such as clams, salmon, and tuna (this only applies to pescetarians and semi-vegetarians)
Vitamin D: This vitamin is needed for bone health. Vitamin D can be produced from sun exposure, but sun exposure should be limited due to skin cancer concerns. So vegetarians most likely will not be able to get enough from sun exposure. Sources of vitamin D include:
• Fatty fish, such as sardines, salmon, and mackerel (this only applies to pescatarians and semi-vegetarians)
• Egg yolks
• Foods that are fortified with vitamin D, such as orange juice, cow's milk, soy milk, rice milk, and cereals
Zinc: Zinc is important for the immune system and cell growth, especially in teens. The body does not absorb zinc from plant foods as well as from meat and other animal foods. Sources of zinc include:
• Beans and legumes, such as chickpeas, kidney beans, and baked beans
• Nuts and seeds, such as almonds, peanuts, and cashews
• Seafood, such as oysters, crab, and lobster (this only applies to pescatarians and semi-vegetarians)
• Yogurt and cheese
• Foods fortified with zinc, such as milk and cereals
Iron: Iron is needed for red blood cells. The body does not absorb the type of iron found from plant foods as well as from the type found in meat and other animal foods. Sources of iron include:
• Beans and legumes, such as white beans, lentils, and kidney beans
• Green vegetables, such as broccoli, spinach, kale, and collard greens
• Dried fruit, such as prunes, raisins, and apricots
• Whole grains
• Foods fortified with iron, such as cereals and breads
Eating foods that are high in vitamin C at the same meal as iron-rich foods increase iron absorption. Vitamin C helps the body absorb iron. Foods high in vitamin C include tomatoes, potatoes, citrus fruits, bell peppers, and strawberries.
Calcium: Foods high in calcium help keep bones strong. Dairy products have the highest amount of calcium. If a vegetarian does not eat dairy, it can be hard to get enough. Oxalates, a substance found in plant foods inhibits calcium absorption. Foods that are high in both oxalates and calcium are not good sources of calcium. Examples include spinach, Swiss chard, and beet greens.
Good sources of calcium include:
• Sardines and canned salmon with bones (this only applies to pescetarians and semi-vegetarians)
• Dairy products, such as milk, yogurt, cottage cheese, and cheese
• Green vegetables, such as collard greens, kale, bok choy, and broccoli
• Oranges and figs
• Tofu
• Almonds, Brazil nuts, sunflower seeds, tahini, and white beans
• Foods fortified with calcium, such as cereal, orange juice, and soy, almond and rice milk
Omega-3 fatty acids: Omega-3s are important for heart and brain health. Sources of omega-3s include:
• Fatty fish, such as halibut, mackerel, salmon, herring, and sardines (this only applies to pescatarians and semi-vegetarians)
• Nuts and seeds, such as walnuts, pumpkin seeds, ground flaxseed, canola oil, chia seeds
• Soybeans and soy oil
• Foods fortified with omega-3s, such as bread, eggs, juice, and milk
Protein: If you eat fish and/or eggs and dairy getting enough protein will not be a concern for most people. Protein sources also include:
• Soy foods, such as soy nuts, soy milk, tempeh and tofu.
• Seitan (made of gluten).
• Vegetarian meat substitutes. Just watch for products that are high in sodium.
• Legumes, beans, and lentils.
• Nuts, nut butters, seeds, and whole grains.
• Dairy products such as milk, yogurt, and cottage cheese.
These foods do not need to be combined in the same meal to get enough protein.738
The Dietary Guidelines 2015-2020 includes a Healthy Vegetarian Pattern that was adapted from the Healthy U.S.-Style Pattern, modifying amounts recommended from some food groups. The current Healthy Vegetarian Pattern includes changes in food group composition and amounts, based on assessing the food choices of vegetarians.739
Tips for Menu Planning for Children with Vegetarian Diets
When following a vegetarian diet, keep in mind the following:
• Provide different kinds of foods, including vegetables, fruits, beans, nuts, seeds, whole grains, and low-fat or fat-free dairy and eggs if their diet includes these.
• Choose fortified foods, such as cereals, breads, soy or almond milk, and fruits juices to get a full range of nutrients.
• Limit foods that are high in sugar, salt (sodium), and fat.
• Include a protein source with all meals.
• Learn to read the Nutrition Facts Label on food packages. The label tells you the ingredients and nutrition contents of the food product.
• If you follow a more restrictive diet, you may want to work with a dietitian to make sure you are getting enough nutrients.
Note: Vegetarian children may need to take supplements at home if their diet lacks certain vitamins and minerals.740
Pause to Reflect
What familiarity do you have with any of the varieties of food preferences (including those that may not have been presented in the book)?
Family Style Meal Service
Currently, traditional family style meal service is the recommended approach to serving meals in preschool settings. Using this approach, all foods on the menu are served at the same time in serving bowls that are passed around the table, and children self-serve the amounts they desire. There are a number of potential advantages to traditional family-style meal service including allowing children the opportunity to self-regulate consumption (match food selection with hunger level).741
This approach to mealtime creates a number of healthy habits that are important to the growth and development of children at any age. Children tend to eat more healthy foods if they see their friends try it. They learn skills such as taking turns, sharing, and teamwork.
Family style dining opens up opportunities for conversation, which increases vocabulary, promotes proper use of language and interaction with friends.
There are even more benefits that support healthy growth. Children learn:
• portion sizes for each food group
• to recognize when they are hungry or satisfied
• how to identify healthy foods and where they come from
• to improve fine motor skills
Children are not the only ones who benefit. Providers get a better grasp of food costs, get help with mealtime service and, with less food being wasted, they save money.743
Tips for Family Style Dining
• Start with the right equipment. When purchasing serving dishes, utensils and other place settings, keep in mind that they need to be kid-friendly and sized for little hands to maneuver
• Remember each child’s skill level when choosing your menu. Finger foods and foods that are easy to navigate with a child-size fork or spoon are easiest to self-serve for younger children.
• Have multiple sets of utensils and serving spoons in case someone drops one on the floor.
• Give each child a task to help set the table. One child can set the plates, one can place the cups and so on. Children have a sense of pride and belonging when they have a contributing role.
• Offer a variety of familiar foods and don’t forget to introduce new foods. Children are more willing to try something new when they serve themselves.
• Reserve extra servings for second helpings or in case the bowl of food gets contaminated.
• Provide a trash can for children in which to dispose napkins and uneaten food. Provide a tub for them to place dirty dishes after they scrape them off.
• Keep cleaning supplies nearby. Spills will happen. Be patient and use this opportunity as a teaching moment on how to clean-up.
• Most importantly, eat with the children. Children learn from good role models. Sitting with them while everyone eats also allows you to start positive mealtime conversations.744
Food from Home
Some early care and education programs depend on families to provide some or all of children’s meals and snacks. According to Sweitzer et al (2011), “[o]bservations of lunches of three to five year old children attending fulltime childcare support the need for parent education about packing healthy lunches.” They site several studies that show inadequate servings of fruit and vegetables and foods that fail to meet the Daily Reference Intakes for essential nutrients in foods brought from home. They also site several studies that demonstrated that knowledge and attitudes about nutrition were positively linked to serving fruits and vegetables to children. As they stated, parents report barriers to supporting their young children’s healthy eating. “Common barriers for consumption of fruits and vegetables are the child’s preferences, preparation time involved, and higher cost of those items.”745
Food brought from home, should be labeled with the child’s name and date and stored in the refrigerator when needed. When prepared and served to children it is important to follow food safety practices (discussed in the next section of the book). Foods for one child should never be given to another child.747
Tips for Supporting Families in Providing Nutritious Food From Home
In the Sweitzer et al (2011) study, parents were interviewed about how early care and education programs could help families provide better nutrition for their children. Here are some tips based on their findings:
• Provide regular written information to families about nutrients and their importance for health
• Provide convenient and affordable recipes and tips for families
• Foster connection and interaction between families through events, support groups, and recipe exchanges
• Consider including nutrition as a topic of workshops for families
• Connect with community resources and local markets to expand opportunities and information for families
• Remember to be budget-friendly with resources and recipes shared748
Food Safety
Even the most nutritious, visually appealing, affordable, delicious food won’t keep children healthy if it isn’t stored, prepared, and served safely. Let’s look at recommendations for food safety in early care and education programs based on the California Department of Social Services and Child Care Advocate Program’s Child Care Center Self-Assessment Guide – Safe Food Handling and Preparation: Licensing Requirements and Best Practices.
Safe Shopping
When purchasing food for an early care and education program:
• Do not buy or use meat, poultry, and meat products unless they have been inspected.
• Do not use or buy home-canned food from outside sources, food from dented, rusted, bulging, or leaking cans, or food from cans without labels.
• Do not buy or use raw or non-pasteurized milk or milk products, or non-pasteurized juices.
• Place frozen food and perishables such as meat, poultry, or fish in plastic bags and put them in the shopping cart last.
• Do not buy torn or leaking packages.
• Do not buy foods past “sell-by” or expiration dates.750
Storage Before Preparation
To keep foods safe from spoilage and contamination before you prepare them:
• Keep your refrigerator and freezer clean and in safe condition.
• Store soaps, detergents, cleaning compounds, or similar substances away from food supplies to prevent accidental poisoning, potential leakage problems, and contamination. Always keep these substances away from children.
• Do not store pesticides and other similar toxic substances where you store, cook, or prepare food, or where you store kitchen equipment or utensils. Always keep these substances away from children.
• Unpack perishable foods from the car first and put them in the refrigerator right away.
• Keep the refrigerator temperature at 40° F or less, and the freezer at 0° F, to slow the growth of most bacteria and keep them from multiplying.
• Check the temperature of your refrigerator and freezer daily with an appliance thermometer.
• Keep all food stored in the refrigerator and freezer covered, wrapped, stored in airtight containers, or otherwise protected from contamination.
• Wrap raw meat, poultry, and seafood securely to prevent raw juices from contaminating other foods. Store them in the meat drawer or coldest section of the refrigerator or freezer.
• Do not store perishable foods, such as eggs, in the refrigerator door. The temperature of storage bins in the door fluctuates more than the temperature in the cabinet.
• Cook or freeze fresh poultry, fish, ground meat, and mixed meats within 2 days after you buy them. Cook or freeze other beef, veal, lamb, or pork within 3 to 5 days.
• Use the cold storage chart in Table 15.9 for guidelines of how long different food products can be safely stored in the refrigerator and freezer.
• Store food that does not need refrigeration in a way to keep insects and rodents from entering the food. For example, keep storage containers off the floor.
• Store dry, bulk foods that are not in their original, unopened containers off the floor in clean metal, glass, or food-grade plastic containers with tight-fitting covers. Label and date the containers.
• Keep storerooms clean, dry, well ventilated, and cool (about 60° F).
• These storage guidelines for home-refrigerated foods will keep them from spoiling or becoming dangerous to eat. The guidelines for freezer storage are for quality only. Frozen foods remain safe indefinitely.751
Table 15.9 – Cold Storage Chart752
Food Product
Refrigerator (40 F)
Freezer (0 F)
Eggs
Fresh, in shell
Hard-cooked
3 to 5 weeks
1 week
Don’t freeze
Don’t freeze well
Liquid Pasteurized Eggs, Egg Substitute
Opened
Unopened
3 days
10 days
Don’t freeze well
1 year
Deli and Vacuum-Packed Products
Egg, chicken, ham, tuna, and macaroni salads
3 to 5 days
Don’t freeze well
Hot Dogs
Opened package
Unopened package
1 week
2 weeks
1 to 2 months
1 to 2 months
Luncheon Meat
Open package or deli-sliced
Unopened package
3 to 5 days
2 weeks
1 to 2 months
1 to 2 months
Bacon and Sausage
Bacon
Sausage, raw – from pork, chicken, turkey, and beef
7 days
1 to 2 days
1 month
1 to 2 months
Hamburger and Other Ground Meats
Hamburger ground beef, turkey, veal, pork, lamb, and mixtures of them
1 to 2 days
3 to 4 months
Fresh Beef, Veal, Lamb, and Pork
Steaks
Chops
Roasts
3 to 5 days
3 to 5 days
3 to 5 days
6 to 12 months
4 to 6 months
4 to 12 months
Fresh Poultry
Chicken or turkey, whole
Chicken or turkey, pieces
1 to 2 days
1 to 2 days
1 year
9 months
Seafood
Lean fish (flounder, haddock, halibut, etc.)
Fatty fish (salmon, tuna, etc.)
1 to 2 days
1 to 2 days
6 to 8 months
2 to 3 months
Soups and Stews
Vegetable or meat added
3 to 4 days
2 to 3 months
Leftovers
Cooked meat or poultry
Chicken nuggets or patties
Pizza
3 to 4 days
3 to 4 days
3 to 4 days
2 to 6 months
1 to 3 months
1 to 2 months
Preparing
Safe food preparation practices include:
• Keep all kitchen equipment, dishes, and utensils clean and in safe condition.
• Wash dishes and eating and serving utensils in a dishwasher (reach a temperature of 165° F during the washing or drying cycle) or by hand with a sanitizing agent.
• Keep the food preparation area separate from the eating, napping, play, toilet and bathroom areas, and from areas where animals are kept. Never use the food preparation area as a passageway while food is being prepared.
• Make sure that all staff wash their hands before preparing food, serving and eating meals and snacks, and after toileting, diapering, and outdoor activities. The best way to combat the spread of communicable disease or germs is by careful handwashing with liquid soap, rinsing under running water, and drying with paper towels.
• Do not wash hands in food preparation sinks to prevent contamination of food.
• Keep all surfaces that come in contact with food (including tables and countertops), floors, and shelving in good repair. Use smooth and nonporous materials that are easily cleaned and sanitized.
• Use cutting boards that can be disinfected (such as glass, Formica, or plastic). Always clean them with soap and hot water after each use.
• Do not use cutting boards with crevices and cuts because they can hide food material that can grow bacteria and contaminate the next food cut on the surface.
• Always clean and sanitize cutting boards, knives, and other utensils after they come in contact with raw meat, poultry, and seafood. Use one cutting board for raw meat products and another for salads and ready-to-eat foods to prevent cross-contamination of bacteria from one food to another.
• Air-dry hand-washed dishes to eliminate recontamination from hands or towels.
• Use dishes with smooth, hard-glazed surfaces that do not have cracks or chips.
• Clean and sanitize table surfaces before and after use.
• Sanitize kitchen dishcloths and sponges often because these materials can hide bacteria and promote their growth.
• Wash kitchen towels and cloths often in hot water in the washing machine.
• Clean the can opener blade after each use.
• Keep garbage in a covered container, away from children. Empty the garbage every day to reduce odors, control insects and rodents, and protect children and the child care center from contamination.
• Occasionally sanitize the kitchen sink, drain, disposal, and connecting pipe by pouring a solution of one teaspoon of chlorine bleach in one quart of water or a commercial cleaning solution down the drain.
• Wash fresh fruits and vegetables with water, and soap and scrub brush when needed, to reduce or eliminate any pesticides or residues.
• Do not allow infants and toddlers in the food preparation area to protect them from kitchen hazards.754
Thawing
To protect against foodborne illness, follow the following practices when thawing frozen foods
• Do not thaw meat, poultry, and fish products on the counter or sink because harmful bacteria can grow at room temperature.
• Thaw food in the refrigerator or microwave oven.
• Immediately cook food thawed in the microwave.
• Use defrosted food (cooked or frozen) within 1 to 2 days.755
Cooking
Foods must be cooked at high enough temperatures and for long enough to kill any possible microorganisms they may be contaminated with. Here are some general guidelines
• Never serve raw or slightly cooked eggs. Cook eggs until the white is firm and the yolk begins to harden. Substitute pasteurized eggs for raw eggs if sampling homemade dough, cake batter, or eating other foods made with raw eggs such as ice cream, mayonnaise, and eggnog.
• Use a meat thermometer to determine the temperature in the thickest part of the meat.756 Cook all food to these minimum internal temperatures provided in Table 15.8 as measured with a food thermometer before removing food from the heat source. For reasons of personal preference, consumers may choose to cook food to higher temperatures.757
Table 15.8 – Safe Minimum Internal Temperature Chart758
Food Product
Minimum Internal Temperature (F) & Rest Time
Ground meats
160
Beef, Pork, Veal & Lamb Steaks, chops, roasts
145 and allow to rest for at least 3 minutes
Ham, fresh or smoked (uncooked)
145 and allow to rest for at least 3 minutes
Fully Cooked Ham (to reheat)
Reheat cooked hams packaged in USDA-inspected plants to 140 °F; all others to 165 °F
All Poultry (breasts, whole bird, legs, thighs, and wings, ground poultry, and stuffing)
165
Eggs
160
Fish & Shellfish
145
Leftovers, to reheat
165
Leftovers
165
Food Service
To continue to protect against foodborne illness and prevent injury, food must be served following food safety guidelines, including:
• Keep hot foods hot (over 140° F) and cold food cold (under 40° F) until they are eaten or cooked.
• Carry perishable picnic food in a cooler with a cold pack or ice. Store the cooler in the shade and open it as little as possible.
• Do not leave cooked, perishable foods, including hot foods such as soups or sauces, out for more than two hours after cooking (one hour in temperatures over 90° F). The bacteria that cause foodborne illness grow rapidly at room temperature.
• Never offer foods that are round, hard, small, thick and sticky, smooth, or slippery to children under four years of age because they can cause choking. Hot dogs (sliced into rounds), whole grapes, hard candy, nuts, seeds, raw peas, dried fruit, pretzels, chips, peanuts, popcorn, marshmallows, spoonfuls of peanut butter, and chunks of meat, which are larger than can be swallowed whole are examples of foods that can cause choking.
• Cut food into small pieces for infants (¼ inch) and toddlers (½ inch).
• Do not use microwave ovens for warming infant bottles and infant food because the microwave can heat liquids or food unevenly and to scalding temperatures. The milk or formula in a microwaved bottle may reach a higher temperature than the outside of the bottle.759
Handling Leftovers
All food that has been served to children must be discarded after the meal or snack. If a program chooses to save food that has not been served to children, follow these guidelines:
• Divide large amounts of leftovers (for example, large cuts of meat or poultry) into smaller portions and place them in shallow containers before refrigerating for faster cooling.
• Use refrigerated leftovers within three to four days or discard them.
• Bring sauces, soups, and gravy to a boil when reheating. Heat other leftovers to 165° F.760
Pause to Reflect
What are some new things you learned about food safety? Do you have any questions about food safety that weren’t addressed in this section? If so, where could you find answers to them?
Summary
When staff in early care and education programs have an understanding of the CACFP meal patterns and health sources for all of the food groups, they have the foundation to plan menus that consider cost, variety, aesthetics, and balance. They can also support families in providing healthy food to their children. And with a solid grounding in food safety policies and practices they can buy, store, prepare, cook, and serve food to children safely. | textbooks/socialsci/Early_Childhood_Education/Book%3A_Health_Safety_and_Nutrition_(Paris)/Section_IV%3A_Nutrition/15%3A_Menu_Planning_and_Food_Safety.txt |
Learning Objectives
Students will
• Explore How Children Learn
• Identify Theories in Early Childhood Programs
• Connect the Theories to Practice through Interaction & Intentionality
• Explore Use of 21st Century Technology in ECE
Early Childhood Educational Programming is fundamentally grounded in developmentally appropriate practices and is supported through theoretical foundations woven throughout a curriculum. Various types of programs may emphasize one theory over another or take on more of an array of theories by combining approaches to achieve program goals.
02: The Importance of Play and Intentional Teac
Learning Objectives
After reading this chapter, students will be able to
• Define Play
• Identify stages of Play
• Review Types of Play
• Discuss the importance of play in learning
• Understand the role of the teacher
• Identify ways teachers can foster play
03: The Cycle of Curriculum
Learning Objectives
By the end of the chapter, you should be able to
• Explain how observation is the basis for curriculum planning
• Describe how to effectively document observations
• Connecting reflection to planning curriculum
• Discuss how the cycle of planning begins again as curriculum is implemented
• Summarize how curriculum planning occurs in a cycle
• Relate the importance of partnering with families
04: Developing Curriculum f
Learning Objectives
At the end of this chapter, students will be able to:
• Identify curriculum models for developing curriculum
• Connect child development theories to the various models
• Explore samples of a variety of forms for planning (Specific Activity Plan, weekly environmental plans, project plans, etc…)
Review vignettes of classroom experiences to inspire development of curriculum
05: Setting the Stage for Play- Envir
Learning Objectives
After reading this chapter, students will be able to:
• Identify the role of the Environment as a “Teacher”
• Connect Early Childhood Theories to the Environment
• Understand Learning Areas and Zones for DAP
• Identify and list appropriate materials for each learning area
• Analyze a variety of floor plans for indoors and outdoors
• Explore Temporal Environment by looking at schedules, routines and rituals, and transitions
The environment is often labeled as a “teacher” in Early Childhood Education. The meaning behind this label is that if an environment is intentionally created with developmentally appropriate practice in mind, it will serve to assist with learning as well as classroom management. A quality early childhood educational environment, whether it is indoor, outdoor or temporal, should encourage engagement, stimulate learning and promote growth in all areas of development.
The effective preschool teacher recognizes, understands, and respects the values of children’s families and communities and attempts to make the preschool environment as congruent with those values as possible.[1]
06: Guiding Behavior and Managing the
Learning Objectives
At the end of the chapter, students should be able to:
• Identify factors that influence behavior
• Discuss the role of teachers in guiding behavior
• Explain influences on behavior
• Summarize principles of positive guidance
• Describe guidance strategies to use for children with disabilities
• Apply positive strategies to address behaviors
Social-emotional development is foundational to children’s learning in all other domains. Through children’s experiences in close relationships with parents and teachers, children develop and learn the social-emotional skills necessary to act and interact with self-confidence, regulate their behavior, and be successful in the early school years and beyond. With the guidance of responsive and caring adults, “young children develop an understanding of other people’s feelings and needs, are encouraged to feel empathy and caring, learn to manage their own behavior as responsible group members, and acquire a variety of other capabilities that will be directly related to their success in managing the classroom environment of kindergarten or the primary grades” (CDE 2008, 4).[1] | textbooks/socialsci/Early_Childhood_Education/Book%3A_Introduction_to_Curriculum_for_Early_Childhood_Education_(Paris_Beeve_and_Springer)/01%3A_Section_I-_Understanding_How_Children_Learn/01%3A_Foundations_in_Early_Childhood_Curriculum-_.txt |
Learning Objectives
By the end of this introduction, you should be able to:
• Summarize the developmental characteristics of preschoolers
• Explain what learning foundations are
• Describe the purpose of the curriculum frameworks
• Discuss the role of the Desired Results Developmental Profile
• Identify the domains that we categorize curriculum into for the purpose of learning about planning and implementing it
What Preschoolers are Like
In order to plan for children it is vital to begin with one aspect of developmentally appropriate practice, which relates to the developmental characteristics of children based on their age. Here are some representations of what children are like at each age in the preschool years. You can find more developmental milestones in Appendix E.
You will notice that consideration for the other two aspects of developmentally appropriate practice which are also critical to our work, understanding individual children and seeing children in the context of their families and larger culture, are included throughout each domain based chapter.
Using the California Preschool Learning Foundations, California Preschool Curriculum Framework, and Desired Results Developmental Profile
The following six chapters on planning curriculum for preschools have been compiled using the California Preschool Learning Foundations and the Preschool Curriculum Frameworks. These well-researched documents published by the California Department of Education can be used along with the Desired Results Developmental Profile (DRDP), to support implementing the curriculum planning process with young children.
Each of these resources fulfills an important role in the curriculum planning process:
California Preschool Learning Foundations
The foundations describe competencies—knowledge and skills—that most children can be expected to exhibit in a high quality program as they complete their first or second year of preschool. In other words, the foundations are destination points of learning that, with appropriate support, children move toward and often reach during the preschool years.
The foundations are designed to promote understanding of young children’s development of knowledge and skills and to help with considering appropriate ways to support children’s learning. In essence, the foundations serve as a cornerstone for educating practitioners about children’s learning and development. The foundations are designed to be used in combination with other sources of information: formal educational course work on early learning and development, information on individual differences, including those related to disabilities, knowledge about the contribution of cultural and linguistic experiences to early development, and English-language development, insights from children’s families, and the practical experiences of preschool teachers and program directors.
The support needed to attain the competencies varies from child to child. Many children learn simply by participating in high-quality preschool programs. Such programs offer children environments and experiences that encourage active playful exploration and experimentation. With play as an integral part of the curriculum, high-quality programs include purposeful teaching to help children gain knowledge and skills.
The foundations are at the heart of the California Department of Education’s (CDE) approach to promoting preschool learning. Teachers use best practices, curricular strategies, and instructional techniques that assist children in learning the knowledge and skills described in the preschool learning foundations. The “how-to’s” of teaching young children include setting up environments, supporting children’s self-initiated play, selecting appropriate materials, and planning and implementing teacher-guided learning activities.
Two major considerations underlie the “how-tos” of teaching. First, teachers can effectively foster early learning by thoughtfully considering the preschool learning foundations as they plan environments and activities. And second, during every step in the planning for young children’s learning, teachers have an opportunity to tap into the prominent role of play. Teachers can best support young children by both encouraging the rich learning that occurs in children’s self-initiated play and by introducing purposeful instructional activities that playfully engage preschoolers in learning.
Professional development is a key component of early care and education in fostering preschool learning. The foundations can become a unifying element for both preservice and in-service professional development. Preschool program directors and teachers can use the foundations to facilitate curriculum planning and implementation. At the center of the CDE’s evolving system for supporting young children during the preschool years, the foundations are designed to help teachers be intentional and focus their efforts on the knowledge and skills that all young children need to acquire for success in preschool and early elementary school—and throughout life.
Making Connections
Here’s an example of a learning foundation from the Music strand of the Visual and Performing Arts Domain.
At around 48 months children:
3.3 Improvise vocally and instrumentally
This foundation will be connected to the CA Preschool Curriculum Framework and the Desired Results Developmental Profile 2015 later in this introduction.
California Preschool Curriculum Framework
Young children enter preschool with a sense of wonder and a love of learning. They have an insatiable appetite for knowledge when they have learning experiences that are engaging and enjoyable. Positive experiences in which children can make choices and explore help them feel competent and confident. How can we offer them engaging and enjoyable learning experiences that fuel their intellectual engines and build their confidence? How can we connect children’s fascination with learning in every domain and make the most of their time in preschool? With these questions in mind, the California Department of Education (CDE) developed the curriculum framework for preschool programs, which include any early childhood setting where three- to five-year-old children receive education and care.
This curriculum framework provides an overall approach for teachers to support children’s learning through environments and experiences that are:
The framework presents ways of setting up environments, encouraging and building upon children’s self-initiated play, selecting appropriate materials, and planning and implementing teacher-guided learning activities. As preschool teachers plan learning environments and experiences, the foundations provide the background information to:
In essence, curriculum planning should offer children learning opportunities that are attuned to their developing abilities and their interests and should be connected with their experiences at home and in their communities.
In the National Association for the Education of Young Children’s accreditation criteria, it is stated that a curriculum includes the goals for the knowledge and skills to be acquired by children and the plans for learning experiences through which such knowledge and skills will be acquired. A preschool curriculum typically defines a sequence of integrated experiences, interactions, and activities to help young children reach specific learning goals. A curriculum framework provides general guidance on planning learning environments and experiences for young children. Thus, as a curriculum framework, this document provides:
Eight principles have guided the development of this curriculum framework. Grounded in early childhood research and practice, the following eight principles emphasize offering young children individually, culturally, and linguistically responsive learning experiences and environments:
The concepts and strategies described in the preschool curriculum framework require thoughtful planning and implementation. They are grounded in evidence-based practices that have evolved in the early childhood education field over decades. The ability to apply a broad understanding of early learning and development in the preschool setting takes time and experience. With appropriate professional development, preschool program administrators and teachers can use the curriculum framework to guide their planning and implementation of environments and experiences that allow all young children to prosper during the preschool years.
Making Connections
How do teachers use the Curriculum Frameworks to support children’s development of the foundations? Here are some takeaways from the Curriculum Framework in Visual and Performing Arts domain that will support the example foundation “Improvise vocally and instrumentally” mentioned before:
A guiding principle:
A basic needs for the environment and materials:
Teachers can support music foundations by:
[Providing] music areas where children can experience instruments or musical activities as individuals or in a small group.
Desired Results Developmental Profile (DRDP)
The Desired Results Developmental Profile (2015) is a developmental continuum from early infancy to kindergarten entry. It is a formative assessment instrument developed by the California Department of Education for young children and their families used to inform curricular decisions and program development. It was designed to improve the quality of programs and services provided to young children who are enrolled in child care outside the home.
Key Features of the DRDP 2015
The DRDP will be further explored in Chapter 17 on Documentation and Assessment.
Making Connections
And to close the loop on these three resources, here is a measure in the Desired Results Developmental Profile (2015) Visual and Performing Arts domain that assesses where a child is currently at developmentally in relation to the example foundation, “Improvise vocally and instrumentally”:
VPA 2: Music – Child expresses and creates by making musical sounds, with increasing intentionality and complexity.
Dividing Development and Curriculum Into Domain
We know that children certainly do not develop in isolated domains (as the images earlier in this introduction might lead you to assume). Their development is holistic and the domains are interrelated. What happens in one domain or area influences and/or is influenced by what happens in other domains or areas. We also know that learning is integrated and that curriculum should reflect that. Children do not just learn about one curriculum area or domain. A spontaneous or planned experience will touch on numerous curriculum areas.
But to make these domains easier to explore we study them separately, while keeping in mind that they are interconnected and interrelated.
The Preschool Learning Foundations and Curriculum Frameworks are divided into nine domains. Our book will feature these as eight separate chapters. This table summarizes how these are related.
Table \(1\): Curriculum Domains
California Resources Domains
Textbook Chapter
Social and Emotional Development
Social and Emotional Development
Language and Literacy
Language and Literacy
Mathematics
Mathematics
Science
Science
Visual and Performing Arts
Creative Arts
History-Social Science
History and Social Science
Physical Development
Physical Development
Health
Health and Safety
English Language Development
(not included) | textbooks/socialsci/Early_Childhood_Education/Book%3A_Introduction_to_Curriculum_for_Early_Childhood_Education_(Paris_Beeve_and_Springer)/04%3A_Section_IV-_Planning_for_Childrens_Learning/00%3A_Introduction_to_Planning_for_Preschoolers.txt |
Learning Objectives
By the end of the chapter, you should be able to:
• Explain how social-emotional development lays the foundation for and is interrelated with all other domains and areas of development
• Describe the foundations in social and emotional development that high quality early childhood programs support
• Discuss how the environment contributes to children’s social and emotional development
• Identify ways educators can support children’s social and emotional development
• Summarize ways to engage families in curriculum for social and emotional development
07: Social and Emotional Development
Social-emotional development indicates how preschool children acquire the social skills, self-awareness, and personal qualities that are interconnected with learning in a classroom. Why is social-emotional development important to early learning?
• Many social-emotional qualities—such as curiosity; self-confidence as a learner; self-control of attention, thinking, and impulses; and initiative in developing new ideas—are essential to learning at any age. Learning, problem solving, and creativity rely on these social-emotional and motivational qualities as well as basic cognitive skills.
• When learning occurs in groups, such as in preschool classrooms or family child care programs, the social environment significantly influences how learning occurs. When young children enjoy interacting with adults and other children, they are more enthusiastic about activities and participate more.
• The interest and enthusiasm of others fuels the child’s own excitement about learning, and children are also motivated by others’ acknowledgment of the child’s accomplishments.
• Children who have been reported as having the greatest difficulties in learning are hindered by the lack of social-emotional qualities more than academic concepts.
• The developing brain is not neatly divided into separate areas governing learning, thinking, and emotions. Instead, it is a highly interconnected organ with different regions influencing, and being affected by, the others. This means, for example, that young children who experience emotional challenges (perhaps because of stress) are less ready for learning because the brain regions related to memory are being affected by other regions governing emotion. [1]
Pause to Reflect
What is your reaction to the importance of social and emotional development to children’s learning? Did you already know this information? Do you think most people are aware of this?
7.02: Gu
Early learning is supported by attention to social-emotional development. Rather than taking time away from activities promoting learning and thinking, attention to the development of self, social interactions, and relationships is an essential component of an early childhood curriculum designed to promote learning in all young children. Here are some guiding principles on how to do that:
• Support social-emotional development with intentionality and ample opportunities to practice skills
• Attend to the impact of overall program design on social-emotional development (how you group children, what you model, etc.)
• Utilize curriculum practices that support healthy social-emotional development, including:
• allow many opportunities for practicing social interaction and relationship skills
• provide support for the growth of age and developmentally appropriate self-regulation abilities
• encourage curiosity and initiative
• provide each child a network of nurturing, dependable adults who will actively support and scaffold his or her learning in a group setting
• The most effective approach is play-based active learning
Here are some additional strategies to support children’s social and emotional development:
• Create a program environment and daily routines that offer children opportunities for responsible and cooperative roles in the classroom or family child care community.
• Model desirable behavior and attitudes in interactions with children and other adults.
• Use the family culture to create bridges between the program and the home, supporting children’s pride in their family experience, and understand individual differences in background and viewpoint.
• Enlist adults as active co-explorers in children’s chosen activities.
• Encourage children’s ideas, initiative, and contributions to shared activities.
• Observe children attentively, as they play, to understand each child’s needs, interests, strengths, and areas of growth in social-emotional development.
• Establish developmentally and culturally appropriate expectations for children’s behavior, especially expectations for self-control and self-regulation.
• Narrate for children what they are observed doing and expressing, providing language to describe their thoughts and feelings and to clarify others’ feelings.
• Provide specific feedback to children about their efforts, reinforcing their choices that support learning and linking their actions to outcomes.
• Coach and guide children’s behavior by using positive, respectful phrasing and tone to prompt problem solving and to give brief instructions and reminders.
• Help children to understand social cues (facial expressions, body language, tone of voice). This can be fostered by simply allowing the children to freely play with their peers (learning through experience), or by modeling your own thought processes by thinking out loud (“I wonder what it means when Hayden is crying?”)[1] | textbooks/socialsci/Early_Childhood_Education/Book%3A_Introduction_to_Curriculum_for_Early_Childhood_Education_(Paris_Beeve_and_Springer)/04%3A_Section_IV-_Planning_for_Childrens_Learning/07%3A_Social_and_Emotional_Development/7.01%3A_In.txt |
The physical environment provides young children with expectations for behavior. When educators are mindful of the aesthetics, organization, and function of each area in the space, challenging behavior is likely to decrease while constructive, cooperative behavior increases.
A program’s vision for learning and philosophy of care dictate how an environment is designed. For example, if the curriculum is based on the view that children are competent directors of their own learning, educators develop a physical setting and activities that reflect children’s emerging interests and provide easy access to meaningful play materials. Shelves for manipulatives and other materials are near the floor where children can easily reach them. Special areas in the room are designed for individual, small-group, and larger-group interactions. Play materials and other materials are carefully selected to reflect children’s emerging interests, as observed in the context of play and conversation. In this environment, adult-child interactions can expand children’s questions and comments.
High-quality learning environments set the stage for social-emotional exploration and growth. When children are presented with a warm, inviting, and culturally familiar environment, they feel comfortable and secure. The attractive spaces adults prepare for children communicate expectations of responsibility and cooperative care (we all play in and care for this beautiful place together).
Preparing a variety of learning areas with open-ended materials encourages each child to participate in meaningful play experiences that match their individual temperaments and abilities. Incorporating elements from the home creates an atmosphere of community while simultaneously acknowledging the presence of individuals.
A physical environment that supports social-emotional learning has the following characteristics:
• Challenging and developmentally appropriate materials
• Ample supply of materials
• Appropriately sized small-group activities
• A variety of small-group activities within a range of adult supervision
• Aesthetically appealing
• Spaces to be with others and spaces to be alone
• Furnishings and materials accessible to children
• Displays of children’s work
• Space for children’s belongings
• Reflective of diversity
• Space for arrivals and departures
• Supportive of children’s active engagement
• Outdoor areas supportive of social-emotional development
Just as the physical environment helps young children successfully meet the social-emotional demands of the curriculum so, too, does the design of the daily schedule. Young children are better able to manage themselves and their relationships when daily routines and activities are predictable, transitions are signaled and supported, and there is a balance between relatively active and relatively quiet play and between group and individual activities. In the sections that follow, strategies to support social-emotional development are described in detail.[2]
Helping Children Cope with Stress
Teachers in an early childhood education program are often the first persons outside the family to become aware that a young child may be experiencing overwhelming stress. They may notice a child who reacts with uncharacteristic aggression to a peer’s comment that would not bother another child, or they may notice that a child has become unusually quiet and withdrawn lately. Young children convey their stress in individualized ways: some are emotionally over-reactive, while others are emotionally over-controlled; some become clingy, others withdrawn; some become provocative and defiant. A common characteristic is that young children under stress exhibit a marked change from their ordinary behavior. They often lose their capacity for competence and self-control that they previously had. When teachers observe these changes in a child, it can be helpful to consult with parents to discover whether recent events have created challenges that children are having difficulty managing. Often these challenges arise from within the family.
How can teachers assist young children under stress? One of the most important things they can do is provide the child with a predictable, safe haven where children can feel secure. Teachers can create a comfortable and comforting everyday routine that is child-centered, individualized, responsive, and helpfully structured to give young children a sense of control and predictability that may be lacking in other aspects of the child’s life. Central to these efforts is providing children with supportive adult relationships that are reliable and helpful. This may be more difficult than one would expect because young children under stress often test these relationships to see whether teachers and other adults will remain responsive to them even when children act defiantly or negatively.
In some circumstances, it can be helpful for teachers to obtain the advice of an early childhood mental health consultant who can observe the child in the classroom, talk with the teacher about the child’s behavior, and suggest strategies for providing supportive assistance. Early childhood mental health consultants can be valuable resources to an early childhood education program. They can help teachers provide much-needed support to young children who may not have other such sources of support elsewhere in their lives.[4]
Pause to Reflect
What environments make you feel most socially and emotionally competent? How do you deal with your stress? Why should you be thinking about those things as a teacher? | textbooks/socialsci/Early_Childhood_Education/Book%3A_Introduction_to_Curriculum_for_Early_Childhood_Education_(Paris_Beeve_and_Springer)/04%3A_Section_IV-_Planning_for_Childrens_Learning/07%3A_Social_and_Emotional_Development/7.03%3A_En.txt |
The domain of social-emotional development encompasses three areas or strands:
• self
• social interaction
• relationships[1]
Supporting Children’s Developing Self
Early learning deeply engages the self. Most preschool children approach learning opportunities with enthusiasm and self-confidence, excited by the prospect of new discovery. Their successes (and occasional failures) shape their sense of what they can do and sometimes drive their efforts to acquire new skills. Their achievements and occasional disappointments also provoke the responses of others—adults and peers—that further influence children’s self-concept and self-confidence. Young children value learning for themselves because it is valued by the people who matter to them.
In a preschool program, learning is a social activity. Therefore, preschool children’s success in learning depends on their capacity to understand and participate constructively in the social environment. Early childhood is a period of rapid growth in social and emotional understanding in which the children’s capacity for empathy and caring is also developing. This is also a period of growth in self-regulation as young children are acquiring skills for sustaining their attention, focusing their thinking and problem-solving, managing their behavioral impulses, and controlling their emotions. Even so, lapses in self-regulation are as apparent as young children’s successes, and developmentally appropriate expectations for children’s self-control are essential.
Therefore, a thoughtfully designed preschool curriculum that supports social-emotional development devotes considerable attention to the direct and indirect ways that children’s classroom experiences shape the development of self.
The foundations for Self include those for self-awareness, self-regulation, social and emotional understanding, empathy and caring, and initiative in learning:
Self
1.0 Self-Awareness
At around 48 months of age
At around 60 months of age
2.1 Describe their physical characteristics, behavior, and abilities positively.
4.1 Compare their characteristics with those of others and display a growing awareness of their psychological characteristics, such as thoughts and feelings.
2.0 Self-Regulation
At around 48 months of age
At around 60 months of age
4.2 Need adult guidance in managing their attention, feelings, and impulses and show some effort at self-control.
2.1 Regulate their attention, thoughts, feelings, and impulses more consistently, although adult guidance is sometimes necessary.
3.0 Social and Emotional Understanding
At around 48 months of age
At around 60 months of age
4.3 Seek to understand people’s feelings and behavior, notice diversity in human characteristics, and are interested in how people are similar and different.
4.1 Begin to comprehend the mental and psychological reasons people act as they do and how they contribute to differences between people.
4.0 Empathy and Caring
At around 48 months of age
At around 60 months of age
4.4 Demonstrate concern for the needs of others and people in distress.
4.2 Respond to another’s distress and needs with sympathetic caring and are more likely to assist.
5.0 Initiative in Learning
At around 48 months of age
At around 60 months of age
4.5 Enjoy learning and are confident in their abilities to make new discoveries although may not persist at solving difficult problems.
4.3 Take greater initiative in making new discoveries, identifying new solutions, and persisting in trying to figure things out.
Teachers can support children’s development of the Self with the following:
• Provide ample space, use child-sized shelves and furnishings, and adapt materials to make all learning areas and activities accessible
• Designate learning areas to help children select preferred sites for exploration
• Place active play zones away from quiet areas to better support children in their choices for play
• Make use of adaptive tools and play materials to help the autonomous exploration of children with special needs
• Observe individual children attentively during a variety of activities
• Incorporate artwork and play materials that reflect children’s home cultures
• Describe aloud for children observations of what they do and express as they play, explore, and participate in group activities
• Compare aloud children’s past and present abilities as you observe them
• Give specific feedback to children about their efforts
• Use planned activities and children’s own observations to draw attention to people’s similarities and differences, including preferences and feelings
• Set up opportunities to practice problem solving with children who have not yet developed those skills
• Use appropriately stimulating aesthetic elements such as soothing colors, natural woods and fibers, and soft textures
• Eliminate or reduce background noise to help children attend to what you want them to hear
• Model behavior and attitudes that are warm, respectful, and caring
• Maintain developmentally appropriate expectations for preschool children’s behavior
• Guide and coach children’s behavior
• Prompt and guide desired behavior
• Reinforce children’s good choices and link their actions to positive outcomes
• Provide a consistent but flexible daily routine
• Alternate between active and quiet activities
• Time group experiences to match children’s developing attention spans, social skills, and self-control
• Introduce children to relaxation exercises
• Plan developmentally appropriate transitions
• Play games with rules periodically to help children learn to focus their attention and regulate their impulses in order to achieve a goal
• Observe the levels of social and emotional understanding that children already have
• Label the emotions people express and communicate with children about what may be provoking those feelings
• Discuss characteristics openly and answer their questions about differences, being thoughtful to counter stereotypes by using concrete examples
• Make use of the experiences and emotions of characters in stories
• Acknowledge and express appreciation for children’s empathic responses
• Encourage empathy and caring for the natural world, including plants and animals
• Model curiosity and enthusiasm when you learn new things
• Engage in play and exploration with children instead of simply supervising their activities
• Provide ample time for free exploration, scheduling play and exploration periods of at least one uninterrupted hour at a time
• Help children generate ideas for solving problems they encounter
• Model persistence during challenging tasks; explaining that unsuccessful attempts to do something are not failures, but simply steps toward learning what will work[3]
There were a lot of strategies listed to for teachers to help support children’s developing sense of self. What are the top five that stood out to you? Are there any that you are unsure about?
Vignettes
A child in a wheelchair enters the housekeeping area where three children are pretending to be a family. They have dishes on the table and dolls in the doll bed. The child in the wheelchair moves closer to the table and tries to join the play but cannot get close enough. After a few minutes, one of the children takes some dishes and puts them on the wheelchair tray. The two children play together. Mr. Luke comments, “I like your idea to use Andy’s tray as a table.”
Chloe cries in Ms. Julia’s arms. Ms. Julia pats her back softly and communicates in a soothing manner. “It sounds like that hurt. You can tell Paz you don’t like that. Say, ‘I don’t like that, Paz.’” Chloe tucks her injured arm in toward Ms. Julia’s body, shakes her head slowly side to side, and looks out warily at Paz. Paz stands close with her head lowered. “Chloe is upset because you pinched her arm. It hurt her quite a bit. Is there something you think we could do to help her feel better, Paz?” asks Ms. Julia.
Paz responds softly, “Sorry, Chloe,” and reaches forward to give Chloe a hug.
Chloe whimpers and clings more closely to Ms. Julia. “When a friend is hurt, giving a hug often helps. I guess Chloe isn’t ready for a hug right now. Thank you for trying, Paz. Maybe we can ask her again later.”[5]
Supporting Children’s Social Interaction
Group learning always involves social interaction. The ease and skill with which children interact with adults and peers (in a preschool classroom or family child care program) and the competence with which they assume their roles and responsibilities as group members significantly influence how they learn. The development of these skills in the preschool years is a foundation for children’s capacity to be socially skilled and competent classroom members in the primary grades.
For some children, unfortunately, difficulties in social interaction—because children are timid and inhibited, are aggressive or disruptive, struggle with being cooperative, or have physical or behavioral characteristics that often result in them being excluded—can pose significant obstacles to benefiting from social interactions with adults and peers. For them and for all children, attention to social interaction skills can be a significant contribution to preschool children’s learning in early childhood classrooms.
A thoughtfully designed preschool curriculum that supports social-emotional development devotes considerable attention, therefore, to the direct and indirect ways that classroom experiences shape the growth of children’s social interaction skills. This includes interactions with adults, peers, and in groups as well as cooperation and responsibility. | textbooks/socialsci/Early_Childhood_Education/Book%3A_Introduction_to_Curriculum_for_Early_Childhood_Education_(Paris_Beeve_and_Springer)/04%3A_Section_IV-_Planning_for_Childrens_Learning/07%3A_Social_and_Emotional_Development/7.04%3A_In.txt |
1.0 Interactions with Familiar Adults
At around 48 months of age
At around 60 months of age
1.1 Interact with familiar adults comfortably and competently, especially in familiar settings.
1.1 Participate in longer and more reciprocal interactions with familiar adults and take greater initiative in social interaction.
2.0 Interactions with Peers
At around 48 months of age
At around 60 months of age
2.1 Interact easily with peers in shared activities that occasionally become cooperative efforts.
2.1 More actively and intentionally cooperate with each other.
2.2 Participate in simple sequences of pretend play.
2.2 Create more complex sequences of pretend play that involve planning, coordination of roles, and cooperation.
2.3 Seek assistance in resolving peer conflict, especially when disagreements have escalated into physical aggression.
2.3 Negotiate with each other, seeking adult assistance when needed, and increasingly use words to respond to conflict. Disagreements may be expressed with verbal taunting in addition to physical aggression.
3.0 Group Participation
At around 48 months of age
At around 60 months of age
3.1 Participate in group activities and are beginning to understand and cooperate with social expectations, group rules, and roles.
3.1 Participate positively and cooperatively as group members.
4.0 Cooperation and Responsibility
At around 48 months of age
At around 60 months of age
4.1 Seek to cooperate with adult instructions but their capacities for self-control are limited, especially when they are frustrated or upset.
4.1 Have growing capacities for self-control and are motivated to cooperate in order to receive adult approval and think approvingly of themselves.
Teachers can support children’s development of the social interaction foundations with the following:
As children mature, they are able to better understand the perspectives of other people and can negotiate more constructively with peers to resolve conflicts.
Table 7.1: Developmental Sequence of Conflict Negotiation [3]
Level
Description of Level
Beginning level
Children can express to each other (using words, actions, or facial expressions) their own desires, but adults need to provide ideas for resolving disputes.
Next level
Children begin to use appropriate words and actions to express their perspectives and desires to each other and seek adults for help during disputes.
Next level
Children not only express their own needs and desires to each other during a conflict, but can suggest simple solutions based on their own perspectives.
Mature or proficient level
Children can consider each other’s perspectives when there is a disagreement and can suggest and agree on some mutually acceptable solutions.
Vignettes
Ju-Hye paints her palms and fingers with a rainbow of colors. With focused concentration, she slowly pushes her palm onto a piece of paper where she has already painted a “stem.” She lifts up her hand quickly. Ju-Hye smiles widely and then picks up her paper to show Ms. Betty, who is playing on the floor with two babies. Ms. Betty looks up and responds with a grin: “You finished your flower. You worked hard at mixing colors to make the color of green you wanted for your stem.”
Lucas stands close to his caregiver, Ms. Mai, who is sitting in the block area. Ms. Mai observes Lucas watching his peers at play as they build a large train. “This train is getting really big,” she comments to Lucas with a soft smile and a gentle hand on his back. Lucas nods his head slowly. “I wonder if Martin needs a helper. He said he is the engineer, but an engineer needs a conductor. Would you like to hand out and collect tickets?”
Lucas nods his head again and reaches for Ms. Mai’s hand as she gets up to move closer to the train. Ms. Mai provides Lucas her hand and another reassuring smile. “You could let Martin know you want to help. Tell Martin ‘I can collect the tickets.’”
Lucas pauses and then mumbles (or signs), “Martin, I can collect tickets.”
“You all look like you are having fun over here. Lucas wants to help too. Where are the tickets for Lucas to pass out to your riders?” restates Ms. Mai.
“Oh! Over there,” responds Martin, pointing over to the basket of torn pieces of paper.
“Thanks, Martin, for your help. Lucas, let’s go get the tickets and hand them to our friends. I think these builders will want to fill the train with passengers,” observes Ms. Mai excitedly. [4]
Pause to Reflect
One of the most challenging aspects about caring for and educating groups of young children can be helping them develop socially appropriate ways to express themselves and get their needs met? How skilled do you feel you would in helping children to develop conflict resolution skills? Why?
Supporting Children’s Relationships
Relationships shape young children’s learning. From infancy, parent–child and family relationships guide and motivate children’s love for discovery and learning and provide a secure foundation for the growth of exploration and self-confidence. In the classroom, special adults and friends make preschool an inviting place for children. The teacher is a bridge for the child, connecting her to relationships at home and in the classroom. Young children’s close relationships contribute in concert to the growth of early learning.
Relationships
1.0 Attachment to Parents
At around 48 months of age
At around 60 months of age
1.1 Seek security and support from their primary family attachment figures.
1.1 Take greater initiative in seeking support from their primary family attachment figures.
1.2 Contribute to maintaining positive relationships with their primary family attachment figures.
1.2 Contribute to positive mutual cooperation with their primary family attachment figures.
1.3 After experience with out-of-home care, manage departures and separations from primary family attachment figures with the teacher’s assistance.
1.3 After experience with out-of-home care, comfortably depart from their primary family attachment figures. Also maintain well-being while apart from primary family attachment figures during the day.
2.0 Close Relationships with Teachers and Caregivers
At around 48 months of age
At around 60 months of age
2.1 Seek security and support from their primary teachers and caregivers.
2.1 Take greater initiative in seeking the support of their primary teachers and caregivers.
2.2 Contribute to maintaining positive relationships with their primary teachers and caregivers.
2.2 Contribute to positive mutual cooperation with their primary teachers and caregivers.
3.0 Friendships
At around 48 months of age
At around 60 months of age
3.1 Choose to play with one or two special peers whom they identify as friends.
3.1 Friendships are more reciprocal, exclusive, and enduring.
Teachers can support children’s development of the relationships with the following:
Vignettes
Tanya eagerly comes through the front door and greets caregiver Natalya with her news: “Ms. Natalya, we went to the fair last night, and I got to pet goats and sheeps and chickens, except Papa said to stay back from the ducks, because they have bills that can bite you fast!”
Ms. Natalya knelt down, and Tanya reached out to her. “Wow, Tanya! You sound really excited about your night at the fair. Did your whole family go, Grandpa too?” she asked, looking at Tanya’s papa, who had accompanied her to the family child care home. Mr. Terebkov smiled and nodded, responding that it had been an enjoyable but late night for all of them. Ms. Natalya prompted Tanya to hug Papa goodbye, and then Tanya reached for Ms. Natalya’s hand as they moved together into the play area. Ms. Natalya asked Tanya more about her favorite part of the county fair.
“No, you’re not!” shouts Michelle. “Yes, I am! I’m the Mommy!” screams Lily.
“Well, you are a Silly Pilly. You’re not my friend anymore” counters Michelle, standing with her hands on her hips and a scowl on her face.
At Michelle’s words, Lily’s lip begins to quiver. Tears form in her eyes as she yells, “I am your friend! I am!”
Miss Sandra moves over to the confrontation, kneels between the girls, and says with concern, “You both look really upset. Something is wrong. Can you tell me what is happening?”
“She said I am not her friend!” exclaims Lily, trying to overcome her tears.
“She is being a mean-y pants. I don’t like her,” says Michelle.
“It sounds like both of you have hurt feelings. Being friends with someone means that sometimes we disagree and we get mad or sad. It sounds like that is happening right now. What can we do?”
“I am going to play with David,” huffs Michelle as she marches off.
Lily leans into Miss Sandra. Miss Sandra considers what she knows about each child’s individual temperament before responding: “It’s tricky sometimes with friends. Why don’t we take a little break from playing with Michelle? I’ll bet she will be ready to play later when you are both feeling better.” Miss Sandra helps Lily get involved in a new activity and then makes a mental note to check with each child’s parent at departure time. [8]
Pause to Reflect
Separating from parents is challenging for both children and families. How can you support children and the adults that they are attached to through this transition? Some of the strategies above are a great starting place.
Engaging Families
Teachers can make the following suggestions to families to facilitate their support of the visual and performing arts for their children:
Conclusion
The heart of a curriculum that nurtures children’s social-emotional development is play. A play-based, active learning approach allows many opportunities for practicing social interaction and relationship skills. It provides support for the growth of age- and developmentally appropriate self-regulation abilities. It encourages children’s own curiosity and initiative. Finally, play in a well-planned early learning program provides each child with a network of nurturing, dependable adults who will actively support and scaffold their learning in a group setting.
To be effective in accomplishing early learning goals, an active, play-based program must allow children to freely choose and pursue interests and activities, both alone and with others. It must encourage them to translate their own thoughts, ideas, and preferences into new activities and experiments. It must give them access to these opportunities for activity and exploration in a thoughtfully planned environment for a substantial portion of each preschool day. And most importantly, it must be planned and led by teachers who actively participate as co-explorers in children’s chosen activities. In this context, play is essential and is enhanced if materials are available to encourage creativity and problem solving, and if teachers are attentive to the social interactions that surround children’s play. This active, enthusiastic engagement of children and adults together in a learning community can lead to dramatic growth in children’s social-emotional understandings and competencies and their readiness for the challenges of school. | textbooks/socialsci/Early_Childhood_Education/Book%3A_Introduction_to_Curriculum_for_Early_Childhood_Education_(Paris_Beeve_and_Springer)/04%3A_Section_IV-_Planning_for_Childrens_Learning/07%3A_Social_and_Emotional_Development/7.5%3A_Soc.txt |
Learning Objectives
By the end of the chapter, you should be able to:
• Discuss the importance of language and literacy development for children’s overall well-being and learning
• Summarize the foundations in language and literacy that high-quality early childhood programs support
• Identify ways for educators to support children’s listening and speaking, reading, and writing
• Describe how the environment should contribute to children’s language and literacy
• Summarize ways to engage families in supporting their children’s language and literacy
08: Language and Literacy
Language is one of the most crucial tools that children acquire, one that is essential for cognitive development, reading achievement, and overall school performance, as well as for social relations. It allows people to share a society’s achievements and history and the deepest emotions. Language includes conventional sounds, gestures, and visual symbols, such as writing, that are used separately and jointly for purposes of communication.
The human brain is “hard-wired” to learn language, a process quite similar in all children. Yet children differ a good deal as to when they hit milestones such as when they use their first words, start to combine words into sentences, and use complex sentence forms to communicate meaning. Though children begin to develop language and literacy at birth, with nonverbal cues such as eye gaze and gestures, they arrive at preschool ready to communicate with symbols: words, signs, and pictures.
Children’s early language and literacy environments often vary, with the amount and kind of experiences differing across families. Some children experience more conversations and book reading than other children and more than one language. Some children see print primarily in the environment (e.g., street signs, store coupons, labels on containers). Other children engage with print in many contexts, including books read to them regularly.
Some children have opportunities to scribble, draw, and write with crayons and markers long before they come to preschool, while others have few of these emergent writing opportunities. Teachers should encourage all preschoolers to join in activities that will expand their language and literacy skills. Each child’s family should be invited to participate in this exciting process.
The following components constitute oral language:
Figure 8.1: Parts of Oral and Sign Language System[2]
• Phonology—the sound system of language, such as noticing that hat, cat, and mat differ by only a single initial sound
• Semantics—the meaning conveyed by words, phrases, and sentences
• Syntax or grammar—the rules that govern how sentences are put together
• Morphology—the units of meaning within a language, also called morphemes, such as --ed for past tense (e.g., walked) and s for plural (e.g., dogs)
• Vocabulary—the words in a given language
• Pragmatics—the rules of language used in social contexts (e.g., one would talk differently to the president than to one’s mother). Pragmatics includes gathering information, requesting, and communicating. Good conversations depend on staying on the topic and turn-taking
These components are used in the auditory (i.e., listening, speaking) and visual (i.e., sign, reading, writing) modalities. Language allows children to express their feelings and needs, acknowledge the feelings and needs of others, and to talk about emotions.
Preschool is also an exciting time for written language development and for promoting interest in reading. If the social and physical environments in preschool and the home support the development of reading and written language, children will want to hear stories from books and to use books to find out more about things of interest. They will also be inclined to create marks that approximate letters and to learn how to write their own names. They will enjoy playing with the sounds of language as well. All of these experiences are foundations for the conventional reading and writing that come later.[4]
Research Highlight
The principles and curricular suggestions offered in this chapter are based on 40 years of scientific research on language acquisition and literacy development. Here are just a few of the amazing discoveries that form the background of this chapter. The following findings come from this vast body of research:
• Even in infancy, children are active learners who use data from the language they hear to grasp patterns. Children learning language behave as young mathematicians who respond to patterns and calculate, for instance, that in English –ed generally comes at the end of verbs to indicate the past tense (e.g., he walked or it dropped).
• When young children hear language around them, they are accumulating the data they need to use their skills and to grasp the features of their native language. In addition, the very practice of reading with children (e.g., starting at the front of a book and moving page by page to the end) teaches the patterns of book structure and handling and the general ways that print works (e.g., English is read from the left to right and top to bottom on a page). When book reading is accompanied by explicit comments (e.g., “This is the title of the book: Whistle for Willie”) and actions (e.g., underlining the title as it is read), children learn even more about the features of books and how print works.
• Children’s storytelling skill and vocabulary development are supported through shared reading experiences. Stories have a predictable structure: setting, characters, a problem, and its resolution. As children hear stories, they learn this basic structure and begin to use this knowledge to shape the stories they create. Children also learn the meaning of new words from listening to multiple readings of good stories, “friendly explanations of words” (explanations with wording and examples within the preschool child’s grasp rather than a more formal definition from a dictionary) offered by teachers and parents as they read stories to children, and from engagement with adults in discussions during story reading.[5]
Sources:
P. W. Jusczyk, The Discovery of Spoken Language (Cambridge, MA: Massachusetts Institute of Technology Press, 1997).
G. F. Marcus and others, “Overregularization in Language Acquisition,” Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development 57, no. 4 (1992), Serial No. 228.
L. M. Justice and H. K. Ezell, “Print Referencing: An Emergent Literacy Enhancement Strategy and Its Clinical Applications,” Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools 35, no. 2 (2004): 185–93.
N. L. Stein, “The Development of Children’s Storytelling Skill,” in Child Language: A Reader, ed. M. Franklin and S. S. Barten (New York: Oxford University Press, 1988), 282–95.
W. B. Elley, “Vocabulary Acquisition From Listening to Stories,” Reading Research Quarterly 24 (1989): 174–87.
I. L. Beck, M. G. McKeown, and L. Kucan, Bringing Words to Life: Robust Vocabulary Instruction (New York: Guilford Press, 2002).
S. Q. Cabell and others, “Strategic and Intentional Shared Storybook Reading,” in Achieving Excellence in Preschool Literacy Instruction, ed. L. M. Justice and C. Vukelich (New York: Guilford Press, 2008), 198–220.
G. W. Whitehurst and others, “Accelerating Language Development Through Picture Book Reading,” Developmental Psychology 24, no. 4 (1988): 552–59.
National Center for Family Literacy, Developing Early Literacy: Report of the National Early Literacy Panel (Jessup, MD: National Institute for Literacy, 2008). | textbooks/socialsci/Early_Childhood_Education/Book%3A_Introduction_to_Curriculum_for_Early_Childhood_Education_(Paris_Beeve_and_Springer)/04%3A_Section_IV-_Planning_for_Childrens_Learning/08%3A_Language_and_Literacy/8.01%3A_Introduction.txt |
It is critical that teachers and caregivers be responsive to young children’s attempts at communication and language by focusing on things that are meaningful to the children and their families. No single component of any curriculum will have more impact on a preschooler’s development than language.
Preschool is also an exciting time for written language development and for promoting interest in reading. If the social and physical environments in preschool and the home support the development of reading and writing, children will want to hear stories from books and to use books to find out more about things of interest. They will also be inclined to create marks that approximate letters and to learn how to write their own names. They will enjoy playing with the sounds of language as well. All of these experiences are foundations for the conventional reading and writing that come later.
Here are some guiding principles on how to support children’s language and emerging literacy:
• Language and literacy work together. They often occur in the same context. And having well-developed oral language contributes to later success with more formal reading and writing.
• The more language children hear, the more their language grows.
• It is important to give children rich models of speech/communication and reading and writing.
• Opportunities to learn language and literacy are everywhere.
• Children learn best from experiences that are interesting, useful, and fun. This includes silly songs, poems with surprise endings, and interesting and informative books.
• Celebrate and support the individual. Things such as temperament, prior experience, and disabilities affect children’s starting places with language and literacy.
• Connect with families. Providing them with certain materials and strategies to support their children’s language and literacy development benefits children’s learning.
• Create a culturally sensitive environment. Some children have been encouraged to speak up more than others.
• Encourage children to use language for negotiating with other children, asking for what they want, and expressing their emotions.
• Create many opportunities for children to do the talking. Ask open-ended questions and model engaging in the back-and-forth of conversations.
• Make thoughts more explicit to children by thinking out loud.
• Support curiosity and confidence. Children should freely use “Why? and “How come?”
• Create well-organized, literacy-rich environments, both indoors and outdoors.
• Observe how children engage with language and literacy to meet each child’s needs.[2]
8.03: Environmental
How the learning environment is arranged affects how children learn to talk, read, and write. An environment that fosters language development, two-way communication, and literacy skills provides rich curriculum content. The daily schedule accommodates a variety of groupings (e.g., large group, small group, and individual), and the learning materials fascinate children. Children learn more when adults model language and literacy as well as provide playful, purposeful instruction. Play spaces with literacy props (e.g., signs, lists) allow children to congregate and to make choices that foster rich language and literacy experiences.
• Create time in the daily routine for adult-child and child-child interactions.
• Have space and times for large-group times
• Create spaces and times for children to gather in small groups
• Provide a space to display family-related items; consider how to add text to those displays
• Organize your classroom into centers or interest areas to create clear spaces for children to engage and collaborate (and communicate), including
• A dramatic play area
• A block area
• An art area
• A writing area
• A cozy library or book area
• A science area
• A game area
• A math area
• Choose materials for small- and large-group times that the children will be interested in and use them with intention
• Create a learning environment to fascinate children and prompt conversations
• Extend the classroom beyond its wall; being outdoors, going on walks, and taking field trips are all great for promoting conversation
• Be flexible in your environment; allow children to expand their ideas to new areas[2]
Pause to Reflect
How might the centers just listed each support language and literacy?
Learning English as a Second Language
In California as many as half of children will be identified as English learners upon kindergarten entry. The home languages of these children include Spanish, Vietnamese, Cantonese, Hmong, Tagalog, Korean, and other languages.
In general the development of a second language follows these predictable stages
Stage
Description of Stage of Second Language Development
1st stage
The child uses their home language to try and communicate
2nd stage
The child figures out that it is not successful to use the home language so they pass through a period of observation and listening
3rd stage
The child attempts to use new language in more abbreviated form through the use of one or two word sentences
4th stage
The child begins to use more elaborated phrases and short sentences to communicate in the new language
While some express concern that learning more than one language is confusing or delays children’s development, there have been no negative effects of bilingualism found in research. According to Gigi Luk, an associate professor at Harvard’s Graduate School of Education, “bilingualism is an experience that shapes our brain for a lifetime.” There are many potential benefits to knowing more than one language, including: increased ability to pay attention, better reading of social cues, better reading ability, better school performance and engagement, increased comfort with diversity and different cultures, and even protection from age-related dementia[4] It’s important for educators to support and advocate for the maintenance of children’s home languages for both the benefits mentioned here but also because,[5] “[t]he child’s first language is critical to his or her identity. Maintaining this language helps the child value his or her culture and heritage, which contributes to a positive self-concept.[6]
Children who are English learners bring a wealth of ability and knowledge as well as varied cultural backgrounds to early childhood settings; English learners also require curricular adaptations to make the most of their abilities while they progress toward full English proficiency. The high-quality early childhood practices described in the other domains will also benefit preschool children who are English learners, but they may not be enough.[7]
There are many resources available to support teachers of children who are English Language Learners including these from the California Department of Education: | textbooks/socialsci/Early_Childhood_Education/Book%3A_Introduction_to_Curriculum_for_Early_Childhood_Education_(Paris_Beeve_and_Springer)/04%3A_Section_IV-_Planning_for_Childrens_Learning/08%3A_Language_and_Literacy/8.02%3A_Guiding_Princ.txt |
The preschool learning foundations for Language and Literacy are organized into three broad categories or strands
listening and speaking
reading
writing[1]
Supporting Listening and Speaking
Language takes place all around us—in social interactions between teachers and children, in classroom management, in play between children, and in instructional activities. For example, when children learn mathematics and science, they learn them through language as well as through meaningful, multisensory experiences.
Language also enhances or limits children’s ability to choose playmates and join in games on the playground. The foundations for listening and speaking include:
Language use and conventions focuses on how children use their language for a number of purposes, including learning how to participate in short conversations.
1.0 Language Use and Conventions
At around 48 months of age
At around 60 months of age
1.1 Use language to communicate with others in familiar social situations for a variety of basic purposes, including describing, requesting, commenting, acknowledging, greeting, and rejecting.
1.1 Use language to communication with others in both familiar and unfamiliar social situations for a variety of basic and advanced purposes, including reasoning, predicting, problem solving, and seeking new information.
1.2 Speak clearly enough to be understood by familiar adults and children.
1.2 Speak clearly enough to be understood by both familiar and unfamiliar adults and children.
1.3 Use accepted language and style during communication with familiar adults and children.
1.3 Use accepted language and style during communication with both familiar and unfamiliar adults and children.
1.4 Use language to construct short narratives that are real or fictional.
1.4 Use language to construct extended narratives that are real or fictional.
Vocabulary learning is one of the most important accomplishments of early childhood and is related to later reading comprehension.
2.0 Vocabulary
At around 48 months of age
At around 60 months of age
2.1 Understand and use accepted words for objects, actions, and attributes encountered frequently in both real and symbolic contexts.
2.1 Understand and use an increasing variety and specificity of accepted words for objects, actions, and attributes encountered in both real and symbolic contexts.
2.2 Understand and use accepted words for categories of objects encountered and frequently used in everyday life.
2.2 Understand and use accepted words for categories of objects encountered in everyday life.
2.3 Understand and use simple words that describe the relations between objects.
2.3 Understand and use both simple and complex words that describe the relations between objects.
Grammar allows children to go beyond mere naming with their vocabularies to express their ideas in sentences. It’s understanding how words are put together in a sentence.
3.0 Grammar
At around 48 months of age
At around 60 months of age
3.1 Understand and use increasingly complex and longer sentences, including sentences that combine two phrases or two to three concepts to communicate ideas.
3.1 Understand and use increasingly complex and longer sentences, including sentences that combine two phrases or two to three concepts to communicate ideas.
3.2 Understand and typically use age-appropriate grammar, inducing accepted word forms, such as subject-verb agreement, progressive tense, regular past tense, regular plurals, pronouns, and possessives.
3.2 Understand and typically use age-appropriate grammar, inducing accepted word forms, such as subject-verb agreement, progressive tense, regular and irregular past tense, regular and irregular plurals, pronouns, and possessives.
Teachers can support children’s development of the listening and speaking foundations with the following:
• Make sure that children have a chance to talk by setting aside time for them to discuss and to share their ideas.
• Acknowledge their contributions by making eye contact, using their names, restating their talk, providing explanation when they ask a question, and building on what they say.
• Engage in “getting to know you” conversations.
• Model the use of language conventions and encourage children to do the same.
• Build on preschool children’s own experiences by asking children to recount simple daily experiences.
• Use dramatic play and co-construct stories.
• Give story stems.
• Notice where children look and then talk about the things that are the focus of attention and action, using interesting, rich vocabulary.
• Narrate what you are doing.
• Use new vocabulary in natural conversations.
• Play language games.
• Ask children to tell you about their artwork and other creations.
• Talk one-on-one with children.
• Know individual children and their families (especially important for children whose home language is not English)[3]
Vignettes
It is Lara’s turn to share a special story from home. Lara, who is beginning to use an assistive technology communication device, had some key words added to her device that enable her to share. As Mr. Tony holds up the pictures, she pushes the button that labels the picture. Mr. Tony expands the label by saying “Tango. This is your new dog, Tango.” Lara beams as the children get excited. “I got a dog like that!” Emilio says, “He is black too.” Mr. Tony holds up another picture and asks, “What is Tango doing in this picture, Lara?
In response to the construction outside their classroom, the room is filled with activity as children use their plastic hammers and wrenches, tool belts, and benches. The planned curriculum includes a Construction Unit. Outside the window, the children can see the cranes move and the workers in hard hats. They hear the sound of hammer against nail. This week the teacher reads to the class stories about construction equipment and information books about how tall buildings are made. The construction outside gives Ms. Vase an opportunity to expose children to the names of common and even not-so-common tools. Ms. Vase sent home a one-page newsletter in the languages of families represented in her classroom, telling parents about the Construction Unit and about vocabulary children are learning. She asked if any parents who are builders or carpenters would like to come to class to share their experiences.[4]
Pause to Reflect
How do you find yourself naturally engaging with others through conversation? What do you already do that will translate well into supporting children’s listening and speaking? What might you want to change or add to grow your skills in supporting their ability to speak and listen effectively?
Supporting Reading
Reading billboards effortlessly on a car ride or making a shopping list involves literacy skills. Literacy includes both reading and writing. Literacy is also involved when people understand language and know enough about the world to comprehend the books they read. Children hear many books read aloud before they can read for themselves, and they can use scribbles to represent the thoughts they compose before they will use conventional print. Literacy does not develop overnight; it comes from being talked to and read to and from being encouraged to look at books, to draw, and to write. Children start on their journey to literacy at birth through visual and auditory observation of their world and through interactions with people and materials, in a variety of daily experiences, both at home and at school.
Reading provides access to meaning represented by print. It requires the translation of print into speech and the interpretation of meaning. Reading depends heavily on oral vocabulary and grammar and also on specific literacy knowledge (e.g., names of alphabet letters) and skills (e.g., detecting sounds in spoken words). Preschool children engage in reading by listening to stories and by retelling familiar books. They also engage in reading when they interpret environmental print by using physical clues (e.g., the stop sign is the red one at the end of their street) or when they reenact through play the literacy-related social behavior of family members (e.g., making a shopping list or pretending to read the cooking directions on a food box).
The foundations for reading are organized into:
Concepts about print involves the understanding that print is meaningful and can be used for a variety of purposes.
1.0 Concepts about Print
At around 48 months of age
At around 60 months of age
1.1 Begin to display appropriate book-handling behaviors and begin to recognize print conventions.
1.1 Display appropriate book-handling behaviors and knowledge of print conventions.
1.2 Recognize print as something that can be read.
1.2 Understand that print is something that is read and has specific meaning.
Phonological awareness concerns learning to notice that spoken words have parts.
2.0 Phonological Awareness
Foundations
2.1 Orally blend and delete words and syllables without the support of pictures or objects.
2.2 Orally blend the onsets, rimes, and phonemes of words and orally delete the onsets of words, with the support of pictures or objects.
Alphabetics and word/print recognition includes identifying alphabet letters and linking letters in printed words to sounds in spoken words.
3.0 Alphabetics and Word/Print Recognition
At around 48 months of age
At around 60 months of age
3.1 Recognize the first letter of own name.
3.1 Recognize own name or other common words in prints.
3.2 Match some letter names to their printed form.
3.2 Match more than half of uppercase letter names and more than half of lowercase letter names to their printed form.
none
3.3 Begin to recognize that letters have sounds.
Comprehension and analysis of age-appropriate text involves thinking that leads to understanding stories and other kinds of books.
4.0 Comprehension and Analysis of Age-Appropriate Text
At around 48 months of age
At around 60 months of age
4.1 Demonstrate knowledge of main characters or events in a familiar story (e.g., who what, where) through answering questions (e.g., recall and simple inferencing), retelling, reenacting, or creating artwork.
4.1 Demonstrate knowledge of details in a familiar story, including characters, events and ordering of events through answering questions (particularly summarizing, predicting, and inference), retelling, reenacting, or creating artwork.
4.2 Demonstrate knowledge from informational text through labeling, describing, playing, or creating artwork.
4.2 Use information from informational text in a variety of ways, including describing, relating, categorizing, or comparing and contrasting.
Literacy interest and response includes children’s engagement in and motivation for reading.
5.0 Literacy Interest and Response
At around 48 months of age
At around 60 months of age
2.1 Demonstrate enjoyment of literacy and literacy-related activities.
3.1 Demonstrate, with increasing independence, enjoyment of literacy and literacy-related activities.
2.2 Engage in routines associated with literacy activities.
3.2 Engage in more complex routines associated with literacy activities.
Teachers can support children’s development of the reading foundations with the following:
• Provide print props to support dramatic play.
• Provide print props in the block area.
• Use literacy terminology, such as letter and word, naturally.
• Use print, with supporting images, to support classroom routines and limits.
• Take the time to read environmental print.
• Model using print as a tool to get things done and to record information.
• Use print to support teacher-guided activities.
• Model basic print conventions, such as reading left to right.
• Write down interesting words as they come up and encourage verbal explanations of word meaning.
• Play games that focus on sounds.
• Use silly songs and poems daily.
• Play with sounds.
• Discuss rhyming words and words that begin with the same sound.
• Use children’s printed names as labels and to support routines, transitions, and free-play experiences
• Provide access to alphabet letters in a variety of contexts.
• Focus on first letters and sounds in alphabet books and posters.
• Use everyday opportunities to model attending to print details in words.
• Provide materials with environmental print in an interest area.
• Provide predictable textbooks in library and listening areas.
• Read stories daily.
• Make stories come alive with your voice and expression.
• Make story time just the right length (not too long, not too short).
• Read stories several times over a few days.
• Define new words in a story you are reading.
• Discuss a story after reading it.
• Read information (nonfiction) books.
• Model using information gained from text (books and nonbook sources) and provide opportunities for children to do the same.
• Provide the space and materials for children to retell stories independently.
• Place books in all areas of the classroom.
• Make reading and writing meaningful and useful.
• Provide ample opportunities for children to cross their midline (moving the left hand or foot to the right side of the body, and the right hand or foot to the left side of the body which requires communication between your brain’s left and right hemispheres)[6]
Vignettes
Pairs of children walk hand in hand to return to their classroom after playing outside. Sasha stops walking, points to a sign posted in the hallway, and says to Yasmin, her partner, “That sign says to be quiet because the babies are sleeping.” In a soft voice, the teacher says, “Yes, we are walking past the babies’ room. We’ve talked about how they might be sleeping. This sign says, “Remember to Walk.” Do you think we need to make another sign for the hallway, one to remind us to talk softly?” The children agree that the second sign is needed, and several offer to help.
After singing “Down by the Bay” at circle time, Mr. Zhang used an illustrated book to review the song and engage children in playing with some sounds in the words: “Here’s the funny bear, combing his hair. Bear, /b/-/ear/; hair, /h/-/air/. The last parts of those words [i.e., the rime portion] sound the same, don’t they? They rhyme.” Several children agreed enthusiastically. “And who’s on this page?” “The llama,” shout several children. “Eating his /p/ . . . (pause)” Mr. Zhang continued.
“Pajamas!” several children called out. As he turned the page, several children called out, “The fly with a tie.” “Yes, the fl-y wearing a t-ie. Before I turn the next page, I’ll give you a clue about what you’ll see next: A /wh/-ale . . .” “A whale!” the children called out. “With a polka-dot /t/-ail,”the teacher continued. “Tail,” several children called out.
The caregiver shares an alphabet book with a few children. “This is the page for the letter B. Here is the big B and here’s the little b.” She engaged the children to help identify the pictures on the B page: “Blueberries, broccoli, beets, bananas, beans.” Then she comments, “B is the first letter in each of these words. This word (pointing to the first letter in blueberry, printed above a picture of a box of blueberries) starts with the letter B. It says, Blueberry (underlines the rest of the word, as she reads it). Blueberry starts with the /b/ sound. What do you think this word says? (She points to the word above the picture of some bananas.) One child says, “banana;” another says, “platano.” The caregiver confirms that banana can be called by either name, one Spanish and the other English. “The words in this book are written in English—/b/ is for banana (points to banana). I think we could write some of these words in Spanish and paste them into the book. We could write brecol to put here with broccoli.” “When can we do that?” a child asks. “After rest time today, if you’d like. Miguel and Alexandria will still be sleeping. I can help you and Aaliyah spell Spanish words that will work in this alphabet book. We can type them on the computer and then print them out to paste in our book.”[8]
Pause to Reflect
What memories of reading and books do you have from your childhood? How do you feel about reading now? Is that how you want children to feel about reading? If so, how can you share that? If not, what might you do to ensure they have a different perspective about reading?
Supporting Writing
Developing as a writer depends on the writer’s understanding of how a particular written language looks and on the writer’s language and thinking skills. Conventional writing requires knowledge of alphabet letters and an understanding that letters stand for sounds in spoken or signed words. Deciding what to write requires oral or sign language, knowledge, and thinking. Preschool children engage in writing when they use scribble marks and proudly announce their meanings (e.g., “This says ____”). Preschool children frequently use drawing, rather than writing marks, to represent their thoughts, and they often combine scribble or other writing-like marks with their drawings to communicate. Preschool children are happy to serve as their own interpreters, telling people what their early writing and drawing is meant to say. Teachers are careful not to criticize children’s early scribble productions. To find out what a child’s writing means, teachers may ask a child: “Tell me about these wavy lines down here.”
Writing focuses on understanding that print represents ideas and on learning to move from drawing and scribble writing to using letters and words. Much exploration with paper and writing tools occurs before children will try to write to convey specific meanings. When children write to convey meaning, they are using their language, their physical ability to hold a crayon or pencil, and the cognitive understanding that the marks they make on the page are symbols that represent a meaning that can be shared.
1.0 Writing Strategies
At around 48 months of age
At around 60 months of age
2.3 Experiment with grasp and body position using a variety of drawing and writing tools.
3.3 Adjust grasp and body position for increased control in drawing and writing.
2.4 Write using scribbles that are different from pictures.
3.4 Write letters or letter-like shapes to represent words or ideas.
2.5 Write marks to represent own name.
3.5 Write first name nearly correctly.
While direct writing instruction is not yet developmentally appropriate for preschool-aged children, who do not quite have the fine motor coordination needed to write legibly, they are developing important skills and knowledge that contribute to their ability to communicate in written form.
Table 8.1: Four Levels of Writing Development over the Preschool Years
Level
Description
Exploring
The child explores with marking tools on a variety of writing surfaces, creating scribble marks. The child sometimes focuses on making marks without any intention of using these to stand for writing. Sometimes the marks prompt the child to think of something from the child’s world that is familiar, and the child attributes meaning to scribbles
Developing
As the child continues to explore with mark making, the child organizes scribble marks into lines when “writing,” which indicates the child’s observation that marks for writing and marks for pictures are organized differently. Often, the child will point to scribble marks that are lined up and say, “This says . . .” In other words, children begin to attribute meaning to their scribble writing.
Building
Children’s skill in using marks to create both pictures and writing increases to the point where others can recognize a child’s intentions. Although the marks are still not always well formed, adults have a good idea what the child intended to portray and the letters a child intended to write. Children sometimes make up new designs that look remarkably like actual letters. They do not yet know that there are just 26!
Integrating
At this phase, children know most, if not all, of the uppercase alphabet letters, and they combine these to make words. Some of the words are ones they see frequently, such as their names. Most are quite legible, although not perfectly formed, of course, and a letter might be written with its orientation reversed. In addition to their names, children sometimes write a few simple words, such as love or yes and no. They also might string letters together in sets that look like words and ask adults, “What word is this?” A few older preschoolers might have figured out that letters selected to make words relate to the sounds in the spoken words, and invent spellings, such as KK for cake or CD for candy
Teachers can support children’s development of the writing foundations with the following:
• Setting up a well-stocked writing area
• Frequently adding new materials to the writing area
• Providing writing materials in other interest areas and outdoors
• Embed writing in everyday transitions and routines
• Encourage children to write in the art interest area
• Respond sensitively to children’s emergent writing; focus on the meaning that children are trying to convey rather than on the form of their writing
• Respond to children’s questions and requests for help with writing; describe and model how to write the letter on a separate piece of paper
• Model writing
• Display children’s writing
• Provide ample opportunities for children to cross their midline
• Provide experiences in which children strengthen fine motor muscles (fingers, hand, wrist, forearm), and develop dexterity, such as working with clay, cutting with scissors, and working with tools[11]
Crossing the Midline
“The body’s mid-line is an imaginary line down the cent[er] of the body that divides the body into left and right. Crossing the body’s mid-line is the ability to reach across the middle of the body with the arms and legs. This allows children to cross over their body to perform a task on the opposite side of their body (e.g. being able to draw a horizontal line across a page without having to switch hands in the middle…”
“Crossing the body’s mid-line is an important developmental skill needed for many everyday tasks such as writing... When a child spontaneously crosses the mid-line with the dominant hand, then the dominant hand gets the practice needed to develop good fine motor skills by repeated consistent hand dominance. If a child avoids crossing the mid-line, then both hands tend to get equal practice at developing skills and the child’s true handedness may be delayed. This means that once a child starts school, learning to write is much more difficult when they have two less skilled hands rather than one stronger, more skilled (dominant) hand. Difficulty crossing the mid-line also makes it difficult to visually track a moving object from one side to the other or track from left to right when reading, meaning reading can also be delayed.”[12]
Vignettes
Jessalyn is delighted with the birthday card picture from a peer and wants to write a thank-you note. She draws a picture and then tells the teacher, “I want real words, too, but I can’t make them.”
“What would you like the words to say?” the teacher asks. Jessalyn dictates: “I liked the pretty picture of me. It was a pretty birthday card.” “Do you want me to write that down or help you?”
“I can do letters,” Jessalyn explains, “but I can’t make words. Well, just love.” The teacher helps Jessalyn spell the word pretty by segmenting some of its sounds and naming the letters needed to write the sounds. After the teacher names the last letter in pretty, Jessalyn remarks, “y? Why not e?” The teacher explains that e is used to write this sound in many words, but, in others, y is used.
Then the teacher asks, “What letter is at the end of your friend Jeremy’s name?” “Oh, y!” Jessalyn realizes. “Do we have anybody with e?” she asks. “Not this year. But last year, there was a girl named Kaylee, and she used e to write the /e/ sound.”[13]
Engaging Families
Teachers can use the following strategies to help families to develop their children’s language and literacy.
• Send families home with things to look for on the weekend, topics to talk about, or stories to tell together (written in their home language).
• Suggest ways that parents can send a response back to the classroom.
• Send books, other reading materials, and writing materials home with children.
• Provide a lending library in the home languages of the children and encourage parents to read to their children in their home language.
• Share ideas with parents about questions they might ask about books, and provide these in the home language.
• Introduce parents to community resources to get books for home
• Encourage family members to share their writing with children.
• Share children’s triumphs and experiences and people they really enjoy with families.
• Use displays to help family members understand the developmental nature of writing.
• Invite families to share their stories with you.
• Think about projects to do in class in which children can bring materials from home.[14]
8.05: Conclusion
Decades of research have shown that playful learning, intentional teaching, and a rich curriculum help children learn about the world and master language and literacy. The principles and strategies provided in this chapter are based on this research. Teachers must be mindful of what the research has revealed about how children acquire a vast array of knowledge and skills. However, teachers must also assume responsibility for weaving together a program that combines children’s play with their own specific plans in ways that secure a bright academic future for each child. By definition, this means that children’s interest in and motivation to learn are maintained. The satisfaction and joy of teaching come from knowing that the very best efforts were made and from seeing the results of such efforts in the children’s faces every day. The progress documented for each child over the course of a year also brings joy and satisfaction.[1]
Pause to Reflect
What are some of the ways language and literacy occur naturally in the everyday lives of children? What are additional things that teachers will need to intentionally bring into the program (this could include materials, interactions, activities, environmental design, etc.)? | textbooks/socialsci/Early_Childhood_Education/Book%3A_Introduction_to_Curriculum_for_Early_Childhood_Education_(Paris_Beeve_and_Springer)/04%3A_Section_IV-_Planning_for_Childrens_Learning/08%3A_Language_and_Literacy/8.04%3A_Introducing_t.txt |
Learning Objectives
Explain what math education in early childhood is and what it is not
• Summarize the foundations in mathematics
• Identify ways that educators can support spontaneous experiences with math and intentionally plan to build children’s mathematical knowledge.
• Describe how the environment supports mathematics.
• Relate how to engage families in support their children’s mathematic knowledge.
09: Mathematics
Mathematics is a natural part of the preschool environment. Young children actively construct mathematical knowledge through everyday interactions with their environment, whether inside or outside.
Mathematics learning grows naturally from children’s curiosity and enthusiasm to learn and explore their environment. During the preschool years, children continue to show a spontaneous interest in mathematics and further develop their mathematical knowledge and skills related to number, quantity, size, shape, and space. Teachers should encourage children’s natural enthusiasm and interest in doing mathematics and use it as a vehicle for supporting the development of children’s mathematical concepts and skills.
High-quality mathematics education in preschool is not about elementary arithmetic being pushed down onto younger children. It is broader than mere practice in counting and arithmetic. It is about children experiencing mathematics as they explore ideas of more and less, count objects, make comparisons, create patterns, sort and measure objects, and explore shapes in space. Mathematics learning happens throughout the day, and it is integrated with learning and developing in other developmental domains such as language and literacy, social-emotional, science, music, and movement. There is a general consensus “that high-quality, challenging and accessible mathematics education for three- to six-year-old children is a vital foundation for future mathematics learning.”
Teachers have a significant role in facilitating children’s construction of mathematical concepts. When teachers join children in becoming keen observers of their environment and in reasoning about numbers, shapes, and patterns, mathematics is enjoyable and exciting for all.
Teachers may not always realize the extent to which their current everyday classroom practices support children’s mathematical development. For example, when singing with children “Five Little Ducks Went Out One Day,” incorporating finger play with counting, the teacher develops children’s counting skills and understanding of numbers. Discussing with children how many children came to school today and how many are missing supports children’s arithmetic and reasoning with numbers. Playing with children in the sandbox by filling up different cups with sand and discussing which cup is the smallest or the largest or how many cups of sand it would take to fill up a bucket introduces children to concepts of comparison and measurement.[3]
9.02: Environmental Factors i
Young children actively construct mathematical knowledge through everyday interactions with their environment. Setting up a high-quality physical environment is essential for children’s mathematical development. The preschool environment sets the stage for children’s physical and social exploration and construction of mathematical concepts. It should provide access to objects and materials that encourage children to experiment and learn about key mathematical concepts through everyday play.
• Enrich the environment with developmentally appropriate, challenging, and engaging materials that promote mathematical growth
• Integrate math-related materials into all interest areas in the classroom
• Use materials, books, and real-life settings that reflect the culture, ways of life, and languages of the children in the group
• Use children’s books to explore mathematics with children
• Be intentional and mindful in setting up and using the physical environment (children do not effectively use materials and engage in experiences just because you provide them)[1]
Research Highlight
Research indicates that the ability to reason about numbers starts as early as infancy. Five-month-olds show sensitivity to the effects of addition or subtraction of items on a small collection of objects. Toddlers viewing three balls put into a container and then one being removed know to search for a smaller number of balls, and many search for exactly two balls.
By the time children are in preschool, prior to having any formal lesson in arithmetic, they use a variety of strategies to solve simple addition and subtraction problems. They may use manipulatives or fingers to represent the numbers in the problem and count out loud to find out the answer. As they get older, they rely less and less on finger counting. To solve an addition problem such as 4 + 2 presented with concrete objects (e.g., color crayons), the child may count all objects “one, two, three, four” and then continue with the second set of objects “five, six” and find out there are a total of six. At a later stage, the child may “count on” from the second set of objects. Knowing the number of objects in the first set (e.g., “four”), the child starts with “four” and continues to count “five, six” to find out the total number of objects, rather than starting to count from “one” with the second set of objects.[3]
Source:
K. Wynn, “Addition and Subtraction by Human Infants,” Nature 358 (1992): 749– 50.
P. Starkey, “The Early Development of Numerical Reasoning,” Cognition 43, no. 2 (1992): 93–126.
R. S. Siegler, “The Perils of Averaging Data Over Strategies: An Example from Children’s Addition,” Journal of Experimental Psychology: General 116, no. 3 (1987): 250–64. | textbooks/socialsci/Early_Childhood_Education/Book%3A_Introduction_to_Curriculum_for_Early_Childhood_Education_(Paris_Beeve_and_Springer)/04%3A_Section_IV-_Planning_for_Childrens_Learning/09%3A_Mathematics/9.01%3A_Introduction.txt |
Introducing the Foundations
The California preschool learning foundations for math have been divided into five broad areas or strands.
• Number Sense
• Algebra and Functions (Classification and Patterning)
• Measurement
• Geometry
• Mathematical Reasoning[1]
Supporting Number Sense
The Number Sense strand refers to concepts of numbers and their relationships. It includes the development of counting skills, the understanding of quantities, recognizing ordering relations (which has more, fewer, or less), part-whole relationships, and a basic understanding of “adding to“ and “taking away” operations.
1.0 Children begin to understand numbers and quantities in their everyday environment.
1.0 Children expand their understanding of numbers and quantities in their everyday environment.
1.1 Recite numbers in order to ten with increasing accuracy.
1.1 Recite numbers in order to twenty with increasing accuracy.
1.2 Begin to recognize and name a few written numerals.
1.2 Recognize and know the name of some written numerals.
1.3 Identify, without counting, the number of objects in a collection of up to three objects (i.e., subitize).
1.3 Identify, without counting, the number of objects in a collection of u to four objects (i.e., subitize).
1.4 Count up to five objects, using one-to-one correspondence (one object for each number word) with increasing accuracy.
1.4 Count up to ten objects, using one-to-one correspondence (one object for each number word) with increasing accuracy.
1.5 Use the number name of the last object counted to answer the question, “How many . . . ?”
1.5 Understand, when counting, that the number name of the last object counted represents the total number of objects in the group (i.e., cardinality).
2.0 Children begin to understand number relationships and operations in their everyday environment.
2.0 Children expand their understanding of number relationships and operations in their everyday environment.
2.1 Compare visually (with or without counting) two groups of objects that are obviously equal or nonequal and communicate, “more” or “same.”
2.1 Compare, by counting or matching, two groups of up to five objects and communicate, “more,” “same as,” or “fewer” (or “less”).
2.2 Understand that adding to (or taking away) one or more objects from a group will increase (or decrease) the number or objects in the group.
2.2 Understand that adding one or taking away one changes the number in a small group of objects by exactly one.
At around 48 months of age
At around 60 months of age
2.3 Understand that putting two groups of objects together will make a bigger group.
2.3 Understand that putting two groups of objects together will make a bigger group and that a group of objects can be taken apart into smaller groups.
2.4 Solve simple addition and subtraction problems nonverbally (and often verbally) with a very small number of objects (sums up to 4 or 5).
2.4 Solve simple addition and subtraction problems with a small number of objects (sums up to 10), usually by counting.
Teachers can support children’s development of the number sense foundations with the following:
• Observe children’s spontaneous counting and foster growth through scaffolding or modeling
• Encourage counting during everyday interactions and routines
• Include preschool children’s home language in counting activities, whenever possible
• Ask questions that encourage purposeful counting
• Foster one-to-one correspondence within the context of daily routines (such as setting the table)
• Support preschool children’s ability to apply the counting procedure by
• Providing a lot of objects to count
• Starting with small sets
• Modeling counting
• Encouraging children to self-correct their counts
• Consider adaptations for children with special needs
• Use games, books, and other materials accessible to preschool children
• Plan group activities focused on counting
• Promote the use of comparison terms (more, same as, fewer, or less) through everyday interactions
• Use everyday interactions and routines to illustrate and discuss addition and subtraction transformations (“adding to” results in more and “taking away” results in less)
• Make estimations
• Use graphing with children[3]
Vignettes
Playing with cars on the rug, a child argued, “I have more: one, two, three, seven, nine, ten.” His friend replied, “No, I have more: one, two, three, four, five, six, seven.” The teacher intervened and asked, “How do you think we can find out who has more cars?” “I count,” said one of the children. The teacher suggested, “Let’s count together,” and she modeled counting together with the children. She put the cars in each set, in a row, and lined up the two sets against each other. The teacher pointed to each car while counting.
During snack time, Veronica asked: “Can I have two more crackers?” The teacher replied, “Yes, and I see you already have two crackers. When I give you two more, how many crackers will you have altogether?”[5]
Supporting Algebra and Functions (Classification and Patterning)
Obviously, preschool is not the time to teach traditional algebra, but this is the period when foundational algebraic concepts evolve and gradually develop. Children observe the environment and learn to recognize similarities and differences. They learn to sort, group, and classify objects. They learn to recognize ordering relations, such as large to small, and to identify patterns. They develop the ability to make predictions, form generalizations, and derive rules.
At around 48 months of age
At around 60 months of age
1.0 Children begin to sort and classify objects in their everyday environment.
1.0 Children expand their understanding of sorting and classifying objects in their everyday environment.
1.1 Sort and classify objects by one attribute into two or more groups, with increasing accuracy.
1.1 Sort and classify objects by one or more attributes, into two or more groups, with increasing accuracy (e.g., may sort first by one attribute and then by another attribute).
2.0 Children begin to recognize simple, repeating patterns.
2.0 Children expand their understanding of simple, repeating patterns.
2.1 Begin to identify or recognize a simple repeating pattern.
2.1 Recognize and duplicate simple repeating patterns.
2.2 Attempt to create a simple repeating pattern or participate in making one.
2.2 Begin to extend and create simple repeating patterns.
Teachers can support children’s development of the algebra and functions foundations with the following:
• Organize the classroom into different categorized storage areas to facilitate classification
• Include materials and objects for sorting in the environment
• Identify opportunities for sorting and classifying in everyday routines
• Recognize and extend sorting in play
• Plan for children at different levels
• Integrate sorting into children’s current topic of interest and study
• Point out patterns in the environment
• Engage preschool children in conversations about patterns
• Play with patterns in various formats such as
• Objects
• Movement
• Sounds
• Rhymes and stories[7]
Vignettes
As part of a curriculum unit on the seasons, the children went for a nature walk and collected various types of leaves. During the walk and later in the classroom, the children explored the leaves and were encouraged to describe different attributes of the leaves such as shape (pointy, round, long, needle), size (small, tiny, wide, big), color (red, green, yellow, orange, brown) and texture (smooth, soft, hard, wet, dry, rough). Children were then asked by the teacher to sort the leaves: “Put leaves that belong together in groups.”
The teacher asks Enrique, “Why did you put these leaves together and those leaves together?” Enrique responds, “They are same.” The teacher asks, “How are these the same?” Enrique points and says in Spanish, “Café aquí, amarillo aquí, y hojas rojas.” (“Brown here, yellow, here, and red leaves here.”). The teacher points to each group of leaves and says in English, “Great! Brown, yellow, and red leaves. What other ways can we sort the leaves? How about putting all the big leaves here and all the small ones there?” The teacher models for the child, sorting leaves by size. “Where do you think this leaf would go?”
Pause to Reflect
Before reading this section, did you think that algebra was something that should be considered in the preschool classroom? Why or why not?
Supporting Measurement
The Measurement strand involves comparing, ordering, and measuring things. Included in this strand is the child’s ability to compare and order objects by length, height, weight, or capacity; to use comparison vocabulary; and to begin to measure. Young children develop an intuitive notion of measurement through natural everyday experiences. They explore and discover properties such as length, height, volume, and weight as they look for a longer block, measure who is taller, pour sand from a small bucket to a larger one, or try to pick up a heavy box and ask for help. They make comparisons to see which is longer, taller, heavier, larger, or smaller.
At around 48 months of age
At around 60 months of age
1.0 Children begin to compare and order objects.
1.0 Children expand their understanding of comparing, ordering, and measuring objects.
1.1 Demonstrate awareness that objects can be compared by length, weight, or capacity, by noting gross differences, using words such as bigger, longer, heavier, or taller, or by placing objects side by side to compare length.
1.1 Compare two objects by length, weight, or capacity directly (e.g., putting objects side by side) or indirectly (e.g., using a third object).
1.2 Order three objects by size.
1.2 Order four or more objects by size.
This box intentionally left blank
1.3 Measure length using multiple duplicates of the same-size concrete units laid end to end.
Teachers can support children’s development of the measurement foundations with the following:
• Provide opportunities to promote measurement concepts in the environment (things to measure and measure tools)
• Observe preschool children’s measurement concepts in everyday play and routines
• Facilitate and reinforce measurement concepts in everyday play and routines by
• Building the descriptive and comparative vocabulary
• Asking questions to bring their attention to the measurable properties of objects
• Challenging them to use measurement to solve problems
• Provide opportunities to compare and order objects
• Use literature to illustrate measurement concepts
• Provide small-group activities using standard and nonstandard measurement
• Encourage estimations of measurement
• Encourage recording and documentation of measurements[10]
Vignettes
As part of exploring and learning the concept of growth, the children have planted sunflower seeds in the garden. A long stick was attached to each plant, and the teacher asked that every week the children mark on the stick the height of the sunflower. Tracking the growth of sunflowers has generated comparison and measurement experiences. For example, one week the teacher pointed to one of the sunflowers and explained to the children, “Last week when we measured this sunflower, it was up to here. It was seven inches long. This week it is up to here. How many more inches do you think it grew in the past week? What is your estimate?”
Children were encouraged to make estimates and then were invited to measure the growth of this sunflower. “How can we measure how much it has grown since last time?” Children had different ideas. Some children said, “You need a ruler.” Others said, “With this” and pointed to a measuring tape. Over time, children were also comparing the sunflowers one to another. On one occasion, the teacher helped a small group of children compare the height of two flowers by using a string to represent the height of one flower and then laying the string against the second flower.
Children enjoyed tracking the sunflowers’ growth and finding out, “Which sunflower is taller?” and “Which is taller?”—the child or the sunflower.[12]
Pause to Reflect
Involving children in measuring things that are meaningful to them is a great way to engage children in mathematics. Do you remember any measurements experiences from your childhood? This could be formal, like keeping track of your height on a wall or growth chart or measuring the weight and/or length of a fish caught or informal, such as recognizing that a new storage container holds more (volume) or noticing the length difference in a new pair of shoes.
Supporting Geometry
Geometry is the study of shapes and spatial relationships. Children enter preschool with a strong intuitive knowledge about shapes, spatial location, and transformations. They learn about geometry as they move in space and interact with objects in their environment. From infancy they begin to form shape concepts as they explore their environment, observe shapes, and play with different objects. Before they can name and define shapes, very young children are able to match and classify objects based on shape. During the preschool years, children develop a growing understanding of shape and spatial relationships. They learn the names of shapes and start to recognize the attributes of two- and three-dimensional shapes. They also develop an understanding of objects in relation to space, learning to describe an object’s location (e.g., on top, under), direction (e.g., from, up, down) and distance (e.g., near, far).
At around 48 months of age
At around 60 months of age
1.0 Children begin to identify and use common shapes in their everyday environment.
1.0 Children identify and use a variety of shapes in their everyday environment.
1.1 Identify simple two-dimensional shapes, such as a circle and square.
1.1 Identify, describe, and construct a variety of different shapes, including variations of a circle, triangle, rectangle, square, and other shapes.
1.2 Use individual shapes to represent different elements of a picture of design.
1.2 Combine different shapes to create a picture or design.
2.0 Children begin to understand positions in space.
2.0 Children expand their understanding of positions in space.
2.1 Identify positions of objects and people in space, such as in/on/under, up/down, and inside/outside.
2.1 Identify positions of objects and people in space, including in/on/under, up/down, inside/outside, beside/between, and in front/behind.
Teachers can support children’s development of the geometry foundations with the following:
• Refer to shapes and encourage the use of shape names in everyday interactions
• Engage preschool children in conversations about shapes, including both
• Two-dimensional shapes (such as circles, squares, and triangles)
• Three-dimensional shapes (such as spheres, cubes, and cones)
• Provide materials that encourage preschool children to explore and manipulate shapes in space
• Include books, games, and other learning materials with shape-related themes in the preschool environment
• Provide preschool children with playful opportunities to explore and represent shapes in a variety of ways
• Present preschool children with many different examples of a type of shape
• Provide materials and equipment to promote spatial sense
• Support preschool children’s spatial sense in everyday interactions
• Provide preschool children with planned experiences to promote the understanding of spatial sense, including
• Songs and games
• Books
• Construction opportunities[14]
Vignettes
The teacher had noticed that several children in her group had shown a strong interest in castles. They built castles in the block area, in the sandbox, and even looked for castles in fairy tale books when visiting the library. The teacher suggested that the group build a big castle outside. They started by gathering the materials. The children brought from home different sized boxes and figures or characters to be included in the castle. The teacher also offered big cylinders, cones, building blocks, construction boards, and other materials. The children made different suggestions: “Put all the big boxes here and the small ones on top of them.” ”I put it above this for the roof.” “We can use these for the tower.”
The teacher described their ideas using names of shapes and spatial terms. “So you want to put the small square blocks on top of the big rectangle blocks.” “Are you suggesting using the cylinders to build the tower?” The children enjoyed building the structure, using different shapes and materials, and were proud of it.
During circle time, the teacher invited children to describe the castle and how it was built. “Look at the castle you built. Can you tell me what it looks like?” Children were encouraged to use spatial words and the names of shapes in their talk. The activity evolved into a long-term project. The children kept adding more pieces to the structure and added different elements to decorate the castle.[16]
Supporting Mathematical Reasoning
Mathematical reasoning is a key process in learning and developing mathematical knowledge in all areas of mathematics, including number and operations, classification, patterning, measurement, and geometry. It involves the ability to think and reason logically, to apply mathematical knowledge in different problem-solving situations, and to come up with different solutions. Mathematical reasoning is natural to most young children as they explore the environment and make sense of the world around them.
At around 48 months of age
At around 60 months of age
1.0 Children use mathematical thinking to solve problems that arise in their everyday environment.
1.0 Children expand the use of mathematical thinking to solve problems that arise in their everyday environment.
1.1 Begin to apply simple mathematical strategies to solve problems in their environment.
1.1 Identify and apply a variety of mathematical strategies to solve problems in their environment.
Teachers can support children’s development of the mathematical reasoning foundations with the following:
• Identify and create opportunities for mathematical reasoning through both spontaneous interactions and planned experiences
• Pose meaningful questions that promote investigation and inquiry and challenge children to think through a problem and come up with a solution
• Support preschool children in reasoning mathematically by providing clues, encouragement, and modeling, as needed[18]
Vignettes
The children cleaned up the play yard before going back inside. The teacher, Ms. Denise, had noticed that not all the shovels were picked up from the sandbox. Ms. Denise asked for help saying, “We need all five shovels back in the box so our toys aren’t lost. I see here only three. We need more shovels in the box. How many more shovels do we need?” The teacher had noticed that Ling Wa, one of the older preschool children in the group, was counting her fingers, trying to find out how many shovels were missing.
Ling Wa suddenly said, “Ms. Denise, we need two more.”
Ms. Denise went further, asking, “Do you think we need two more shovels?” How did you figure that out?” | textbooks/socialsci/Early_Childhood_Education/Book%3A_Introduction_to_Curriculum_for_Early_Childhood_Education_(Paris_Beeve_and_Springer)/04%3A_Section_IV-_Planning_for_Childrens_Learning/09%3A_Mathematics/9.03%3A_Introducing_the_Foundat.txt |
Teachers can use the following strategies to help families to develop their children’s mathematical understanding:
• Communicate to families
• the broader aspects of developing number sense; for example, using counting in real-life situations, comparing numbers and discussing which is more or less, making estimations (e.g., How many grapes are in this bowl?), and solving simple addition and subtraction problems.
• what classification and patterning are about and how they contribute to children’s understanding of mathematics.
• the importance of early measuring experiences and types of measurement experiences they can do with children.
• that mathematical reasoning is being able to think mathematically and explore different ways of solving problems
• Remind parents that daily use of numbers (which are everywhere!) can become learning experiences for children.
• Provide number-related games and books that children can take home or that families can make or purchase.
• Encourage parents to
• involve children in everyday measurement experiences
• refer to shapes in the environment when talking with children
• use spatial words in everyday interactions with children
• recognize math in everyday events and interactions and turn them into learning experiences[1]
9.05: Conclusion
Young children have a natural interest, curiosity, and competence to explore and construct mathematical concepts. Mathematics is a way of thinking and organizing the world around us. It is a natural part of day-to-day activities and events. Mathematics in preschool is learned through children’s play and exploration as in the blocks area or the sandbox, through everyday routines such as setting the table and cleaning up, and through participation in teacher-initiated activities. Some teacher-initiated activities are designed with a focus on math, and others may focus on art, movement, literacy, or science but present opportunities for math learning.
When teachers recognize the potential for exposure to math in different situations, they can turn everyday occurrences into exciting and effective mathematics-learning experiences. Children are excited to explore the size or volume of objects, to discover and create patterns, to manipulate and build with shapes, to sort and classify objects, and to try to figure out “how many.” Teachers get to experience with children the day-to-day excitement of learning and discovering math. This process is joyful for the children and for the teacher, who guides and challenges them in building mathematical concepts, skills, and language [1]
Pause to Reflect
Many adults (including parents and teachers) shy away from math because they “aren’t good at it.” How do you feel about math? How comfortable are you “teaching” math? Has the way this chapter presented math affected that at all? If so, how?
9.06: Guiding Principles for
The following principles will guide teachers’ classroom practices in establishing a high-quality, challenging, and sensitive early mathematics preschool program. These principles are partially based on the ten recommendations in Early Childhood Mathematics: Promoting Good Beginnings set forth by the National Association for the Education of Young Children and NCTM in 2002.
• · Build on preschool children’s natural interest in mathematics and their intuitive and informal mathematical knowledge
• · Encourage inquiry and exploration to foster problem solving and mathematical reasoning
• · Use everyday activities as natural vehicles for developing preschool children’s mathematical knowledge
• · Introduce mathematical concepts through intentionally planned experiences (in addition to what they spontaneously engage in)
• · Provide a mathematically rich environment
• · Provide an environment rich in language, and introduce preschool children to the language of mathematics
• · Support English learners in developing mathematical knowledge as they concurrently acquire English
• · Observe children to discover opportunities to clarify, extend, and reinforce their existing mathematical concepts and to help them discover new mathematical concepts
• · Provide an environment in which all children can learn mathematics, set appropriately high expectations for all children, and support individual growth
• · Establish a partnership with parents and other caregivers in supporting children’s learning of mathematics[1]
[1] The California Preschool Curriculum Framework, Volume 1 by the California Department of Education is used with permission
[2] Image by Lisa Stevens is licensed by CC-BY-2.0 | textbooks/socialsci/Early_Childhood_Education/Book%3A_Introduction_to_Curriculum_for_Early_Childhood_Education_(Paris_Beeve_and_Springer)/04%3A_Section_IV-_Planning_for_Childrens_Learning/09%3A_Mathematics/9.04%3A_Engaging_Families.txt |
Learning Objectives
By the end of the chapter, you should be able to:
• Explain how children’s natural curiosity and exploration builds the foundation for science curriculum.
• Justify the importance of active, hands on science experiences.
• Describe the foundations in science that high quality early childhood education programs support
• Discuss how the environment supports children’s continual investigation of the natural world
• Identify ways teachers can support children’s scientific inquiry and investigation
• Summarize ways to engage families in science curriculum
10: Science
Children have a sense of wonder and natural curiosity about objects and events in their environment. Just like scientists, they seek information and actively explore and investigate the world around them, try things out to see what happens, and confirm or adjust their expectations.
Science is a natural and developmentally appropriate focus for young children. Preschool science is about active learning, not memorizing scientific facts or watching the teacher perform science demonstrations. The purpose of preschool science is to nurture children’s habits of inquiry, critical thinking, creativity, innovative problem solving, open mindedness, and the motivation to learn. Preschool science guides children’s natural curiosity into opportunities to observe, explore, and inquire about basic phenomena and materials in their world.
From infancy, children gain knowledge and develop concepts about living things and physical objects. Preschool science provides children with focused experiences that allow them to learn ways to explore and extend their knowledge. Children begin to adopt scientific ideas and to acquire the basic skills and language of scientific inquiry (ways to explore and develop knowledge and understanding of scientific ideas). Making observations, posing questions, planning investigations, using tools to gather information, making predictions, recording information, and communicating findings and explanations all combine in an evolving process of developing science understanding and creating a disposition to choose to learn science in the future.
Science can be conducted in any preschool setting. All preschools, regardless of the level of resources and access to nature, can use their existing resources to create a program with meaningful science learning experiences. Pushing cars down an incline, building with blocks, manipulating tubes at the water table, or mixing clay with water are everyday play activities that engage children in experimenting with objects and materials. Collecting leaves, searching for insects in the yard, sorting and classifying fruits and vegetables, and sprouting seeds in pots engage children with living things. Experiences of child-initiated play are important as they provide children with opportunities to construct understanding and integrate knowledge. With teachers’ intentional planning, guidance, and support, children’s play and interactions with objects can become rich experiences of scientific inquiry and facilitate children’s knowledge and understanding of objects and events in the world.
Preschool teachers play a pivotal role in expanding children’s understanding of science concepts and developing children’s attitudes, skills, and the language of scientific inquiry. The teachers can focus children’s attention on particular science concepts, those that are developmentally appropriate, interesting, and engaging for both children and teachers. They can create engaging inquiry experiences, encouraging close observations of objects and events.
Children may draw the connection to their own growth and the growth of other animals and begin to develop a broader understanding of living things. Such experiences of scientific inquiry not only support children’s development of scientific knowledge, but provide a natural vehicle for developing children’s social skills, and their development in mathematics, language, literacy, and other domains.
Preschool teachers do not need to have extensive knowledge about science in order to teach it well, but they should be willing to research and gain general knowledge of the concepts and principles they explore with children. The kind and amount of information or knowledge they need to know is readily available through basic research. Acquiring some background knowledge about the topic helps teachers in planning inquiry experiences and challenging and supporting children through their explorations.
Teachers do not need to have answers to all the questions children will raise. Rather than providing children with answers, teachers can use children’s questions as a springboard for further investigations. They may say, “I don’t know. Let’s find out together.” It is essential that teachers become “scientists” together with children, model a questioning mind for children and think out loud, expressing interest and enthusiasm. Teachers’ thoughtful guidance and support through inquiry experiences builds a foundation for children’s understanding of basic science concepts, fosters a positive approach to learning, and develops learning skills and attitudes necessary for later success in science and in other subjects.[2]
10.02: Guiding Principles for Sup
The following principles guide teachers in establishing a preschool science program that fosters children’s curiosity and develops their skills and habits to explore and learn about their world. These principles are consistent with a constructivist approach to learning, where children actively construct knowledge through physical and mental interactions with objects and people in their environment. The principles are drawn from current research-based models and approaches to early childhood science and are consistent with the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) guidelines on developmentally appropriate practice.
• The preschool environment supports children’s curiosity and encourages inquiry and experimentation
• The teacher
• acts as a researcher, joining children in exploring their world
• asks open-ended questions to encourage children to think and talk
• introduces children to new vocabulary, including scientific terms such as observe, explore, predict, and measure
• demonstrates appropriate use of scientific tools
• invites children to reason and draw conclusions
• encourages children to share their observations and communicate their thoughts
• models respect for nature
• Content of inquiry is developmentally appropriate and builds on children’s prior experiences
• Scientific inquiry experiences are interesting and engaging for children and teachers
• Children explore scientific concepts directly through active, hands-on, minds-on playful experiences
• Children explore scientific concepts in depth through multiple, related learning experiences over time
• Children construct knowledge through social interactions with peers and adults
• Children use language and other forms of communication to express their thoughts, describe observations, and document their work
• Teachers support children who are English learners in understanding and communicating scientific knowledge and skill
• Science is embedded in children’s daily activities and play and provides a natural vehicle for integrating mathematics, literacy, and other content areas
• Individual differences are recognized, and all children are included and supported
• The preschool environment, home, and community are connected through science[1] | textbooks/socialsci/Early_Childhood_Education/Book%3A_Introduction_to_Curriculum_for_Early_Childhood_Education_(Paris_Beeve_and_Springer)/04%3A_Section_IV-_Planning_for_Childrens_Learning/10%3A_Science/10.01%3A_Introduction.txt |
The indoor and outdoor environments provide the context for children’s physical and social explorations and construction of scientific concepts. The following are strategies for helping teachers set up a physical environment that is rich, stimulating, and conducive to children’s construction of knowledge
• Be thoughtful about what objects and materials to include in the environment
• Provide a variety of natural materials to observe and investigate
• Include objects and materials that allow for creativity and open-ended investigation
• Include living things in the preschool environment
• Include scientific tools for observation, measurement, and documentation
• Make scientific tools available throughout the preschool environment
• Consider adaptations in scientific tools and materials for children with special needs
• Use technology to support children’s scientific experiences
• Present documentation of science-related experiences in the preschool environment
• Include children’s books with science-related content
• Use the outdoors for natural explorations and investigations
• Organize the space in ways that promote children’s explorations
• Allow space for observations and for objects, materials, tools, and resources related to science
• Allow for flexibility in the use of physical space and furniture to accommodate the changing needs of each activity
• In order to promote self-direction and free explorations, tools and materials need to be accessible and consistently available to children
• Social interactions are necessary for conceptual growth and the development of communication skills
• Always be aware of children’s safety
• Foster children’s curiosity and questioning
• Guide children in exploring their questions
• Be an active observer
• Talk with children and engage them in conversations during their investigations
• Provide children with time.
• Know when to intervene and when to stand back
• Model the use of scientific vocabulary[1]
Table 10.1: Scientific Vocabulary[2]
Words that can be used to describe scientific activities:
Observe, observation
Predict, prediction
Test
Similar, different
Compare, contrast
Count
Measure
Investigate
Explore
Experiment
Discover
Record
Explain
Hypothesis
Table 10.2: Suggested Scientific Tools[3]
Types of Tools
Names of Tools
Observation Tools
Tools to extend close observations
• Magnifying glasses, hand lenses
• Binoculars
• Tweezers
• Microscope Trays (Collectors’ trays)
Measurement Tools
Tools for measuring length, height, weight, volume, and temperature
• Tape measures, strings, unit blocks
• Rulers Scales (e.g., balance scale, bathroom scale)
• Measuring cups
• Measuring spoons
• Thermometer
Recording Tools
Tools for recording and documenting information
• Pencils, markers, crayons
• Science notebooks/journals, charts
• Papers, posters
• Camera, computer
• Felt board, magnet board
• Materials to create 3-D models
Table 10.3: Suggested Open Ended Materials[4]
Types of Materials
Names of Materials
Materials for Building and Construction
Open-ended materials can be used in multiple ways and therefore allow for investigation, creativity, and problem solving
Sample Materials:
• Blocks of various shapes, sizes, and materials (e.g., wood, foam,
• cardboard)
• Boxes
• Cardboard, planks, ramps
• Carpentry tools
• Gutters, hollow tubes
• Logs
• Nuts and bolts
• Screws
• Sticks
• Straws
• Wheels, wheeled objects
• Other construction materials
Collections of Objects and Reclaimed Materials
For exploration of diverse materials and use in sorting, classifying, and ordering activities
Sample Materials:
• Bottles
• Boxes of various sizes
• Buttons
• Collection of balls of different sizes
• Collection of different types of animals (for sorting and pretend
• play)
• Collection of household tools made from metal, wood, plastic
• Collection of musical instruments
• Corks
• Fabrics (e.g., a collection of gloves made of wool, rubber, leather)
• Glass nuggets
• Metal lids
• Plastic lids
• Screws
• Shakers, maracas, castanets
• Styrofoam pieces
• Wind chimes
• Woodchips
A Variety of Substances/ Materials
• Cooking utensils
• Corn starch
• Dough
• Eggshells
• Flour
• Liquids
• Salt
• Sugar
Natural Materials: Earth Materials
Natural materials found on earth
• Clay
• Crystals
• Minerals
• Rocks
• Sand
• Seashells
• Soil
• Tools to dig and explore soil (e.g., trowels, containers, magnifiers,
• trays)
• Tools to explore water (e.g., water table, clear plastic tubes,
• connectors, funnels, containers)
• Water
Natural Materials: Plant Materials
Materials derived from plants and animals
• Bark
• Cotton
• Feather
• Fruits
• Fur
• Leaves
• Seeds, seed pods (e.g., pinecones)
• Tree logs
• Twigs
• Vegetables
Research Highlight
Children bring to science many ideas about how things work. These intuitive understandings or naïve theories that children have constructed often conflict with what is known to be scientifically correct. Children hold preconceptions and misconceptions about different topics of science including forces, changes of matter, light, sound, and earth phenomena. For example, children believe that water disappears when it evaporates or that rain occurs when clouds are shaken. It is important to know how these conceptions differ from the scientific explanation and why children construct these ideas. Children’s misconceptions are intuitively
reasonable, from the child’s perspective, and are used by children to explain the “why” behind physical events. Some of children’s ideas may be cultural beliefs that have been introduced at home. The teacher’s role is to guide children through numerous opportunities to discover and re-create concepts, without overtly correcting their misconceptions. Remember, science is about experimentation, and the goal is to support children’s scientific thinking, not to merely provide the correct answer.[5]
Sources:
C. E. Landry and G. E. Forman, “Research on Early Science Education, in The Early Childhood Curriculum: Current Findings in Theory and Practice, 3rd ed., ed. C. Seefeldt (New York: Teachers College Press, 1999).
N. L. Gallenstein, Creative Construction of Mathematics and Science Concepts in Early Childhood (Olney, MD: Association for Childhood Education International, 2003) | textbooks/socialsci/Early_Childhood_Education/Book%3A_Introduction_to_Curriculum_for_Early_Childhood_Education_(Paris_Beeve_and_Springer)/04%3A_Section_IV-_Planning_for_Childrens_Learning/10%3A_Science/10.03%3A_Environmental_Factors_in_S.txt |
The preschool learning foundations for science are organized into four broad categories or strands:
• Scientific Inquiry
• Physical Sciences
• Life Sciences
• Earth Sciences[1]
Supporting Scientific Inquiry
Young children’s experience of science is an interplay between content knowledge (what children learn about) and inquiry skills (the skills and processes they apply to explore and develop knowledge and understanding of scientific ideas). Children build knowledge and understanding of concepts through active participation in the process of scientific inquiry. Like scientists, children have a natural desire to inquire, but they need guidance in developing the skills of scientific inquiry.
• Observation and investigation skills involve ways to observe, compare, measure, classify, predict, and to check and investigate objects and events.
• Documentation and communication skills are employed to record information and to communicate findings and explanations with others.
Skills of scientific inquiry provide children with the tools for investigating and learning about science topics. Such experiences build habits of questioning, critical thinking, innovative problem solving, communication, collaboration, and decision making.
Scientific inquiry skills are integral to children’s ongoing play and explorations and are not taught in isolation. Children develop their abilities to make observations, ask questions, and gather information, as part of meaningful exploration and investigation experiences. Teachers can establish an environment with a culture of inquiry and facilitate children’s use of scientific skills and language through everyday explorations and planned experiences of scientific inquiry.
At around 48 months of age
At around 60 months of age
1.1 Demonstrate curiosity and raise simple questions about objects and events in their environment.
1.1 Demonstrate curiosity and an increased ability to raise questions about objects and events in their environment.
1.2 Observe1 objects and events in the environment and describe them.
1.2 Observe objects and events in the environment and describe them in greater detail.
1.3 Begin to identify and use, with adult support, some observation and measurement tools.
1.3 Identify and use a greater variety of observation and measurement tools. May spontaneously use an appropriate tool, though may still need adult support.
1.4 Compare and contrast objects and events and begin to describe similarities and differences.
1.4 Compare and contrast objects and events and describe similarities and differences in greater detail.
1.5 Make predictions and check them, with adult support, through concrete experiences.
1.5 Demonstrate an increased ability to make predictions and check them (e.g., may make more complex predictions, offer ways to test predictions, and discuss why predictions were correct or incorrect.
1.6 Make inferences and form generalizations based on evidence.
1.6 Demonstrate an increased ability to make inferences and form generalizations based on evidence.
1. Other related scientific processes, such as classifying, ordering, and measuring, are addressed in the foundations for mathematics.
2.0 Documentation and Communication
At around 48 months of age
At around 60 months of age
2.1 Record observations or findings in various ways, with adult assistance, including pictures, words, (dictated to adults), charts, journals, models, and photos.
2.1 Record information more regularly and in greater detail in various ways, with adult assistance, including pictures, words (dictated to adults), charts, journals, models, photos, or by tallying and graphing information.
2.2 Share findings and explanations which may be correct or incorrect, with or without adult prompting.
2.2 Share findings and explanations, which may be correct or incorrect, more spontaneously and with greater detail.
Teachers can support children’s development of the scientific inquiry foundations with the following:
• Facilitate children’s observation skills by using the term “observe” and introduce the process with a familiar item
• Talk with children and ask questions to guide their observations
• Invite children to observe objects and phenomena related to the current focus of inquiry
• Promote the use of scientific tools to extend children’s observations and investigations of objects
• Introduce children to scientific tools and their function and support their appropriate use
• Encourage children to make predictions first and then check their predictions
• Remind children that predictions do not have to be right
• Record children’s predictions
• Facilitate children’s ability to make inferences and draw conclusions (when inferring and drawing conclusions, children observe what happened and make an assumption about the cause)
• Use everyday observations to model inferring
• Encourage children to explain the reasoning behind their inferences
• Encourage children to record observations and document investigations and findings
• Promote the use of different forms to record and document information
• Consider adaptations for children with special needs
• Encourage children to describe their representations while you write their words
• Encourage different means of communication including home language, sign language, and communication devices
• Invite children to record collaboratively, using charts, graphs, or models
• Ask open-ended questions to
• Encourage children to share their observations
• Facilitate problem-solving and investigations
• Elicit predictions and explanations
• Engage children in collaborative discussions[2]
Vignettes
While exploring the play yard, children became fascinated with pill bugs (usually called roly polies by children). In the yard, they would look for pill bugs and enjoy watching them curl into balls. One day, Ms. Lopez noticed that a group of children collected pill bugs in a bucket. She invited the children to put the “roly polies” on a tray and observe them closely at the outdoor investigation table. Ms. Lopez said, “Let’s use our tools and look really closely at the pill bugs. What do you notice about their body?” Ms. Lopez assisted Jennifer in holding the magnifier above the pill bug: “Wow, it looks so big,” Jennifer said. Jose observes the pill bug with a magnifier and gets excited: “I can see its head.” Ryan asked, “When is it going to open up again? I want to see how many legs it has.”
Ms. Brown presented children with a big cube of ice. She asked the children to touch or hold it and tell her what they notice about it: “What does it feel like? What does it look like?” Children shared their observations: “It is cold.” “It is slippery.” “It is very smooth.” “It is wet.” “It is white.” “It is square.” Ms. Brown asked the children, “What do you know about ice?” Some children shared their ideas: “We keep it in the freezer,” “It’s very, very cold.” “If you put it in water, it disappears.” She invited children to draw their observations of the ice cube in their notebooks. The next day, Ms. Brown told the children that together they are going to explore what will happen to ice when it is left outside of the freezer. She has asked children: “What do you think will happen to this ice cube if we leave it in this bowl? What is your prediction?” “Will it stay the same?” “What will be different?” Children made predictions, and she wrote them on a chart (e.g., “It will not be so cold anymore.” “It will turn into water”), “After lunch, we’ll check our ice cube and find out what happened.”
The children in Ms. Moreno’s group are taking turns bringing home the picture book they created as a group. Today, it is Emilia’s turn to take home this book. This picture book was created to document the growth of their plant. Emilia points to the photos in the book (taken by Ms. Moreno to document the process) and to children’s drawings. She tells the story out loud to her grandmother, who is picking her up, “First we had to buy seeds (points to a photo of the seeds packet on the first page), then we put the soil, and then we put the seeds inside the dirt . . .” Emilia continues with more details while looking at the pictures in the book: how they put the pot in the sun, watered the plant, and measured its growth. “Here it was one inch, and here it was bigger, and here it was very tall, and it has many leaves.” At home, Emilia will share it with her family, and together they will retell the story in her home language.[3]
Pause to Reflect
How would you facilitate children’s thinking skills through everyday observations and interactions?
Supporting Physical Sciences
Young children’s inquiry in physical science involves the active exploration of nonliving objects and materials and of physical events in their everyday environment. When children build with blocks; play with different balls; push or slide objects of different kinds; play with water, sand, clay, and other objects in the preschool environment; they explore materials in different ways and begin to form ideas about the physical properties. They manipulate objects, act on them, and observe what happens. They may try a certain strategy over and over to see if the same result happens again. Through such exploratory interactions with objects and solid and nonsolid materials, children can learn about cause-and-effect relationships, the physical properties of objects and materials (e.g., size, shape, rigidity, texture), and about changes and transformations of objects and materials. For example, when building with various kinds of blocks, children may learn about the size and shape of the blocks and about the characteristics of the materials used to make the blocks (e.g., wood, foam, plastic). They may discover that the big cardboard blocks should be used at the bottom of a tower and the small unit blocks on top in order to create a strong and stable tower. When playing at the water table, they experience how water flows down and takes the shape of the container.
With teachers’ guidance, children’s everyday play can become rich, hands-on inquiry experiences of the key concepts in physical sciences. Teachers can provide children with materials to broaden their investigation. They encourage children to try out their ideas, even if the teacher knows the child’s strategy will not create the desired result. Teachers challenge children’s thinking by asking questions that focus attention on key science concepts being investigated: “What can you do to make the bridge higher?” “How can we make mud?” “Why did the ball roll down in this direction?” Interactions of this kind provide children with opportunities to extend their experimentations with objects, to notice patterns of cause-and-effect, to reason and think more deeply about the phenomena they observe, and to use language to describe, explain, and reflect on their work.
Key Concepts in Physical Sciences
In exploring objects and materials, children develop understanding of key concepts about the physical world.
• They learn about the size, shape, weight, texture and other properties of objects and materials.
• They learn about the form and function of objects and that the form of an object supports its function.
• They continue to learn about cause and effect—that certain actions lead to certain reactions.
• They learn about changes in objects and materials. For instance, how mixing, heating, or cutting will produce changes in materials and that some changes are reversible and some are irreversible.
• They begin to understand that objects not in motion are in a state of balance.
They learn more about force and motion (inanimate objects are set in motion; pushing and pulling put objects in motion; objects can move in different ways).
1.0 Properties and Characteristics of Nonliving Objects and Materials
At around 48 months of age
At around 60 months of age
1.1 Observe, investigate, and identify the characteristics and physical properties of objects and of solid and nonsolid materials (size, weight, shape, color, texture, and sound).
1.1 Demonstrate increased ability to observe, investigate, and describe in greater detail the characteristics and physical properties of objects and of solid and nonsolid materials (size, weight, shape, color, texture, and sound).
2.0 Changes in Nonliving Objects and Materials
At around 48 months of age
At around 60 months of age
2.1 Demonstrate awareness that objects and materials can change; explore and describe changes in objects and materials (rearrangement of parts; change in color, shape, texture, temperature).
2.1 Demonstrate increased awareness that objects and materials can change in various ways. Explore and describe in greater detail changes in objects and materials (rearrangement of parts; change in color, shape, texture, temperature).
2.2 Observe and describe the motion of objects (in terms of speed, direction, the ways things move), and explore the effect of own actions (e.g., pushing, pulling, rolling, dropping) on making objects move.
2.2 Demonstrate an increased ability to observe and describe in greater detail the motion of objects (in terms of speed, direction, the ways things move), and to explore the effect of own actions on the motions of objects, including changes in speed and direction.
Teachers can support children’s development of the physical sciences foundations with the following:
• Provide children with opportunities to explore a variety of objects and materials in the daily environment.
• Prepare yourself and be purposeful about the scientific concepts children will investigate while engaged with objects and materials.
• Engage children in projects that allow them to explore, experiment, and invent with objects and materials for an extended period of time.
• Experiment with materials and objects before offering them to children.
• Invite children to observe and describe the characteristics and physical properties of the objects and materials they investigate.
• Plan opportunities for children to sort and classify objects and materials and reflect on similarities and differences.
• Provide children with opportunities to build and experiment with simple machines. Simple machines refer to six mechanical devices that make it easier to move or lift something: levers, a wheel on an axle, a pulley, an inclined plane, a wedge, and a screw.
• Provide children with opportunities to investigate the form and function of different tools and machines.
• Avoid presenting children with activities of “magical” science (such as chemical “snow” and exploding volcanoes) that are done for entertainment purposes and with the children as observers (not participants).
• Select activities or projects in which children can vary their actions on objects and observe the immediate reactions to their actions.
• Use cooking activities as opportunities to reason about transformations in materials.
• Invite children to set up an experiment and collect and analyze data.
• Focus children’s attention on the effect of one aspect (variable) at a time.
• Lead children to make predictions about what they expect to happen.
• Ask questions to raise children’s awareness of how they produced an effect.
• Encourage children to record and document investigations with objects and materials.[5]
Vignettes
Ms. Yen introduced children to a variety of solid materials, including feathers, wood chips, pennies, foam pieces, marbles, and eggshells. After the materials were introduced, she left them for children’s free exploration in the discovery center. The center also included tools such as magnifiers, trays, cups, and a balance scale to expand their observations of the materials, and the children were familiar with how to use them. Children enjoyed exploring these materials, especially finding out how they are similar or different from each other. One question they investigated was, “Which materials are rigid and which are soft?” Children tried pressing, poking, twisting, tearing, and breaking the different materials and shared their conclusions with their classmates as they worked: “The pennies are hard.” “The feathers are very soft. You can bend them, and they do not break.” “The eggshell breaks when you press on it, and these (points to foam pieces) are soft, and you can break them like this (the child demonstrates how they break easily).” “The wood chips are very hard, too.” With the teacher’s assistance, some children recorded their findings on the chart, by gluing a sample of each material under “Rigid” or “Soft.”
During the last cooking activity Ms. Moreno noticed that the children were fascinated when they mixed the flour with water. The children’s reactions gave Ms. Moreno an idea for extending the group’s explorations with dry materials and engaging them in exploring mixtures. In small-group time, Ms. Moreno introduced the children to different dry materials, such as salt, flour, cornstarch, and sugar, and invited them to explore them. She then suggested that they mix some of these materials with water. The teacher asked the children questions to invite them to make predictions: “What do you think will happen if we add salt to water . . .” As the children watched the salt crystals disappear, they discovered that when salt is mixed with water, it cannot be seen anymore. The teacher immediately asked questions that encouraged the children to check their predictions. Ms. Moreno asked the children, “What happened when you stirred the salt in water?” Children came up with different answers: “It disappears.” “It is inside the water, but you cannot see it anymore.” Ms. Moreno invited the children to taste plain water and the water stirred with salt, and tell the difference. When the children communicated that they tasted the salt and that it was still in the water, the teacher introduced the word dissolve to the children and explained that the salt dissolved in water to make salt water. The children tried out different materials and discovered that some dissolve in water and others, such as flour or sand, do not. The next day, the children tried mixing other materials such as glue, lemonade powder, tea leaves, and play dough to find out what happens to each of these materials when mixed with water.
The children were playing at the water table and taking turns tossing an object into the water, to find out which objects sink and which objects float. Ms. Schultz held a plastic cup, and asked, “What do you predict will happen to this cup when you put it in the water? Will it sink or float?” David said, “It will float like the other cup,” referring to the Styrofoam cup they tested earlier. Dana said, “It will sink because it is more hard than the white cup.” Gaby said, “Maybe if we put it in like this (facing up), it will not sink.” Ms. Schultz asked, “Why do you think so?” Gaby said, “Because the water will not go inside.” She put the cup in the water, facing up, and the children observed the cup floating. “You see! It is floating.” David said, “Now, let’s put it in like this (facing down).” Ms. Shultz said, “That’s a great idea. Let’s put the cup in the water facing down and see what happens. What is your prediction? Will the cup sink or float?”
The children predicted that the plastic cup will float again. Ms. Shultz asked, “Why do you think it will float?” David answered, “Because it was floating before.” She put the cup in the water, facing down, and everyone, including Ms. Schultz, was surprised when they saw the cup sinking in the water. The children were fascinated with what they discovered. They kept putting the cup in the water, one time facing up and one time facing down, watching it turn from a “floater” to a “sinker.”[7]
Pause to Reflect
How can different interest areas in the preschool environment (e.g., the block area, the water table, the sensory table, and the playground) be used to enhance children’s explorations of objects and materials?
Supporting Life Sciences
Life sciences for young children are about nurturing children’s curiosity and fascination with the natural world and building their understanding and appreciation of living things. Preschool children have various opportunities to engage with living things in their preschool environment. When playing in the yard, they may come across small animals or bugs or notice changes in the trees. They may help take care of the class pet or plants in the room. They participate in different planned activities related to living things, such as going on a neighborhood walk to collect different leaves, search for bugs or other small animals in the yard, sort and classify fruits and vegetables, explore various seeds, plant bulbs, sprout seeds, or grow a garden. Such experiences in the preschool environment can provide the context for rich experiences of scientific inquiry about properties and characteristics of living things.
The goal is to provide children with opportunities which allow them to closely observe living things, including human beings, and to encourage them to question, explore and investigate physical characteristics, behaviors, habitats, and needs. Through ongoing opportunities to observe and discuss what they have seen, children develop their ideas about living things, how they are the same, and how they differ from one another. They start to sort and classify and look for patterns. They begin to recognize commonalities such as the physical structure and basic needs of different living things, but also the diversity and variation among different organisms.
The teacher has an important role in guiding children through experiences of exploring and observing animals and plants around them, whether outdoors, as they exist in nature, or indoors in an environment that is as natural as possible. They deepen children’s understanding of living things, including features of their own body parts and processes, by encouraging children to observe closely, raise questions, investigate more about a topic, describe and represent their observations, and by creating opportunities for discussion and reflection. At the same time, they model wonder and excitement of the natural world and an attitude of respect for living things and their habitats.
Key Concepts in Life Sciences
In studying animals, plants, and humans, children develop an understanding of key concepts related to living things such as:
• All living things have basic needs that must be met for them to grow and survive.
• The body parts of living things are useful for them in meeting their needs.
• The physical characteristics of living things reflect how they move and behave.
• Living things have their habitats in different environments.
• All living things grow over time and go through changes related to the life cycle.
There is variation and diversity in living things
1.0 Properties and Characteristics of Living Things
At around 48 months of age
At around 60 months of age
1.1 Identify characteristics of a variety of animals and plants, including appearance (inside and outside) and behavior, and begin to categorize them.
1.1 Identify characteristics of a greater variety of animals and plants and demonstrate an increased ability to categorize them.
1.2 Begin to indicate knowledge of body parts and process (e.g., eating, sleeping, breathing, walking) in humans and other animals.
1.2 Indicate greater knowledge of body parts and processes (e.g., eating, sleeping, breathing, walking) in humans and other animals.
1.3 Identify the habitats of people and familiar animals and plants in the environment and begin to realize that living things have habitats in different environments.
1.3 Recognize that living things have habitats in different environments suited to their unique needs.
1.4 Indicate knowledge of the difference between animate objects (animals, people) and inanimate objects. For example, expect animate objects to initiate movement and to have different insides than inanimate objects.
1.4 Indicate knowledge of the difference between animate and inanimate objects, providing greater detail, and recognizing that only animals and plants undergo biological processes such as growth, illness, healing, and dying.
2.0 Changes in Living Things
At around 48 months of age
At around 60 months of age
2.1 Observe and explore growth and changes in humans, animals, and plants and demonstrate an understanding that living things change over time in size and in other capacities as they grow.
2.1 Observe and explore growth in humans, animals, and plants and demonstrate an increased understanding that living things change as they grow and go through transformations related to the life cycle (for example, from a caterpillar to butterfly).
2.2 Recognize that animals and plants require care and begin to associate feeding and watering with the growth of humans, animals, and plants.
2.2 Develop a greater understanding of the basic needs of humans, animals, and plants (e.g., food, water, sunshine, shelter).
Teachers can support children’s development of the life sciences foundations with the following:
• Focus children’s explorations on key concepts of living things
• Take children on outdoor explorations of plants and animals.
• Model curiosity and interest in nature
• Remind children to be respectful of nature
• Engage children in conversations about what they notice and point their attention to important aspects of living things
• Document children’s outdoor explorations
• Provide children with tools for explorations of living things
• Include plants and animals indoors
• Engage children in close observations of living things (animals, plants, and fruits and vegetables)
• Invite children to share in-home experiences with living things
• Use books to enrich and extend children’s study of living things
• Provide children with opportunities to care for plants and animals
• Provide children with opportunities to observe and monitor plants’ growth and development
• Engage children in reflective conversations in small or large groups
• Involve families in children’s planting and gardening experiences
• Provide children with opportunities to observe changes and transformations in animals passing through stages of the life cycle
• Provide children with opportunities to observe changes and transformations in animals passing through stages of the life cycle
• Discuss the death of living things from the scientific perspective of death, and explain to them that all living things die (families should be informed of the discussions to be prepared to answer questions).
• Invite children to investigate their own growth[10]
Vignettes
While playing outdoors, Gregory pointed up to the oak tree and shouted, “Look, a squirrel up in the tree.” Joanna whispered, “Shhh . . . You will scare the squirrel away.” They stood there silently, watching the squirrel. Soon more children joined them. Ms. Leon, watched them observing the squirrel and asked, “What do you think the squirrel is doing?” (Pause) “What do you think he is looking for?” She listened carefully to the children’s ideas and questions while observing the squirrel: “It is climbing up.” “He is looking at us.” “I think he is looking for something to eat.” Joanna asked Ms. Leon, “Is that where he lives?” Ms. Leon turned the question right back to her and asked, “What do you think?” Ms. Leon expected this question to come up because recently they were talking about the habitats of different animals and commented that some animals live in trees. Later, during group time, Ms. Leon invited children to share with the group their observations of the squirrel. She brought up her question again: “What do you think the squirrel was looking for in the tree?” Some children said that squirrels were looking for food. Ms. Leon asked, “What kind of food do you think squirrels may find in the tree?” Joanna suggested, “Maybe they eat leaves.” Miguel said, “Maybe the squirrel was looking for seeds.” Ms. Leon answered, “Oh, so you think that squirrels may eat leaves, nuts, and seeds. Let’s get our small binoculars and journals and observe the squirrels to find out what squirrels are doing in the tree and what they like to eat.
The teacher cut open the avocado, and Danny got really excited. “I knew there was going to be a big seed inside.” Ms. Wilson replied, “You did predict that there was going to be a big seed inside.” She invited children to observe the inside of the avocado. Rena said, “It has this thing inside.” Sara pointed to the empty half and said, “This is where it was.” The teacher replied, “It is the avocado seed.” She took out the seed and handed it to Rena. “Oh, it is slippery.” Ms. Wilson put it on a tray and said, “It does feel very slimy.” She invited children to observe the seed. “What does it look like? What does it feel like?” After she gave children time to observe the avocado seed, she pointed to the other fruits in the basket and said, “I wonder if these fruits are also going to have seeds inside. What do you think?” Rena said, “Maybe the orange will not have very big seeds.” Danny said, “The avocado has a big seed inside, not the orange.” Ms. Wilson asked, “What do you think is inside the orange?” The teacher invited the children to predict what kind of seeds are inside an orange, a mango, a butternut squash, a papaya, and a plum and wrote down their predictions. She then invited the children to cut open the fruits and check what was inside[11]
Pause to Reflect
How can you find out what ideas, interests, cultural beliefs, or fears the children in your group bring to their study of living things?
Supporting Earth Sciences
When children play with dirt, jump in puddles, collect rocks, observe the rain, or feel the heat of the sun, they have direct contact with aspects of the earth. Daily interactions and direct contact with objects and earth events provide children with the context to observe and explore properties of earth materials and to identify patterns of change in the world around them (for example, patterns of day and night, and changes in temperature). With teachers’ guidance, children’s everyday interactions and direct contact with objects and earth events can become rich, inquiry based experiences of earth sciences.
Teachers can provide children with opportunities to explore the physical properties of earth materials and to observe, record, and track changes in the weather and how it affects the living world. Exploratory interactions with earth materials and ongoing observations of earth phenomena enhance children’s connection to nature and raise their awareness of the importance of caring for and respecting the natural world. The box below summarizes key concepts in earth sciences. The following section provides practical strategies to engage children in rich, focused explorations of earth materials and phenomena.
Key Concepts in Earth Sciences
In studying earth materials and phenomena, children become aware of key characteristics of earth:
• Earth materials (soil, sand, rocks, air, water) are part of the natural environment.
• Earth materials have different properties.
• There are patterns of change in earth phenomena (day/night; seasons). Natural objects in the sky (sun, moon) are not always in the same place.
• Temperature and weather changes can be tracked over time.
• Weather and seasonal changes affect the environment.
People should respect and care for the environment.
1.0 Properties and Characteristics of Earth Materials and Objects
At around 48 months of age
At around 60 months of age
1.1 Investigate characteristics (size, weight, shape, color, texture) of earth materials such as sand, rocks, soil, water, and air.
1.1 Demonstrate increased ability to investigate and compare characteristics (size, weight, shape, color, texture) of earth materials such as sand, rocks, soil, water, and air.
2.0 Changes in the Earth
At around 48 months of age
At around 60 months of age
2.1 Observe and describe natural objects in the sky (sun, moon, stars, clouds) and how they appear to move and change.
2.1 Demonstrate an increased ability to observe and describe natural objects in the sky and to notice patterns of movement and apparent changes in the sun and the moon.
2.2 Notice and describe changes in weather.
2.2 Demonstrate an increased ability to observe, describe, and discuss changes in weather.
2.3 Begin to notice the effects of weather and seasonal changes on their own lives and on plants and animals.
2.3 Demonstrate an increased ability to notice and describe the effects of weather and seasonal changes on their own lives and on plants and animals.
2.4 Develop awareness of the importance of caring for and respecting the environment and participate in activities related to its care.
2.4 Demonstrate an increased awareness and the ability to discuss in simple terms how to care for the environment, and participate in activities related to its care.
Teachers can support children’s development of the earth science foundations with the following:
• Take children on a search for earth materials in nature
• Invite children to observe, compare and classify earth materials
• Invite children to explore and experiment with earth materials
• Use opportunities to explore earth materials in the context of studying living things or when exploring other solid and nonsolid materials
• Invite children to share in-home experiences with earth materials
• Engage children in observing and describing the sun and the moon and other natural objects in the sky
• Provide children with opportunities to observe, record, and discuss the weather
• Develop an awareness of the daily weather
• Invite children to record and discuss changes in the weather
• Invite children to observe and discuss the effects of weather and seasonal changes on their life and the environment around them
• Engage families in children’s explorations of weather and seasonal change
• Model and discuss respect for the environment
• Engage children in caring for and protecting the environment through everyday routines in the preschool environment
• Collect and use recycled materials[13]
Vignettes
Ms. Tina observes the children playing at the sandbox. Ted fills up the bucket with water and pours it on the sand. Olivia and Ted watch as the water is absorbed by the sand. Next they begin to pile the sand into a mound. Olivia says, “It’s like a mountain. Let’s make it bigger.” They add more sand and compact it together. Their mountain is beginning to take shape and gets bigger and bigger. Olivia says, “I am going to get water.” She gets a small bucket and gently pours it on top of the mountain. She notices how the water creates a depression in the sand and then flows down. Ted says, “Like a river.” He gets more water in the bucket and pours it again in the same place. The depressed part gets bigger. Ms. Tina gets closer and asks, “What happens when the water is flowing down your mountain?” Ted describes, “The water makes a hole in the mountain. Olivia says, “It takes the sand down.” Ms. Tina said, “A little bit of water at the beginning helped to hold the mountain together, but pouring a large amount of water causes the sand to slip and slide away. It can also happen in nature, when water breaks down the land.”
Today, Rena’s father came to school to share with the group some of his kites and to build a kite with the children. First, he invited the children to observe him flying one of his kites in the air, and then the children took turns flying the kite together with him. After they came inside, Rena’s father asked the children, “So what do you think makes the kite fly up?” Children came up with different answers. “The wind touches the kite all around, and it goes up in the sky. It pushes the kite up, up, up, up in the sky.” Another child said, “The air goes through the holes of the kite, and it moves the kite to the sky.” Rena’s dad invited children to notice the shape of the kite, and together they discovered that the kites he brought have a similar shape, “like a diamond.” He also asked them why they think the kite needs to be light and not heavy, and one of the children said, “Because it needs to fly up.” Rena’s dad told them, “A long time ago, kites were invented in China. People used bamboo sticks and silk to make kites.” He then invited children to build a kite. “Now we are going to build our own kite. What do you think we need to build a kite?
Every month the children observe the oak tree outdoors and keep records of how it changes from month to month. Ms. B. encourages children to make drawings of the tree, and together with the children, she takes photos of it once a month. While observing the tree, Ms. B invites them to share their observations: “What changes do you see?” “Why do you think the tree changed like that?” Through such discussions, Ms. B helps children to begin to draw the connection between the changes they observe in the tree and the changes in the weather and seasons. In the fall, children collected fallen oak acorns and leaves. They were fascinated with its deeply lobed leaves, and some of them made drawings of the oak leaves in their journals. They also observed the acorns and talked about them as well as other trees around the yard that have dry fruit similar to the acorn. Ms. B creates a class book with the observational drawings, children’s words, and photographs documenting the changes the children observe each month. By the end of the school year, the book will include their documentation of the tree in order of the seasons: fall, winter, spring, and summer.[14] | textbooks/socialsci/Early_Childhood_Education/Book%3A_Introduction_to_Curriculum_for_Early_Childhood_Education_(Paris_Beeve_and_Springer)/04%3A_Section_IV-_Planning_for_Childrens_Learning/10%3A_Science/10.04%3A_Introducing_the_Foundation.txt |
Teachers can make the following suggestions to families to facilitate their support of history and social science
• Use science learning as an opportunity to involve families by inviting them to the program and by sending home suggestions for activities that they can do with their children.
• Communicate to families their important role in supporting children’s curiosity and the development of scientific knowledge.
• Share with family members your approach to science and how you support children’s development of inquiry skills.
• Invite family members to come and talk with the teacher and children about their beliefs and connections to nature
• Share the importance of active hands-on explorations of objects and materials
• Inform families about children’s explorations and experimentations with objects and materials.
• Involve family members as volunteers and rich resources in the preschool environment.
• Provide families with enrichment and follow-up activities they can do with children at home.
• Ask families about children’s previous experiences, cultural beliefs, and theories about living things.
• Share with families children’s experiences with science in the classroom.
• Remind family members of the many opportunities to engage children in life science explorations outside the preschool environment.
• Provide family members with tips to support children’s awareness and understanding of their natural environment.[1]
10.06: Conclusion
Young children have a sense of wonder and a natural curiosity about objects and events in their world. Through exploratory play and experimentation with objects and materials, they discover how to make their car go downhill faster or how to control the movement and flow of water. They are excited to find out what’s inside a pumpkin, how trees change over the year, how the rain feels and smells, and why pill bugs curl into a ball. The preschool environment nurtures children’s innate or natural dispositions to observe and seek information and guides their curiosity into opportunities to observe, explore, and inquire about objects and phenomena in their environment. Teachers provide children with a purposefully planned, play-based, supportive environment that expands their explorations. Children’s explorations and guided investigations deepen children’s understanding of concepts in science and develop their attitudes, skills, and language of scientific inquiry.
While investigating concepts from physical, life, and earth sciences, teachers encourage children to ask questions, to observe and investigate, to predict and experiment with objects and materials, to draw conclusions, to document their work, and to share their observations and ideas with others. Such experiences not only develop children’s scientific inquiry skills, but also provide the context for learning and developing their language (building vocabulary in English and in their home language), literacy, mathematics, and social skills. Science also offers a special avenue to include families in the curriculum and bridge the home and preschool cultures. Preschool science is inclusive and prepares children for the scientific skills and knowledge they encounter later in school. It fosters a joy of discovery, a positive approach to learning, and the development of skills and attitudes necessary for many areas of learning throughout life.[2]
Pause to Reflect
What aspects of the natural world are you curious about? How might that affect how you plan curriculum for science? | textbooks/socialsci/Early_Childhood_Education/Book%3A_Introduction_to_Curriculum_for_Early_Childhood_Education_(Paris_Beeve_and_Springer)/04%3A_Section_IV-_Planning_for_Childrens_Learning/10%3A_Science/10.05%3A_Engaging_Families.txt |
Learning Objectives
By the end of the chapter, you should be able to:
• Explain how young children naturally express themselves through the arts
• Advocate for the arts being included in early childhood education
• Describe each of the four disciplines/strands of the creative arts
• Summarize the foundations in the arts that high quality early childhood programs support
• List materials that educators can include in their classrooms to support the arts
• Identify ways for educators to support the arts through their curriculum planning
• Discuss ways to engage families in curriculum for the arts
11: Creative Arts
The creative arts are as natural to young children’s lives as language and play are. The arts build skills such as problem solving and critical thinking; they bring parallel opportunities for the development of language/communication, mathematics, and the development of social and interpersonal skills. The following activities are often referred to as children’s play: scribbling with a crayon, pretending to be a pirate or a bird, humming bits of a tune, banging on a drum, or swaying to music. But these behaviors in fact show elements of artistic expression and creation that support continuous development of artistic skills. They also show the hallmarks of children’s abilities to express themselves through symbols and aesthetic images.[1]
The creative arts domain is presented in four familiar disciplines:
Table 11.1: Creative Arts Disciplines
Examples of Art
Types of Art
Visual Art: The visual arts include the practice of drawing, painting, sculpting, and assembling collages in two or three dimensions. Preschool visual art is process-based and open-ended, allowing children to explore by using a variety of materials. The product is not the focus, though the children will likely view their creation as a masterpiece!
Music: Preschoolers love to listen to music as well as sing along and move with music. Music learning in preschool is a time to make new discoveries. Preschoolers can engage in music making, performing rhythms, musical sounds and passages with a variety of instruments, or simply sing along to a favorite tune.
Drama: For preschoolers, this domain involves both spontaneous dramatic play and teacher-structured drama, each of which inspires the other. Preschoolers are naturally inclined to engage in solitary, parallel, and group play, and draw on these experiences when acting out situations and using props (with teacher guidance). Similarly, engaging in drama feeds children’s imagination and inspires dramatic play. A goal in dramatic play and drama for preschoolers is unleashing the child’s imagination. Thus, the focus is on children’s creative engagement in drama rather than on actual performance or “the theater.”
Dance: The dance domain for preschoolers is interested in the creative and often expressive use of movement. Movement is explored in all its range (e.g., small and large, fast or slow, hopping or marching) and for various purposes, such as learning math or language skills, or for the joy of moving. Dance can be a nonverbal tool for expressing ideas, telling stories, or communicating emotions. It is often rhythmic and accompanied by music. Requiring thinking, social interaction, and physical exercise, dance is a motivating way for preschoolers to engage in learning.
The specific foundations, which are the knowledge, skills, and behaviors that preschool children typically develop in a quality preschool environment as they relate to visual art, music, drama, and dance are included later in the chapter as each strand is explored.[6] | textbooks/socialsci/Early_Childhood_Education/Book%3A_Introduction_to_Curriculum_for_Early_Childhood_Education_(Paris_Beeve_and_Springer)/04%3A_Section_IV-_Planning_for_Childrens_Learning/11%3A_Creative_Arts/11.01%3A_Introduction.txt |
Much of children’s development in the creative arts during the preschool years proceeds naturally and needs only fertile soil, along with time, to grow. Children initiate many behaviors and routines when they simply go about their play. They practice many skills along the way, and supportive physical and social–emotional development occurs as children progress from ages three to five. At the same time, their drawings become more mature and expressive, their pretend characters and settings become more complex and social, their musical expression skills grow with their muscular coordination and abilities to discern beat, tone, and melody, and the movements they coordinate with music or simply orchestrate in silence gain in surety and expressive complexity.
A primary responsibility of the preschool teacher is to let such natural developments occur. Child-initiated artistic activity is valuable not only because it is so enmeshed with a host of developments for children, but also because children cherish ownership of much of what they do. Children follow their hearts and minds to what interests them and to areas where they experience increasing mastery. They draw as they will and may not be interested in exactly what thing, animal, or person the creation represents. They may hold firm to their idea of how to draw a tree, behave like a bear, or sing like a bird; it often becomes important for teachers and other adults to avoid critiquing such expressions (except where the child may solicit advice). Teachers would do well to let the child experiment with, and perhaps revise, her expressions as the need occurs or as maturing views of the world and its possible representations take hold.
Along with child-initiated art, a complementary perspective needs reinforcement. This perspective recognizes the ways that teachers can and should support young learners in their development. An element of this scaffolding is creating conditions in the preschool program in which interesting and important connections between the arts and other developments can take place. Capitalizing on language and communication opportunities is another example; placing children in settings where cooperation is important and where cooperative dispositions and skills may grow is yet another. Some art activities can help children become aware of and reflect on differences among people, become exposed to diverse art forms from different cultures, and create a common platform of learning for children between home and school. These considerations will set the stage for children’s growth and interest in the arts.[2]
11.03: Guiding Principles
The following guiding principles relate the importance of teachings knowing their children and providing instructional activities that tap into the children’s prior knowledge and experiences. Exploration in the arts is important and creative expression is more authentic when not dictated by adult expectations. Adults need to scaffold this process of exploration providing structure to activities, mediating potential problems, and inspiring and encouraging children’s progress. In this manner, adults can make the arts rewarding to all children, including those with special needs.
Beyond helping to build artistic skills, reflection and modification are important to the creative process. These opportunities in the arts also build skills such as problem solving and critical thinking; the arts bring parallel opportunities for the development of language/communication, mathematics, and the development of social and interpersonal skills. In the same vein, the arts have applications to learning in many disciplines and to aspects of social–emotional development. Observant teachers can capitalize on the arts to foster development of the self, identity, and emotional outlet.
The arts can be pursued even with meager budgets and free materials. Children benefit from high-quality learning experiences and high-quality materials— both as vehicles to encourage exploration and as symbols that demonstrate adult caring for children’s welfare.
• The arts are inclusive of and can be enjoyed by all children.
• The arts are a language that is common to all and embrace understanding between children of different linguistic, cultural, and socioeconomic backgrounds, and between children of differing abilities.
• The arts promote dispositions for learning and regular experiences in the arts during the preschool years, cultivates life-long engagement in arts-related activities.
• Children make their own meaning. Original, imaginative expression is a natural occurrence when children engage in the arts that is scaffolded by adults in an appropriate environment.
• Children are capable of creating original art in all its forms.
• Children learn about human connections, beauty, and appreciation of the arts.
• The child’s work is play and experiences in the arts should be offered in play-oriented approaches.
• Children are active learners who thrive when challenged appropriately. An effective curriculum includes a broad range of methods, experiences, and definitions of success for all children, teachers, and preschool settings.
• Arts experiences for preschoolers are more about process than product. Being engaged is what is important, not the end result or product.
• The arts reinforce the integrated nature of learning. Because children learn holistically, the arts should be presented in a way that is integrated with other domains of learning.
• Cultural competence is approached through art. The arts can help children reflect on their own cultures and origins as well as those of others.
• The arts are motivating and engaging for learners. The arts are a means to explore, take risks, communicate, and define personal perspectives and preferences regardless of culture, developmental status, or ability.
• Since children have a propensity for imitation, more than anything else, a teacher who is excited about the arts can potentially inspire children of any culture, language, or ability to become excited about art making.
• The arts provide a unique means for families to interact. They have songs, stories, games, and many other talents to share.[3] | textbooks/socialsci/Early_Childhood_Education/Book%3A_Introduction_to_Curriculum_for_Early_Childhood_Education_(Paris_Beeve_and_Springer)/04%3A_Section_IV-_Planning_for_Childrens_Learning/11%3A_Creative_Arts/11.02%3A_Supporting_Childrens.txt |
Most materials necessary to support preschoolers’ learning in the creative arts are inexpensive and easy to obtain and can often be shared across art domains. In fact, by rotating props, books, masks, and the like, teachers reinvent them in novel ways.
There are some basic needs in each art discipline to create exciting and enriching learning experiences. Further materials will be summarized as each discipline is discussed later in the chapter.
• Dance and movement require only space in a room and benefit further from music and costumes of modest scope and cost.
• Many things handy in a preschool environment can serve as props for dramatic play (spontaneous engagement in pretend play) and drama (guided experiences with instruction on acting out a drama), where imagination can turn almost anything into something else.
• Visual arts largely involve drawing, painting, and creating two- and three-dimensional works of art. These activities commonly make use of natural materials in addition to typical art supplies, such as, crayons, pencils, finger paints, watercolor paints, moldable dough, construction paper, and sufficient drawing or painting paper to provide the inspiration for children’s creations. Children need flat places to draw and paint—tabletops, the floor, or outdoor surfaces, such as fences.
• It is important that music not be limited to prerecorded songs. Music is an active process. Music may be a little more demanding of specialized materials. A variety of rhythm instruments, such as wooden blocks, bongo drums, or hollow, hardwood boxes, can be used by children; little instruction is necessary. When these materials are not available, clapping hands and stomping feet can keep rhythm. Other musical instruments that may extend this collection include recorder-like wind instruments, shakers, stringed plucking devices, and so on.
• Adaptive materials may be necessary to ensure that activities are accessible for all children with disabilities or other special needs to participate in art activities with a feeling of enjoyment and accomplishment.
• Materials that may serve as props for pretend play, or costumes that reflect the cultural backgrounds of the children in the preschool program, are good to have on hand.
• Any and all art materials can be used to foster the creative process. Having a wide range of loose parts available gives children many opportunities to explore their creative tendencies.
Physical environments that support learning in the creative arts begin with sufficient, appropriate space. The few basic materials described above, and space for the use of materials and movement of the children, are all that is required of the environment. For example, costumes, prop-like objects, and art supplies, along with a designated workspace accessible to children, can help encourage learning while creating an aesthetically pleasing physical environment.
Scheduled time for arts activities, with an organized flow of necessary preparation and cleaning up (or possibly winding down of excited children), will also help facilitate learning. Teachers quickly learn—often through trial and error—the importance of allowing sufficient time for an art experience. The arts can also be woven into other areas of the curriculum throughout the day.
An effective environment for teaching and learning in the creative arts for the preschool child considers:
• The suitability, accessibility, safety, amount, and variety of materials.
• The aesthetics (beauty) of the early childhood environment.
• Sufficient open space for movement, dance, and theater play.
• Support for children’s drawing skills.
• Indoor and outdoor environments for creating art.
• Art that is displayed at the eye level of the children. This includes their own, examples of visual arts, and photographs of those engaged in the arts.
• A well-constructed environment for social and collaborative learning.[2]
Research Highlight: Is It Art?
What is the difference between “art” and a mere scribble? Preschool parents may be as interested in this question as the puzzled adult viewing modern, abstract art at the local gallery. One sense of art stressed in this curriculum framework is that the creative arts aim at the joys of free expression and the pleasures of seeing and creating images. Art instruction at the preschool level is also concerned with basic, first steps that can lead to more advanced artistic skills.
Differing views prevail concerning the child artist. One approach seeks artistic significance in a child’s work—perhaps a genius or a prodigy is emerging. A contrasting view dismisses the child artist by labeling his artwork “haphazard” and its occasional glimpses of clever expression and beauty as “accidental.”
Over the years, the work of Nelson Goodman and Howard Gardner at Harvard University’s Project Zero has helped to demystify children’s art. Those scholars view art through the lens of cognition rather than through a value-driven critique of aesthetics. Art is a cognitive activity, requiring thinking, problem solving, communication, and intent. And learning in art is frequently tied to learning in language as well as culture.
For Goodman, the classical question What is art? is transposed into a less-familiar question: When is art? As Goodman suggests, art “occurs” when its symbols are functioning aesthetically. The aesthetic functions of symbols include expressiveness (conveying meaning or feeling), susceptibility to multiple readings, and repleteness (full or abundant rendering). These ideas de-emphasize judgments of beauty or merit; Goodman’s artistic creator is the individual with sufficient understanding of the properties and functions of certain symbol systems to allow her to create works that function in an aesthetically effective manner.
And what of preschool-age children? Rhoda Kellogg’s documentation and classification of hundreds of thousands of children’s drawings from 30 countries testify to children’s ability to use symbols at an early age, often depicting qualities of the artist as defined by Goodman. Children’s art is frequently expressive, conveying emotion, feeling, action, and story. Children’s art may be more or less replete—with abundant renderings of objects or symbols at times, with vague, sketchy treatments at other times. Young children are not very likely to plan and create works with multiple readings—this ability belongs to more mature developmental stages and can emerge in adolescence.
Appearing commonly in drawings of children, especially those of two- or three-year-olds, is the mandala, a term used to designate symbolic representations that include a circular motif typically incorporating a crosslike figure.5 For the child, the mandala is a well-balanced, pleasing form that lies en route to genuine representation. The contrasting, superimposed elements of the circle and cross are precursors to the figure’s metamorphoses to rounded figures with legs, arms, and facial details.
According to Gardner, the conditions suggested by Goodman, though helpful in thinking through the puzzles of children’s art, nevertheless leave the debate about art created by children in a state of relative limbo. The preschool teacher’s role is to introduce children to a range of constructive symbolic media and provide them with the faith that the child’s own vision and ability to give form to vision are worthy. The preschool teacher can view children’s art without an eye or plea for realism; rather, the gaze might borrow from Paul Klee, who, when discovering his childhood drawings, described them in a 1902 letter to his fiancée as the most significant ones he had yet made.[3]
Sources
H. Gardner, Art, Mind, and Brain: A Cognitive Approach to Creativity. New York: Basic Books, 1982, 60.
H. Gardner, Artful Scribbles: The Significance of Children’s Drawings. New York: Basic Books, 1980, 38. 6. Ibid., 53.
J. H. Davis, 2005, Framing Education as Art: The Octopus Has a Good Day. New York: Teachers College Press, 70.
As cited in L. Camhi, “When Picasso and Klee Were Very Young: The Art of Childhood,” New York Times, June 18, 2006. www.nytimes.com/2006/06/18/arts/design/18camhi. html?pagewanted=1&_r=1 (accessed September 10, 2009).
Let’s take a closer look at each of the strands/disciplines of the Creative Arts. | textbooks/socialsci/Early_Childhood_Education/Book%3A_Introduction_to_Curriculum_for_Early_Childhood_Education_(Paris_Beeve_and_Springer)/04%3A_Section_IV-_Planning_for_Childrens_Learning/11%3A_Creative_Arts/11.04%3A_Environments_and_Mat.txt |
Preschool children often have a natural fascination with the process of creating visual art. Making marks, squishing clay, and using a brush to apply color are activities that attract most young children. In groups where children speak multiple languages and may not share common words, visual art can create connections and a way of communicating. Art can become a way for people to connect across cultures to their common humanity; an appreciation for it may begin in preschool. Inviting families into the environment to share works of art from the home is an opportunity to build a bridge to the home.
Young children are naturally creative. The visual art framework is designed to encourage creativity; open-ended projects emphasize the process of working with visual materials. In other words, the curriculum is not focused on encouraging a child to produce, for example, a specific painting, but rather to practice using a brush on paper without a set outcome.
Children are both consumers and creators of visual arts, which is reflected in the foundations:
Visual Art
1.0 Notice, Respond, and Engage
At around 48 months of age
At around 60 months of age
1.1 Notice and communicate about objects or forms that appear in art.
1.1 Communicate about elements appearing in art (such as line, texture, or perspective), and describe how objects are positioned in the artwork.
1.2 Create marks with crayons, paints, and chalk and then identify them; mold and build with dough and clay and then identify them.
1.2 Begin to plan art and show increasing care and persistence in completing it.
1.3 Enjoy and engage with displays of visual art, inside or outside the classroom. Begin to express preferences for some art activities or materials.
1.3 Enjoy and engage with displays of visual art. May expand critical assessment of visual art to include preferences for types of artwork or art activities.
1.4 Choose own art for display in the classroom or for inclusion in a portfolio or book and briefly explain choice.
1.4 Choose own art for display in the classroom or for inclusion in a portfolio or book and explain her or his ideas in some detail.
2.0 Develop Skills in Visual Art
At around 48 months of age
At around 60 months of age
2.1 Make straight and curved marks and lines; begin to draw rough circle shapes.
2.1 Draw single circle and add lines to create representations of people and things.
2.2 Begin to create paintings or drawings that suggest people, animals, and objects.
2.2 Begin to create representative paintings or drawings that approximate or depict people, animals, and objects.
Developmental Sequence of Drawing
When provided with tools and a supportive environment, children from ages three to five progress more rapidly in the visual arts than during any other two-year period prior to adulthood. Creativity and imagination are at their apex at age four-and-a-half years; most experienced preschool teachers will attest to this. The arts are a natural outlet for the creative thinking of a preschooler, and learning is rapid.
The progression of children’s drawing ability is the most documented in the visual arts. When children are given a means and a place to make marks, they begin with series of vertical lines and move on to mandalas (i.e., repeated circles). The mandalas soon sprout legs and arms, then faces, and more detailed features such as hair, fingers, or eyes. Harvard University Professor Howard Gardner refers to this process as “the birth of the potato person.” This research has become so well-known that medical doctors will now check on children’s intellectual progress by asking the child and parent how detailed the child’s human-figure drawings are (rather than asking about letters and numbers) at the four-year and five-year checkups. Because children speak multiple languages and progress differently around writing skills, the question about drawing is more relevant and telling for this age group.
Developmental Sequence of Drawing
When provided with tools and a supportive environment, children from ages three to five progress more rapidly in the visual arts than during any other two-year period prior to adulthood. Creativity and imagination are at their apex at age four-and-a-half years; most experienced preschool teachers will attest to this. The arts are a natural outlet for the creative thinking of a preschooler, and learning is rapid.
The progression of children’s drawing ability is the most documented in the visual arts. When children are given a means and a place to make marks, they begin with series of vertical lines and move on to mandalas (i.e., repeated circles). The mandalas soon sprout legs and arms, then faces, and more detailed features such as hair, fingers, or eyes. Harvard University Professor Howard Gardner refers to this process as “the birth of the potato person.” This research has become so well-known that medical doctors will now check on children’s intellectual progress by asking the child and parent how detailed the child’s human-figure drawings are (rather than asking about letters and numbers) at the four-year and five-year checkups. Because children speak multiple languages and progress differently around writing skills, the question about drawing is more relevant and telling for this age group.
The painting progress of children is not as well-documented as their drawing progress. In general, children begin by simply experimenting with brushstrokes and the process of applying paint to a surface. Children’s first paintings are usually solid sections of a single color, two colors, or three colors at the most. The brushstrokes begin to change directions, and shapes emerge. Finally, children begin to attempt representational paintings. The subject matter of such paintings varies depending on the child, the teacher, and the environment.[2]
Teachers can support children’s development of the visual arts foundations with the following:
• Encourage engagement with art at all levels.
• Support exploration and discovery.
• Give children the time and space needed to explore creativity.
• Provide a comfortable environment in which children can practice art.
• Provide opportunities for children to reflect on their own work.
• Respect individual developmental, cultural, and linguistic differences, and encourage children to respect them.
• Provide children simply with a means and place to make marks (e.g., a crayon and paper), and they will begin with the same basic images.
• Encourage communication around shape and form to aid children’s drawing skills.
• Help children acquire painting skills through practice with the tools.
• Stimulate children’s interest in color and application of paint through other forms of painting.
• Create opportunities for children to work with dough, clay, or wet sand.
• Provide only the malleable material, without tools, during children’s initial explorations of sculpting so that children have a chance to explore through touch.
• Communicate to a group of linguistically and culturally diverse children through sculpture techniques by using nonverbal methods.
• Introduce tools after observing that children have had many “hands-on” opportunities to explore clay and dough sculpture.[3]
Table 11.2: Suggested Materials for Visual Art[5]
Type of Materials
Examples of Materials
Found or Recycled Materials
Old magazines for cutting and assemblage, toilet paper and paper towel rolls
Basic
Tempera paints, construction paper, chunky crayons, tray watercolors
Enhanced
Tube watercolors and palette; watercolor paper
Natural Environment
Sticks, rocks, and pinecones for sculpture; clay and natural materials for pressing
Adaptive Materials
Thicker handles on some materials; easel that can be adjusted to an appropriate height
Vignettes
Ms. Cheng is showing children how colors can be mixed to create other colors. While pouring some yellow paint on the plate, she says “What is this color?” “Yellow!” shout the children. Knowing that some children speak other home languages, Ms. Lin asks “Milagros, how do you say yellow in Spanish?” “Amarillo,” Milagros answers. “Samantha, how do you say yellow in Mandarin?” “Huang!” Samantha answers. Ms. Cheng pours out some blue paint and asks the same set of questions. As she moves on to mix the two colors, they turn into green. This time, without prompting, some children shout, “Green!” others say, “¡Verde!” and others say, “Lu!”
It is springtime. The children have returned from a walk outdoors with handfuls of yellow flowers. The teacher places the flowers in a cup in the middle of the painting area and asks the children the color of the flowers. Then he asks, “What shapes do you see in the flower?” The children say, “Circles!” “Lines!” “Squares!” The teacher says, “Really? Where?” The children point at different parts of the flower. The teacher brings out brushes and paint and asks the children if they would like to paint the flowers.
Many of the children sit down and begin to work with the materials, producing all kinds of images. When a child has too much paint on the brush, the teacher assists in showing the child how to wipe paint from the brush on the side of the paint container. As the children finish, the teacher encourages the children to talk about their paintings and then places them in the drying area. Some children finish quickly, and others become absorbed and work for a very long time. Some want to try several times on new paper. A few children attempt to represent the flowers in their paintings, and others experiment with the movement of the brushes and the mixing of color on the paper.[6] | textbooks/socialsci/Early_Childhood_Education/Book%3A_Introduction_to_Curriculum_for_Early_Childhood_Education_(Paris_Beeve_and_Springer)/04%3A_Section_IV-_Planning_for_Childrens_Learning/11%3A_Creative_Arts/11.05%3A_Supporting_the_Visua.txt |
When children develop an awareness and knowledge of musical elements, children progress in their understanding and ability to control the elements for personal musical expression. Although early childhood music education is primarily about introducing the child to musical sounds and holistic experiences that are of the highest quality, enriched learning occurs when the child has an understanding of and ability to manipulate the music elements of rhythm, melody, form, loudness/softness, tempo, timbre, articulation, and style.
The foundations for Music include responding to music, develop musical skills, and being able to make music.
Music
1.0 Notice, Respond, and Engage
At around 48 months of age
At around 60 months of age
1.1 Sustain attention and begin to reflect verbally about music; demonstrate familiarity with words that describe music.
1.1 Verbally reflect on music and describe music by using an expanded vocabulary.
1.2 Recognize simple repeating melody and rhythm patterns.
1.2 Demonstrate more complex repeating melody and rhythm patterns.
1.3 Identify the sources of a limited variety of musical sounds.
1.3 Identify the sources of a wider variety of music and music-like sounds.
1.4 Use body movement freely to respond loosely to beat—loud versus quiet (dynamics)—and tempo.
1.4 Use body movement freely and more accurately to respond to beat, dynamics, and tempo of music.
2.0 Develop Skills in Music
At around 48 months of age
At around 60 months of age
2.1 Begin to discriminate between different voices and certain instrumental and environmental sounds. Follow words in a song.
2.1 Become more able to discriminate between different voices and various instrumental and environmental sounds. Follow words in a song.
2.2 Explore vocally; sing repetitive patterns and parts of songs alone and with others.
2.2 Extend vocal exploration; sing repetitive patterns and entire songs alone with others in wider ranges of pitch.
3.0 Create, Invent, and Express Through Music
At around 48 months of age
At around 60 months of age
3.1 Explore vocal and instrumental skills and use instruments to produce simple rhythms and tones.
3.1 Continue to apply vocal and instrumental skills and use instruments to produce more complex rhythms, tones, melodies, and songs.
3.2 Move or use body to demonstrate beat and tempo, often spontaneously.
3.2 Move or use body to demonstrate beat, tempo, and style of music, often intentionally.
3.3 Improvise vocally and instrumentally.
3.3 Explore, improvise, and create brief melodies with voice or instrument.
Teachers can support children’s development of the music foundations with the following:
• Find ways to expose children to music being conducted and performed.
• Provide music areas where children can experience instruments or musical activities as individuals or in a small group.
• Set up a “Science of Sound” area where children can explore and experiment with building sounds.
• Provide a conductor’s listening and play area.
• Make instruments with the children.
• Incorporate chant games and songs related to sound production.
• Include a variety of songs that related to a particular topic area
• Use songs that have movements or gestures that accompany the words.
• Provide children with an opportunity to conduct the group by singing or playing instruments.
• Dramatize poetry and nursery rhymes as a fun way to explore and develop vocal inflection and pitch capabilities in the young singer.
• Invite young children to move through instrumental program music, or music that “tells a story.”
• Encourage children to invent accompaniments with musical instruments.
• Invite local professional musicians or family members to demonstrate and talk about their instruments and the sounds made.
• Invite live musicians for the children to conduct; encourage the child conductor to stop and start, go faster and slower, and give arm gestures for louder and softer sounds.
• Incorporate books related to music. Include storybooks on conductors and orchestras.
• Encourage children to create simple rhythm patterns.
• Extend learning about different ways to lead a music group.
• Incorporate freeze-and-move games as a fun, simple way to help children develop control of the body in space and to learn and practice fundamental locomotor movements.
• Provide opportunities for independent and group play through musical play kits, which can be stored in a music area.
• Incorporate the use of Web sites of children’s music and other age-appropriate software (if available), to engage children’s interest in sound
• Encourage children to be playful and spontaneous when singing—they often sing made-up songs as they play alone or with other children.
• Minimize use of recorded music when the goal is singing.
• Have the children draw pictures of songs.[2]
Table 11.3: Suggested Materials for Music[4]
Types of Materials
Examples of Materials
Found or Recycled Materials
Pots, pans, metal or plastic cans, spoons, chopstick-beaters with cork stoppers for rhythm Glass jars filled with different levels of water for a water xylophone Pieces of 12” dowel for rhythm sticks; shakers made of plastic eggs filled with different materials
Basic
Rhythm sets with shakers and simple drums Singable books; glove puppets for nursery rhyme songs; song maps made of paper or fabric; selection of CDs, CD player, and headset for personal listening
Enhanced
Single-note resonator bells; child-sized xylophones; multiple-sized hand drums; ethnic instruments; child-sized guitar or ukulele; small electronic keyboard; recorder/flute; music software; music videos; songbooks
Natural Environment
Rhythm blocks made of small tree limbs; homemade wooden or stone xylophones suspended on a garden hose; wind chimes made of natural objects
Adaptive Materials
Thicker handles on some materials; instruments in a fixed position (such as a drum on a stand) For children with reduced hearing ability, instruments that resonate and vibrate allow for touching or holding.
Research Highlight
The following points about music and development in early childhood come from Start the Music Strategies, a collaboration by MENC (the National Association for Music Education), the National Association for the Education of Young Children, and the U.S. Department of Education. The points were developed by reviewing the research and professional literature.
• We know that music is among the first and most important modes of communication experienced by infants.
• As young children grow and develop, music continues as a basic medium not only of communication, but also of cultural expression and self-expression.
• As preschool children not only listen to music, but also learn to make music by singing and playing instruments together (and responding to music in a variety of ways), they create important contexts for the early learning of vital life skills such as cooperation, collaboration, and group effort. Music in an educational setting also begins to teach young children to make judgments about what constitutes “good” music, helping them develop the rudiments of an aesthetic sense.
• Music contributes to “school readiness,” a foundational education aim of the American people for all our children.
• When children develop musical skill and knowledge they are developing basic cognitive, social, and motor skills necessary for success throughout the educational process, and in life itself.[5]
Source:
Start the Music Strategies. Reston, VA: National Association for Music Education, n.d.
Vignette
It is raining outside. Miriam and Pablo, both age three, begin clicking and tapping their fingers on the window glass to imitate the rain hitting the window. Pretty soon, all the children are making different kinds of rain sounds on the window. After a few minutes the rain comes to a stop, and the children are invited to circle time.[6] | textbooks/socialsci/Early_Childhood_Education/Book%3A_Introduction_to_Curriculum_for_Early_Childhood_Education_(Paris_Beeve_and_Springer)/04%3A_Section_IV-_Planning_for_Childrens_Learning/11%3A_Creative_Arts/11.06%3A_Supporting_Music.txt |
Drama is a valuable part of the preschool curriculum. Typically, children ages three to five first experience drama by participating in dramatic play at home and in the early childhood environment. Dramatic play is the foundation for the development of drama. This play typically progresses from the time a child is 36 months old, when he or she engages almost exclusively in solitary play and in watching others play; to the equal time engaged in solitary, parallel, and group play at 48 months; and to primarily group play with some solitary and parallel play at 60 months.
Because of circumstances beyond their control, some children may arrive at school with limited exposure to these areas. Regardless of prior exposure, however, all children bring experiences that can enrich drama, and all children are capable of enjoying and participating in drama. Preschool-age children enjoy participating in various types of dramatic play and drama, from pretending to cook a meal in the dramatic play area to acting out part or all of a favorite story with their teacher and peers.
During preschool, drama should be about the process of creating and exploring, rather than the end product, such as a rehearsed play or other formal performance.
Drama
1.0 Notice, Respond, and Engage
At around 48 months of age
At around 60 months of age
1.1 Demonstrate an understanding of simple drama vocabulary.
1.1 Demonstrate a broader understanding of drama vocabulary.
1.2 Identify preferences and interests related to participating in drama.
1.2 Explain preferences and interests related to participating in drama.
1.3 Demonstrate knowledge of simple plot of a participatory drama.
1.3 Demonstrate knowledge of extended plot and conflict of a participatory drama.
2.0 Develop Skills to Create, Invent, and Express Through Drama
At around 48 months of age
At around 60 months of age
2.1 Demonstrate basic role-play skills with imagination and creativity.
2.1 Demonstrate extended role-play skills with increased imagination and creativity.
2.2 Add props and costumes to enhance dramatization of familiar stories and fantasy play with peers.
2.2 Create and use an increasing variety of props, costumes and scenery to enhance dramatization of familiar stories and fantasy play with peers.
Teachers can support children’s development of the drama foundations with the following:
• Observe dramatic play and role playing.
• Step in or model when needed.
• Provide adaptations to support the participation of children with disabilities or other special needs. This may include preteaching, using pictures, sign language, and other multisensory enrichment, modified equipment/props, etc.
• Use a drama-based vocabulary. For example, blocking, actors, stage, scenery, voice, props, etc.
• Encourage children to use drama based vocabulary
• Encourage and model the expression of interests and preferences.
• Encourage and allow initiative.
• Model and note appropriate ways of using drama materials.
• Move in and out role as appropriate (decide when to participate and when to facilitate).
• Use costumes, props, and scenery to inspire dramatic play and drama.
• Facilitate children’s engagement in drama by first discussing expectations.
• Scaffold and encourage children during and after participating in drama to build their understanding and use of plot.[2]
Table 11.4: Suggested Materials for Drama[4]
Types of Materials
Examples of Materials
Found or Recycled Materials
Scarves, sashes, and fabric remnants varying in size, color, design, and texture for a costume area; include strips of furry fabric to be used as animal tails. Wooden spoons, paint sticks, paper towel and wrapping paper tubes, yarn, and boxes can work as nonrepresentational props where children create meaning.
Basic
Large and small blocks; stuffed animals; dolls; wooden or plastic fruits and vegetables
Enhanced
Puppets; textual props such as menus and signs; large pieces of blue, green, yellow, brown, and floral fabric to depict rivers, grass, dirt (for “planting” vegetables), and flower gardens; headbands with various types of animal ears sewn on
Natural Environment
Wood, tree cookies, and other materials for building; pinecones, feathers, smooth stones, and pebbles
Adaptive Materials
Consider props that are easy to use and handle (e.g., oversized objects and items without many complicated pieces). Adapt clothing and fabric by removing buttons, enlarging openings, and so on for ease of wearing.
Research Highlight
It is important that children be given the opportunity to make decisions and determine the course of action during dramatic play and drama. It helps cultivate social–emotional skills such as taking initiative in one’s learning. However, teachers should look for opportunities to participate often in children’s play. The teacher’s participation adds an important dimension to children’s play. Research suggests that young children derive greater benefits from dramatic play when the teacher or other adult is involved—that is, monitoring and assisting children in engaging and fruitful play, rather than just observing passively.
Ann Podlozny looked at numerous studies that examined the role of children’s participation in drama in their ability to understand stories. In the 17 studies that she examined, children listened to a story and either acted it out or listened to the story a second time. Podlozny found that children not only displayed greater story understanding and recall when acting out the story rather than just hearing it, but that story understanding was greatest when the teacher or other adult was in-role, working with the children during the drama.
In another study, Robert Fink looked at how teacher involvement in role play affects children’s abilities to understand that people and objects retain original qualities when others are added (conservation), that the physical world stays the same even if one’s view changes, and that people take on multiple roles within a group (perspectivism). In Fink’s study, children were assigned to one of three groups. The first participated in dramatic play with teacher support, the second participated in dramatic play without teacher support, and the third group did not participate in dramatic play. After four weeks it was found that the group that participated in dramatic play with teacher support not only outperformed both other groups on measures of conservation and perspectivism, but they also showed higher levels of imagination when observed during dramatic play.
There are numerous social and educational benefits for children when they engage in dramatic play and drama, and evidence suggests that teacher involvement may enhance these benefits. Although it is important and valuable to allow children autonomy (independence) and the ability to make decisions and choices while engaging in play, frequent observation and guidance are important. See “Interactions and Strategies,”“Teachable Moments,” and the vignettes in this section for suggestions and descriptions of how adults can enhance children’s engagement in dramatic play and drama.[5]
Sources:
54. A. Podlozny, “Strengthening Verbal Skills Through the Use of Classroom Drama: A Clear Link,” Journal of Aesthetic Education 34, nos. 3-4 (2000): 239–76. 55.
R. S. Fink, “Role of Imaginative Play in Cognitive Development,” Psychological Reports 39 (1976): 895–906. As summarized in Critical Links: Learning in the Arts and Student Academic and Social Development. Edited by R. Deasy. Washington, DC: Arts Education Partnership, 2002.
Vignettes
A day after reading and discussing “The Three Billy Goats Gruff” during story time, Mr. Longfeather watches as a group of four-year-old children in his class pretend to be goats. The three children portraying the goats are trying to get into the “castle” as Juan, who is acting as a troll, stands guard. Mr. Longfeather is pleased to see that the children are using several objects he placed at the dramatic play area as props and scenery. Juan is clearly having a great time, and laughs as he uses a deep voice and makes funny “troll” faces.
After dramatic play time is over and the class has gathered on the rug, Mr. Longfeather listens as the children excitedly recount and describe what they did during dramatic play. “Juan was a funny troll,” says Kim. Juan adds, “And I used a walking stick.” The teacher responds, “That’s right, Juan. When you were the troll, you were using the paint stick as a ‘prop.’ A ‘prop’ is a thing actors use while pretending. I heard your deep troll voice and saw your scrunched troll face. I noticed that you were laughing as you made the faces. Did you enjoy making the faces?” The children ask if they can keep their “castle,” made from large blocks and fabric, in the dramatic play area. Mr. Longfeather agrees.
Several children begin arranging the dramatic play area of their preschool program to be a preschool itself. They excitedly call out their plans to play the teacher, the assistant teacher, the parents, and even themselves. As their teacher, Ms. Jackson, observes the activity, she notes that three children are evident leaders of this enterprise: Peter, Emma, and Jamila, all about four years old. The other children take an interest in this development and look in on the preparations without participating much—they occasionally toss in ideas or suggest the odd prop. Emma interrupts the proceedings by pronouncing, “Come sit down on the rug, class. I’m the teacher, and you are my children!” Peter and Jamila say nearly in unison, “No, I’m the teacher!” Some of the remaining children express a preference for who should be the teacher, including themselves.
As the project begins to fall to some grumbling and squabbling, Ms. Jackson steps in and says, “This looks really great—you’re building the whole classroom in just one corner of the room. I’ll bet you’d all like a chance to be the teacher. So let’s figure out how that can work.” Jamila says, “How do we tell who is the teacher?” Seizing a large plastic capital T from the alphabet box, Emma says, “With this!” The teacher nods her head and says, “That will be helpful because the word “teacher” starts with the “t” sound. Peter adds, “The person with this yellow T will be teacher for a minute and show the class something a teacher does. And we’ll take turns.” As the children finish organizing the dramatic play area, Ms. Jackson sits down next to Lulu and Alejandro, who are just beginning to learn English, to help them understand the plan and participate.[6] | textbooks/socialsci/Early_Childhood_Education/Book%3A_Introduction_to_Curriculum_for_Early_Childhood_Education_(Paris_Beeve_and_Springer)/04%3A_Section_IV-_Planning_for_Childrens_Learning/11%3A_Creative_Arts/11.07%3A_Supporting_Drama.txt |
Dance and movement are an inherent part of life and are as natural as breathing. Dance is an elemental human experience and a means of expression. It begins before words are formed, and it is innate in children before they use language to communicate. It is a means of self-expression and can take on endless forms. Movement is a natural human response when thoughts or emotions are too overwhelming or cannot be expressed in words.
Dance
1.0 Notice, Respond, and Engage
At around 48 months of age
At around 60 months of age
1.1 Engage in dance movements.
1.1 Further engage and participate in dance movements.
1.2 Begin to understand and use vocabulary related to dance.
1.2 Connect dance terminology with demonstrated steps.
1.3 Respond to instruction of one skill at a time during movement, such as a jump or fall.
1.3 Use understanding of different steps and movements to create or form a dance.
1.4 Explore and use different steps and movements to create or form a dance.
1.4 Use understanding of different steps and movements to create or form a dance.
2.0 Develop Skills in Dance
At around 48 months of age
At around 60 months of age
2.1 Begin to be aware of own body in space.
2.1 Continue to develop awareness of body in space.
2.2 Begin to be aware of other people in dance or when moving in space.
2.2 Show advanced awareness and coordination of movement with other people in dance or when moving in space.
2.3 Begin to respond to tempo and timing through movement.
2.3 Demonstrating some advanced skills in responding to tempo and timing through movement.
3.0 Create, Invent, and Express Through Dance
At around 48 months of age
At around 60 months of age
3.1 Begin to act out and dramatize through music and movement patterns.
3.1 Extend understanding and skills for acting out and dramatizing through music and movement patterns.
3.2 Invent dance movements.
3.2 Invent and recreate dance movements.
3.3 Improvise simple dances that have a beginning and an end.
3.3 Improvise more complex dances that have a beginning, middle, and an end.
3.4 Communicate feelings spontaneously through dance and begin to express simple feelings intentionally through dance when prompted by adults.
3.4 Communicate and express feelings intentionally through dance.
There are many ways to describe each dance element. Teachers and children can add their ideas to this chart.
Table 11.5: Elements of Dance
Body
Space
Time
Energy
Body parts: Head, torso, shoulders, hips, legs, feet
Body Actions: Nonlocomotor
Stretch, bend, twist, circle, rise, fall
Swing, sway, shake, suspend, collapse (qualities of movement)
Locomotor
Walk, run, leap, hop, jump, gallop, skip, slide
Size: Big, little
Level: High, medium, low
Place: On the spot (personal space), through the space (general space)
Direction: forward, backward, sideways, turning
Focus: Direction of gaze of facing
Pathway: Curved, straight
Relationships: In front of, behind, over, under, beside
Beat: Underlying pulse
Tempo: Fast, slow
Accent: Force
Duration: Long, short
Pattern: A combination of these elements of time produces a rhythmic pattern
Attack: Sharp, smooth (qualities of movement)
Weight: Heavy, light
Strength: Tight, loose
Flow: Free-flowing, bound, balanced, neutral
Teachers can support children’s development of the dance foundations with the following:
• Help children to become enthusiastic participants in learning dance.
• Warm up! Even though preschool bodies are much more resilient than adult bodies, they should still be gradually prepared for any vigorous activities.
• Use play with games that require dance movements and cooperation.
• Be aware of cultural norms that may influence children’s participation.
• Create environments and routines conducive to movement experiences.
• Consider the space, music, costumes, and props you provide.
• Establish spatial boundaries to ensure children have personal space when engaging in movement and dancing.
• Use children’s prior knowledge.
• Structure learning activities so children are active participants.
• Introduce the learning of a dance skill by using imagery.
• Draw on children’s interests in dance making.
• Plan movement activities appropriate for various developmental stages and skill levels.
• Incorporate dances that can be performed without moving the entire body.
• Encourage variety in children’s movement.
• Teach rhythm using traditional movement games.
• Use the “echo” as a helpful rhythm exercise.
• Use dance to communicate feelings.
• Use movement to introduce and reinforce concepts from other domains.
• Provide opportunities for unplanned, spontaneous dancing[2]
Table 11.6: Suggested Materials for Dance[4]
Type of Materials
Examples of Materials
Found or Recycled Materials
Boxes, wheels, chairs, hula hoops, balloons, umbrellas, scarves, and other found objects can be used for choreographic variety. Costumes can be assembled from fabrics or donated by families or the community.
Basic
Open rug space; outdoor environment with defined dance space
Enhanced
Piano, drums, maracas, tambourines, claves, triangles, cymbals, woodblocks, or music system A local dance troupe may donate children’s costumes that are no longer used in productions.
Natural Environment
Palm leaves, feathers, sand, water, and sticks can be used in movement activities.
Adaptive Materials
If a child has a prosthesis, he or she can decide whether to dance with it on or off. If a child uses a wheelchair, props can be useful to extend what the body can do; a few possibilities are balloons tied to a stick, crepe paper streamers, and scarves.
Research Highlight
Research supports the inclusion of dance in a preschool curriculum for a number of reasons, not the least of these being the social–emotional benefits gained from dancing at an early age.
In The Feeling of What Happens, neuroscientist Antonio Damasio describes the body as the theater for emotions and considers emotional responses to be responsible for profound changes in the body’s (and the brain’s) landscape. Damasio creates three distinct classifications for emotions based on the source of the emotion and the physical response to the emotion: primary, secondary, and background emotions. The primary emotions are the familiar emotions recognizable in preschoolers and adults alike: happiness, sadness, fear, anger, and surprise. Damasio describes secondary emotions as social emotions, such as jealousy or envy when a child is eyeing a friend’s toy or feelings of pride when accomplishing a difficult task. And of particular interest in a discussion of dance are the background emotions—much like moods. These refer to indications that a person feels down, tense, cheerful, discouraged, or calm, and others.
Background emotions do not use the differentiated repertoire of explicit facial expressions that easily define primary and social emotions; they are also richly expressed in musculoskeletal changes, for instance, in subtle body posture and overall shaping of body movement. Movement and dance are natural vehicles for expression of these emotions.[5]
Source:
A. Damasio, The Feeling of What Happens: Body and Emotion in the Making of Consciousness (New York: Harcourt Brace, 1999), 51–53.
Vignettes
Sammy, a four-year-old in Ms. Huang’s class, pulls a top hat off the hat rack and begins to perform controlled balances high on the balls of his feet. Two other children become interested in this performance, and suddenly three children are using hats as creative props to stretch high into the air, with their arms, as they rise up on their toes forming a chorus line; Sammy continues to play the lead, placing a hat on a foot and balancing on one leg like a bird; the other children imitate. The movement progresses to a balancing game, and the children occasionally tumble to the floor, giggling.
Ms. Huang observes the movement game for several minutes and notices the children have taken to making the same shape of the lifted bird leg. She recognizes the children’s imagination by commenting on their creative play with the hat; she then suggests to Sammy that he attempt to bring his leg behind him (in a pose resembling a ballet arabesque) while keeping the hat balanced on his foot. The trio becomes more focused with their balances and inventive with the shapes, moving the legs from the front to back and even experimenting with lowering the torso while lifting the leg.
Mr. Soto leads the children in a lively singing and dancing performance of Juanito (Little Johnny). The children shake and twist their bodies while clapping their hands as they sing. “Juanito cuando baila, baila, baila, baila. Juanito cuando baila, baila con el dedito, con el dedito, ito, ito. Asi baila Juanito.” (When little Johnny dances, he dances, dances. When little Johnny dances, he dances with his pinkie, with his pinkie, pinkie, pinkie. That’s how little Johnny dances.)
In the first verse, they wiggle the pinkie back and forth; in the second, they shake the foot and then wiggle the pinkie. Each time a new verse is sung, a movement is added until the children’s bodies are in motion, from head to toe!
Even Matthew, who is generally reluctant to dance, picks his knees high up and waves his arms exuberantly. Mr. Soto changes the character of the song to Mateo, and Matthew dances into the center of the circle.[6]
11.09: Engaging Families
Teachers can make the following suggestions to families to facilitate their support of the creative arts for their children:
• Try drawing, painting, and sculpture with the child at home.
• Embrace dramatic play at home. Provide props, costumes, space, and time.
• Show interest in their play and play with them.
• Turn on the music and move with their children.
• Incorporate dance and movement into everyday routines.
• Tap and clap to rhythm of songs and encourage children to do the same.
• Notice and talk about works of art seen and songs and music heard at home and in the community.
• Notice and talk about shapes and colors in works of art and in the environment, sounds heard, episodes of dramatic play
• Incorporate dramatic play into a variety of activities, such as reading and going on outings or trips.
• Bring the child to an art museum or areas in the community with public displays of art, community concerts, family-child music classes, community dance performances, and movement programs.
• Be open-minded and encouraging about works of art that are sent home from the preschool setting, children’s spontaneous musical performances, children’s dramatic play
• Share art, songs, music, and dance traditions or movement games from their homes.
• Donate materials that can be used in a variety of art experiences.
• Come to watch or participate in an art show, children’s dramatic experiences, or a parent-child dance event[1]
11.10: Conclusion
The arts take on different meanings and expressions for individuals and communities. Therefore, this chapter recognizes that the arts will materialize and thrive in ways individual to each child and to the early childhood setting. This curriculum framework serves as a starting point and reference for teachers and child care providers to shape how the arts can be orchestrated or simply unleashed, as well as integrated, with other early learning experiences. Each arts strand (visual art, music, drama, and dance) is given attention; suggested teaching strategies, interactions, and environmental supports are illustrated with vignettes. However, within each strand there are numerous opportunities to weave two or more of the four art forms into the learning environment. More importantly, there are opportunities to integrate the arts in the other domains such as physical development, science, mathematics, and language and literacy.
It is essential to keep in mind that teachers serve diverse groups of children. The interactions between the home and school are mutual and mutually important. Diversity is an essential quality of human existence, and the creative arts provide excellent opportunities to learn, understand, and express diversity.[1] | textbooks/socialsci/Early_Childhood_Education/Book%3A_Introduction_to_Curriculum_for_Early_Childhood_Education_(Paris_Beeve_and_Springer)/04%3A_Section_IV-_Planning_for_Childrens_Learning/11%3A_Creative_Arts/11.08%3A_Supporting_Dance.txt |
Learning Objectives
By the end of the chapter, you should be able to: Explain how history and social sciences are appropriate to plan for in early childhood education programs.
• Describe the foundations in history and social science that high quality early childhood education programs support
• Discuss how the environment supports children’s understanding and participation in history and social science
• Identify ways educators can support children’s engagement in and understanding of history and social science.
• Summarize ways to engage families in curriculum for history and social science.
12: History and Social Science
For many educators of young children, the terms history and social sciences conjure up images of children studying past presidents, learning about other countries, and exploring related topics during the primary school years. Yet, a look at young children’s emerging sense of identity, their growing interest in the larger social world in which they live, and their developing understanding of time and place shows that history and social sciences are relevant to them also.
Young children are natural historians when they talk about their experiences and enjoy hearing family stories of “long ago.” They are intuitive geographers when they recognize the route to the grocery store and create a map of the preschool room. Children are simple ecologists when they worry about a plant that is wilted or a bird’s egg on a nature walk. They learn about democracy through their participation in shared decision making and taking turns on the playground. Their interactions with other children acquaint them with the diversity in culture, languages, backgrounds, and abilities in society. Young children are also everyday economists as they begin to understand how money, bartering, and exchange work in the world around them.
Preschoolers’ understanding of history and social sciences naturally derives from their expanding knowledge of the world and their place in it. It also provides a foundation for the study of history, culture, geography, economics, civics and citizenship, ecology, and the global environment that begins in the primary grades and continues throughout life. Those topics are important because they provide a basis for understanding the responsibilities of citizens in a democratic society, the legacy of past generations who built society, the importance of caring for the natural world, and the rich diversity of other people.
In preschool, they are introduced to these important issues through everyday activities such as caring for a plant, remembering a recent trip to the zoo, deciding as a group on a name for the class pet, creating a shoe store, engaging in imaginative play with adult roles, or sharing family traditions from home. In other words, young children learn about history and social sciences from personal experiences, as they are enlisted into a preschool curriculum, and also from their experiences at home. [2]
12.02: Guiding
A thoughtfully designed early childhood program includes many activities that contribute to children’s understanding of history and social sciences. Some activities are carefully planned by a teacher to help children learn about weather patterns, bartering for goods and services, responsibilities as a class member, adult occupations, and many other ideas and concepts. Other activities emerge from the opportunities created by children’s spontaneous interests and a teacher’s capacity to build these into teachable moments. Taken together, they reflect the assumption that young children develop knowledge of history and the social sciences as they are encouraged to enact their understanding in everyday interactions with other children and adults. This knowledge helps young children understand themselves in a wonderfully expanding world. Here are some guiding principles on how to help children gain this knowledge.
• Build a cooperative, inclusive preschool community by ensuring that the curriculum maximizes children’s opportunities to work together in ways that require responsible conduct, fairness, and respect for others.
• Create activities that will actively engage children’s social skills and understanding.
• Affirm children’s home cultures, experiences, and values.
• Build on preschool children’s natural interest in their social world, and in the similarities and differences among the people in it.
• Model social behavior and attitudes with explanations.
• Actively teach and practice the essential skills of democratic participation.
• Encourage children to incorporate their knowledge of adult roles and occupations into their dramatic play.
• Observe and converse with children during play in order to learn about their current understanding of time and history.
• Help children deepen their own sense of place.
• Nurture children’s sense of wonder about nature.[1] | textbooks/socialsci/Early_Childhood_Education/Book%3A_Introduction_to_Curriculum_for_Early_Childhood_Education_(Paris_Beeve_and_Springer)/04%3A_Section_IV-_Planning_for_Childrens_Learning/12%3A_History_and_Social_Science/12.01%3A_Introdu.txt |
When planning an environment to support children’s learning in history and social science, effective teachers consider the physical, curricular, and social elements. The physical environment and daily routine set the stage for children’s inquiry and should include ample time for children’s self-initiated work, different spaces for solitary play and for collaborative play, and engaging materials that children are encouraged to use creatively. The curricular plan needs to provide opportunities and adult support for both group learning and for informal discovery and skill development. The key to a positive social environment is a teacher who actively models curiosity, openness, and engagement and who is eager to explore the world together with children. An environment that supports children’s learning in history and the social sciences has the following characteristics:
• Extended projects that are centered on a topic in history or social science and emerge from children’s interests and inquiries
• Reflective of diversity; as opposed to a tourist approach, teachers and children participate in authentic experiences with culture
• A balance between child choice and adult direction
• A variety of materials to support children’s inquiry-based learning and practice in the skills of social science
• Materials that connect children to times and places
• Real experiences with nature and other environmental education materials
• Tools and practices for appreciating and caring for the earth and its resources
• Display of children’s work and experiences
• Dramatic play props and materials that represent firsthand experience with social roles and occupations, as well as consumer actions
• High-quality children’s books with content related to self, family, and community
• Extension of learning into the local community to help children learn in the “here and now” of the world around them
• Family involvement in program planning that is inclusive of community goals and values[1]
Research Highlight – Antibias Curriculum Approach
High-quality early childhood programs support children in developing their physical, cognitive, social, and emotional potential. The settings encourage children to explore their own sense of self and to develop an awareness and appreciation of others. Such experiences are foundational to becoming positive and constructive members of society and the world.
Creating an inclusive community of learners—one in which all individuals feel comfortable, confident, and competent— requires that educators take an anti-bias approach to the planning, implementation, and evaluation of their program. Educators who embrace an anti-bias curriculum approach reflect on their own identity and experiences. They extend their knowledge of different cultures and communities through conversation and discussion with children, families, and colleagues. They also confront bias in the preschool setting (e.g., “Girls can’t play here” or “His eyes are a funny shape”) to send a message that all children should be respected and that one’s words can hurt other people.
Instead of using a one-size-fits-all curriculum, anti-bias educators design environments and activities that reflect the real experiences of children’s lives. Educators routinely partner with families and community members to further enhance the early childhood program. Throughout the day, the adults in the preschool setting engage children in developmentally appropriate conversations about similarities and differences, and promote justice and fairness for all by helping children think critically about teasing, bullying, and other hurtful behavior. Activities that promote anti-bias education are integrated throughout the daily routine, thereby avoiding a tourist approach. “The heart of anti-bias work is a vision of a world in which all children are able to blossom, and each child’s particular abilities and gifts are able to flourish.” For more information on the anti-bias approach, refer to Anti-Bias Education for Young Children and Ourselves, by Louise Derman-Sparks and Julie Olsen Edwards.[2]
Source:
L. Derman-Sparks and J. O. Edwards, Anti-Bias Education for Young Children and Ourselves (Washington, DC: National Association for the Education of Young Children, 2010), 2. | textbooks/socialsci/Early_Childhood_Education/Book%3A_Introduction_to_Curriculum_for_Early_Childhood_Education_(Paris_Beeve_and_Springer)/04%3A_Section_IV-_Planning_for_Childrens_Learning/12%3A_History_and_Social_Science/12.03%3A_Environ.txt |
The preschool learning foundations for History and Social Science are organized into five broad categories or strands:
• Self and Society: children’s growing ability to see themselves within the context of society
• Becoming a Preschool Community Member (Civics): becoming responsible and cooperative members of the preschool community
• Sense of Time (History): developing understanding of past and future events and their association with the present
• Sense of Place (Geography and Ecology): developing knowledge of the physical settings in which children live and how they compare with other locations
• Marketplace (Economics): developing understanding of economic concepts, including the ideas of ownership, money exchanged for goods and services, value and cost, and bartering[1]
Supporting Self and Society
An early childhood education setting acquaints young children with people who have different backgrounds, family practices, languages, cultural experiences, special needs, and abilities. In their relationships with teachers and peers, preschoolers perceive how others are similar to them and how they are different, and gradually they learn to regard these differences with interest and respect rather than wariness or doubt. This is especially likely if early childhood educators incorporate inclusive practices into the preschool environment. The relationships that young children develop with others in the preschool provide opportunities for understanding these differences in depth and in the context of the people whom the child knows well. One of the most valuable features of a thoughtfully designed early childhood program is helping young children to perceive the diversity of human characteristics as part of the richness of living and working with other people.
Young children are beginning to perceive themselves within the broader context of society in another way also. Their interest in adult social roles, occupations, and responsibilities motivates pretend play, excitement about visits to places such as a fire station or grocery store, and questions about work and its association with family roles and family income. Teachers can help young children explore these interests as children try to understand the variety of adult roles
1.0 Culture and Diversity
At around 48 months of age
At around 60 months of age
1.1 Exhibit developing cultural, ethnic, and racial identity and understand relevant language and cultural practices. Display curiosity about diversity in human characteristics and practices, but prefer those of their own group.
1.1 Manifest stronger cultural, ethnic, and racial identity and greater familiarly with relevant language, traditions, and other practices. Show more interest in human diversity, but strongly favor characteristics of their own group.
2.0 Relationships
At around 48 months of age
At around 60 months of age
2.1 Interact comfortably with many peers and adults; actively contribute to creating and maintaining relationships with a few significant adults and peers.
2.1 Understand the mutual responsibilities of relationships; take initiative in developing relationships that are mutual, cooperative, and exclusive.
3.0 Social Roles and Occupations
At around 48 months of age
At around 60 months of age
3.1 Play familiar adult social roles and occupations (such as parent, teacher, and doctor) consistent with their developing knowledge of these roles.
3.1 Exhibit more sophisticated understanding of a broader variety of adult roles and occupations, but uncertain how work relates to income.
Teachers can support children’s development of the self and society foundations with the following:
• Practice a reflective approach to build awareness of self and others by examining your own attitudes and values
• Maintain a healthy curiosity about the experiences of others; ask authentic questions to build understanding
• Partner with families in goal setting and program design; learn individual family values and each family’s goals for their child’s care and education
• Prepare an active learning environment that incorporates the full spectrum of the human experience including diversity of cultures, ethnicities, gender, age, abilities, socioeconomic class, and family structure
• Create an environment, both indoors and outdoors, that is inclusive, meaning every child can fully participate and engage in the learning environment regardless of gender, home language, or abilities
• Address children’s initial comments and inquiries about diversity with honest, direct communication
• Have discussions about similarities and differences
• Sing songs and share stories in different languages
• Plan meaningful and authentic celebrations with support of the children and families
• Read and talk about books that:
• Accurately represent the lives and experiences of children
• Deal with the theme of friendship and relating to others
• Include images and stories of different workers
• Develop meaningful, nurturing relationships with the children in your program
• Prepare an early learning environment and daily routine that foster peer interaction
• Support children’s development of interaction strategies and relationship building skills through:
• Modeling
• Explicit instruction during large-group times
• Coaching and providing prompts
• Offer sensitive guidance through challenges
• Facilitate positive social problem solving
• Provide children with play props for exploring occupations and work settings
• Get to know the workers in your community
• Convey respect for the roles of adults who work at home
• Highlight the roles that elders play in family life and in society
• Include the pursuit of further education among work options
• Invite family members to share their work experiences, including those that may diverge from traditional gender roles
• Talk about future career goals
• Visit community stores, businesses, and service providers to observe workers in action[3]
Vignette
“You always get to do the money,” complains Emma. Beck announces, “No, Tommy, I’m the customer. I was here first.” Ella and Maya argue about the pieces of a plastic hamburger: “You can’t have it again. It’s the only one . . . ” These and similar interactions between children have been typical in the area ever since Ms. Berta added the ”Restaurant” prop box to it.
Now Ms. Berta is struggling to figure out how to foster more cooperation among children playing in this dramatic play area. The restaurant theme is very popular, but children’s play is currently dominated by arguments over who gets to use which items from the restaurant prop box. Each child seems to be trying, independently, to hoard the most items from the box.
Ms. Berta shares her dilemma with Ms. Galyna, the school’s mentor teacher, who says she can come in for a quick visit during the next day’s play time. She follows her visit with some suggestions that help Ms. Berta rethink the area’s design for the following week
On Monday, the children entering the area are greeted by a large restaurant sign. A waist-high shelf unit defines the front of the area. On top of it sit two toy cash registers, supplied with ample paper bills, plastic coins, receipt pads, and pencils. A clear plastic jar labeled “Tips” sits in between. On a hook, hang clip-on badges: Cook, Cashier, Server, and Customer. There are several of each. The shelves under the front counter hold stacks of paper drink cups and trays. The cooking pans and utensils are clearly displayed on the area’s stove and sink shelves, as are multiples of food items and dishes in the refrigerator and cupboard. The eating table is set for customers
Ms. Berta begins play time as a restaurant customer, placing her order, asking questions of the employees, and helping the other players think about what a cook, server, or cashier in a restaurant would do. She refers them to each other with their ideas and questions, and soon they are having restaurant conversations with her and with each other “in character.”
Over the next two weeks, the group makes changes and additions to the restaurant. At a class meeting, the group votes to make it a pizza restaurant, and the teacher adds donated pizza rounds that children cover with drawn-on toppings. With Ms. Berta’s help, interested children work in pairs to write and post menus. Several small groups of children remain intensely interested in the theme, and their play in the restaurant area becomes more elaborate and content-rich. With active teacher support and modeling, friends are able to constructively solve conflicts that occur.[4]
Pause to Reflect
1. What are some of your own biases and “blind spots” about people whose racial or cultural backgrounds are very different from yours?
2. In what ways could you partner with the families to support attitudes of acceptance and inclusion?
Supporting Becoming A Preschool Community Member (Civics)
An early childhood program is a wonderful setting for learning how to get along with others and for understanding and respecting differences between people. It is also an important setting for learning about oneself as a responsible member of the group. In an early childhood education setting, young children are enlisted into responsible citizenship for the first time outside of the family, encouraged to think of themselves as sharing responsibility for keeping the room orderly, cooperating with teachers and peers, knowing what to do during group routines (e.g., circle time), cleaning up after group activities, participating in group decisions, supporting and complying with the rules of the learning community, and acting as citizens of the preschool.
Many formal and informal activities of an early childhood education setting contribute to developing the skills of preschool community membership. These include group decision making that may occur during circle time (including voicing opinions, voting on a shared decision, and accepting the judgment of the majority); resolving peer conflict and finding a fair solution; understanding the viewpoints of another with whom one disagrees; respecting differences in culture, race, or ethnicity; sharing stories about acting responsibly or helpfully and the guidance that older children can provide younger children or children with less positive experiences about being a preschool community citizen.
1.0 Skills for Democratic Participation
At around 48 months of age
At around 60 months of age
1.1 Identify as members of a group, participate willingly in group activities, and begin to understand and accept responsibility as group members, although assistance is required in coordinating personal interests with those of others.
1.1 Become involved as responsible participants in group activities, with growing understanding of the importance of considering others’ opinions, group decision making, and respect for majority rules and the views of group members who disagree with the majority.
2.0 Responsible Conduct
At around 48 months of age
At around 60 months of age
2.1 Strive to cooperate with group expectations to maintain adult approval and get along with others. Self-control is inconsistent, however, especially when children are frustrated or upset.
2.1 Exhibit responsible conduct more reliably as children develop self-esteem (and adult approval) from being responsible group members. May also manage others’ behavior to ensure that others also fit in with group expectations.
3.0 Fairness and Respect for Other People
At around 48 months of age
At around 60 months of age
3.1 Respond to the feelings and needs or others with simple forms of assistance, sharing, and turn-taking. Understand the importance of rules that protect fairness and maintain order.
3.1 Pay attention to others’ feelings, more likely to provide assistance, and try to coordinate personal desires with those of other children in mutually satisfactory ways. Actively support rules that protect fairness to others.
4.0 Conflict Resolution
At around 48 months of age
At around 60 months of age
4.1 Can use simple bargaining strategies and seek adult assistance when in conflict with other children or adults, although frustration, distress, or aggression also occurs.
4.1 More capable of negotiating, compromising, and finding cooperative means of resolving conflict with peers or adults, although verbal aggression may also result.
Teachers can support children’s development of the civics foundations with the following:
• Share control of the preschool environment with children
• Create community rules with children’s input and plan opportunities to continue discussing them with small- and large-group meetings
• Promote a sense of connection and community by using terms such as “we” and “our” when speaking with children and adults
• Incorporate class meetings into the daily routine of older preschool children
• Support freedom of thought and speech in individual investigations, as well as in planned group experiences
• Generate community rules and expectations to protect the rights of each individual and to create a community of trust and security
• Engage children in community brainstorming and problem solving
• Make group decisions when appropriate
• Acknowledge emotions related to group brainstorming and decision making
• Model the skills and behavior you want children to exhibit
• Use guidance to redirect children to more appropriate actions and behavior by using positive descriptions of what you expect children to do
• Help children remember and meet community generated rules and expectations by providing both visual and auditory cues and prompts
• Reinforce the positive actions of children by using descriptive language, emphasizing the positive impact of a child’s actions on others
• Facilitate problem solving
• Create an inclusive environment that values and encourages the participation of children from all cultural and linguistic backgrounds as well as children with special needs
• Set the tone for responsible conduct by creating a high-quality learning environment and thoughtfully scheduled daily routine
• Assign tasks for community care, such as watering plants, feeding program pets, or helping to prepare snacks, to help children practice responsibility
• Discuss the “whys” of fairness and respect
• Teach social skills, such as patience and generosity, by using social stories and role-play experiences
• Intervene and address negative interactions immediately
• Prevent conflicts by limiting program transitions and minimizing waiting time
• Provide children with a calm presence in conflict situations
• Support children’s conflict resolution by
• using descriptive language to help children make sense of conflict
• prompting children with open-ended questions and statements
• facilitating, rather than dictating, the solution process
• Create and refer children to problem-solving kits with visual cues
• Use and discuss books that have storylines around relationships, community, and conflict
• Use “persona dolls” or puppets and social stories to promote skill development and perspective taking[7]
Vignettes
The children gather for circle time, and after the group’s gathering song, Ms. Anya begins dramatically. “Today I am going to tell you a story about something that just happened in our room.
At the beginning of playtime today, two of our friends, Julia and Javier told me their plan was to work with the medical kits in the house area. They were going to use the stethoscopes, bandages, and all the other medical tools to take care of the babies. I told them I would plan to visit later to see if their patients were feeling better.
A few minutes later, Julia and Javier hurried over to tell me that all the babies were missing. They had looked all over the clinic, and had found no babies! Where do you think they looked?”
The children in the group call out their ideas about all the places the children could have looked. Ms. Anya continues, “You are right. They looked in all those places. No babies. So what did they do next?” Many children around the circle who are now recalling the incident call out, “They asked us to help!” “That’s right,” affirms Ms. Anya. “They know what good problem solvers you are and how good you are at teamwork, so they asked you. Pretty soon you gave them lots of helpful suggestions of places to look. And did they find the babies?” “Yes!” the children call out. “And where were the baby dolls, Julia and Javier?” “They were out on the porch!” the children respond, laughing.
Ms. Anya concludes the story by repeating, “Yes, you are right. The dolls were out on the porch drying after yesterday’s bath. Thank you all for helping us solve the mystery of the missing baby dolls.”[8]
Pause to Reflect
What are some ways educators can be a good example for children to follow as they learn skills for being members of a community?
Supporting Sense of Time (History)
One of our unique human characteristics is the ability to think of ourselves in relation to past events and to anticipate the future. The ability to see oneself in time enables us to derive lessons from past experiences, understand how we are affected by historical events, and plan for the immediate future (such as preparing a meal) or the long-term (such as obtaining an education). The ability to see oneself in time is also the basis for perceiving one’s own growth and development, and the expectation of future changes in one’s life.
The preschool years are a period of major advances in young children’s understanding of past, present, and future events and how they are interconnected. Yet their ability to understand these interconnections is limited and fragile. Young preschoolers have a strong interest in past events but perceive them as ‟islands in time” that are not well connected to other past events. As they learn more about events of the past, and with the help of adults, children develop a mental timeline in which these events can be placed and related to each other. This is a process that begins during the preschool years and will continue throughout childhood and adolescence.
A thoughtfully designed early childhood program includes many activities that help young children develop a sense of the past and future. The activities may include conversations about a child’s memorable experiences, discussions of a group activity that occurred yesterday, stories about historical events, circle-time activities in anticipation of a field trip tomorrow, and picture boards with the daily schedule in which special events can be distinguished from what normally happens. In these and other ways, teachers help young children construct their own mental timelines.
1.0 Understanding Past Events
At around 48 months of age
At around 60 months of age
1.1 Recall past experiences easily and enjoy hearing stories about the past, but require adult help to determine when past events occurred in relation to each other and to connect them with current experience.
1.1 Show improving ability to relate past events to other past events and current experiences, although adult assistance continues to be important.
2.0 Anticipating and Planning Future Events
At around 48 months of age
At around 60 months of age
2.1 Anticipate events in familiar situations in the near future, with adult assistance.
2.1 Distinguish when future events will happen, plan for them, and make choices (with adult assistance) that anticipate future needs.
3.0 Personal History
At around 48 months of age
At around 60 months of age
3.1 Proudly display developing skills to attract adult attention and share simple accounts about recent experiences.
3.1 Compare current abilities with skills at a younger age and share more detailed autobiographical stories about recent experiences.
4.0 Historical Changes in People and the World
At around 48 months of age
At around 60 months of age
4.1 Easily distinguish older family members from younger ones (and other people) and events in the recent past from those that happened “long ago,” although do not readily sequence historical events on a timeline.
4.1 Develop an interest in family history (e.g., when family members were children) as well as events of “long ago,” and begin to understand when these events occurred in relation to each other.
Teachers can support children’s development of the history foundations with the following:
• Use predictable routines to facilitate children’s sense of time
• Incorporate time words into conversation, such as before, after, yesterday, first, next, and later
• Create opportunities to talk with children about meaningful experiences and build connections between current and past events and to anticipate future events
• Extend and expand on children’s narrative descriptions with language relating to time
• Share your memories of the children’s abilities over time
• Ask questions to increase children’s recollections of events
• Document and display children’s work at their eye level to encourage recall and reflection
• Sing songs, recite poetry, and read books that involve sequencing
• Promote planning as children engage in child-initiated projects
• Acknowledge birthdays, with sensitivity to family preferences
• Provide activities that invite personal reflection
• Make use of children’s stories that explore growth and individual change
• Utilize familiar resources, such as parents, grandparents, family members, close friends and community members, to share their own childhood experiences
• Read children’s stories about different places and times to expand children’s perspective
• Expose children to the arts
• Observe changes in animals, plants, and the outdoors
• Record significant events on a large calendar to create a program history
• Provide children with hands-on experiences with concrete artifacts and historical objects (e.g., toys, utensils, tools)[11]
Vignettes
At outdoor play time, Mateo hurries over to a large tree limb lying at the edge of the playground. “Look what happened!” he exclaims. “Yeah,” agrees Luis, who had joined him, “the wind did it. It crashed down our big tree, too, right into the street. Some guys are coming to saw it up.” Luis pauses. “My grandma said that tree was really old.” Ms. Sofia, who has followed them to the area, joins the conversation. “Your grandma told me about that when she came with you this morning. It’s a big surprise when a tree that was there just yesterday suddenly isn’t there anymore today, especially when it had been growing there for a long, long time. Things like that can happen fast. What do you think will be different when you get home this afternoon?”
For today’s circle time, Ms. Robin has prepared a two-column chart with the headings: “When I was a baby, I couldn’t . . .” and “Now I can . . .” She reads the first phrase and asks the group to think of things they were not able to do as babies. As children share their ideas, including, “I couldn’t walk; I couldn’t ride a trike, I couldn’t eat apples . . .” she lists them in the first column. When they finish, she reads all the ideas aloud to the group.
Ms. Robin then points to the phrase, “Now I can . . .” and again asks for children’s ideas. After they finish sharing, she reads aloud the second list. As she points to each list, she comments to the group enthusiastically, “Look how many things you couldn’t do when you were a baby! Look how many things you can do now! You’ve grown so much!”
Nico looks through the familiar homemade, photo-illustrated book titled Teacher Jen’s Broken Ankle that is displayed on the reading area book rack. “My papa fell and broke his arm when he was a little boy,” he tells Ms. Jen. She asks him how it happened, and he tells her the story his papa has told him. Ms. Jen wonders with Nico whether his papa had to wear a cast on his arm while it was healing. Nico says he thinks so, because he remembers that Papa was supposed to keep his arm dry for a long time. He then asks Ms. Jen to show him again the ankle cast she wore while her leg was healing. She keeps the two halves of her bright pink cast in the “Hospital” prop box that teachers use in the dramatic play area when children’s play signals interest in medical themes.[12]
Pause to Reflect
How might you want to partner with families to make the preschool environment reflective of their diverse family stories?
Supporting Sense of Place (Geography and Ecology)
Each person has a sense of the places to which they belong: home, workplace, school, and other locations that are familiar and meaningful. Young children experience this sense of place strongly because familiar locations are associated with important people who constitute the child’s environment of relationships. Locations are important because of the people with whom they are associated: home with family members, preschool with teachers and peers. Preschoolers also experience a sense of place because of the sensory experiences associated with each location: the familiar smells, sounds, and sometimes temperatures and tastes combine with familiar scenes to create for young children a sense of belonging.
Developing a sense of place also derives from how young children interact with aspects of that physical location. Preschool children relate with their environments as they work with materials; rearrange tables, chairs, and other furniture; create maps to familiar locations; travel regularly from one setting to another; and work in other ways with their environments. Young children also interact with their environments as they learn to care for them. Young children’s natural interest in living things engages their interest in caring for plants and animals, concern for the effects of pollution and litter on the natural environment, and later, taking an active role in putting away trash and recycling used items.
These interests present many opportunities to the early childhood educator. Young children can be engaged in activities that encourage their understanding of the environments in which they live, whether they involve creating drawings and maps of familiar locations, talking about how to care for the natural world, discussing the different environments in which people live worldwide, or taking a trip to a marshland or a farm.
1.0 Navigating Familiar Locations
At around 48 months of age
At around 60 months of age
1.1 Identify the characteristics of familiar locations such as home and school, describe objects and activities associated with each, recognize the routes between them, and begin using simple directional language (with various degrees of accuracy).
1.1 Comprehend larger familiar locations, such as the characteristics of their community and region (including hills and streams, weather, common activities) and the distances between familiar locations (such as between home and school), and compare their home community with those of others.
2.0 Caring for the Natural World
At around 48 months of age
At around 60 months of age
2.1 Show an interest in nature (including animals, plants, and weather) especially as children have direct experiences with them. Begin to understand human interactions with the environment (such as pollution in a lake or stream) and the importance of taking care of plants and animals.
2.1 Show an interest in a wider range of natural phenomena, including those not directly experienced (such as snow for a child living in Southern California), and are more concerned about caring for the natural world and the positive and negative impacts of people on the natural world (e.g., recycling, putting trash in trash cans).
3.0 Understanding the Physical World Through Drawings and Maps
At around 48 months of age
At around 60 months of age
3.1 Can use drawings, globes, and maps to refer to the physical world, although often unclear on the use of map symbols.
3.1 Create their own drawings, maps, and models; are more skilled at using globes, maps, and map symbols; and use maps for basic problem solving (such as locating objects) with adult guidance.
Teachers can support children’s development of the geography and ecology foundations with the following:
• Supply open-ended materials in the indoor and outdoor early learning environment to promote exploration of spatial relationships
• Set aside time for outdoor explorations each day
• Provide children with sensory experiences, especially those with sand and water
• Describe your own actions as you travel between locations
• Play games about how to get from here to there
• Engage children in conversation about how they travel to and from preschool each day
• Take walks through familiar locations and neighboring areas
• Talk about the here and now as well as encouraging later reflection
• Locate and explore local landmarks
• Promote children’s understanding of weather and its impact on their day-to-day experiences
• Comment on weather patterns and invite children to share their observations
• Read aloud books and engage children in storytelling related to
• navigating familiar locations and daily routines
• investigating the earth and its attributes
• Integrate living things into the indoor learning environment
• Observe life in its natural setting
• Compare and contrast living and nonliving things
• Model respect and care for the natural world
• Use descriptive language to talk about the earth and its features
• Teach young children easy ways to conserve the earth’s resources
• Grow a garden in the program’s outdoor space
• Eat fresh produce at snack time and obtain food directly from a local gardener, farmers market, or food vendor when possible
• Engage children in conversations about maps, provide map-making materials, incorporate maps into dramatic play, use maps when planning outings, and make a mpa of the classroom/building and outdoor space
• Supply the learning environment with a variety of blocks and other open-ended materials to support the symbolic representation of the world the children see and experience each day
• Play board games that use trails and pathways
• View locations from different physical perspectives
• Prepare a treasure hunt[15]
Vignettes
Michael sits down with his peers and Mr. Sean at the snack table. “There was a huge dump truck going down my street today,” he tells everyone. Mr. Sean asks him what was in the truck. “Rocks and big sidewalk pieces,” replies Michael. “I know that,” adds Rio. “It’s by my house. Papa says they’re digging up the street for water pipes.” Several other children nod and agree that they know where that is and they have gone by it, too. Mr. Sean tells the children that the construction site they are talking about is just around the corner and down one block from their preschool. “Would you like to take a walk together to watch them work?” he asks. “It sounds like a big and exciting construction project is happening in our neighborhood.”
“I like this place,” shares Maya as she looks around the small reading area. “What do you like about it?” asks Ms. Nicole. “I like the green. It’s like un bosque.” Yes, agrees Ms. Nicole. The green plants do make it seem like a forest.”
This is the castle for the princess and her friends,” explains Grace to Tanya as she describes her unit block structure. “Here’s the bedroom over here, and the tower over there.”
Ms. Julia, sitting in the block area to observe children’s play, responds, “It looks like a very long way from the bedroom to the tower. Do the princess and her friends ever get lost in the castle?” “Well . . . sometimes they do,” replies Grace. “I wonder if we could draw something to help them find their way,” suggests Ms. Julia. “Like a map!” exclaims Tanya to Grace.
Ms. Julia offers to bring the clipboards, equipped with paper and pencils, from the art area. She takes one and begins describing her drawing plan. “First I’m going to draw a square for the bedroom in this corner . . . ” The girls begin by imitating her technique and soon are exchanging ideas with each other as they draw their versions of the castle. When they are finished, Ms. Julia asks questions about the parts of their castle maps and offers to label them. When the maps are finished, labeled, and signed, Ms. Julia asks the girls’ permission to display them on the block area wall.[17]
Pause to Reflect
What would be ways you would be comfortable bringing caring for the natural world into your own classroom? What might some things to try beyond that?
Supporting Marketplace (Economics)
Young children’s interest in adult roles and occupations extends to the economy. Preschoolers know that adults have jobs, and they observe that money is used to purchase items and services, but the connections between work, money, and purchasing are unclear to them. This does not stop them, however, from enacting these processes in their pretend play and showing great interest in the economic transactions they observe (such as a trip to the bank with a parent).
Moreover, young children are also active as consumers, seeking to persuade their families to purchase toys or access to activities that they desire, sometimes hearing adult concerns about cost or affordability in response. On occasion, they also learn about economic differences between people and families, such as when a parent is unemployed or when families are living in poverty. All of these activities convince them that the economy, while abstract to them, is important.
A carefully designed early childhood education setting provides many opportunities for young children to explore these ideas through play, conversation, and the creation of economic items to buy, sell, or exchange.
1.0 Exchange
At around 48 months of age
At around 60 months of age
1.1 Understand ownership, limited supply, what stores do, give-and-take, and payment of money to sellers. Show interest in money and its function, but still figuring out the relative value of coins.
1.1 Understand more complex economic concepts (e.g., bartering; more money is needed for things of greater value; if more people want something, more will be sold).
Teachers can support children’s development of the economics foundations with the following:
• Introduce economic concepts (e.g., production, exchange, consumption) through children’s books
• Provide open-ended materials to support children’s spontaneous investigations of business and the economy
• Offer dramatic play experiences that allow children to explore economic concepts
• Explore alongside children, expanding on their initiative
• Draw attention to trends of consumption in the preschool setting
• Discuss wants and needs with children and allow children to help make economic decisions
• Explore all forms of exchange
• Visit local businesses
• Create an opportunity for children to make and sell their own product; discuss how the money made will be spent[19]
Vignettes
Ms. Jen settles into the reading chair to begin large group story time. She holds a tall empty jar, a small cloth bag, and a book.
“Today I brought something with me to help me tell a story,” she begins. Then she holds up the small drawstring bag and shakes it. “Money!” call out the children. “Yes, it is money. My little bag is full of coins: nickels, dimes and quarters,” she says, pulling out one of each. “This book is all about a family who collects coins and saves them in a jar that looks a lot like this one. It’s called A Chair for My Mother, and Vera B. Williams is the author. She wrote the words. She is also the illustrator, which means she painted the pictures.”
As Ms. Jen reads the book, she stops frequently to converse with children about what is happening in the story. “The mother in this story works as a server in a restaurant. That’s how she earns money to buy the things her family needs.” After reading the page that describes the “tips” that Mother brings home and puts into the jar, Ms. Jen asks the group if anyone they know gets tips at work. After explaining the idea, she pours the coins from her small bag into the tall jar she has brought as a story prop.
When she reads the pages about the family’s moving day, when all their relatives and neighbors brought things they needed to replace the ones lost in the fire, Ms. Jen talks about how people don’t always buy all the things they have. Sometimes people receive gifts and things that others share with them.
As each economic concept is introduced in the book, Ms. Jen pauses to draw attention to it, while maintaining the flow of the story. At the end, she holds up the jar of coins and asks the group how long they think it took for Josephine’s family to collect enough coins to buy the chair. She responds to their comments, listening as they share their own related ideas. She concludes by telling them that the book will be in the reading area tomorrow for them to enjoy again.[20]
Pause to Reflect
What resources are in your neighborhood that a preschool teacher could use to introduce children to the community’s economic life?
Engaging Families
Teachers can make the following suggestions to families to facilitate their support of history and social science
• Encourage families to tell stories and sing songs to their child about their home culture
• Remind families that they are the child’s most influential models.
• Support families to help their child develop strong, warm relationships with adults and children among their family and friends.
• Suggest ways that family members can talk with their child about the daily work they do.
• Suggest that adults find household projects to work on with their child.
• Remind adults to notice and recognize times when their child is being cooperative and responsible.
• Encourage adults to talk with their child about respect and fairness.
• Work with adult family members as they establish some simple, age-appropriate rules to be followed at home and help children understand that there is a reason for each rule.
• Share ways to establish some dependable family rituals and routines.
• Remind families to discuss family plans and events with children before they occur.
• Share with family adults the importance of recounting past shared events with their children. Suggest that they use storytelling to help children remember the sequence and details of both everyday and special experiences.
• Suggest that families find a special place for items that document children’s growth.
• Encourage adult family members to tell children stories about their family’s history.
• Suggest that they look for maps in places where their family goes.
• Suggest taking different routes when going to familiar places.
• Encourage families to talk about nature (i.e., weather, seasons, plants, animals, and so on) with their child.
• Encourage families to have conversations about ways they can help the earth (reduce waste, conserve natural resources, compost, etc.)
• Suggest that adult family members share with their child elements of the natural world they especially enjoy.
• Encourage families to talk with their child about the connection between cost and decisions to buy items and services.
• Assure families that it is fine to have conversations about “wants” and “needs.”
• Suggest that families show their child some alternative ways to acquire things the family needs or wants, as well as ways to help meet the needs of others.
• Encourage families to begin to share with preschool children their own values about money.
• Prepare yourselves, as early care and education professionals, to play an active role in supporting families facing personal economic crises. Educate yourselves about available community services and, when possible, help families to obtain access to them.[21]
12.05: Conclus
The knowledge and skills in history and social science that preschoolers acquire in an early education setting provide a foundation for their understanding of themselves and the world in which they live. Adults benefit from the perspective of history (of society, families, and one’s personal past). People are connected deeply to the physical settings and natural ecologies in which they live. People learn about themselves and others by comparison with people who differ in culture, language, ethnicity, traditions, and abilities. Human lives are shaped by the economy and its influence on people’s roles as workers, consumers, and investors. Citizens participate with others in the political process and in building their communities. As preschoolers learn about these topics through instruction, enactment, and play, they are introduced to issues that will remain important to them for years to come.[1] | textbooks/socialsci/Early_Childhood_Education/Book%3A_Introduction_to_Curriculum_for_Early_Childhood_Education_(Paris_Beeve_and_Springer)/04%3A_Section_IV-_Planning_for_Childrens_Learning/12%3A_History_and_Social_Science/12.04%3A_Introdu.txt |
Learning Objectives
By the end of the chapter, you should be able to: Explain the importance of planning to support children’s physical development
• Describe the foundations in physical development that high quality programming support children in reaching
• Recognize sequences of physical development
• Advocate for active play
• Identify ways for educators to support physical development
• Summarize ways to engage families in curriculum for physical development
13: Physical Development
Young children learn best by doing. Active physical play supports preschool children’s brain development and is a primary means for them to explore and discover their world. Physical activities enhance all aspects of development, including cognitive, emotional, social, as well as physical.
• Cognitive growth occurs when children problem-solve how to negotiate an obstacle course or how to build a fort.
• Emotional development is supporting when children’s confidence and willingness to try new activities increases.
• Social development is supported through the interaction with other children and the development of friendships through active play.
• Being active also has clear benefits for children’s health and fitness.
The preschool years are a prime time for children’s physical development. Preschool programs have a key role in maximizing children’s developmental potential during this important time by providing well-designed, regular, and frequent opportunities for physical play. Although many of young children’s physical activities are exploratory and self-directed, children greatly benefit from adult encouragement and guidance when learning new physical skills. Teachers tap into children’s intrinsic motivation for movement by designing meaningful, culturally appropriate, and accessible play activities in which all children feel challenged yet successful.
Teachers are important role models in the area of physical development. Children benefit immensely when teachers engage in physical activities alongside children and share in the fun of physical movement. Just as important, preschool programs collaborate with family and community members to promote children’s physical development. Family support and participation foster children’s active lifestyle habits. Promoting active lifestyles during the preschool years will benefit children throughout their lives.[2]
13.02: Guiding Princ
Teachers play a critical role in supporting children’s physical development because physical skills need to be explicitly and deliberately taught. Physical play, both indoors and outdoors, is not merely “free time”; it requires thoughtful planning and intentional interactions. The following guidelines will help teachers support children’s physical development.
Developmentally appropriate movement programs accommodate a variety of individual differences among children.
Children often learn best through maximum active participation. There should be a daily quest to minimize sitting, waiting, and watching so children enjoy meaningful participation in physical activities. Maximum purposeful participation at some level is a challenging but attainable goal.
The physical safety of children’s play environments should be of paramount importance at all times (children should be able to take reasonable risks).
Family members working as partners with teachers are key to enriching the physical development of children.
Inclusion of children with special needs is beneficial to all and promotes greater understanding of and respect for diversity.
Children are multisensory learners with unique learning styles.
To maximize teaching effectiveness, movement skill learning should first focus on improving body coordination and increasing awareness of body movements. The product, or quantitative aspect of movements (e.g., how far they jumped, or how fast they ran), should not be the initial focus of learning.
Children generally learn new movement skills more easily when they can focus on one specific aspect of the skill at a time.
Children benefit from ample opportunities to practice new physical skills.
Children benefit from integrated learning activities across the curriculum.
Frequency, intensity, type, and duration are the four key parameters to designing active physical play to enhance children’s fitness and health. The four parameters may be thought of as the FITT principles (Frequency, Intensity, Type, Time [duration]).
o “Frequency” refers to the regularity of engaging in physical activity; frequent short periods of physical activity each day are preferred (children should not be sedentary for more than 60 minutes at a time except when sleeping).
o “Intensity” refers to whether activities are sedentary, mild, moderate, or vigorous; moderate to vigorous activities are preferred.
o “Type” deals with the specific kind of physical activity engaged in; for young children, the types of activities usually take the form of active games, child-initiated play, as well as rhythms and dance.
o “Time” (duration) refers to the amount of time in which the child is engaged in physical activity; accumulating at least 60 minutes, and up to several hours, of moderate to vigorous physical activity per day is recommended.
Physical skills are more easily learned when clear instructions and appropriate feedback are provided in children’s home language using familiar communication methods.
Allow children to take risks. Risk taking allows children to challenge themselves, and to assess their own skills and abilities.[1] | textbooks/socialsci/Early_Childhood_Education/Book%3A_Introduction_to_Curriculum_for_Early_Childhood_Education_(Paris_Beeve_and_Springer)/04%3A_Section_IV-_Planning_for_Childrens_Learning/13%3A_Physical_Development/13.01%3A_Introduction.txt |
The following recommendations apply to establishing the preschool environment as related to the three Physical Development strands: Fundamental Movement Skills, Perceptual–Motor Skills and Movement Concepts, and Active Physical Play
• Teachers promote optimal physical development when they provide children with positive encouragement and quality instruction (both indirect and direct). Teachers “set the stage” and “create the climate” for movement skill learning.
• The immediate physical environment is a powerful influence on children’s physical development. The physical environment, play materials, and play themes can all be skillfully designed to promote active play. Both indoor and outdoor play environments should encourage fun and enjoyable learning.
• Indoor and outdoor play environments should include a variety of appropriately sized equipment that promotes both gross and fine motor development.
• Learning is most meaningful when the environment and materials reflect and accommodate children’s individual interests, backgrounds, and present abilities. Embrace the richness of diversity by learning about children’s culture, language, customs, music, physical activities, and focus on the unique gifts that each child brings to the learning environment.
• Take time to build safety into both the indoor and outdoor play environments.
• A safe environment reduces the need for adults to say no. It is important to establish clear expectations. Limits should be set rather than rules (rules eliminate reasonable risk) in order to ensure personal safety. Be particularly cognizant when working with children who have disabilities that impact their impulse control and judgment. Also, differences in cultural expectations for girls and those for boys, as well as language differences, may impact the critical need for building safety into children’s regular play environments.
• Playground equipment, such as climbing, hanging, and sliding structures, should be checked regularly for safety hazards.
• Movement experiences should include exploration, discovery, and appreciation of the natural environment. Nature provides rich, diverse sensory experiences—sounds, smells, textures, and sights—that are beneficial for young children’s sensorimotor development.
• Thoughtfully designed movement experiences, guided by adults, support children’s physical development. Most children need more than just free play to acquire movement skills. Children benefit from teacher-guided, structured physical activities, particularly when they are learning new movement skills. Structured but flexible play activities that emphasize active participation, exploration, and self-discovery are ideal for practicing new, challenging physical skills.[1]
Additional strategies that will help children’s physical development:
• Provide opportunities that include diverse cultural themes.
• Challenge children’s abilities by asking questions.
• Encourage persistence during challenging tasks.
• Modify activities to increase participation by children with disabilities and special needs.
• Observe and analyze children’s skills to facilitate planning for learning opportunities.
• Learn about children’s prior experiences and personal interests.
• Promote and be aware of the progressive development of skills.
• Plan meaningful, purposeful, and connected activities and games.
• Create culturally diverse scenarios for skills.
• Create meaningful scenarios that provide the opportunity for the integration of skills with other curriculum concepts.
• Use both unstructured and structured strategies, as well as multisensory experiences, in your teaching.
• Create developmental activities that provide a sense of success.
• Provide opportunities for repeated practice in a safe environment.
• Provide plenty of encouragement.
• Create activities that provide automatic feedback and a sense of accomplishment.
• Provide clear, specific feedback to facilitate children’s problem-solving process.
Provide a variety of tools and media to promote participation.[3]
Pause to Reflect
How can family culture, language, and diversity be incorporated into fundamental movement activities? How can ideas and materials from children’s different cultures be included in fine motor activities and games?
Research Highlight: Must Young Children Sit Still in Order to Learn?
Researchers have stated that high activity levels, impulsivity, and short attention span for sedentary activities are characteristics of typically developing preschool-age children. Children naturally need to move in order to learn. Being physically active boosts children’s attention span and capitalizes on multisensory learning so that children are more likely to retain academic concepts such as colors, shapes, and the alpha-bet. The need for movement-based learning experiences may be particularly important for children with special needs. Research has shown that for children who have autism spectrum disorder and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, being seated on a movable surface (e.g., a therapy ball) resulted in increased ability to stay on task and remain seated during classroom learning activities. However, children seated on a static surface such as a bench, chair, or floor were less able to remain on task. Experts have suggested that adults’ efforts to entice young children to sit still, pay attention, and be quiet during learning activities often run contrary to children’s natural needs for physical movement.[4]
Sources:
J. A. Blackman, “Attention-Deficit/Hyper-activity Disorder in Preschoolers. Does It Exist and Should We Treat It?” Pediatric Clinics of North America 46, no. 5 (1999): 1011–25.
T. Hunter, “Some Thoughts About Sitting Still,” Young Children 55, no. 3 (2000): 50.
T. Schilling, and others, “Promoting Language Development Through Movement,” Teaching Elementary Physical Education 17, no. 6 (2006): 39–42.
D. L. Schilling and I. S. Schwartz, “Alternative Seating for Young Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder: Effects on Classroom Behavior,” Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders 43, no. 4 (2004): 423–32.
D. L. Schilling and others, “Classroom Seating for Children with Attention Deficit
Hyperactivity Disorder: Therapy Ball Versus Chairs,” American Journal of Occupational Therapy 57, no. 5 (2003): 534–41. 12. T. Hunter, “Some Thoughts About Sitting Still,” Young Children 55, no. 3 (2000): 50.
13.04: Introducing t
The preschool learning foundations for physical development are organized in terms of three broad categories or strands:
• Fundamental Movement Skills
• Perceptual–Motor Skills and Movement Concepts
• Active Physical Play[1]
The first strand is Fundamental Movement Skills. Most preschool children can acquire reasonable levels of competence in a wide range of movement activities, including balance, locomotor skills, and manipulative skills (both gross motor and fine motor), when given opportunities for instruction and practice in an enriched environment. The second strand is Perceptual-Motor Skills and Movement Concepts. This strand focuses on the development of body awareness, spatial awareness, and directional awareness. These skills are important for interacting with others and for exploring the environment. The third strand is Active Physical Play. Active physical play promotes children’s health and physical fitness by increasing their levels of active participation, cardiovascular endurance, muscular strength, muscular endurance, and flexibility.[2]
The specific foundations are included later in the chapter as each strand is explored. They include what children should be able to do when in high quality early childhood program at around 48 months and at around 60 months (which roughly corresponds to the end of the first year and the end of second year of preschool).[3] | textbooks/socialsci/Early_Childhood_Education/Book%3A_Introduction_to_Curriculum_for_Early_Childhood_Education_(Paris_Beeve_and_Springer)/04%3A_Section_IV-_Planning_for_Childrens_Learning/13%3A_Physical_Development/13.03%3A_Environmental.txt |
Fundamental movement skills are the foundations on which more complex movement skills are built. Early childhood is a crucial and unique time for developing coordination of the basic movement skills. During this period, daily movement experiences significantly influence children’s patterns of movement and their future as happy, active movers. Children who develop these fundamental movement skills tend to become confident movers and have the building blocks for an active way of life.
Fundamental movement skills emerge following a developmental sequence from simple to more complex body actions. Initially, when children attempt a movement pattern, they move few body parts (e.g., when throwing, move only one arm while the rest of their body remains still). As their movement skills develop, children begin incorporating other body parts (e.g., throwing with one arm while stepping with one foot). Research-based developmental sequences represent common pathways of development and can guide instruction and learning. However, each child’s development is unique and affected by many factors (e.g., genetics, culture, special needs, socioeconomic status, environment, and practice). Teachers should expect variations in individual development.
Fundamental movement skills develop through meaningful interactions with the environment, people, and objects; through both structured (e.g., teacher-guided) and unstructured (e.g., child-initiated play) practice of movement skills; through the integration of fundamental motor skills into the preschool curriculum; and through the integration of fundamental movement skills into the daily home life of children. Children’s movement activities should be designed with consideration of the multiple cultures and diversity of the participants. In addition, teachers need to be sensitive to children with disabilities and special needs and modify the tasks, context, or environment, including appropriate assistive devices and instructional strategies, to facilitate the development of fundamental skills for all children.
Fundamental movement skills include:
Balance
The ability to balance is fundamental to all body movements. All movement involves elements of balance, and each movement has different balance requirements.
1.0 Balance
At around 48 months of age
At around 60 months of age
1.1 Maintain balance while holding still; sometimes may need assistance.
1.1 Show increasing balance and control when holding still.
1.2 Maintain balance while in motion when moving from one position to another or when changing directions, though balance may not be completely stable.
1.2 Show increasing balance control while moving in different directions and when transitioning from one movement or position to another.
Teachers can support children’s developing balance with the following:
• Design spaces and activities to develop balance following a developmental progression.
• Incorporate balance activities into the children’s world (such as acting out balancing challenges).
• Provide opportunities for activities that include both active movements and still body positions.
• Post pictures of balance positions and balance activities (can be of culturally representative athletes, dancers, performers, including those with disabilities).
• Design the environment so children combine balance skills with fundamental movement skills and movement concepts.
• Use visual aids, foot and handprints, and objects on the floor to promote balancing skills.
Locomotor Skills
The movement skills that children use to move effectively and efficiently through space. These skills allow children to travel, explore, and discover their environments. Preschool children use locomotor skills in their daily activities to move from one area to another.
2.0 Locomotor Skills
At around 48 months of age
At around 60 months of age
2.1 Walk with balance, not always stable, oppositional arm movements still developing, and relatively wide base of support (space between feet).
2.1 Walk with balance, oppositional arm movements, and relatively narrow base of support (space between feet).
2.2 Run with short stride length and feet off the ground for a short period of time. May show inconsistent opposition of arms and legs.
2.2 Run with a longer stride length and each foot off the ground for a greater length of time. Opposition of arms and legs is more consistent.
2.3 Jump for height (up or down) and for distance with beginning competence.
2.3 Jump for height (up or down) and for distance with increasing competence. Uses arm swing to aid forward jump.
2.4 Begin to demonstrate a variety of locomotor skills, such as galloping, sliding, hopping, and leaping.
2.4 Demonstrate increasing ability and body coordination in a variety of locomotor skills, such as galloping, sliding, hopping, and leaping.
You can find example representations of the developmental sequences of fundamental movement skills in Appendix D.
Teachers can support children’s developing locomotor skills with the following:
• Observe and analyze children’s locomotor skills to facilitate planning for learning opportunities.
• Promote progressive development of leg strength.
• Promote and be aware of the progressive development of coordination of locomotor skills.
• Encourage practice of locomotor movements in both indoor and outdoor environments.
• Use vivid visual information and visual aids that communicate to children in simple ways how to move.
• Use music, songs, rhymes, and stories to provide rhythmic patterns.
• Plan meaningful, purposeful, and connected locomotor activities and games.
• Create picture cards representing different ways to move related to children’s cultural background.
• Allow children to take risks in their physical play.
Manipulative Skills
Skills that allow children to use their arms, hands, legs, and feet to project an object away from the body (e.g., throwing a beanbag) or to receive and absorb the force of an object coming to the body (e.g., catching a balloon). Fundamental motor skills that involve large muscle groups are called gross motor skills (e.g., kicking) and the ones that involve small muscle groups are called fine motor skills (e.g., cutting).
Fine motor manipulative skills are usually those in which children manipulate objects with their hands. Fine motor manipulative skills include cutting, painting, and buttoning.
Gross motor manipulative skills include tossing, rolling, throwing, catching, striking, kicking, bouncing, and punting with objects.
3.0 Manipulative Skills
At around 48 months of age
At around 60 months of age
3.1 Begin to show gross motor manipulative skills by using arms, hands, and feet, such as rolling a ball underhand, tossing underhand, bouncing, catching, striking, throwing overhand, and kicking.
3.1 Show gross motor manipulative skills by using arms, hands, and feet with increased coordination, such as rolling a ball underhand, tossing underhand, bouncing, catching, striking, throwing overhand, and kicking.
3.2 Begin to show fine motor manipulative skills using hands and arms such as in-hand manipulation, writing, cutting, and dressing.
3.2 Show increasing fine motor manipulative skills using hands and arms such as in-hand manipulation, writing, cutting, and dressing.
You can find example representations of the developmental sequences of manipulative skills in Appendix D.
Teachers can support developing manipulative skills with the following:
• Observe developmental sequences of fundamental manipulative skills.
• Vary the focus of the manipulative skills (provide opportunities for both arms and legs to move).
• Provide a variety of equipment to accommodate individual differences in body size, skill level, and the development of children’s physical and sensory systems.
• Create manipulative activities that provide automatic feedback and a sense of accomplishment.[5]
Vignette
Children constructed birds and balls out of paper while playing indoors. They colored the papers using markers of different colors. Children also decorated their creations with colorful feathers and cut out shapes from magazines. They attached these decorations to their birds and balls with glue. When the decorations were dry, the teacher invited them to play with their birds and balls outside. The teacher, Ms. Gupta, previously had designed the outdoor play area by placing some colorful plastic hoops, cones, and shapes on the floor with pictures of the community buildings attached to them. She also drew a line two steps away from the pretend buildings.
Outside, she said to the children, “Let’s make the birds fly toward those buildings and see where they land.” The children became excited and began using the throwing action to fly their birds. Some children were much closer to the line, and others stood farther away. While throwing, they began adjusting their proximity to the line. Ms. Gupta said, “How can you move your bodies to make your bird fly up in the sky?” Jamila said, “I know, throw like this [moving her arm up and down].” Lesley said, “We need to step and send the bird up.” Ms. Gupta paused and observed them throwing for a while. One child’s bird was going down fast, and she said, “Xuyen, do you want your bird to go up?” Xuyen replied, “Yes.” Ms. Gupta asked, “How can we do that?” Xuyen shrugged her shoulders as though to say, “I do not know.”
Ms. Gupta then suggested, “How about if you throw it toward the sky?” Xuyen moved her arm up over her head in the throwing action, and her bird flew a little longer. She noticed and smiled, then ran to get it and tried again. Ms. Gupta smiled and said, “You moved your arm up this time. That is the way to make your bird go up: keep moving your arm up each time.” Another child was picking up his bird, and Ms. Gupta said, “Yeng, on what building did your bird land?” Yeng said, “The store.” and kept running back to try again. Ms. Gupta said to another child, “Mary, did your bird land in the hospital?” Mary replied, “No, that is the park.” Mary was right. Ms. Gupta continued asking different children about the buildings.[6] | textbooks/socialsci/Early_Childhood_Education/Book%3A_Introduction_to_Curriculum_for_Early_Childhood_Education_(Paris_Beeve_and_Springer)/04%3A_Section_IV-_Planning_for_Childrens_Learning/13%3A_Physical_Development/13.05%3A_Supporting_Fu.txt |
Perceptual-motor skills and movement concepts are essential to all facets of young children’s lives. Perceptual-motor coordination is the process of receiving, interpreting, and using information from all of the body’s senses. Perceptual-motor development requires children to integrate both sensory and motor abilities to carry out physical activities. All voluntary movement involves an element of perception, and perceptual-motor coordination plays an important role in children’s development of movement skills.
Movement concepts are the cognitive component of movement. Preschool children gain important knowledge about how the body can move in an almost endless variety of ways. For example, they learn to move at different speeds and with different degrees of force, in various pathways, around different types of obstacles, and in relation to other people. They are also acquiring new vocabulary (e.g., zigzag, under, or behind) that describe their movement experiences. Movement concepts enable children to problem-solve how the body should move during certain activities and situations. Movement concepts provide critical foundations for learning how to move in novel situations (e.g., when playing a new sport). To become proficient movers, children need to acquire both the movement skills and the movement concepts underlying those skills.
Children enter preschool with various experiences and abilities in perceptual-motor coordination and understanding of movement concepts. Children’s growth in perceptual-motor skills and movement concepts leads to increased success and confidence when exploring, performing personal care, and playing cooperatively with others. Perceptual-motor skills and movement concepts are also key building blocks for future learning in areas such as reading, writing, and mathematics.
Perceptual-motor skills and understanding movement concepts includes body awareness, spatial awareness, and directional awareness.[1]
Body Awareness
Children’s knowledge of their bodies becomes more accurate and specific. They develop a clear understanding of how body parts interrelate (e.g., the shoulder connects to the arm, which connects to the hand). Children are also learning to identify, describe, and differentiate an increasing number of body parts. Furthermore, they can demonstrate different ways to move specific body parts (e.g., the shoulder can move up and down, out to the side, or in a circular motion). Body awareness is necessary for coordinating physical movements when new skills are being learned, such as hopping or throwing. Accurate knowledge about body parts also enhances children’s ability to care for their own bodies, such as during toileting, bathing, and dressing.
1.0 Body Awareness
At around 48 months of age
At around 60 months of age
1.1 Demonstrate knowledge of the names of body parts.
1.1 Demonstrate knowledge of an increasing number of body parts.
Teachers can support children’s developing body awareness with the following:
• Use multisensory teaching strategies to reinforce children’s learning.
• Use body-parts vocabulary in the child’s home language.
• Use alternative communication methods, as appropriate, to teach body-parts vocabulary.
• Use body-parts vocabulary in the natural context of daily living activities and child-initiated play.
• Introduce body-parts vocabulary during structured group games.
• Engage children in singing and movement activities to teach body parts.
• Encourage children to identify and describe body parts in books or in pictures of themselves and family members.
• Provide opportunities for dress-up play.
• Provide opportunities for children to see external representations of their bodies.
• Provide constructional play for children to build or put together body parts.
• Ask children to describe their drawings of people.
Spatial Awareness
Children’s understanding of their location and the location of objects and people around them. Preschool children are learning to judge how much space their bodies and other objects take up and whether something is “close” or “far.” They are also developing vocabulary for describing the position of two objects relative to one another, such as whether a ball is “in front of” or “behind” them. Children gain awareness of their body dimensions and body position by physically exploring their world and by maneuvering around different obstacles (both people and objects) during play.
2.0 Spatial Awareness
At around 48 months of age
At around 60 months of age
2.1 Use own body as reference point when locating or relating to other people or objects in space.
2.1 Use own body, general space, and other people’s space when locating or relating to other people or objects in space.
Table 13.1: Developmental Sequence of Spatial Awareness
Age
Spatial Awareness Ability
Around 3 years of age
Children bump into others who are close by during all types of activities.
Around 4 years of age
Children are able to participate in seated activities without bumping into others.
Around 5 years of age
Children are able to participate in standing activities (primarily staying in place) without bumping into others.
Around 5½ years of age
Children mostly maintain space around themselves without bumping into others, with prompting during a locomotor activity in which children move in the same direction
Around 6 years of age
Children maintain space around themselves without bumping into others during a locomotor or movement activity in which children move in different directions (e.g., chasing games or dancing
Teachers can support children’s developing spatial awareness with the following:
• Set up obstacle courses
• Provide opportunities for children to experience moving at different levels of body positioning, ranging from high to low.
• Provide games for children to explore changing the size of their bodies.
• Play games that allow children to move around with objects balanced on different parts of their body.
• Provide pushing and pulling games with peers.
• Play games that require two to three children to work together to transport a large, lightweight object.
• Use dancing and musical games to promote the development of spatial awareness and body control.
• Use positional-concepts vocabulary within the natural context of daily routines.
• Have children participate in cleanup routines by putting away toys.
• Engage children in helper roles by performing “heavy work” activities.
• Narrate or ask questions about children’s play using positional-concepts vocabulary in English and the child’s home language.
• Engage children in songs and rhymes with body movements or spatial concepts.
• Reinforce spatial concepts when reading or looking at books.
• Use props or play objects to guide children in positioning their bodies.
• Use the child’s home language to introduce spatial-concepts vocabulary.
• Provide alternative ways for children with physical disabilities or other special needs to learn spatial concepts.
• Provide additional cues and assistance as needed to ensure safety for children who have spatial-awareness challenges.
• Allow opportunities for risk taking.
Directional Awareness
Children’s understanding of what it means and how it feels to move up, down, forward, backward and finally sideways. Most preschool children begin to understand that their bodies have two sides but cannot yet identify the left or right side of their body. Children are also learning to identify the top, bottom, front, or back of objects, but they do not clearly understand that objects have a left or right side. Preschool children also enjoy following pathways on the floor or creating their own movement pathways, such as straight, curved, or zigzag.
3.0 Directional Awareness
At around 48 months of age
At around 60 months of age
3.1 Distinguish movements that are up and down and to the side of the body (for example, understands “use that side, now the other side”).
3.1 Begin to understand and distinguish between the sides of the body.
3.2 Move forward and backward or up and down easily.
3.2 Can change directions quickly and accurately.
3.3 Can place an object on top of or under something with some accuracy.
3.3 Can plan an object or own body in front of, to the side, or behind something else with greater accuracy.
3.4 Use any two body parts together.
3.4 Demonstrate more precision and efficiency during two-handed fine motor activities.
Table 13.2: Developmental Sequence of Directional Awareness
Age
Directional Awareness Ability
Between ages 2 and 3 years
Children can identify front/back and top/bottom on their own bodies.
Around age 4
Children are aware that their bodies have two distinct sides and are learning to determine which side is left and which is right
By age 6 or 7
Children can accurately identify the left and right sides on their own body parts.
Around age 8
Children become aware that objects also have a left and right side
Ages 10 years and older
Children can give directions to another person, such as “Go down the hall and turn left to get to the school office.”
They can accurately identify the left and right sides on another person, even if the person is facing a different direction.
Teachers can support children’s developing directional awareness with the following:
• Provide opportunities for child-initiated play in areas with open space.
• Provide safe environments in which children can climb up and down.
• Encourage children to move in different directions and in different types of pathways (e.g., straight, curved, or zigzag) during group movement games.
• Design activities for children to practice moving alongside or in a line with other people.
• Play games that require children to coordinate moving with others to manage a physical object or prop.
• Provide opportunities for children to move and use their bodies with force.
• Provide opportunities for children to move and use their bodies lightly.
• Engage children in two-handed play activities.
• Position drawing activities vertically.
• Provide pretend-play activities to rein-force directional concepts.
• Use the child’s home language for introducing directional-concepts vocabulary.
• Adapt movement experiences as needed for children with physical disabilities.
• Allow opportunities for risk taking.[5]
Vignette
Several children in Mr. Clay’s class are interested in trains, and during circle time they read a book about trains. Later that day, a group of children go through the obstacle course outdoors. Spencer asks, “I wonder if a train could go through our tunnel.” Ming responds, “Yeah, the train in the book went through mountain tunnels.” Mr. Clay suggests, “Well, maybe this obstacle course is a railroad today?” The children all agree excitedly.
Children begin to go through the obstacle pretending to be trains and saying “choo-choo” along the way. After awhile, Mr. Clay asks, “Do any of you trains want to carry freight?” “I do!” volunteers Mei enthusiastically. Mr. Clay retrieves a bucket of beanbags, which will be the trains’ freight. The teacher asks Mei, “Mei the Train, where will you carry your freight?” Mei replies, “here” while pointing to her shoulder. “On your shoulder? Great idea!” responds Mr. Clay. As children continue with the activity, Mr. Clay assists them in coming up with other variations, such as having everyone line up in a row and stay close together as one long train. When Ming gets to the cardboard tunnel, the teacher lifts up the cardboard box to provide clearance for Ming and his wheelchair to fit through the tunnel. Later, the teacher asks, “I wonder if it would be fun for the trains to go in reverse?” “What’s reverse?” Spencer asks. Ming responds, “I know! Watch this,” and demonstrates wheeling his wheelchair backwards.[6]
Pause to Reflect
Think of other movement activities children enjoy. How could each be modified to include children with differing disabilities and special needs? | textbooks/socialsci/Early_Childhood_Education/Book%3A_Introduction_to_Curriculum_for_Early_Childhood_Education_(Paris_Beeve_and_Springer)/04%3A_Section_IV-_Planning_for_Childrens_Learning/13%3A_Physical_Development/13.06%3A_Supporting_Pe.txt |
Active play is essential to the optimal physical development and overall health of young children. Physical activity embedded throughout the preschool day promotes children’s ability to attend to, learn, and regulate their emotional responses. Active physical play not only enhances the body’s physiological functions (i.e., physical fitness), it promotes optimal brain chemistry for self-regulation and enhances learning readiness. As such, it should be fully integrated into the regular preschool day.
Active physical play contributes markedly to enhancing children’s fundamental movement skills in three principal areas: balance, locomotion, and both gross and fine motor manipulation. Both typically developing children and those with special needs benefit. Furthermore, the perceptual-motor components also discussed earlier are promoted through active physical play. Activities that promote body awareness, spatial awareness, and directional awareness engage the senses as children move through space. To derive the maximum health-related benefits, children should engage in active play on most days of the week, in an environment that promotes enjoyment, safety, and success. These benefits include increases in muscular strength, muscular endurance, and joint flexibility as well as improved aerobic endurance and body composition. Proper nutrition and adequate hydration also play important roles in young children’s active physical play.
Young children can be easily engaged in movement and benefit immensely from an active way of life. The habits of physical activity that children learn in the early years greatly increase the chance that children will continue being physically active throughout childhood and beyond. Most importantly, children must see active play as fun. Your regular participation with children will do much to model the joy of moving. You can take almost any indoor or outdoor physical activity, give it a name, and make it a game. Children are active learners. For most, physical activity is fun. Your enthusiastic participation with children will go a long way to motivate them for continued active play.
Active Physical Play includes:
• Active Participation
• Cardiovascular Endurance
• Muscular Strength, Muscular Endurance, and Flexibility
Active Participation
Young children need to be involved in moderate to vigorous physical activity almost daily, at home and at school. Moderate to vigorous activity that is enjoyable, develop-mentally appropriate, and adapted to the needs of each child increases children’s physical fitness levels. When the large muscles of the body are fully engaged, young children learn more effectively and also derive important health and physical fitness benefits. Active physical play contributes measurably to all aspects of physical fitness. Physical fitness is defined as a set of physical attributes related to a person’s ability to perform activities that require cardiovascular endurance, muscular strength, muscular endurance, and joint flexibility.
1.0 Active Participation
At around 48 months of age
At around 60 months of age
1.1 Initiate or engage in simple physical activities for a short to moderate period of time.
1.1 Initiate more complex physical activities for a sustained period of time.
Teachers can support active participation with the following:
• Provide ample opportunities for children to engage daily in active play. It is widely recommended that children accumulate at least 60 minutes and up to several hours of unstructured physical activity on each day of the week.
• Create inviting activity environments in which children can be physically active.
• Help children identify appropriate places for different types of physical activity.
• Create an activity environment that is nurturing and supportive and allows likely success.
• Encourage children to continue participation by providing opportunities for short but frequent rest periods during vigorous activity.
• Ensure that physical activity is sustained by providing personally mean-ingful and purposeful opportunities for children.
• Recognize and take into account any environmental constraints.
• Encourage physical exploration through play equipment and materials.
• Respect differences in children’s temperament and find creative ways to engage all children in active physical play.
Research Highlight: Does Increasing Children’s Physical Activity Really Make a Difference?
A decisive “yes” was the answer to this important question which was cited in a review of 850 research articles and published in the Journal of Pediatrics. The evidence strongly supported that children of school age who engage in relatively high levels of physical activity are less overweight than inactive children, have better cardiovascular endurance, and higher levels of muscular strength, endurance, and higher self-concepts. The authors conclude that “Increasing the level of habitual moderate- to vigorous-intensity physical activity in youth is a health promotion and disease-prevention strategy. Sedentary youngsters should progress toward the recommended level of physical activity gradually.”[4]
Sources:
W. B. Strong and others, “Evidence Based Physical Activity for School-Age Youth,” The Journal of Pediatrics 146, no. 6 (2005): 732–37.
A. Ignico, C. Richart, and V. Wayda, “The Effects of a Physical Activity Program on Children’s Activity Level, Health-Related Fitness, and Health,” Early Childhood Development 154 (1999): 31–39.
Cardiovascular Endurance
This involves exposing the body to an increased workload that raises the heart rate beyond its normal range of beats per minute and sustains that elevated rate for several minutes.
2.0 Cardiovascular Endurance
At around 48 months of age
At around 60 months of age
2.1 Engage in frequent bursts of active play that involves the heart, the lungs, and the vascular system.
2.1 Engage in sustained active play of increasing intensity that involves the heart, the lungs, and the vascular system.
Teachers can support children’s development of cardiovascular endurance with the following:
• Design the physical setting of the play environment to encourage moderate or vigorous physical activity.
• Engage children of all ability levels in activities that promote increased cardiovascular endurance.
• Promote increased cardiovascular endurance through chasing and fleeing activities.
• Promote cardiovascular endurance through the use of riding toys that require sustained pedaling or cranking.
• Use imagery as an effective tool in promoting moderate to vigorous physical activity.
• Provide positive encouragement for participation.
• Promote increased physical activity through story plays.
• Promote cardiovascular endurance through dance and rhythmic activities.
Muscular Strength, Muscular Endurance, and Flexibility
Active children naturally increase their muscular strength, muscular endurance, and joint flexibility.
Muscular strength is the ability to perform one maximum effort, such as lifting a heavy weight over-head, or picking up a heavy object off the ground.
Muscular endurance is the ability to perform work repeatedly. (It is not recommended that children prior to puberty engage in maximum strength efforts through high-resistance activities. Instead, it is recommended that children engage in low-resistance activities with multiple repetitions.)
Flexibility is the ability of a joint to move through its full, intended range of motion.
3.0 Muscular Strength, Muscular Endurance, and Flexibility
At around 48 months of age
At around 60 months of age
2.1 Engage in active play activities that enhance leg and arm strength, muscular endurance, and flexibility.
2.1 Engage in increasing amounts of active play activities that enhance leg and arm strength, muscular endurance, and flexibility.
Keep this important concept in mind when planning activities for children. Low-resistance activities that are continually repetitive— such as swimming, riding a tricycle, or pushing one’s wheelchair up a gradual incline or around the playground, walking distances, running, and jumping—will promote both muscular endurance and
Teachers can support children’s developing muscular strength, muscular endurance, and flexibility with the following:
• Encourage the development of muscular strength and endurance through building activities that involve per-forming “work” repeatedly.
• Promote cardiovascular endurance through repeated muscular endurance activities.
• Promote muscular endurance and strength in the muscles of the upper body through the use of playground equipment that encourages climbing, hanging, and swinging.
• Allow for supervised risk taking.
• Engage children in the setup of the play space and the return of materials to their original space.
• Promote increased joint flexibility through animal walks, nursery rhymes, and story plays.
• Encourage practice in fundamental movement skills and perceptual-motor activities that contribute to children’s physical fitness.[7]
Vignette
When the weather permits, Ms. Jennifer takes her class outdoors to play in the designated play space. She is intrigued by the many types of activities in which her children choose to engage. She is quick to notice that several are in almost perpetual motion, running to and fro with seemingly endless energy and little purpose to their activity. Others tend to gravitate to the sandbox and other fine motor activities. Still others are hesitant to explore and reluctant to participate in any self-initiated free-play activities.
Knowing the importance of active physical play, Ms. Jennifer develops strategies intended to maximize meaningful participation in a variety of activities that promote active participation by all, cardiovascular endurance, muscular strength, muscular endurance, and joint flexibility. These strategies take into account children’s personal preferences, likes and dislikes, and sense of success and accomplishment.
Over several months of engaging in active play with children and encouraging them to try new things, she notices a decided change in behavior. The children are now more fully engaged in play activities that are purposeful, meaningful, safe, and fun. [8] | textbooks/socialsci/Early_Childhood_Education/Book%3A_Introduction_to_Curriculum_for_Early_Childhood_Education_(Paris_Beeve_and_Springer)/04%3A_Section_IV-_Planning_for_Childrens_Learning/13%3A_Physical_Development/13.07%3A_Supporting_Ac.txt |
Until recently, the physical development of young children was often taken for granted. Family members and caregivers had a tendency to assume that children, by virtue of being children, got plenty of physical activity as a normal part of their daily routine. The results of over a decade of research comparing the present, more sedentary generation of children to previous generations clearly reveals an alarming trend toward increased obesity, diabetes, asthma, and other health-impairing conditions.
Fortunately, a resurgence of interest in the vital importance of young children’s physical development is taking place throughout California and the nation.
Those working with young children have recognized that developing fundamental movement skills; learning perceptual-motor skills and movement concepts, and engaging in active physical play are essential to the total balanced development of children. The development of fundamental movement skills provides a basis for an active way of life. Attaining proficiency in a myriad of fundamental balance, locomotor, and manipulative skills equips children for active participation in physical activities for a lifetime.
Perceptual-motor skills and basic movement concepts are important to the many time and space concepts that children acquire as they get ready for more formal types of instruction and learning. Body-awareness, spatial-awareness, and directional-awareness concepts can be taught and learned through both teacher-directed and self-directed play.
However, children need encouragement, instruction, and sufficient opportunities for practice in supportive environments to learn fundamental movement skills, perceptual-motor skills, and movement concepts. Preschool programs and families play a critical role in maximizing children’s development in these areas.
Active physical play in preschool is a means by which children (and adults) can engage in physical activities that promote healthy lifestyles and a genuine zest for life. Through active participation in self-directed and adult-facilitated play, children acquire increased cardiovascular endurance, muscular endurance, muscular strength, and flexibility. Young children have not only movement skills and perceptual abilities; they also have the joy of movement.
Learning to move and moving to learn are too important to be left to chance. Parents and teachers have a precious opportunity to help set the stage for young children to enjoy physical activity for a lifetime.[2]
13.09: Engaging Fami
Teachers need to develop some patterns for continuous communication with parents and caregivers. Families are an important force in children’s lives and in the physical activities children engage in. Some people believe that fundamental movement skills are only used outdoors. Although the outdoor environment offers a series of appealing possibilities, such as open space and the chance to use all-out force, indoor spaces also offer an array of opportunities for continued practice of the fundamental movement skills.
Here are some ideas for engaging families in supporting children’s physical development.
• Create a newsletter to be given to families periodically. Photos of their children, pictures, and documents in the family’s home language about what their children are learning about fundamental movement skills can be included. This may require translation; however, the connection with the families is worth the effort. Provide some stories and pictures of children in action
• Provide suggestions for activities that will support children’s continuous fundamental motor skill development. Be specific about how. For instance, suggest families that when they go to the park, they can ask their child to show a balance position or a balance movement they learned at preschool, demonstrate a favorite way to move fast or slow, or show how he or she plays with balls.
• Ask families about the kind of balance, locomotor, and manipulative activities they did when they were young children. They can write them down or verbally communicate with the teachers and their children. This information can be incorporated into future activities and open a door of communication to discuss physical development in the past and in the present.
• Talk about the importance of physical development for both boys and girls and how gender issues may affect children. Girls already receive encouragement for manipulative skills, as do boys for locomotor skills. These reflections and conversations can bring opportunities to close this gap and explain to parents the importance of physical activity in today’s society.
• Encourage families to ask their children about the movement skills the children are learning at their preschool.
• Inform families about the importance of having their children wear comfortable clothes and shoes so they can move easily and freely during physical development activities.
• Ask children to show their families the movements they are learning at their preschool.
• Have a family “Show and Tell Day” where children show and tell families their favorite fundamental movement skills.
• Ask children to identify the movement skills of the athletes in sport games family members are watching and then demonstrate those skills. This is a way to engage family members’ interest in their child’s fundamental movement skills development.
• Suggest ways for children to help around the home and at the same time practice their fundamental movement skills. Examples include matching and rolling their socks and tossing them from a short distance into the laundry basket or drawer. Helping to unpack groceries and placing them on shelves provides children with an activity to develop manipulative skills and strengthen their hands. Families can create a safe obstacle course in their homes where children can move under and over furniture by using locomotor skills.
• Encourage families to provide time for children to perform independent daily living activities, such as brushing teeth or getting dressed. Children need time to manipulate objects such as toothpaste caps, zippers on their clothing, and lids of food containers.
• Encourage families to take their children outside to safe, open spaces and play areas where they can use fundamental movement skills.
• Encourage children to use words or signs to identify or describe their body parts when they are completing personal-care activities such as getting dressed or bathing.
• Provide opportunities for children to interact with adults and help around the home with activities such as putting away their toys, putting away groceries, sorting laundry, or bringing dirty dishes to the kitchen.
• When out in the community, such as at the park or grocery store, communicate with children about objects in the environment. Encourage them to describe where trees, buildings, cars, and other objects are located in relation to one another.
• When looking at books or pictures together, talk about how the characters are positioned and how they are moving their bodies.
• When children are playing, ask them to describe what they are doing with their bodies.
• Create an “Activity Recall Chart” to be used in the classroom first, then at home. Have children recall and categorize their activity into Sedentary, Moderate, and Vigorous.
• Have a “Family Dance Party.”
• Model healthy behavior.
• Take an adventure walk to school.
• Develop a list of “can do” family rules for active physical play.
• Take part in family rough-and-tumble play that respects the rights and wishes of all.
• Proper clothing for indoor and out-door family activities is a must.
• Make a FITT activity chart. Frequency (how often per week), Intensity (how hard one plays), Type (of activity), and Time (length of activity). Have all family members decide what they want to do. Mark off what they do throughout the week and review at the end of the week.[2]
Pause to Reflect
What ways to encourage the practice of fundamental movement skills at home would you most want to share with parents? How might you share these ideas with them? | textbooks/socialsci/Early_Childhood_Education/Book%3A_Introduction_to_Curriculum_for_Early_Childhood_Education_(Paris_Beeve_and_Springer)/04%3A_Section_IV-_Planning_for_Childrens_Learning/13%3A_Physical_Development/13.08%3A_Conclusion.txt |
Learning Objectives
By the end of the chapter, you should be able to: Explain the importance of planning to support children’s physical development
• Describe the foundations in physical development that high quality programming support children in reaching
• Recognize sequences of physical development
• Advocate for active play
• Identify ways for educators to support physical development
• Summarize ways to engage families in curriculum for physical development
One way to foster healthy lifestyles is to encourage the development of health-promoting habits during early childhood. Preschool education about health can begin a lifelong process of learning about oneself, relationships to others, and the world. Preschool children’s experiences with their health and ways to improve it, both at home and in the early childhood setting, enhance their desire and ability to make healthy decisions throughout their lives.
The preschool health foundations describe the health knowledge, attitudes, habits, and behaviors that set the groundwork for all preschool children to develop into healthy adults. They explain what children should know about health, and what health habits and practices should be part of their daily routines when they are provided with high-quality health education in preschool. These skills and behaviors set young children on the path toward health and healthy lifestyle choices. [2]
14: Health and Safety
An integrated and comprehensive approach is most effective when preschool children are taught about health. Health education does not stand alone in the preschool curriculum. It is integrated with the other domains. Health is comprehensive. Health education involves ideas directly relevant to the child, such as “How do I grow?” Preschool teachers work with children who are naturally curious and eager to learn about their bodies and how each part works. A developmentally appropriate curriculum promotes overall health (e.g., wellness, safety, oral health, nutrition) and integrates topic areas. For example, a discussion about safety rules might include nutrition and sanitation.
Teachers address ideas and concepts that children can grasp at their developmental level and then progressively build on what children already know and understand. This approach applies to all children, including children with various abilities, disabilities, or other special needs (such as delays in language, cognition, or physical ability).
• Health knowledge is individualized.
• Preschool children and their families possess diverse backgrounds and cultural practices.
• Learning about health practices has a language component.
• Children’s personal health status (i.e., physical, mental, emotional) affects their ability to learn and develop in all domains.
• The overall theme of health education for preschool is personal health.
• Children learn through their experiences, including play, routines and scripts, modeling, and developing and sustaining relationships at preschool. This learning is supported through adult scaffolding.
• Practicing scripts, or behavioral rules, can foster the development of certain health-promoting behaviors or skills.
• The preschool program provides both indoor and outdoor environments that are safe and appropriate, challenging, and inviting for all children.
• Teachers help children feel secure by assuring them that there are adults who will take care of them (e.g., parents, family members, teachers, health care providers, special needs assistants).[2]
14.02: Environmental Fa
Children learn most effectively in a safe, inviting environment in which they can freely explore and challenge themselves. Health and safety in the preschool program, both indoors and outdoors, includes environment, supervision, and education. Environment is the first component of safety; a safe environment allows children to explore, play, and learn without unnecessary restriction. The environment should be set up and maintained to reduce the risk of injury and disease transmission.
Proper supervision of children is essential, and the required adult-to-child ratios must be met at all times, including periods when children play outdoors, are transported, and go on field trips. The most effective supervision includes active involvement with children’s learning: teachers move around the room with children, attend to children and their interactions, make eye contact, encourage children verbally, and model appropriate voice and actions.
Education is multifaceted. Teachers promote children’s learning through discussion, modeling, and daily routines through active participation. An accessible and supportive environment with appropriate facilities and items allows children to practice and demonstrate progress in learning.
The following recommendations apply to establishing the preschool environment that supports children’s health, safety, and nutrition.
• Establish a physical learning environment designed for children’s initiative.
• Provide safe, inviting learning environments, and appropriate supervision of children.
• Maintain a clean, healthy, and sanitary environment. Incorporate cleaning and sanitizing into the daily routine.
• Have supplies available and accessible to promote routine health practices.
• Provide stimulating and developmentally appropriate materials in interest areas for children’s use during play.
• Provide furnishing and utensils appropriate for children’s size and abilities.
• Be creative and include a gardening space, either indoors or outdoors, where children can plant seeds, tend the garden, and watch the plants grow.[1]
Pause to Reflect
What are practices that teachers should engage in and ways to design the environment that support the health, safety, and nutrition of all children (including those from diverse backgrounds and those with special needs or disabilities)?
Research Highlight
Cleaning and disinfecting is essential. Studies have shown that some germs, including influenza virus, can survive on surfaces for two to eight hours; rotavirus can survive up to 10 days. Cleaning with soap and water removes visible soil. After cleaning, disinfection (sanitizing) kills bacteria, viruses, and fungi (i.e., “germs”). The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) states that a bleach and water solution of one tablespoon household bleach to one quart water is effective. Wet the surface with the solution and allow to air dry. Mix fresh bleach solution each day to maintain effectiveness, and store in a clearly labeled spray bottle out of children’s reach. Research shows that other chemicals (e.g., ammonia, vinegar, baking soda, Borax) are not effective against some bacteria.[3]
Source:
W. Rutala and D. Weber, Guidelines for Disinfection and Sterilization of Healthcare Facilities, 2008. | textbooks/socialsci/Early_Childhood_Education/Book%3A_Introduction_to_Curriculum_for_Early_Childhood_Education_(Paris_Beeve_and_Springer)/04%3A_Section_IV-_Planning_for_Childrens_Learning/14%3A_Health_and_Safety/14.01%3A_Guiding_Principl.txt |
The preschool learning foundations for safety, health, and nutrition are organized into three broad categories, or strands:
• Health Habits
• Safety
• Nutrition
These describe the health knowledge, skills, and behaviors that preschool children typically develop in a quality preschool environment. Through supportive communication and participation in everyday routines and activities, children begin to develop behaviors such as making food choices, engaging in physical activity, and maintaining personal safety and oral health. These skills and behaviors set young children on the path toward health and healthy lifestyle choices. The specific foundations are included later in the chapter as each strand is explored.
They represent a vision of young children’s developmental process, not an expectation. Each child enters preschool with a genetic background, developmental characteristics, an individual level of knowledge and skills, and understanding of everyday routines. The differences are based not only on the child’s age, but also on the child’s developmental level, prior experiences, and special needs. It is the responsibility of adults to help each child to develop the knowledge, skills, and behavior that promote healthy development.[1]
Supporting Health Habits
Teachers can help children establish positive health habits. This learning is progressive, and preschool teaching often focuses on scripts and routines for prevention of disease and injury. Later, as children grow and develop knowledge and skills, they begin to believe and understand that they are responsible for their own health.
Health Habits includes basic hygiene, oral health, knowledge of wellness, and sun safety.
1.0 Basic Hygiene
At around 48 months of age
At around 60 months of age
1.1 Demonstrate knowledge of some steps in the handwashing routine.
1.1 Demonstrate knowledge of more steps in the handwashing routine.
1.2 Practice health habits that prevent infectious diseases and infestations (such as lice) when appropriate, with adult support, instruction, and modeling.
1.2 Begin to independently practice health habits that prevent infectious disease and infestations (such as lice) when appropriate, with less adult support, instruction, and modeling.
2.0 Oral Health
At around 48 months of age
At around 60 months of age
2.1 Demonstrate knowledge of some steps of the routine for brushing teeth, with adult supervision and instruction.
2.1 Demonstrate knowledge of more steps of the routine for brushing and when toothbrushing should be done, with less adult supervision.
3.0 Knowledge of Wellness
At around 48 months of age
At around 60 months of age
3.1 Identify a few internal body parts (most commonly the bones, brain, and heart) but may not understand their basic function.
3.1 Identify several different internal body parts and demonstrate a basic, limited knowledge of some functions.
3.2 Begin to understand that healthcare providers try to keep people well and help them when they are not well.
3.2 Demonstrate greater understanding that health-care providers try to keep people well and help them when they are not well.
3.3 Communicate to an adult about not feeling well, feeling uncomfortable, or about a special health need, with varying specificity and reliability.
3.3 Communicate to an adult about not feeling well, feeling uncomfortable, or about a special health need, with more specificity and reliability.
4.0 Sun Safety
At around 48 months of age
At around 60 months of age
4.1 Begin to practice sun-safe actions, with adult support and guidance.
4.1 Practice sun-safe actions with decreasing adult support and guidance.
Teacher-guided activities on health habits may be used to introduce or focus attention on a specific topic or concept. However, learning is primarily achieved through children’s daily routines (e.g., washing hands at certain times, brushing teeth after meals) and verbal or nonverbal scripts that illustrate the desired lifelong behavior (e.g., using tissue when blowing the nose, coughing into elbows). Children demonstrate knowledge of body parts, disease prevention, and wellness as they practice routines and develop descriptive scripts (e.g., “We wash our hands, fingers, and wrists”; “I’m going to brush my teeth and tongue”); they begin to understand more difficult concepts through scaffolding.
Teachers can support children’s development of the Health Habits foundations with the following:
• Teach children how to wash their hands.
• Practice toothbrushing skills.
• Model basic hygiene and disease prevention actions throughout the day (including issue tissue to blow nose, sneezing and coughing into their elbows, using napkins, brushing teeth, using utensils to serve foods, etc.).
• Remind children about health practices throughout the day. Include strategically placed visual reminders throughout the environment.
• Incorporate handwashing, toothbrushing, sun safety, and other health practices in the daily routine.
• Use visuals aids to demonstrate invisible germs.
• Reinforce learning with stories and music.
• Observe individual children attentively. Learn what experiences, knowledge, skills, and abilities each child has to determine where they are at in the learning process.
• Build communication and vocabulary skills. Use children’s home languages. Tell them stories and have them draw stories about health routines (such as visiting the dentist). Introduce words that apply to different topics of safety (such as protect).
• Encourage pretend play, especially to work through their fears. Provide special interest areas (doctor’s office, dentist office, eye doctor’s office, etc.) with props for role playing.
• Provide hats and look at how each might protect children from the sun. Encourage children to dramatize protecting baby dolls from the sun.
• Encourage children to explore and accept differences. Children recognize physical differences and the different health practices, meal setups and food choices, and safety considerations.
• Use correct terminology for body parts in both English and children’s home languages.
• Familiarize children with health helpers (lab technicians, nutritionists, dentists, eye doctors) and include others that may be utilized by their families (chiropractors, acupuncturists, midwives, etc.).
• Consider offering health screenings for children to develop familiarity with health helpers.
• Integrate health promotion and sun safety with other topics and domains.
• Provide visual representations of health helpers (ensure that you show both male and females, various ethnicities, and various ages of people).
• Enhance children’s knowledge and understanding through problem solving (whichealth helper would provide assistance for different situations.
• Model and share information each day about practices (such as applying first aid for an injury) that support health.
• Integrate sun safety with emergency preparedness and safety.
• Encourage decision making. Have children protect themselves from the sun.
• Promote sun safety everywhere, every day, all year long for each and every child.
• Ensure that children have access to appropriate sun safety items.[4]
Vignettes
The children are playing indoors when Miss Marie reminds them that it is time to prepare for lunch. She begins to sing a handwashing song as children leave their interest areas. Some of the children begin singing as they wash their hands. The song follows the familiar “Row, Row, Row Your Boat” tune, and the children enjoy singing it in both English and Spanish.
English:
Wash, wash, wash my hands
Make them nice and clean
Rub the bottoms and the tops
And fingers in between
Spanish:
Lava, Lava, Lava mis manos
Lavalas muy limpias
Lavalas de arriba y abajo y
Entre mis dedos de las manos
The children have learned that if they sing the song two times while washing their hands, then their hands should be clean! Miss Marie sings along with the children as she observes the handwashing process. She helps Tonya, who has a hearing impairment, by clapping along with the song; Tonya can look in the mirror above the sink to see when the song (clapping) ends. The younger children sometimes need help in dispensing the soap and turning the water on and off; the older children enjoy helping the younger ones and like to model their handwashing skills.
Mr. Jeff is putting sunscreen on four preschoolers. “Mr. Jeff, why do we have to put this sticky stuff on every day?” asks Mary. As he removes his gloves and puts away the sunscreen bottle, he explains, “The sun is good for us. It gives us light and warmth. But too much sun is not good for your skin. We put on the sunscreen to protect our skin from too much sun.” Javier says, “I don’t burn. I don’t need this.” Mr. Jeff replies, “Everyone needs to be sun-safe.” Mr. Jeff encourages the children to run, jump, and try new activities as they play outdoors.[5]
Pause to Reflect
What do you remember from your own childhood about learning how to take care of your health (handwashing, tooth brushing, first aid, sun safety, etc.)? What roles did the adults in your life play in those experiences?
Supporting Safety
Preschool children deserve to live and play in safe environments. It is the adult’s responsibility to keep children safe; children should not be expected to actively protect themselves. Preschool safety education helps children develop safety awareness and the realization that they can control some aspects of their safety through certain actions.
The earlier children learn about safety, the more naturally they will develop the attitudes and respect that lead to lifelong patterns of safe behavior. Safety education involves teaching safe actions while helping children understand possible consequences of unsafe behavior.
This section on safety addresses children’s ability to follow safety rules, emergency routines, and transportation and pedestrian safety rules.
Safety
1.0 Injury Prevention
At around 48 months of age
At around 60 months of age
1.1 Follow safety rules with adult support and prompting.
1.1 Follow safety rules more independently though may still need adult support and prompting.
1.2 Begin to show ability to follow emergency routines after instruction and practice (for example, a fire drill or earthquake drill).
1.2 Demonstrate increased ability to follow emergency routines after instruction and practice.
1.3 Show beginning ability to follow transportation and pedestrian safety rules with adult instruction and supervision.
1.3 Show increased ability to follow transportation and pedestrian safety rules with adult support and supervision.
Teachers can support children’s development of the Safety foundations with the following:
• Incorporate safety activities into the daily routine.
• Involve children in creating rules. Limit the number of rules and keep them simple.
• Provide coaching and gentle reminders to help children follow safety rules. Use visuals with pictures and simple words in English and home languages.
• Promote independence while developing other skills.
• Provide time for children to practice individual skills (rather than just telling them about them).
• Introduce concepts and behaviors in simple steps. Build upon previous learning.
• Role-play safety helpers. Recognize that levels of trust with emergency and safety workers will vary from child to child based on their experiences and the environment they live in.
• Take field trips and bring in safety helpers (police officers, firefighters, crossing guards, paramedics, and others).
• Define emergency and have children practice problem solving with different emergency situations.
• Introduce safety signs. Help children learn to recognize important symbols (and their corresponding printed words).
• Incorporate music with safety songs. Children can learn to state their name and address with the help of a simple song.[7]
Vignette
Ms. Linda is preparing her preschoolers for the first fire drill of the year. She has read several books about fire safety to the children. The class enjoyed a visit from Deloria’s mother, who is a firefighter. The children are excited about their first fire drill, but they are not sure what to expect. Ms. Linda plays a tape of the school fire alarm and explains that the real warning alarm will be very loud. The fire alarm means everyone must leave the building.
“Now we are going to practice listening and preparing to leave the classroom,” says Ms. Linda. “It will be like playing Follow the Leader, and I will be the leader.” The children are eager to try this new experience, and it is difficult for them to listen quietly. Several of the children are learning English so Ms. Linda uses words in the other languages of the children, as well as English, to focus their attention and explain the steps. Prior to this practice, Ms. Linda presented a list of key words and phrases to parents who speak languages other than English and obtained the relevant translations. She combines words and hand signals to direct the children. Ms. Linda explains that she will assist Juan, who is in a wheelchair, during the fire drill.
Ms. Linda demonstrates what to do when the alarm sounds (e.g., stand up, stay quiet) before the children practice. They practice this routine each day that week so they will be ready for the actual drill on Friday.[9]
Research Highlight
Unintentional injury is the leading cause of death of children ages fourteen and under. Motor vehicle injuries are the leading cause of death among children in the United States; each year more than 200,000 children are treated in emergency departments for play-ground-related injuries; children ages four years and younger are susceptible to residential fire deaths and injuries; and children under age six years are more likely to experience unintentional poisoning. The good news is that the number of deaths caused by unintentional injuries to children has dropped in recent years; from 1987 to 2004, there was a 43 percent decrease.
Death rates among California children ages one to four years declined slightly from 2000 to 2005; however, the death rates for young children remained significantly higher than the target established in Healthy People 2010.
Child injury prevention efforts continue throughout the United States. For example, all 50 states and the District of Columbia have child restraint laws; and 21 states, the District of Columbia, and over 140 localities have enacted some form of mandatory child bicycle helmet legislation. In addition, all national and regional code-making bodies have amended their plumbing-code language to require anti-scald technology and a maximum water heater temperature of 120 degrees Fahrenheit in all newly constructed residential units.
The state of California has been a leader in advocating child safety. It has enacted laws requiring the use of bike helmets, personal flotation devices, and child safety seats; prohibiting adults from leaving children alone in motor vehicles; and imposing criminal liability on adults who allow children to have access to loaded firearms.[10]
Sources:
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, CDC, Injury Topics and Fact Sheets, 2010. www.cdc.gov/ncipc/ factsheets/children.htm (accessed August 1, 2011.
Safe Kids USA, Trends in Unintentional Childhood Injury Deaths, 2007. http:// www.usa.safekids.org/content_docu-ments/2007_InjuryTrends.doc (accessed March 3, 2010).
California Department of Public Health, Focus Area 16: Maternal, Infant, and Child Health, Healthy People 2010 (Sacramento: California Department of Public Health, 2009).
Safe Kids USA, Research Reports.
Safe Kids USA, Preventing Injuries: At Home, At Play, and On the Way, 2009. http://www.safekids.org/in-your-area...ml?legstate=CA (accessed April 26, 2010).
Pause to Reflect
Some children find learning about safety to be frightening. What should you keep in mind to help children deal with their fears surrounding staying safe?
Supporting Nutrition
Lifelong eating habits are shaped during a child’s early years. Teachers of young children have a special opportunity to help children establish a healthy relationship with food and lay the foundation for sound eating habits. Nutrition education and activities help set children on the path to a healthful lifestyle. Providing nutritionally balanced meals and snacks and integrating nutrition education and healthy eating habits in the home and early childhood environment can help prevent health risks such as childhood obesity.
Nutrition education is integrated with the other domains of learning. Through food and cooking activities, children also develop skills in math, science, art, language and literacy, social science, health and self-care, and social skills. Nutrition education for preschoolers fosters children’s awareness of different types of foods and promotes exploration and inquiry of food choices. Lifelong habits with foods are developed during early childhood. Through nutrition education in preschool, teachers encourage children to include a wide variety of foods that provide adequate nutrients in their daily diet.
Nutrition includes: nutrition knowledge, nutrition choices, and self-regulation of eating. Through knowledge, children become aware of different foods and tastes, some of which are familiar and others that are new. As they explore various foods and food preparations, they develop likes and dislikes and begin to make choices based on preference. Both nutrition choices and self-regulation of eating—that is, eating when hungry, chewing food thoroughly, eating slowly, and stopping when full— involve decision-making skills.
Nutrition
1.0 Nutrition Knowledge
At around 48 months of age
At around 60 months of age
1.1 Identify different kinds of foods.
1.1 Identify a larger variety of foods and may know some of the related food groups.
2.0 Nutrition Choices
At around 48 months of age
At around 60 months of age
2.1 Demonstrate a beginning understanding that eating a variety of food helps the body grow and be healthy, and choose from a variety of foods at mealtimes.
2.1 Demonstrate greater understanding that eating a variety of food helps the body grow and be healthy, and choose from a greater variety of foods at mealtimes.
2.2 Indicate food preferences that reflect familial and cultural practices.
2.2 Indicate food preference based on familial and cultural practices and on some knowledge of healthy choices.
3.0 Self-Regulation of Eating
At around 48 months of age
At around 60 months of age
3.1 Indicate awareness of own hunger and fullness.
3.1 Indicate greater awareness of own hunger and fullness.
Teachers can support children’s development of the Nutrition foundations with the following:
• Introduce many different foods. This can be done through books, meals and snacks, and cooking activities. Include familiar and novel foods and foods from the various cultural backgrounds of the children and their families.
• Recognize and accommodate differences in eating habits and food choices. Provide explanations for differences (e.g., eating from communal dishes, feeding tubes, avoiding certain foods, etc.) by having a family member or specialist come in to explain.
• Provide opportunities and encouragement in food exploration. Encourage children to explore with all five senses.
• Integrate nutrition with the other areas of learning through cooking activities.
• Show children where food is produced. Expand nutrition education through field trips to gardens, farms, orchards, local produce markets, kitchens, restaurants, grocery stores, etc. and bring in visiting experts (e.g., farmers, food co-op members, community gardeners).
• Start a garden in which the children actively work. Allow them to plant, water, and care for the garden.
• Help children experience gardening as they raise herbs, fruits, or vegetables.
• Establish special interest areas for children to engage in dramatic play (e.g., grocery stores, restaurants, picnics, etc.).
• Encourage role playing by providing props including: place mats, tablecloths, table-setting items, pretend food items, cooking utensils, menus, and other items that represent the children’s families.
• Integrate nutrition education with basic hygiene education (e.g., washing hands before and after preparing food) and other learning areas (e.g., singing songs and discussions).
• Model and coach children’s behaviors. Each what the children are being served.
• Encourage children to share information about family meals. Explore cultural diversity and how children’s families eat at home.
• Serve snacks and meals family style. Adults and children eat together, share the same food, and talk with each other informally.
• Encourage tasting all foods, but don’t compel them to taste or eat certain foods.
• Serve foods prepared in many ways (e.g., raw, grilled, steamed, cut in shapes, shredded,).
• Combine new foods with familiar ones.
• Be aware of individual food restrictions and help children make appropriate choices.
• Offer a variety of nutritious, appetizing foods in small portions.
• Encourage children to chew their food well and eat slowly.
• Teach children to recognize signs of hunger. Encourage children to decide how much to eat and to stop when they feel full.
• Discuss how the body uses food.
• Reinforce learning throughout the day (not just at meal and snack times).[13]
Vignettes
Ms. Tsikudo has invited Ava’s mother, Zhiying, to tell the class about Taiwan. Zhiying was born and grew up in Taiwan. Zhiying has brought many family photos, as well as photos of the beautiful scenery of Taiwan. After showing the photos and taking questions from children, she shares with children a large durian and a few star fruits, fruits that people in Taiwan like to eat. Ms. Tsikudo helps to carry the durian on a plate and moves around the class to ask children to touch it. “How does the skin feel?” “Bumpy!” Children reply with excitement. Meanwhile, Zhiying has sliced the star fruits and starts to pass them around. “What do the pieces look like?” she asks. “Stars!” reply the children. Ms. Tsikudo picks up one slice of star fruit, puts it into her mouth, and says “I have never had star fruit before. Yum! I like the taste of this fruit. Who wants to try?” Some children raise their hands to try the fruit.
“I don’t like that.” Every day at lunch for the past three weeks, Amy said the same thing. She would eat the meat and fruit but would not taste any vegetables or bread. Mr. Rios asked Mrs. Gardner, Amy’s grandmother, “What does Amy like to eat at home?” Mrs. Gardner replied, “She has never eaten very much at one time, and now all she wants is mashed potatoes. She looks healthy, but I’m worried about her.”
Mr. Rios continued to observe Amy’s eating habits and encouraged her to try other foods. As the children served their plates, he asked them about the different colors and smells. Using small serving utensils, he encouraged each child to take a small amount. If a child said he did not want it, Mr. Rios assured him that he did not have to eat it but gently encouraged him to put a tiny bit on his plate.
As Mr. Rios planned learning activities for the following weeks, he included a cooking activity along with snack time two days each week. He involved children’s families by asking them to send ideas or simple recipes for favorite snack foods. Through these activities, the children were introduced to different foods, some new and some familiar, and various methods of food preparation (e.g., cooked versus raw, single food versus combined foods).[14]
Research Highlight
Fear of new foods is common in children. It may take many tries before a child will taste a new food and up to 20 exposures before a child decides he likes or truly dislikes a food. Food jags (when a child will eat only one food item meal after meal) are also common. Food jags rarely last long enough to cause harm. Children’s eating habits are a way for them to feel independent. They reflect typical development in children.
Some children have disabilities or other issues that affect their decisions about foods. Children with autism often have very limited food preferences; some children may have sensory issues and avoid specific textures or food items. Other children may not like it when different types of foods touch each other on the plate or may wish to eat foods in a particular order. Be aware of differences in children’s preferences and eating habits, and consult with the child’s family and specialist to ensure that needs are met.[15]
Sources:
Medline Plus, Food Jags, 2007. http:// www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/ article/002425.htm (accessed March 3, 2010).
E. Satter, The Picky Eater. https:// ellynsatter.com/showArticle.jsp?id=265§ion=278 (accessed March 3, 2010).
American Academy of Pediatrics, Feeding Kids Right Isn’t Always Easy: Tips for Pre-venting Food Hassles, 2008. www. healthychildren.org/English/healthy-living/nutrition/pages/Hassle-Free-Meal- Time.aspx (accessed May 11, 2010).
University of Maryland Medical Center, Food Jags – Overview, 2007. www.umm.edu/ency/article/002425.htm (accessed March 3, 2010).
Pause to Reflect
How are your own eating habits and nutritional practices? Why is it important for you to reflect on this?
Engaging Families
Teachers can use the following strategies to help families to develop their children’s health habits:
• Provide families with concise, accurate information about ways to promote and develop good health habits in children. Information should be presented in English and home languages.
• Share written and visual safety messages with families through newsletters, brochures, and bulletin boards, web pages, and take home activities in English and home languages. Emphasize safety issues that relate to your program and community.
• Provide individualized information as well as general health information to all families. Provide safety information, especially those that involve higher risk in specific communities (e.g., water safety, gun safety, or lead poisoning). Use daily contact, workshops, and parent meetings to share information. Make sure workshops and meetings are offered at a variety of times and provide child care.
• During family conferences, find out what messages family members would like reinforced at school. Safety rules and supervision may differ at home.
• Post emergency plans on family bulletin boards and provide families a written copy of the program’s emergency plans.
• Encourage families to plan and practice emergency drills for fires, earthquakes, floods, violent encounters, or other emergency situations that might occur in their homes and communities.
• As you introduce health routines (e.g., handwashing and toothbrushing), invite family members to participate and model.
• Encourage families to contribute ideas or materials to interest areas that reflect diverse health habits at home.
• Invite family members to help children learn about people who can help in emergency situations (firefighters, paramedics, construction workers, electricians, meteorologists, cleaning businesses, etc.)
• Be sensitive and respectful of different values or beliefs, as well as varying levels of access to health products and services.
• Gather information on available and accessible health, safety, and nutrition resources in the community, including those for children with special needs, and provide this information to all families, translated into their home languages.
• Provide families with weekly or monthly menus in their home languages.
• Recognize families have the most information about their children’s food preference, serving styles, and restrictions in eating habits.
• Offer workshops and information on nutritious and economical meals based on the families’ cultural, ethnic, and personal food preferences.
• Encourage families to use available community resources for meal planning.
• Provide lists of foods or simple recipes for a variety of foods that are nutrient-dense, low fat, sodium, and sugar, and look and taste great. Include foods that reflect cultural preferences and are available locally.
• Encourage families to involve children in food preparation.
• Invite families to share their favorite family recipes.
• Invite families to visit the classroom and to sit with children during mealtimes and participate in nutrition related activities.
• Include families in planning the menu and meal-service routines.
• Provide information to all families on nutrition, child growth and development, nutrition risk factors, and community resources.
• Encourage families to ask questions and provide information about their children’s eating habits or nutritional concerns.[16]
Pause to Reflect
Hygiene and nutrition are very much influenced by culture. What do educators need to remember when working with families whose culture relating to these things might be very different than their own? | textbooks/socialsci/Early_Childhood_Education/Book%3A_Introduction_to_Curriculum_for_Early_Childhood_Education_(Paris_Beeve_and_Springer)/04%3A_Section_IV-_Planning_for_Childrens_Learning/14%3A_Health_and_Safety/14.03%3A_Introducing_the_.txt |
The early years of children’s lives are crucial to the development of behaviors that contribute to good health, and early childhood teachers can significantly enhance opportunities for young children to learn about health by providing appropriate experiences. Many adult chronic diseases and conditions, such as obesity, diabetes, and heart disease, are related to lifestyle choices about nutrition and fitness and often begin in childhood.
A respectful and integrated approach that meshes home and preschool environments and involves responsible adults can help children initiate a lifelong process of learning about themselves, their relationships to others, and the world around them. Health education is an essential part of the curriculum for young children. The topic of health is incorporated into daily routines and the environment; it is also the focus of planned learning activities. Early child-hood educators have the challenge of modeling a healthy lifestyle for the children they teach—one that will benefit both themselves and the children.[2]
14.05: Continuing the C
As curriculum is implemented teachers must continue to observe and reflect on what those observations mean. It is important for programs to support the experimental nature of curriculum planning for infants and toddlers. Even plans that do not work out are learning opportunities for both the children and the teachers.
Teachers must use the information they have gathered about the infants and toddlers to create a rich learning environment for each child and the group as a whole. In doing so, it’s imperative that they trust the children to teach themselves by exploring that environment and one another. This is done through respectful interactions that support curiosity, exploration, and integrations of new knowledge.[1]
15: What Curriculum Looks Like for Infants and
Learning Objectives
By the end of the chapter, you should be able to:
• Distinguish how curriculum planning for infants and toddlers is unique from planning for older children
• Describe typical infant and toddler development
• Explain how relationships are the basis for learning and development during infancy and toddlerhood
• Discuss the overarching principles of planning curriculum for infants and toddlers
• Connect how infants and toddlers learn to specific ways caregivers and teachers can facilitate that process
• Relate the role of observation in curriculum planning for infants and toddlers
• Summarize how to support the foundations in social-emotional development, language development, cognitive development, and perception and motor development during infancy and toddlerhood
A majority of this book is focused mostly on children aged 3 to 5 years. But, it is important to note how curriculum for the youngest children is a bit different. While the content in this chapter could, and often is, the focus on an entire class, this chapter will highlight some important considerations when planning and implementing curriculum with infants and toddlers.
15.00: Introduction to Planning for Other Ages
Learning Objectives
By the end of this introduction, you should be able to:
Brief Introduction to Planning for Infant and Toddlers
The basis for curriculum for infants and toddler is caregiving routines. Therefore, curriculum for infants and toddlers is individualized. Chapter 15 goes into great detail on what the cycle of curriculum planning looks like during the early years, including:
Brief Introduction to Planning for School-Age Children
Children in kindergarten through grade 8, may be cared for in out-of-school programs that have a variety of philosophies and approaches. School-age care may provide academic support (or even focus) and should include recreation (after the school day). Chapter 16 discusses a general framework of creating high-quality curriculum for school-age care programs based on a model from Australia. The chapter addresses:
16: What Curriculum Looks Like for School-Age C
Learning Objectives
By the end of the chapter, you should be able to:
• Connect the purpose of school-age care to important aspects of planning curriculum for school-aged children
• Explain how the needs of school-aged children and desired outcomes are met through developmentally curriculum
• Justify the importance of collaboration between educators and children, families, and communities
• Examine the role of reflective practice in curriculum planning
• Define what a holistic approach to curriculum is
• Analyze the value of play in school-age care and curriculum
• Identify ways to plan for the different types and aspects of play
• Discuss the importance of intentionality
• List considerations for planning the environment for school-aged children
• Summarize the role of diversity and the importance of cultural competence in school-aged programs
• Describe how quality curriculum planning meets the five outcomes
• Relate each step of the curriculum planning process
• Differentiate the different roles of the educator
During the school-age years (kindergarten to grade 8), children may be cared for during out-of-school times in a variety of school-age programming. The focus, philosophy, staffing, and location of those programs will vary greatly. This chapter will briefly discuss some information that can be used to create high quality curriculum for children in school-age programming.
But before we get to that, let’s look at what school-age children are like. Meet these school-aged children: | textbooks/socialsci/Early_Childhood_Education/Book%3A_Introduction_to_Curriculum_for_Early_Childhood_Education_(Paris_Beeve_and_Springer)/04%3A_Section_IV-_Planning_for_Childrens_Learning/14%3A_Health_and_Safety/14.04%3A_Conclusion.txt |
Learning Objectives
By the end of the chapter, you should be able to:
• Review criteria to determine when and what to document
• Explain the purposes of documentation
• Justify documenting children’s play
• Describe different methods of documenting children’s learning
• Relate how to respect the rights of children and families when documenting
• Discuss the role of assessment
• Describe how the Desired Results Developmental Profile can be used to assess children
• Summarize important considerations in assessment during early childhood
• Explain the importance of working with families when documenting and assessing children
Documenting and assessing all the children in your care allows you to gradually build up a comprehensive picture of each child’s interests, strengths and relationships, as well as an insight into areas they may be avoiding or skills they need help to develop. It will give you a clearer picture of the social interactions, creative ideas and the concerns of the children in your program. It will take some time and a concerted team effort to gather documentation on all the children in your care— but there are benefits. Having this kind of profile of all the children in your service will allow you to plan curriculum that develops these interests and builds up these skills over time. [1]
17: Documentation and Assessment
Knowing What to Document
One of the biggest challenges facing early childhood educators is efficient use of time and the need to document what is significant. What do you document? How do you know what is significant? You cannot possibly document everything and it tends to become meaningless if this occurs. Educators need to select the important moments. You can’t write in detail about every child, and you can’t do it every day! However, in time you can gather pictures and stories about all the children to give a better idea about who they are and their dispositions.
Educators are keen observers. They notice not only what children are doing, but also what and how they are playing and what they are saying during play. This puts them in a strong position to develop a program based on their observations.
When trying to determine when and how to document, ask yourself:
1. Why am I recording this—what is meaningful/significant?
2. What is the learning occurring?
3. How can we extend on this?
4. How does it link to the outcomes we are measuring?[2]
Purposes of Documentation
Documentation serves different purposes at different times. The criteria for what counts as quality documentation depends on the context in which you are using it. What seems to remain constant is that quality documentation focuses on some aspect of learning—not just ‘what we did.’ It prompts questions and promotes conversations among children and adults that deepen and extend learning.
There are three good reasons to document observations in school age care:
1. to inform program planning
2. to deepen our understanding of the children
3. to make learning visible and share it with others.[3]
To Inform Curriculum Planning
Documentation makes children’s and educators’ thinking visible. It allows children and educators to revisit it, reflect, uncover meaning and plan future directions. A program direction often comes from a simple moment spent in conversation or play with a child: a moment which makes us pause and reflect.
The Power of Ordinary Moments
Ordinary moments are the pages in the child’s diary for the day. If we could resist our temptation to record only the grand moments, we might find the authentic child living in the in-between. If we could resist our temptation to put the children on a stage, we might find the real work being done in the wings. If we understood the great value in the ordinary moments, we might be less inclined to have a marvellous finale for a long term project. We appeal to educators everywhere to find the marvel in the mundane, to find the power of the ordinary moment![4]
(Forman, Hall & Berglund, 2001, p.52-3)
Before documenting, you should ask: Why am I documenting this? How is this significant? If there is not a worthwhile reason, there may not be good reasons for recording.
There are different ways in which observations can be recorded, such as:
• note pads carried around by individuals
• sticky notes which may be gathered over a period of time and used for reflection
• clipboards
• group journals/communication books
• video recorder
• camera
• voice recorder
• poster/spreadsheet
The documentation taken for program planning can be recorded in one place by all educators or it can be recorded individually (such as in notebooks) and brought together with the group during discussion.
Notes just need to act as a visual reminder to stimulate thought and plans for planning.[5]
Pause to Reflect
Think of yourself in the classroom with young children. What might you want to capture with documentation? Why? What methods do you think would best capture these?
Reflective Thinking and Discussion to Deepen Our Understanding of the Children
Jotting down observations for later discussion helps educators, particularly new and inexperienced ones, reflect and analyse, which can lead to deeper understanding for the educators in the setting.
These observations may be recorded in a variety of ways, such as quick summaries on sticky notes, captioned photographs, or entries in child portfolios. What is important, however, is the fact that the learning has been made visible and the educators may share knowledge about this and question and extend it further. True collaborative planning can occur when educators share recorded observations. Once again there are a variety of ways to undertake this, but group discussion during meeting time is an ideal way to promote this deeper understanding and shared wisdom.
Encourage all educators in your setting to question why children’s play is significant. The thinking is more complex and needs to go beyond just thinking ‘they are playing in the home corner again’. Ask yourself why the children are choosing particular role-playing scenarios. What inspired it? Who is involved? Does it reflect an event or experience in a child’s life that they are choosing to act out in play? Is someone trying to work through some emotions? Are they undertaking family life lessons at school? What meaning are they getting from it? What misinterpretations are there? How can I assist their learning in this area? How can we build on this learning?
Curtis and Carter (2008) suggest examining children’s play from three angles:
• The child’s story (Why are they playing this? What fascinates them about this? What is their previous experience? How can I encourage them to show more?)
• The learning story
• The educator’s story (What excites you? What are you curious about? How can you find out more?)
During training, many educators have been encouraged to look at learning and developmental aspects; however, to engage in deeper thinking, it is important to consider all three perspectives.[9]
Making Learning Visible and Sharing it With Others
Educators may make some documentation visible to showcase the learning which has occurred and to find ways to connect with others. When you document a child’s story you give the child a voice, and have a valuable tool for opening a meaningful discussion with that child’s family. It is also a means to engage with other educators, such as teachers in the child’s school. Children also love to go back and reflect on documented moments.
There are numerous ways to document for others to see. Some options include:
Wall Displays/Documentation Panels
Documenting and displaying the children’s project work allows them to express, revisit, and construct and reconstruct their feelings, ideas and understandings. Pictures of children engaged in experiences; their words as they discuss what they are doing, feeling and thinking; and the children’s interpretation of experience through the visual media are displayed as a graphic presentation of the dynamics of learning. Documented wall displays or documentation panels is a Reggio Emilia concept which aims to place emphasis on the process, not just the end product.
Making images of learning visible and being together in a group is a way to foster group identity and learning. This type of documentation promotes conversation or deepens understanding about one or more aspects of a learning experience. It can serve as a memory experience, allowing children and adults to reflect on, evaluate, and build on their previous ideas. Sharing documentation with learners can take many forms: a photocopied sheet of paper, words, scrapbook pages, or a carefully arranged panel.
Learning Stories
A learning story is an alternative to other forms of observations. Margaret Carr developed this narrative form of assessment to meet documentation requirements in New Zealand to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of each child. In learning stories, educators capture significant moments throughout the day with photos and then tell the story of the child’s learning (Carr, 2001).
Portfolios
A portfolio could document a child’s development over time and highlight each child’s learning story. The portfolio belongs to the child and contains their work and their stories. Portfolios are as individual as the children and they don’t follow a prescribed pattern or format, they can just evolve. School age care is a social setting and children’s portfolios should contain photos and stories of their friends, but be mindful of children and families who do not wish their photos to be included in others’ folders and find strategies to deal with this. Portfolios and scrapbooks are long-term projects which can be undertaken jointly by the children and educators.
Vignette
The educators at our school age care decided they wanted to improve the basic child files and develop new and improved individual child portfolios. Some of the educators attended professional development sessions and spoke to other services to get feedback on how others set up portfolios.
We looked at scrap books, display books, worksheets and folders. We liked the idea of a display book into which we could easily slip pages and photos. We also liked the idea of a scrap book where children could paste, draw, collage and write and which they could make quite personal.
We considered developing a ‘contents page’, but thought not all children would be interested in completing all the experiences in the contents. We also had a huge selection of worksheets including about me, family trees, self-portraits, birthdays, special things, coat of arms, pets, friends and when I grow up.
Educators decided that, rather than a standard format, they wanted each child’s portfolio to be unique to the individual. We wanted choice and variety: written work, photos, typed stories, collage, artwork, scrapbooking.
As space is limited at our service, we wanted something that was easy to store so that the children could easily find their portfolio without flicking through or moving other children’s portfolios.
The solution:
• one display book per child
• type each child’s name on the labelling machine and stick it on the spine of the display book
• put the display books in alphabetical order in plastic tubs
• provide each child with an notebook and place this in the front of the display book to be used as a scrap book/journal
• copy all the different sheets we have sourced and place each in a plastic pocket in a folder so that children can ‘choose’ what they want to include in their portfolio
• set up a folder for each child on the children’s laptop so that children’s photos and learning stories can be stored and easily accessed.
The result:
• The children were so excited to have their own personal, individual portfolios.
• The children are able to easily access their portfolios.
• The children can browse through the worksheet folder and choose what they would like to do.
• Some children have stuck records of other experiences they have done at school age care in their
• journals/scrap books.
• Some children have shown their portfolios to their families.
• Educators have gone through all our ‘old’ photos and placed them in the new child portfolios. Children and families have enjoyed revisiting past experience at school age care by looking at the photos from previous years.
• Some children have sat down with educators to share their portfolios and this has assisted educators to get to know the children.
We decided that in the future we would:
• encourage children to self-initiate what items they want to file in their portfolio
• print a list of all children that attend school age care. Each term, check each child’s portfolio and document what they have included.
• encourage those that have not filed anything to complete a sheet or learning story. Educators could place a photo in the child’s portfolio and then ask the child to tell the educator about that experience and how they felt.
• ask the children what they want to include in their portfolios. What other resources can educators provide?
look at child portfolios at a staff meeting and evaluate how effective our new system has been and where we can improve. How can we keep the children motivated once the novelty wears off?[14]
Pause to Reflect
What are pros and cons to the different ways of documenting children presented here? Why might an educator want to use each? What might be some drawbacks?
What are other types of documentation to consider that weren’t provided here?
Children’s Voice in Documentation
Educators can gain valuable insight by creating a culture of listening to and working collaboratively with children. How do you know what the children in your care want from their time in care?
There is a strong synergy between children’s being and belonging and their active involvement in democratic processes, and having an impact on what the environment, programs and partnerships look, sound and feel like. The information you gather from children is integral to the development of a program that meets their needs and interests.
A range of ways can be used to gather and document children’s voices in school age care settings including:
• ‘All about me’ sheets, where children and families document important information about themselves, such as likes, dislikes, hobbies and such
• setting time to have informal and formal discussions with children
• children interviewing other children
• suggestion boxes and surveys
• recording children’s comments and thoughts about experiences as part of the evaluation process
• children’s portfolios
• creating opportunities for joint planning, including setting up of the care environment
• photographing children and asking them to write about the experience
• children writing their own learning stories
• joint problem-solving opportunities.
Careful consideration needs to be given to children who may be non-verbal or have difficulty expressing themselves to ensure their voices are heard in your care setting.[16]
Ethical Considerations
When documenting children’s learning, educators must be respectful of the rights of children and families. Permission must be sought from children and families before information is collected and documented. Children and families must have the right to privacy, be informed about how the information will be used and have a choice about participating.
MacNaughton, Smith and Lawrence suggest that to protect and enhance children’s rights through consultation with them, adults should ensure that children have:
• safe spaces in which to share their ideas without challenge or critique
• privacy: ask children for permission to document/ record what they say
• ownership of their ideas: ask children to display and/ or share their ideas and understandings with others
• appropriate equipment with which adults can care for children’s work in ways that shows that their voice is important and respected
Some further questions to consider when thinking about documentation include:
• What does observing, documenting and evaluating look like in your setting?
• How do you involve children in the process?
• How do you involve families in the process?
• How do you know what is valued or expected for children within the family and cultural context?
• Do you assess children at an individual level? Do you think this is important in your setting?
• How do you define ‘regular’ in the context of children who attend ‘regularly’?
• What methods or tools would you use?
• Does the documentation focus on learning, not just something you did?
• Does the documentation promote conversation or deepen understanding about some aspect of learning?
• What documentation do you collect which is appropriate to share/display?
• Does the documentation focus on outcomes for children and not just what the educators are doing?
• Does the documentation focus on the process as well as the product(s)?
• Does the documentation clearly communicate the aspects of learning you consider most important?
• Does your display documentation have a title?
• Is the documentation presented in a way that draws the viewer in?
Documentation does not need to be repeated. A narrative story with photos can be shared at a staff meeting, with input from all educators about links, questions, and where ideas may be built upon. The story can then be displayed in the room (as a work in progress or perhaps with an end product if there is one). The child can show people who are important to them the documentation and it will open up discussion with families, children and educators. Once it has been displayed for a period of time it can be filed away in the child’s portfolio, where it can be revisited at any time. It is also available if an assessor wants to look at it during a visit as well. So this one piece of documentation serves many purposes.[18] | textbooks/socialsci/Early_Childhood_Education/Book%3A_Introduction_to_Curriculum_for_Early_Childhood_Education_(Paris_Beeve_and_Springer)/05%3A_Section_V-_Making_Childrens_Learning_Visible/17.01%3A_Docu.txt |
Early childhood education programs should have outcomes that relate to their philosophy and the objectives they have for children. As we examine the cycles of curriculum planning that we have completed, we can use that data to further inform curriculum planning and assess children’s developmental progress.[1]
Assessing to Inform Curriculum Planning
The challenge for teachers and others who plan early childhood curriculum is to determine how much assessment data to gather and how to use the resulting information. The key is to organize a sustainable infrastructure that facilitates gathering meaningful information on every child regularly and systematically.
1. The best instructional assessment information is collected frequently and used continuously to inform curriculum and instruction decisions. Young children learn quickly, and regular monitoring of progress is necessary to document incremental improvements in skills and behaviors. Teachers and other adults are more likely to collect, interpret, and apply assessment data if the process is built into the daily classroom schedule and responsibilities.
2. Assessment to inform and monitor instruction is most accurate if multiple sources are considered and multiple methods used. Because much of young children’s learning and development occurs outside classrooms, it is important that competencies and progress are considered in all contexts and environments. The richest results are obtained when the perspectives of parents, caregivers, teachers, specialists, and children themselves are combined. Assessment instruments that gather information by observation and report, and include components for parents to report on children’s developmental and academic progress, provide a helpful structure.
3. Methods used to collect instructional assessment information should resemble ongoing instruction and the interactions of home, child care centers, and classrooms. There are valid concerns about the negative effects of testing on young children. One of the biggest advantages of assessment to inform and monitor instruction is that the process seldom necessitates individualized testing. Adults should be able to collect instructional assessment data using the same experiences designed to facilitate preschool learning in group activities, support parent/infant interactions at home, or provide instruction in primary classrooms.
4. Assessment instruments should be criterion-referenced with items that reflect functional skills. Actual assessment items and administration procedures will vary depending on whether the focus is in development or early academics. Nonetheless, repeated measures of performance across a sequence of skills that reflects curriculum goals provides the best documentation of children’s progress. Assessment to inform and monitor instruction is only as good as the curriculum and instruction young children receive. Assessing what we teach and teaching what we assess is essential for meaningful instructional assessment.
5. Instructional and classroom assessment instruments should ideally reflect a logical teaching sequence. Assessments to inform and monitor instruction are most useful if items are organized in a sequence that reflects major skills in the curriculum, along with prior knowledge and/or prerequisite skills. This organization maps the curriculum for teachers and provides guidance for selection of subsequent learning goals.
6. Instructional assessment instruments and procedures must be culturally and linguistically relevant. If the basic skills represented in early developmental and academic curricula are functional and appropriate for young children, instructional assessments have the advantage of being able to incorporate familiar materials, people, routines, and important events of a child’s life. If using an assessment in which items are culturally inappropriate, it is vital that those are revised, and parents can suggest more familiar and appropriate materials and behaviors. It is especially important that English Language Learners not be penalized by materials or directions that confuse cultural and language differences with cognitive or academic delays.[2]
Pause to Reflect
What stood out to you about assessing to inform curriculum planning? What did you most agree with? What got your thinking a bit more? Was there anything you disagreed with or are unsure about?
Assessing Children
Each child and group of children will be at different points in their journey towards these program’s outcomes. Children come with a range of interests, understandings, family and community experiences, developmental pathways, temperaments, and dispositions.
Educators use their observations of children and feedback from children and families, as well as evaluations of learning and wellbeing to analyse and assess what children are able to do and areas for further development or progression. Learning stories, educator reflections, journals and child portfolios are strategies to not only document experiences, but also help educators become more familiar with the outcomes as they make frequent links from their documentation to the outcomes they have for children.[5]
Desired Results Developmental Profile
One tool that educators can use to assess the development of children is the Desired Results Developmental Profile (DRDP). The DRDP is part of the Desired Results System developed by the California Department of Education (CDE), Early Learning and Care Division to help improve program quality in early care and education programs across California. The Desired Results (DR) System was developed based on the following six Desired Results:
Desired Results for Children
DR 1: Children are personally and socially competent.
DR 2: Children are effective learners.
DR 3: Children show physical and motor competence.
DR 4: Children are safe and healthy.
Desired Results for Families
DR 5: Families support their child’s learning and development.
DR 6: Families achieve their goals.
The DR system implemented by the CDE is a comprehensive approach that facilitates the achievement of the Desired Results identified for children and families. California is one of the very few states in the nation that has developed its own system designed specifically for measuring child progress toward desired outcomes. The DRDP (2015) includes a Preschool View and an Infant/Toddler view to provide a developmental continuum to assess children from birth to kindergarten. And the DRDP-SA (2010) assesses children in school-age programs.
The DRDP (2015) (Level 5)
The DRDP (2015) is:
• administered in natural settings through teacher observations, family observations, and examples of children’s work
• designed for use with all children from early infancy up to kindergarten entry, including children with Individualized Family Service Plans (IFSPs) and Individualized Education Programs (IEPs).
• Is aligned with all volumes of the California’s Infant/Toddler and Preschool Learning and Development Foundations, the Common Core Standards, and the Head Start Child Development and Early Learning Framework
• takes into consideration the specific cultural and linguistic characteristics of California’s diverse population of young children, with specific consideration for children who are young dual language learners
• has the goal of ensuring that all children have the opportunity to demonstrate their knowledge and skills
There are 56 measures that are organized into the following eight domains in the DRDP (2015):
• Approaches to Learning-Self-Regulation
• Social and Emotional Development
• Language and Literacy Development
• English-Language Development (for dual language learners)
• Cognition, including Math and Science
• Physical Development-Health
• History-Social Science
• Visual and Performing Arts
The DRDP-SA (2010)
The DRDP-SA is designed for teachers to observe, document, and reflect on the learning, development, and progress of all children in a before- or afterschool program. The assessment results are intended to be used by the teacher to plan curriculum for individual children and groups of children and to guide continuous program improvement. It consists of 13 measures divided into these two domains:
• Self and Social Development
• Health
Assessment through the DRDP
When children are assessed using the DRDP, the educator uses the information they have gathered through observation and family perspectives to assess each measure. Each measure is defined, has developmental levels in a developmental progression from earlier to later levels of development, descriptors for each developmental level, and examples of observable behavior that show mastery at each developmental level. Educators determine the latest developmental level the child has mastered and mark it on the rating scale.[8]
Pause to Reflect
Why might a program choose to use the DRDP to assess children? What are benefits to this type of assessment for each child? What are some drawbacks or challenges that educators might find when completing the DRDP multiple times per year for each child?
Consideration in Early Childhood Assessment
Early childhood professionals are feeling ever-increasing pressure to document learning outcomes in an era of standards, accountability, and achievement testing. In addition to parents, we are the people responsible for the well-being of young children. Many professionals have legitimate concerns about misuse of assessment practices and instruments, and the potential for inequitable consequences for the children in our programs. It is important to consider some implications of the unique nature of early development and learning:
Complete and meaningful assessment in early childhood necessitates an understanding of family context, including getting to know family language and culture, gathering developmental information from parents, and conducting home visits with parent approval. This principle applies to all youngsters and families, but is especially critical for children whose families may not share the language or some of the economic advantages of the dominant culture. Understanding family expectations and experience places a child’s behavior in context and can prevent harmful decisions that result from misinterpretation of assessment data (NAEYC, 2005).
Younger children present some complex challenges and require flexible procedures for gathering meaningful and useful assessment information. Constitutional variables such as fatigue, hunger, illness, and temperament can easily overshadow the abilities of a young child. Time of day, setting, testing materials and other situational factors also affect performance. The younger a child, the more likely he or she is to fall asleep, become distressed, refuse to comply with directions, or be distracted from assessment activities. Professionals should be prepared to modify activities, explore alternative procedures, and/or reschedule rather than risk gathering faulty information that compromises assessment results.
Young children learn by doing, and demonstrate knowledge and skills through action-oriented activities. Authentic assessment of youngsters as they participate in daily activities, routines, and interactions generally produces the most valuable information for assessment. To the extent possible, assessment methods should allow for observation of young children engaged in spontaneous behaviors in familiar settings and with familiar people.
More assessments and increased data do not necessarily result in better assessment information. Early childhood professionals should only gather information they need, and know ahead of time how they will use all the information collected. It is generally most desirable to identify a set of appropriate methods and instruments that provide necessary information, and refine the use of those procedures over time
Some assessment instruments and procedures are better than others. Factors such as purpose, content, reliability and validity, efficiency, cost, and availability of professional development are all more important than appealing packaging and effective advertising. Of primary importance is the quality of information gathered and the decisions made as a result of assessment. Ultimately, whatever assessments we conduct should benefit the children, families, and programs we serve.[10]
Pause to Reflect
If you could only choose one thing in the previous section Consideration in Early Childhood Assessment to share with others, what would you want to be sure people new about assessment of young children. | textbooks/socialsci/Early_Childhood_Education/Book%3A_Introduction_to_Curriculum_for_Early_Childhood_Education_(Paris_Beeve_and_Springer)/05%3A_Section_V-_Making_Childrens_Learning_Visible/17.02%3A_Asse.txt |
Evaluating children in early childhood education settings is an ongoing process of using observations and other evidence to make judgements about children’s development and learning. The purpose for regular evaluation through a process of documentation and assessment is to enable responsive, well thought out long-term and short-term planning to promote the optimal growth, development, and learning for all children in the program.
Approaches to evaluation that are culturally and linguistically relevant and responsive to the social, physical and intellectual capabilities will acknowledge children’s abilities and strengths, and allow them to demonstrate competence. Evaluation, when undertaken in collaboration with children can support and empower them to see themselves as capable and foster independence and initiative.
When educators reflect on their role in children’s lives they reflect on their own views and understandings of theory, research and practice to focus on:
• the experiences and environments they provide and how that links to the intended outcomes
• the extent to which they know and value the culturally specific knowledge about children that is embedded within the community in which they are working
• each child’s opportunities in the context of their families, drawing family perspectives, understandings, experiences and expectations
• the opportunities which build on what children already know and what they bring to the school age care setting
• evidence that the experiences offered are inclusive of all children and culturally appropriate
• not making assumptions about children’s development or setting lower expectations for some children because of unacknowledged biases
• incorporating pedagogical practices that reflect knowledge of diverse perspectives and contribute to children’s wellbeing and successful learning
• whether there are sufficiently challenging experiences for all children
• the evidence that demonstrates children feel safe and secure, and are engaged
• how they can expand the range of ways they debrief and reflect to make evaluation richer and more useful.
This process of reflective evaluation can lead to quality early childhood education programming that supports the optimal development of each child it provides care and education for.[2]
Pause to Reflect
Summarize what you now know about documentation and assessment in a paragraph. What are your key takeaways from this chapter?
17.04: Work
Documenting and assessment should be done collaboratively with families. Families are not just a recipient of information from educators. Parents and other family members bring a broad array of information, feelings, beliefs, and expectations relevant to the child’s experience in the program, including curriculum:
• the child’s temperament, health history, and behavior at home
• family expectations, fears, and hopes about the child’s success or failure
• culturally-rooted beliefs about child-rearing
• parents’ experiences of school and beliefs about their role in relation to professionals
• parents’ sense of control and authority, and other personal and familial influences
Educators have unique information and perspective that they can share with families. Program staff bring their own knowledge, beliefs, and attitudes to their work with families:
• developmental and educational information about the child based on observation and assessment
• information about the child’s performance in the program
• information about the curriculum and learning goals for the child
• knowledge about the child’s next educational environment
• staffs’ own unique personality and temperament, family history, and culture
• their job description, agency policies, and the supervision they receive
• their own training, experience, and professional philosophy
The goal of sharing information with parents about their child is not to make parents do what program staff think needs to be done, nor to see the child as staff do. Instead this process helps program staff to see the child as the parents do. This expands their understanding of the child and the family, so that they can adjust teaching and family support accordingly. When program staff can see the child as parents do, parents know that they can trust them. As a result, they are more likely to be open to program staff perspectives about their child. Information about the child will more effectively flow, from parents to staff, and staff to parents. Then, parents too will have richer information about their child to add to their support of their child’s learning and development at home.
Respectfully sharing these different perspectives is an essential step toward healthy learning environments for children. Regular and purposeful supervision can help program staff recognize when their own perspectives are based upon personal reactions, biases, and cultures, and guide them to effective communication strategies.[11]
Pause to Reflect
What happens when parents and staff have very different perspectives on a child? | textbooks/socialsci/Early_Childhood_Education/Book%3A_Introduction_to_Curriculum_for_Early_Childhood_Education_(Paris_Beeve_and_Springer)/05%3A_Section_V-_Making_Childrens_Learning_Visible/17.03%3A_Conc.txt |
• 1.1: Perspectives and Approaches
Children are inherently musical. They respond to music and learn through music. Music expresses children’s identity and heritage, teaches them to belong to a culture, and develops their cognitive well-being and inner self-worth. As professional instructors, childcare workers, or students looking forward to a career working with children, we must continuously search for ways to tap into children’s natural reservoirs of enthusiasm for singing, moving, and experimenting with instruments.
• 1.2: Music- Fundamentals and Educational Roots in the U.S.
The first half of this chapter attempts to define music as a subject and offers perspectives on music, including basic vocabulary and what you should know about music in order to incorporate it in your work with children. The second half gives a brief overview of music education and teaching in the U.S., which provides the foundation of the discipline for the book.
• 1.3: Assessment and Learning Goals
This chapter is divided into two parts. The first section addresses the role of assessment in education. The second section addresses personal assessment in relation to your professional development and career goals.
• 1.4: Approaches to Music Education
The goal of this chapter is to introduce the reader to the most well-known music teaching methods used in music education. They are Zoltan Kodály, Emile-Jacques Dalcroze, Orff Schulwerk, Edwin Gordon, Shinseki Suzuki, and Reggio Emilia. This chapter also familiarizes the reader with each method’s philosophy and principles, unique pedagogy, and practices and activities.
• 1.5: Children Singing and Children’s Songs
One of the most basic yet challenging activities to do with children is to teach them a song.This chapter focuses on the child’s singing voice, including their vocal range, selection of appropriate musical material, and methods for teaching a song in a musically meaningful, cognitively stimulating way that lays the groundwork for future integration.
• 1.6: Creative Activity and Lesson Planning
This chapter looks at creative ideas for approaching and planning a successful music lesson, including a guided outline, models of full lessons, and classroom management tips.
• 1.7: Music and the Brain
Scientists are only recently beginning to investigate the relationship between music and the brain as the field of neuroscience develops. This chapter covers some of this research in terms of music processing, active listening, and benefits of the music-brain connection.
• 1.8: Music in Early Childhood Development
This chapter focuses on the role of music in early childhood, including the importance of musical experience in early childhood, the musical abilities and enjoyment of infants and children, and the vocal ranges of the young child. It also explores musical activities and repertoires appropriate for young children.
• 1.9: Music and the Older Child
This chapter explores the uses of music with older elementary-aged children. It covers their vocal ranges, preparation for multi-part singing including echo songs, ostinato patterns, drone and multi-part performing including polyphony (multiple melodies) such as rounds, partner songs, harmony and descants, as well as other age-appropriate repertoire such as cumulative songs, play-party songs, and African-American songs.
• 1.10: Children’s Musical Play- Musicality and Creativity
Children’s creativity is at the heart of this book, and is one of the most important factors to consider when creating pedagogical material. This chapter addresses children’s creativity, and introduces different types of children’s musical play and their associated repertoires as well as ideas for children’s improvisation.
• 1.11: Music and Inclusion
Allowing all children equal access to an art form is more difficult than it sounds. Social pressures, stereotypes, and changing attitudes and perspectives can inhibit inclusion and lead to exclusionary practice. This chapter addresses the issue of several types of musical inclusion, including music and gender, and music for children with autism, ADD/ADHD, learning and physical disabilities.
• 1.12: Music Integration
This chapter introduces the reader to processes and vocabulary of music integration, including a general definition of arts integration, and strategies and examples for integrating music with other subject areas.
• 1.13: Musical Multiculturalism and Diversity
This chapter will look at the history of multiculturalism and diversity education, the field of ethnomusicology, and strategies for teaching using multicultural music aesthetics. It also includes case studies from several different culture areas.
01: Chapters
Chapter Summary: Children are inherently musical. They respond to music and learn through music. Music expresses children’s identity and heritage, teaches them to belong to a culture, and develops their cognitive well-being and inner self-worth. As professional instructors, childcare workers, or students looking forward to a career working with children, we must continuously search for ways to tap into children’s natural reservoirs of enthusiasm for singing, moving, and experimenting with instruments. But how, you might ask? What music is appropriate for the children I’m working with? How can music help inspire a well-rounded child? How do I reach and teach children musically? Most importantly, perhaps, how can I incorporate music into a curriculum that marginalizes the arts?
Over the past several decades, educators, world leaders, and theorists have produced a slurry of manifestos, visions and statements on what education should look like in the 21st century. Organizations such as Partnership for 21st century Learning (http://www.p21.org/) and The Center for Public Education (CPE) suggest ways to teach such skills to prepare students for the challenges ahead (see the CPE’s executive summary on the topic). The results favor integrative and holistic approaches that support the ideals of what a skilled 21st century student should know.
In this book, we will explore a holistic, artistic, integrated, and forward-thinking 21st-century approach to understanding the developmental connections between music and children. Rather than teaching children about music, this book will guide professionals to work through music, harnessing the processes that underlie music learning, and outlining developmentally appropriate methods to understand the role of music in children’s lives through play, games, creativity, and movement. Additionally, in this book we will explore ways of applying music-making to benefit the whole child, i.e., socially, emotionally, physically, cognitively, and linguistically.
An Arts Approach: Visions and Challenges
The life of the arts, far from being an interruption, a distraction in the life of the nation, is very close to the center of a nation’s purpose—and it is the test of the quality of a nation’s civilization.
—J. F. Kennedy, 1962
Kennedy’s famous words, now decades old, provided the nation with legitimacy and a vision for the arts and arts education that still resonates today. There is a plethora of evidence regarding the critical role that the arts play in children’s lives and learning. Organizations and researchers have produced countless studies on the arts’ effectiveness and ability to engage children cognitively, emotionally, physically, and artistically: in other words, on a holistic level.
According to the National Coalition for Core Arts Standards (NCCAS), however,
Children’s access to arts education as part of their core education continues to be uneven across our nation’s nearly fourteen thousand school districts. Some local education agencies currently offer a full, balanced education that includes rich and varied arts opportunities for their students. However, too many schools have succumbed to funding challenges or embraced a narrow focus on tested subjects, resulting in minimal, if any, arts experiences for the children they serve. (2013, p. 3)
One of the challenges facing teachers’ use of the arts concerns a curriculum encumbered by a need to “teach to the test,” both at the state and federal levels. This trend began in the 1990s with an educational reform movement that stressed teacher accountability. Measurements through testing became accepted and standardized under the No Child Left Behind Act (2001) and also under the new Common Core State Standards Initiative currently being implemented. National and state laws and a trend toward teaching and testing “core subjects” reshape social perceptions and create a permanent culture that continually marginalizes the arts in the curriculum. The result impacts teacher perceptions regarding the incorporation of the arts in their lessons as there is a sense that using the arts is somehow a diversion that will take away classroom time from what are considered more “worthy” subjects. The arts, however, can be used effectively to augment this method, motivating students and appealing to their innate artistry and humanity.
This book is intended to aid those who have little or no background in music, in order to increase their comfort in integrating music into the curriculum. The material will help guide educators in finding methods to incorporate music with other subjects in a way that is inherently beneficial to teachers and students rather than a hindrance.
A Holistic Approach
This book takes a holistic approach to the study of music, drawing from diverse fields such as music education, ethnomusicology, sociology, and cognitive sciences. The book takes into account many different perspectives on a child’s development rather than approaching it by focusing on only one subject. The material in this book is inspired by an approach to holistic education, the goal of which is to lead children towards developing and inner sense of musical understanding and meaning through physical, cognitive, creative, emotional and socially developmental means.
According to the Holistic Education movement, it is essential that children learn about:
1. Themselves: including self-respect and self-esteem
2. Relationships: i.e., relationships with others through social “literacy” and emotional “literacy,” understanding one’s own self in relation to others
3. Resilience: overcoming difficulties, facing challenges, and learning how to ensure long-term success
4. Aesthetics: seeing the beauty around them and inspiring awe
Holistic education first addresses the question of what it is that the child needs to learn, and places the arts and aesthetics as key elements in teaching the developing child. Similarly, the holistic educator places music and the arts in a central position in a child’s education, emphasizing the artistic and aesthetic experiences that only the arts can bring.
A holistic approach not only includes children’s cognitive development, but their musical environment and cultural influences. In that sense, the book will address how children use music outside of the classroom. How do children experience music when playing or in leisure time activities? How do children think about music? How are they innately musically creative?
As an extension, the book also touches on some multicultural aspects of music, and considers the broad role of music and its importance to humanity, thus avoiding an insular and myopic Western Cultural view of the musical child. How do people in other cultures view music? How do children of other cultures experience music?
A 21st-Century Approach
A discussion of 21st-century skills provides an important opportunity to consider change in the current state of the curriculum, future societal needs, and the role of music and the arts. Changing economics and demographics require flexibility and adaptability. What skills will children need to obtain employment? How can children be prepared to contribute and compete in a complex society? How can educators and educational systems meet these needs?
Alarmed at the condition of American public education, various institutions such as the Kennedy Center, The Partnership for 21st-Century Skills, 21st-Century Schools and the Global Alliance for Transforming Education organized to identify particular areas of educational focus deemed crucial for future learning. Their results place a high emphasis placed on student autonomy and independent learning, problem solving, and creativity, all of which are fundamental aspects of the arts.
21st Century Skills
21st Century Skills
• Critical Thinking and Problem Solving
• Collaboration Across Networks and Leading by Influence
• Agility and Adaptability
• Initiative and Entrepreneurialism
• Effective Oral and Written Communication
• Accessing and Analyzing Information
• Curiosity and Imagination
• Child-Centered Learning
• Outcome-Based Research and Learning
• Creativity, Collaboration, Communication, Cooperation
• Experience, Knowledge, and Skills
The central components listed above continue an educational philosophy begun hundreds of years ago that stresses experiential learning, child-centered over teacher-centered learning, and process over product. It is part of what we now see as a holistic, collaborative, and integrated approach to education that emphasizes the development of social skills and inner confidence in addition to learning the subject matter.
read more What Is 21st-Century Education?
II. A Children’s Musical World
Music at the Beginning: A Child’s Musical Awareness
All children are musical—they are born musical, and are keenly aware of sounds around them. Let’s begin with a journey from the perspective of the child—a very young child at the beginning of life. What does the child experience? What does he or she hear? Inside the womb, the baby hears the mother’s heartbeat, the rushing sound of amniotic fluid and the mother’s voice. From outside, the baby hears language and music, mostly low sound waves from bass instruments and loud noises. Because the visual sense is not viable at this point, the auditory senses are primary, and hearing is the most keenly developed of all of the fetal senses. Hearing develops from about 19 to 26 weeks of the pregnancy when the inner ear matures, and babies respond to voices and classical music by turning towards it and relaxing. They respond to loud noises as well by kicking, and curl up and turn away from loud rock or pop music (birth.com.au, 2013).
Do children remember what they hear in the womb? Auditory neuroscientists say that children do remember what they hear in the womb. Children remember their mother’s voice, and even melodies.
read More “The Life of the Womb”
Music in a Child’s Environment
Children are part of two overarching social categories—humankind in general, and the specific culture in which they are born. As humans, music is an innate part of our existence, as we all possess the physical mechanisms to make and process organized sound just as we do language. As music educator Edwin Gordon notes, “Music is not a language but processes for learning music and language are strikingly similar” (Gordon, 2012, p. 6). The brain is wired for music and language, a topic that will be discussed in Chapter 7.
Music making and artistic endeavors represent the heart of a culture, and are part of each culture’s core identity: not only what makes us human, but also what makes each group of us unique. In the U.S., unique genres of music that are part of our cultural fabric have developed over the centuries. The melting pot that is America has yielded brand new genres such as big band, jazz, blues, rock and roll, etc. Blends of European, Caribbean, and African-American people combined in a way like that of no other culture. In America, all of the music we currently know today is derived from the musical genres that came before us. All children are born into that musical environment and pick up the musical repertoire and vocabulary around them.
Children’s Musical Repertoires
Because societies believe that children are the key to continuing the traditions of their cultural and musical heritage, there is usually a separate category of songs that teach children their cultural and musical history.
Activity 1A
Think of some familiar children’s songs. How many can you think of? What were your favorite songs as a child? Did your songs have games or movement of some kind? What does society think about children’s songs? Are they considered important or trivial? Are they nurtured or shunned?
After remembering some of your favorite children’s songs, you may come to understand their importance. If you ask a group of people in any age category to sing a song, more often than not, children’s songs are the only songs everyone can sing in their entirety from beginning to end. Why is that? One reason is that music and identity are closely related, and groups or cohorts of people listen to particular songs targeted toward their age group produced by the market-driven music business.
Another reason is that children’s songs are uniquely structured to make them easy to memorize while containing basic musical and cultural material; language and codes that we come to recognize in all of our songs. We tend to think of children’s songs as simple, and in some ways, they are in terms of lyrics, structure, and music. However, there is much more to them that that.
Activity 1B
What are some of the attributes of children’s songs that make them so memorable? Develop a list of characteristics that make children’s songs so popular, unforgettable, and able to survive for generations. Think about the musical aspects as well as the lyrical aspects. Are there a lot of notes or very few? Is there a big range or small? Are there many words or a few? Are there big singing leaps and lots of difficult runs or none?
The body or repertoire of children’s songs is extremely old. In fact, the oldest songs you probably know are children’s songs! This is because children’s songs often preserve the social and historical meaning of a culture and the identity of its people. Many of our most popular American children’s songs hail from centuries of ballads, hymns, popular and folk music of early New Englanders, Scottish, and English settlers inhabiting Appalachia, and African and European descendants. All of the songs are rife with musical, cultural, and historical significance.
“Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star,” for example, is the product of both England and France, as an early 19th-century English poem set to an 18th-century French folk tune (“Ah, vous dirai-je, Maman”). The song also provides the music for two other very famous songs, “Baa, Baa Black Sheep” and the “A-B-C” song.
Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, Baa Baa Black Sheep, Alphabet Song
Melody: “Ah, vous dirai-je, Maman”
French folk song, 1761
“Zudio” or “Zoodio” is an African-American children’s street game song with possible roots in slavery. It is suspected that the “great big man” mentioned in the song might be the slave owner.
Here We Go Zudio
African American song
“Mary Had a Little Lamb” was inspired by a true incident in the small town of Sterling, Massachusetts, in the 1830s, when little Mary’s brother suggested that she take her pet lamb to school and chaos ensued. Below is a picture of the little schoolhouse where the incident of Mary and her lamb is believed to have taken place.
Mary Had a Little Lamb
All of these songs have musical characteristics particular to the genre from which they emerged. They have only a few notes, small vocal ranges, no fancy ornaments, and simple words. However, they also have significant social and historical meaning that helps to explain their incredible longevity in the children’s song repertoire.
The Redstone School, now located in Sudbury, Massachusetts, where Mary supposedly took her lamb!
To explore the idea of music as culture, let’s look further at Mary and her lamb. “Mary Had a Little Lamb” is an almost 200-year-old song that remains compelling and still very popular today. Part of the song’s popularity is the subject matter. It was inspired by the real-life actions of children, and did not emerge wholly from an adult’s imagination. The melody is very simple, containing only four pitches and a fair amount of repetition. The meaning of this song is historically significant. The lyrics retain images of early American life: the one-room schoolhouse, the rural environment, no industrial noise and automobiles, and the prevalence of animals. A child growing up on a farm surrounded by animals would naturally befriend some of them. The idea that the child, Mary, would want to bring her favorite animal to school is more than understandable, and is akin to wanting to bring our dog or cat to school with us today. In other words, the song relives and retells the experiences of a child in another century and makes her story highly relatable to us today.
Activity 1C
Think About It
How much do you know about your favorite children’s songs? Look up the background of some of your favorite children’s songs such as “Ring Around the Rosie” or “London Bridge.”
A Child’s Informal and Formal Music Experiences
[The purpose of music in the schools]…is to prepare students for full participation in the social, economic, political, and artistic life of their homeland and the world at large. (Blacking, 1985, p. 21)
This statement, from ethnomusicologist John Blacking, highlights the holistic nature and potential impact of the educational system. Schools, however, provide formal music education, which is just one of the sources of a child’s musical heritage. Often, the most important sources are informal. Children encounter music at home, in their everyday cultural environment, and while at play. All of these settings are part of a person’s enculturation, or learning one’s culture through experiences, observations, and both formal and informal settings.
At home, children are exposed to a family’s musical heritage, which may contain music unfamiliar to those in their dominant culture. Music expresses identity, and children often take part in family celebrations that represent an ethnic or religious heritage. They are exposed to the music of their parents and siblings, friends, and relatives, casting a wide net over multiple experiences and genres.
Culturally, children are exposed to entire repertoires of music, which represent different parts of the American identity. From commercial music—pop and rock to jazz, from folk songs to national songs, religious and holiday songs, and multicultural music—children hear the rhythms, melodies, and harmonies that make up their musical environment. They unconsciously absorb idioms (i.e., musical styles, genres, and characteristics), which will render certain sounds familiar to them and certain sounds “foreign” and unfamiliar. Thus, the music and all of its elements that children are exposed to become as familiar as their native language.
In elementary school, or any early formal educational setting, children often learn music from a music specialist with a set music curriculum and learning goals. This has both positive and negative consequences. On the positive side, children are learning from a professional, trained to teach music to children. On the negative side, arts teachers are seen as separate “specialists,” which erroneously relieves the classroom teacher of any responsibility for incorporating the arts into the daily classroom experience.
“I can’t teach music; I can’t sing!”
If you can walk you can dance; if you can talk you can sing.
—Zimbabwean Proverb
With restricted budgets and reductions in arts specialists in some school districts, access to the arts for many children relies solely on what the classroom teacher can provide. Unfortunately, many classroom teachers feel inadequately prepared to teach music, and classroom teachers’ use of music varies widely according to prior exposure to music. It has been shown that teachers with “higher levels of confidence in their musical ability indicate stronger levels of beliefs about the importance of music” (Kim, 2007, p. 12). Teachers with the ability to read music notation, for example, felt more positively about including music in their classroom, and were more likely to use music in their teaching.
The truth is that we all know a great deal about music through enculturation. Everyone is familiar with certain repertoires of music (national songs, children’s songs, popular songs, folk songs, and even classical pieces), and even the different elements of music (melody, harmony, rhythm, form, and timbre). The Zimbabwean proverb, “If you can walk, you can dance; if you can talk, you can sing,” is quite apropos here. By virtue of your everyday experiences with music, you know more than you think about music, and can probably easily answer the questions in Activity 1D.
Although these questions might seem to be simple, they reflect a depth of music knowledge garnered throughout a lifetime of cultural exposure to music. For example, the above questions cover music theory, analysis, repertoire, and the uses and function of music in culture. Believe it or not, your accrued, cultural knowledge, added to a little enthusiasm and singing, is more than enough to be able to incorporate music into a lesson or curriculum.
Changing Role of Music and Culture: Making vs. Listening
Most people believe that music plays a significant role in their lives. Just think about the amount of time you spend surrounded by music in your day. The role of music, however, has changed dramatically in recent years. For thousands of years, the only way to experience music was to make it. Trained musicians and amateurs made music that fulfilled a variety of functions as part of religious rituals, work, story-telling, social communication, and also entertainment (see Merriam and Gaston’s functions of music in Chapter 7). In traditional societies, music would normally be part of everyday work, worship, and leisure. Complex societies, however, separate music making and the music makers from everyone else, who become consumers or listeners. Technology has helped to alter the balance of the musical experience, favoring music listening over music making. Children now grow up spending much of their leisure time hearing music rather than performing or making it.
Currently, almost all of the music we experience is no longer live, but pre-recorded. Technology, however, has also increased the number of opportunities we have to hear music. Recordings have made music accessible everywhere: TV, radio, CDs, Internet, video games, personal music players, etc. Music is so ubiquitous that many people don’t even notice it anymore. What has not changed, however, is a child’s innate desire to be musical, make music, and learn from it. The music room and regular classroom are some of the only places many children have to make music in their day.
Activity 1D
Test Your Musical Knowledge
Complete the following:
1. The ______ is the part of music that you sing.
a. Rhythm
b. Melody
c. Form
d. Tempo
2. The ________ sounds the pulse or beat, and is usually played at a low frequency.
a. Melody
b. Bass
c. Harmony
d. Timbre
3. A melody is:
a. Supported by other instruments (accompaniment)
b. The most dominant part of a song
c. Where the lyrics can be found
d. All of the above
4. The bass:
a. Keeps the beat
b. Maintains the song’s tempo or speed
c. Provides a foundation for the rest of the instruments and voices
d. All of the above
5. The ________ repeats several times throughout a song, with exactly the same words and music.
a. Refrain or chorus
b. Verse
c. Melody
d. Harmony
6. “Mary Had a Little Lamb” is an example of a:
a. National song
b. Religious or sacred song
c. Children’s song
d. Classical song
7. Orchestras typically play:
a. Rock music
b. The blues
c. Classical music
d. Techno
8. If you have a drum set, two electric guitars, a bass, and a synthesizer, you will most likely be playing:
a. A classical symphony
b. Rock ‘n’ roll or pop music
c. Folk songs
d. None of the above
Activity 1E
Think About It
How would you describe your relationship with music? Do you typically spend more time listening to music or making it? How much time do you spend listening to music through headphones? Listening to music with other people?
Keep track of how much music you encounter in one day. How much of it is pre-recorded? How much of it is live?
The Aesthetic and Artistic Experience
If human beings are innately musical, and if in some societies these innate capacities are nurtured in early childhood, it has always seemed to me that we must do more in modern industrial society to place artistic experience and musical practice at the center of education. (Blacking, 1991, p. 55)
What if you heard of a new product that could help children focus, increase their learning potential, re-boot their cognitive functioning, and make them feel relaxed and refreshed all in a few minutes? And best of all, it’s free! Would you use it?
Music is powerful, and music has the power to change people emotionally or alter the mood of room with just a few simple notes or beats. Music, as energy, has the ability to transform all those within its reach. We turn to music to feel better, relieve anxiety, overcome a difficult situation, find calm and peace, or feel empowered and fearless. Although we don’t take much time in our busy day to think about it, one of the most significant uses for music is to create an aesthetic experience. An aesthetic response or experience concerns the nature of beauty, art, and taste. Children are capable of appreciating beauty in art, music, language, and movement. Exposure to these artistic forms develops the inner core of a child, introduces new dimensions of possibilities, and shows the brain a new way of functioning and understanding. The other good news is that it only takes a couple of minutes and a little thought to achieve this, and put some of the basic elements of music to work. Timbre, tempo, and dynamics are so powerful that a few adjustments here and there can change the entire learning atmosphere of a classroom.
For example:
• A few notes played slowly and softly on a small glockenspiel can sound like magic.
• Beating a hand drum can physically move students: the faster and louder, the more activity!
• A soft song or lullaby sung or played on a melody instrument will calm them down almost immediately.
• Children clapping, stomping, or snapping will have them focus their attention.
Activity 1F
Think About It
How might you go about creating an aesthetic experience (in or out of a classroom)? What if you had only a few instruments? No instruments at all? How could you accomplish an aesthetic transformation using sound?
III. The Soundscape and the Child
Before we discuss our cultural ideas of what music is, we first need to understand that music is only part of the larger category of sound. The sounds all around us play a significant role in our development. We spend our lives surrounded by all kinds of sounds that are unique to our environment, yet we rarely pay attention to them. As a child grows, he or she becomes acculturated to all of the sounds in their environment. These include not only all of the genres of music, the verbal languages, and accents, but also the mechanical, digital, human, and animal noises, and all of the ambient sounds around us. All of these combine to create our acoustic environment. This soundscape, as acoustic environmentalist R. Murray Schafer conceived it, concerns what those sounds tell us about who we are and the time in which we live.
Our soundscapes have tremendous physical and cognitive impacts on us. The soundscape affects our health, body, and learning. For example, a child’s environment in a city will be vastly different than one in the country, or the soundscape of 1,000 years ago differs dramatically from a soundscape today.
As Schafer began his work on understanding the sonic environment, he realized that we don’t have a very specific vocabulary to describe sounds—what we’re hearing and how we’re hearing it. Whereas visual vocabulary tends to be more detailed, we lack nuanced conceptual words to describe sound and our relationship to it. Schafer coined the terms keynote, soundmark, and sound signal to distinguish between different types of sounds, their connections to the environment, and our perception of them.
Keynote: As a musical term, keynote identifies the “key” of a piece. Although you may not always hear the key, and the melody may stray from the key, it always returns back to the key. A keynote “outlines the character of the people living there.” Keynotes are often nature sounds (wind, birds, animals, water) but in urban areas can be traffic. The keynote sound for New York City might be horns of Yellow cabs and cars, for example.
Soundmark: This term is inspired by the word “landmark” and refers to the sound unique to an area. A landmark is something that is easily recognizable (e.g., the Eiffel Tower, Monument Valley, Grand Canyon, Empire State Building). Now think of a location and its sound, and imagine a recognizable sound associated for that place.
Sound signal: A foregrounded sound that we consciously hear. Sound signals compel us to pay attention to something. Some examples are warning devices, bells, whistles, horns, sirens, etc.
Shafer also makes interesting distinctions between the sources of sound. Some sources are made by nature, such as wind, water, and waves; some are human-made such as singing, speech, and stomping; some are made by animals, such as calls, cries, and growls; some are machine-made clanks, whistles, whirrs, and beeps. Schafer coined the term schizophonia to describe sound that is separated from its source, such as recorded music. Because most of the music we listen to is not live but recorded, schizophonia is a concept crucial to describe and understand a child’s (and our own) relationship to sound and our environment.
Activity 1G
Think About It
What would it sound like if you lived 100 years ago? 200? 500? 1,000? How did people hear music back then? Where did they have to go to hear music? How was music made? What sounds would be keynote sounds or soundmarks? Human-made vs. machine- or animal-made? What sounds would dominate in each of those times?
Children’s Soundscape
I. Sit quietly for five minutes and listen to the sounds around you. Now write down the sounds and describe them. Describe the quality or tone color of each sound (timbre) of each sound. How might you draw or visually represent these sounds and their timbres? What is the sound’s source? How might you categorize these sounds (i.e., human, electronic, animal, machine-made)?
II. Describe any revelations or thoughts that you’ve had during this experience. Now, explain a creative way to adapt this project for children. How could children benefit from hearing sounds in a new way? What activities could you do with them to underscore the idea of the soundscape? Develop three activities along the lines of Schafer’s ideas.
Resources
• Websites:
• Important Children’s Music Collections
• Erdei, P., and Komlos, K. (2004). 150 American folk songs to sing, read, and play. New York: Boosey and Hawkes.
• Lomax, J., and Lomax, A. (1994). American ballads and folk songs. New York: Dover Publications.
• Jones, B. (1987). Step it down: Games, plays, songs and stories from the Afro-American heritage. Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press.
Vocabulary
acculturated: accustomed to; to assimilate the cultural traits of another group
aesthetic: how one experiences music; one’s personal musical experience
ambient: of the surrounding area or environment
enculturation: learning through experiencing one’s culture; the process whereby individuals learn their group’s culture, through experience, observation, and instruction
genres: the different styles of music found in any given culture; a class or category of artistic endeavor having a particular form, content, or technique
idioms: musical styles, genres, and characteristics
schizophonia: R. Murray Schafer’s coined term to describe sound that is separated from its source; recorded music is an example of schizophonic sound because the musicians are not performing the music live in front of you
sound: what we hear; the particular auditory effect produced by a given cause
soundscape: all the ambient sounds around us; the sounds that are part of a given environment
sound waves: the vibrations felt by people that come from musical instruments or voices; a longitudinal wave in an elastic medium, especially a wave producing an audible sensation
timbre: the tone color of each sound; each voice has a unique tone color (vibrato, nasal, resonance, vibrant, ringing, strident, high, low, breathy, piercing, rounded warm, mellow, dark, bright, heavy, or light)
Western culture: culture influenced by Europe, the Americas, and Australia; the modern culture of Western Europe and North America | textbooks/socialsci/Early_Childhood_Education/Book%3A_Music_and_the_Child_(Sarrazin)/1.01%3A_Perspectives_and_Approaches.txt |
Chapter Summary: The first half of this chapter attempts to define music as a subject and offers perspectives on music, including basic vocabulary and what you should know about music in order to incorporate it in your work with children. The second half gives a brief overview of music education and teaching in the U.S., which provides the foundation of the discipline for the book.
I. Defining Music
“Music” is one of the most difficult terms to define, partially because beliefs about music have changed dramatically over time just in Western culture alone. If we look at music in different parts of the world, we find even more variations and ideas about what music is. Definitions range from practical and theoretical (the Greeks, for example, defined music as “tones ordered horizontally as melodies and vertically as harmony”) to quite philosophical (according to philosopher Jacques Attali, music is a sonoric event between noise and silence, and according to Heidegger, music is something in which truth has set itself to work). There are also the social aspects of music to consider. As musicologist Charles Seeger notes, “Music is a system of communication involving structured sounds produced by members of a community that communicate with other members” (1992, p.89). Ethnomusicologist John Blacking declares that “we can go further to say that music is sound that is humanly patterned or organized” (1973), covering all of the bases with a very broad stroke. Some theorists even believe that there can be no universal definition of music because it is so culturally specific.
Although we may find it hard to imagine, many cultures, such as those found in the countries of Africa or among some indigenous groups, don’t have a word for music. Instead, the relationship of music and dance to everyday life is so close that the people have no need to conceptually separate the two. According to the ethnomusicologist Bruno Nettl (2001), some North American Indian languages have no word for “music” as distinct from the word “song.” Flute melodies too are labeled as “songs.” The Hausa people of Nigeria have an extraordinarily rich vocabulary for discourse about music, but no single word for music. The Basongye of Zaire have a broad conception of what music is, but no corresponding term. To the Basongye, music is a purely and specifically human product. For them, when you are content, you sing, and when you are angry, you make noise (2001). The Kpelle people of Liberia have one word, “sang,” to describe a movement that is danced well (Stone, 1998, p. 7). Some cultures favor certain aspects of music. Indian classical music, for example, does not contain harmony, but only the three textures of a melody, rhythm, and a drone. However, Indian musicians more than make up for a lack of harmony with complex melodies and rhythms not possible in the West due to the inclusion of harmony (chord progressions), which require less complex melodies and rhythms.
What we may hear as music in the West may not be music to others. For example, if we hear the Qur’an performed, it may sound like singing and music. We hear all of the “parts” which we think of as music—rhythm, pitch, melody, form, etc. However, the Muslim understanding of that sound is that it is really heightened speech or recitation rather than music, and belongs in a separate category. The philosophical reasoning behind this is complex: in Muslim tradition, the idea of music as entertainment is looked upon as degrading; therefore, the holy Qur’an cannot be labeled as music.
Activity 2A
Listen
Qur’an Recitation, 22nd Surah (Chapter) of the Qur’an, recited by Mishary Rashid Al-‘Efasi of Kuwait.
Although the exact definition of music varies widely even in the West, music contains melody, harmony, rhythm, timbre, pitch, silence, and form or structure. What we know about music so far…
• Music is comprised of sound.
• Music is made up of both sounds and silences.
• Music is intentionally made art.
• Music is humanly organized sound (Bakan, 2011).
A working definition of music for our purposes might be as follows: music is an intentionally organized art form whose medium is sound and silence, with core elements of pitch (melody and harmony), rhythm (meter, tempo, and articulation), dynamics, and the qualities of timbre and texture.
Beyond a standard definition of music, there are behavioral and cultural aspects to consider. As Titon notes in his seminal text Worlds of Music (2008), we “make” music in two different ways: we make music physically; i.e., we bow the strings of a violin, we sing, we press down the keys of a piano, we blow air into a flute. We also make music with our minds, mentally constructing the ideas that we have about music and what we believe about music; i.e., when it should be performed or what music is “good” and what music is “bad.” For example, the genre of classical music is perceived to have a higher social status than popular music; a rock band’s lead singer is more valued than the drummer; early blues and rock was considered “evil” and negatively influential; we label some songs as children’s songs and deem them inappropriate to sing after a certain age; etc.
Music, above all, works in sound and time. It is a sonic event—a communication just like speech, which requires us to listen, process, and respond. To that end, it is a part of a continuum of how we hear all sounds including noise, speech, and silence. Where are the boundaries between noise and music? Between noise and speech? How does some music, such as rap, challenge our original notions of speech and music by integrating speech as part of the music? How do some compositions such as John Cage’s 4’33’’ challenge our ideas of artistic intention, music, and silence?
read more John Cage 4’33’’
watch this Annenberg Video: Exploring the world of music
Activity 2B
Imagine the audience’s reaction as they experience Cage’s 4’33” for the first time. How might they react after 15 seconds? 30? One minute?
Basic Music Elements
• Sound (overtone, timbre, pitch, amplitude, duration)
• Melody
• Harmony
• Rhythm
• Texture
• Structure/form
• Expression (dynamics, tempo, articulation)
In order to teach something, we need a consensus on a basic list of elements and definitions. This list comprises the basic elements of music as we understand them in Western culture.
1. Sound
Overtone: A fundamental pitch with resultant pitches sounding above it according to the overtone series. Overtones are what give each note its unique sound.
watch this throat-singing
Timbre: The tone color of a sound resulting from the overtones. Each voice has a unique tone color that is described using adjectives or metaphors such as “nasally,” “resonant,” “vibrant,” “strident,” “high,” “low,” “breathy,” “piercing,” “ringing,” “rounded,” “warm,” “mellow,” “dark,” “bright,” “heavy,” “light,” “vibrato.”
Pitch: The frequency of the note’s vibration (note names C, D, E, etc.).
Amplitude: How loud or soft a sound is.
Duration: How long or short the sound is.
2. Melody
A succession of musical notes; a series of pitches often organized into phrases.
3. Harmony
The simultaneous, vertical combination of notes, usually forming chords.
4. Rhythm
The organization of music in time. Also closely related to meter.
5. Texture
The density (thickness or thinness) of layers of sounds, melodies, and rhythms in a piece: e.g., a complex orchestral composition will have more possibilities for dense textures than a song accompanied only by guitar or piano.
Most common types of texture:
• Monophony: A single layer of sound; e.g.. a solo voice
• Homophony: A melody with an accompaniment; e.g., a lead singer and a band; a singer and a guitar or piano accompaniment; etc.
• Polyphony: Two or more independent voices; e.g., a round or fugue.
watch this Musical Texture
6. Structure or Form
The sections or movements of a piece; i.e. verse and refrain, sonata form, ABA, Rondo (ABACADA), theme, and variations.
7. Expression
Dynamics: Volume (amplitude)—how loud, soft, medium, gradually getting louder or softer (crescendo, decrescendo).
Tempo: Beats per minute; how fast, medium, or slow a piece of music is played or sung.
Articulation: The manner in which notes are played or words pronounced: e.g., long or short, stressed or unstressed such as short (staccato), smooth (legato), stressed (marcato), sudden emphasis (sforzando), slurred, etc.
What Do Children Hear? How Do They Respond to Music?
Now that we have a list of definitions, for our purposes, let’s refine the definition of music, keeping in mind how children perceive music and music’s constituent elements of sound (timbre), melody, harmony, rhythm, structure or form, expression, and texture. Children’s musical encounters can be self- or peer-initiated, or teacher- or staff-initiated in a classroom or daycare setting. Regardless of the type of encounter, the basic music elements play a significant role in how children respond to music. One of the most important elements for all humans is the timbre of a sound. Recognizing a sound’s timbre is significant to humans in that it helps us to distinguish the source of the sound, i.e. who is calling us—our parents, friends, etc. It also alerts us to possible danger. Children are able to discern the timbre of a sound from a very young age, including the vocal timbres of peers, relatives, and teachers, as well as the timbres of different instruments.
Studies show that even very young children are quite sophisticated listeners. As early as two years of age, children respond to musical style, tempo, and dynamics, and even show preference for certain musical styles (e.g., pop music over classical) beginning at age five. Metz and his peers assert that “a common competence found in young children is the enacting through movement of the music’s most constant and salient features, such as dynamics, meter, and tempo” (Metz, 1989; Gorali-Turel, 1997; Chen-Hafteck, 2004). On the aggregate level, children physically respond to music’s beat, and are able to move more accurately when the tempo of the music more clearly corresponds to the natural tempo of the child. As we might expect, children respond to the dynamic levels of loud and soft quite dramatically, changing their movements to match changing volume levels.
The fact that children seem to respond to the expressive elements of music (dynamics, tempo, etc.) should not come as a surprise. Most people respond to the same attributes of music that children do. We hear changes in tempo (fast or slow), changes in dynamics (loud or soft), we physically respond to the rhythm of the bass guitar or drums, and we listen intently to the melody, particularly if there are words. These are among the most ear-catching elements, along with rhythm and melody.
This is what we would expect. However, there are other studies whose conclusions are more vague on this subject. According to a study by Sims and Cassidy, children’s music attitudes and responses do not seem to be based on specific musical characteristics and children may have very idiosyncratic responses and listening styles (1997). Mainly, children are non-discriminating, reacting positively to almost any type of music (Kim, 2007, p. 23).
Activity 2C
What type of music might children best respond to given their musical perceptions and inclinations? Is there a particular genre of music, or particular song or set of songs? How might you get them to respond actively while engaging a high level of cognitive sophistication?
Music Teaching Vocabulary
After familiarizing yourself with the basic music vocabulary list above (e.g., melody, rhythm), familiarize yourself with a practical teaching vocabulary: in other words, the music terms that you might use when working in music with a lesson for children that correspond to their natural perception of music. For most children, the basics are easily conveyed through concept dichotomies, such as:
• Fast or Slow (tempo)
• Loud or Soft (dynamics)
• Short or Long (articulation)
• High or Low (pitch)
• Steady or Uneven (beat)
• Happy or Sad (emotional response)
Interestingly, three pairs of these dichotomies are found in Lowell Mason’s Manual for the Boston Academy of Music (1839).
For slightly older children, more advanced concepts can be used, such as:
• Duple (2) or Triple (3) meter
• Melodic Contour (melody going up or down)
• Rough or Smooth (timbre)
• Verse and Refrain (form)
• Major or Minor (scale)
Music Fundamentals
The emotive aspects of music are what most people respond to first. However, while an important part of music listening in our culture, simply responding subjectively to “how music makes you feel” is similar to an Olympic judge saying that she feels happy when watching a gymnast’s vault. It may very well be true, but it does not help the judge to understand and evaluate all of the elements that go into the execution of the gymnast’s exercise or how to judge it properly. Studies show that teachers who are familiar with music fundamentals, and especially note reading, are more comfortable incorporating music when working with children (Kim, 2007). Even just knowing how to read music changes a teacher’s confidence level when it comes to singing, so it’s important to have a few of the basics under your belt.
Preparation for Learning to Read Music
Formal note reading is not required in order to understand the basics of music. Younger children can learn musical concepts long before learning written notation. Applying some of the vocabulary and concepts from above will help you begin to discern some of the inner workings of music. The good news is that any type of music can be used for practice.
• Melodic Direction. Just being able to recognize whether a melody goes up or down is a big step, and an important auditory-cognitive process for children to undergo. Imagine the melody of a song such as “Row, Row, Row Your Boat.” Sing the song dividing it into two phrases (phrase 1 begins with “row,” phrase 2 begins with “merrily”). What is the direction of phrase 1? Phrase 2? Draw the direction of the phrase in the air with your finger as you sing.
• Timbre. Practice describing different timbres of music—play different types of music on Pandora, for example, and try to describe the timbres you hear, including the vocal timbre of the singer or instrumental timbres.
• Expression. Now practice describing the expressive qualities of a song. Are there dynamics? What type of articulation is there? Is the tempo fast, slow, medium?
Learning Notation: Pitch
It sounds simple, but notes or pitches are the building blocks of music. Just being able to read simple notation will help build your confidence. Learning notes on a staff certainly seems dull, but coming up with mnemonics for the notes on the staff can actually be fun. For example, most people are familiar with:
• Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge to indicate the treble clef line notes
• F A C E to indicate the treble clef space notes
• Good Boys Deserve Fudge Always for the bass clef line notes
• All Cows Eat Grass for the bass clef space notes
• But allowing children to develop their own mnemonic device for these notes can a creative way to have them own the notes themselves. How about Grizzly Bears Don’t Fly Airplanes for the lines of the bass clef, or Empty Garbage Before Dad Flips or Elephants Get Big Dirty Feet for the lines of the treble clef?
Notes of the Bass Staff
Note/Pitch Name Practice
Note Review: Spell Words with Notes
Learning Notation: Rhythm
Rhythm concerns the organization of musical elements into sounds and silences. Rhythm occurs in a melody, in the accompaniment, and uses combinations of short and long durations to create patterns and entire compositions. Rests are as important to the music as are the sounded rhythms because, just like language, rests use silence to help organize the sounds so we can better understand them.
Notes and rests
Whole note
Whole rest
Dotted half note
Dotted half rest
Half note
Half rest
Quarter note
Quarter rest
Eighth note
Eighth rest
Sixteenth note
Sixteenth rest
Rhythm Practice: Label each rhythm
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
Learning Notation: Meter
Meter concerns the organization of music into strong and weak beats that are separated by measures. Having children feel the strong beats such as the downbeat, the first beat in a measure, is relatively easy. From there, it’s a matter of counting, hearing and feeling how the strong vs. weak beats are grouped to create a meter.
Duple Meters
In duple meter, each measure contains groupings of two beats (or multiples of two). For example, in a 2/4 time signature, there are two beats in a measure with the quarter note receiving one beat or one count. In a 4/4 time signature, there are four beats in a measure, and the quarter note also receives one beat or count.
Examples of 4/4 Rhythms
Triple Meters
In triple meter, each measure contains three beats (or a multiple of three). For example, in a 3/4 time signature, there are three beats in a measure and the quarter note receives one beat.
Examples of 3/4 Rhythms
Compound Meters
Both duple and triple meter are known as simple meters—that means that each beat can be divided into two eighth notes. The time signature 6/8 is very common for children’s rhymes and songs. In 6/8, there are six beats in a measure with each eighth note receiving one beat. 6/8 is known as a compound meter, meaning that each of the two main beats can be divided into three parts.
Examples of 6/8 Rhythms
s
Learning Notation: Dynamics
Learning some basic concepts of dynamics and tempo will allow you better access to involve children in music listening and making.
The two basic dynamic indications in music are:
• p, for piano, meaning “soft”
• f, for forte, meaning “loud” or actually, with force, in Italian
More subtle degrees of loudness or softness are indicated by:
• mp, for mezzo-piano, meaning “moderately soft”
• mf, for mezzo-forte, meaning “moderately loud”
There are also more extreme degrees of dynamics represented by:
• pp, for pianissimo and meaning “very soft”
• ff, for fortissimo and meaning “very loud”
Terms for changing volume are:
• Crescendo (gradually increasing volume)
• Decrescendo (gradually decreasing volume)
Crescendo
Decrescendo
Dynamics Practice
Fill in the blanks below using the following terms: fortissimo, pianissimo, mezzo-forte, mezzo-piano, crescendo, decrescendo, forte, piano
1. p
2. f
3. ff
4. mp
5.
6. mf
7. pp
8.
Learning Notation: Tempo
Tempo is the speed of the music, or the number of beats per minute. Music’s tempo is rather infectious, and children respond physically to both fast and slow speeds. The following are some terms and their beats per minute to help you gauge different tempi. The terms are in Italian, and are listed from slowest to fastest.
• Larghissimo: very, very slowly (19 beats per minute or less)
• Grave: slowly and solemnly (20–40 bpm)
• Lento: slowly (40–45 bpm)
• Largo: broadly (45–50 bpm)
• Larghetto: rather broadly (50–55 bpm)
• Adagio: slow and stately (literally, “at ease”) (55–65 bpm)
• Andante: at a walking pace (the verb andare in Italian means to walk) (73–77 bpm)
• Andantino: slightly faster than andante (78–83 bpm)
• Marcia moderato: moderately, in the manner of a march (83–85 bpm)
• Moderato: moderately (86–97 bpm)
• Allegretto: moderately fast (98–109 bpm)
• Allegro: fast, quickly and bright (109–132 bpm)
• Vivace: lively and fast (132–140 bpm)
• Allegrissimo: very fast (150–167 bpm)
• Presto: extremely fast (168–177 bpm)
• Prestissimo: even faster than presto (178 bpm and above)
Terms that refer to changing tempo:
• Ritardando: gradually slowing down
• Accelerando: gradually accelerating
Scales
Scales are sets of musical notes organized by pitch. In Western culture, we predominantly use the major and minor scales. However, many children’s songs use the pentatonic scales (both major and minor) as well.
The major scale comprises seven different pitches that are organized by using a combination of half steps (one note on the piano to the very next note) and whole steps (two half steps together). The major scale looks as follows: Whole Whole Half Whole Whole Whole Half or W W H W W W H.
A minor scale uses the following formula: W H W W H W W.
Pentatonic scales, found in many early American and children’s songs, only use five pitches, hence the moniker “pentatonic.” There are many types of major pentatonic scales, but one of the most popular major pentatonic scale is similar to the major scale, but without the 4th or 7th pitches (Fa or Ti). One of the common minor pentatonic scales is similar to the minor scale, but also without (Fa or Ti).
Minor Pentatonic (A)
Scale Practice
Label the half steps and whole steps for the C major scale.
Practice writing your own C major scale.
Label the half steps and whole steps of the A minor scale.
Practice writing your own A minor scale.
Resources for Further Learning
There are numerous websites that cover the fundamentals of music, including the staff, notes, clefs, ledger lines, rhythm, meter, scales, chords, and chord progressions.
Music Theory
www.musictheory.net
musictheory.net is a music theory resource from basic to complex. It contains active definitions for musical terms; music lessons regarding the meanings of musical notation; and exercises designed to further understanding of musical notes, chords, and many other musical aspects. This site also includes a pop-up piano and accidental calculator specifically to help users learn and practice their developing musical skills. It also features a products page with apps people can buy to practice and use music on the go via their smartphones. The site would be appropriate for people ages 12 and up, and is extremely user friendly.
http://www.musictheoryvideos.com/
Musictheoryvideos.com was designed by Stephen Wiles in the hope to make music theory an active part of music learning. The site includes music theory lessons for students between grades 1 and 5 in the form of tables, lists, and videos to help the student better understand the many parts of music. There are videos about the importance and difference of treble and bass clefs; there is a list of music terms and what they mean, and the site even contains videos entailing the transposition of music. It would be a great resource for teachers to offer students, especially those who could benefit from some extra information outside of class. The site contains information that would take a student step by step through the basics of music theory through simple short videos, complete with British-accented narrations.
www.childrensmusicworkshop.com/musictheory/index.html
Childrensmusicworkshop.com contains several different slideshows designed to teach students the different parts of music such as the clefs, time signatures, keys, and how to read different notes on the staff. The site also includes a link to print off different types of sheet music, including SATB (soprano, alto, tenor, bass), piano, blank, and custom sheet music. The site is designed to help teach students about music, but it could be helpful for teachers as well if they need new ways to help reinforce the material.
www.mymusictheory.com
Mymusictheory.com includes helpful lessons for students grades 1 through 6, as well as helpful links for teachers when it comes to teaching music theory. For the teachers, they provide music flashcards, lesson plans, music-reinforcing word searches, and many other helpful resources, all in one location. The site is broken down by grade level, with each level containing exercises and practice exams for the material learned during each lesson.
www.8notes.com
8notes.com is a large website full of music lessons for several instruments, including but not limited to piano, guitar, vocal, and percussion. Free sheet music is available for the different instruments, as well as music from different popular movies. An online metronome, guitar tuner, blank sheet music, music theory lessons, and music converters are all available at 8notes.com. This site would be helpful to those learning new instruments, as well as experienced musicians who are just looking for some new music to play.
Keyboard Skills
Many classroom teachers have pianos in their rooms and don’t know how to use them or underutilize them. Learning to play a basic melody on a piano or keyboard or even put a few chords to them is a great confidence builder, and the children love to sing to a piano accompaniment!
Notes on a keyboard
II. Music Education in America
Music education does not exist isolated in the music classroom. It is influenced by trends in general education, society, culture, and politics.
—Harold Abeles, Critical Issues in Music Education, 2010
How did music education develop into its current form? Did music specialists always teach music? What were classroom teacher’s musical responsibilities? Well, to answer these questions, we need to look to the past for a moment. Initially, music and education worked hand in hand for centuries.
Early Music Teaching
18th century: Singing schools and their tune books
Before there was formal music education in the United States, there was music and education, primarily experienced through religious education. Music education in the U.S. began after the Pilgrims and Puritans arrived, when ministers realized that their congregation needed help singing and reading music. Several ministers developed tune books that used four notes of solfege (Mi, Fa, Sol, La) and shape notes to train people in singing the psalms and hymns required for proper church singing. By 1830, singing schools based on the techniques found in these books began popping up all over New England, with some people attending singing school classes every day (Keene, 1982). They were promised that they would learn to sing in a month or become music teachers themselves in three months.
Some consider the hymn music of this time to be uniquely American—borrowing styles from Ireland, England, and Europe, but using dance rhythms, loose harmonic rules, and complex vocal parts (counterpoint) where each voice (soprano, alto, tenor and bass) sang its own unique melody and no one had the main melody. Original American composers such as William Billings wrote hundreds of hymns in this style.
19th century
Johann H. Pestalozzi (1746–1827)
Pestalozzi was an educational reformer and Swiss philosopher born in 1746. He is known as the father of modern education. Although his philosophies are over 200 years old, you may recognize his ideas as sounding quite contemporary. He believed in a child-centered education that promoted understanding the world from the child’s level, taking into account individual development and concrete, tactile experiences such as working directly with plants, minerals for science, etc. He advocated teaching poor as well as rich children, breaking down a subject to its elements, and a broad, liberal education along with teacher training. In the U.S., normal schools would take off by the end of the 19th century, and advocates of Pestalozzi’s educational reform would put into place a system of teacher training that influences us to this day.
Lowell Mason (1792–1872) and the “Better Music” movement
Lowell Mason, considered the founder of music education in America, was a proponent of Pestalozzi’s ideas, particularly the rote method of teaching music, where songs were experienced and repeated first and concepts were taught afterward. Mason authored the first series book based on the rote method in 1864 called The Song Garden.
Mason was highly critical of both the singing schools of the day and the compositional style. He was horrified at the promises that singing schools made to their students—namely that they could be qualified to teach after only a few months of lessons, and the general composition techniques used at the time. Mason felt that the music, including the work of composers such as Billings, was “rude and crude.” To change this, he promoted simplified harmonies that made the melody the most prominent aspect of the music, and downgraded the importance of the other vocal parts to support the melody. He accomplished this through the establishment of shape note singing schools, which carried out his musical vision. The result was that the original hymn style became the purview of the shape note singing schools, mostly in the South, where they flourished for many years. The most famous shape-note book is called Sacred Harp.
Under the title “New Britain”, “Amazing Grace” appears in a 1847 publication of Southern Harmony in shape notes
The songs in Sacred Harp were religious hymns. “Amazing Grace” was one of the songs published in this book.
Amazing Grace
John Newton (1779), Sacred Harp Songbook (1844)
watch this Shape Note Singing
watch this Sacred Harp Shape Note Singing
read more Shape Notes
In 1833, Lowell Mason and others began to introduce the idea of music education in the schools. Mason, along with Thomas Hastings, went on to establish the first public school music program in Boston, beginning with the Boston Singing School, which taught children singing under his methodology. Eventually, regular classroom teachers were educated in normal schools (later called teachers’ colleges), developed in the mid-19th century, where they were taught the general subjects and were expected to teach the arts as well (Brown, 1919).
The up-to-date primary school, realizing the limitations of the 3 R’s curriculum, has enriched its program by adding such activities as singing, drawing, constructive occupations, story-telling, and games, and has endeavored to organize its work in terms of children rather than the subject matter (Temple, 1920, 499).
Music and the normal school
Normal schools in the 19th century grew out of a need to educate a burgeoning young American population. These schools were teacher preparation courses, usually with access to model schools where teachers in training could observe and practice teach. Music was a significant part of education. The Missouri State Normal School at Warrensburg stressed the importance of music in their catalog from 1873–74:
Vocal Music—the importance of music as one of the branches of education is fully recognized. Vocal music is taught throughout the entire course…and teachers are advised to make it a part of the course of instruction in every school with which they may be connected (Keene, 1982, p. 204).
Music and education in America: 20th century
Music supervisors, who oversaw the work of classroom teachers, received additional training in music. Music education in the early 20th century continued under the purview of the music supervisor, while classroom teachers were trained to teach music to their students. Gradually, a specialization process began to occur and music became a regular subject with its own certification, an educational tradition that continues to this day. By the 1920s, institutions in the U.S. began granting degrees in music education and, along with groups such as the Music Supervisor’s Conference (later the Music Educator’s National Conference and currently the National Association for Music Educators or NAfME), supported the use of qualified music teachers in the schools. Eventually, the arts broke into different specialties, and the separate role of music teacher as we know it was created.
Ironically, there was great concern at the time regarding these special music teachers. Because music was no longer in the hands of the classroom teachers, great effort was made to “bring music in as close a relation to the other work as is possible under the present arrangement of a special music teacher” (Goodrich, 1901, p. 133).
Contemporary Music Education
Instructional methods
The role of music in the U.S. educational system is perpetually under discussion. On one hand, many see structural problems inherent in music’s connection to its history and the glaring distinction between the prevalence, importance, and function of music’s role in everyday life and its embattled role in the classroom Sloboda (2001). On the other, increased advocacy is required in order to justify music’s existence and terms of benefits to the child amidst the threat of constant budget cuts. Given this, it is important to remember music education’s history, origin and deep roots in the American education experience.
The beginning of the 20th century was an exciting time for music education, with several significant instructional methods being developed and taking hold. In the United States, music education developed around a method of instruction, the Normal Music Course, the remnants of which are adhered to even today in music classrooms. The books used a “graded” curriculum with successively more complex songs and exercises, and combined author-composed songs in these books with folk and classical material. An online copy of the New Normal Music Course (1911) for fourth and fifth graders is accessible via Google Books.
In Europe and Asia, four outstanding and very different music instruction methods developed: the Kodály Method, Orff Schulwerk, Suzuki, and Dalcroze all played significant roles in furthering music education abroad and in the U.S., and were methods based on folk and classical genres (see Chapter 4 for further discussion about these methods). In contrast to the early music books for the Normal School, for which there was “a paucity of song material prompting the authors of the original course to chiefly use their own song material” (Tufts & Holt, 1911, p. 3), Kodály and Orff in particular used authentic music in their methods, and authentic music directly related to children’s lives (see Chapter 4 for more on this).
Resources
Gregory, A., Worrall, L., & Sarge, A. (1996). The development of emotional responses to music in young children. Motivation and Emotion. December 20 (4), 341–348.
Boone, R., & Cunningham, J. (2001). Children’s expression of emotional meaning in music through expressive body movement Journal of Non-verbal Behavior. March, 25 (1), 21–41.
• Children as young as four and five years old were able to portray emotional meaning in music through expressive movement.
Metz, E. R. (1989). Movement as a musical response among preschool children. Journal of Research in Music Education 37, 48–60.
• The primary result of “Movement as a Musical Response Among Preschool Children” was the generation of a substantive theory of children’s movement responses to music. The author also derived implications of the seven propositions of early children education and movement responses to music.
Sims, W., & Cassidy, J. (1997). Verbal and operant responses of young children to vocal versus instrumental song performances. Journal of Research in Music Education, 45(2), 234–244.
• Young children’s music attitudes and responses do not seem to be based on specific musical characteristics; children may have very idiosyncratic responses and listening styles.
Vocabulary
articulation: the manner in which notes are played or words pronounced; e.g., long or short, stressed or unstressed
counterpoint: the art of combining melodies
dynamics: indicates the volume of the sound, and the changes in volume (e.g. loudness, softness, crescendo, decrescendo).
harmony: the simultaneous combination of tones, especially when blended into chords pleasing to the ear; chordal structure, as distinguished from melody and rhythm
homophony: a melody with an accompaniment; e.g., a lead singer and a band
indigenous groups: people associated with a certain area who formulate their own culture
melody: musical sounds in agreeable succession or arrangement
meter: the organization of strong and weak beats; unit of measurement in terms of number of beats in a measure
monophony: single layer or sound; e.g.; a soloist
notation: how notes are written on the page
pitch: the frequency of a note’s vibration
polyphony: two or more independent voices; e.g., a round of a fugue
psalms and hymns: examples of church music
recitation: reading a text using heightened speech, similar to chanting
rhythm: the pattern of regular or irregular pulses caused in music by the occurrences of strong or weak melodic and harmonic beats
rote method: memorization technique based on repetition, especially when material is to be learned quickly
shape notes: notation style used in early singing schools in the U.S. where each note had a unique shape by which it was identified
silence: the absence of sound
solfege: a music education method to teach pitch and sight reading, assigning syllables to the notes of a scale; i.e., Do, Re, Mi, Fa, Sol, La, Ti, Do would be assigned to represent and help hear the major scale pitches
sound: vibrations travelling through air, water, gas, or other media that are picked up by the human ear drum
tempo: relative rapidity or rate of movement, usually indicated by terms such as adagio, allegro, etc., or by reference to the metronome. Also, the number of beats per minute
texture: the way in which melody, harmony, and rhythm are combined in a piece; the density, thickness, or thinness or layers of a piece
timbre: the tone color of each sound; each voice has a unique tone color (vibrato, nasal, resonance, vibrant, ringing, strident, high, low, breathy, piercing, rounded warm, mellow, dark, bright, heavy, or light) | textbooks/socialsci/Early_Childhood_Education/Book%3A_Music_and_the_Child_(Sarrazin)/1.02%3A_Music-_Fundamentals_and_Educational_Roots_in_the_U.S..txt |
Chapter Summary: This chapter is divided into two parts. The first section addresses the role of assessment in education. The second section addresses personal assessment in relation to your professional development and career goals.
Regardless of which field you find yourself in, you will more than likely be responsible for implementing a plan of goals and assessment. In business, education, science, and so forth, most productivity is determined by an evaluation of employees or students, and funding is often allocated based on that assessment.
As mentioned in Chapter 1, education assessment for all subjects and the arts has undergone significant change over the past 30 years, from No Child Left Behind to the Common Core State Standards Initiative. In this section, we will examine various discipline and national standards for the arts, particularly music.
I. Discipline-Based Assessment: National and Common Core State Standards
Beginning in the 1990s, a “Standards and Accountability” movement resulted in states writing goals for what students should know. This movement fueled the Common Core Standards Initiative, which produced the Common Core Standards that most states have adopted as of 2014. The Common Core Standards, however, are only written for English Language Arts and Mathematics, with no further intent to include other subject areas. However, this chapter will introduce the National Core Arts Standards for Music, while the Common Core standards in ELA and Math can be used when creating integrated lesson plans as introduced in later chapters.
National Core Arts Standards: 2014
The National Coalition for Core Arts Standards (NCCAS) is the organization responsible for creating standards for music, dance, theatre, and visual art. Below is an excerpt from the “National Core Arts Standards: A Conceptual Framework for Arts Learning,” which explains some of the background in their creation.
The standards movement emerged with the 1994 passage of the Goals 2000: Educate America Act. Title II of that act established a National Education Standards Improvement Council, which was charged with finding appropriate organizations to write standards. In doing so, there were three goals for the process: (1) to ensure that the standards reflect the best ideas in education, both in the United States and internationally; (2) to ensure that they reflect the best knowledge about teaching and learning; and (3) to ensure that they have been developed through a broad-based, open adoption process. The standards themselves were to define what students should “know and be able to do” to the end that “all students learn to use their minds well, so that they may be prepared for responsible citizenship, further learning, and productive employment in our nation’s modern economy.”
Standards for arts education are important for two fundamental reasons. First, they help define what a good education in the arts should provide: a thorough grounding in a basic body of knowledge and the skills required both to make sense and to make use of each of the arts discipline—including the intellectual tools to make qualitative judgments about artistic products and expression.
Second, when states and school districts adopt the standards, they are taking a stand for rigor, informed by a clear intent. A set of standards for arts education says, in effect, “an education in the arts means that students should know what is spelled out here, reach specified levels of attainment, and do both at defined points in their education” (NCCAS, 2014, p. 4).
The completed National Core Arts Standards include dance, media arts, music, theater, and visual arts. The common Core Standards in the arts addresses some of the 21st-century goals in education as well. Goals in the Core Standards focus on the 4 Cs: Creativity, Communication, Cooperation, and Collaboration. Below is a section from a College Board study entitled “The Arts and the Common Core: A Review of Connections Between the Common Core State Standards and the National Core Arts Standards Conceptual Framework” (2012), which addresses the connections between the two sets of standards.
The standards are based on assessing four areas of artistic process (creating; performing, presenting, producing; responding; and connecting), with each artistic process supported by several anchor standards. In each subject, the anchor standards are broken down further into individual goals and objectives for each grade level. These goals and objectives are used in lesson planning to focus the lesson, and to aid in effective assessment.
Anchor processes and standards as defined by the National Coalition for Core Arts Standards
Artistic Processes
Creating:
Conceiving and developing new artistic ideas and work.
Performing/Presenting/Producing
Performing: Realizing artistic ideas and work through interpretation and presentation.
Presenting: Interpreting and sharing artistic work.
Producing: Realizing and presenting artistic ideas and work.
Responding
Understanding and evaluating how the arts convey meaning.
Connecting
Relating artistic ideas and work with personal meaning and external context.
Anchor Standards
Students will:
1. Generate and conceptualize artistic ideas and work.
2. Organize and develop artistic ideas and work.
3. Evaluate and refine a complete artistic work.
Students will:
4. Analyze, interpret, and select artistic work for presentation.
5. Develop and refine artistic work for presentation.
6. Convey meaning through the presentation of artistic work.
Students will:
7. Perceive and analyze artistic work.
8. Interpret intent and meaning in artistic work.
9. Apply criteria to evaluate artistic work.
Students will:
10. Synthesize and relate knowledge and personal experiences to make art.
11. Relate artistic ideas and works with societal, cultural, and historical context to deepen understanding.
1994 National Standards for Arts Education
Because the Common Core Standards in the arts or music are quite new, in many organizations the National Standards in Music from 1994 are still in use
1994 National Standards in Music Education content and achievement standards for grades K-4 (NAfME, 1994).
Singing, alone and with others, a varied repertoire of music
Achievement Standard 1
• Students sing independently, on pitch and in rhythm, with appropriate timbre, diction, and posture, and maintain a steady tempo
• Students sing expressively, with appropriate dynamics, phrasing, and interpretation
• Students sing from memory a varied repertoire of songs representing genres and styles from diverse cultures
• Students sing ostinatos, partner songs, and rounds
• Students sing in groups, blending vocal timbres, matching dynamic levels, and responding to the cues of a conductor
Performing on instruments, alone and with others, a varied repertoire of music
Achievement Standard 2
• Students perform on pitch, in rhythm, with appropriate dynamics and timbre, and maintain a steady tempo
• Students perform easy rhythmic, melodic, and chordal patterns accurately and independently on rhythmic, melodic, and harmonic classroom instruments
• Students perform expressively a varied repertoire of music representing diverse genres and styles
• Students echo short rhythms and melodic patterns
• Students perform in groups, blending instrumental timbres, matching dynamic levels, and responding to the cues of a conductor
• Students perform independent instrumental parts (e.g., simple rhythmic or melodic ostinatos, contrasting rhythmic lines, harmonic progressions, and chords) while other students sing or play contrasting parts
Improvising melodies, variations, and accompaniments
Achievement Standard 3
• Students improvise “answers” in the same style to given rhythmic and melodic phrases
• Students improvise simple rhythmic and melodic ostinato accompaniments
• Students improvise simple rhythmic variations and simple melodic embellishments on familiar melodies
• Students improvise short songs and instrumental pieces, using a variety of sound sources, including traditional sounds (e.g., voices, instruments), nontraditional sounds available in the classroom (e.g., paper tearing, pencil tapping), body sounds (e.g., hands clapping, fingers snapping), and sounds produced by electronic means (e.g., personal computers and basic MIDI devices, including keyboards, sequencers, synthesizers, and drum machines)
Composing and arranging music within specified guidelines
Achievement Standard 4
• Students create and arrange music to accompany readings or dramatizations
• Students create and arrange short songs and instrumental pieces within specified guidelines (e.g., a particular style, form, instrumentation, or compositional technique)
• Students use a variety of sound sources when composing
Reading and notating music
Achievement Standard 5
• Students read whole, half, dotted half, quarter, and eighth notes and rests in 2/4, 3/4, and 4/4 meter signatures
• Students use a system (i.e., syllables, numbers, or letters) to read simple pitch notation in the treble clef in major keys
• Students identify symbols and traditional terms referring to dynamics, tempo, and articulation and interpret them correctly when performing
• Students use standard symbols to notate meter, rhythm, pitch, and dynamics in simple patterns presented by the teacher
Listening to, analyzing, and describing music
Achievement Standard 6
• Students identify simple music forms when presented aurally
• Students demonstrate perceptual skills by moving, by answering questions about, and by describing aural examples of music of various styles representing diverse cultures
• Students use appropriate terminology in explaining music, music notation, music instruments and voices, and music performances
• Students identify the sounds of a variety of instruments, including many orchestra and band instruments, and instruments from various cultures, as well as children’s voices and male and female adult voices
• Students respond through purposeful movement (e.g., swaying, skipping, dramatic play) to selected prominent music characteristics or to specific music events (e.g., meter changes, dynamic changes, same/different sections) while listening to music
Evaluating music and music performances
Achievement Standard 7
• Students devise criteria for evaluating performances and compositions
• Students explain, using appropriate music terminology, their personal preferences for specific musical works and styles
Understanding relationships between music, the other arts, and disciplines outside the arts
Achievement Standard 8
• Students identify similarities and differences in the meanings of common terms (e.g., form, line, contrast) used in the various arts
• Students identify ways in which the principles and subject matter of other disciplines taught in the school are interrelated with those of music (e.g., foreign languages: singing songs in various languages; language arts: using the expressive elements of music in interpretive readings; mathematics: mathematical basis of values of notes, rests, and time signatures; science: vibration of strings, drum heads, or air columns generating sounds used in music; geography: songs associated with various countries or regions)
Understanding music in relation to history and culture
Achievement Standard 9
• Students identify by genre or style aural examples of music from various historical periods and cultures
• Students describe in simple terms how elements of music are used in music examples from various cultures of the world
• Students identify various uses of music in their daily experiences and describe characteristics that make certain music suitable for each use
• Students identify and describe roles of musicians (e.g., orchestra conductor, folksinger, church organist) in various music settings and cultures
• Students demonstrate audience behavior appropriate for the context and style of music performed
For a summary of the 1994 K–12 standards in dance, music, theater, and visual arts, see The Kennedy Center’s easy to navigate overview.
1994 National Music Standards for early childhood education (NAfME, 1994).
Pre-K Standards for Music Educators
Infants
The National Music Education Pre-K Standards are intended for ages two to four. However, guidelines are given below for infant and toddler music experiences. These guidelines include:
1. Singing and chanting to them, using songs and rhymes representing a variety of meters and tonalities
2. Imitating the sounds infants make
3. Exposing them to a wide variety of vocal, body, instrumental, and environmental sounds
4. Providing exposure to selected live and recorded music
5. Rocking, patting, touching, and moving with children to the beat, rhythm patterns, and melodic direction of the music they hear
6. Providing safe toys that make musical sounds the children can control
7. Talking about music and its relationship to expression and feeling
Toddlers (Two- to three- year olds)
By age four, children should be prepared to learn music at the kindergarten level when they enter school. Guidelines for musical experiences for two-, three-, and four-year-olds are:
1. Two-, three-, and four-year-olds need an environment that includes a variety of sound sources, selected recorded music, and opportunities for free improvised singing and the building of a repertoire of songs
2. An exploratory approach, using a wide variety of appropriate materials, provides a rich base from which conceptual understanding can evolve in later years
3. A variety of individual musical experiences is important at this age, with little emphasis on activities that require children to perform together as a unit
Pre-school (Four-year-olds)
1. Content Standard: Singing and Playing Instruments
a. Use their voices expressively as they speak, chant, and sing
b. Sing a variety of simple songs in various keys, meters, and genres alone and with a group, becoming increasingly accurate in rhythm and pitch
c. Experiment with a variety of instruments and other sound sources
d. Play simple melodies and accompaniments on instruments
2. Content Standard: Creating Music Achievement Standards:
a. Improvise songs to accompany their play activities
b. Improvise instrumental accompaniments to songs, recorded selections, stories, and poems
c. Create short pieces of music, using voices, instruments, and other sound sources
d. Invent and use original graphic or symbolic systems to represent vocal and instrumental sounds and musical ideas
3. Content Standard: Responding to Music Achievement Standards:
a. Identify the sources of a wide variety of sounds
b. Respond through movement to music of various tempos, meters, dynamics, modes, genres, and styles to express what they hear and feel in works of music
c. Participate freely in music activities
4. Content Standard: Understanding Music Achievement Standards:
a. Use their own vocabulary and standard music vocabulary to describe voices, instruments, music notation, and music of various genres, styles, and periods from diverse cultures
b. Sing, play instruments, move, or verbalize to demonstrate awareness of the elements of music and changes in their usage
c. Demonstrate an awareness of music as a part of daily life
Complete National Arts Standards are available on the National Association for Music Educators website, as well as a comparison between the 1994 standards and the most recent revision.
State Policy in Education Database
Because information on state policy in education changes continuously, the Arts Education Partnership has made available a searchable state policy database. This site allows you to track any changes regarding teaching and learning in the arts.
II. Personal Assessment
As you begin to develop the professional goals for yourself and your career, it is crucial to be able to assess these goals in relation to who you are, the people you work with, and the students you teach. Knowing who you are and being able to assess your abilities, strengths, and weaknesses is critical to your success in any field. As you learn to master the core material for your career, you might also be ready to find your moorings in terms of your professional self. This will require the maturity to self-assess and thoughtfully apply criticism towards self-enhancement and development as a professional in your field. Below are some materials to help you create a vision of your “professional” self that will serve you throughout your career and lifetime.
What Is a Professional?
Right now, you are a “professional student,” so as you read the material below, apply the criteria to your behavior and professional as a student.
• Are you the best student you can be?
• Do you approach your assignments and classes in earnest and with a commitment towards learning?
• Are you able to apply the material you’re learning towards your development as a person?
• Are you developing excellent work habits?
Below, you’ll find a definition of what a professional is, as well as a chart explaining the top 10 dimensions of what it means to be professional, and a professional assessment rubric to determine where you fall on the spectrum of “professionalism.”
Professionals follow through on each commitment and organizational role in a way that exceeds the expectations of others. Professionals are positive, action oriented, opened minded, poised, adaptable, respectful, self-regulated, empathic, organized, prepared, and collaborative. Professionals perform effectively in teams and communicate effectively to individuals and groups through various means. They have special expertise and contribute to a range of challenging disciplinary areas. Life-long learning and self-growth are valued, practiced, and mentored in others. They take care with appearance, language, and productive behaviors to create an image of success. Professionals encourage and support environments that produce trust by demonstrating integrity through ethical and inclusive decision-making.
Dimensions of a Professional
Professionals Are:
Accountable
Professionals take full responsibility before, during, and after each effort or decision; share credit for positive results with others; and readily accept consequences when things don’t go as expected.
Reliable
Professionals can be counted on doing what they say within the allocated time and committed resources; they are ready to help others when needed.
Self-assessors
Professionals set criteria for each performance; make key observations; reflect and analyze on these observations, behaviors, and actions; and consistently make improvements without being prompted by others.
Self-aware
Professionals understand the implications of their behaviors and actions on others and adapt appropriately for each changing situation.
Self-motivators
Professionals are energetic, passionate, and invested in living their daily values.
Risk-takers
Professionals achieve success by taking risks that others may consider to be unpopular, and are willing to deal with temporary failure and resistance so long as it is in the best interest of the project or activity.
Experts
Professionals actively advance disciplinary and interdisciplinary knowledge with every learning opportunity to remain current on relevant innovations, methodologies, and practices in their own and related areas of expertise.
Communicators
Professionals effectively express informally and formally through a range of modes and refined interpersonal skills their expertise, expectations, and means to both large groups and individuals.
Ethical
Professionals place a high and consistent focus on aligning decisions and actions with quality individual, disciplinary, and organizational values.
Presentable
Professionals represent themselves in a manner that is above reproach at all times in their appropriate dress, language, and behaviors.
Taking Stock: A Professional Self-Assessment Rubric
Even though you may not have officially begun your “professional” career, you are, in a sense, practicing the behaviors that you will perform in your jobs right now. How you organize your time, how you present yourself, and most importantly the type of attitudes you have towards your responsibilities as students, are all harbingers of how you will comport yourself in your future career.
Although you may still be a student, you can begin to develop the personal goals that you will need to succeed. Being honest with yourself is the best policy when assessing. As you read through the section below, try to imagine your behaviors in different circumstances (e.g., behavior as a student alone or in a group, or as a colleague or worker) to see where you are excelling or where you need to apply yourself. Remember, self-assessment is only for your benefit to develop and grow as a person, and is not punitive.
Take a moment to read the rubric below and see where you fit in. Now is the time to grow and develop, so keep in mind where you are, where you want to be, and how you might get there.
Professional Self-Assessment Rubric.
A. Polished Professionals
• Take full public responsibility of all actions and decisions and follow through in everything on time and above expectations.
• Use every performance to produce opportunities for increasing future performances, thus seeing what must be accomplished in every new situation.
• Are very passionate in all that they do and step out in front to do what must be done to accomplish every task with quality.
• Have extensive interdisciplinary expertise and can help others understand and make connections through formal and informal communications.
• Constantly make the “right” difficult decisions and represent themselves and their organizations as the leaders they are.
B. Professionals
• Tackle tough assignments with full responsibility and bring in results that meet the expectations of the immediate stakeholders.
• Frequently use self-assessment as a means to improve future performance and to increase their effectiveness with those around them.
• Have aligned their careers with their values.
• Take risks in their domain that others fear making.
• Have extensive disciplinary knowledge and some interdisciplinary understanding.
• Communicate effectively within their discipline.
• Can be trusted to do what is right in almost all situations and consistently represent themselves and their organization in a positive way.
C. Inconsistent Professionals
• Will accept responsibility on those things they choose and decisions they owned and will meet common expectations consistently.
• Self-assess on their very important efforts and know what to do during the routine enterprises, but struggle in new situations.
• Do extremely well in what they enjoy doing and take risks in areas, but do not seem to like taking risks themselves.
• Have pockets of strong expertise and can communicate in areas of their expertise when focused.
• Consistently do what is right in common situations and know how to behave and dress in normal situations.
D. Pre-Professionals
• Are willing to take responsibilities with moderate consequences and will do their best to please the key stakeholder.
• Will try to assess themselves when requested and take in things that others point out as important in their surroundings.
• Occasionally find things that excite and motivate them and will take risks when others in power support them.
• Will work to become knowledgeable in areas of their current job responsibility and put efforts in trying to communicate effectively.
People
• Constantly shift responsibility to others and often find extensive justification for why they couldn’t deliver what’s been asked for.
• On rare occasions see the need for reflection and are often overwhelmed by the current changing context.
• Need to be prompted with monitoring on a daily basis and take risks that are small and calculated.
• Have a small set of trained knowledge and constantly need to have things explained again and their communications verified.
• Are constantly challenged to do what is right and not convenient and come across as questionable in behaviors and dress.
Activity 3A
Try this
Go through the Professional Assessment Rubric in a group. Discuss what types of behaviors fall under each of the five categories. What does an unprofessional person do? A Pre-Professional person? An Inconsistent Professional? Give specific examples.
Now assess yourself as a “student.” Go through the Professional Assessment Rubric, and honestly appraise yourself in terms of how you behave currently as a student in your classes. Where do you fit in? Do you see yourself near the top of the list or towards the bottom? What behaviors do you engage in? What skills and attitudes do you need to work on? | textbooks/socialsci/Early_Childhood_Education/Book%3A_Music_and_the_Child_(Sarrazin)/1.03%3A_Assessment_and_Learning_Goals.txt |
Chapter Summary: The goal of this chapter is to introduce the reader to the most well-known music teaching methods used in music education. They are Zoltan Kodály, Emile-Jacques Dalcroze, Orff Schulwerk, Edwin Gordon, Shinseki Suzuki, and Reggio Emilia. This chapter also familiarizes the reader with each method’s philosophy and principles, unique pedagogy, and practices and activities.
The material introduced in this chapter will be referenced and built upon throughout the remainder of the book.
Music Methods for Working With Children
What Is a Method?
A music education, or any other type of education method, is a teaching approach that has: 1) an identifiable underlying philosophy or set of principles; 2) a unified body of pedagogy unique to it with a body of well-defined practice; 3) goals and objectives worthy of pursuit; and 4) integrity (i.e., its reason for existence must not be commercial) (Chosky et al.).
Although these approaches are often taught in music education classes, they are highly applicable, accessible, and integrated methods appropriate for anyone interested in working with children and the arts, or music in education in addition to music education. All educators can incorporate the basic techniques used in these methods as they offer creative, arts-driven curricula through which to teach.
Method Similarities
The music methods of Jaques-Emile Dalcroze, Zoltan Kodály, Carl Orff, and S. Suzuki are time-tested and contain well-practiced and researched techniques for teaching music. All of these approaches to music learning contain fundamental similarities in that they:
• Are systematic and sequential in design;
• Utilize music with authenticity and integrity, such as folk music;
• Are based on incorporating the “mother-tongue” approach to rhythm, pitch, and timbre from the child’s persepctive, innate behaviors and how interaction with their natural environment; and
• Encourage active engagement with the student.
They are also “comprehensive and holistic [in preparing] children to be artists, creators, and producers and not just consumers of music.They pair active and actual music-making with conceptual learning experiences offered in a systematic approach” (Moore).
The holistic nature of these highly integrated approaches, is still conducive today for implementation in an integrated arts program. This is due to the fact that their core identities, particularly Orff and Dalcroze, contain elements of drama, movement, sound, and music.
Orff Schulwerk
Philosophy
Since the beginning of time, children have not liked to study. They would much rather play, and if you have their interests at heart, you will let them learn while they play; they will find that what they have mastered is child’s play.
—Carl Orff
The Orff Schulwerk method is the only approach that is not a systematic “method” per se, although it does entail fostering creative thinking through improvisational experiences. Rather than a system, Schulwerk combines instruments, singing, movement, and speech to develop children’s innate musical abilities. There are four stages of teaching:
• Imitation
• Exploration
• Improvisation
• Composition
Schulwerk is rooted in arts and subject integration. In the early 20th century, Carl Orff met gymnastics and dance educator Dorothée Gunther and established an innovative school for children based on the idea that all human beings are musical by nature. Their approach was to combine movement (gymnastics), music, and dance. Orff developed the concept of elemental music based on the synthesis of the arts of the Greek Muses, which combined tone, dance, poetry, image, design, and theatrical gesture. Gunther and Orff’s approach was to create a comfortable environment that approximates the child’s natural world of play, thus allowing children to be introduced to a range of musical skills in a relaxed and stress-free setting.
Carl Orff’s definition of elemental music is based on small-scale musical patterns (e.g., ostinato, drone) familiar to the students.
What then is elemental music? Elemental music is never music alone but forms a unity with movement, dance and speech. It is music that one makes oneself, in which one takes part not as a listener, but as a participant. It is unsophisticated, employs no big forms and no big architectural structures, and it uses small sequence forms, ostinato and rondo. Elemental music is near the earth, natural, physical, within the range of everyone to learn it and experience it and suitable for the child… (1963)
Orff Schulwerk utilizes children’s natural behaviors of play—experimenting, improvising—to access children’s innate musicality. Schulwerk uses the native language, sounds, timbres, rhythms, melodies, and tonal material surrounding the child, particularly in its folk music repertoire. Similar to many of the other methods, the Orff Schulwerk emphasizes that children should experience first and then analyze or intellectualize about music afterwards, and encourages hands-on music-making regardless of skill level.
The Orff Instrumentarium
In early 20th century Germany, there were few instruments accessible to children. Orff began by buying recorders, which were rare at the time. Since no one knew how to play them, Dorothée Gunther created instructional books to teach recorder to children. No one knew how to play them, so Dorothée Gunther created instructional books to teach them. Carl Orff came across an African xylophone, and developed a way to transform the xylophone into an instrument for the children at the school to play. He then developed the metal-barred metallophones from the idea of the Indonesian gamelan orchestra and the German glockenspiels, which were small metal-plated instruments found in Germany. Thus the instrumentarium was born—the complete set of which includes bass bars, bass, alto/tenor, and soprano metallophones, xylophones and alto and soprano glockenspiels. While each instrument is limited in range to fewer than two octaves, all together, from bass bars to soprano glockenspiel, the ensemble covers six octaves, creating an entire orchestra!
Contra Bass Bar Range (C2–C3)
The Orff Instrumentarium
Patterned accompaniments
Orff believed that one of the easiest ways to encourage student participation in music while also contributing to beautiful music-making is to have them play a simple accompaniment on a xylophone. By second grade, most students will be able to keep a steady beat, with a fair number able to do so by first grade. Below are some basic accompaniment patterns on the xylophone or metallophone that students should be able to perform easily.
Bordun/Chord Bordun: An open 5th, containing the 1st and 5th degrees of the chord. The 3rd is not played. For example, a bordun in C will include the two pitches C and G; in F, the F and C; in G the G and D; in d minor the d and a, etc. A chord bordun means that the 1st and 5th degrees are played simultaneously.
Example of Bass Bordun With Introduction and Simple Pentatonic Melody
Broken Bordun: The notes of the bordun are played separately.
Example of Moving Chord Bordun With “Lil’ Liza Jane” Melody
Level Bordun: The bordun plays in different octaves.
Crossover Bordun: The mallets cross over to play the pattern.
Drone: A note or chord continuously sounding without change. A bordun functions as a type of drone.
Ostinato: Motif or phrase that repeats.
Orff as arts integration
One of Orff Schulwerk’s major contributions is its emphasis on arts integration. Orff includes language (stories, poetry, rhythmic speech), movement (dance, improvisation), and drama as well as music.
The Orff process
The American adaptation of Orff Schulwerk utilizes four stages to organize the process of teaching music: imitation, exploration, improvisation, and composition. These four stages establish the fundamental building blocks for children to develop musical literacy. They are similar to Bloom’s taxonomy, in that they begin by introducing a very basic skill set and then gradually move on to more complex activities such as composition, which is represented in the upper phases of the taxonomy.
Bloom’s Taxonomy
Parallels between Orff’s building blocks and Bloom’s taxonomy
Bloom’s Taxonomy
Imitation
Exploration
Improvisation
Composition
Remember
Understand
Apply
Create, Analyze
Imitation: Echoing, responding
Imitation builds the student’s repertoire of pitches, rhythms, meter, tempo, and dynamics. Students absorb the fundamental music materials for their “tool box” to be used in more complex activities in the future.
Exploration
Students begin to understand and even apply the knowledge learned through imitation. They hear the movement of pitches, the content of rhythms, the movement of meter, and explore the timbre of whatever instrument or voice with which they have access. The Orff Instrumentarium provides almost limitless possibilities for exploration.
Improvisation
After exploration and imitation, students not only understand, but also can apply some of the possible combinations of rhythms and pitches, form and dynamics, etc., within a musical framework.
Composition
Composing is a pinnacle of music-making in that the composer must also analyze the musical material s/he is working with in order to create a new piece.
Applying the Orff approach developmentally
Schulwerk understands that to be an excellent musician, the art form must be highly familiar and internalized to the point of being second nature. Through the practice of imitation, exploration, improvisation, and composition, students learn what music is by performing.
Step 1: Preparation for instrument playing
Before playing instruments, Schulwerk requires that all sounds be internalized, or practiced on and in the body. The voice is primary, and singing songs and speaking and creating poems should be mastered before playing an instrument, which is seen as an activity that extends the body. Before playing a bordun on an instrument, the musician should be able to simultaneously sing a melody and patsch (literally means “smack” in German, but refers to patting legs with an open hand) or clap a separate part such as a bordun as body percussion.
The Orff method makes use of nursery rhymes, folktales, folksongs, folkdances, and authentic, classical compositions—all music and literature of primary importance and quality.
Step 2: Body percussion
Orff also made use of body percussion—i.e. use of snap, clap, patsch, and stamping. The use of body percussion is not only a helpful stage towards externalizing rhythm before instrument playing, but when coupled with singing or rhythmic speaking, it allows practice towards the type of multitasking required to perform multiple parts, e.g., harmony, polyphony, and so forth.
Body percussion is usually written in a four-line staff, which includes (ST = stamp, P = patsch, CL = clap, and FN or SN for snap).
Patsching, which is done on the lap, and snapping can have markings indicating which hand should be used, right or left. For patsching or snapping, if there is no R or L indicated, both hands play simultaneously.
One Two Three
A good way to internalize the rhythm is to by first learning the rhyme, then adding the body percussion. After that, gradually drop the lyrics one measure at a time (either from the beginning to the end or from the end to the beginning) so that children end up only performing the body percussion, as the following example shows.
One two three
One two three
One two three
One two three
q q q
Johnny caught a flea
Johnny caught a flea
Johnny caught a flea
ee ee q
ee ee q
Flea died Johnny cried,
Flea died Johnny cried,
q q eeit q
q q ee q
q qit ee q
“tee, hee, hee”
q q q
q q q
q q q
q q q
Extension: Small groups can also perform this as a round with each group starting one measure apart.
Body percussion can become increasingly challenging as well. The next step would be to say (or sing) a rhyme along with an ostinato. The “One two three” rhyme, for example, uses all four maintypes of body percussion—stamping, clapping, patsching, and snapping—but not all of the types of body percussion need to be incorporated.
Jack and Jill
English nursery rhyme, 1760s
An even more challenging and creative way to use body percussion is to create onomatopoeia in accordance with the lyrics, mimicking or relating to the sounds presented in the rhyme. For example, in the rhyme “Banbury Cross,” the patsching eighth notes in measures 3 and 4 could be mimicking the hoofbeats of the horse. Also, the finger snaps in measure 5 indicate the rings-on-her-fingers line and likewise the stomps fit the bells-on-her-toes line. There is no right or wrong way to add body percussion to enhance the rhyme; it is all in the ear of the beholder!
The Fine Lady statue at Banbury Cross, Oxfordshire
Ride a Cock Horse to Banbury Cross
English Rhyme, 1780
Activity 4A
Try this
Select a nursery rhyme. Say it a few times as rhythmically as possible. Then create a simple body percussion accompaniment such as patsch clap, patsch clap. Now try to vary the accompaniment to highlight or mimic the lyrics in some way.
Orff Improvisation
Schulwerk’s elemental music is based on both experimentation and improvisation, allowing children to explore the tones, rhythms, and timbres of music from their own abilities and creative perspectives. To this end, Orff created frameworks or pathways to help children experiment without pressure or stress.
The easiest way to experiment on the Orff instruments is to begin with the pentatonic scale, a scale with only five pitches. The pentatonic scale may be major or minor. For a major pentatonic scale, have children remove the F and B bars from their instrument leacing them with C, D, E, G, and A. This allows them to create beautiful music beginning and ending on C without having to worry about not sounding beautiful or making mistakes. For the minor pentatonic scale, keep the same five pitches, but begin and end on A.
Pentatonic Scales
Major Pentatonic (F Major)
This is an example of F Major Pentatonic in the folk song “Great Big House.”
Great Big House
Minor Pentatonic (D minor)
This is an example of D Minor Pentatonic in the folk song “The Canoe Song.”
The Canoe Song
Modes
Orff also made use of modes, which are types of scales with non-musical characteristics. The Greeks used modes such as Lydian (F to F on the white keys of a piano), Dorian (D to D on the white keys), Aeolian (A to A on the white keys or the natural minor scale), and Mixolydian (G to G on the white keys).
Lydian Mode
This is an example of Lydian mode in the “Simpson’s Theme Song” by Danny Elfman.
Simpson’s Theme Song (excerpt)
Dorian Mode
This is an example of Dorian mode in “Scarborough Fair,” an English folk song.
Scarborough Fair (excerpt)
Aeolian Mode (also known as the natural minor scale)
This is an example of Aeolian mode in the American folk song “Aeolian Lullaby.”
Aeolian Lullaby
Mixolydian Mode
This is an example of Mixolydian mode in “Norwegian Wood” by Lennon/McCartney.
Norwegian Wood (excerpt)
These modes are easily performed on the xylophone and beautiful and interesting in their construction. In particular, they can raise a child’s awareness of different moods and aesthetics, allowing them new modes through which to experiment with self-expression and also new material with which to enhance stories and narratives.
Activity 4B
Try this
The easiest way to experiment with modes is to begin and end on the pitches outlined above. Try experimenting with the Dorian D-to-D scale or Mixolydian G-to-G scale.
Speech and drama
Both Orff and Kodály techniques allow children to experiment with language to feel comfortable with their own internal speech and body rhythms. Creating poems or speech pieces and adding dynamics, musical instruments/timbres, playing with form (adding a musical introduction, bordun, etc.), and then acting them out enables a child’s creative process through language.
Adding music to drama
Taking a story and adding sound effects, leitmotifs, instruments, vocal sounds, body percussion, and actors and/or a narrator also brings literature to life. The goal of a leitmotif is to help the listener identify a main character or theme in the story. For example, characters and themes are given a short musical pattern, and every time that character or theme appears, the musical pattern is performed. Also, sound effects are added to enhance the action or bring a fuller meaning or experience. For example, if the story speaks of a bell chiming, play a bell peal on the glockenspiels for older children’s response, or more minimally, hit a triangle. Excellent stories for this type of activity include folk tales or fairy tales from around the world. (See Chapter 12 on Integration for an example).
Activity 4C
Try this
Use basic instruments to experiment with creating or changing the mood. For preschool and lower elementary students, use a small instrument such as a glockenspiel to play soft, slow music to set the mood for naptime or to quiet children down for a transition to a new activity. Perform an energetic rhythm on a drum to engage children to move or prepare for a more rigorous physical transition.
Quick play tip
The easiest way to make beautiful music on one of the Orff instruments is to remove the “F” and “B” bars and then play on the remaining notes. Anything you play will sound wonderful!
The Kodály Method
It is a long accepted truth that singing provides the best start to music education; moreover, children should learn to read music before they are provided with any instrument… Even the most talented artist can never overcome the disadvantages of an education without singing. (Kodály, 1974, p. 201, 204)
Kodály’s Philosophy
The Kodály philosophy of music education supports music’s role in the intellectual, emotional, physical, social, and spiritual development of every child. A central tenet of the Kodály approach is that music belongs to everyone—that an education in music is the right of every human being and cannot be left to chance.
Zoltán Kodály (1882–1967) was an ethnomusicologist and composer from Hungary. He was appalled by children’s poor singing quality, and began to create teaching methods to improve it. His approach was highly sequential. He began with sight-reading and mastering basic rhythms and pitches that gradually increased step by step to become more complex, sometimes by adding only one new note or rhythmic value at a time.
Kodály was also appalled at the type of songs and repertoire children were learning in school, and began to focus on utilizing authentic folk music and composed music of excellent quality through which to teach children.
Depiction of Curwen’s Solfege hand signs. This version includes the tonal tendencies and interesting titles for each tone.
Figure 5. Kodály Hand signs adopted from Curwen
Kodály hand signs
Although he did not invent the hand signs, Kodály did make alterations based on two previously established hand sign systems—Sarah Glover’s Norwich sol-fa (1845) and John Curwen’s tonic sol-fa (1858). The hand signs are very much associated with the Kodály method, which uses the hand signs to help children visualize the spatial relationship between notes. This aids in proper and correct on-pitch singing as well as sight reading and ear training.
Positioning the hand signs
When using hand signs, the low Do should be placed at your waist or midsection, with the upper Do at about eye-level. The other hand signs are placed equidistantly between the two Do’s.
Solfege in Kodály
Although solfege singing was around long before Kodály, he became known for it as he used it extensively in his sight-singing system exercises and throughout his method. Solfege corresponds to the notes of the major scale, using the syllables Do, Re, Mi, Fa, Sol, La, and Ti. These words are often abbreviated to D, R, M, F, S, L, T, and D.
In terms of notation, Kodály’s exercises do not have to use the regular musical staff. Instead, exercises and even songs can be written out using just the D, R, and M, etc., with the rhythm notated about it.
For example, the song “Mary Had a Little Lamb” would look like this.
q q q q\
M R D R
q q q (r)
M M M
q q q (r)
R R R
q q q (r)
M S S
q q q q
M R D R
q q q q
M M M M
q q q q
R R M R
q (r) (r) (r)
D
Use of the solfege is a highly effective way to teach children that music or notes are separate entities from lyrics. Teaching a song using solfege rather than the lyrics helps the listener hear patterns and intervals, and even understand phrases and form that otherwise might be obscured by lyrics.
Solfege teaching sequence
Kodály singing technique begins with the child practicing only a few pitches and mastering them before moving on to another note; e.g., beginning with only a minor 3rd interval of Sol and Mi, and gradually adding the La after the Sol and Mi are mastered. Gradually, the child will expand the number of pitches learned to include the major pentatonic scale (Do, Re, Mi, Sol, La), and minor pentatonic scale (La, Do, Re, Mi, S).
Kodály Exercise Examples
After these are mastered, the student is introduced to all of the diatonic pitches (Do, Re, Mi, Fa, Sol, La, Ti, etc.) and then the accidentals.
Repertoire
Kodály was not only a composer and musicologist, but an early ethnomusicologist. He collected dozens of folk songs from his native Hungary and used them in his method. When using the Kodály method in the U.S., American folk songs are used.
Love Somebody
American folk song
On Top of Old Smoky
Appalachian courting song
The Kodály Song Web contains hundreds of American and other folk songs from around the world, as well as musical information on every song to help teachers learn and teach them.
Kodály rhythm syllables
Kodály also incorporates rhythmic syllables in his method. These syllables are based on the work of Emile-Joseph Chêvé, a French theoretician. These syllables are taught sequentially as well, and begin from basic note values (i.e., quarter notes) up to more complex combinations.
Kodály rhythm syllables
Movement in Kodály
Although he was mostly known for popularizing the solfege hand signs and rhythm syllables, Kodály recognized the value of bodily movement as well. He was inspired by Swiss educator Emile-Jacques Dalcroze’s use of movement (see below), and incorporated walking, running, and clapping into his teaching strategies.
read More Exploring Kodály: Philosophies, Materials and Pedagogy (Dr. Pattye Cesarow)
Edwin Gordon
Edwin Gordon developed his Music Learning Theory after years of music research and studies. Music Learning Theory explores how we learn when we’re learning music. Like many other researchers before him, Gordon realized we are lacking in terminology to explain all of the complex processes that go on with music learning and listening. Gordon’s main concept is called audiation, which he defines as “hearing and comprehending in one’s mind the sound of music that is not, or may never have been, physically present” (2007, p. 399).
Philosophy
According to Gordon, we are each born with music aptitude. As with other human learning potentials, there is a wide range of music aptitude levels distributed among the human population. Moreover, both music aptitude and music achievement are dependent on audiation; i.e., our music learning potentials and our music learning achievements are based on our music thinking. Most importantly, music thinking goes beyond mere imitation and leads to music comprehension (2007).
Gordon’s Skill Learning Sequence is based on two main categories of learning: Discrimination and Inference. Discrimination learning occurs by rote, and occurs when a teacher teaches the basic building blocks of music—vocabulary and aural and rhythmic patterns. Inference learning occurs conceptually, where the student is able to identify, create, and improvise with musical materials already learned. The student at this point is discovering music on his or her own.
Rhythmic learning concerns understanding three basic concepts: the macrobeat, the microbeat, and melodic rhythm. Macrobeats are those we feel as main beats or longer beats such as when we’re dancing. In 4/4 or 2/4 time, for example, the macrobeat is represented by quarter notes, while in 3/4 time it is represented by the dotted half.
Examples of Macrobeats
Microbeats are shorter than macrobeats and represent the equal division of the macrobeat. In 4/4 or 2/4 time, microbeats would be represented by the eighth notes, while in 3/4 time microbeats would be represented by the quarter notes.
Examples of Microbeats
Melodic rhythm refers to any rhythmic patterns in a piece. Rhythms can relate to the melody or text from a piece of music. Similar to Kodály, Gordon also used two types of solfege—tonal solfege (do, re, mi, etc.) for the pitches and rhythm solfege for rhythm (du de, du de, etc. to represent duple meter, and du da di, du da di to represent triple).
His approach begins on a holistic level, where the student experiences the whole song, piece, and so forth; applies analysis; and then re-experiences the whole again but now through the lens of having analyzed the inner workings in detail.
Similar to other sequenced learning approaches, such as Vygotsky’s Zone of Proximal Development or scaffolding, Gordon’s approach relies on a gradual increase in skill level difficulty as the student progresses. For example, because improvising music is far more complex than imitating basic patterns, the latter is required in order to perform the former. This “Whole-Part-Whole” process recommends first engaging in generalized activities to “experience the whole,” then progressing to “Study the parts,” finally returning again to the entire piece of music (Valerio, n.d.)
read more The Gordon Approach
Dalcroze
Emile-Jacques Dalcroze is a Swiss educator best known for eurhythmics, which incorporates rhythm, structure, and musical expression with movement. The ultimate goal is to develop total cognitive and kinesthetic awareness through sound. The music acts as a stimulus to which the body responds, after which sensation returns to the brain to form emotions, which deepens the significance of the experience.
Philosophy
The Dalcroze philosophy centers on the concept that the synthesis of the mind, body, and resulting emotions is fundamental to all meaningful learning. Plato said in his Laws: “Education has two branches, one of gymnastics, which is concerned with the body, and the other of music, which is designed for the improvement of the soul” (Pennington, 1925, p. 9). Emile-Jaques Dalcroze believed that every musician should strive to be sensitive and expressive, and to express music through purposeful movement, sound, thought, feeling, and creativity.
Mead (1994) cites four basic premises that encapsulate the Dalcroze philosophy:
1. Eurhythmics awakens the physical, aural, and visual images of music in the mind.
2. Solfege (sight singing and ear training), improvisation, and eurhythmics together work to improve expressive musicality and enhance intellectual understanding.
3. Music may be experienced through speech, gesture, and movement.
4. These can likewise be experienced in time, space, and energy. Humans learn best when learning through multiple senses. Music should be taught through the tactile, kinesthetic, aural, and visual senses.
The Dalcroze approach is based on eurhythmics, which teaches rhythm, structure, and musical expression through music. Eurhythmics begins with ear training, or solfege, to develop the inner musical ear. This differs from Kodály’s use of solfege in that it is always combined with movement. Another component of the method concerns improvisation, which helps students sharpen their spontaneous reactions and physical responses to music.
Types of movement
Each movement involves time, space, and force, and all three should be taken into account when moving, paying close attention to the musical attributes of the movement.Time: Tempo (rate of speed) and duration (fast, moderate, slow)
• Space: Direction, distance covered, level, dimension (large, small), path (straight, twisted), and focus
• Force: Energy or power expended, quality of the movement, and any adjectives to describe the movement (e.g., heavy, light, sharp, energetic, gentle)
Movement that stays stationary is called non-locomotor, while movement that moves through space is locomotor.
• Non-locomotor (movement in place):
• Stretch, curl, clap, snap, patsch, tap, stomp, twist, turn, conduct, sway, jump, bend, speak, stretch, swing, reach
• Locomotor (movement through space):
• Walk, slide, skip, run, leap, gallop, hop, jump, slither, creep, roll, jog
Regardless of the type, movements should above all be musical. Movements should also be focused and thoughtful; i.e. preparation should occur before each movement; the movement should take into account the full length of the beat; and the movement should return back to pre-preparation status. It is essential that the movement coordinate with the beat of the music, the rhythm, and the phrasing (depending on the exercise).
Dalcroze’s exercises are always sequential, beginning with the simplest and becoming more complex as students master and develop their skills. Children are introduced to key musical elements such as meter, dynamics, rhythms, tempo, duration, melody, form, phrase, and pitch.
Types of eurhythmics
There are four types of basic eurhythmic exercises:
1. Follow
2. Quick reaction
3. Interrupted canon
4. Canon
1. A follow exercise is a basic music-movement response exercise. Students physically respond to the sounds they hear.
Examples:
Students walk to the beat of music (piano, drum, etc.) and respond to changes of tempo (speeding up or slowing down), rhythms (walking on quarter notes, running on eighth notes, skipping on dotted rhythms), etc.
2. A quick reaction exercise requires students to respond to verbal signals or cues.
Examples:
Students move while the music is playing and freeze when the music stops or the teacher yells out a command. Students also can change their movements on a given signal, such as switching from a loco-motor to a non-loco-motor when they hear a drum beat or chime or when the music stops.
3. An interrupted canon is similar to an “echo” where students imitate or echo a beat, pattern, etc. The interrupted canon is a preparatory exercise for the canon.
Examples:
Students hear a rhythm and then echo it back on their body (lap, clap, etc.).
4. A canon requires students to echo back a pattern, but one measure later. While they are performing their pattern, they are simultaneously listening and memorizing the new pattern.
Examples:
The teacher claps patterns. Students respond one measure later while continually absorbing the pattern currently being performed. Pass the pattern: A more challenging version of this is to have students form two straight lines. The teacher stands in front and “passes” a pattern to the first student in one of the lines. That student then “passes” it to their partner across the aisle, who then passes it across the aisle, etc. All the while, new patterns are being formed and passed.
Dalcroze movement requires that children listen and respond simultaneously. The music mirrors the physical motions expected. For example, music for walking or marching is in duple meter and uses steady quarter notes, running music contains eighth notes, skipping music uses dotted rhythms, jumping music contains large interval leaps, and so forth.
Examples of music for Dalcroze movement exploration
watch this Dalcroze Videos
Reggio Emilia
Although not an approach to music teaching in and of itself, this popular educational method is worth exploring in its relation to music education. The basic approach utilizes discovery in terms of music learning, and also is synchronous with many of the 21st-century learning approaches discussed in Chapter 1.
1. The child as the creator of his/her own learning
2. The child and adult as researchers
3. The environment as the third teacher
4. Documentation as communication
5. The 100 expressive languages of children
6. The dialogue between child and adult
7. Collaborative work (Smith, 2011)
Suzuki
I want to make good citizens. If a child hears fine music from the day of his birth and learns to play it himself, he develops sensitivity, discipline and endurance. He gets a beautiful heart.
—Shin’ichi Suzuki
More than 50 years ago, Japanese violinist Shin’ichi Suzuki realized the musical implication of the fact that all children learn to speak their native language with ease. He began to apply the basic principles of language acquisition to music learning, and called his method the mother-tongue approach.
Suzuki understood that making good musicians requires investment in developing the whole child - from their morality to their character and ability to be good citizens. Only in this larger context can the child focus on developing their musical ability. The ideas of parent responsibility, loving encouragement, constant repetition, etc., are some of the special features of the Suzuki approach.
When a child learns language, they undergo a very extensive form of enculturation. They begin by listening and repeating, mastering the linguistic process step-by-step. They have to then memorize, build vocabulary, and are motivated by environmental, cultural and social factors, including that of love. To learn music using the Suzuki approach, the child must replicate the steps of language learning by listening to excellent recordings so that beautiful music becomes part of their natural environment. Recordings also provide inspiration, and lay the groundwork for understanding music’s vocabulary and structure. Parental involvement is also key to the student’s success, and parents provide daily motivation, encouragement, and support. Parents often learn the instrument along with the child, acting as musical role models, and maintaining a positive learning atmosphere for the child to succeed.
Resources
Organization of American Kodály Educators https://oake.org/default.aspx
The Dalcroze Society of America http://www.dalcrozeusa.org/
The Gordon Institute for Music Learning http://giml.org/
The American Orff-Schulwerk Association http://www.aosa.org/
The Suzuki Association of the Americas http://suzukiassociation.org/teachers/twinkler/
Alliance for Active Music Making http://www.allianceamm.org/
References
Orff
Campbell, P. S. (2008). Musician and teacher. New York: W.W. Norton and Company.
Goodkin, D. (2004). Play, sing and dance: an introduction to Orff Schulwerk. New York: Schott Music Publishers.
Gray, E. (1995). Orff-Schulwerk: Where did it come from? The Orff Beat-Centenary Issue XXIV (June 1995). Victorian Orff Schulwerk Association. 03 May 2009 www.vosa.org/aboutorff/?pageID=14
Orff, C. (1963). “Orff Schulwerk: Past and Future.” Speech. Opening of the Orff Institute in Salzburg, October 25. Trans. Margaret Murray.
Orff, C., & Keetman, G. (1976). Music for children (Vols. 1-5) (M. Murray, Trans. ). London: Schott & Co. (Original work published 1950-1954).
Shamrock, M. (1997). “Orff-Schulwerk: An integrated method. Music Educator’s Journal, 83, 41–44.
Dalcroze
Abramson, R. M. (1980). Dalcroze-based improvisation. Music Educators Journal, 66(5), 62–68.
Anderson, W. T. (2012). The Dalcroze approach to music education: Theory and Application. General Music Today, 26(1), 27–33.
Aronoff, F. W. (1983). Dalcroze strategies for music learning in the classroom. International Journal of Music Education, 2, 23–25.
Bachmann, M. L. (1991). Dalcroze today: An education through and into music (D. Parlett, Trans.). New York: Oxford University Press.
Boyarsky, T. L. (1989). Dalcroze eurhythmics: An approach to early training of the nervous system. Seminars in Neurology, 9, 105–114.
Bugos, K. M. (2011). New York State early-career teachers’ selection and use of pedagogical approaches in elementary general music. Ph.D. dissertation, University of New York at Buffalo, New York. Dissertation & Theses: 3475296.
Caldwell, T. (1992). Dalcroze eurhythmics [videorecording]. Chicago: GIA Publications.
Dale, M. (2000). Eurhythmics for young children: Six lessons for fall. Ellicott City, MD: MusiKinesis.
Driver, E. (1951). A pathway to Dalcroze eurhythmics. London: T. Nelson and Sons.
Findlay, E. (1971). Rhythm and movement: Applications of Dalcroze eurhythmics. Secaucus, NJ: Summy Birchard.
Jaques-Dalcroze, E. (1920). The Jaques-Dalcroze method of eurhythmics: Rhythmic movement (Vols. 1 & 2). London: Novello.
Leck, H., & Frego, R. J. D. (2005). Creating artistry through movements. (DVD). Milwaukee, WI: Hal Lenard. #08744511. ISBN: 0634098381.
Mead, V. H. (1994). Dalcroze eurhythmics in today’s music classroom. New York: Schott Music Corporation.
Pennington, J. (1925). The importance of being rhythmic. New York: Knickerbocker Press.
Zachopoulou, E., Drri, V., Chatzopoulou, D., & Elinoudis, T. (2003). The application of Orff and Dalcroze activities in preschool children: Do they affect the level of rhythmic ability? Physical Educator, 60(2), 51–58.
Kodály
Choksy, L. (1981). The Kodály context: Creating an environment for musical learning. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
Choksy, L. (1999). The Kodály method I: Comprehensive music education. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
Kodály, Z. (1965). Let us sing correctly. London: Boosey & Hawkes.
Kodály, Z. (1974). The selected writings of Zoltán Kodály. (Lily Halápy and Fred Macnicol, Trans.). London: Boosey & Hawkes.
Kodály, Z. (1965). 333 elementary exercises. London: Boosey & Hawkes.
Kodály song web. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.kodalysongweb.net/songs
Shehan, P. K. (1986). Major approaches to music education: An account of method. Music Educator’s Journal, February 72(6), 26–31.
Trinka, J. (n.d.). The Kodály approach. Retrieved from http://www.allianceamm.org/resources/dalcroze/
Gordon
Gordon, E. E. (2007). Learning sequences in music: A contemporary music learning theory. Chicago, IL: GIA.
Valerio, W. (n.d.). “The Gordon approach: Music learning theory.” The Alliance for Active Music Making. Retrieved from http://www.allianceamm.org/resources/gordon/.
Suzuki
Scott, L. (1992). Attention and perseverance behaviors of preschool children enrolled in Suzuki violin lessons and other activities. Journal of Research in Music Education, 40, 225–235.
Suzuki, S. (1993). Nurtured by love: The classic approach to talent education. 2nd ed. New York: Alfred Music.
Suzuki, S., & Nagata, M. (1999). Ability development from age zero. NY: Alfred Music.
Reggio Emilia
Crisp, B. ,& Caldwell, L. (2007). Orff-Schulwerk and the Reggio approaches are interwoven successfully. The Orff Echo, 39(3), 26–30.
Edwards, C., Gandini, L., & Forman, G. (1998). Introduction: Background and starting points. In The hundred languages of children: The Reggio Emilia approach—Advanced reflections (5–26) (2nd ed.). Greenwich, CT: Ablex Publishing.
Smith, A. P. (2011). The incorporation of principles of the Reggio Emilia approach in a North American pre-school music curriculum: An action research. Visions of Research in Music Education, 17 .
General Reference
Chosky, L., Abramson, R., Gillespie, A., Woods, D., & York, F. (2000). Teaching music in the twenty-first century (2nd ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.
Alliance for Active Music Making. (n.d.). Retrieved from www.allianceamm.org/resources_elem_Orff.html
Moore, J. (n.d.). Philosophy of the Alliance for Active Music Making. Retrieved from http://www.allianceamm.org/philosophy/
Vocabulary
canon (Dalcroze): a eurhythmic exercise in which students echo back a pattern, but one measure later, and while they are performing their pattern, they are simultaneously listening and memorizing a new pattern
Curwen hand signs: hand symbols developed to represent the notes of the scale; i.e., do, re, mi, fa, sol, la, ti, do
drone: a continuous low tone produced by the bass pipes or bass strings of musical instruments
elemental music (Orff): is pattern-based music built on natural speech and body rhythms, familiar melodic patterns, and simple forms that can be readily understood and performed by children without extensive musical training
eurhythmics (Dalcroze): a method of instruction developed by Dalcroze to introduce rhythm, structure, and musical expression through movement; the ultimate goal of the method is to develop total cognitive and kinesthetic awareness through sound
follow (Dalcroze): a basic eurhythmics exercise in which the students physically respond to the sounds they hear
force: strength, energy, power, intensity
instrumentarium (Orff): instruments used to play Orff music
interrupted canon (Dalcroze): a eurhythmic exercise in which students imitate or echo a beat or pattern; a preparatory exercise for the canon
locomotor: movement through space
metallophone: any musical instrument consisting of a graduated series of metal parts that can be struck by hammers operated manually or played with a keyboard
mother-tongue approach (Suzuki): children are influenced by their surroundings with fine music
movement: moving the body to go with the rhythm or sound of the music
non-locomotor: movement in place
ostinato: a constantly recurring melodic fragment
quick reaction (Dalcroze): a eurhythmic exercise in which students react to verbal signs or cues
rhythm syllables: rhythm representations developed by Kodály
solfege: a syllable system used for sight singing; each note of the scale is represented by a syllable: do, re, mi, fa, sol, la, ti, do
space: the portion or extent of this in a given instance; the designed and structured surface of a picture
time: a limited period or interval, as between two successive events
xylophone: a musical instrument consisting of a graduated series of wooden bars usually sounded by striking with small wooden hammers | textbooks/socialsci/Early_Childhood_Education/Book%3A_Music_and_the_Child_(Sarrazin)/1.04%3A_Approaches_to_Music_Education.txt |
Chapter Objective: One of the most basic yet challenging activities to do with children is to teach them a song.This chapter focuses on the child’s singing voice, including their vocal range, selection of appropriate musical material, and methods for teaching a song in a musically meaningful, cognitively stimulating way that lays the groundwork for future integration.
I. A Child’s Voice
One common mistake that adults make when singing with children is that they tend to “pitch” the songs, (or sing them in a key), that is comfortable for themselves, but unfortunately, out of a comfortable singing range for the children. Adults sing in much lower range than children, therefore pitching a song too low causes children to be unsuccessful at reaching some of the lower notes.
Pitching a song in the wrong range can have significant negative consequences on a child’s musical self-esteem. An incorrect key can take away the child’s ability to sing the song well or sing the song at all. Singing in a key that is out of a child’s range would be analogous to an art teacher giving a creative assignment to students and then placing all of the art materials up on a shelf out of reach for most of them. While a few might be tall enough, most won’t be. After a while, they will give up trying to reach the material altogether. Similarly, these are the students who start to believe that they can’t sing at all, and give up on music.
Good Singing
Although we are used to hearing and singing pop music, a child’s voice is not yet ready to sing songs either with such a wide vocal range or with the sophisticated vocal stylings or timbre that he or she might try to imitate from pop singers. As children’s voices are very light, they should not be pushed out of their vocal ranges too soon. Using a clear, clean, straight head voice rather than chest voice will help to avoid this, and will strengthen a child’s vocal musculature for a lifetime of excellent singing.
One good habit to help children sing well is to ask them sing in their head voice rather than their chest voice. Although most songs children hear are pop songs that are placed in the chest, a child’s voice is not yet developed, and should not be belting out or pushing from the lower range or chest voice. Head voice requires placing the sound higher up in the “vocal mask” or the face, as if singing from the eyes. Chest voice feels like the sound is emanating from the chest, which tends to create a lot of tension in the throat, particularly in younger singers. The head voice is lighter, more tension-free, and more natural and therefore more beautiful sounding.
Children’s Vocal Ranges
Below are the general ranges of a child’s voice.
Fourth–sixth grade (9–11 years old) Bflat to E’
The strongest notes in a child’s vocal range are right in the middle of their range, around pitches F and G. While they may be able to hit higher or lower notes, these few notes are where they can sing the loudest and most comfortably.
Vocal Warm-Ups for Children
Activities for helping children explore their voices and find their head voice:
Speech warm-ups
Activities for exploring the child’s voice and finding the child’s head voice:
Helping children find their head voice
• Have children imitate the sound of a:
• Wolf, coyote, ghost, owl, siren, train whistle, wind
• Have them “read” abstract notation (lines, dots, squiggles) experimenting with different vocal sounds and timbres in their head voice.
• What does a blue squiggly line sound like? Green bumps? Red jagged mountains?
Warm-up 1
Abstract notation: Example 1
Warm-up 2
Abstract notation: Example 2
Warm-up 3
Abstract notation: Example 3
Help children find their different types of voices
• Outside, inside/speaking, whispering, singing voice
• This is my outside voice! (shouting)
• This is my inside voice (speaking).
• This is my whispering voice (whispering).
• This is my singing voice (sung on Sol Sol Mi, Sol Sol Mi).
• High, low, whisper, projecting
• I take my voice up high (low to high),
• I take my voice down low (high to low).
• I send my voice out into space and (shouting/projecting)
• I whisper all around, whisper all around (whisper).
• High, low, medium
• Bow wow says the dog (medium voice),
• Meow, meow says the cat (high voice),
• Grunt, grunt says the hog (low voice),
• Squeak, squeak says the rat (very high voice).
• High, low, medium
• You must pay the rent (low, Landlord).
• But I can’t pay the rent (high, young girl Tenant) (Repeat these first two lines 3 times).
• I’ll pay the rent (medium, young male, Hero).
• My hero! (high)
• Curses, foiled again (low).
Singing warm-ups
Doing warm-ups not only helps children explore their vocal range but expand it as well. As with all pitched warm-ups, start at the bottom of the range and move up in half-step increments and then back down. Some of the warm-ups are quite cognitively challenging.
Number the scale
This is a cognitively challenging exercise. The easiest way to sing it is to write the pattern for the exercise on the board, telling students that each number corresponds to a note on the major scale (1 = middle C, 2 = D, etc.). After singing from a low C to a high C, reverse the pyramid, and begin and high C and descend downward (i.e. 8, 878, 87678).
1 1
1 2 1
1 2 3 2 1
1 2 3 4 3 2 1
1 2 3 4 5 4 3 2 1
1 2 3 4 5 6 5 4 3 2 1
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Bubble Gum Vocal Warm-up
Selecting and Performing Songs
Children are certainly capable of singing very complicated rhythms and melodies just by listening and aural imitation, but when selecting a song to sing, it is important to find a song that matches the vocal range and the tessitura of the children. A song’s range concerns all of the notes in a song from lowest to highest, while the tessitura concerns the part of the register that contains the most tones of that melody. For example, you might have a song with a few pitches that are too high or too low for the child’s voice, but the majority of the song lies within a proper singing range for the child. Consider the 1857 song “Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush.” The song contains a few notes on middle C, which is a bit low for young children, but the tessitura of the entire song contains notes from F to a C’, all of which are easily accessible. The traditional Scottish folk song “My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean” has a range of an entire octave from C to C’, but most of the song lies within a Major 6th from E to C’.
II. Teaching a Song at the Elementary Level
The Fundamentals of a Song
After finding songs with the appropriate range and tessitura, it is critical to analyze a few additional musical components before you teach it. The important things to assess are: the song’s meter and then the phrases and sections of the song. The final step is to have the song down cold before attempting to teach it. The same goes for any material you want to teach children. If you yourself don’t really know it, you will not be able to teach it successfully.
Finding a Song’s Meter
If the song is notated, you can just look on the music to find the meter (e.g. 2/4, 3/4, 4/4, 6/8, etc.). However, if you don’t have the song written in notation, you will need to determine the song’s meter by ear. To find a song’s meter, first find the downbeat (the strongest beat) and the weaker beats of each measure. Begin tapping on a desk while singing the song. If you tap slightly harder on the downbeat (the first beat of the group of two or three or six in each measure of the song) and begin singing, it will help you to find the meter. Groups of beats in Western music are mostly either in duple (two or four beats for a measure) or triple (three or six beats in a measure), so try tapping in groups of two first to see if that fits, and then try three.
For example, consider the song “Take Me Out to the Ballgame.” Is it in duple or triple meter?
Sing and tap:
1 2
>
1 2
>
1 2
>
1 2
>
Then try:
1 2 3
>
1 2
>
3 1
2 3
>
Which meter fits the song better? The first is in duple, the second is in triple feel. The triple feel probably feels better—as it should because the song is in a 3/4 meter. In addition to the downbeat and meter, you will also need to determine whether the first note of the song begins directly on the downbeat or on a pickup. Songs that begin on a pickup (i.e., a note that is not on the first beat of the measure) are more difficult and require a stronger preparation from the teacher (for examples of this, see the section “Prepare” on page 104.)
Identifying the Sections of a Song
Children’s songs are usually simple in form, often containing only one or two sections or parts; A one-part song (unitary) is designated with the letter A for purposes of analysis, while two-part songs (AB) are referred to as binary, verse-refrain, or verse-chorus. Songs in which the first section returns again at the end are known as ternary, three-part or ABA.
Examples of song forms:
1-part songs (A):
1. “A Tisket, A Tasket”
2. “Mary Had a Little Lamb”
3. “The People on the Bus”
4. “If You’re Happy and you Know It”
2-part songs (AB)
5. “Yankee Doodle”
6. “Oh Susanna”
7. “Home on the Range”
8. “Oats, Peas, Beans and Barley Grow”
9. “Erie Canal”
3-part songs (ABA)
10. “Shoo-fly don’t bother me”
11. “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star”
12. “We Wish you a Merry Christmas”
Activity 5A
Try this
Now try singing and tapping each line above while singing “Old MacDonald Had a Farm.” Which meter best fits the song? Think of some other children’s songs you know and sing them to find which meter is most appropriate.
Techniques for teaching a song
While it may seem quite intuitive to teach a song to children, there’s actually a great deal to consider. The different ways to teach a song are related to children’s different learning styles, such as aural and visual learning, and the child’s appropriate cognitive development; e.g., age and grade development. The first method is to teach a song by rote, a technique also known as aural learning, or “by ear.” Rote usually requires a great deal of repetition. The second method is a hybrid known as rote-note, where the song is taught mostly by ear, but also involves the addition of some type of visual element, such as showing some notation. The third method is known as note, which is teaching the song using written in notation (e.g. sheet music). These three styles of teaching not only relate to aural and visual learners, but also correlate to the basic cognitive development theories of Jerome Bruner’s modes of representation and Jean Piaget’s four stages of cognitive development.
Song teaching styles
Song Teaching Style
Primary Learning Style
Developmental Level
Bruner
Piaget
Rote/Aural Teaching (Sing by ear, no notation)
Aural
Any age, but appropriate for early childhood
Enactive (action-based)
Sensorimotor (learning through senses)
Rote-Note Teaching (Mostly aural, partial notation)
Aural-Visual
Appropriate for lower elementary students (K–2)
Iconic (image-based)
Pre-Operational
Note Teaching (Teaching a song through written notation)
Visual
Appropriate for upper elementary (3–6)
Symbolic (language-based)
Concrete Operational
Rote/aural teaching is enactive (action-based) and can be used at any age through adulthood, but is particularly appropriate for preschool through early childhood (into the lower elementary grades). Motor skills can be added to a song to increase the learning dimensions.
Rote-note teaching is partially iconic (image-based) and appropriate for lower elementary students (K–2) just learning to read as it involves some type of iconic or image-based representation of music, such as using abstract notation or modified rhythmic or pitch notation.
Note teaching is symbolic (language-based) and more appropriate for upper elementary grades.
Teaching the whole song vs. phrase-by-phrase
The next decision is whether to teach the song as a whole or by one phrase or line at a time. This consideration will happen regardless of which teaching style—rote, rote-note, or note—is used. Note that the term phrase refers to the music, while line refers to the lyrics or poem.
Whole song: Teaching a whole song is exactly what it sounds like…singing the whole song at once and having the students echo the whole song right back. This is good for very short, simple songs; songs that have a lot of repetition either in the words or music; or call and response songs with few variables. The benefit of this is, according to Edwin Gordon’s approach, to have the child experience the whole piece first, and then learn what the song comprises in detail.
Phrase-by-phrase teaching is best when the song is longer or has a lot of lyrics or complex melodies. This is the most common method for teaching more complicated or lengthy songs. In this technique, each phrase is sung by the teacher and then immediately echoed back by the students.
For example, consider the song “A Tisket, a Tasket”:
A Tisket, A Tasket
American children’s game song, late 19th century
Phrase by phrase or line by line:
Teacher: A tisket, a tasket
Students: A tisket, a tasket
Teacher: A green and yellow basket
Students: A green and yellow basket
Teacher: I wrote a letter to my love
Students: I wrote a letter to my love
Teacher: And on the way I dropped it
Students: And on the way I dropped it
If there is more than one verse to a song, after teaching one verse, make sure to repeat the first verse several times with the students before moving on to the next verse.
Activity 5B
Try this
You are teaching a group of kindergarteners. Which songs would you be more likely to teach 1) as a whole song; 2) phrase by phrase?
• “Rain, Rain, Go Away”
• “Oh, Susanna”
• “A Tisket, a Tasket”
• “Michael Row the Boat Ashore”
Rain, Rain Go Away
Traditional children’s song, 17th century
Oh! Susanna
American minstrel song, Stephen Foster, 1848
Michael Row the Boat Ashore
African American spiritual, South Carolina Sea Islands, 1860s
Song Analysis
Of course singing a song is fun, but it can also be highly educational. In preparation for integration, and for using music with other art and subject areas, train yourself to explore the full potential of each song.
Having students identify or “analyze” what is going on in the song is educationally sound and cognitively effective. They are listening, analyzing, visualizing, sequencing, and applying concentrated brainwork to understand what they are singing.
Music vs. lyrics
When most people think about “song” they tend to think of the lyrics plus the music together, and often don’t realize that the music is a separate entity with its own cohesiveness and structure. Getting students to understand the musical differences between phrases is actually less challenging than you might imagine. For example, if I asked you which lines of “A Tisket, A Tasket” are the same, you would say none if you thought of only the lyrics. But what if I asked you which musical phrases are the same? If you have trouble, remove the lyrics and hum the melody. Now how many are the same? Three of them—the first, second, and fourth. For example, the melody for “A Tisket, A Tasket” looks like this, with lines 1, 2, and 4 being basically the same. Line 3 is different.
1. A tisket, a tasket
2. A green and yellow basket
3. I wrote a letter to my love
4. And on the way I dropped it
Having students hum the melody rather than singing words helps them hear the melody separately from the lyrics. Holding up fingers as they sing each phrase marks where they are in the song. Better still, have them sing the solfege for the different lines instead of the words or humming. In terms of analysis, solfege instantly informs the listener or singer which lines of music are the same and helps them compare and contrast each line rather quickly!
Steps for Introducing a New Song
While many children’s songs are relatively easy to sing, most will need to be broken down into smaller parts (phrases) to learn easily. Breaking a song into “chunks” helps exercise children’s cognitive and analytical abilities to understand, compare, and contrast the different parts or phrases of a song. Below are some important strategies for teaching a song either for the first time, or even to review a song or help children analyze an old and familiar song.
1. Provide an opportunity for students to hear the song first, preferably by you singing it.
2. Always ask students to listen FOR something. Before teaching it, ask students to listen carefully to something in the song’s phrasing, repetition, rhythm, melody, timbre, lyrics, dynamics, rests, mood or affect, etc.
3. Using a piano/keyboard, pitch pipe, or some other melodic instrument, find the correct starting pitch for the range of students in your class.
4. Teach the song by rote using song phrase, whole song, note-rote, or note technique (use note technique in fourth or fifth grades).
5. Develop a style for indicating that it is your turn to sing or their turn to sing.
6. In phrase-by-phrase technique, teach each phrase (or line) of the song separately. Usually phrases vary from four to eight beats in length. For example, see “Rain, Rain Go Away,” “A Tisket, a Tasket,” and “Oh, Susanna” above.
7. Try not to sing too loudly while the class is repeating each phrase; strive for singing independence among students.
8. Ask the class to repeat the song while you mouth the words (do not sing).
9. Finally, let the class sing with no support from you.
10. Variation: Sing each phrase one at a time. Rather than having student echo you, have them sing the phrase silently, and point to them when it is their turn to sing aloud.
Teaching a Song: The 4 Ps
Imagine that you are at the beginning of a track race. You are at the starting gate, and are anxiously waiting for the signal to begin running. You hear a count, then a starting shot, and you’re off. Now imagine you are at a race in which no count or starting signal is given, but a chosen leader just decides to start running and you are expected to jump in and catch up. In some ways, beginning a song is similar. Many adults begin a song with no preparation and expect children to just jump in, requiring children to figure out the tempo, the starting pitch, and the lyrics all at the same time, and on their own.
It takes just a few seconds to prepare students before they begin a song. Counting them in gives them the tempo, and singing the counts on the opening pitch gives them the starting note. Below are a few hints for starting a song that will help students be successful right from the first note!
• Pulse
• Pitch
• Prepare
• Point
Pulse
The pulse indicates the tempo at which you would like to sing the song, as well as the song’s meter.
• First, check the song’s meter to see whether it is in 2/4, 4/4,3/4, or 6/8 (see above for how to find which meter you are in).
• Then internally feel the pulse or beat of the song. Maybe tap your toe or hit your thigh as you sing the song in your head to find the appropriate tempo.
Pitch
Find the starting pitch for the song on any pitched instrument (i.e., piano, xylophone, recorder, or pitch pipe). Keep in mind the child’s vocal range and the range/tessitura of the song.
Prepare
When bringing in the children to sing, you need to be aware of whether or not the song begins on a downbeat or upbeat (aka pickup). Many songs begin directly on the downbeat such as “Jingle Bells” or “Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush,” while others such as “Oh, Susanna!” or “The People on the Bus Go Up and Down” begin with an upbeat or pickup (see below).
• How do you find out if your song begins on an upbeat or downbeat? Clap or tap to the beat of a song for a few measures, tapping louder on the downbeat and lighter on the other beats in the measure, then begin singing. If you start singing while your hand is hitting the downbeat (first and strongest beat of the measure), the song starts on a downbeat. If your hand is in the air when you start singing, or the song’s entrance falls on the weaker beats, that’s an upbeat.
• Many pickups begin on a lower note than the rest of the song. For example, “The People on the Bus” starts on a pickup or upbeat note that is a 4th lower from the key of the song.
The People on the Bus
Now you have to take all of the above information and somehow transmit it to the children before you sing. Develop a preparatory phrase that you feel comfortable with which gives children the pulse and pitch of a song. The following preparations work very well for songs in duple meter if you sing them on the starting pitch that you want the children to come in on.
For duple meter (2/4 or 4/4) songs:
| | | |
1-2-3 sing
| | | | |
1-2 here we go
| | | | |
Ready and sing now
For triple meter (3/4 or 6/8) songs:
| | | | | |
1-2-3 | 1-2-sing
| | | | | |
Here we go | read-y now
Point
Add a pointing motion to start them off, such as an arm or hand gesture that lets them know it is their turn to sing. Use this same gesture when echoing during the phrase-by-phrase method to help students enter at the right time.
Below are some examples of preparations to sing a few well-known songs.
Daniel E. Kelley
If You’re Happy and You Know It
Activity 5C
Try this
How would you prepare students to begin singing the following songs? What is your starting pitch? Meter? Tempo? Is there a pick-up/upbeat?
• “Frère Jacques”
• “A Tisket, A Tasket” (see above)
• “Hush Little Baby Don’t Say a Word”
• “Three Blind Mice”
Frère Jacques
French folk round, 18th century
Hush Little Baby, Don’t Say a Word
American lullaby song
Three Blind Mice
English children’s song attributed toThomas Ravenscroft, 1609
Resources
Folk songs for children
Proper Vocal Ranges for Children (Kathie Hill Music)
Vocabulary
aural learning: learning music “by ear”—learning by hearing only (no use of written notation)
beat: a pulse in a piece of music; the basic unit of time in music
binary form: a song in with two discernible sections; also referred to as verse-refrain or verse-chorus and designated as AB.
chest voice: singing when the sound feels like it is emanating from the chest or throat
downbeat: the first beat in the measure; beat in a measure that is most accented
duple: two or four beats per measure
head voice: placing the sound higher up in the “vocal mask” or the face, as if singing through the eyes
line: reference to a line of the lyrics or poem when learning music; usually corresponds to a musical phrase
note: learning music by reading the notes; reading the music or score in order to play or learn
note-rote: song is taught mostly by ear or repetition, but also shows some iconic notation (written notation)
phrase-by-phrase: teaching a song one line at a time; breaking down the song into individual phrases
pickup: a note or series of notes that preceded the first downbeat of the first measure; also called anacrusis
pitch: the frequency of the sound based upon its wavelength; the higher the pitch, the higher the frequency
pulse: in learning music, the pulse indicates to the children the tempo at which you would like to sing the song as well as the song’s meter; “feel the beat”
range: all of the notes in the song from lowest to highest
rote: learning through repetition; learning without use of written music or a score
song phrase: reference to a group of notes in learning music, usually equivalent to a sentence or the length of one line of poetry
tempo: pace in which the notes of a song are sung or played
ternary form: as song with 3-sections, where the first section returns at the end in exact form and the middle section is different or contrasting; designated as ABA.
tessitura: the part of the register in which most of the tones of the melody or voice part lies
triple: three or six beats per measure
unitary: a song with only one section, and no refrain; can be labeled as A.
upbeat: pickup beat (see above)
verse-refrain: a verse corresponds to a poetic stanza of a song; usually distinguished from the chorus or refrain of a song, which has repeated lyrics (e.g., in “Oh, Susanna” the verse begins with “oh I came from Alabama” and the chorus or refrain begins with “Oh, Susanna, oh don’t you cry for me…”)
whole song: teach the whole song at once without breaking it into individual phrases; useful technique for very short songs | textbooks/socialsci/Early_Childhood_Education/Book%3A_Music_and_the_Child_(Sarrazin)/1.05%3A_Children_Singing_and_Childrens_Songs.txt |
Chapter Summary: This chapter looks at creative ideas for approaching and planning a successful music lesson, including a guided outline, models of full lessons, and classroom management tips.
I. Lesson Plans as a Creative Activity
At some point or other, students in education programs are required to write lesson plans.Often, however, the meaning of writing a lesson plan becomes lost in the academic process, and the lesson’s grade becomes the goal rather than the meaningful construction of the lesson and learning the technique of organizing your thoughts. Often students believe that writing a lesson plan is only used in a classroom setting. The reality is, however, that all professions require the organization of a plan of action to be carried out, including an articulation of goals and objectives to reach them, followed by a reflection or assessment of the effectiveness. In other professions, you might be asked for a plan of action composed of three inherent questions: 1) What are you going to do? 2) How are you going to do it? and 3) How will you assess what you’ve done? In education, a lesson plan is nothing more than a plan of action with the same three questions: 1) What are you going to teach? 2) How are you going to teach it? and 3) How will you assess what you have taught?
Lesson Plan Preparation: Start With (Musical) Inspiration!
Much of the time as a teacher, you will be required to teach a certain set curriculum in the classroom that conforms to the Common Core State Standards (see Chapter 3). However, this doesn’t mean that the lesson has to be devoid of inspiration. Whatever your content area, there is probably an arts-related activity that can be applied or integrated (see Chapter 12 for Arts Integration information). It is much easier to create a good lesson plan if you are inspired. Your inspiration for a music or integrated lesson plan can be a song, an instrument, timbre, vocal sound, poem, story, rhythm, speech pattern, etc.
Creative problem solving requires that you be able to see and manipulate your lesson material in unique ways to reach all types of student learners. The music education methods of Orff, Dalcroze, Kodály, etc., offer easily implemented solutions to add layers of cognitively challenging musical activities to something as simple as a song. When developing your lesson, start by thinking outside of the box.
Activity 6A
Try this
How can I make the lesson interesting? Challenging? What might I be able to add to a lesson to increase its effectiveness for the learner—e.g., movement? rhythm? instruments?
Below are a few ways to challenge students physically, cognitively, and multi-modally just with a simple song. The first rule is not to be afraid of experimenting with sound, using either your own voice, various instruments, or maybe even the walls, doors, floors, chairs, and surroundings, all of which have their own unique timbres to explore!
Musically creative lesson planning
Musically Creative Lesson Planning
Begin with the list of music elements and vocabulary from Chapter 2. Select a song, then brainstorm different ways of performing the song using what you’ve learned. For example:
Vocal
• Sing the song a capella (without instrumental accompaniment)
• Add a speech rhythm ostinato
• Add a melodic ostinato using voices
• Add a drone using voices
Dynamics, Tempo, Form
• Sing the song changing tempos on different sections, phrases, or measures
• Sing the song changing dynamics on different sections, phrases, or measures
• Sing the song alternating phrases or sections between two groups of singers
Body Percussion
• Add a beat or ostinato by clapping
• Add a beat or ostinato by patsching
• Add a beat or ostinato by tapping
Instruments
• Add a beat or ostinato on an unpitched percussion instrument
• Add a bordun ostinato or drone on a pitched percussion instrument
• Add more than one bordun on multiple instruments
• Play only metal instruments, or wood instruments, etc.
Conclusion
• Do endless combinations of all of the above
Creative Exploration of Classroom Instruments
Inspiration can come from anywhere, including the arsenal of classroom and children’s instruments available. Classroom instruments are much more than noisemakers to accompany songs. There are many creative ways to use these inexpensive instruments to help and inspire you, and which will fire up a child’s imagination. Here are a few instruments typically found in classrooms, or that can be purchased inexpensively at a music store or online. This list is by no means exhaustive, but it does provide a wide range of commonly used instruments from Western and world cultures.
Typical classroom instruments
Xylophones
Metallophones
Glockenspiels
Boomwhackers
Recorders
Slide whistles
Jingle bells
Kokoriko
Castanets
Bells
Agogo bells (African double bell)
Shekere (African gourd shaker)
Maracas
Triangle
Cymbals (finger, crash, suspended)
Tambourines
Timpani
Gongs
Bongos
Temple blocks
Steel drum
Hand drum
Conga drums
Claves
Cowbell
Djembe
Rainmaker
Rhythm blocks
Sand blocks
Panpipes
Ocarina
Piano
Mbira (thumb piano)
Guiro
Tick tock
Tone block
Vibra slap
Wood block
Guitar
Violin
Chimes
Thinking about the source of sound production and materials will lead you to the field of organology, or the classification of musical instruments. Instruments all over the world can be grouped into five categories based on the Sachs-Hornbostel instrument classification system. This system groups the instruments by the way in which sound is produced. They are:
Aerophones: Instruments that produce sound by using air as the primary vibrating means. (e.g., flutes, horns, whistles).
Membranophones: Instruments that produce sound by means of vibrating a stretched membrane (e.g., drums)
Chordophones: A term used for stringed instruments. Refers to an instrument sounded by bowing, plucking, or striking a string that is stretched between two fixed points. (e.g., violins)
Idiophones: Instruments that produce sound from the material of the instrument itself. Idiophones produce sounds from the following methods and represent the largest category of classroom instruments.
• Percussion: instrument caused to vibrate by striking it with a non-vibrating object such as a mallet or stick
• Shaken: sound produced by small particles contained within the instrument
• Scraped: sound produced by scraping the instrument with a stick
• Plucked: instruments with a flexible tongue that is plucked to vibrate
• Concussion: two similar objects struck together to create sound
• Stamping: striking the object on a hard surface to vibrate the object
Electrophones: Refers to electronic instruments that either have their sound generated electronically or acoustic instruments that have their sounds amplified
The Sachs-Hornbostel list, however, is only one way to think about instruments. Children often come up with very imaginative ways to group instruments based on characteristics other than sound production. Children can explore the timbre, production, and material of the instruments to come up with their own ways of categorizing them. After students explore and group instruments, they can develop their own instrumentation for a piece, then vary it. Below is a list of other ways to think about instruments besides the way the sound is produced, such as its timbre or similar sound; physical attributes, etc.
Examples of different ways children can categorize instruments.
e.g. Color, size, shape
round, tube, big, medium, small, rectangular, long, short, hollow, solid, jingles, ridges, skin/membrane, brown, silver, red, low pitch, high pitch
For younger children, one of the most obvious types of recognition belongs to color, shape, and size—attributes they are identifying in other subjects. They may want to group instruments by their color, how big or small, and their shape. Musically, the shape of the instrument is important since the shape is directly related to sound and sound production. The smaller the instrument, the higher the pitch, for example.
By Material
Metal, wood, metal and wood, plastic, wire, string, skin
This type of grouping brings students to another level of understanding in terms of discussing the sound of the instruments. What an instrument is made of has a direct effect on its timbre. The challenge here is that some instruments, such as the tambourine, contain more than one type of material. Ask students how they might label such instruments.
By Timbre
Rattly-sounding, woody, metallic, jingly, high, thin, low, loud, soft, hollow, smooth, rough
An instrument’s timbre is directly related to its size, material, and even shape. All of the above properties affect the sound production of an instrument
Melody-Making Ability
plays a song, doesn’t play a song; pitched, unpitched
Children may find other unique ways of classifying instruments such as whether the instrument can play a melody. This classification concerns Pitched instruments or Unpitched instruments.
Culture of Origin
Sub-Saharan Africa, North America, South America
Another way of classifying is to know the country or culture of origin for the instruments. This related to musical instruments and their community
Multi-Purpose Use
Used for activities other than music making
While most classroom instruments only have one use, there are many instruments that serve other purposes such as for cooking. The cowbell, for example, is an instrument that has another purpose besides its musical one.
Activity 6B
Try this
The instruments on the Typical Classroom Instrument list above are random, and not categorized purposefully in any way. See if you can develop other ways of classifying these instruments in addition to the ways listed. How could you use this classification to create a lesson on science? Physics? Math? History? Social science? World history?
Start thinking scientifically and creatively about this list. How might you approach or use these instruments when creating a lesson plan? Here are a few questions that might help in thinking about the instruments.
Suggested Questions
• What do the instruments have in common?
• Where do the instruments come from (culture of origin)?
• What materials are they made of? (wood, metal, plastic)
• How are they played? (shaken, hit, struck with mallet, scraped, blown, pulled, etc.)
• What special sounds can they make? (jingles, shakes, thumps, scrapes)
• Where is the sound coming from (how is the sound produced)? (a hollow tube, the instrument itself vibrates, a vibrating string)
• What do the instruments sound like? (harsh, metallic, hollow, soft, smooth, mellow, high, low, etc.)
II. Lesson Planning
Below are some guidelines for creating a lesson plan. Regardless of subject, method, and additional requirements, all lesson plans contain the same basic structure and four core components:
1. Goals and objectives: What will students be able to do when I’ve finished teaching my lesson?
2. Standards: Common Core or National Standards: Which state content and developmental standards are addressed in my lesson?
3. Procedure: A step-by-step listing of your actions—core lesson in which you creatively assemble and format the material to present to your students in order to achieve your goals and objectives.
a. What types of instructional input will I use (e.g., lecture, demonstration, modeling, guided practice, independent practice)?
b. Which educational theories will I include (e.g., Bloom, Gardner, different types of learners)?
c. How will I capture learners’ attention and engage them?
d. What critical thinking will I implement?
e. Close the procedure section with a wrap-up and find ways to extend the lesson concepts in future activities
4. Assessment: How will I know my students learned the material? How might I modify the material if I did not reach my goals or if students need accommodation?
Preparing for the Lesson
Gather your thoughts and materials on the following before beginning your lesson:
• Prerequisites: What do the students already know?
• Concept(s), vocabulary, experiences: What new concepts am I going to teach? Where do I want to take them?
• Materials: What materials will I need?
Parts of a Lesson
General Information
• Lesson plan title
• Grade level
• Length of class (time)
• Type of class: Regular, inclusive
Materials and Resources
• List the materials you will need to teach the lesson or cite the location of any resources.
Goals and Objectives
• What will the students be able to do as a result of this lesson that they couldn’t do before?
• What concepts and vocabulary will be taught?
• What processes will you use to teach those concepts and vocabulary?
Common Core Standards
• Which Common Core standards are addressed in the lesson?
Core Lesson Procedures
• Opening activity/Energizer/Warm-up
• Sometimes called an “energizer,” the opening statement provides an attention-grabbing focus and an invitation to the lesson.
• Main lesson
• Includes instructional input such as a lecture, demo, modeling, guided practice, etc.
• Outline all of the steps that the teacher will do to get the students to achieve the goals (use action words).
• Closure and extension
• Wrap up the lesson with a summary or question.
• Think of ways to extend your lesson.
Assessment
• How will you know if the lesson was effective?
• Observe students as they work or perform. Ask questions, get feedback, check for facial expressions and body language, etc.
• Did your lesson meet your goals and objectives above?
• Modifications/accommodations
• Adjust for any special needs students in the class.
Lesson Plan Example #1: Teaching a Song
General Information
Title: Teaching “Oats, Peas, Beans, and Barley Grow” Using Rote
Grade level: Kindergarten–first grade
Length of class: 40 minutes
Type of class: Regular
Materials
• Game song: “Oats, Peas, Beans, and Barley Grow”
Learning/Behavioral Objectives
Students will be able to:
• Sing the folk song “Oats, Peas, Beans, and Barley Grow”
• Recognize the long-short, long-short q e q e “horse trot” rhythmic patterns in the song
• Patsch the rhythm q e q e on their legs while saying long-short long short
• Gallop/move to the long-short rhythm q e q e
National Common Core Arts Standards in Music
• With (limited) guidance, perform music with expression. MU: Pr6.1.Ka/1a
• With guidance, explore and demonstrate awareness of musical contrasts (such as high/low, loud/soft, same/different) in a variety of music selected for performance. MU:Pr4.2.Ka/1a
Oats, Peas, Beans and Barley Grow
Procedures: Opening Activity (Note: T = Teacher; S = Student)
• T claps various measures of warm-up rhythms to establish 6/8 meter. Students echo.
• T claps the long-short, long-short pattern q e q e and chants “long-short-long-short-long” etc. Students echo.
• T: “What type of animal does this remind you of when it’s moving? What animal move like this?” Students reply with horse or pony.
• T plays this rhythm on an instrument, piano, drum, or recording, or claps it while students gallop around the room.
• T asks students to sit down, and claps the rhythm q e q e again, adding the words “oats, peas, beans, and barley grow.” Students echo.
• T goes back to warm-up rhythms, playing them on a drum or other instrument, and asks students to identify the long-short-long-short rhythm by raising their hands when they hear it.
Oats, Peas, Beans and Barley Grow (with additional verses)
Procedures: Teaching the Song
Song: “Oats, Peas, Beans, and Barley Grow”
• T: “Okay, now we’re going to learn a song to go with this rhythm. This song is about oats, peas, and beans. Does anyone know what those are? Has anyone ever eaten them?” (T may want to bring in different kinds of oats, peas, beans, and barley to show the class or bring in pictures if foods are not available. If foods are available, have students touch them and answer questions about them (e.g., do they eat any of these for breakfast? dinner?).
• T: “This song goes along with the rhythm we were just moving and clapping to. Echo after me.”
• T claps, sings lyrics, or uses solfege and hand signs to teach the song in a phrase-by-phrase approach as follows: A single phrase equals six beats. T may repeat each line a few times until students get the rhythm.
Phrase 4
• T: “Now I’m going to put two lines together.” T then doubles the phrases (12 beats for each phrase).
Phrases 3 and 4
• T: “Now can we put this much of the song together?” T and students sing Verse 1. Repeat until students are singing confidently.
• T then selects one child to be the farmer, and has children hold hands and walk in a circle around the farmer while singing Verse 1.
• T: “Now let’s learn how to change farmers.” T then teaches the refrain “Waiting for a partner,” line by line. After students have learned this, the old farmer selects a new farmer to be in the middle.
• T: “There are a few more words to the song, and they show the kinds of activities a farmer does to grow food.” T then teaches Verse 2, “Here’s the farmer…,” line by line. T then adds the motions to go along with the lyrics (e.g., stamping, turning, viewing). T explains what a “hoe” is and the motions to pull up weeds, etc.
• T: “Now let’s sing the whole song and do the movements that we’re singing about.”
• Students play game until everyone has had a chance to be the farmer.
Closure and Extension
• Review what it was that the farmer was doing. Ask students to think about what other kinds of foods come from seeds that we eat.
• Ask students to think about what other songs they know that have the long-short-long-short rhythm.
Assessing Your Lesson Plan
Assessing the execution of the lesson:
Observe students as they are performing by themselves and their ability to move to the rhythms successfully and sing the song successfully.
• Are only a few students able to perform? Are most students able to? Do students look puzzled or confused?
Assessing the content of the lesson:
Did the lesson address different types of learning? Multiple intelligences? Common Core Standards? Learning objectives? Did it contain various modes of instructional input and modalities (e.g., lecture, demonstration, etc.)?
“Oats, Peas, Beans” Lesson
1. Addresses different types of learning—Visual, aural, tactile/kinesthetic
2. Addresses multiple intelligences—Bodily/kinesthetic, musical/rhythmic, etc.
3. Contains appropriate Common Core or National Standards—Musical analysis
4. Contains clear and age-appropriate learning objectives—Circle game with rhythm
5. Uses a variety of music methods/techniques—Singing, rhythm, movement
6. Incorporates a variety of instructional modalities—Question/answer, kinetic, and linguistic activities
Lesson Plan Example #2: Teaching a Song and Musical Concept(s)
General Information
Title: Teaching the Song “Li’l Liza Jane” using Rote-Note Methods
Grade level: Second grade
Length of class: 40 minutes
Musical Concept(s)
• Synco-pa (syncopation) eq e
• One octave
Materials
• Song: “Li’l Liza Jane”
• Chart of scale (solfege)
• Rhythm cards of rhythms using only quarter and eighth notes
• Rhythm cards with various rhythmic patterns from the song
Learning/Behavioral Objectives
Students will be able to:
• Sing the American folk song “Little Liza Jane”
• Recognize the synco-pa rhythmic patterns in the song
• Clap the synco-pa pattern when it occurs
• Sing the synco-pa pattern on solfege pitches
• Recognize an octave jump in a folk song from Do to Do’
• Sing an octave jump on solfege
National Standards
• Sing independently or in a group, singing correctly (1)
• Identify simple music forms when presented aurally (6)
• Use appropriate terminology in explaining music (6)
• Use a system (syllables) to read simple rhythmic notations (5)
Li’l Liza Jane
American folk song, late 19th century
Procedures: Opening Activity
• T claps four beats of warm-up rhythms using only quarter and eighth notes. Students echo.
• T claps a syncopated pattern.
• T asks, “How is this rhythm different from the first rhythm?” (short long short instead of a steady beat).
• T then clap rhythms containing synco-pa.
• T asks students to alternate a syncopated rhythm, with the straight quarter/eighth note rhythms.
• Students put the syncopated rhythms into body percussion (e.g., patsch on lap).
• T then asks students to march to a steady beat played on a drum. When students hear the syncopated rhythm, they should walk to the rhythm short-long-short-long, freeze in place, or clap.
Procedures: Teaching the Song “Li’l Liza Jane”
• T: “Okay, now we’re going to learn a song. Echo after me.”
• T uses solfege and hand signs to teach the song in a phrase-by-phrase approach as follows: Single-phrase (four beats for each phrase).
e
e
e
e
e
e
q
M
M
R
D
M
S
S
Come my love and go with me
e
q
e
h
L
S
M
S
Li’l Liza Jane
e
e
e
e
e
e
q
M
M
R
D
M
S
S
Come my love and go with me
e
q
e
h
M
M
R
D
Li’l Liza Jane
q
e
q
q
D’
S
L
S
O Eliza
e
q
e
h
L
S
M
S
Li’l Liza Jane
q
e
q
q
D’
S
L
S
O Eliza
e
q
e
h
M
M
R
D
Li’l Liza Jane
• Double phrases (eight beats for each phrase)
• T sings the song and asks how many phrases there are (eight).
• T: “Did you notice which notes we have that were missing from our song? Which solfege notes didn’t we sing?” (F and T)
• T: “What is the highest note in our song?” (High Do’)
• T: “What is the lowest?” (Do)
• T: “There is a name for the distance between a note and that same note higher up. It is an interval of an octave. Octave means eight notes. There are eight notes between low Do and high Do. Do you know of any other words meaning eight with oct in it?” (octagon, octopus). “Oct is the Latin root for eight. So the space between low D and high D is one octave. Can you all show me and sing low D to high D?” (Sing and show hand signs a few times.)
• T: “Now, at the beginning of class, we learned a rhythm. Can you remember that rhythm?” (eq e synco-pa)
• T: “Let’s sing the song again, and this time, listen for that rhythm in this song.”
• T: “How many times did you hear the rhythm in the song?” (Four)
• T: “On which word did this rhythm occur in the song? Was it on the same or on different words?”
• T: “This rhythm looks like this (show card eq e), but instead of saying ti ta ti, it has its own word, ‘synco-pa.’ Repeat that please, and then let’s clap eq e synco-pa and say it. The reason it’s called synco-pa is that it is short for the word syncopation, which means to have a rhythm that is ‘off-beat’ or doesn’t fall right on the beats of a song.”
• Sing the song again, this time holding up the card each time the eq e synco-pa rhythm occurs.
• T: “Now let’s sing some of the verses of the song.”
• T: “What can you tell me about Liza Jane? Who is singing the song? What does this person want?”
Closure and Extension
• Ask students to sing the song without teacher help while clapping the synco-pas.
• As students to find syncopated rhythm in other songs.
• Use the syncopation as an ostinato pattern throughout the song.
Assessing Your Lesson Plan
Assessing the execution of the lesson:
Observe students as they are performing by themselves and their ability to clap the rhythm successfully or identify the rhythm and octave successfully.
• Are only a few students able to perform and identify? Are most students able to? Do students look puzzled or confused?
Assessing the content of the lesson:
Did the lesson address different types of learning? Multiple intelligences? National Standards? Learning objectives? Did it contain various modes of instructional input and modalities (e.g., lecture, demonstration, etc.)?
Li’l Liza Jane Lesson
1. Adresses different types of learning—Visual, aural, and kinesthetic
2. Addresses multiple intelligences—Musical, logical/mathematical, linguistic, etc.
3. Contains appropriate Common Core or National Standards—1, 5, and 6
4. Contains clear and age-appropriate learning objectives—Synco-pa, octave
5. Uses a variety of music methods/techniques—Singing, rhythm, instruments, some written notation
6. Incorporates a variety of instructional modalities—Lecture, demonstration, question/answer, call and response, and kinetic and linguistic activities
Lesson Plan Example #3: Teaching a Song and Musical Concept(s) Plus English Language Arts Standards (Integrated)
General Information
Title: Teaching the Song “Erie Canal” Using Note Method
Grade level: Fourth or fifth grade
Type of class: Regular
Materials
• Sheet music of “Erie Canal”
• Visual notation of major and minor scales; various other familiar songs in major and minor (“Hey Ho Nobody Home,” “Johnny Has Gone for a Soldier,” etc.
• Map of Great Lakes/New York
Learning/Behavioral Objectives (Music and Language Arts/History)
Students will be able to:
• Sing the American folk song “Erie Canal”
• Differentiate between major and minor mode/scales used in the song and recognize a fermata
• Understand the song as a binary form (AB form)
• Deduce information about life in early 20th-century America (New York) from the song lyrics
• Use geography to understand the canal as an important mode of 19th- and early 20th-century transportation
• Distinguish the difference between the use of the two modes in the song and the lyrical/emotional meaning
Common Core Music Standards (Fourth/Fifth)
• Demonstrate and explain how intent is conveyed through interpretive decisions and expressive qualities (such as dynamics, tempo, and timbre). MU: Pr4.3.4a/5a
• Perform music, alone or with others, with expression and technical accuracy, and appropriate interpretation. MU: Pr6.1.4a/5a
• Demonstrate and explain how responses to music are informed by the structure, the use of the elements of music, and context (social and cultural). MU: Re7.2.4a/5a
Common English Language Arts Standards (Fourth/Fifth)
• Determine one or more main ideas of a text and explain how they are supported by key details; summarize the text. CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.4.2/CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.5.2
• Explain the relationships or interactions between two or more individuals, events, ideas, or concepts in a historical, scientific, or technical text based on specific information in the text. CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.4.3/CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.5.3
Procedures: Opening Activity
• T: “Today we’re going to learn about the Erie Canal. Does anyone know what the Erie Canal is, where it is, or what it was used for?”
• T: “Let’s learn the song and see what we can find out. I’d like you to pay attention to both the lyrics of the song and the melody, because the music is also giving you a lot of information about what’s going on in the song.”
• T plays a recording, passes out sheet music, or sings song in its entirety. Students sing song by looking at the sheet music (by note).
Erie Canal
Thomas S. Allen, 1905
Procedures: Music Analysis
• T: “First, let’s think about the music. Can anyone tell me how many sections there are to the song? Where does the second section begin?” T plays or sings again if necessary, and students also sing. (Second section begins at “Low bridge.”)
• T: “This is known as AB form, which means that the music contains two distinct sections. How can you tell that the sections are musically different?” (There is a slowing down at the end of the first section. It sounds different than the first. The pitches and scale sound different.)
• T: “The ‘slowing down’ is caused by two fermatas, which means ‘hold’ in Italian. The symbol looks like an eye. When a note has a fermata on it, you hold it for about twice the length of time.”
• T: “Let’s sing ‘Buffalo’ again to practice the fermatas.”
• T: “The other musical clue that you’re hearing is that the song is actually in two different modes or scales. The first part is minor, usually associated with sadness or melancholy, and the second part is major, which is usually associated with happiness or joy.”
• T: “Can you think of another song that’s in minor that is an unhappy one?” (“Hey Ho Nobody Home,” “Johnny Has Gone for a Soldier,” etc.)
• T: “What do all of these songs have in common emotionally?” (Sadness, loneliness, melancholy)
• T plays and shows the pitches of the major and minor scales. Students sing D R M F S L T D’ for major and L, T, D R M F S L for minor. If T has an instrument, have students guess which scale is being played. If not, T can play clips from other songs or have them sing other short songs to reinforce the concepts of major and minor.
F Major D Minor
• T: “Why do you think the composer chose to end the first section with two fermatas?” (To help the singer recognize the two sections, and to distinguish between the minor and major parts of the song)
Procedure: Literary Analysis
• T: “What’s happening in the song?” (Various answers summarizing the text)
• T: “What was the Erie Canal used for? Why do you think the Erie Canal was built?” (To transport things easily on water as there were no trains, or trucks at the time)
• T: “What types of things?” (Lumber, coal, and hay)
• T: “Which towns does the canal connect in New York?” (Albany and Buffalo)
• T: “Why does the composer write about a mule? What was the mule used for?” (Hauling barges)
• T: “Good! Does anyone know what a barge is?” (A flat-bottomed boat for carrying freight)
• T: “How do the barge and mule drivers know they are coming to a town?” (Because they cross under a low bridge)
• T: “How does the singer feel when they are coming to a town?” (Happy)
• T: “How do you know this?” (Because they talk about meeting neighbors and pals)
• T: “Is there something in the music that also tells you that the singer feels happy when coming to a town?” (Yes, the major scale is used in the second part of the song)
• T: “Good, what in the music tells you that the singer is not happy about losing their work hauling the barges?” (The minor mode)
Procedure: Integrated Context
• T: “When thinking of the lyrics and the music, why might the composer have set the first part of the song to sad or minor music, and the second part to happier or major music?” (The first part is talking about work and hauling barges, and the second is talking about coming to a town and meeting your neighbors.)
• T: “There’s also another part to the history of this song. It was written just as the last mules were being used to haul or pull the barges and were being converted to steam power. If this is the case, why does the singer talk about the mule as a ‘friend’ or ‘pal’?” (Because they’ve been working together for years, and now they aren’t going to be working any more pulling the barges.)
• T: “Now I’d like you to deduce something first by not looking at the map. We know that the canal goes from Buffalo to Albany, but can you tell me which great lake the canal connects to? Think! The song tells you.” (Lake Erie)
• T: “Now, let’s look at the map. Can anyone see which waterway the canal connects to in Albany?” (The Hudson River, leading to the Atlantic Ocean through New York City)
• T: “Albany is not on the Atlantic Ocean, so the Hudson River was used to connect the two waterways.”
Closure and Extension
• T: “So, to summarize, what impact might this have had on the city of New York in the 19th century to have it be one of the largest seaports in the U.S.?” [This made New York City one of the most important ports and cities in the country, and helped the city grow and become home to many immigrants, workers, etc.]
• T: “What do you think happened to all of the mules and mule drivers after they were replaced? Is there a musical indication that things turned out all right?” [The switch to major mode and the sense of community and belonging at the end]
Assessing Your Lesson Plan
Assessing the execution of the lesson:
Observe students as they are performing by themselves and their ability to sing the song and identify the modes and binary form successfully.
• Are only a few students able to perform and identify? Are most students able to? Do students look puzzled or confused? Are they not engaging with the music or the questions?
Assessing the content of the lesson:
Did the lesson address different types of learning? Multiple intelligences? National Standards? Learning objectives? Did it contain various modes of instructional input and modalities (e.g., lecture, demonstration, etc.)?
“Erie Canal” Lesson
1. Addresses different types of learning—e.g.Visual, aural
2. Addresses multiple intelligences—e.g. Musical, logical/mathematical, linguistic, etc.
3. Contains appropriate Common Core or National Standards
4. Contains clear and age-appropriate learning objectives—Analysis of musical and literary ideas
5. Uses a variety of music methods/techniques—Singing, rhythm, notation analysis
6. Incorporates a variety of instructional modalities—Lecture, demonstration, question/answer, written word
III. Classroom Management
While lessons on paper are an integral and necessary step, the actual implementation of the lesson in front of a live class is quite another matter. Teachers all over the world have their own tips and hints as to what makes a good teacher and what makes a lesson successful, and reviewing a few ideas on classroom management is an extremely helpful first step. If the students aren’t focused on the lesson, all of your preparatory work is for naught. Below are a few basic classroom management ideas to use when teaching music.
Classroom Behavior Management Techniques
• Don’t be afraid to be the teacher!
• Tell students what you expect them to do. Don’t ask them what they want to do. You are the teacher, and you set the agenda.
• Use positive reinforcement whenever possible.
• Don’t be afraid to point out places where students can improve. Show them the next level and let them strive to get there.
• When disciplining, select one person to stand out as a role model
• “Look how well Suzie, Frank, and Leticia are doing at…let’s see if we all can do that!”
• Pay attention to the singing voice! Check whether you yourself are singing correctly and check that the students are singing correctly as well.
• Use magic, wonder, and surprise whenever possible!
• “Guess what will happen next?”
• “What does this sound remind you of?”
• Add movement whenever possible
• Hand gestures, small body movements, large body movements
• Keep sweeping the room, checking to see that they are all “getting it.”
• Do not talk or give directions over the music; they won’t hear you or the music.
• When handing out instruments, develop an orderly system for distribution and have a system in place to keep instruments quiet while you’re talking.
• Talk less and do more.
• Sing, play, and instrument or mime as meaningful substitutions for words and directions.
• Most importantly, have fun! If the material excites you, your students will be engaged as well.
Vocabulary
aerophones: instruments that produce sound by using air as the primary vibrating means (flutes, horns, whistle)
chordophones: a term used for stringed instruments referring to instruments sounded by bowing, plucking, or striking a string that is stretched between two fixed points (violins)
concussion: two similar objects struck together to create sound
electrophones: electronic instruments that either have their sound generated electronically or acoustic instruments that have their sounds amplified
idiophones: instruments that produce sound from the material of the instrument itself; probably the largest category of classroom instruments; sounds produced through shaking, scraping, plucking, etc.
instrumentation: source of sound and music that a child develops from hearing rhythm and a melody
membranophones: instruments that produce sound by means of vibrating a stretched membrane (drums)
organology: the classification of musical instruments around the world
percussion: instrument caused to vibrate by striking it with a non-vibrating object such as a mallet or stick
pitched instruments: instruments capable of making distinct notes and pitch changes while simultaneously following a rhythm (e.g., a piano, clarinet)
plucked: instruments with a flexible tongue that is plucked to vibrate
scraped: sound produced by scraping the instrument with a stick across grooves
shakers: sound produced by small particles contained within the instrument
stamping: striking the object on a hard surface to vibrate the object
syncopation: to have rhythm that is “off-beat” or doesn’t fall right on the beats of a song
unpitched instruments: instruments incapable of making distinct notes and pitch changes, but have one pitch only; usually used to keep the rhythm and tempo steady (e.g., woodblock, claves) | textbooks/socialsci/Early_Childhood_Education/Book%3A_Music_and_the_Child_(Sarrazin)/1.06%3A_Creative_Activity_and_Lesson_Planning.txt |
Chapter Summary: Scientists are only recently beginning to investigate the relationship between music and the brain as the field of neuroscience develops. This chapter covers some of this research in terms of music processing, active listening, and benefits of the music-brain connection.
The brain is malleable from childhood to adulthood. If musical training is found to have a beneficial effect on brain function beyond that involved in musical performance, this may have implications for the education of children, for life-long strategies to preserve the fitness of the aging brain…
—C. Pantev (Baycrest, 2002)
Dr. Christo Pantev made the above statement over 10 years ago, when embarking on a groundbreaking study to show that musicians’ brains hear music differently from those of non-musicians. This began a wave of neurological studies on music and the brain, all of which point to the same conclusion: that musical study and training are indeed beneficial to the human brain.
Brain research is proceeding at an amazing pace, with countless new studies and discoveries appearing every year. With that said, let’s take a look at what we currently know about the impact of music on the brain and beyond, keeping in mind that this information will become more and more detailed and specific in the coming years. In this chapter, we will examine the following questions: Is music innate to humans? How does the brain process music? How does the brain respond to music making? Music listening? What are some of the overall benefits of music?
I. Are We Hardwired for Music?
Music is a human universal. In order to determine if a certain human trait is part of the brain’s hardwiring, scientists submit it to a set of criteria. Some of the questions concerning the biological evidence of music’s hardwiring include 1) whether or not it is present in all cultures; 2) if the ability to process music appears early in life, i.e., it is found in infants; 3) if examples of music are found in the animal world; and 4) if there are specialized areas of the brain dedicated to it. Music fulfills all of these criteria, and is definitely hard-wired in the human brain.
All Cultures Have Music
For thousands of years people have sung, performed, and enjoyed music. World travelers and social scientists have consistently observed that all of the people in the world have some type of music, and all people recognize music when they hear it, even if they have different names and categories for what they hear. While the music of other cultures will sound different and have different meanings and emotions associated with it, every culture makes it.
Researchers in different fields have summarized conclusions about the nature of music and culture after many years of observing human behavior and music. Alan Merriam, an anthropologist and one of the founders of ethnomusicology, created a list of ten commonalities of musical behavior after travelling extensively among many different people. His list, known as the “Ten Functions of Music,” is included in his landmark study The Anthropology of Music (1964).
1. Emotional expression
2. Aesthetic enjoyment
3. Entertainment
4. Communication
5. Symbolic representation
6. Physical response
7. Enforcing conformity to social norms
8. Validating social institutions and religious rituals
9. Providing continuity and stability of culture
10. Facilitating social integration
Everett Gaston, a psychologist, music educator, and founding father of music therapy, developed a similar list containing eight fundamental considerations of the impact of music on humans concerning his work on music and therapy in Music in Therapy (1968).
1. All humans need aesthetic expression and experiences
2. Musical experiences are culturally determined
3. Music has spiritual significance
4. Music is communication
5. Music structures reality
6. Music is derived from the deepest and most tender human emotions
7. Music serves as a source of personal gratification
8. The potency of musical effects are greatest in social interactions
Physiological and Cultural Functions of Music
It is impossible to separate what we now know about the role of the body in the creation of music from cultural musical behaviors. Just how much of a role the neurological plays in music making and perception and how much is governed by music as a cultural institution remains to be seen. However, it is valuable to consider the implications of both when discussing music’s impact on humans. After several decades of research, I have developed a set of functions for music that takes into account the role of neurology and physiology as well as culture in its relationship to music.
Socially connects
• Integrates, mobilizes, controls, expresses, unites, and normalizes.
Communicates
• History, memory, emotions, cultural beliefs, and social mores. It educates, creates the status quo, and also protests against it.
Coordinates and instigates neurological and physical movement
• Work/labor, military drills, dance, ritual, and trance.
• Songs and chants use the beat to maintain a group’s tempo and coordinate movements, or it stimulates entrainment found in trance by lining up the brain’s frequencies with that of sound.
Stimulates pleasure senses
• Excites, emotes, entertains, and elicits neurochemical responses, such as sweaty hands and a rapid heartbeat.
• It’s addictive, creating cycles of expectation and satisfying that anticipation. It stimulates the pleasure center in the ancient part of the brain responsible for rewarding stimuli such as food or sex.
• We get a “chill” when listening to music from a dopamine release anticipating a peak emotional response.
Alters perception
• Regulates and changes mood/emotion. It’s therapeutic, cathartic, and allows transcendence.
• Fosters flexible experiencing of time.
• Increases focus and attention and stimulates large areas of the brain.
Constructs identity (cultural and personal)
• Defines, represents, symbolizes, expresses, and transforms (Sarrazin, 2014).
Activity 7A
Try this
In our culture, we tend to think of music mostly as entertainment. After studying the three lists given above, can you think of examples of alternate uses for music? Can you think of examples of human relationships with music from your own experience? What do you use music for? When? How do you or others use music to foster relationships with others? To communicate? To restructure reality?
Musical Ability in Infants
According to recent neurological research, “the ability to perceive and enjoy music is an inborn human trait” (Sousa, 2011, p. 221). If music is an inborn and biological component, it should be found in infants, as well as in other animal species. Musical ability is indeed found in infants, who at only a few months old can manipulate an object in response to hearing certain songs. Infants can also differentiate between sounds as well as recognize different melodies. They are well aware of their mother’s voice and will turn their heads towards it when she speaks.
Musical Use in Animal Culture
Another approach scientists take to determine if we are hardwired for music is looking for examples in the animal world. We are all aware of the presence of birdsong and the musical patterns emitted by dolphins and whales to communicate, but so far, it has been difficult to determine if animals have the ability for abstraction required to understand music and art. However, there are growing examples in animal research demonstrating that animals do indeed use music, and that monkeys and other animals use musical patterns and can hear abstractions in music as well. A study by Kaplan (2009) indicates that animals are responsive to music and may even engage in music activity.
Specialized Areas of the Brain
The final clue as to music’s innateness is that there are many areas of the brain that process music. The auditory cortex has areas that process pitch, while other areas of the brain combine biology and culture to stimulate the limbic system to respond emotionally to music.
II. How the Brain Processes Music
Neurologists have long known that there were areas of the brain specifically dedicated to music, but through fMRIs and Pet scans conducted in live time, they’ve discovered that music’s reach is far more extensive. When listening to music, sound vibrations enter the auditory cortex and are instantaneously broken down into elements of pitch, timbre, spatial relations, and tone duration. The data is then sent to other parts of the brain and compared against stored sound associations (do I run or stay) and emotional responses (do I like it or not), stimulating many parts of the brain in both hemispheres.
The auditory cortex is the brain’s primary region for hearing and processing sound, and is part of the brain’s cerebral cortex. As we might expect, the auditory cortex helps us discern different sounds processed by the cochlea. It processes frequencies (pitch), and contains numerous neurons organized from low to high (known as a frequency map), which are dedicated to specific pitches. The auditory cortex also recognizes the location of different sound sources in space, and can identify and segregate different auditory objects.
Another aspect of the auditory cortex’s function is how it groups or perceives musical information. Diana Deutsch (2010) writes that the auditory cortex performs fusions and separations of sound components according to the music fundamentals of pitch (frequency) and timing. Pitch information is one of the most significant and most well-understood aspects of the musical brain. Pitch information includes the related concepts of intervals, melody, and harmony. The brain processes pitch information both locally and globally, where local music refers to the intervals between pitches, while global processing refers to the entire contour of the melody. This type of processing may have implications for teaching, and awareness of the brain’s reaction to music can help inform teaching strategies and techniques.
Time information, which includes rhythm, tempo and meter, timbre, meaning, and emotion is less understood. Musical timbre is one of the most critical of all components of music, yet remains one of the most mysterious of all human perceptual attributes. In a 2012 study, Patil et al. examined the neural underpinnings of musical timbre in order to understand the underlying processes of timbre recognition. They observed how timbre is recognized at the mammalian primary auditory cortex to predict human sound source recognition. The primary auditory cortex is one of the oldest and first developed areas of the human brain, suggesting that recognizing timbre is an extremely important function in human evolution. Although neurologists are still exploring how the auditory cortex functions, they now believe that music processing is actually much more complex then initially imagined, and involves many more parts of the brain than previously thought.
Activity 7B
watch this
In 2009, the World Science Festival “Notes and Neurons: In search of the common chorus” features Bobby McFerrin and an array of scientists discussing music’s impact on the human brain.
III. Benefits of Learning Music
Music’s influence on the brain is significant, and includes therapeutic improvements, healing, educational, and cognitive benefits. According to Campbell (2011b), author of the book Healing at the Speed of Sound: How What We Hear Transforms Our Brains and Our Lives, “A child who is moving, dancing and singing learns coordination between their eye, ear and sound early on. And [the experience of participating in music education] helps integrate the social, the emotional and the real context of what we’re learning. There are studies that show children who play music have higher SAT scores, that learning to control rhythm and tempo not only help them get along with others but plants seeds for similar advantages when we get much older.”
Music not only helps increase children’s verbal memory and reduces memory loss during aging, but aids people in healing faster after a stroke, reduces stress and anxiety, increases memory retention, helps transplant recipients, and soothes pain.
Music shows a positive impact on a person’s
• vision, body awareness, and gross and fine motor skills;
• directionality—moving expressively in response to directions and use of musical instruments;
• acquisition of receptive and expressive language, voice in singing;
• cognitive abilities of memorization, sequencing, imitation, and classification; making relationships and choices affects each child’s ability to create new lyrics, melodies, harmonies, and rhythms and express perceptions of dynamics, mood, form, and timbre;
• and ability to pay attention.
In a 2006 study, Tallal et al. suggest relationships between musical training, auditory processing, language, and literary skills. The study shows that music training and musical aptitude improves or correlates positively with:
• Music Processing (melody, rhythm, meter, timbre, harmony, etc.)
• General Auditory Processing (pitch discrimination, pitch memory, auditory rapid spectrotemporal processing)
• Language and Literary Skills (reading, phonological awareness, pitch processing in speech, prosody perception, verbal memory, verbal fluency)
The study also indicates that after musical training, there was an improvement in attention, sequencing skills, and processing literary components such as syllables, language skills, and literacy skills.
A two–three-year-long study concluded that children attending a musical play school exhibited significant differences in auditory discrimination and attention compared to children not involved in music. Children with exposure to more musical activities showed more mature processing of auditory features and heightened sensitivity in temporal aspects of sounds, while surprising sounds were less likely to distract the children’s attention (Putkenin et al., 2013).
Study after study records significant findings regarding brain changes in musicians, particularly instrumental musicians’ motor, auditory, and visual-spatial regions (Gaser, 2003). These same brain changes occur at very early ages for young children who play music. Children with only 15 months of musical training demonstrated structural brain changes in early childhood, which correlated with improvements in relevant motor and auditory skills (Hyde et al., 2009).
Activity 7C
learn more
1. What does music have to do with creativity? This TED talk by Charles Limb discusses just that and more.
2. How music changes our brains”: An article on how music affects the brain.
3. An incredible video showing a three-year-old child conducting Beethoven.
4. An article and video on the psychological effects of music on health and to help the body sleep.
The “Mozart” Effect
In the past decade, scientists have become very interested in studying the effects of sound on the human brain, and parents have rushed to embrace and apply any possible benefit to the development of their children. One of the early studies that spurred a rather heightened curiosity of the benefits of music was dubbed the “Mozart Effect.” In 1993, a study by Rauscher et al. was published, which looked at the possible correlations between listening to different types of music and intelligence. Soon after, the study erroneously credited with the notion that listening to classical music, particularly the music of Mozart, made you more intelligent. As a result, people started buying and playing Mozart to their children thinking that this would increase their intelligence. Georgia Governor Zell Miller, in 1998, proposed sending every newborn in the state a copy of a classical CD based on this supposed “effect.” The Baby Einstein toy company was also launched in reaction to this study. However, the study only demonstrated a small benefit in the area of spatial reasoning as a result of listening to Mozart, and the limited results showed that a person’s IQ increased for only a brief period of time—no longer than 15 minutes, after which it returned to normal. Other studies have not been able to replicate even the 15-minute bump in IQ.
Read this Governor Miller’s reaction to the “Mozart Effect”
IV. Listening to Music vs. Creating Music
Both listening to and creating music are crucial factors in engaging a child’s brain with music. There is, however, a clear difference in what happens in our brains when we listen to music and when we make music.
In terms of listening to music, there is a difference between the intensity and focus required to simply hear music (or hearing anything for that matter) and listening to music. Hearing is the act of perceiving sounds by the ear. In other words, if you are not hearing impaired, your ear will pick up and receive sounds. Good and active listening, on the other hand, is something that is done consciously, and requires some type of focus or engagement on behalf of the individual. Most of us are well aware of the fact that we can hear something without really listening to it or understanding it.
It is also true that all listening is not the same. In terms of our daily interactions with sound, we are constantly bombarded with all types of sounds, both chosen and unchosen. Kassabian (2013) calls the constant presence of music in modern life “ubiquitous listening.” Children are also inundated with sounds that enhance life or distract from it, dividing children’s already fragile attention and making it difficult for them to filter out unwanted noises and focus.
Understanding the full range of listening possibilities begins with what Peterson (2006) identifies as three types of listening: passive listening, responsive listening, and active listening.
• Passive listening means that music is in the background, and usually the person is doing something else while the music is playing. There is very little in the way of interaction or engagement with the music.
• Classroom examples: Playing music while children are doing homework.
• Responsive listening means that music creates an atmosphere. The listener responds with heightened emotion.
• Classroom examples: Playing calming music after an active event; playing music before the school day starts.
• Active listening means that music is the main focus. The listener interacts with the music in a cognitive, emotional, and meaningful way.
• Classroom examples: Finding the meaning of the piece through the lyrics, recognizing musical patterns, and finding elements such as phrases, direction of the melody, and rhythm.
These three types of listening are not ranked in any way, nor are these categories concrete. There are specific times when one type will fulfill the goal of an activity more effectively than another, and, as Peterson points out (2006), sometimes you find yourself actively listening to a piece of background music or even a ring tone, or you might just as easily disengage from a live concert recital as an audience member. All music listening can’t be active listening. It is important to keep in mind that simply exposing children to music in and of itself is already extremely beneficial and highly influential in terms of developing extended musical tastes, and connects music to the well being of the child on an emotional and cognitive level. Creating active listeners who can focus, concentrate, and direct their attention should be one of the main goals of teaching, and one in which music can play a vital role.
While music listening is wonderful for our brains, it turns out that music performance is really where the fireworks happen.
• Performing music involves all regions of the brain such as the visual, auditory, motor, sensory, and prefrontal cortices; corpus callosum; hippocampus; and cerebellum. It speeds up communication between the hemispheres and affects language and higher-order brain functioning.
• Music increases brain plasticity, changing neural pathways. Musicians tend to have greater word memory and more complex neural brain patterning, as well as greater organizational and higher-order executive functioning.
• Playing an instrument influences generalized parts of the brain used for other functions. People who receive music training demonstrated increased efficiency in many other skills, including linguistic processing ability, and increased motor, auditory, and visual-spatial brain regions (Gaser and Schlaug, 2003).
In short, scientists say that nothing we do as humans uses more parts of our brain and is more complex than playing an instrument.
But until very recently, we didn’t have proof of music’s extensive cognitive benefits. Yet some innate imperative to make music has guaranteed its existence—a remarkable feat considering that music requires such intense cultural investment. But of all of music’s contributions to the human condition, its ability to create social cohesion and communicate emotion has ensured its longevity. Evolutionary psychologists Kirschner and Tomasello strongly suggest that music fosters social bonding and empathy (2010). Children who had previously made music together were significantly more likely to spontaneously help each other than those who had not.
Activity 7D
Try this
Create lesson ideas that involve passive, responsive, and active listening with children.
Active Listening to Music
Guiding children towards more deliberate and active listening that engages the brain and all of its neural connections is highly beneficial. Children should hopefully be able to not only comprehend the musical elements, but also uncover cognitive meaning and the memory aspects of the song in order to stimulate all of the parts of the brain mentioned in the previous section.
Music listening is, of course, closely related to brain function. Auditory stimulation through simple activities can enhance attention in children, exercise the brain, and create a flexible and responsive brain. Auditory discrimination exercises work the child’s ability to hear differences in sound in order to organize and make sense of sound. These exercises provide focal points for children’s active listening and response, working local listening.
Although these exercises were developed for children with special needs, they are highly applicable in developing crucial musical listening skills and for helping children recognize categories of music, instruments, and timbre of sounds.
Exercises for engaging in auditory discrimination.
Exercises for engaging in Auditory Discrimination
Aural-visual identification
• Children listen to sounds on a CD and point to a picture of the object making the sound and name it.
• Point to a real object that makes the sound and then try it out.
• Sound walk: pupils draw pictures or write down the names of the sounds they hear on the walk.
• Show children picture-noun cards and have them clap the syllable beats.
• Aural identification: Listen to the sound of real objects with eyes closed. Children guess and name.
• Sound bingo: Listen to sounds and cover the correct picture.
• Clap or tap rhythms of children’s names and have them identify them.
Grouping sounds
• Ask children to group similar sounds by source (animals, musical instruments, vehicles); by timbre (rough, airy, scratchy); or by material (wooden, metallic, electronic).
• Odd one out: ask the pupils to identify the sound that is not part of a group of sounds (e.g. dogs barking, pig grunting, cow mooing, musical instrument playing).
Musical discrimination
• Discriminate between loud/quiet, high/low, fast/slow, rough/smooth, contrasting phrases or sections.
Activity 7E
Try this
Think of some activities that incorporate the above exercises. How might you adapt some of these to a language arts lesson? A social studies lesson? An art lesson?
Vocabulary
active listening: music is the main focus; the listener interacts with the music in a cognitive, emotional, and meaningful way
auditory discrimination: the ability to hear differences in sound in order to organize and make sense of sound
auditory stimulation: stimulating the brain through sound such as music
hearing: the act of perceiving sounds through the ear
passive listening: music is in the background, and usually the person is doing something else while the music is playing; there is very little in the way of interaction or engagement with the music
responsive listening: means that music creates an atmosphere; the listener responds with heightened emotion | textbooks/socialsci/Early_Childhood_Education/Book%3A_Music_and_the_Child_(Sarrazin)/1.07%3A_Music_and_the_Brain.txt |
Chapter Summary: This chapter focuses on the role of music in early childhood, including the importance of musical experience in early childhood, the musical abilities and enjoyment of infants and children, and the vocal ranges of the young child. It also explores musical activities and repertoires appropriate for young children.
What a child has heard in his first six years of life cannot be eradicated later. Thus it is too late to begin teaching at school, because a child stores a mass of musical impressions before school age, and if what is bad predominates, then his fate, as far as music is concerned, has been sealed for a lifetime.
—Zoltán Kodály, Children’s Day Speech, 1951
Arts as a Means of Expression for Young Children
How important are the arts as a mode of expression for children? Children, especially very young children, cannot express themselves fluently either through speech or writing—two modes of communication that adults use almost exclusively. Instead, children express themselves through movement, sound, and art. If they can express themselves through these modes, it is logical that they can learn through them as well.
Many times, however, adults are at a loss to understand or interpret what it is children are saying to us, or to appreciate how profound it might be. Mark E. Turner (2008), building upon the work of Edwin Gordon and Reggio Emilia, thought considerably about children’s representation through the arts. He sought to provide authentic ways for children to express themselves and developed scaffolding to better harness and understand children’s musical development. As Turner states, the idea that the “performing arts” must always be performed onstage to be valid detracts from their use to develop and explore the emotional, cognitive, social development and human potential.
Activity 8A
Read more
Chapter Four: Establishing a Foundation for Musical Expression, from Listen Move Think by Mark Turner
Music for Young Children
Any of the music methods (e.g., Kodály, Orff) mentioned in Chapter 4 offer sequential learning for children. Kodály in particular spent a great deal of effort on developing beautiful singing voices for young children. Children’s voices, after all, are their first instrument—a child’s first exceptionally pleasant musical experience is likely to be hearing lullabies from a parent or guardian, and then vocally experimenting with his or her own voice. Kodály graded learning in small steps for the very beginner learners, starting with three-note songs (sol, mi, la) and expanding gradually to four, five, and six notes and beyond. For the youngest, songs with three notes are an excellent place to start, because these children will not have much difficulty imitating or matching these pitches and can be successful from the outset.
I. Music for Children Birth to Three Years Old
Music activity for infants and toddlers engages the child’s aural and physical being. Such age-old activities include tickling, wiggling, bouncing, and finger playing.
At this level, musical play creates and reinforces the special personal bond between an adult (or older child) and infant, while also introducing music to the child. For newborns and very young children, speaking a rhyme and wiggling toes connects sound to a pleasurable and intimate act, as well as introducing the idea of rhythm and phrasing to newborns and young children.
Below are a few of the rhymes and songs particularly good for newborns and toddlers. They include some very familiar nursery rhymes and action games appropriate for this age group. Keep in mind that almost any nursery rhyme can be used for these activities, as long as they have a steady beat, which luckily most of them do.
Bounces
For newborns to three-year-olds, having them feel the beat in their bodies, aided by adults, are called “bounces,” based on the experience of bouncing a child up and down on a knee or lap.
Tommy O’Flynn
Tommy O’Flynn and the old grey mare (bounce child on knees)
Went to see the country fair
The bridge fell down and the bridge fell in (open knees and let child drop a bit)
And that was the end of Tommy O’Flynn
Wiggles
Wiggles are those activities involving the wiggling of fingers or toes. “This Little Piggy Went to Market” is another wiggle with which you may be familiar.
The first little pig danced a merry, merry jig
The second little pig ate candy
The third little pig wore a blue and yellow wig
The fourth little pig was a dandy
The fifth little pig never grew to be big
So they called him Tiny Little Andy
Tickles
Tickles involve exactly that—tickling the child either all over or just in the stomach, usually ending in lots of giggles!
Slowly, slowly, very slowly up the garden trail (crawl hands up baby starting from feet)
Slowly, slowly, very slowly creeps the garden snail (continue crawling)
Quickly, quickly, very quickly all around the house (tickle all over)
Quickly, quickly, very quickly runs the little mouse (continue tickling)
My father was a butcher (make chopping motions on child’s body)
My mother cuts the meat (make cutting motions on child’s body)
And I’m a little hot dog
That runs around the street (tickle all over)
Pizza pickle pumpernickel
Pizza, pickle, pumpernickel (flash one hand wide, then the other, then roll arms)
My little one shall have a tickle! (tickle child)
One for your nose (tickle child’s nose)
And one for your toes (tickle child’s toes)
And one for your tummy, where the hot dog goes! (tickle child’s tummy)
Finger Play
Finger play songs can also be types of tickles. The most common finger play song is the “Eensy, Weensy Spider.”
Eensy Weensy Spider
Tapping
For an infant, the parent would take the child’s foot or hand and tap it to the beat of the music. If the child can tap by him- or herself, that will work also.
Cock a Doodle Do
English nursery rhyme, 1765
Cock-a-doodle doo (tap one foot)
My dame has lost her shoe
My master’s lost his fiddling stick
And doesn’t know what to do.
Cock-a-doodle doo (tap other foot)
What is my dame to do?
Til master finds his fiddling stick
She’ll dance without a shoe.
Cock-a-doodle doo (tap both feet)
My dame has found her shoe
And master’s found his fiddling stick
Sing doodle, doodle, doo.
Clapping (Nine+ Months)
As children develop physically, they can clap their hands either together or against those of another. The well-known “Patty Cake” is a good example.
Patty Cake
Patty cake, patty cake, baker’s man
Bake me a cake as fast as you can
Roll it and pat it and mark it with a “B”
And put it in the oven for baby and me!
Hot Cross Buns
Hot cross buns
Hot cross buns
One a penny, two a penny
Hot cross buns.
Pease Porridge Hot
Pease porridge hot
Pease porridge cold
Pease porridge in the pot
Nine days old.
Responding to the Beat: Moving to Music
Responding to a musical beat is an innate part of what it means to be human, and even the youngest children can begin to feel music, either by moving to the beat or having an adult help a child move to the beat (Feierabend, 2001).
The simplest thing to do is to find recordings of quality music and play songs with an even, steady beat and have children move, clap, tap, patsch, hit an instrument, or walk to that beat.
An extended possibility is to create a story, miming movements that reflect a steady beat while telling a simple narrative. For example, a leader begins by miming actions such as teeth brushing, bouncing a ball, or eating food from a bowl, and the group imitates them. All movements are done to the beat (e.g., teeth brushing, up down up down). At the end of the leader’s turn, the children have to remember the “storyline.”
Bye Baby Bunting
English lullaby, 1784
All the Pretty Little Horses
African American lullaby
Hush Little Baby, Don’t Say a Word
American lullaby song
II. Music for Children Three to Five Years Old
Three- to five-year-olds are capable of singing more complicated songs, doing more complicated games and rhymes, and, of course, capable of more sophisticated listening. They can also understand some of the basic vocabulary and building blocks of music. It is appropriate to introduce a few concepts when performing songs and games with children, and also to experiment with these concepts, such as changing tempos and dynamics. Some vocabulary to use when pointing out these concept to younger children include:
• High—Low (pitch)
• Loud—Soft (dynamics)
• Fast—Slow (tempo)
• Smooth—Detached (articulation)
• Duple—Triple (meter)
• Steady Beat (tempo)
• Timbre (the quality of sound)
For slightly older children, Feierabend (2001) identifies activities that help children develop spontaneous music ability and original music thinking under his “Arioso” category, as well as a detailed array of vocal- and motor-based experiences with music.
Feierabend’s music readiness approach in his series First Steps in Music
Singing/Tonal Activity Categories
1. Pitch Exploration/Vocal Warm-up
Discovering the sensation of the singing voice
• Vocal glissandos
2. Fragment Singing
Developing independent singing
• Echo songs
• Call-and-response songs
3. Simple Songs
Developing independent singing and musical syntax
• Three–five-note songs
• Expanded range
4. Arioso
Developing original musical thinking
• Spontaneous created songs by the child
5. Song Tales
Developing expressive sensitivity through listening
• Ballads for children
Movement Activities Categories
6. Movement Exploration/Warm-up
Developing expressive sensitivity through movement
• Movement with and without classical music accompaniment
7. Movement for Form and Expression
Singing/speaking and moving with formal structure and expression
• Non-locomotor (finger plays, action songs, circle games, with recorded music)
• Locomotor (circle games, with recorded music)
8. Beat Motion Activities
Developing competencies in maintaining the beat in groups of two and three
• Child-initiated beat motions
• Non-locomotor or locomotor
• Teacher-initiated beat motions
• Non-locomotor or locomotor
Vocal Activities for Three to Five Years Old
Preschoolers (three-, four-, and five-year-olds) have a range of six notes between a middle C and the A above it. Their most comfortable notes are in the middle between E and F.
The goal is to have them not sing too far below the staff or too low in their voices, and to not push or strain their voices too far above this range either. Singing should be light, in the child’s head voice, never forced or pushed, and beautiful music-making should be stressed.
Initially, children need to explore their voices to find out what they are capable of, and to start hearing that their voices do indeed have a range to them. It is very good for children to make light, airy, and smooth sounds in their head voice as they find their individual sound.
Begin with some vocal exploration with speech, just getting them to loosen up and find their high, light head voice.
Voice exploration speech exercises
1. I take my voice up high
I take my voice up high (start low, and slide voice up)
I bring my voice down low (Start high, and slide voice down)
I send my voice out into space (Cup hands around mouth and project)
I whisper all around, whisper, whisper (Whisper line and whisper to neighbors)
2. Bow wow
Bow wow, says the dog (medium voice)
Meow, meow says the cat (high voice)
Grunt, grunt says the hog (low voice)
Squeak, squeak says the rat (very high)
3. Elevator
Have the children pretend their voice is an elevator sliding up and down between floors. They can accompany their vocal exploration with physical moving up and down as well, or the teacher may want to have a focal object like a puppet moving up and down that they can follow with their voice.
Pitch matching songs and games
Begin with simple but interesting songs with small ranges. These songs can be varied and repeated, and help children sing accurately. “Who’s Wearing Blue” is an excellent warm-up or opening activity in a music class. What did the children wear? do? see? There are endless, creative opportunities to ask them about their lives in a few notes.
Hot Cross Buns
English traditional street cry, 1733
Rain, Rain Go Away
Traditional children’s song, 17th century
Snail, Snail
Children form a single line, holding on the waist of the child in front of them. The child at the front of the line is the snail’s head, who holds up and wiggles both index fingers on the forehead representing the snail’s eyestalks. The line shuffles around the room imitating the slow, fluid motions of a snail.
Little Sally Water
Traditional American circle game song
See Saw, Margery Daw
English nursery rhyme, 1765
I Have Lost my Closet Key
American folk song
Accompanying game for “I Have Lost my Closet Key”: Children sit in a circle. One child hides a key in their hand while another child walks around the circle trying to guess who has the key while all sing Verse 1. After finding the key, all sing Verse 2. That person then becomes “it” and another is chosen to hide the key.
French folk song
Ring Around the Rosy
English song attributed to 1665 Black Plague, but sources only go back to 19th century
Rocky Mountain
Appalachian folk song
No Bears Out Tonight
One child is the “bear” who hides while others count one o’ clock to midnight.
Children search for the bear, then run back to “home” when the bear is found.
The Mulberry Bush
English nursery rhyme, 1840s
Instrumental Music Activities for Three to Five Years Old
High/Low Pitches: You or a child plays a low instrument (drum, bass xylophone, etc.) and children respond by moving in low space. Then try the same for high-pitched instruments (triangle, tambourine, etc.), having them move through high space.
Fast/Slow Tempo and Loud/Soft Dynamics Game: Similar to above, play instruments in different tempos and dynamics. Switch and mix them up (fast and loud, soft and slow, fast and soft, slow and loud), and if the child doesn’t switch, he or she is out.
Contrasting Timbres: Assign a different movement to different timbres. For example, a wood block corresponds to a hop, a xylophone glissando is a leap, a shaker means to shake. Create an orchestra with half of the class playing and the other half responding. For more advanced children, create a choreographed and composed piece from the game.
Musical Simon Says: Review concepts learned such as loud/soft, high/low, or fast/slow. Simon says yell loud, Simon says whisper, Simon says sing high, Simon says groan low, etc.
Rhymes and Games
Poetry and rhymes are among the most basic forms of human expression, and both children and adults use poetry, rhymes, and games to tell stories, remember history, fantasize, dream, and play. For young children, the rhyme is magical as they first encounter the powerful sound of rhyming words. Words create rhythmic patterns that captivate a child’s attention. The natural rhythms inherent in rhyming can become the basis for exploration, improvisation, vocalizations, and instrumental creativity.
Rhymes with actions, in particular, are enjoyable to children because children live through all of their senses and their whole body. Adding movement helps reinforce the linguistic content of the rhyme or song. Movement and rhymes build cognitive abilities in terms of sequencing physical and linguistic activity, imitation, and internalization.
Adding Movement to Rhymes
There are many types of movement to add to rhymes and games. There are narrative movements, which are mimetic actions that help to illustrate certain words and tell the story (e.g., “I’m a Little Teapot”); abstract movements, which do not carry any specific linguistic meaning, such as waving arms or jumping; and rhythmic movements, which can either emphasize the beat of the rhyme or the rhythm of the text, such as clapping or body percussion.
Narrative Movements: It is easy to add narrative movements to most children’s rhymes as these poems often tell some type of story. Consider the rhyme “I’m a Little Ducky.” Adding swimming and flapping motions would be an obvious activity to add. Narrative motions not only bring the story to life, but also significantly help children to remember the words to a rhyme or song.
I’m a little ducky swimming in the water
I’m a little ducky doing what I oughter
Took a bite of a lily pad
Flapped my wings and said, “I’m glad”
I’m a little ducky swimming in the water
Flap, flap, flap
Abstract Motions and Rhythmic Motions: Almost any non-locomotive or even some locomotive motions would work here. Abstract motions can easily be rhythmic as well (e.g., swaying to the beat, nodding the head to the beat, tapping the rhythm of the words or beat, etc.).
Walking to the Beat: While a seemingly simple-sounding exercise, walking to the beat requires a physical awareness and near-constant mental and physical adjustment to the walking stride in order to fit the beat and tempo of the rhyme.
Example: Take any standard, well-known nursery rhyme. Walk to the beat while saying the rhyme. End precisely on the last beat of the rhyme and freeze!
Advanced: This game can be further developed for older or more advanced children. Once they are walking to a steady beat and stopping precisely on the last beat, have children drop the recitation of the rhyme, and just walk the beat. See if they can all still stop on the last beat! This helps students internalize the beat and phrases of the song.
Steady Beat Games
Pass the Beat: Begin with a simple rhyme or song. While sitting in a circle, have students pass a beanbag around the circle on the beat. If the child misses, they are “out” or “in the soup” in the middle of the circle.
Bouncing Beat: Another game is to bounce a ball to the beat of a simple song such as “Bounce High.” This is a little more challenging because they have to keep control of their bodies, voices, and a ball.
Shoo Fly
American folk song, 1863
Do You Know the Muffin Man?
English folk song, 1820
Did You Ever See a Lassie?
American folk song, late 19th century
If You’re Ready for Music
Rhymes
Deedle, Deedle Dumpling
Deedle, deedle dumpling, my son John
Went to bed with his stockings on
One shoe off and one shoe on
Deedle, deedle dumpling, my son John
Oliver Twist
Oliver Twist, Twist, Twist
Can’t do this, this, this
Touch his nose, nose, nose
Touch his toes, toes, toes
And around he goes, goes, goes
Rub, Rub
Rub, rub, rub
________’s in the tub
Rub her/him dry
Hang her high
Rub, rub, rub
Jingle Jive
Jingle, jingle, jingle jive
Move until you count to five
1, 2, 3, 4, 5
Open Shut Them
This is an action game song where the lyrics are imitated through movement using simple actions in both hands.
Open Shut Them
Open, shut them, Open, shut them, (open and shut both hands)
Give a little clap, clap, clap (clap on each “clap”)
Open, shut them, Open, shut them, (open and shut both hands)
Put them in you lap, lap, lap (tap open hands on thighs)
Creep them, creep them, creep them, creep them, (crawl hands up to chin)
Right up to your chin, chin, chin (tap on each “chin”)
Open wide your little mouth (open mouth)
But do not put them in, in, in (tap on each “chin” again)
III. Musical Developmental Milestones in Young Children
Although we might not have thought of it, children’s linguistic development is related to their musical development. Research shows a direct correlation between the development of children’s speech and their musical/singing ability, with music skills correlating significantly with both phonological awareness and reading development (Anvari et al., 2002).
While teachers of preschool children may have a sense of the linguistic milestones for children, they are less aware of the musical milestones. Since music and language development have a high correlation in terms of development, it is helpful to know what activities children are developmentally ready for musically, and when are they ready for them. For example, most four- and even five-year-olds are not yet able to play a steady beat on an instrument. Expecting them to will only frustrate both the children and yourself. The following chart indicates musical developmental ability by age, and will guide you in introducing musical skills and material that children are developmentally ready for.
Musical Abilities by Age.
Limitations
0–1 year old (Infants)
Enjoy hearing:
• Melodic contour in voice
• Being sung to
• Hearing a variety of styles of music
Enjoy:
• Being rocked, patted, and stroked to music
• Responding to rhythmic play and body touch songs
• Bouncing or jumping to music
• Experimenting with gestures, clapping, and pointing
• Playing with rattles and bells
Cannot use language or sing
1–2 years old (Toddlers)
• Are aware of musical sounds
• Demand repetition
• Delayed response during music time
• Create their own made-up songs
• Sing simple 1–2 word songs
• Enjoy voice inflection games
• Enjoy making random sounds on instruments
• Improvise their own lyrics to traditional songs
• Respond to musical stimuli
• Perform rhythmic movement and movement patterns
• Clap to music, steady beat
• Move and respond to signals and sound and silence games
Cannot sing “in tune” but can maintain melodic contour
Developmental Issues:
“Centering” (pre-operational stage) can fix a child’s attention on one perceptual feature. Difficulty seeing the larger transformational picture of some activities as attention is diverted by one feature.
3-year-olds
• Prefer to sing beginning on their own pitch
• Increasing ability to match pitches
• Sense of musical phrasing
• Increasing expressiveness in voice
• Find it easier to pat thighs rather than clap
Enjoy:
• Manipulating objects while creating songs
• Repeated songs
• Having their own movements/ideas copied by others
• Reproduce recognizable songs
• Explore musical sounds with their voices and instruments
• Random exploration of xylophones, percussion instruments, and voices
• Maintain steady beat
• Handle mallets and drum beaters
• Move spontaneously to music
• Respond to sound and silence games
• Cannot reverse thought (i.e., can’t reason back to the beginning)
• Cannot play a repeated xylophone pattern
Developmental Issues:
• Responds to abstract or iconic musical notation:
• Pictures
• Hand signs
• Movement/motions
• Cannot respond to formal music notation (i.e., notes on a staff)
4-year-olds
• Awareness of beat, tempo, volume, pitch, and form
• Sings a wide variety of songs
• Sings in D–A range
• Critique their own song-making efforts
• Aware of tonal center
• Perform individualized musical exploration and play; large motor movement is best.
• Have the ability to step to beat
• Repeat short movement sequences, simple rhythms, echo, pitch contour, melodic fragments, formality within phrases, key stability, and categorization of instruments
• Symbolic “pretend” play, songs with stories, acting/pretending
• Can perform some musical analysis such as hearing form (AB, ABA) or distinguishing song phrases
• Group musical activities or coordinated instrumental play is difficult
• Cannot perform a steady beat on xylophones
• Have trouble discriminating between musical genres
4–5-year-olds
Able to classify sounds as:
• High-low
• Loud-soft
• Fast-slow
• Smooth-disconnected (legato-staccato)
• Can reproduce sounds and patterns vocally and with instruments
• Able to play simple, repeated instrumental accompaniments to songs and improvise on simple classroom instruments
• Improvement in stepping to the beat
• 5-year-olds can learn simple dance steps
• Organize sounds that express a story or accompany a song
Prefer:
• Action songs and finger plays (imagination)
• Silly word and rhyming songs
Require many opportunities to match pitches and order direction of musical sounds in terms of going up, going down, and staying the same
Activity 8B
Try this
Based on the chart above, answer the following in terms of what age is appropriate for each activity.
1. Analyzing/hearing the different sections of a song.
2. Responding vocally using different tones and inflections.
3. Singing the song “I’m a Nut.”
4. Echoing/responding to short, clapped rhythms.
5. Playing a steady beat on the xylophone or other percussion instrument.
6. Seeing abstract images and performing them either on voice or instruments.
Resources
Feierabend, J. (2011). Music and early childhood. Chicago: GIA Publications.
Songs for Teaching: Using Music to Promote Learning, Gari Stein http://www.songsforteaching.com/teachingtips/benefitsofmusicwithyoungchildren.htm
Early Childhood Music and Movement Association (ECMMA) www.ecmma.org/perspectives/issue/volume_7_numbers_3_4_2012
Children’s Camp Songs www.cocojams.com/content/childrens-camp-songs
Music Notes: Music You Can Read http://musicnotes.net/SONGS/02-SARAS.html
Preschool Rhymes for Self and Family Themes (finger plays, action poems, songs and nursery rhymes) www.preschoolrainbow.org/family-rhymes.htm
Vocabulary
abstract movements: movements do not carry any specific linguistic meaning, such as waving arms or jumping
articulation: the approach to playing a note and style of playing in terms of its smoothness, detachment, accents, etc.
dynamics: how loud or soft the music is
meter: meter determines where the stresses in music are, or how music stresses are grouped. A triple meter, for example, will have groups of 3 with a stress on the first beat of the group. A duple meter will have groups of 2 with a stress on the first beat of the group.
narrative movements: mimetic actions that help to illustrate certain words and tell the story (e.g., “I’m a Little Teapot”)
pitch: how high or low a note is
rhythmic movements: movements that can either emphasize the beat of the rhyme or the rhythm of the text, such as clapping or body percussion
tempo: how fast or slow the music is played
timbre: the quality of sound | textbooks/socialsci/Early_Childhood_Education/Book%3A_Music_and_the_Child_(Sarrazin)/1.08%3A_Music_in_Early_Childhood_Development.txt |
Chapter Summary: This chapter explores the uses of music with older elementary-aged children. It covers their vocal ranges, preparation for multi-part singing including echo songs, ostinato patterns, drone and multi-part performing including polyphony (multiple melodies) such as rounds, partner songs, harmony and descants, as well as other age-appropriate repertoire such as cumulative songs, play-party songs, and African-American songs.
Older children, ages 6 and up, have listened to a great deal of musical material in their short lives. The songs and sounds they’ve absorbed are part of western musical style, and are now part of the musical lingua franca or the music that is “normal” for them. They’re familiar with the musical genres, timbres, modes, and instruments, rhythmic and melodic patterns, and have learned the culturally acceptable cadences, harmonies, texture, and so forth. The lower to middle elementary-aged child is ready for more complex listening, singing, and music making. This chapter will offer music suggestions to inspire older children, including cultural games, songs, and dances.
I. Singing Voices of Older Children
Developmental Abilities
Just as children’s aptitude to learn a foreign language stabilizes after the age of 9, Music researcher Edwin Gordon (2007) found that children’s musical aptitude is also developmental, fluctuating until age 9, and stabilizing afterwards. This doesn’t mean that children can’t learn music after the age of 9, of course, but that the language of musical enculturation is well under way by that age. It is important to keep in mind that a rich musical environment at home and at school will greatly benefit a child’s musical and cognitive abilities at any age.
In terms of the voice, both boys and girls should remain singing in their head voice or falsetto. Falsetto is a light, high, head voice that is not pushed, yelled, or forced in any way. Younger boys can switch easily into falsetto or head voice, as their voices have not yet begun to change. A good falsetto produces a clear, clean “boy’s choir” type of sound, and is where children should try to sing in order to maintain a healthy voice.
Singing Ranges for Older Children
As we recall from the previous chapter, children’s singing ranges expand year by year. Older children may have an expanded vocal range, but it is important to remember that the pitches that are most comfortable to sing are in the middle of their range.
Six to Eight Years Old
Grades first through third, or six to eight-year-olds, can sing about an octave from C to C’, with their most comfortable notes from E to G.
Eight to Eleven Years Old
Children aged eight to eleven can sing from the B flat below middle C to about an E flat or E, 3 notes above high C’. Their most comfortable notes are between D and G.
Selecting a Song in the Proper Singing Range
When selecting a song for older children, first check the pitch range appropriate for the child given the guidelines above. Most of the notes of the song should match the child’s most comfortable pitches right in the middle of their range. Children start to become weaker when singing around middle C. Try to avoid songs that sit in a lower range such as middle C or D, and instead pitch or place the song slightly higher up around E, F and G. Most of the songs in this book are transposed to the key of F so that most of the pitches of the song are around the tonic, or F.
Another important thing to keep in mind is that where an adult feels most comfortable singing, is probably not where the child feels most comfortable. Remember that many times, classroom teachers pitch the song in their own range, not thinking about where the song would work best for the children, and children struggle to sing well.
Activity 9A
Try this
Select the notation below that best fits the vocal ranges for children ages 3, 4 and 5. How about 6-8? 8-11?
II. Advanced Musical Experiences
Beginning at around eight years of age, children are ready for more advanced musical experiences vocally, instrumentally, and theoretically, and more complex musical subject matter. This section will explore different types of songs appropriate for older children, and the process for introducing more complex musical experiences.
Repertoire
Most of us are surrounded by pop music culture, and children at this age are particularly aware of and influenced by the pop scene. They hear pop music, watch singing competition shows on television, have pop idols, and want to sing pop music. The challenge with older children is their desire to vocally imitate the pop singing style. This music, of course, is very familiar and accessible to them, and it is only normal that they are inspired by and want to mimic their favorite pop star. However, keep in mind that a child’s vocal apparatus is still developing, and imitating adult singing with scoops, chest voice, or belting is affected singing and not natural. Not only does it inhibit the child’s sense of ownership of their own vocal instrument and musicality, it also inhibits their ability to explore the natural timbre of their own voices, and find their own unique musical style. These songs are intended for adult voices, and are often out of the comfortable singing range of children. Belting or pushing a developing voice too far can be detrimental to the child’s voice, and can result in permanent damage.
Subject Matter
Luckily, there is an enormous children’s repertoire of songs, including folk songs, historical songs, play party songs, story and game songs, classical pieces, and popular songs written for children’s voices with subject matters that appeal to their developing sense of morality and worldview, and are steeped with sociohistorical meaning.
Many songs for older elementary children are highly appropriate for use in the classroom curriculum, including core subject songs (math, social studies, science), national songs, cultural and historical songs, language arts songs, holiday songs, etc. The songs presented in this book are folk and popular songs, some of which are not only historically important, but culturally significant as well. These songs are part of a potentially rich musical experience for the child—exposing them to material with inherent sociocultural meaning that can contribute to excellent lessons and, most importantly, enhance integration activities.
Multiple Part Performance: Introducing Texture and Layers
By the age of seven or eight, children are ready for some type of vocal multiple part performing. Multi-part performing includes both instrumental and vocal music making, and can refer to the performance of more than one melody at the same time (i.e. a round), vocal harmony, or any type of accompaniment. Playing two or more parts on instruments is far easier and children can begin this type of multi-part performance much earlier. Vocally, however, children find it quite difficult to sustain their own vocal part against that of another singer or singers before the age of 8.
Multi-part performance in either the vocal or instrumental milieu is cognitively beneficial, and will increase a child’s musical competence. Older children appreciate and are capable of singing complex songs, particularly those that include multiple parts and simple harmony. Musical texture (performing multiple lines of music simultaneously) not only creates more intricate and interesting music, but it provides significant cognitive benefits. Multi-part performance of any kind requires the child to focus intensely on their part, training the brain to produce one part while acknowledging additional auditory stimuli coming from the other parts. The brain then must process the whole piece at once while still remaining focused on the one performing part.
Children, who may not yet ready for harmony, can be prepped for harmony at much earlier ages through the use of layered speech pieces, rhythmic instrumental or vocal patterns (see ostinato below). Keep in mind that children are performing in multiple parts even when they are singing a song and doing any other simultaneous activity such as tapping the beat, playing a pattern on an instrument or performing body percussion (snapping, stomping). Any rhyme can be made more complex by adding a body percussion pattern or simple instrument pattern.
Deedle Deedle Dumpling
English nursery rhyme
Any familiar song can be used to teach two parts, such as taking a simple melody and adding a vocal ostinato. The song “A Ram Sam Sam,” for example, is a traditional Moroccan folk song that contains many simple repeating patterns. Begin by learning the song and performing it in unison. Then sing several times as a two part round.
A Ram Sam Sam
Traditional Morrocan folk round
Creating ostinati patterns
Ostinati are short patterns, repeated persistently throughout a piece often at the same pitch. Ostinati (pl. of ostinato) can be either vocal or rhythmic. The easiest way to find an ostinato is to take a short pattern right from the song itself. Ostinati can also be composed. Using short patterns from the song is a simple way to create vocal or rhythmic ostinati. Start by finding a short, simple, fun or interesting pattern in the song. An ostinato can be performed using body percussion, instruments or with the voice.
If the children are not ready to sing the song with a sung vocal ostinato, begin by chanting the song as a speech piece and adding one or more speech ostinato patterns.
A Ram Sam Sam (Speech with one ostinato)
Begin with a simple ostinato. In this case, the rhythm of the very last phrase “Ram Sam Sam” (ta ta ta rest), works very well. Have children clap and say the words simultaneously.
Two additional ostinati for this song with more complex rhythms include “ra-fiq a ra-fiq” (“ta-a ta, ta ta-a ta”) or “gu-li gu-li gu-li gu-li” (ti ti ti ti ti ti ti ti). Have children clap and say their ostinati. Notice, however, that “a ra-fiq” begins on a pickup beat, which can be tricky for entrances. To avoid that, begin with “ra” on the downbeat so that both ostinati (ra-fiq and gu-li gu-li) begin in simultaneously.
Divide the class into four equal parts, one group chanting and clapping the “melody” rhythm and the other three chanting and clapping the ostinati. After a few times through, have the students drop the chanting and perform the piece using clapping only.
A Ram Sam Sam (Speech with vocal ostinato)
Depending on the level of the class, the switch to singing the song with all of its ostinati can be done all at once or by using a combination of spoken and sung. Using a combined approach, begin by having the melody group sing the melody, while the ostinati groups come in one at a time using speech only.
A Ram Sam Sam (With one ostinato)
Gradually add the other two ostinati patterns, one at a time.
A Ram Sam Sam (With three ostinati)
Move from using rhythmic ostinati to melodic ones. Be sure to have them learn the song very well before adding a sung ostinato. Divide the group in half and have half sing “Ram Sam Sam” while the other half sings the melody. These are examples of pitched ostinati that are taken directly from the melody of song (measures 2 and 9). The easier of the two is 1a, but if the class is advanced, use 1b.
Vocal Ostinato ex. 1b
The other two ostinati can also be sung. For more advanced groups, try dividing into three parts, with the melody in one part and sung ostinati in the other groups.
A Ram Sam Sam (With three sung ostinati)
Note: In order for the harmony to work with the song, the pitches for “gu-li gu-li” need to be changed in measures 3 and 7 to a “Bb” rather than “A.” If this is too difficult, remain on the “A.”
Drone
A drone is usually a single pitch, usually held or repeated underneath a melody. The simplest type of accompaniment is to add a single note drone to a melody. Songs such as “Amazing Grace,” “Bow, Wow, Wow,” “Tideo,” are all pentatonic songs that work well with a drone accompaniment. Drones can also be several pitches, but they repeat throughout all or most of a song. Children may be tempted to speak or chant the drone part, but it is important that they sing it, maintaining a constant pitch and good tone.
Tideo
Traditional American play party song
More complex part singing
Older children are ready for singing in two, three and four parts, and also performing on instruments layering many different patterns together. In singing, there are two types of basic part-singing appropriate for children: polyphony and harmony.
Polyphony is a word that refers to multiple independent lines of music sung at the same time. Polyphony can happen in many different ways. Rounds and partner songs are two good examples of polyphony.
In a round, all of the voices are singing the same melody but at slightly different times, and in a partner song each part is singing a different melody. The important element is that all of the parts or “voices” are equal, and there isn’t a single dominant melodic line. Although we associate rounds with children, there are many complex and lengthy rounds with more serious topics for adults.
Rounds
Rounds or canons have been around for hundreds of years, and play a significant role in European and American society. Group singing played a major role in society, for emotional expression, entertainment, social cohesion, and so forth. In a round, everyone contributes equally in terms of melody. The oldest polyphonic song known is the Medieval English song “Sumer Is Icumen In” dated from the mid-13th century. This round, which is about the arrival of summer, actually has two “melodic ostinati,” which are known as “grounds,” at the end, which can be sung along with the melody.
Sumer Is Icumin In
Medieval English song, 13th century
More simple rounds that most people know include: “Row, Row, Row Your Boat,” “Frère Jacques,” and “Scotland’s Burning.”
Row, Row, Row Your Boat
American folk song and round, 1852
Frère Jacques
French folk round, 18th century
Scotland’s Burning
Traditional American round, 19th century
More complex rounds include: “Oh How Lovely Is the Evening,” “Dona Nobis Pacem,” “Hey, Ho, Nobody Home,” which is in minor, and “Viva la Musica,” a 16th century round written by the Renaissance composer Giovanni Palestrina.
Oh, How Lovely
German folk round
Dona Nobis Pacem
Text from “Lamb of God,” Latin Mass
Chrismas round
Viva la Musica!
Michael Praetorius (1571-1621)
Partner songs
Partner songs are another way to experience multiple-part (polyphonic) singing. In a partner song, two or more songs, which are musically compatible, are sung together. Similar to a round, everyone contributes a melody. Partner songs are slightly more challenging to sing in that they use different melodies. A good example is the song “One Bottle of Pop” in which three separate melodies work well together.
One Bottle of Pop
Below are some additional examples of individual songs and their potential “partners” that blend well and go together. The songs “This Old Man,” “Skip to My Lou,” “Shoo Fly,” “Bow Belinda,” and “Sandy Land,” for example, are all able to be sung simultaneously.
This Old Man
English game song, 19th century
Skip to My Lou
Traditional American play party song
Shoo Fly
American folk song, 1863
Sandy Land
Traditional folk song, Texas
Bow Belinda and This Old Man
All of the songs together:
Bow Belinda, This Old Man, Shoo Fly, Sandy Land
List of children’s songs and partner songs
The list below consists of suggested songs that work well when sung together. Each box represents a group of songs that can be sung in pairs as partner songs, or even layered as three or more songs.
Partner songs: groups of commonly known songs that can be paired or layered.
Row, Row, Row, Your Boat
Here Comes a Bluebird
Frere Jacques/Are you Sleeping?
Three Blind Mice
London Bridge
The Old Grey Mare
Mary Had a Little Lamb
Merrily We Roll Along
Boola, Boola
The Farmer in the Dell
Here We Go Looby Loo
Go Tell Aunt Rhody
Hot Cross Buns
Where is Thumbkin?
He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands
Rock-a My Soul
Bow Belinda
Sandy Land
This Old Man
10 Little Indians
Skip to My Lou
Paw, Paw Patch
Mulberry Bush
Oh, Dear, What Can the Matter Be?
Irish Washerwoman
Liza Jane
Old Brass Wagon
Michael Finnegan
Good Night Ladies
Pickalittle, Talkalittle (Music Man)
When the Saints Go Marching In
Swing Low Sweet Chariot
This Train
Nobody Knows the Trouble I’ve Seen
Gospel Train
She’ll be Comin’ Round the Mountain
All Night, All Day
Rock-a My Soul
Joshua Fought the Battle of Jericho
Hey Ho, Nobody Home
When Johnny Comes Marching Home
Wondrous Love
Kookaburra
Wade in the Water
Juanita
Santa Lucia
Bicycle Built for Two
Sidewalks of New York
In the Good Old Summertime
Arkansas Traveler
Oh, Susanna
Turkey in the Straw
Camptown Races (verse)
Humoresque
Old Folks at Home
Put on Your Old Gray Bonnet
Child of God
Mary Had a Baby
Sing Hallelu
One Bottle of Pop
Don’t put your Dust
Fish and Chips and Vinegar
My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean (refrain)
Cielito Lindo (refrain)
Man on the Flying Trapeze
Home on the Range
My Home’s in Montana
Old Texas
Old Chisholm Trail
Ta-Ra-Ra-Boom-De-Ay
Long, Long Ago
All Night, All Day
Swing Low Sweet Chariot
I Love the Mountains
Heart and Soul
Bluetail Fly (refrain)
Shoo Fly (refrain)
Dixie
Yankee Doodle
Zum Gali Gali
Shalom Chavarim
I am a Poor Wayfaring Stranger
Scarborough Fair
Land of the Silver Birch
My Paddle
Be Bow Wow Wow
Hot Cross Buns
Sally Go Round the Sun
See Saw, Margery Daw
We Wish You a Merry Christmas
O Christmas Tree
Mango Walk
Sweet Potatoes
Lida Rose (Music Man)
Will I Ever Tell You?
Go Tell It on the Mountain
Some Folks Do
Mr. Frog Went A-Courtin’
Goin’ Down to Cairo
Jubilate (Hark! The Vesper Bells are Ringing)
Chumbara
Haul Away Joe
Early in the Morning
Hush-a-bye
Lullaby
What Shall We Do with a Drunken Sailor
Sinner Man
Sing a Song of Peace
This is My Country
Little Red Caboose
Sourwood Mountain
Harmony
After success singing rounds and partner songs, children may be ready to sing in harmony. Harmony is the sounding of two notes simultaneously. When singing harmony, one voice usually has the melody and is dominant, while the harmony parts take a “back seat” so to speak. The melody notes are usually the highest notes, with the harmony supporting underneath. Singing in harmony is quite a bit more challenging than partner songs or rounds.
Harmony lines are often the interval of a third (3rd) or a sixth (6th) below the melody line. Singing a 3rd or 6th away from the melody is very challenging, as the tendency is for singers to slip from their parts into unison with the melody.
Preparation for vocal harmony
Singing a drone is excellent preparation for harmony (see “Tideo” above). Here is a scale warm-up that also helps prepare students to hold onto their part against another moving part.
N. Sarrazin
Sarasponda
Attributed as a Dutch spinning song
Ah, Poor Bird (with harmony)
Elizabethan English round
Harmony N. Sarrazin
Descants are also a type of harmony, but are instead placed above the melody. Descants can have text, but are also sung on neutral syllables such as oh, or ah.
Ah, Poor Bird (with descant)
Elizabethan English round
Descant N. Sarrazin
III. American Children’s Games and Game Songs
America’s folk heritage is rich with songs from many cultures. Folk songs such as play party songs, African-American songs, story songs, and dance-songs are all a part of American music history and are excellent opportunities to discuss history and the role of music in our culture. The lyrics to these songs contain literary and social references, and are rife for inclusion in the interdisciplinary classroom. The songs can also fit into other aspects of children’s lives and their school curriculum as well.
Many game songs originated in the Georgia Sea Islands, a series of over 100 islands off the coast of South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida. The Islands have a long and complex cultural history, but are most known for their rich African-American heritage as white plantation owners left the islands in the 19th century leaving their slaves behind. The result was the creation of a distinct Gullah/Creole language and culture, which can be found in many children’s games.
Draw Me a Bucket of Water
Georgia Sea Islands singing game
Groups of four: Couples facing each other grab both hands and sway back and forth to the beat while singing. The inside of the circle represents the “bucket.” As the numbers increase, a person is added to the bucket encircled by the clasped hands.
Ridin’ in a Buggy
Traditional American play party song, South Carolina
Oh! Susanna
American minstrel song
Stephen Foster, 1848
Doctor Knickerbocker
American game song
Here We Go Zudio
African American song
Play Party Games
Play parties are singing parties that evolved along with the rural frontier American experience. In the early 1800s in the southwestern and western states, there was a prohibition against playing musical instruments and dancing by certain religious organizations. Play parties were a way around this. They were a social activity in which young people sang songs while clapping, incorporating drama, and some swinging movements. Many songs we know such were play-party songs such as “Buffalo Gals,” “Skip to my Lou,” “Old Dan Tucker,” “Old Brass Wagon,” “Pop Goes the Weasel,” “Weevily Wheat,” and “B.I.N.G.O.”
The movements to “Old Brass Wagon” have children in a circle, basically following the instructions in the song. Everyone holds hands and circles to the left on the first verse, right on the second, etc.
Old Brass Wagon
Traditional American play party song
The circle dance song “I’ve Been to Haarlem” requires a more sophisticated choreography. One child stands in the middle of a circle of partners who walk in a circle in promenade position. On the words “turn the glasses over,” the partner on the outside of the circle turns under the inside partner’s arms, thus changing direction. The partners let go, and circle in opposite directions until the words “lose your partner in the ocean.” On this last word “ocean” the child in the middle quickly rushes around trying to find a partner and leaving one child “out” who is now the one in the middle.
I’ve Been to Haarlem
The song “Weevily Wheat” refers to wheat that is infested with beetles or weevils that destroy the plants. The game for “Weevily Wheat” requires children in small groups of four, with each child numbering off 1-2-3-4. The song begins with the children holding hands and moving clockwise. On “take some,” everyone reverses direction. On the words “five times five” all stand in place and layer hands in the center of the circle to the beat of the song. Child 1 puts their left hand in, 2 put theirs on top, 3 and 4 continue the pattern. Then all layer their right hand in. When they run out of hands, the children pull their left hand out from the bottom of the pile in turn and place on top, continuing until the end of the verse. This song contains multiplication and can be used as an extension activity for math.
Weevily Wheat
Traditional American play party song
Cumulative Songs
Cumulative songs are those in which each verse adds on lyrics and music from the previous verse, and by the end of the song, the singer sings through all of the accumulated lyrics. The most well-known cumulative song is “The Twelve Days of Christmas,” but there are many others. These songs provide an excellent cognitive workout, as the singer has to mentally catalog each verse, adding each verse as they progress through the song, but then singing all of the lyrics backward in a cumulative fashion.
Some examples of cumulative songs are “Hey Ho, the Rattlin’ Bog,” “There was an Old Lady who Swallowed a Fly,” “The Green Grass Grew all Around,” “Allouette,” and “I Bought me a Cat.”
The song “Rattlin’ Bog” has a refrain with verses that accumulate. This Irish song is also meant to gradually speed up in tempo as you sing.
Activity 9B
Listen
Listen to the band Irish Descendants sing “Rattlin’ Bog.” What is your reaction to the tempo of the song? Are you able to sing along? How might you use this type of song in a lesson?
The Rattlin’ Bog
Traditional Irish folk song
“I Bought Me a Cat” is a traditional American song arranged by the famous American composer Aaron Copland. This song does not have a refrain, but the verses themselves accumulate lyrics.
I Bought Me a Cat
Traditional American children’s song
I bought me a pig, my pig pleased me
I fed my pig under yonder tree,
My pig says “griffey, griffey”
My hen says “shimmey shack, shimmey shack”
My goose says “quaw, quaw”
My duck says, “quaa, quaa”
My cat says “fiddle-i-fee.”
I bought me a cow, my cow pleased me
I fed my cow under yonder tree,
My cow says “baw, baw” (etc.)
I bought me a horse, my horse pleased me
I fed my horse under yonder tree,
My horse says “neigh, neigh” (etc.)
I got me a wife, my wife pleased me
I fed my wife under yonder tree,
My wife says “honey, honey” (etc.)
Songs Every Child Should Know
National Association for Music Educators (NAfME) (formerly known as Music Educators National Conference, MENC) developed a suggested list of 42 songs every child should know. The songs are culled from folk, stage musicals, patriotic songs, Tin Pan Alley songs, culturally diverse songs, film songs, and religious songs.
42 Songs Every Child Should Know
• Amazing Grace
• America
• America the Beautiful
• Battle Hymn of the Republic
• Blue Skies
• De Colores
• Danny Boy (Londonderry Air)
• Dona Nobis Pacem
• Do-Re-Mi
• Down by the Riverside
• Frere Jacques
• Give My Regards to Broadway
• God Bless America
• God Bless the U.S.A.
• Green, Green Grass of Home
• Havah Nagilah
• He’s Got the Whole World In His Hands
• Home on the Range
• I’ve Been Working on the Railroad
• If I Had a Hammer (The Hammer Song)
• Let There Be Peace on Earth
• Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing
• Michael Row the Boat Ashore
• Music Alone Shall Live
• My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean
• Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin’
• Oh! Susanna
• Over My Head
• Puff the Magic Dragon
• Rock-A-My Soul
• Sakura
• Shalom Chaverim
• She’ll Be Comin’ Round the Mountain
• Shenandoah
• Simple Gifts
• Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child
• Star Spangled Banner
• Swing Low, Sweet Chariot
• This Land Is Your Land
• This Little Light of Mine
• Yesterday
• Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah
Resources
Songs for Teaching http://www.songsforteaching.com/index.html
• An excellent resource that includes educational songs, mathematics, social studies, plus classroom transition songs, activity and game songs, and much more.
• Contains 15 websites for music.
Kodály Song Web http://kodalysongweb.net/songs
• A database of hundreds of songs categorized to indicate appropriate age, meter, genre, origin, melodic and rhythmic elements.
Music Notes http://musicnotes.net/songs_ALPHA.html
• Alphabetical list of hundreds of songs classified by grade, keywords for connecting to other subject areas and musical elements (meter, form, pitches). Also contains pitch and rhythm warm-ups, recorder, and sheet music.
Mama Lisa’s World, International Music and Culture http://www.mamalisa.com/?t=hes&p=1299
• Contains hundreds of songs and rhymes by country of origin, as well as English nursery rhymes, Mother Goose, children’s poetry, a blog and book reviews.
National Institute of Environmental Health Science (NIEHS) Kid’s Page http://kids.niehs.nih.gov/games/songs/index.htm
• Hundreds of children’s song lyrics with audio files for listening. Includes educational children’s songs, holiday songs, favorites, and songs for teaching English as a second language.
Vocabulary
cumulative songs: songs in which each verse adds on lyrics and music from the previous verse; by the end of the song the singer is singing through all of the accumulated lyrics
descants: a type of harmony that is placed above the melody; can have text, but can also be sung on neutral syllables such as “oh,” or “ah”
falsetto: a light, high, head voice that is not pushed, yelled, or forced in any way; usually used by boys
harmony: sounding of two or more notes simultaneously
partner songs: two songs, which are musically compatible, are sung together, and everyone contributes to the melody; considered more challenging than rounds.
polyphony: refers to multiple independent lines of music sing at the same time
rounds: also known as canons; group singing in which everyone contributes equally in terms of their melody
ostinato (pl. ostinati): easily repeated short musical phrases, patterns, or fragments.
unison: all parts are the same and sung at the same time | textbooks/socialsci/Early_Childhood_Education/Book%3A_Music_and_the_Child_(Sarrazin)/1.09%3A_Music_and_the_Older_Child.txt |
There is very little research on children’s musical play or creativity, making it difficult to draw any large conclusions on the topic. What research exists on musical play is based on behaviors from two general categories of data: 1) observations of younger children’s spontaneous musical behaviors in daycare or educational settings designed by adults, or 2) observations of older children in educational settings or outdoors (Marsh and Young, 2006). With a few exceptions, children were not taken seriously as the main subjects or creative agents in studies of musical cultures until Patricia Shehan Campbell’s book Songs in their Heads (2005). Campbell, a noted music educator and ethnomusicologist, acknowledged, “Up until a decade ago, the music culture (or cultures) of children had been largely overlooked and under-researched by ethnomusicologists, and had rarely been studied ethnographically by educators” (2005, p. 17-18). As discussed in Chapter 7 on music and the brain, the capacity to make music is present in all humans, “and that musicality is as universal as linguistic ability” (Hallam, 2006, p. 104). Each child is born with different strengths and abilities, including different types of creative thinking.
This chapter will outline some of the characteristics and key elements of music and play, including a discussion of the innateness of musical creativity and suggestions for encouraging creativity.
I. Musical Intelligence and Creativity
What is creativity? Can musical creativity be taught? Are only brilliant people creative? One of the foundational questions regarding any talent or ability is whether it is innate or learned—in other words, are we born musical, or can musicality and creativity be taught? Recent research into creativity has begun to answer some of these questions.
As it turns out, creative thinkers do not need to have a high IQ. According to neuroscientists, what makes a creative thinker is the high activity in the association cortices sections of the brain—responsible for making new connections and for “eureka” moments. The more associations, connections, memories or meanings an individual is able to make, the more creative the individual (Andreasen, 2006).Measuring creativity often utilizes tasks that reveal divergent thinking versus convergent thinking. A divergent thinker can come up with many different answers to a question, while a convergent thinker will come up with the one correct answer to a problem. One example might be to think of as many ways as possible to play a musical instrument. There is, of course, one standardized way to play an instrument (convergent thinking), but any instrument can be struck, plucked, banged, or shaken to produce many, many different types of sounds.
Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences
Another take on creativity and intelligence involves Howard Gardner’s Multiple Theories of Intelligence, which posits that intelligences are complex in that they are influenced by a combination of factors such as environment and biology, and that they are educable, capable of being educated or taught (Gardner, 1999). In other words, variations in opportunities and experiences can affect a child’s skill building and therefore impact their intelligences.
Learning styles and approaches.
How they learn
Visual/Spatial
learn by seeing (graphs, maps, pictures)
Aural
learn by hearing (oral instructions, music)
Tactile/kinesthetic
learn by touching (hands on activities)
Gardner’s Theory of Multiple Intelligences (1999) is one of the most significant educational influences of the 20th century and even today. He developed the theory in order to distinguish between different “modes” of intelligences rather than thinking of intelligence as one unified ability. Understanding these distinctions can help to guide educators in addressing different learning needs of children.
Multiple Intelligences (Bogod, 1998).
Logical-Mathematical
Ability to use reason, logic and numbers. These learners think conceptually in logical and numerical patterns making connections between pieces of information. Always curious about the world around them, these learners ask lots of questions and like to do experiments.
Skills: problem solving, classifying and categorizing information, working with abstract concepts to figure out the relationship of each to the other, handling long chains of reason to make local progressions, doing controlled experiments, questioning and wondering about natural events, performing complex mathematical calculations, working with geometric shapes.
Musical-Rhythmic
Ability to produce and appreciate music. These musically inclined learners think in sounds, rhythms and patterns. They immediately respond to music either appreciating or criticizing what they hear. Many of these learners are extremely sensitive to environmental sounds (e.g., crickets, bells, dripping taps).
Skills: singing, whistling, playing musical instruments, recognizing tonal patterns, composing music, remembering melodies, understanding the structure and rhythm of music
Visual-Spatial
Ability to perceive the visual. These learners tend to think in pictures and need to create vivid mental images to retain information. They enjoy looking at maps, charts, pictures, videos, and movies.
Skills: puzzle building, reading, writing, understanding charts and graphs, a good sense of direction, sketching, painting, creating visual metaphors and analogies (perhaps through the visual arts), manipulating images, constructing, fixing, designing practical objects, interpreting visual images.
Bodily-Kinesthetic
Ability to control body movements and handle objects skillfully. These learners express themselves through movement. They have a good sense of balance and eye-hand co-ordination. (e.g., ball play, balancing beams). Through interacting with the space around them, they are able to remember and process information.
Skills: dancing, physical co-ordination, sports, hands on experimentation, using body language, crafts, acting, miming, using their hands to create or build, expressing emotions through the body.
Intrapersonal
Ability to self-reflect and be aware of one’s inner state of being. These learners try to understand their inner feelings, dreams, relationships with others, and strengths and weaknesses.
Skills: Recognizing their own strengths and weaknesses, reflecting and analyzing themselves, awareness of their inner feelings, desires and dreams, evaluating their thinking patterns, reasoning with themselves, understanding their role in relationship to others.
Interpersonal
Ability to relate and understand others. These learners try to see things from other people’s point of view in order to understand how they think and feel. They often have an uncanny ability to sense feelings, intentions and motivations. They are great organizers, although they sometimes resort to manipulation. Generally they try to maintain peace in group settings and encourage co-operation. They use both verbal (e.g. speaking) and non-verbal language (e.g. eye contact, body language) to open communication channels with others.
Interpersonal (cont’d)
Skills: seeing things from other perspectives (dual-perspective), listening, using empathy, understanding other people’s moods and feelings, counseling, co-operating with groups, noticing people’s moods, motivations and intentions, communicating both verbally and non-verbally, building trust, peaceful conflict resolution, establishing positive relations with other people.
Verbal/Linguistic
Ability to use words and language. These learners have highly developed auditory skills and are generally elegant speakers. They think in words rather than pictures. Skills: listening, speaking, writing, story telling, explaining, teaching, using humor, understanding the syntax and meaning of words, remembering information, convincing someone of their point of view, analyzing language usage.
Naturalist
Ability to nurture and relate information to one’s natural surroundings. Classifying natural forms such as plants, rocks, and animals.
Spiritualist/Existential
Ability and proclivity to pose (and ponder) questions about life, death, and ultimate realities.
Gardner’s Musical Intelligence
Gardner understood that children are innately musical, and also that creativity can be nurtured and taught. To a larger extent, using music as a means of expression not only helps develop the child psychologically and internally as a whole human being, but any musical expression also develops a sense of community and group cohesion.
Musical intelligence is the capacity to discern pitch, rhythm, timbre, and tone. This intelligence enables us to recognize, create, reproduce, and reflect on music, as demonstrated by composers, conductors, musicians, vocalists, and sensitive listeners. Interestingly, there is often an affective connection between music and the emotions, and musical intelligence may share common thinking processes with mathematical intelligence. Young adults with this kind of intelligence are usually singing or drumming to themselves. They are usually quite aware of sounds others may miss. (Campbell, 2008, p. 3)
Utilizing All of the Intelligences Through Music
When developing a lesson or working with children in any capacity, the more dimensions of learning you address, the richer the lesson will be. Using all of Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences, or as many as possible, allows educators to construct their lesson plans as a way to engage students with strengths in other intelligences and to expose students with musical intelligence to apply those abilities to other areas. The most obvious connections might be between music and logical-mathematical or spatial intelligences since music involves rhythm, counting, and working with time-space relationships.
Activity 10A
Try this
• Are you a divergent thinker or a convergent thinker? If you are one type of thinker, can you practice being the other type at least once each day?
• Deconstruct Gardner’s Musical Intelligence by listing any of the processes he mentions that include music—skills, abilities, and behaviors.
• Are you or is someone you know highly engaged with music? How do you know?
II. Children’s Musical Cultures and Play
The general perception is that children are surrounded by a variety of musical experiences. There are often fewer and fewer opportunities for children to actively engage in music making themselves. They are inundated with music emitting from a wide array of electronic devices, toys, and computers offering a limitless number of musical selections. However, much of the music in children’s lives is “unchosen,” in other words they are passive recipients in much of the music in their lives, and not actively engaged in its selection. They experience background music in computer games, cartoons, TV shows, films, on iPads, radios, and ringtones. They listen to music choices of their parents or siblings, and even the schools they attend often play music before the school day begins or in classrooms while students are working. Studies are being conducted on the effects of the ubiquitous pre-recorded music they encounter and whether or not it is intruding on their desire to make their own music or interact with each other on the playground.
Traditionally, children have participated in music making in activities such as singing songs learned via media or in-person interactions (school, camps, peers, playground). Children’s repertoires include countless game-songs and rhymes for play, jump rope, etc., that have been passed down and modified for generations. In addition to pre-composed children’s songs or folk songs, children create their own make-believe dialog and songs while playing with each other, or their toys and dolls, or just while daydreaming.
In a study of pre-school children and their musical play, Berger and Cooper (2003) discovered that children needed extended, uninterrupted time for play episodes. They identified interruptions that resulted in unfinished play and extinguished children’s musical play, as well as environments that enhanced play such as the presence of an adult valuing all of the children’s musical utterances and flexibility within structured lessons. One area of concern is the shrinking playground time during the school day due to an emphasis on more test-driven curricula. This deprives children of much of the freedom and interaction and development that can occur during free time with each other and with their own selves.
Activity 10B
Try this
Think of the music that you encounter in just one day, including all of the chosen vs. unchosen music listening or making that occurs. How much of your day included unchosen music? Chosen music?
What is considered children’s musical play? Children’s musical play differs from teacher-structured play in an educational setting. Children’s play is child-centered, child-structured, child-motivated, and child-run. It is:
• Initiated by children of their own volition
• Participated in voluntarily
• Intrinsically motivated
• Controlled by the child or children
• Free from external rules or run from internally developed rules
• Involved in everyday forms of musical activity (Marsh and Young, 2006)
Recent studies have not only looked at the processes of musical play, but studied them in the child’s own environment rather than in an isolated and adult-controlled setting. Studies from Marsh (1995) and Hargreaves (1998) look at children’s ability to compose and create songs on the playground among their peers and in a child-controlled environment.
The more intriguing aspect of children’s play is that it naturally incorporates the integration and multimodality that we attempt to instill during education such as dance, drama, and music. Adult-led learning situations may be able to tap into or approximate the multi-modality that may increase arts and learning connections for children.
Marsh and Young’s musical play within four age groups (2006)
Birth–Age 3
• Interactions between adults and babies
• Bounces, repetitious songs
Preschool (3–6)
• Two types of singing:
• “Communicative chant-like, repetitive singing of short verbal and musical ideas” sung in groups (p. 294-5)
• “Introverted, solitary, free-flowing” singing generally alone (p. 295)
• Instruments: Explore “sound makers,” instruments, or really any object
• Movement: Respond to any music played
Mid-Childhood (6+)
• Display more complex rhythms and melodies than originally assumed by ethnomusicologists
• Tessitura much lower, closer to natural speaking voice
• Reaction to cultural environment (pop music, traditional music)
Early Adolescence
• Downloading music files and singing with them
• Change to more dance-oriented play from singing and clapping games
Characteristics of Musical Play
According to Marsh (2006), play is:
• Multimodal
• Blends movement with singing, making sounds with objects and instruments
• Visually, kinesthetically, and aurally active
• Unpremeditated and improvisational
• Younger children are more spontaneous
• Older children are more stylized, and base their play on other genres
• A form of social interaction
• Highly collaborative
Gender and cultural differences in all play also relates to musical play. Collaborative musical play continues among both boys and girls in international locations, whereas collaborative musical play in the U.S. among boys tends to wane. Boys’ handclapping games are also more private, whereas girls will openly play jump rope games. (Marsh, 2006)
The Singing-Game: Children’s Musical Creativity in Play
Children’s singing game songs are one of the most profound examples of their creativity. Found the world over, children’s song repertoires are some of the most imaginative and interesting cultural examples of any genre and are important expressions of children’s lives in different cultures and eras. These games are creative and meaningful social artifacts embedded with children’s culture, history, social mores, attitudes, and relationships.
Many folklorists speculate that children’s songs actually began as adult games and songs, and then were adapted by children, since many cultures have shifted away from adults using music and dance as acceptable or valued social events and instead have turned toward other forms of entertainment. Nonetheless, games and songs were developed in their entirety or at least greatly enhanced by the creativity of children. Hand-clapping songs, circle games and dances in which narrative movements are used were performed and elaborated on generation after generation by children and youngsters. Below are a few examples.
A singing game is an activity based on a song verse, which has actions or movements associated with it. Some children’s singing games have their roots in circle dances, while others reflect social traditions of courtship and marriage, friendship, overcoming childhood fears, or just expressing the fun and merriment of childhood.
Chapter 9 introduced the play party game and cumulative songs, appropriate for older children, but there are many other types of older children’s game songs such as the Circle Game Songs, Handclapping songs, Jump rope songs, Counting out rhymes, Nursery rhymes, Chants, and Sea Chanteys.
Many of the children’s games in the U.S. originated from Europe, and immigrants carried their ancestral heritage through songs and games, which in turn influenced childhood in the U.S.
The song “Farmer in the Dell” for example, reenacts the importance of agricultural life, animal and family relationships in early 19th century Germany by having participants imitate the types of animals and family existence common in rural areas.
The Farmer in the Dell
Traditional German singing game song, 1826
Circle songs from England that we are familiar with include “Here we go Round the Mulberry Bush” or “Ring Around the Rosie,” as well as what is known as a “catching” game like “London Bridge” in which two children facing each other, join hands high above as a stream of children pass underneath. Suddenly, the two children drop arms and catch one child. Many folklorists trace these songs back for centuries. “London Bridge” might go as far back as the Middle Ages in London, as it describes the disrepair of the famous bridge.
London Bridge is Falling Down
English children’s game song, 17th century
Many simple children’s games actually carry complex musical attributes. For example, the camp song B-I-N-G-O appears to be a relatively straightforward spelling song. However, musically, it is quite advanced in that as you gradually silence the letter of the word B-I-N-G-O, the brain compensates for the missing pitch and rhythm using the inner ear.
B-I-N-G-O
American play party song
Clapping and jump rope games are also widespread in the U.S. and around the world, and range from simple clapping patterns found in “Pat-a-cake, pat-a-cake baker’s man,” on to the complex and multi-versed rhymes such as “Miss Mary Mack” or “Miss Mary Had a Steamboat.”
Miss Mary Mack
Miss Mary Mack, Mack, Mack
All dressed in black, black, black
With silver buttons, buttons, buttons [butt’ns]
All down her back, back, back.
She asked her mother, mother, mother
for fifty cents, cents, cents
To see the elephants, elephants, elephants
Jump the fence, fence, fence.
They jumped so high, high, high
they reached the sky, sky, sky
And didn’t come back, back, back
Till the fourth of July, ly, ly!
Counting Songs
Counting Songs are another important type of children’s songs, particularly counting elimination games like “Eeny Meeny Miny Moe,” or just counting rhymes such as “One-Two Buckle My Shoe.”
“Eeny Meeny Miny Moe” in its modern version (oldest version found in 1815 or 20).
Eeny, meeny, miny, moe,
Catch a tiger by the toe.
If he hollers, let him go,
Eeny, meeny, miny, moe.
Counting songs are also found around the world as well. Here is one from India.
Ginti Geet (literally “Counting Song”)
Ek do, kabhi na ro
teen chaar, rakhna pyar
paanch che, mil kar rakh
saath aat, pad le paat
nau das, zor se hans.
One Two, do not cry
Three Four, have love
Five Six, join and live
Seven Eight, read your lessons
Nine ten, laugh out loud.
In certain cultures, both adults and children play games. Two games from India are kabbadi and antarkashi. Kabbadi, a game similar to tag, involves the pursuer repeatedly chanting the word kabbadi in an uninterrupted stream without a breath while trying to tag someone. If the stream of breath is broken before they tag someone, they’re out. (There are also World Cup Championship matches of Kabbadi in Asia.) Antarkashi is a challenging game involving song lyrics, where one team sings lines from a song and the other team must begin their song with the first letter of the last word from the previous team’s selection. The first team to miss coming up with a response loses.
Activity 10C
Think about it
How is creativity perceived and valued in the U.S.? Among adults? Among children? How is children’s play perceived? Is children’s creativity given adequate importance in the curriculum?
Try This
Try to play Kabbadi (kuh-bah-dee) using either the word Kabbadi or substituting an English word. Kabbadi means “holding hands” in Tamil.
In preparation for longer, narrative stories in which sound effects and music are incorporated, there are many children’s rhymes that tell stories and incorporate fun sounds. One of them is “Bear Hunt” in which children make the sounds of footsteps, swishing through tall grass, splashing through a river, etc.
Start by patsching on your lap, L R L R L R while speaking the rhyme.
Bear Hunt
We’re goin’ on a bear hunt,
We’re going to catch a big one,
I’m not scared
What a beautiful day!
Oh look! It’s some long, wavy grass!
Can’t go over it,
Can’t go under it,
Can’t go around it,
Got to go through it!
(Make arm motions like you’re going through long grass and make swishing sounds.)
We’re goin’ on a bear hunt,
We’re going to catch a big one,
I’m not scared
What a beautiful day!
Oh look! It’s a mushroom patch.
Can’t go over it,
Can’t go under it,
Can’t go around it,
Got to go through it!
(Pretend to go through the patch making popping sounds by clasping fingers together and clapping hands.)
We’re goin’ on a bear hunt,
We’re going to catch a big one,
I’m not scared
What a beautiful day!
Oh look! It’s a wide river.
Can’t go over it,
Can’t go under it,
Can’t go through it,
Got to swim across it.
(Pretend to swim and make splashing sounds.)
We’re goin’ on a bear hunt,
We’re going to catch a big one,
I’m not scared
What a beautiful day!
Oh look! A deep, dark cave.
Can’t go over it,
Can’t go under it,
Can’t go through it,
Got to go in it.
(Pretend you’re in a cave, and cup your hands around your mouth to make an echo-ey sound.)
Uh, oh! It’s dark in here.
I feel something,
It has lots of hair!
It has sharp teeth!
It’s a bear!
Hurry back through the river,
(Pretend to swim and make splashing sounds)
Back through the mushroom patch,
(Make popping sounds)
Back through the long grass
(Make motions like you’re going through grass and make swishing sounds)
Run in the house and lock the door.
(Make a loud clap sound.)
Phew! That was close!
I’m not afraid!
Encouraging Musical Creativity through Improvisation
As educators, we are in a position to facilitate music making with children and encourage them to explore their musical selves, including their originality, intelligence, and musical capacity. A study by Koutsoupidou and Hargreaves (2009), found that improvisation had significant effects on the development of children’s creative musical thinking, and that musical originality—the way the child manipulates musical sounds in a unique fashion—increased along with the child’s musical flexibility. One of their significant findings reiterates the common sense idea that, “encouraging children to be creative in the classroom can promote creativity, while preventing them from engaging in creative activities might inhibit their creative potential” (p. 265-266).
One of the ways of fostering creativity is to encourage students’ improvisation. . The term improvisation is often misunderstood to mean, “making something up on the spot.” Even the Merriam-Webster definition, which states “to speak or perform without preparation,” is highly misleading. In fact, improvisation is an advanced and highly sophisticated skill in which the musician must draw upon all of their previously practiced knowledge and techniques in order to compose “in the moment.” Musicians must also respond immediately to their own sound through acute music listening ability, often coordinating with other musicians around them.
Although there is discussion over whether improvisation skills can be taught, there are some basic steps that allow children a safe, secure context in which to experiment with improvisation. Begin by stressing play and participation over performance. This is critical, since most of the self-confidence issues regarding the arts is centered around the idea that children can “get it wrong” or the idea that what they create is less than perfect. In the activities below there are no correct or incorrect musical utterances. All of it is exploratory and meant to develop the child’s inner sense of confidence and skill building while playing.
1) Instrumental Improvisation
• Pentatonic Improvisation on Xylophones
• Remove the “F” and “B” bars to make the instruments pentatonic.
• Clap a simple 4 beat rhythm, and have students play any notes on the xylophone in that rhythm.
• After they are confident and familiar with the process, ask them to play the last note together on “C” for example, so they set up a tonal goal for their short improvisation.
• Increase the length of the rhythms clapped to 8 beats, then to 16 beats. After 8 beats, they can play a “G” which is the V or dominant of the C scale in order to create another goal. Then they can end on “C” on beat 16. This gives the improvisation shape.
• Solos and Groups
• When they are comfortable with the process above, have a few soloists volunteer to play their measures alone. This can be alternated with whole group/solo/whole group/solo, to create an improvisatory piece.
2) Body Percussion Improvisation
• Snapping, Clapping, Patsching, Stomping
• Begin by practicing echo clapping, using many different rhythmic patterns in different meters (e.g. 2/4, 3/4, 4/4, 6/8 in 2, 3, 4, 6, 8, 9, 12, or 16 beat patterns). These become the embodied tools with which students will create their improvisation
• Have them experiment with these rhythms either just clapping or on their body first using body percussion - clapping, stamping, snapping or patsching) until they become confident in producing different rhythms.
• Question/Answer. Another place to start is to provide a question for the group in a 4-beat pattern and then have them respond with their own 4-beat pattern. The question/answer technique is slightly more difficult than echoing in that echoing merely imitates what the leader has done, and answering requires the creation of a different rhythm.
• Question/Answer Advanced. An even slightly more difficult answer is one that involves a part of the question. For example, in a linguistic question and answer, you might ask: “Where are you going?” The answer usually includes part of the question, with a slight modification of words or word order. For example, “I am going to school.” Similarly, a musical answer should also contain part of the question, plus have a sense of closure or finality. For example:
• Closure or finality means that it should sound final, and not end with eighth or sixteenth notes, which imply that there will be a next measure. Ending with quarter notes, half notes, or even quarter notes and a rest gives a sense of finality to the rhythm.
3) Vocal Improvisation
While one might think that vocal improvisation is the easiest type of improv, it is actually very challenging. Below are both vocal and instrumental sample activities from the book Free to be Musical, (Higgins, et. al, 2010), which will help guide students to feeling comfortable with improvisation.
Activities from Free to be Musical: Group Improvisation in Music
• Keep breathing
• Breathe, and concentrate on your breath.
• Gradually add a sound to the exhaled breath.
• Get an instrument and figure out how to play it to the exhaled breath—change if you like.
• Be free
• Start and end in silence.
• Play with an instrument however you want, not listening to anyone else.
• After a while, begin to tune in to other people.
• Dig-a-dum
• Chant dig-a-dum dig-a-dum, over and over.
• Then add patch, clap, snap, stamp, slap or any other vocalization such as dee, too, bah.
• Transfer the rhythm to non-pitched percussion instruments.
• Have each child play the rhythm four times, while the group responds four times. Listen for timbral differences.
• Transfer to pitched percussion.
• Expand to have them add in other rhythms while keeping some dig-a-dums.
Children’s Compositions using Abstract Notation
Children are natural composers and experiment with sound all around them. Capturing their sounds, however, is difficult to do in regular notation, and children do not have the ability to formally notate something using staff paper and lines. But expressive abilities of music do not have to be limited. Using abstract notation is one way around this. Children can draw simple shapes and textures to express sounds and compositions that they’ve invented, or can read the work of another child who has written in this type of notation.
Abstract notation: Example 1
Abstract notation: Example 2
Above are some examples of this type of notation. Swoops, lines, dots, etc., can represent many vocal sounds. Although this is not typical or standard notation, there are very specific musical attributes that can be visually represented such as sound, silence, and duration or the length of the sound. In the first example, the pink lines indicate the duration of a sound and then silence. Other visuals require some advanced decision-making. For example, does the the tall, big, blue bump in the middle of the squiggly line in the first example equal a loud sound (dynamics) or a higher pitch or both? Does a “shorter” or smaller bump equal softer or a lower pitch or both? Exactly what sound does each shape represent? Smooth? Rough? Short? Long? Sharp? Should you use a vowel? Consonant? An onomatopoeic sound? A word? Body percussion? What is the tempo of the piece? How do you read the piece? Left to right or right to left? Top to bottom or bottom to top? In terms of texture, does the first example consist of four separate lines or voices, or should they be performed all together? At what tempo is the piece to be performed? A child can be the conductor of the piece, and set a tempo by slowly moving their finger along the “score” as other children perform their different parts.
After a successful vocalization or body percussion, the next step is to assign instruments to the different lines. A circle might represent a drumbeat, a swoop could be a slide whistle, etc. Still, decisions about crescendos and decrescendos, tempo, and score reading have to be made, but there are endless possibilities for vocalizing and playing these child-centered compositions.
Vocabulary
collaborative musical play: people of gender and culture differences related to one another through music
convergent thinking: following a particular set of logical steps to arrive at one solution, which in some cases is a “correct” solution
divergent thinking: a thought process or method used to generate creative ideas by exploring many possible solutions
educable: capable of being educated or taught
improvisation: an advanced and highly sophisticated technique in which the musician must draw upon all of their previously practiced skills and techniques in order to compose
singing game: an activity based on a song verse, which has actions or movements associated with it | textbooks/socialsci/Early_Childhood_Education/Book%3A_Music_and_the_Child_(Sarrazin)/1.10%3A_Childrens_Musical_Play-_Musicality_and_Creativity.txt |
Chapter Summary. Allowing all children equal access to an art form is more difficult than it sounds. Social pressures, stereotypes, and changing attitudes and perspectives can inhibit inclusion and lead to exclusionary practice. This chapter addresses the issue of several types of musical inclusion, including music and gender, and music for children with autism, ADD/ADHD, learning and physical disabilities.
I. Gender in Music
Most of us never consider whether music is gendered, but any system that is part of a culture, even a musical one, is bound to include any general perceptions and values of the society as a whole.
What is gender? The term sex refers to the biological and physiological characteristics that define men and women, while gender refers to society’s constructed roles, expectations, behaviors, attitudes, and activities that it deems appropriate for men and women. Many of us can remember the first time we became aware of our gender. For some, it was an article of clothing that was too “boyish” or “girlish” to wear, while for others it was noticing certain behaviors such as preferring to play with trucks and cars rather than dolls, and realizing the societal expectations that encourage boys to play with trucks and cars. We incorporate gender into all aspects of our daily lives from a very early age onward, and can be socially uncomfortable if we are unsure of someone’s gender or have issues coming to understand our own.
Perceptions of the individual based on their gender and race influence all of us in all areas. We contextualize, filter, draw conclusions, and make inferences, in part, based on someone’s physical attributes. Many educators have studied the role of gender and how it affects teachers and teaching. For example, individual teachers may prefer one gender to another, but the entire educational system in general, favors girls’ learning styles and behaviors over that of boys. Grades are affected in addition to access to certain opportunities and promotion to leader- ship roles. Boys and girls may express different musical interests and abilities with girls showing self-confidence in literacy and music and boys showing confidence in sports and math, but teachers also discuss boys and girls musicality differently (Green, 1993).
Is music gendered? Music is highly gendered in ways that we might not even think about. Societies attribute masculinity to different genres of music, instruments, and what musicians should look like when performing. For example, genres like heavy metal and rock are gendered not only in the fact that male musicians dominate them, but also in that they are perceived as male-oriented in subject matter, with appeal to a male audience. Gender lines are not as straightforward as one might believe, however. In performance, there is a great deal of gender bending or borrowing that can occur. On stage, male musicians may co-opt female gendered attributes as part of a performance, such as Heavy or Hair Metal band members wearing long hair and make-up.
Musical instruments are also “gendered.” Our choices as to which instrument to play, in other words, are not entirely our own. Society, friends, and teachers, play a significant role in our music selection process. As a culture, and even as children, we have very particular notions of who should play what instruments, with children as young as three associating certain instruments with gender (Marshall and Shibazaki, 2012). In a 1981 study, Griswold & Chroback found that the harp, flute, and piccolo had high feminine ratings; the trumpet, string bass, and tuba had high masculine ratings.
As Lucy Green mentions above (1993), boys and girls have different musical interests, and teachers discuss musicality differently regarding boys and girls, and are likely to offer differences in opportunity, instrument selection, etc. For example, according to a 2008 study, girls are more likely to sing, while boys are more likely to play instruments such as bass guitar, trombone, and percussion. One interesting exception to boy’s dominance of percussion is that, participation in African drumming was far more egalitarian, with an equal number of boys and girls playing (Hallam, 2008, p. 11-13).
Activity 11A
Think about it
You might have an early memory when deciding what instrument to play in the school band or for lessons at home. Why did you decide on which instrument to play? Were you influenced by what instrument other girls or boys or professional musicians were playing? Did your parents or teachers encourage you in one direction or another?
II. Music Therapy and Healing
Throughout this book, we’ve learned about the many connections that music has on mental and emotional development. Music, is of course, more than entertainment, and affects the body directly through its sound vibrations. Our bodies are made up of many rhythms—the heart, respiratory system, our body’s energy, digestive systems etc. These vibrations result in something called entrainment, where our bodies try to sync up with the tempo of the music. Music can affect our heartbeat, blood pressure, and pulse rate, and reduce stress, anxiety and even depression.
The fact that the body and mind are so affected by music forms the basis for most music therapy. Music Therapy is defined as “A systematic process of intervention wherein the therapist helps the client to achieve health, using musical experiences and the relationships that develop through them as dynamic forces of change” (Bruscia, 1989, p. 47). “Musical experiences can include singing or vocalizing, playing various percussion and melodic instruments, and listening to music…Music therapists tap into the power of music to arouse emotions that can be used to motivate clients” (Pelliteri, 2000).
Music for Well-being and Learning
Music can be used to create any number of environments for children to flourish cognitively and developmentally. Music creates a general sense of well being, while creating a positive environment in which to learn, create, and function. For example, playing soft classical music, particularly Baroque music (Bach, Vivaldi, etc.) increases attention and the ability to concentrate, allowing the listener to work more productively.
Music also has a direct impact on the heart rate. The heart responds by beating more quickly when listening to faster tempos, and slower when listening to slower tempos. It also responds to dynamics (loud and soft) and to certain pitch frequencies.
Tempo and related activities.
Music
High energy activities
• General stress release, increases alertness and energy
• Dancing
• Working out
• Mood pick-me-up
130 beats per minute
• Dance music is usually 120–140 beats per minute
• Classical music in a tempo marked allegro or presto would be appropriate; divertimento
Medium energy activities
• Increases productivity and performance
• Increases alertness, artistic expression
• Good for individual or group project work
• Concentrating on a single activity
• Homework, project construction, etc.
80–100 beats per minute
• Baroque or classical music in a tempo marked andante; theme and variations, fantasia, giocoso, intermezzo
• Pop or rock music ballads
Lower energy activities
• Alters brain waves to promote relaxation
• Increases creativity, thinking, problem solving
• Calms the body and mind after a high impact activity
• Returning from recess or active playtime
60–80 beats per minute
• Baroque or classical music in a tempo marked adagio or largo
• Bach, Albinoni, Vivaldi, Mozart
• Lullabies, classical or folk (i.e., Brahms lullaby)
In addition to the beats per minute (tempo), the timbre, expression, and volume (dynamics) of a song also have an impact. For example, a loud orchestral piece, even if it has 60 beats per minute, will not aid the body into a calm state as well as a softer, more soothing piece with a few instruments. Low-pitched instruments such as drums impact the body with vibration and rhythm that influence body rhythms and movement, whereas higher-pitched frequencies such as flute and voice demand more attention and focus. Pieces such as Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring or Orff’s Carmina Burana, for example, would not be good choices as they are likely to promote agitation and frenetic activity rather than concentration and productivity.
Activity 11B
Try This
Go to a website such as Pandora (www.pandora.com), Stereomood (www.stereomood.com) or Spotify (www.spotify.com). Select different types of music and note down the general beats per minute using a watch or clock. Then take stock of your physical reactions. For example, how do you respond to the workout genre on Pandora? Does your heart rate increase? Are you able to concentrate with this type of music in the background? What about the easy listening genre?
Compare: Does the Music Therapy selection on the Mood/Relaxed channel on Spotify create the same physical reaction as any of the classical adagio selections suggested above? How about the Mood Booster channel? How does Stereomood compare in terms of changing your mood? Document any physical reactions you might have had.
III. Learning Disabilities, Special Needs Children, and Music
Any group of students has a wide range of abilities, and each child presents a unique challenge in terms of the best way to reach their maximum learning potential. Some students may be gifted or already familiar with the material, while others are challenged simply by the arrangement of the room. Some children, however, require more extensive modifications to the curriculum in order to succeed. Regardless of where you work, you are likely to be in a position where you will encounter students that require additional help.Music can greatly assist these children in a variety of ways, helping and nurturing them in learning and development.
• Special Needs
• Learning Disabilities
• Autism
• ADD or ADHD
• Behavior Problems
• Physical Disabilities
• Hearing Loss
• Visual Loss
The strategies outlined below can be used in any general music work with children, but are particularly helpful techniques aimed at aiding individuals with specific needs. Many of the techniques introduced in this textbook are used in music therapy and to treat Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). Musical activities such as singing, singing/vocalization, instrument play, movement/dance, musical improvisation, songwriting/composition, and listening to music, are types of musical therapy interventions to assess and help individuals practice identified skills.
Assessing Appropriate Songs for Special Needs Children
As with selecting any material for any child, you will need to assess the particular needs of the student, including speech and developmental levels. If the child is pre-verbal or verbally limited, a simple song (limited lyrics, simple phrases) would be more appropriate than something complex.
Musical activities, including singing or playing instruments, can increase the self-esteem level of the child. Pamela Ott suggests asking the following questions when selecting material, keeping in mind that simply doing the activity successfully is one of the most important goals (Ott, 2011):
• Have I chosen an activity that will interest my child?
• Have I modified the activity to the appropriate level to ensure a successful experience?
• Am I prepared to modify the activity even more if it appears to be too difficult for my child?
• Will the music made by my child in this activity be pleasing to him?
• Have I praised my child for attempting the activity?
Often children require a well-structured day in which to work successfully. In addition to integrating music in the day, as discussed in the next chapter as well, music can also help to organize and structure the day for children who have trouble transitioning from activity to activity.
Possible uses for music throughout the day include:
1. Organization
• Activity: lining up, cleaning up
• Aesthetic Purpose: motivation
2. Transitions
• Activity: changing from one activity to another
• Aesthetic Purpose: change of mood, re-focus energy
3. Rituals
• Activity: Greetings/Hello, goodbye, holiday music
• Aesthetic Purpose: Prepare students mentally, provides stability and repetition
4. Interstitial
• Activity: Short break between two subjects or activities
• Aesthetic Purpose: Provide relaxation, moment of expression, and alternate uses for cognitive functioning
Sample Day that includes Music
1. Use music before the school day begins
• Ritual: Set the mood/change the atmosphere in the room using sound
2. Students enter and settle in to the room
• Ritual: “Good Morning,” and/or movement activity “Head Shoulders”
3. Morning Work, Attendance, Calendar
• Organization: i.e. “If you’re ready for P.E. line on up, line on up.”
4. Special (Music, Art, Physical Ed)
• Transition: Focus for Math
5. Math Stations
• Organization: Line up for Lunch
6. Lunch
• Transition: Focus ready for reading
7. Reading/Literacy Stations
• Interstitial: Break song/movement
8. Writing
• Interstitial: Movement/song break
9. Social Studies/Science/Health
• Transition: Movement activity/song
10. Snack/Play time
• Organization: Focus: Line up for Library or Lab
11. Computer Lab or Library
• Transition:
12. Pickup and pack-up
• Organization: “Clean up song”
13. Dismissal
• Ritual: “Goodbye” song
Examples of Hello rhymes and songs might include “Hi There, Hello There.” If the body percussion is too complex, simply say the rhyme or clap to the rhyme.
Head and Shoulders (Key of B flat)
Strategies and Songs for Enhancing and Encouraging Verbal Skills
For children who are pre-verbal or speech-delayed, substituting nonsense syllables helps them successfully sing a favorite tune. “Doo,” “boo,” “la,” etc., are easily pronounceable and fun for children to articulate.
Other familiar songs to help increase verbal awareness include songs with word sub- stitutions or nonsense syllables such as Sarasponda or Supercalifragilisticexpialidocous. The song B-I-N-G-O is an excellent example in which to practice internalizing the pitch since the singer has to clap the rhythm and silently think the pitch in their head.
B-I-N-G-O
American play party song
Another song with an opportunity for children to insert a rhythm is “I’m a Nut.” Although the song does have quite a few words, the refrain is repetitive with only three words, and provides two empty beats for clapping or playing an instrument.
I’m a Nut
Any song can be adapted to allow the insertion of rhythm simply by substituting a word or phrase with a clap (or instrument). The substituted word or phrase can be part of the rhyme or not. For example, in the silly song “Skidamarink,” the phrase “I love you” can be clapped, or even just the “you.” Words such as “morning” “afternoon” “moon,” etc. are also good candidates for substitution.
Skidamarink
Silly songs and rhymes with interesting onomatopoeic sounds and simple, repetitive words are also highly useful, such as “Galumph Went the Little Green Frog” and “Jelly in a Bowl.”
Jelly in a Bowl
The remainder of the chapter contains material from the National Association for Music Educators regarding some tips and general strategies for working with children who have special needs.1
Music for Special Needs and Learning Disabilities
Many classrooms today are inclusive, meaning that they will include children who have special needs. Preparing to help these children requires additional thought and strategies.
General Strategies for Students with Special Needs
Avoid sensory overload and be predictable.
• Keep your classroom organized and free from distractions.
• Keep directions simple and direct.
• Establish lesson routines (e.g., beginning and ending songs).
Lesson preparation
• Present materials in as many modes as possible to address different learning styles.
• Develop a hands-on, participatory program that emphasizes varied activities like movement, instruments, rhythm, speech, sound exploration, melody, and dance for best effect.
Strategies for students with learning disabilities
Students who have difficulty reading
• Prepare simple visual charts.
• Use color to highlight key concepts (e.g., do=blue, re=red, mi=green).
• Isolate rhythm patterns into small pieces on a large visual.
• Indicate phrases with a change in color.
• Introduce concepts in small chunks.
• Use repetition, but present material in different ways.
Students with visual impairments
• Teach songs by rote and echoing patterns.
• Provide rhythm instruments—such students can learn to play them without problems.
• Assign a movement partner for movement activities.
• Read aloud any information you present visually.
• Get large-print scores when available.
• Give a tour of the room so students can become familiar with where things are.
Students with behavior problems
• Use routine and structure—it can be comforting for these students.
• Remain calm and don’t lose your temper.
• Maintain a routine from lesson to lesson (e.g., begin and end with a familiar song).
• Vary the drill by playing or singing with different articulation and dynamics for students who can’t maintain focus for long.
• Use props like puppets to give directions in a nonthreatening way.
• Use songs or games that contain directions to help children who struggle to follow verbal directions or who have authority issues.
Students with physical disabilities (e.g., cystic fibrosis, heart trouble, asthma, diabetes, epilepsy)
• Have students sing to help breathing and lung control.
• Adapt Orff instruments by removing bars so that any note played will be correct. Orff instruments fit nicely onto a wheelchair tray.
• Acquire adaptive instruments—adaptive mallets, Velcro straps for hand drums and other percussion instruments, and one-handed recorders are available. Find other adaptive musical instruments with an Internet search.
• Develop activities for listening and responding to recorded music for children who are physically unable to move and/or play an instrument.
Students with higher learning potential
• Offer a variety of activities, such as acceleration (design assignments that allow students to go to differing levels), enrichment (extra lessons), technological instruction (computer programs for composition, research, or theory).
• Find a mentor for a student.
• Offer advanced ability ensembles.
Debrot (2002) says you can address a variety of skill levels in one piece of music: While some children play complex patterns, others can sing or play a simple steady beat. “Every student has a learning style that is unique,” says Debrot. “Presenting material aurally, visually, tactilely, and orally will insure that you connect with the varied learning styles for all students. The use of speech, movement, instruments, and singing in each lesson will insure that each child feels some degree of success.”
Music and Autism
Music has been found to be successful in working with children who have Autistic Spectrum Disorder. Using music activities and songs helps to greatly increase independent performance and reduce anxiety. Music was found to help reduce the stress of transitions such as the shift from home to school, help children remember step-by-step routines like clean up time, and also increase the community and group inclusion of children with and without disabilities (Kern, 2004).
Iseminger (2009) refers to employing an “Intentional Approach” when dealing with students on the autism spectrum, particularly those with difficulty with transitions. The following examples are helpful in preparing autistic students in advance for transitions.
• To ease a transition from an Autoharp unit to a recorder unit, make an announcement (“Today is the last day for Autoharp because next week we begin playing the recorder.”), and put a visual clue on a large calendar (e.g., “Last day for Autoharp” or “Autoharp STOP,” “First day for recorders” or “Recorders YES”).
• To show a DVD (e.g., The Nutcracker in December), put a picture of the DVD or a TV on the calendar for that date at least a week ahead of time.
• To prepare for a concert dress rehearsal, post a picture of risers or the children standing on risers on that date.
• When the class is finished working on a song, put it in an “All Done” folder to show that the class won’t be working on it anymore.
• Write a short, simple picture story for the autistic child to read during the week preceding the major changes.
• Keep the number of changes to a minimum. Following a concert, introduce new songs slowly after reviewing the choir’s favorite song from the concert. Finish with a familiar song.
Shore’s work (2002) explains the musical benefits for those on the autism spectrum. Music provides an alternative means of communication for nonverbal students, and can also help other verbal students organize their communication. Music can help to improve children’s self-esteem in that they can participate and possibly excel in the musical endeavor. Music is also a social and communal activity, and a child with autism can enter into the communal and social interaction of music making.
Success with Autism: Visual Aids and Predictability2
Iseminger (2009) notes that two main areas where teachers can help students with autism are in creating appropriate visual aids and achieving predictability. “Children with special needs are concrete learners, and visual information makes words more concrete. Pictures of a student sitting in a chair or playing the recorder give clear directions. Those on the autism spectrum are often stronger visual than auditory learners and have a tremendous need for visual information.” Also, autistic children act out due to increased anxiety and fear, not from autism itself. As a classroom teacher, taking steps to minimize anxiety will help with managing classroom behavior.
Most teachers use some type of visual cues and supports such as charts, books, musical instruments, and music notation. Making these visuals simple and accessible will greatly help autistic children in the class.
• Use rhythm notation and beat icons to make rhythm a visual event. Point to four quarter notes or four icons while the class pats a steady beat.
• Show a picture of a recorder with correct fingering rather than a fingering chart.
• Clarify lyrics with pictures made from design software (e.g., Boardmaker), or decorate counting songs with pictures of each number and object.
• Post your lesson plan. List song titles to cross out or erase as they’re completed. Or make a tab system with pictures and Velcro or magnets. As each song or activity is completed, you or the child can pull off the tab and put it in a folder marked “All done.”
Managing Behavior
• To reward positive behavior: For a 30-minute class, prepare a file folder with a Velcro strip with the numbers 1 through 6. At the end of the strip, post a picture of a reward (e.g., favorite book or swing on the playground). For every 5 minutes the child follows directions and stays on task, she earns a star-shaped tab. When she sees all six tabs in place, she knows 30 minutes are done, and she gets her reward.
• To establish negative consequences: Prepare a card with 3 square tabs. At the first verbal warning, remove the first tab; repeat for a second infraction. Removing the last tab means removal from the classroom or other appropriate consequence.
Tips for creating predictability
Physical Structure
• Establish a seating arrangement, and keep it the same all year.
• Assign the student to an appropriate-size chair, carpet square, or a masking tape outline on the floor.
• For a child who can’t sit still, assign two chairs across the room from each other. Have her alternate chairs for each activity, providing the movement she craves.
• For a child who refuses to sit in a chair, photograph him sitting in his chair and sitting on a carpet square. Post both photos, and ask him to choose between them when entering music class. He gets a sense of control, yet you prescribe the limits.
Routine Structure
• Keep the structure of your lessons the same from session to session. For example, begin with a fun rhythm activity to get students going, and finish with a quiet relaxing or listening activity to calm them. The exact song or activity may vary, but the basic nature of the activity is the same and predictable.
• Establish your music routine the first day of class as a whole experience. Children with autism will show signs of discomfort or distress because they don’t know the routine. If you can overlook and tolerate some obvious distress and complete the lesson, the child will have experienced the entire routine and established it mentally. On the second day, she’ll likely show fewer signs of distress because now she knows what to expect. If a child shows severe aggression, obviously this can’t be ignored.
• If a child is unlikely to tolerate an entire first class, introduce him to music class for short periods, starting with the ending routine, or the last 5 minutes of class. After several successful 5-minute sessions, he can come in for the activity preceding the final activity, and so on, until he’s in music class for the full period. (This also works for a child already in class who’s struggling and feeling overwhelmed.)
“Sometimes you just have to plow through the struggle or upset to establish the routine,” says Iseminger. “They are taking it in, despite what it looks like, calming down after one or two class sessions.”
Students with ADD or ADHD3
Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) are two of the most common factors for special needs in today’s classrooms. ADD and ADHD are disabilities and fall under the designating category of “Other Health Impairment.” This NAfME post addresses both issues and gives guidance to mediate its effects in the classroom.
Many teachers recognize the signs of attention deficit disorder (ADD) and attention deficit hyperactive disorder (ADHD): an inability to maintain attention, impulsive behaviors, and/or motor restlessness. Students can have mild, moderate, or severe symptoms and can be found in both general education and special education classes.
Elise S. Sobol teaches at Rosemary Kennedy School, Wantagh, New York (for students with multiple learning disabilities, including those with autism and developmental difficulties) and is the chairperson of Music for Special Learners of the New York State School Music Association.
Sobol (2008) suggests the following strategies for students with ADD with or without hyperactivity:
• Teach and consistently reinforce social skills.
• Mediate asking questions.
• Define and redefine expectations.
• Assess understanding of content.
• Define and redefine appropriateness and inappropriateness.
• Make connections explicitly clear.
• Take nothing for granted.
• Reinforce positive behavior.
• Define benefits of completing a task.
• Include 21st-century relevance.
• Clearly mark music scores with clues to recall rehearsal information.
• Establish support through creative seating to enhance student security.
• Post your rehearsal plan.
• Repeat realistic expectations each session.
• Choose a repertoire that enhances character development and self-esteem.
• Use lots of rehearsals to embed information into short term memory.
• Be informed if a student takes medication to help regulate impulsive responses. Plan student participation accordingly.
• Follow classroom and performance program structure strictly so students know the sequence “first,” “then.”
Sobol subscribes to William Glasser’s Choice Theory: Students will do well if four basic needs are addressed in the educational classroom or performance setting. All students need to feel a sense of:
• Belonging—feeling accepted and welcome.
• Gaining power—growing in knowledge and skill and gaining self-esteem through successful mastery of an activity via realistic teacher direction.
• Having fun—improving health, building positive relationships, and enhancing thinking. Students need to be uplifted and spirited to add to the quality of their successful program.
• Being free—making good choices and expressing control over one’s life. Students need to be a part of their educational process. Each student gains importance and dignity as he or she participates in teaching and learning to set goals, make plans, choose behaviors, evaluate results, and learn from each experience to do things better.
Teaching Students with Behavior Problems4
“Students with behavior disorders are generally unhappy individuals, and they often make everyone around them unhappy as well,” says NAfME member Alice-Ann Darrow (2006) “They’re generally disliked by their peers, their teachers, their siblings, and often even their parents.” They may also be diagnosed with learning disabilities, attention deficit and hyperactivity disorders, depression, and suicidal tendencies.
Darrow recommends some instruction accommodations:
• Seat these students close to the teacher and beside model students.
• Plan learning activities that are motivating and desirable. Students become disruptive when they’re not actively engaged.
• Give clear, uncomplicated directions. Students often misbehave when they’re confused about what they’re supposed to do.
• Use the student’s name and look at him or her. Students misbehave more often when they feel anonymous.
• Define expectations for classroom behavior and be consistent in administering consequences.
• Make a desirable activity contingent upon completing a less desirable activity. Keep a list of desirable activities such as listening to CDs or playing music Bingo.
• Think “do” instead of “don’t.” Make a positive request (“Watch me”) rather than a negative one (“Don’t bury your head in the music”).
• Think “approval” instead of “disapproval.” Reinforce a student who’s doing what you want rather than admonishing a student who’s misbehaving.
• Find opportunities for problem students to behave appropriately and feel good about themselves. Ask them to help move risers or put instruments away so you can reinforce good behavior.
Darrow also uses strategies from Teaching Discipline by Madsen and Madsen (1998):
• Avoid labeling students—they often live up to the label.
• Reserve emotions.
• Choose your battles—prioritize which behaviors are most disruptive and will receive your time and attention.
• Use peers for tutoring or as part of your management strategies. Problem students often respond better to peer approval/disapproval. Peers can redirect students’ attention when they’re off-task or ignore attention-getting behaviors.
• Analyze problem situations—what are their trigger events, and what consequences extinguish or reinforce the problem behavior?
Adapting Instruction, Expectations, and Attitude
Adapt your expectations of students and your instruction. “Appropriate behaviors have to be shaped—shaped through successive approximations to the desired behavior,” says Darrow. “Shaping desired behaviors takes time.” When starting, she recommends accepting and reinforcing behaviors that come close to the desired behavior.
Developing more positive attitudes about teaching students with behavior disorders goes a long way to reduce the stress of teaching them.
Music and Students with Physical Disabilities5
More students with physical disabilities, orthopedic conditions, and fragile health are participating in school music programs. Elise Sobol, chairperson of Music for Special Learners of the New York State School Music Association, offers some advice:
Assistive Technology
“Technological advances such as the innovative SoundBeam,” says Sobol, “allow 100% accessibility to students with even the most severe limitations to experience the joy of making music, exploring sound, creating compositions, and performing expressively.”
The British SoundBeam system translates body movement into digitally generated sound and image. This technology is available in the U.S. through SoundTree. Click on “Music Education,” then on “Music Therapy.”
“Although it may be challenging for teachers to find adaptive instruments to suit the individual needs of their students,” Sobol says, “the music market catalog offerings are expanding.” See distributors such as West Music, Music Is Elementary, Musician’s Friend, among others.
Instructional Strategies
Sobol finds the following helpful:
• Make sure the class content will support students’ IEP requirements.
• Build motor skills (through consultation with goals of assigned occupational and physical therapists).
• Enhance vitality by building self-esteem through music.
• Design lessons that build on reduced or limited strength.
• Ensure accessibility to and inside classroom or performance space.
• Make the environment safe and secure. Organize instruments, props, AV equipment, etc. to permit wheelchair access. Intercom allows calling for help in case of a health alert.
• Always follow school policies for universal precautions and protections against infection.
• If a paraprofessional or teacher aide is not assigned to a specific student, use a buddy system.
• Assess student capability—what a student can do—and adapt musical instruments with materials such as Velcro (e.g. to hold a triangle on the wrist) to enhance student’s ability to play. Design, create, and invent for individual and unique situations.
Books to Read Aloud
Sobol has found success with the following:
• Knockin’ on Wood: Starring Peg Leg Bates, by Lynne Barasch—Inspirational. For building disability awareness and as an educational tool for success in the performing arts.
• Puppies for Sale by Dan Clark—About a puppy with a missing hip socket and a boy with a leg brace, it promotes positive character development.
• What’s Wrong with Timmy? by Maria Shriver—About a child with disabilities and forming new friendships.
• I Am Potential: Eight Lessons on Living, Loving, and Reaching Your Dreams by Patrick Henry Hughes and Patrick John Hughes—Born without eyes and malformed limbs, Patrick became a member of the marching band at the University of Louisville.
Music and Students with Hearing Loss6
Students who are deaf or hard of hearing can succeed in music class. MENC member Elise Sobol shares some of her instructional strategies.
• First and foremost, follow the student’s Individualized Education Program (IEP) for instructional adaptations. If the student has an educational or sign language interpreter, work closely with the interpreter for optimal success.
• Second, face the student so that eyebrow and lip-mouth movements are clear.
The following suggestions may also be helpful:
• Position student near the sound source for best amplification. Being near an acoustic instrument or speakers offers the greatest benefit from the sound. A hands-on experience is best, especially if the student is deaf.
• If the student has an FM amplifier system, make sure to position your microphone so the student can hear you. As newer assistive listening devices develop, be sure to receive training on them.
• Select instruments appropriate to the student’s range of resonant hearing with a sustaining quality. Match instruments to students’ functional independence and enjoyment.
• Use visual aids. “Give all lessons an auditory/visual/tactile/kinesthetic component to support contextual learning for students of all challenges,” Sobol says. “Visual strategies are most significant to students whose hearing is compromised. It’s their primary means for receiving information.” Written material, music notation, and color-coded charts and diagrams on overhead projectors or SMART Boards enhance teaching and learning.
• Use signing. “Music teachers naturally use gestures to indicate musical meaning in demonstrating dynamics, tempo, entrances/exits, standing up/sitting down, etc.,” Sobol says. “Learning basic finger spelling to enhance musical activities with pitch and using sign language to enhance a song performance is very helpful. Sign language is a beautiful way to communicate; all students will benefit.”
• Demonstrate the characteristics of the music and support lesson content with movement.
• Use Windows Media Player for recorded music. It dramatizes sound with unique artistic rhythm and design.
• Choose instruments that are held close to the body (e.g., guitar, sitar, violin, viola, cello, and bass are held against the body) so students can feel the resonance of the instrument as well as the sound vibrations. Some percussion or wind instruments fit the bill as well.
• Use a keyboard that lights to sound or touch to make the music visual.
Music and Students with Vision Loss7
Visual impairments range from low vision to blindness and can demand a variety of strategies. MENC member Elise Sobol urges educators to work closely with the special education team in their school district including the assigned vision teacher where applicable, and consult the student’s Individual Educational Program (IEP) to match any and all accommodations and learning supports.
These supports may include an assistive device such as a cane, technology and transcription software such as a Braille printer to translate text and music, a therapy animal such as a seeing-eye dog, or a teacher aide, depending on the student’s educational needs.
Instructional Strategies
Sobol has had success with the following:
• Make the music room accessible and free of floor wires for sound equipment, etc.
• Seat students in the front of the room and away from potential glare.
• Enlarge print per individual student needs. Lighthouse International recommends 16 to 18 point font depending upon typefaces.
• Use contrasting colors; white on black is more readable than black on white.
• Use tactile props in classroom music. Keep them simple and proof them with your fingers, not your eyes. Try different texture materials, rough like sandpaper, raised like playdough and pom-poms, or pipe cleaners—check art supply stores for variety to suit lesson plan.
• Use audio enhancement for visual directions.
• Enhance memory with sequential learning.
• Record parts and lessons on MP3/CD/tape for classroom focus and home practice.
• Keep a consistent classroom set up with good lighting so the student can make a mental map of the classroom. Notify student of and describe any changes made to the classroom.
• Above all create safety in space and place for music learning and fun.
Books to Read Aloud
Sobol recommends reading the following in the classroom:
• A Picture Book of Louis Braille by David Adler—Braille became blind at the age of 4 and learned to play the organ, violin, and cello.
• Knots on a Counting Rope by John Archambault and Bill Martin Jr.—A moving story of a Native American who was born blind and had a special mission.
• Helen Keller: Courage in the Dark by Johanna Hurwitz—The story of her indomitable will and devoted teacher.
• I Am Potential: Eight Lessons on Living, Loving, and Reaching Your Dreams by Patrick Henry Hughes and Patrick John Hughes—Born without eyes and malformed limbs, Patrick became a member of the marching band at the University of Louisville.
• Biographies of musician role models such as Ray Charles, Stevie Wonder, José Feliciano, and Nobuyuki Tsujii (Gold medal winner, Van Cliburn Competition).
References
Gender
Alden, A. (1998). What does it all mean? The National Curriculum for Music in a multi-cultural society. (Unpublished MA dissertation). London University Institute of Education, London.
Armstrong, V. (2011). Technology and the gendering of music education. Aldershot, U.K.: Ashgate.
Davidson, J. and Edgar, R. (2003). Gender and race bias in the judgment of Western art music performance. Music Education Research, 5(2), 169-181.
Eccles, J., Wigfield, A., Harold, R., & Blumenfeld, P. (1993). Age and ender differences in children’s self- and task perceptions during elementary school. Child Development, 64(3), 830-847.
Green, L. (1993). Music, gender and education: A report on some exploratory research. British Journal of Music Education, 10(3), 219-253.
Green, L. (1997). Music Education and Gender. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press.
Green, L. (1999). Research in the sociology of music education: Some introductory concepts. Music Education Research, 1(1), 159-70.
Griswold, P., & Chroback, D. (1981). Sex-role associations of music instruments and occupations by gender and major. Journal of Research in Music Education, 29(1), 57-62.
Hallam, S. (2004). Sex differences in the factors which predict musical attainment in school aged students. Bulletin of the Council for Research in Music Education,
161/162,
107-115.
Hallam, S., Rogers, L. Creech, A. (2008). Gender differences in musical instrument choice. International Journal of Music Education. 26 (1), 7-19.
Marshall, N., & Shibazaki, K. (2012). Instrument, gender and musical style associations in young children. Psychology of Music, 40(4), 494-507.
O’Neill, S. A.,Hargreaves, D. J., & North, A. C. (Eds.) (1997). The social psychology of music. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
Autism
Iseminger, S. (2009). Keys to success with autistic children: Structure, predictability, and consistency are essential for students on the autism spectrum. Teaching Music, 16(6), 28.
Kern, P. (2004). “Making friends in music: Including children with autism in an interactive play setting. Music Therapy Today, 6(4), 563-595.
Shore, S. M. (2002). The language of music: Working with children on the autism spectrum. Journal of Education, 183(2), 97-108.
Hourigan, R. (2009). Teaching music to children with autism: Understandings and perspectives. Music Educators Journal, 96, 40-45.
Music Therapy and Healing
Bruscia, K. (1989). Defining music therapy. Spring Lake, PA: Spring House Books.
Eagle, C. (1978). Music psychology index. Denton, TX: Institute for Therapeutic Research.
Campbell, D., & Doman, A. (2012). Healing at the speed of sound: How what we hear transforms our brains and our lives. New York, NY:Plume Reprints.
Campbell, D. (2001). The Mozart effect: Tapping the power of music to heal the body, strengthen the mind, and unlock the creative spirit. New York: Quill.
Debrot, R. A. (2002). Spotlight on making music with special learners: Differentiating Instruction in the Music Classroom. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Education.
Hodges, D. A. (Ed.). (1980). Handbook of music psychology. Dubuque, IA: National Association for Music Therapy.
Ott, P. (2011). Music for special kids. Philadelphia, PA: Jessica Kingsley Publishers.
Pelliteri, J. (2000). Music therapy in the special education setting. Journal of Educational and Psychological Consultation, 11(3/4), 379-91. Retrieved from http://www.soundconnectionsmt.com/docs/Music%20Therapy%20in%20Special%20Education.pdf
Sobol, E. (2008). An attitude and approach for teaching music to special learners. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield.
Hourigan, R. (2008). Teaching strategies for performers with special needs. Teaching Music 15(6), 26.
Hourigan, R, and Hourigan, A. (2009). Teaching Music to Children with Autism: Understandings and Perspectives. Music Educators Journal 96(1), 40-45.
Behavior Problems
Adamek, M., & Darrow, A. (2005). Music in Special Education. Silver Spring, MD: The American Music Therapy Association, Inc.
Darrow, A. (2006).Teaching students with behavior problems. General Music Today, Fall 20 (1) 35-37
Madson, C., & Madsen, C. (1998). Teaching discipline: A positive approach for educational development (4th ed.). Raleigh, NC: Contemporary Publication Company of Raleigh.
Resources
Khetrapal, N. (2009). Why does music therapy help in autism? Empirical Musicology Review, 4(1), 11-18. Retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/1811/36602
Anthony, M. (2012), Music therapy and autistic spectrum disorder. Retrieved from www.examiner.com/article/music-therapy-and-autistic-spectrum-disorder
Big Picture. (2014). Music and autism. http://bigpictureeducation.com/music-and-autism
American Music Therapy Association. (2015). http://www.musictherapy.org/
Vocabulary
Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)/Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD): a psychiatric disorder characterized by significant problems of attention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity not appropriate for a person’s age
Autism: a neural development disorder characterized by impaired social interaction and verbal and non-verbal communication. One of three recognized disorders on the Autism Spectrum, which includes Asperger Syndrome and Pervasive Developmental Disorder
disability: a disability, resulting from an impairment, is a restriction or lack of ability to perform an activity in the manner or within the range considered normal for a human being (World Health Organization)
entrainment: the patterning of body processes and movements to the rhythm of music
gender: the constructed roles, expectations, behaviors, attitudes, and activities deemed appropriate for men and women
music therapy: a health profession in which music is used within a therapeutic relationship to address physical, emotional, cognitive, and social needs of individuals
sex: biological and physiological characteristics that define men and women
1 Reprinted with permission. Copyright NAfME, 2012, http://www.nafme.org/strategies-for-students-with-special-needs/
2 Reprinted with Permission from NAfME http://www.nafme.org/success-with-autism-predictability © National Association for Music Education
3 Reprinted with permission from NAfME http://nafme.org/tips-for-teaching-students-with-add-or-adhd/ © MENC: The National Association for Music Education (menc.org)
4 Reprinted with permission from NAfME http://www.nafme.org/teaching-students-with-behavior-problems/ © National Association for Music Education (nafme.org)
5 Reprinted with permission from NAfME http://www.nafme.org/dont-let-physical-disabilities-stop-students/ © National Association for Music Education (nafme.org)
6 Reprinted with permission from NAfME http://nafme.org/interest-areas/guitar-education/music-and-students-with-hearing-loss/ © National Association for Music Education (nafme.org)
7 Reprinted with permission for NAfME http://www.nafme.org/strategize-for-students-with-vision-loss/ © National Association for Music Education (nafme.org) | textbooks/socialsci/Early_Childhood_Education/Book%3A_Music_and_the_Child_(Sarrazin)/1.11%3A_Music_and_Inclusion.txt |
Chapter Summary: This chapter introduces the reader to processes and vocabulary of music integration, including a general definition of arts integration, and strategies and examples for integrating music with other subject areas.
Musical training is a more potent instrument than any other, because rhythm and harmony find their way into the inward places of the soul.
—Plato, Republic, Book III
Arts Integration, when done correctly, transforms both the art and the subject area into a whole greater than the sum of its parts. In short, Arts Integration can be magical, inspiring learning and setting off a spark in each child. Imagine the difference in a child’s learning experience if classroom teachers incorporated the arts into their lesson. From a teaching perspective, artistic experiences help teachers discover their students’ enthusiasm through a new medium. They also aid in creating positive and interesting lessons that fully engage the student. For the student, music not only strengthens emotional and cognitive development, but also allows a new outlet of expression, and a new means of learning through listening and making sound. The arts provide a platform through which teachers can tap into a child’s creativity and humanity while teaching content material. The arts give students an opportunity to express and explore material in a medium to which they might not otherwise have access.
Incorporating music is beneficial to both teacher and student as it strengthens the bond between them through a (hopefully) mutually satisfying aesthetic experience. Teaching and learning occurs between the art forms and any number of diverse subject areas.
I. What is Arts Integration?
Let’s begin with a commonly accepted definition of arts integration from the Kennedy Center’s ArtsEdge website along with a checklist to help guide the teacher in the creation of an integrated lesson.
A definition of arts integration
Checklist for an Arts Integrated Lesson
Approach to Teaching
• Are learning principles of Constructivism (actively built, experiential, evolving, collaborative, problem-solving, and reflective) evident in my lesson?
Understanding
• Are the students engaged in constructing and demonstrating understanding as opposed to just memorizing and reciting knowledge?
Art Form
• Are the students constructing and demonstrating their understanding through an art form?
Creative Process
• Are the students engaged in a process of creating something original as opposed to copying or parroting?
• Will the students revise their products?
Connects
• Does the art form connect to another part of the curriculum or a concern/need?
• Is the connection mutually reinforcing?
Evolving Objectives
• Are there objectives in both the art form and another part of the curriculum or a concern/need?
• Have the objectives evolved since the last time the students engaged with this subject matter?
Defining Levels of Integration
Not all lessons that use the arts can be called “integrated.” Some lessons incorporate the arts, but do not incorporate the learning objectives and other criteria that fully integrate them, while others follow a deeper level of integration. Silverstein & Layne (2014) identify 3 categories of Arts Integration:
1. Arts as Curriculum—presence of arts teachers in the school teaching art, music, etc. using the state standard goals for their own specific discipline.
2. Arts-Enhanced Curriculum—using the arts as a device, strategy or “hook” to engage students or teach something else (i.e. using the alphabet song to teach the alphabet.) No explicit objectives in the art form are articulated. Does not require teacher training in the arts discipline.
3. Arts-Integrated Curriculum—Students meet dual-objectives in both the art and the content area. Results in deep understanding about the art form. Teachers require professional development to learn about the arts standards.
There is nothing wrong about any of these three ways of using the arts, and sometimes it is quite appropriate to use one style over another for various curricular or other reasons. Although integration is a worthy goal, it is sometimes not feasible.
Using Music in Arts-As-Curriculum
Most schools still contain music and art teachers, who are valuable assets in providing input regarding art strategies, teaching materials, etc. This is definition of an arts-as-curriculum strategy, where the arts teacher teaches their separate material. Fully integrating the arts requires a time commitment and instructional expertise, but often there isn’t the time, resources, or incentive to fully learn or implement the entire process for a lesson. How might you utilize the music teacher in your school to enhance your lesson? What are some ways to work with the specialists to benefit the student’s learning experience?
Using Music as Arts-Enhancement
There are many things to be learned from arts-enhancement as well. Using the arts yourself to enhance your lesson provides opportunities for students to experience music during the school day in a non-content related way.
There are ample opportunities for children to experience music in their day, including singing, moving, clapping, or stomping that are not directly related to teaching content area but provide students an alternate form of expression, a chance to re-group and focus, for motivation, learn about proper group and individual expectations and behavior, and to make transitions between subjects and activities. How might you use music to “enhance” a science or language arts lesson? Vocabulary or poetry lesson?
Sample chart for Arts-Enhancement opportunities
1. Organization
• Activity: lining up, cleaning up
• Aesthetic Purpose: motivation
2. Transitions
• Activity: changing from one activity to another
• Aesthetic Purpose: change of mood, re-focus energy
3. Rituals
• Activity: Greetings/Hello, goodbye, holiday music
• Aesthetic Purpose: Prepare students mentally, provides stability and repetition
4. Interstitial
• Activity: Short break between two subjects or activities
• Aesthetic Purpose: Provide relaxation, moment of expression, and alternate uses for cognitive functioning
Sample Day that includes Music
1. 9:10 Use music before the school day begins
• Ritual: Set the mood/change the atmosphere in the room with sound
2. 9:20 Students enter and settle in to the room
• Ritual: “Good Morning,” and/or movement activity “Head Shoulders”
3. 9:25 Morning Work, Attendance, Calendar
• Organization: i.e. “If you’re ready for _____ clap your hands” (or stomp your feet, etc.)
4. 10:00-10:40 Special (Music, Art, Physical Ed)
• Transition: Focus for Math
5. 10:45 Math Stations
• Organization: Line up for Lunch
6. 11:30 Lunch
• Transition: Focus ready for reading
7. 12:10-12:50 Reading/Literacy Stations
• Interstitial: Break song/movement
8. 12:50-1:30 Writing
• Interstitial: Movement/song break
9. 1:30-2:10 Social Studies/Science/Health
• Transition: Movement activity/song
10. 2:10-2:25 Snack/Play time
• Organization: Focus: Line up for Library or Lab
11. 2:25-3:05 Computer Lab or Library
• Transition
12. 3:10 Pickup and pack-up
• Organization: “Clean up song”
13. 3:15 Dismissal
• Ritual: “Goodbye” song
Song Examples (see Chapter 11 for more examples from this list)
(Substitute any subject such as math, reading, physical education, art, instead of music, and any action instead of “stand on up” or “clap your hands.”)
If You’re Ready for Music
Janet Elder, in her article on “Brain Friendly Music in the Classroom” (n.d.), suggests the following reasons to incorporate music into the classroom:
Reasons for using music in the classroom can be divided into four groups:
1. Music’s effect on the physical body and brain
2. Music’s effect on the emotional body
3. Music’s effect on the physical and learning environment
4. Music’s effect on group coherence and intimacy
For example, as mentioned in Chapter 11, music’s beats per minute (b.p.m.) or tempo, has a direct impact on the human body.
Elder also goes on to suggest specific songs to use for different classroom situations, such as playing classical music during individual or group work or “Get Up Offa That Thing” by James Brown for stretch breaks. There are many, many different types of songs and places to use them when working with children, and the inclusion of music in the daily routine can improve transitions and the overall mood of a classroom.
Class Times When Music Is Appropriate
Song examples
As students enter class.
Select loose, upbeat, uplifting music, or music that pertains in some way to the course or topic that day. Songs with humor also start the class on the right foot.
“Star Wars,” “Summon the Heroes” and other John Williams’ Olympic music, “Walk Right In” (Rooftop Singers), “Thanks for Coming” and “Hello, Welcome to the Meeting” (“Laughable Lyrics” CD), and “The More We Get Together” (Raffi).
To welcome students back after a weekend or holiday break
“Hi-Ho, Hi-Ho, It’s Off to Work We Go!”, “The Flintstones” (“Yabba Dabba Do” TV theme, Aron Apping), “Monday, Monday” (Mamas and Papas), “Reveille” bugle call (“Authentic Sound Effects, Vol. 3”).
To comment on the weather.
On a rainy day:
• “Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head” (B.J. Thomas), “Here Comes That Rainy Day Feeling Again” (The Fortunes), “Come Clean” (Hilary Duff).
For sunny days:
• “It’s a Beautiful Morning” (The Rascals), “Good Day Sunshine” (The Tremeloes), or “Walking on Sunshine” (Katrina and The Waves).
To get students on their feet.
Students need a change after 15-20 minutes of sitting. Use any of these when you want to have them stand up to stretch, change where they are sitting, or move for some other reason.
“Get on Your Feet” (Gloria Estefan), “Line Up” (Aerosmith), “Stand Up!” (David Lee Roth), “1-2-3-4” (Ataris), “Up!” (Shania Twain), “Get Up Offa That Thing” (James Brown),“Arkansas Traveler” (“Smokey Mountain Hits” CD)
As students are moving into collaborative groups.
Look for songs with themes of friends, help, or general encouragement.
“Help,” (Beatles), “We Can Work It Out,” (Beatles), “You’ve Got a Friend” (Carol King), “Lean on Me” (Bill Withers), “Reach Out” (The Four Tops), “I’m into Something Good” (Herman’s Hermits), “Call Me” (Blondie), “You Can Make It if You Try” (James Brown).
After a pair-share review (Students make the immediate connection between these songs and having to recall/review material)
Select songs with titles or lyrics that include “remember,” “memory,”etc.
“Thanks for the Memories” (Bob Hope and Shirley Ross), “Always Something There to Remind Me” (Naked Eyes), “Unforgettable” (Peggy Lee)
As low background music when students are working in small groups, in pairs, or individually, or when they are taking a test.
The volume should be low enough that you could speak at a conversational level without raising your voice. The music should act as a filter for unwanted noise and help create a relaxed, mentally alert state. If any student objects to background music, you should not use it. However, if the entire class likes background music, try to play the same baroque music during the test that was used during the original presentation of the material: it acts as an auditory memory cue.
“Water Music Suite” (Handel), “Brandenberg Concertos” (Bach), “Eine Kleine Nachtmusik” (Mozart), and music by Telemann, Vivaldi, or Corelli in a major key. Soft piano or violin concertos with orchestral accompaniments work well.
To use music to create positive stress or add drama
“James Bond Suite” (Henry Rabinowitz and the RCA Orchestra), “Law and Order” (TV theme), “Jeopardy” (TV theme); “Mission Impossible” (TV theme); “Jaws” (movie theme, John Williams), “In the Hall of the Mountain King” (from “Peer Gynt” by Grieg)
To energize students or have them physically move:
Select highly rhythmic music in a major key or any upbeat music or song. Beats per minute should be 70-140.
“Shake It Up” (The Cars), “Fun, Fun, Fun” (Beach Boys), “Bonanza” (TV theme), “Listen to the Music” (Doobie Brothers), “We Got the Beat” (Go-Gos),
To relax or calm students, to use for stretching, or activities such as reflection, journaling, and visualization.
Beats per minute should be 40-60.
“The Lake House” (movie theme; Rachel Portman), “Chariots of Fire” (Vangelis), “The Reivers” (movie theme), “Peaceful, Easy Feeling” (Eagles);
To celebrate successes or to honor students.
“Olympic Fanfare” (John Williams), “In the Zone” (David Banner), “I Just Want to Celebrate” (Rare Earth), “Celebrate” (Three Dog Night), “Celebration” (Kool and the Gang), “We Are the Champions” (Queen).
To end class:
Select upbeat, fun, or funny music; lyrics may pertain to leaving.
“Never Can Say Goodbye” (Gloria Gaynor), “So Long, Farewell” (from “The Sound of Music”), “Who Let the Dogs Out” (Baja Men), “Happy Trails” (Roy Rogers/Dale Evans).
For other purposes.
Beginning of class
Encouragement, motivation, support:
Funny, and therefore stress-reducing
II. Using Music in Arts-Integration
An arts integrated lesson plan will be similar to a regular lesson plan, with the exception that it will have a place for both the arts learning objectives as well as the objectives for the content area, and will allow students the opportunity to construct understanding through both disciplines.
Consider that you have to create a lesson plan to celebrate the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday. It is, of course, nice to add a song somewhere in the lesson, perhaps a song from the Civil Rights Movement. This does not make the lesson integrated, but rather an Arts-Enhanced-Curriculum as discussed above. Integration requires that there be music objectives as well as subject area objectives, and that both subjects are treated equally. Keep in mind that any lesson can be made into an arts-integrated one, by simply delving in deeper to the art form itself to find structural details and meaning from which to draw. To make a lesson integrated, it is necessary to include social science or history goals and objectives as well as musical information, goals and objectives. For example, including information about the song that incorporates the music itself (form, timbre, melody, rhythm, etc.), while discussing the genre of civil rights songs itself.
To demonstrate a deeper understanding of the tenets and issues of Civil Rights, social science connections can be made not only to slavery in the previous century, but to the pro-union struggle in the earlier part of the 20th century. Students could demonstrate their understanding of Martin Luther King’s leadership and the famous marches of the 60s through song by recreating the march on Washington, DC while singing a civil rights song (“We Shall Not be Moved,” “This Little Light of Mine,” “We Shall Overcome,” etc.)The types of songs used for demonstrations could be analyzed, including their roots in the pro-union movement, gospel and religious music, and/or the use of call and response in the songs, which dates back to slavery and early African-American culture, and particularly how music was used during the protests. A follow-up might focus on blues, jazz and other genres inspired by the music of the Civil Rights movement.
Activity 12A
Try this
Which one of these examples represents Arts as Curriculum, Arts-Enhanced Curriculum, and an Arts-Integrated Curriculum?
• Students sing a song they learned in music class for a school assembly
• Students have to explain how sequential groupings work in math and music
• Students learn the song “50 Nifty United States”
Now try this
• Students complete a unit on the lifecycle of a caterpillar. How might this lesson be changed to reflect an Arts-Enhanced lesson? Arts-integration? Arts as Curriculum?
• Create your own examples of the three types of curriculum.
Music Integration with Core Subjects: Vocabulary, Concepts, and Learning Standards
In order to successfully create arts integrated lessons, begin with the state learning standards in the content area in which you are working, then consider the art form you will be using. Explore vocabulary that may help you to work between the two disciplines. Below are two examples of vocabulary lists from Education Closet, a website dedicated to integration and innovation in teaching.
Activity 12B
Try This
Review the vocabulary lists below. Identify which terms work best for music instruction. Select three of the terms from either list and give an example of how you might use that term to illustrate music concepts in addition to either a math or literacy concept.
Arts Literacy: Common Vocabulary
Grade
K
Illustrations, illustrator, listen, setting, space, title, beginning, end.
1
Audience, character, collaborate, connections, expression, fluent, phrase, plot, segment, sequence.
2
Analyze, compare, contrast, expression, genre, introduction, point of view, rhythm.
3
Audience, comparative, dialogue, effect, line, mood, narrator, plot, point of view, scene, stanza, theme.
4
Animations, categorize, drama, elements, meter, narration, pose, stage direction, theme, verse.
5
Analyze, compare, conclude, contrast, dialect, dialogue, evaluate, expression, fluent, influence, interpret, mood, multimedia, perspective, perspective, reflection, theme, tone, voice.
6
Bias, convey, elaborate, interpret, multimedia, perceive, point of view.
7
Alternate, analyze, audience, categorize, collaborate, composition, concept, embellish, exposure, format, function, interact, medium, mood, segment, structure, tone, unique.
8
Analyze, bias, characterization, elaborate, evaluate, imagery, point of view, style, symbolism, theme.
9 and 10
Bias, coherence, clarity, comedy, character motivation, diction, dynamic, monologue, mood, plot structure, purpose, soliloquy, theme, tone, tragedy, digital media, quality.
11 and 12
Context, diction, digital media, nuance, perspective, satire, structure, style, subplot, subtle, theme, voice.
Math and the Arts: Common Vocabulary
Grade
K
Compare, opposite, before, different, similar, object, measure, pattern, curves, slide.
1
Similar, object, symbol, group, pattern, compare, half, describe, side, size, parallel, curves, slide, turn.
2
Form, sequence, pattern, group, interpret, symbol, slide, reflect, turn, measure, three-dimensional, line of symmetry, intersect.
3
Expression, form, product, length, symbol, combinations, weight, angle, symmetry, line, dimensions.
4
Comparison, expression, produce, symmetry, measure, length, interpret, frequency, distance, lines.
5
Patterns, form, expression, variation, inverse, sequence, symbol, product, ratio, part, whole, quarter, half, organize, arrange, scale, line, distance, vertical, diagonal, horizontal, symmetry, transformation.
6
Scale, measure, compose, symbol, expression, grid, collection, interval, simulation, symmetry.
7
Point, area, proportion, analyze, compose, notation, expression, value, range, scale, drawings.
8
Expression, value, notation, frequency, non-linear, rigid, symmetry.
9 and 10
Expression, notation, properties, model, measure, acceleration, scale, direction, structure, value, range, vary, inverse, frequency.
11 and 12
Linear, range, oblique, measure, symmetry, composition, variation, velocity, arc, chord.
III. Generating Ideas for Integrated Lessons
The following grid offers a process for generating integration ideas using music, particularly in making connections across the disciplines. The first row of the grid contains an example of how to generate ideas from a musical concept.
Concept(s)/Grade
Begin by selecting one music concept to work with. In the first column of the grid below, the word “staff” is written. The lesson is to teach the musical staff to 2nd grade students.
Objectives
What are your main objectives for the lesson? What should children be able to do by the end of the lesson that they couldn’t do at the beginning? Note: “SWBAT” stands for “Students Will Be Able To.”
Activities
What activities could you use to teach the staff? Where would you begin? You might begin by teaching the line and space notes for the treble staff (EGBDF and FACE), and teaching the mnemonics that accompany those note names (i.e. E-Every; G-Good; B-Boy; D-Deserves; F-Fudge). Even at this point, writing the lines on the board, on a smart board, PPT, or even making lines on the floor with tape can be a visual accompaniment to the lesson, and help students learn through body movement as well as visual learning.
Integration Ideas
How might you integrate this concept using different core subject areas? What higher order thinking skills, or vocabulary? Look at the second grade Vocabulary grid above from Education Closet concerning math and the arts and Music and Literacy and select the most appropriate terms to apply to the lesson:
• (Math and the Arts) Form, Sequence, Pattern, Group
• (Arts Literacy) Analyze, Compare, Contrast
Common Core Learning Standards
Now refer to the earlier chapter in the book to find the appropriate common core learning standards for the lesson.
Idea Generator: Concept, Objectives, Activities, Integration, Standards
Common Core Standard
Ex. Concept: Reading the Music Staff
Grade: 2nd
SWBAT identify pitches on lines of the treble staff
SWBAT analyze the correlation of skipping and sequential regarding the pitches on the treble staff.
SWBAT understand correlations across disciplines of math, literacy and music between sequential movement and skipping movement
Review (or teach) the pitches of the treble staff, first using sequential alphabet letters, then using the acronyms EGBDF, and FACE.
Create huge lines of treble staff on the floor using masking tape. Mark each line or space with large letters for each note.
Movement: Have students physically move across the floor staff, first sequentially and then skipping line to line and space to space, reciting the letters as they go.
Literacy: Analyze the letters EGBDF as a mnemonic for “Every Good Boy Deserve Fudge.” Brainstorm, having students create their own acronyms for EGBDF and FACE.
Compare and contrast the pitch names on the staff with the letters of the alphabet. Which direction do they go? What are the differences between letters of the alphabet and music pitch names?
Math: Discuss the form of the staff. Is there a pattern? What is it? Does it alternate (skip)? Is it sequential (all in a row)?
Math, Music and Literacy: (EGBDF) . Have students count sequentially. Sequence the letter names by saying them in a row (EFGABC). Then create a pattern by skipping every other letter of the alphabet (B – D – F or A – C – E). Then correlate with math by switching to numbers. Practice grouping by 2s.
Bodily-Kinesthetic, Visual-spatial/Creating, Performing, Participating
1. Concept: Rhythm: Eighth and Quarter notes
Grade: Kindergarten
2. Melody: Pitch
Grade: 4th
3. Timbre: Voice
Grade: 1st
Idea Generator (blank): Concepts, Activities, Materials, Integration
1.
2.
3.
Example Integrating Music, Language Arts and Social Studies: “Goober Peas”
(see also “Erie Canal” Lesson Plan in Chapter 6)
Many older songs offer excellent material for integration. For example, the song “Goober Peas” provides students a very inside look at the life of a Confederate soldier during the Civil War. In this case, both the music and lyrics are highly informative, as is the situation in which the song was sung, lending itself to integration through three areas: music, language arts and social sciences.
Materials:
Timeline: Civil War history timeline including various battles, Sherman’s March, etc.
Song: “Goober Peas”
Text: The Personal Story of Life as a Confederate Soldier, “The Letters of Eli Landers” www.gacivilwar.org/story/the-personal-story-of-life-as-a-confederate-soldier
Goober Peas
Southern U.S. folk song, 1866
Sung by Confederate soldiers during the Civil War
2. When a horse-man passes, the soldiers have a rule
To cry out their loudest, “Mister here’s your mule!”
But another custom, enchanting-er than these,
Is wearing out your grinders, eating goober peas. (refrain)
3. Just before the battle, the General hears a row
He says, “The Yanks are coming, I hear their rifles now”
He turns around in wonder and what d’ya think he sees?
The Georgia militia, eating goober peas. (refrain)
4. I think my song has lasted almost long enough
The subject’s interesting but the rhymes are mighty tough
I wish the war was over so free from rags and fleas
We’d kiss our wives and sweethearts and gooble goober peas. (refrain)
Integration Process Questions
How might you integrate this song beyond that of “Arts as Enhancement”? What learning principles will you use? How will students be engaged? Demonstrate their understanding? What will be the processes of creation? What connections to other parts of the curriculum can be made? Are the standards present for both the art and the subject? Go through Silverstein & Layne’s Arts Integration checklist below to see how to incorporate an integrated level of understanding to the lesson.
Approach to Teaching
• Does the lesson contain learning principles of Constructivism (actively built, experiential, evolving, collaborative, problem-solving, and reflective)?
Understanding
• Are students engaged in constructing and demonstrating understanding knowledge rather than memorizing and reciting?
Art Form
• Are the students constructing and demonstrating their understandings through an art form?
Creative Process
• Are students engaged in a process of creating something original as opposed to copying or parroting?
• Will the students revise their products?
Connects
• Does the art form connect to another part of the curriculum or a concern/need?
• Is the connection mutually reinforcing?
Evolving Objectives
• Are there objectives in both the art form and another part of the curriculum or a concern/need?
• Have the objectives evolved since the last time the students engaged with this subject matter? Have the objectives evolved since the last time the students engaged with this subject matter?Have the objectives evolved since the last time the students engaged with this subject matter? (Silverstein & Layne, 2014).
Analysis: Vocabulary and Concepts
You’ll find an abundance of material to integrate and connect after analyzing both the music, lyrical/poetic aspects, and social contexts. The musical forms, phrases, harmonies and the poetic structure reveal a great deal of material apart from the content of the lyrics.
Music
Poetry/Lyrics
• Dotted rhythm
• Verse + refrain
• 4 phrases per verse
• 4 verses in the song
• Long-short long-short (trochee stressed-unstressed)
• Ballad style
• Rhyme scheme (AABB)
• Narrative story telling/ballad
Social Studies
Setting: Civil War, soldiers resting on the roadside while waiting for orders for the next confrontation.
Date Written: 1866.
Singers: Popular in the South among Confederate Soldiers (losing the war).
Sentiment: Expresses the living conditions of Confederate soldiers and the public, as the war was lost. Sherman’s troops laid waste to much of Georgia, cutting off food supplies.
Song Vocabulary
Students may not be familiar with these terms:
Goober Peas—another name for boiled peanuts. Eaten by Confederate soldiers during the war when rail lines were cut off, making food and rations scarce.
Messmate—a person/friend in a military camp with which one regularly takes meals.
Grinders—teeth.
Row—an argument or fight (rhymes with “cow”).
Georgia Militia—a militia organized under the British that fought the Union during the Civil War. They fought in Sherman’s devastating “March to the Sea” and in the last battle of the Civil War at the Battle of Columbus on the Georgia-Alabama border.
Yanks—Refers to “Yankees” or Union soldiers of the North.
Rags and fleas—Tattered clothing and poor health conditions.
Activities:
Sing the song “Goober Peas;” Read some of the letters of Eli Landers.
Questions to think about (Historical perspectives of soldiers)
• What conditions did the soldier’s have to endure?
• What was happening towards the end of the Civil War?
• How do you think they felt during this time? (i.e., anxiousness, anticipation, weariness while waiting by the road).
• Overall, what do the lyrics express on behalf of the Confederate soldiers?
• What does the reference to the Georgia Militia mean in terms of the fighting?
Ideas for Integration
• Constructivism: Analyze the music, text, and history (timeline). Reflect what it would be like to be a soldier in the Confederacy during the beginning, middle, and end of the Civil War. Problem Solve as to how to obtain food after the railroad lines were cut off, strategize as to earlier successes during the war.
• Student Engagement: (historical perspectives). Experience: learn and sing the song. Divide into groups and read Eli Landers letters from different years comparing changes in attitude for a confederate soldier over time from the beginning of the war to the end of the war.
• Art Form: Analyze by comparing Eli Landers’ letters to the lyrics of the song. What are the differences in historical facts? Sentiment? In terms of the song itself, explore the meaning of the music itself apart from the lyrics—sing the melody of the song on a neutral syllable. What does the melody remind you of? What kind of emotion do you hear in the melody, rhythm and phrasing? Does it seem to complement the lyrics or oppose them? Why might this be the case?
• Creative Process: Work collaboratively to create further verses of the song or write “letters home” that will express the feelings of soldiers facing defeat. Read the letters from home along with singing the new verses of the song.
• Objectives (See below)
What Learning Standards or Objectives can you incorporate for this lesson for each of the following?
1. Language Arts/Social Studies
a. Language Arts 3: Use knowledge of language and its conventions when speaking, reading, or listening.
b. Writing 3: Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, descriptive details, and clear event sequences.
c. Reading 2: Determine a theme of a story, drama, or poem from details in the text; summarize the text.
2. Music National Standards
a. 1: Singing, alone and with others, a varied repertoire of music.
b. 6: Listening to, analyzing, and describing music.
c. 8: Understanding relationships between music, the other arts, and disciplines outside the arts.
Additional Songs for Integrating History/Social Studies
(see also “Erie Canal” Lesson Plan in Chapter 6)
Other examples include songs that are informative and contain a long narrative or historical information for students. For example, the song “Christofo Columbo” chronicles much of the famed voyage including detailed geographic references in a fun and light song.
Christofo Columbo (Christopher Columbus)
Ring Lardner, 1911
To the Kings and Queens of Europe, Columbus told his theory,
They simply thought him crazy, and asked him this here query,
How could the earth stand up if round, it surely would suspend,
For answer, C’lumbus took an egg and stood it on its end.
Refrain
In Fourteen Hundred and Ninety-two, ’twas then Columbus started,
From Pales on the coast of Spain to the westward he departed,
His object was to find a route, a short one to East India,
Columbus wore no whiskers, and the wind it blew quite windy.
Refrain
When Sixty days away from land, upon the broad Atlantic,
The sailors they went on a strike which nearly caused a panic,
They all demanded eggs to eat for each man in the crew,
Columbus had no eggs aboard, but he made the ship lay too.
Refrain
The hungry crew impatient grew, and beef-steak they demanded,
Equal to the emergency, Columbus then commanded
That ev’ry sailor who proves true, and his duty never shirks,
Can have a juicy porterhouse, “I’ll get it from the bulwarks.”
Refrain
Not satisfied with steak and eggs, the crew they yelled for chicken,
Columbus seemed at a loss for once, and the plot it seemed to thicken,
The men threatened to jump overboard, Columbus blocked their pathway,
And cried: “If chicken you must have, I’ll get it from the hatchway.”
Refrain
The sailors now so long from home with fear became imbued,
On the twelfth day of October their fears were all subdued,
For after Ninety days at sea, they discovered America’s shores,
And quickly made a landing on the Isle of Salvador.
Refrain
When Johnny Comes Marching Home Again
Patrick Gilmore, 1863
American Civil War song
Johnny Has Gone for a Soldier
Traditional English folk song popular during the Revolutionary War
IV. Music and Literacy/Language Arts
Of all of the content area relationships with music, language arts and music have one of the closest bonds. This bond is rooted within the inseparable relationship between lyrics and music that has existed for thousands of years. People in across countless cultures have chanted or sung poetry for all types of human rituals, ceremonies and for entertainment. When we listen to a song, a musical phrase usually accompanies a phrase of lyrics; a verse or refrain emerges from a short poem. For centuries, ballads, and epics were all sung, as were Biblical chants and Vedic hymns. Long stories and epic tales used music to draw in the audience and to help the reciter’s memorization.
In addition, there is an intrinsic relationship in the discrimination of phonemic sounds and musical sounds for children learning to read. Language and music are intertwined to the point where there is evidence of a connection in the brain between phonemic sound discrimination and musical sound discrimination. In a 1993 study, for example, Lamb and Gregory examined the correlation between phonemic and musical sound discrimination for children reading in their first year of school, and discovered that a child’s ability to discriminate musical sounds is directly related to reading performance, primarily due to their awareness of changes in pitch.
This close relationship allows for multiple avenues for integration. The use of music to build characters through sound expression; create tension in the narrative; highlight important moments in the plot, and so forth, are examples of the high compatibility between words and music.
Creating a “Sound Carpet”
Since music and language have such a close relationship, one of the easiest ways to begin is to combine the two. Creating a sound carpet entails taking a story and adding sound effects, leitmotifs, instruments, vocal sounds, body percussion, and actors and/or a narrator, in order to bring literature to life. The goal of a leitmotif is to help the listener identify the main characters and give each a very short musical pattern, so that every time their name is mentioned, someone plays that pattern. Also, sound effects can be added to enhance the action or bring a fuller meaning or experience. For example, if the story introduces a chiming bell, hit a bell or, for more advanced or older students, play a bell peal on the glockenspiel. Folk tales and fairy tales from around the world are excellent sources for this type of activity
Characters and Leitmotifs
To create a sound carpet, begin by making a list of the main characters in the story. For example, the story The Princess and the Frog has three main characters—the King, Princess and Frog. Sample leitmotifs might look like this:
King: (temple blocks and bass xylophone) q ioq q
Princess: (glissando on glockenspiels)
Frog: scrape guiro; hit hand drums q q q (say “ribbit!”)
Help students create a short phrase or leitmotif for each of the main characters—think of Star Wars’ Darth Vader theme as an example. Every time the name is introduced in the story, their leitmotif should be played. To help the creative process, you might give students a short, simple rhythm to work with to create the motif. Then play the leitmotif on an instrument that helps describe that character. The King’s leitmotif, for example, might be 4 quarter notes played on a trumpet sound on a keyboard, or using an interval of a 5th on any instrument to sound regal and stately.
Sound effects
Next identify locations in the story where sound effects can be used. A running stream could be a glissando on a xylophone; thunder can be played with drums; footsteps with a woodblock, etc.
Body Percussion and Vocals
Then add body percussion (clapping, stomping) or vocal sounds (moans for wind, yells and whoops) to increase the creativity and excitement level in the story.
Introduction and Finale
Add a short song whose lyrics are based on the story, to be sung and played by everyone at the opening and closing of the story.
Finally, assign a narrator, speaking or acting parts, and along with your instruments and sound effects, you have a complete performance that incorporates music composition and creativity along with language arts and theater.
Vocabulary
arts integration: an approach to teaching in which students construct and demonstrate understanding through an art form. Students engage in a creative process, which connects an art form and another subject area and meets evolving objectives in both
leitmotif: a recurrent theme throughout a musical or literary composition, associated with a particular person, idea, or situation
sound carpet: extensive and liberal use of music, sound effects, and character leitmotifs in the performance of a narrative or story
trochee: in poetry, a trochee refers to a syllable pattern of stressed-unstressed, or long-short | textbooks/socialsci/Early_Childhood_Education/Book%3A_Music_and_the_Child_(Sarrazin)/1.12%3A_Music_Integration.txt |
Musical Multiculturalism and Diversity
Chapter Summary: As part of 21st century teaching and common core state standards, it is important to “teach to reach”—in other words, organizing your materials and presentation to reach as many children as possible in as many possible ways. We’ve discussed many ways of teaching in this book, and this section concerns teaching multicultural material and teaching to culturally diverse learners. This chapter will look at the history of multiculturalism and diversity education, the field of ethnomusicology, and strategies for teaching using multicultural music aesthetics. It also includes case studies from several different culture areas.
Music, as a diverse human practice, is central to the constitution of cultural and individual identities.
—David Elliot, Music Matters
I. Multicultural/Diversity Education
A Brief History of Multiculturalism in the U.S.
The United States has always been a multicultural nation. Throughout its history, however, the country’s majority population has struggled with how to accept different cultures and cultural perspectives of different minority populations. For centuries, tensions and debates revolve around the less dominant group (subaltern) vying for equality within the dominant culture. Should immigrant groups keep their culture (language, food, dress, customs), an idea known as pluralism, or try to blend in with the culture of the dominant group, an idea referred to as assimilation or metaphorically as the melting pot? These ideas and debates developed from waves of immigration into the U.S., when African slaves in the 1700s and an influx of European immigrants in the 1800s who were brought in to work as laborers, began to threaten the dominant Anglo-Saxon, Protestant population.
Immigrants were encouraged to acculturate as quickly as they could—meaning that they must learn a new language, giving up traditions, customs, heritage, etc., in order to blend and assimilate into the general population.
Some groups, however, had a very difficult time “melting,” particularly people of color. The concepts of multiculturalism or cultural pluralism developed partially to create a climate which encouraged understanding the differences between cultural groups. Gold (1977) offers a reason for this when he writes: “…multiculturalism equates with the respect shown the varied cultures and ethnic groups which have built the United States and which continue today to contribute to its richness and diversity” (p. 18).
With its roots in ethnic and racial groups in the U.S., the idea of multiculturalism is now paired with the concept of diversity, in which all types of groups and individual identities are included (i.e., gender, religion, age, physical attributes, ability). This inclusive nature has broadened the scope, and contributes towards a greater pedagogical understanding.
Why teach Multiculturally?
There are many reasons for the inclusion of diversity in education, not the least of which is a mandated curriculum in many school districts. This aside, however, there are pressing 21st century learning issues that demand multicultural teaching material. Rapidly changing populations in the U.S. will dramatically alter the demographics for the remainder of the century. Hispanic Americans, Asian Americans, African Americans, and Americans of mixed ethnicity will become the majority in the near future.
Three ethnically mixed seven-year-old boys: Hispanic-American, African-German, Indian-American.
Thinking in multiple dimensions will not only be an asset, but indispensable. Luckily, the ubiquitous nature of music and arts as an expressive form found in all cultures, allows for extensive exchanges of ideas from all corners of the globe.
Rationale for Teaching Multiculturally
Teaching Multiculturally Is…
Inclusive: It provides an opportunity for expression on behalf of many different groups that might otherwise not be represented.
• Consider the children in your classroom. If you have a heterogeneous class make up of many different ethnicities, abilities, races, providing activities validates who they are as people, and sends a message that their voices are valued. If you have a homogeneous class, exposing them to ideas and beliefs of others only helps to expand their worldview in a 21st century classroom.
Pedagogically Sound: Including multiple perspectives and views on material not only enriches the curriculum content, but also provides radically different frameworks and paradigms to students on content.
• For example we may be familiar with the concept of a “beat” from a Western perspective, but when exposed to the idea of a beat from Java’s gamelan music, we might develop a new appreciation of what a beat is, what it can do, and how it can be understood.
Teaching Multiculturally also…
Raises Awareness: Promotes awareness of self and others, fosters respect, tolerance and understanding.
Is Integrative: Provides excellent opportunities for integration as a natural entry or pivot point to other subject areas such as social studies, history, literature, language, and all of the arts.
Drawbacks
Most teachers, however, feel that they are not familiar enough with any material out of their comfort zone, and this is understandable. Also, there are time constraints, scheduling issues, materials and resources, and perhaps curricular or administrative support. Most teachers are also concerned regarding which cultures to include, and if they include too many, that they will be covering the content very superficially.
To be successful teaching multiculturally, it is important to:
• Familiarize yourself with the material/culture in advance.
• Teach indigenous concepts instead of Western ones.
• Use pedagogies that are indigenous or a close approximation to them.
II. Ethnomusicology and Music Teaching
To address some of the drawbacks and difficulties in teaching music from another culture, I’d like to turn to the field of ethnomusicology. The field of ethnomusicology is well positioned to contribute toward multicultural and diversity education, and, after a brief description of ethnomusicology, its tenets will be applied towards an examination of them. Recently, scholars such as Patricia Shehan Campbell, Therese Volk, and David Elliott have begun blending the disciplines of ethnomusicology and music education, bringing some of the field research and holistic view from ethnomusicology into the pedagogical practice of music education.
Ethnomusicology is the study of music as culture. Ethnomusicologists:
• Study all the world’s music.
• Study music within a total musical system, including songs, musical instruments and music production, as well as the people and culture that the music represents.
• Compare what is typical of a culture as well as what is personal, idiosyncratic, and exceptional.
Ethnomusicology, at its foundation, examines the relationship between music and culture. Ethnomusicologist Alan Merriam developed a “tripartite model” through which to understand the complex interactions between concept, behavior, and sound.
The Merriam Tripartite Model
Three components: Sound, Concept, and Behavior
We’ve discussed the idea of sound earlier in the book (i.e., timbre, melody, harmony, rhythm), and most of us can listen and recognize the elements of music to various degrees. We tend to think less, however, about the concepts or ideas that our culture has about sound and music. Ethnomusicologist Jeff Todd Titon states that we perform music in two ways. First, we perform the music itself (i.e., on instruments, by singing), and second, we perform the ideas associated with music. What does this mean? Growing up in a culture means that we have undergone a process called enculturation—meaning that we are familiar with the practices, rules, taboos, patterns, and beliefs about our culture’s ideas about music without having to actively learn them. If you look back at the brief quiz in the first chapter, you will find that you know things about music just having experienced and listened in your everyday life. As an ethnomusicologist or researcher for your classroom, however, it is important to be able to articulate the culture’s beliefs about music by observing people’s behavior and thoughts about music.
Activity 13A
Try this
One way to objectively view your own culture is to step back and imagine that you are an immigrant or an alien, perhaps, and are viewing the culture for the very first time. What might you observe about music in this culture? What do people believe about certain genres of music? Are certain types of music good? Harmful? What about musicians in general? Do we value them? Is it considered positive or negative to be a professional musician? When should certain types of music be played? When should you listen to certain types of music?
The third concept from Merriam’s model concerns our behavior as performers, audience members, listeners, etc. When do we perform music? How do we do it? What particular movements, gestures, and instruments do we use? Who performs? Who is allowed to perform certain music? Who is prohibited or “discouraged” from performing? Think about a type of music and its gender or racial makeup. Certainly, there are few genres of music that are performed equally across the board.
What this type of analysis does is to help us understand the cultural values associated with music, and what is important about sound and the concepts and behaviors associated with it. What is considered beautiful about a type of sound, instrument or voice? What a culture values, is an insight into that culture’s aesthetics. Let’s take a genre of music and find its cultural value and musical aesthetics. One example to consider might be opera. We might begin with a broad question as to whether opera is important and how it fits in with our culture.
Sound: In terms of opera’s musical aesthetics, (i.e. what is considered beautiful or pleasing), opera requires a well-trained, loud, and large voice with heavy vibrato. It takes years of practice to perfect this sound, uncountable hours of lessons, training, coaching. Singers, do not, for example, learn opera in their garages or simply by listening to recordings. Opera singers do not use microphones or any type of amplification technology. They are required to project their voice without assistance, which requires immense physical support. They sing arias, recitatives, choruses supported by an orchestra. The most popular repertoire they sing is mostly European, written in the 18th and 19th centuries.
Behavior: Singers on stage are expected to act in a certain way. They raise their arms in a gesture that amplifies our perception when singing high notes, they don’t jump around or dance when singing, smash their guitars on the ground, bite the heads off bats or set things on fire. Since opera is part of our Western Cultural heritage, there are institutions (conservatories, performance venues, etc.,) developed for those interested in this type of training and who have the requisite talent. Audiences who attend operas are usually able to afford the price of a ticket and are of an educational level and demographic cohort that supports, understands, and appreciates the form.
Concepts: As a genre, we believe opera to be a classical form, complicated, and with a long tradition and heritage rooted in the European classical tradition. Although we might not listen to it regularly or even at all, we all hold it in very high esteem, and an important part of a highly cultured society. Alternatively, we may not offer any national financial support.
Activity 13B
Try this
Think of a style or genre of music (i.e., classical, rap, rock, punk, heavy metal, country). Now go through the aesthetics of that genre according to Merriam’s Tripartite Model. What are the musical aesthetics of that music? What is culturally valued? Not valued?
III. Aesthetics and Multiculturalism
Our journey through Merriam’s model explores values and aesthetics, allows a deeper understanding of how to incorporate multicultural music into lessons. The process begins with discovering the musical aesthetics and particular values of the culture or sub-culture you’re working with. This might mean working with broad categories of Chinese, Indian or West African music, or narrow sub-cultures such as hip-hop music, Motown sound from the 1960s, or even the sound of an individual singer.
Regardless of what material you are trying to incorporate, thoroughly understanding the aesthetics and values will be highly beneficial to preserving the integrity and authenticity of both the music and culture. To do this requires preparation of research and practice.
Begin by selecting one culture area in which you are interested. Conduct research by reading about and exploring available teaching materials on that culture. Depending on your resources, you might want to actually acquire further knowledge and skills such as attending professional development activities or workshops, webinars, courses, or even contact people in your area that might be familiar with that culture. Starting with your own classroom is an excellent first step. There are always parents willing to come in and share traditions!
Teaching the music or arts of that culture is the next step. Fortunately, there are ways in which to use pedagogies that you already know in order to teach the material, without compromising its integrity or authenticity. The approach is to step back and ask questions to find commonalities in both cultures from which to work.
• How do children learn in this (new) culture (enculturation, pedagogies)?
• What musical aesthetics (sound) are found in this (new) culture’s music?
• What music does this (new) culture value (concepts, beliefs)?
• What behaviors are associated with this music?
Transmission
Most cultures around the world use aural-oral transmission process to teach many things, but especially music. Direct interaction with the sound is crucial, and notation cannot replace this experience. Children learn from each other by listening and joining in, learn by listening to recordings, or learn aurally from adults. In some cultures like India, even the classical music is transmitted aurally, with almost no notated music at all.
Aural transmission also enhances brain function since memorization is essential, along with mental mapping of melodies and rhythms. In the aural transmission process, modeling is a key factor. Since there is no restriction tying the singer to a “fixed” notation, children are free to just imitate or to explore, improvise and play with the sound.
Case Study 1: West Africa
For example, traditional music learning in West Africa takes place aurally. Let’s explore ways to utilize familiar pedagogies to approximate the core cultural values associated with music in West African culture. Note that the rhyme itself is not from West Africa, but it is the process of aural transmission itself that is one of the main goals of the lesson. This works well an opening lesson that 1) engages students using a familiar rhyme, 2) utilizes a culturally-based teaching process, and 3) transmits the cultural values of improvisation or “showing off,” musical play, communal music making, and musical flexibility, among other musical aesthetics.
Music pedagogy of West Africa compared to the U.S.
Pedagogies
• Aural
• Call and Response
• Imitation
• Story-songs with morals
• Mnemonic Drum Language
• Aural and Written
• Call and Response
• Imitation
• Songs (can have stories)
• Rhythmic Speech
Musical Aesthetics
• Complex Rhythms Polyrhythms
• Complex Melodies Polyphony
• Nasal vocal quality
• Movement/dance
• Complex Body Percussion/Clapping
• Simple Rhythms Duple/Triple Meter
• Simple melodies, unison or two-part harmony
• Chest based vocal quality
• Action songs
• Simple Body Percussion/Clapping
Values/Beliefs
• Everyone capable of music making and dancing
• Dance and music are highly integrated
• Musical and rhythmic improvisation highly valued
• Linguistic flexibility highly valued
• Beliefs about talent inhibit participation
• Dance and music less integrated
• Musical and rhythmic imitation highly valued
• Linguistic imitation highly valued
Behaviors
• Music making highly communal
• High confidence level performing in front of others
• Posturing and “showmanship” highly valued
• Music making more individualized
• Some hesitancy performing in front of others
• More reserved behavior common
While this list may be daunting, it is helpful in order to visualize the components necessary for a successful lesson—one that uses familiar pedagogies, materials, and processes between the two cultures. There is enough pedagogical overlap between the two to not only make a lesson work, but to contain a reasonable level of authenticity in its quest to successfully convey the intended musical and cultural material and values.
Revisit the pedagogies introduced in Chapter 4, Dalcroze, Kodály and Orff, to find excellent sources and approaches for teaching both Western and world musics. Dalcroze offers natural movement of the body, dance/movement and music; Kodály offers melodic and rhythmic sequencing; and Orff-Schulwerk offers a variety of aural singing and rhythmic body percussion techniques, including story-songs and literature, along with layers of percussion. This particular case study on West African music relies solely on aural learning, which means that a rote method is applicable to the music learning. In West Africa, rhythm is complex and highly valued, and involves communal/group participation, improvisation, and movement. West African music also integrates literature, movement, body percussion, rhyme, and music, so the Orff approach is probably the most applicable teaching method. Let’s take a simple playground rhyme as our material to teach West African musical and cultural values. (Note: This is but one variation of this particular rhyme.)
My mother, your mother live across the way.
Every night they have a fight and this is what they say:
‘Icka backa soda cracker, icka backa boo.
Icka backa soda cracker, out goes you!’
Rhythm: the rhyme is very simple with 8 beats in each line.
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
My
mother
your
mother
live a-
cross the
way
(r)
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
Every
night they
have a
fight and
this is
what they
say:
(r)
My Mother Your Mother
Learn the rhyme first using rote learning (call and response or echo). Then have the students clap on each beat. Repeat until the rhyme becomes embodied, and flows freely. Next, drop the “Icka Backa” section, and recite only the “my mother” section, while maintaining the steady beat clap throughout. Have everyone think the “Icka Backa” words in their head in order to remember the length of that section.
The rhyme itself implies that there is an inherent dialogue between the two mothers. This is perfect for implementing one of the essential elements of West African dance and music, where people take turns “showing their stuff” in a playfully confrontational way.
Form a circle. Communal learning lends itself to performing in a circle, and indeed most game songs are performed in a circle. Clap and say the rhyme several times. Choose two “mothers” to step out into the middle of the circle to face off against each other musically (no fighting or yelling)!
Each “mother” takes 8 beats to improvise using body percussion. Mother 1 “talks” for 8 beats, and Mother 2 then responds also taking 8 beats. Take turns around the circle alternating the rhyme with two new “mothers” in the center battling it out through rhythm, movement, and improvisation.
Improvisation
Improvisation, contrary to what many people think, does not involve “making it up on the spot.” Instead, improvisation can be taught to some degree in that it requires a set of tools and prior experiences from which to draw. Think of improvisation as “quickly assembling” shorter rhythm or pitch patterns that you’ve already mastered.
To prepare for the improvisation part of this rhyme, use rhythm cards for several weeks prior. Have the students clap the various rhythms using a variety of strategies, (call and response, game playing, even note reading, etc.) so that they are able to internalize the sounds and patterns. Then slowly build up from shorter 4-beat improvisations to 8-beat ones. This will reduce the anxiety of having to perform an 8-beat improvisation in front of the group.
Polyrhythm
Although improvisation is very important in many parts of Africa, so are complex rhythms called polyrhythms, which consist of two contrasting rhythms played together. The simplest and most basic polyrhythms are: two against three or three against four. To best illustrate a polyrhythm, the following system, known as the T.U.B.S. or Tiny Unit Box System, was developed as a way for participants to visualize the inner workings of a polyrhythm. Even though there are shaded areas that look like they represent musical “measures,” polyrhythms are referred to as additive rhythms (e.g. 2 + 3 + 2 + 3) rather than divisive (beats in a measure). Simple polyrhythms usually appear in eight or 12-beat groups.
3-beat rhythm
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
2-beat rhythm
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
Example 2: Three against Four
4-beat rhythm
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
3-beat rhythm
X
X
X
X
X
X
Try clapping the above examples. For the Two against Three rhythm, divide the class into two groups and assign the Two-beat rhythm line to one half and the Three-beat rhythm line to the other half. Switch the groups. After everyone becomes comfortable with the rhythm, create smaller groups of people on each line, and eventually assign the rhythm to just two people. Some students may even be able to play a three-beat on one leg and a two-beat on the other. Then try the same process with the Four against Three rhythm.
Children’s clapping games and rock passing games provide very simple but accessible examples of polyrhythmic learning. Students can learn to feel, hear, and perform the multi-part music from a very early age, and become progressively more advanced as they grow.
Multi-modal complexity is very much part of many children’s game songs from Zimbabwe. The Zimbabwean game song “Sorida” contains a melody accompanied by body percussion and hand clapping in pairs of partners.
Sorida
Traditional Zimbabwe Children’s Song
Done with partners facing each other.
R L Clap indicates a paddy-cake style of clapping across to your partner.
Another example of a rock-passing game from Ghana in West Africa is “Obwisana.” In this game, all children sit closely in a circle, each with a small rock in front of them. Rock passing games such as “Obwisana” start out very simply, but the rocks can be tapped in more complex polyrhythms after the children master the easier rhythms. These games, like all children’s songs and games, carry great meaning. The lyrics mean “the rock crushed my hand, grandma,” and is meant to assure the child that there are always people to take care of them in their lives, either in their family or village. The rock-passing accompaniment reflects the idea of a tight-knit community and cooperation, for if even one child fails to pass their rock on the beat to the next child, the entire song cannot continue.
Obiswana
Children’s rock passing game from Ghana
Case Study 2: India
In comparison with African music, Indian music is much less familiar for most Westerners, and therefore a little more difficult to teach. The basic components of India’s classical music, for example, differ from Western music’s five basic elements (Sound, Melody, Harmony, Rhythm, and Form), in that India does not utilize harmony in its classical genres.
However, harmony is present in India’s popular music, such as Bollywood’s film music. Indian classical forms more than make up for an absence of harmony with highly complex and intricate melodies and rhythms.
Western Classical Music Aesthetics compared to Indian Classical Music Aesthetics.
Western Classical Music Aesthetics
• Improvised:
• The performer is the composer.
• Performer and composer separate:
• Pieces composed by a composer separate from the performer, sometimes by hundreds of years.
• Contains NO Harmony:
• Melodies and rhythm complex and independent
• Melodies tied to harmonic progressions:
• Music Based on Harmony.
• Is not done in groups, but with individual performers:
• Soloist.
• Drummer.
• Drone.
• Group performers (orchestra, choral).
• Contains lots of ornamentation.
• Little ornamentation.
• Expression– begins slow and soft, gradually becomes louder and faster.
• Quick and frequent changes of expression—Dramatic dynamics, tempo changes.
• Similar to Western Symphonies, these raga performances can last up to 1 hour.
Classical Indian musical aesthetics require only three major components in an ensemble: a drone, a solo instrumentalist or vocalist, and a drum.
Listen Drone
Melodies are based on raga, which is a set of pitches similar to what we think of as a scale, but with many more non-musical characteristics. Like a scale, a raga contains a certain set of pitches or notes. Some notes are flat, others sharp, etc. There is also often a mood associated with a raga, such as a time of day the song should be sung, or a season of the year like monsoon season, hot season, or winter. A raga might also be associated with a particular deity. The pitches of the scale have their own syllables called sargam—which is very similar to our solfege system. Just like the term solfege which is made up of the syllables “sol” and “fa,” sargam is comprised of the syllables sa re and ga, the first three pitches of the Indian scale.
Indian music has roots that are thousands of years old. There is cultural meaning in every aspect of Indian music. For example, each syllable of the sargam (solfege) is based on the sound of an animal.
Western (Solfege)
SA’
DO’
NI (elephant)
TI
DHA (horse)
LA
PA (cuckoo/nightingale)
SOL
MA (dove/heron)
FA
GA (goat)
MI
RE (bull/skylark)
RE
SA (peacock)
DO
Animals are very prevalent in India, particularly in the rural areas where you can hear the cries of peacocks, the whinnying of goats, and even the occasional cry of an elephant. These are familiar sounds to many children growing up in India.
Singers in training spent a lot of time learning to improvise with these syllables. Here are a few typical warm ups for the voice.
• SS, RR, GG, MM, PP, DD, NN, S’S’
• SRG, RGM, GMP, MPD, PDN, DNS’
• SRSRG, RGRGM, GMGMP, MPMPD, PDPDN, DNDNS’
• SRGSRGM, RGMRGMP, GMPGMPD, MPDMPDN, PDNPDNS’
In India, there really isn’t any notation at all since music is improvised, but in the 19th century, musicians developed a system for notation that is used to teach beginners. Here is an example of what that notation would look like for singing the song Frere Jacques. Dashes equal rests, and the slur underneath two notes is equal to two eighth notes.
C Major mode, 4/4 time, medium tempo
S R G S
S R G S
G M P -
G M P -
Fre-re Jac-ques
Fre-re Jac-ques
Dor-mez vous,
Dor-mez vous?
1
2
3
4
P_D P_M G S
P_D P_M G S
S P S -
S P S -
Son-nez les ma-ti-nes,
Son-nez les ma-ti-nes,
Din din don,
Din din don
1
2
3
4
Below is a song in one of the raga called Raga Bhupali. This raga is meant to be sung in the evening, and has a mood of devotion. It is a pentatonic raga, which means that only 5 pitches are used, Sa, Re, Ga, Pa and Dha.
Melody
Song in Raga Bhupali
S’ S’ D P
G R S R
G - P G
D P G -
G P D S’
R’ S’ D P
S’ P D P
G R S -
S’ S’ D P
G R S R
G - P G
D P G -
Raga-s are made up of short characteristic patterns that often show up in compositions. The bold letters indicate patterns that are commonly found in many Bhupali songs.
Rhythm
Rhythm or tala in Indian music is very complex. Instead of having short measures of groups of 2s or 3s, there are long cycles of many beats.
Tala: A rhythmic cycle containing a fixed number of beats (e.g. 16, 14, 12, 10, 8, 7, or 6).
Indian musicians use the rhythm syllables of dha, dhin, etc. to learn rhythms on their drums (such as tabla). The second line of the table below indicates the vocal syllables for this particular 16-beat cycle. The third line of the cycle contains an X and numbers 2, 0, and 3, which are also guides to counting the cycle. Musicians say the rhythm syllables and then clap on the X, 2 and 3. The 0, however, is called an empty beat. On 0, the musician waves their hand instead of clapping. Try saying the rhythm syllables and clapping on the 1st, 5th, and 13th beats, and waving on the 9th beat of the cycle.
Tintal Rhythm Cycle (tala)
16-beat cycle, (4+4+4+4)
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
Dha
Dhin
Dhin
Dha
Dha
Dhin
Dhin
Dha
X
2
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
Dha
Tin
Tin
Ta
Ta
Dhin
Dhin
Dha
0
3
X = Sam, the first beat and most important moment in music.
Activity 13C
Try This
The 16-beat tala teentala, is used in all of the above song examples, from Frere Jacques to the song in Raga Bhupali. Try singing the songs given above while clapping (on beats X, 2, and 3) and waving (on beat 0).
Children’s Music in India
Since many rural children in India do not have access to televisions, computers, or other electronic forms of entertainment, children play lots of games and learn many songs from each other in their local vernacular or regional language. Indian films, however, are all musicals, and contain five to six songs each. Children and even adults are exposed to and learn many, many of these popular film songs.
Children playing on a roof in a Bihar village, 2009.
Many parents restrict media viewing, for families with access, limiting the number of films they see as well as the hours spent watching television, listening to radio, and playing video games. Computer gaming and television watching is curtailed by these parents to one hour per day in exchange for study time.
High School Music Class, New Delhi, India, 2009.
Below is a children’s game song called “Okaa Bokaa Teen Tarokaa” from Bihar, India. This rhyme and song is a good example of a children’s game song, which has many, many parts to it. The lyrics contain many references to animals, foods, perfumed oils, etc. There is also mention of a king and a princess, referring to a time when India was comprised of many feudal states ruled by kings.
Okaa, Bokaa
Children’s rhyme game from Bihar, India
Translation N. Sarrazin
Everyone is seated in a circle very close together for this game song. The actions for this rhyme are indicative of life and culture in India, and include motions that are both familiar and unfamiliar to children’s game songs in the U.S. For example, the beginning of the rhyme consists of an elimination game similar to “eenie, meenie, miney, mo” but pinching the back of the hand in the next section is rarely found in children’s game songs. Grabbing ones earlobes in India is a sign of contrition for one’s actions. It indicates that you are sorry and would like forgiveness.
Okā Bokā Tīn Tarokā
Children’s rhyme game from Bihar, India
Translation N. Sarrazin, A. Dwivedi
Hindi
Part 1
Okā bokā tīn tarokā
Lauā lāthī chandan kāthī
Chandanā ke nām kā
Ijayī bijayī
Panawā phūlelawa puchūk
Part 2
Chiuntā leba ki chiuntī
Part 3
Atkan chatkan dahī chatākan
Ban phūle banaila
Sawan mē karailā
Neuri gailī chorī
Dhar kān mamorī
Part 4 (chant)
Chiuntā ho chiuntā
Maamā ke gagariyā kāhe phora lā ho chiuntā
Part 5
Lātā lāti chal bariyāti
Part 6
Tār kāte tarkul kāte kāte re ban khājā
Hāthi upar ghanta bāje chamak chale re raja
Rājā ke dulari beti khub bajāwe bājā
Int māro jhint māro chhup
English
Part 1
Okā bokā tīn tarokā (three goats)
Twig and stick and sandalwood and
What is the name of sandalwood?
Victory, wictory
Betel leaf, perfumed oil, squeeze
Part 2
Will you be a small ant? Will you be a big ant?
Part 3
Pitter patter, splitter splatter
Wildflowers bloom in the jungle
Bitter gourds grow in the monsoon
Someone’s mongoose was stolen
Hold the ear and twist!
Part 4 (chant)
Ant, silly ant,
Why did you break uncle’s vase?
O ant, silly ant
Part 5
Kick and kick and then go to Baryaati
Part 6
Cut the palm tree, cut the palm grove, cut the palm fruit open
Atop the elephant the bell rings and the King arrives in splendor.
The lovely daughter of the King beautifully beats the drum.
Hit it, hit it, hit it, chop it off!
Game Directions
Part 1
Children sit in a circle and place both hands in front—palms down, fingertips touching the floor (like a spider). The leader taps the back of each hand to the beat. On the word “squeeze” (puchūk) the hand is flattened. Leader continues until all hands are flat.
Part 2
Leader pinches the back of each flattened hand and lifts them into a pile in the middle of the circle.
Part 3
Leader places hand on top of the pile and alternates slapping her hand palm up and palm down to the beat.
Part 4 (chant)
Each child grabs the earlobes of the child next to them in the circle and sways to the beat.
Part 5
Chaos! Children kick their feet rapidly in the middle of the circle touching soles with the others.
Part 6
Children create a tower of fists in the middle, with the thumb extended up, each child grabbing the upturned thumb of the child’s hand beneath. The leader makes a sawing motion to cut down this fist tower, “chopping” off a hand or two from the top when they say “hit it, chop it!”
Activity 13D
Try this
How does this game song compare to other game songs you are familiar with? Does it remind you of other games? What are some of the lyrics in the song that tell you about different cultural elements in India? Which movements are different from those found in Western children’s songs? Which are similar?
Case Study 3: Japan
Japanese Aesthetics
Japanese music can also be challenging, since its aesthetics are very different from those found in Western music. If we think back on the elements of Western music (sound, melody, rhythm, harmony, form), we see that almost all Western rhythm emphasizes a continuous, steady pulse or beat. Western music is very melodically and harmonically oriented, with a continuous rhythmic pulse. We need to grasp a melody and a drum beat or steady pulse in order to make sense of what we are hearing.
17th Century Japanese Painting, “Waterfowls in Lotus Pond”
In traditional Japanese music such as gagaku or shakuhachi however, a steady beat is non-existent, and the emphasis is overwhelmingly on timbre, which is part of sound. Stringed instruments such as the biwa are used sparingly to play a fixed harmony or chord that marks time rather than plays a melody, and the short sound patterns from an instrument such as a single small drum or gong, might be front and center. How are we supposed to listen to this music? Japanese music relies on subtle changes and exploration of timbre rather than continuous sound. It takes a great deal of listening and understanding to be able to listen to and appreciate this music.
In Japan, key cultural, musical and artistic aesthetics include:
• Ritual
• Process over product
• Nature
• Reference to, reproducing, or connecting with (i.e. Shakuhachi made of bamboo)
• Simplicity
• Minimal sound, maximum effect
• Space/silence
• Form and the destruction of form
• Idea of impermanence
• Variation
• Multiple perspectives
Traditional Japanese art such as that pictured above, uses the same aesthetics. Notice all of the white space in the painting, and its minimalist nature. In the music, this white space is represented by silence. The same goes for Japanese flower arranging ikebana, where a single flower in a simple vase succinctly expresses the nature of Japanese aesthetics and worldview.
Japanese musical aesthetics are difficult to apply in the classroom. The first thing that children will want to do is play a steady beat on the drum and create a melody. This is so ingrained, that it is almost impossible to unlearn this Western cultural norm.
Classroom equivalents of traditional Japanese instruments.
Classroom Equivalent
Wind
Hichiriki (type of oboe)
Ryūteki (transverse flute)
Shō (mouth organ)
Shakuhachi (bamboo flute)
Duck call
Recorder
Harmonica
Pan pipe
String
Biwa (4 stringed lute)
Koto (13 stringed zither)
Guitar
Autoharp
Percussion
Shoko (small gong struck with 2 horn beaters)
Kakko (small, hourglass-shaped drum struck with 2 wooden sticks)
Tsuri-daiko (drum on a stand with painted head played with padded stick)
Shakubyoski (clapper made from pair of flat wooden sticks)
Gong
Hand drum
Djembe
Woodblock
However, approaching Japanese music from the perspective of timbre and silence, and to use visuals such as the classical paintings above to represent the simplicity of the music can help.
• Begin by passing out various percussion instruments, and even pitched instruments such as an autoharp, glockenspiel, or xylophone.
• Have students create as many different timbres as possible on their instrument, and as many “cool sounds” as possible. Remember, the autoharp should just play one chord with a lot of space in between strumming.
• Practice simple rhythmic patterns (ti-ti-ta, ta ta, ti-ti ti-ti) on the instruments.
• Hitting the small drum or gong, for example, is not a matter of creating a steady beat, but of bringing subtle changes in timbre to the composition. This concept can be taught using an object like a bouncy ball. Take a bouncy ball, and drop it on the floor once. At first, it hits with a loud thwack. Each successive bounce, becomes both fainter and faster. Imitating this sound on a small gong or drumhead will approximate the type of play with timbre that is required.
• Then work to put the group together. Remember, only one or two sounds should be played at a time, with a lots of silence in between, no harmony or melody or steady pulse should emerge. Silence, called ma, is very important in Japanese music. If you look at the classical nature painting above, you will see a lot of “white space.” This white space in art is equivalent to silence in music.
• Instruments should be played slowly, thoughtfully, and deliberately, not rushed and with a lot of stylized movement (dramatic but slow sweeps of the arm, positioning of drumsticks or mallets far in advance of striking, attentive and very alert and still musicians when not playing).
After some practice with this, it will be easy to plan an integrated multicultural lesson using something like kamishibai, or Japanese story cards. Having children play Orff instruments and classroom instruments as sound effects using the aesthetics above, would add greatly to the stories, as would composing an original song for the stories.
Japanese Kamishaibai (Japanese Story Cards)
The information below comes from an MENC article and interview with Dorothy Kittaka about Kamishibai, the multicultural, literacy-oriented Japanese story cards. The material introduces Japan to children, and provide a lesson rich in culture, literacy, and music. Click here for Kittaka’s complete lesson plan.
“Kamishibai is a delightful way of introducing literature, culture, and the arts” to children, says MENC member Dorothy Kittaka. This traditional Japanese form of storytelling will draw students in while they make connections with music, the visual arts, language arts, history, culture, and character education.
What is Kamishibai?
Kamishibai (“paper theatre”) is picture storytelling that uses painted cards to illustrate a story that’s written on the back of the cards. The traditional stories teach life lessons and emphasize traits such as:
• Integrity
• Caring
• Common Sense
• Initiative
• Perseverance
• Organization
• Flexibility
• Problem Solving
• Responsibility
• Cooperation
• Patience
• Friendship
• Curiosity
• Courage
• Resourcefulness
• Sense of humor
Original Kamishibai stories are written in dialog form, so the storyteller becomes an animated actor voicing different characters, making a compelling drama.
How to use Kamishibai:
• Select a story and read it to the class using the story cards. (For example, the “One Inch Boy” teaches that no matter what size you are, you can still achieve and be brave and honorable. Good for grades K–2.)
• Have students use percussion instruments, tuned xylophones, and body percussion to add sound effects as you read the story again with the story cards.
• Have students compose songs to go with the Kamishibai story as a class, in groups, or individually.
• Have students create poems and haiku as a class to reflect the story line. This works with even very young children.
• Tell the story again with story cards and musical accompaniment. Record it for listening and critiquing.
• Older grades can write their own stories, illustrate them, and compose songs for them.
For more information and lesson plans on Kamishibai by Dorothy Kittaka, go to http://www.kamishibai.com/index.html
Multicultural Music: Finding Sources, Making Plans
“Part of my teaching philosophy is to introduce students to other cultures and help them discover a bigger world,” says MENC member Linda White.
In searching out sources of multicultural music, White suggests:
• Read books about other cultures (not just music-related books).
• Attend concerts with musicians and music from other places.
• Take classes that teach music and games from other countries.
• Invite parents or others in the community from other countries to school—for classroom visits or assemblies.
• Attend sessions on multicultural music at MENC, Orff, and Kodály conferences, and consult with the clinicians.
Recommended Resources
• MENC and Orff magazine articles
• Japanese Kamishibai (a form of storytelling)–great for introducing Japanese stories and incorporating Japanese songs. (See Kamishibai Story Theater)
• Mary Goetze and Jay Fern’s Global Voices in Song DVDs–full of dances, songs, games, and background about various cultures.
Evaluating Multicultural Teaching Material
As a professional working with children, you will be constantly searching for new material to bring to your students such as songs, games, activities, lesson plans, etc. But how do you judge these materials? What is their value? In terms of musical material, it is important to assess the sonic aspects as well as the written. Is there a download or recording involved? What is the quality of that recording? What is the content included? How relevant or valuable is that content?
In terms of any teaching material, it is important to look and listen for quality content. However, if we are not familiar with the culture from which the recordings or material came, our job is more difficult. How do you assess an unfamiliar sound? Below is a rubric for evaluating multicultural music material including the content of the text, notation, and any recording.
Multicultural Material Evaluation Rubric
Summary
Describe the book’s content. What is included? What is its presentation? Layout? Format? Sections?
Provides a general overview of the book itself.
Author
What evidence do you see in the book of their experience and knowledge?
While it might seem like someone from the culture itself might have a more “authentic” perspective, this does not necessarily mean they do. Look for time spent researching in the culture, teaching, advanced degrees, field specialty (i.e., ethnomusicologist).
Is there a secondary author? What is their role?
Many times the primary author does not have enough insider knowledge of the language, and has to rely on someone with that knowledge to help with song lyrics and other cultural attributes.
Notation
Does the book contain printed notation? If so, what type of notation is used?
Mostly, books used in the U.S. will use standard 5-line staff notation. However, many cultures have their own forms of notation such India, Indonesia, and China, etc. Are any of these types of notation used in the text?
Are the songs arranged in any way?
A song arrangement typically means adding voices such as making a choral arrangement or adding instruments to the melody such as a piano accompaniment or Orff accompaniment.
Is the arrangement typical for the culture or not? Do they include any indigenous instruments?
Many cultures have their own styles of arrangement, but adding piano chords or vocal harmony particularly for Asian music, is not typical.
Lyrics
Do the songs have lyrics in English? The original language? Both? Is a pronunciation guide included? Are the meanings of specific words explained?
Often, books will include a transliteration of how to pronounce the lyrics as well as a translation. Some will even write the lyrics in the script of the original language.
Dance
Are dance, game, or movement instructions included? If so, are they clearly written with photographs, diagrams, and illustrations?
Are the movements indigenous or Westernized?
Similarly, you would prefer if the movements included along with the song were indigenous to the song itself and not merely added on as movement unassociated with the culture.
Do any of the movements have symbolic or cultural meaning? Which?
Recordings
Are there recordings included with the book? (tape, CD or online downloads or mp3s)? Who recorded the songs and who is singing on the
recordings? (i.e., people from within the culture or outside? children, adults?) Which instruments or arrangements are used (i.e., is it only synthesizer or piano or are authentic instruments used? Is harmony added?)
The most authentic recordings are those made in the field itself, of course, but it is also informative to have singers from that culture in the studio creating a professional recording. In some older recordings, the singing would be re-recorded by a Western chorus, which took away from the experience of hearing the song. Also, to save money, a synthesizer would be used to accompany the recordings rather than authentic instruments.
Context
How much written cultural context is included in the book in general or for each song?
Books vary widely on their inclusion of cultural information, but some type of description adds tremendously to the value of the book and to the understanding required to evaluate and learn the material.
How much of the original song’s function and meaning is included?
Knowing the original function of the song is an additional way of digging deeper into the culture. Knowing how a song works in the lives of children is greatly beneficial.
Do the notes offer a description of the culture, values, customs, historical, geographic, and economic issues that may add to an understanding of the music?
Having even some general details including maps, pictures, photos, quotes, and individual stories, and historical information helps.
Conclusion
Would you recommend/use this book, why or why not?
After reflecting on all aspects of your evaluation, would you use this book in your classroom or recommend it to others to use, why or why not?
India Resources
Children’s Literature
• Arnett, R., & Turakhia, S. (2003). Finder’s keepers. Columbus, GA: Atman Press.
• Somaiah, R., & Somaiah, R. (2006). Indian children’s favourite stories. Rutland, VT: Tuttle Publishing.
Vocabulary
acculturate: learning a new language, giving up traditional customs, heritage, etc., in order to blend, melt, and assimilate
assimilation: explains the process of cultural and psychological change that results following meeting between cultures. The effects of acculturation can be seen at multiple levels in both interacting cultures. At the group level, acculturation often results in changes to culture, customs, food, clothing, language, and social institutions. At the individual level, differences in the way individuals acculturate have been shown to be associated not just with changes in daily behavior, but with numerous measures of psychological and physical well-being. Acculturation can be thought of as second-culture learning
authenticity: how closely a performance of a piece of music conforms to the author’s intention; how closely a work of art conforms to an artistic tradition; how much the work possesses original or inherent authority, how much sincerity, genuineness of expression, and moral passion the artist or performer puts into the work
behavior: how we act as performers, audience members, listeners, etc.
cultural assimilation: the process by which a subaltern group’s native language and culture are lost under pressure to assimilate to those of a dominant cultural group
cultural mosaic: refers to the mix of languages, cultures, and ethnic groups that co-exist in society; intended to champion an ideal of multiculturalism as opposed to other systems like the melting pot, which is often used to describe the U.S.’ supposed ideal of assimilation
cultural pluralism: when smaller groups within a larger society maintain their unique cultural identities, and their values and practices are accepted by the wider culture provided they are consistent with the laws and values of the wider society
enculturation: the process whereby the established culture teaches an individual the accepted norms and values of the culture or society where the individual lives; learning your first culture
ethnicity: a socially defined category based on common culture or nationality; can include a common ancestry, dress, religion, dialect, etc.; reinforced through common characteristics, which set the group apart from other groups
homogeneous: the same or similar in nature
melting pot: metaphor for a heterogeneous society becoming more homogeneous, the different elements “melting together” into a harmonious whole with a common culture. It is particularly used to describe the assimilation of immigrants to the U.S. the melting-together metaphor was in use by the 1780s
multiculturalism: the action, process, or practice of including several cultures
multiethnic society: one with members belonging to more than one ethnic group, in contrast to societies that are ethnically homogeneous
musical aesthetics: what is considered beautiful or pleasing to listeners as a result of the music
polyrhythm: two or more contrasting rhythms such as groups of two played against groups of three
subaltern: lower in position or rank, a secondary group. Often this means a lack of access to political and financial power
Western culture: a heritage of social norms, ethical values, traditional customs, belief systems, specific artifacts, and technologies that have some origin or association with Europe; applies to countries whose history is strongly marked by European immigration, such as the Americas and Australasia as well as Europe | textbooks/socialsci/Early_Childhood_Education/Book%3A_Music_and_the_Child_(Sarrazin)/1.13%3A_Musical_Multiculturalism_and_Diversity.txt |
To provide children with a safe and nurturing learning environment and to maintain program effectiveness, teachers must incorporate observation, documentation and assessment into their daily routines. To truly be effective, teachers must develop skills and strategies that are grounded in best practices. In this chapter you will be presented with information that highlights how observation and documentation can be used as a key strategy to ensure intentional teaching. You will examine the initial steps to take to becoming a skilled observer, and you will reflect on how to objectively document the interactions that you see and the conversations that you hear. It is important to note that becoming a skilled observer takes time and practice, and that learning how to incorporate observation, documentation and assessment into your regular routines and daily duties requires some thoughtful consideration.
01: Observation and Documentation - The Key to Intentional Teaching
Observations are conducted every day in early childhood classroom environments. Teachers are constantly surveying the environment and completing safety checks to make sure the equipment and materials are safe for the children to use. Teachers also perform daily health screenings to ensure their children are healthy enough to participate in program activities. Beyond the standard safety check and health screening, teachers have many other important tasks and duties that they must do in order to maintain a copacetic classroom environment. Intentional teachers use their observations to plan and implement curriculum, set up engaging learning environments, monitor the children’s social interactions, track behaviors, communicate with families, and assess each child’s progress and development. Essentially, observations help teachers be more accountable. By conducting regular observations intentional teachers can:
1. Evaluate program effectiveness
2. Evaluate teacher effectiveness
3. Make improvements to ensure quality practices
4. Plan and implement developmentally appropriate curriculum
5. Measure and assess a child’s development
6. Develop respectful family partnerships
7. Understand the cultural practices and family structure
8. Select effective learning strategies to support and accommodate the diverse needs of children
9. Ensure ethical conduct and professional standards of practice
10. Teach with confidence
Pin It! Observation
Observation is defined as “the process of gathering information about objects and events using senses of sight, smell, sound, touch and taste, noticing specific details or phenomena that ordinarily might be overlooked” (CDE, 2016 p. 64).[2]
If we want to understand children, we must first watch them and listen to them. Then, we must try to make sense of what we observed and give it meaning. The role of observation is to provide teachers with information and evidence that they will need to make informed decisions on how to best support the children in their care. With each observation, you will get a glimpse into a child’s developing mind. Not only will you see a child’s personality emerge, you will be able to see what a child can do. As you watch your children, you will see how they problem solve when conflicts arise and how they cope with the stress from being in a group setting. You will learn about their individual needs and their cultural practices. When you watch children closely, their interests and abilities are revealed. With each observation, you will gain useful insight that will help you become an intentional teacher. | textbooks/socialsci/Early_Childhood_Education/Book%3A_Observation_and_Assessment_in_Early_Childhood_Education_(Peterson_and_Elam)/01%3A_Observation_and_Documentation_-_The_Key_to_Intentional_Teaching/1.01%3A_The_Role_of_Observation.txt |
To truly observe a child, you must be present, knowledgeable, inquisitive and intentional. With every observation, you will sharpen your skills as you learn how to effectively gather objective evidence and detailed data.
Be present: To capture all the individual mannerisms, subtle social nuances, non-verbal body language and dynamic conversations that occur throughout the day you must be attentive, focused and ready to go at any given moment. Children move fast. When we blink, we are bound to miss some little detail or precious moment, that’s a given. Being present takes considerable effort and careful planning.
Be knowledgeable: Understanding the core concepts of early childhood education is extremely important if you are to set reasonable expectations and plan developmentally appropriate learning experiences. Familiarizing yourself with child development theories will help you understand and appreciate why children do what they do. Learning about the key principles in early care and education will provide you with a solid foundation and a wide range of instructional strategies to support a child’s development.
Be inquisitive: Think of yourself as a researcher. Your primary mission is to investigate the children in your care by routinely gathering evidence, using a variety of observation methods and tools. As a good researcher you will need to ask some thoughtful questions. These questions will guide you as you plan purposeful observations and as you select your method of observation. Here are some sample questions you may ask yourself: What activities interest Max? How many times did Stevie hit today? What skills did Hazel master today with this activity, and what skills need further support? How long did Zoey stay engaged while playing in the sandbox? What milestones will this activity support? By a sking thoughtful questions, you will learn more about the children in your care and you will do a better job at supporting each child’s individual needs. Rather than fixating on a child’s behavior, in time you will begin using focused observations to try and figure out the reasons why a child acts the way they do.
Be intentional: As you organize learning experiences, set up the classroom and outside environment, assess children’s developmental progress, engage in activities, and interact with your children and families – you must have a thoughtful plan of action in place. “Intentional teaching means that everything you do as a teacher has a specific goal and purpose” (Gordon & Browne, 2016 p. 103). Even as spontaneous situations arise, intentional teachers must make the most of teachable moments. Intentional teachers conduct regular observations and gather objective documentation data to be accountable for the actions they take, the plans they generate and the assessments they make.
1.03: Observations can be Spontaneo
Spontaneous observations occur all the time. Whether teachers are actively engaged with their children during an activity or in the background cleaning up after an activity, teachers have numerous opportunities to see and hear some wonderful developments as they randomly occur. According to Piaget, children require long uninterrupted periods of play and exploration so that they can discover things for themselves. If we truly believe that children are capable of socializing, problem solving, and creating complex systems with rules, then we can successfully use spontaneous observations to capture a child’s development as it unfolds naturally.
As intentional teachers, we can also appreciate when teachable moments arise unexpectedly. These golden moments are noteworthy as well. For example, as we witness a child attempting to master a milestone, we may provide some verbal support or guidance to scaffold the child’s learning. For example, when Abraham is becoming frustrated with not being able to get a piece of his puzzle to fit, a teacher might ask, “What happens when you turn the piece around?” During spontaneous situations, we must remember to simultaneously make mental notes so that we can later write down and reflect on a more formal plan of action that can be later used to help the child achieve their developmental goals.
Let’s review the advantages and disadvantages associated with spontaneous observations.
• Advantages: Being in the moment allows you to enjoy your children, and children appreciate your presence. When you are present, you can celebrate a child’s success or provide positive reinforcements to help them master major milestones. While being spontaneous, you can focus on the child’s interests and pose thoughtful questions to extend and enrich their learning experience. When a teacher keeps a low profile, a child is less likely to be self-conscious or nervous.
• Disadvantages: The longer you wait to document your spontaneous observation evidence, the harder it will be to remain objective and recall the vital details which is important when tracking behaviors or assessing development. Also, the more time that passes, the more difficult it will be to access accurate data. For example, by not documenting the children’s dialogue or capturing their key quotes in a timely manner, you may find it difficult to remember their actual word choices and use of vocabulary which is essential for assessing a child’s expressive language development.
Let’s now discuss focused or planned observations. Becoming a skilled observer takes practice. At first you may be slightly overwhelmed with trying to incorporate an official observation time into your already busy schedule. You may struggle with finding that delicate balance between knowing when to interact with your children and realizing when to step back and observe. Once you do observe, you might be surprised by the amount of evidence you have collected on each child. What’s more, you will have to sift through all the evidence, and that can be both time consuming and exhausting. Since your time is limited and you cannot possibly observe everything, incorporating a planned observation will help you navigate through your busy day and you will be able to gather more specific evidence (Grouland & James, 2013). | textbooks/socialsci/Early_Childhood_Education/Book%3A_Observation_and_Assessment_in_Early_Childhood_Education_(Peterson_and_Elam)/01%3A_Observation_and_Documentation_-_The_Key_to_Intentional_Teaching/1.02%3A_Becoming_a_Skilled_Observer.txt |
When should I observe?
From the moment a child walks into their classroom until the time they leave, opportunities to learn are occurring. Some observations will happen spontaneously, while others will be scheduled. To see a child’s full potential, you will need to observe at various times throughout the day. For example, some children are slow-to-warm and it may take them some time to get acclimated before they can fully engage and interact with others. If a child is slow -to-warm, the morning drop-off may not be the best time to document their social development. You will want to track them throughout the day, at various times (including transition times and snack/meal times), to get a full picture of who they are and what they can do.
Where should I observe?
Many times, observations are centered around structured, teacher-directed activities. This is, in fact, a perfect time to witness what major milestones a child has mastered. However, observing a child while they are exploring in the dramatic play area (inside) or while they are in the sandbox area (outside) can prove to be just as enlightening. During child-directed play or open exploration, you will no doubt be able to document many of the developmental skills as suggested in the DRDP or Rating Scales, especially how they communicate, cooperate, solve dilemmas and create. Because children can play and learn differently while they are inside as compared to when they are outside, it is necessary to observe in both environments. Likewise, it is important to observe in all activity areas and play spaces.
What observation method should I use?
Use a variety of methods to record and document your children. You will want to “try out” several tools and techniques to find your “go to” method. Because each tool has a specific purpose or focus, using a variety of methods will provide you with sound documentation data to better understand the whole child’s development. Note: In the next chapter, you will examine the various tools and techniques more closely.
Who should I observe?
You will want to observe each child as individuals, and you will want to track group interactions. Becoming aware of who is in your class is necessary if you are going to create a caring classroom community and respectful learning environment. Look for those who are the leaders in your group; find out who needs more one-to-one support and who are your helpers; watch for who plays with who. This insight can help you organize peer scaffolding opportunities which can free up some of your time. As a gentle reminder, sometimes we connect with certain children for one reason or another, and other times a child may challenge us. Either way we need to regularly observe each child with an open mind and an open heart, and we need to look at children with a clear lens that is free of bias. Each child needs your attention; each child has unique gifts; and each child needs your support.
What is the focus of my observation, what am I looking for?
With focused observations, there usually is a specific goal in mind. For example, you might want to know what milestones a child has mastered. For that, you would use a developmental checklist to “check-off” all the skills the child was observed doing. Maybe you want to learn what the child’s interests are and what they like to play with. For that, you can use a frequency count to tally up all the areas and activities the child used during that observation. Keep in mind that you can observe several skills and competencies across multiple domains during one observation. For example, one day you might set out a math activity and the children are expected to create patterns using colorful beads and pipe cleaners, While they work and play, you can listen to the children’s conversations as they describe the patterns they are making; and you can note their fine motor development based on how well they string the beads onto the pipe cleaner; you can also see how they shared space and materials with their peers. Although this was a math activity, many other areas of development can be observed. | textbooks/socialsci/Early_Childhood_Education/Book%3A_Observation_and_Assessment_in_Early_Childhood_Education_(Peterson_and_Elam)/01%3A_Observation_and_Documentation_-_The_Key_to_Intentional_Teaching/1.04%3A_Questions_you_may_want_to_ask.txt |
One of the cornerstones of a high-quality early care and education program is the practice of observing, documenting and assessing children’s development. According to NAEYC (2009), in order to make formative decisions that will guide what goes on in the classroom, there needs to be an organized system in place to collect information. When we record our observations and collect data, we “hold in memory the actions, nonverbal communication, or comments that seem to be significant to children’s thinking” (California Preschool Program Guidelines, 2015 p. 46). When we document children’s learning and collect key artifacts, we create tangible evidence that we can share with the children and their families, along with administrators and stakeholders. There are many ways you can record and document children’s learning. In fact, you should attempt to utilize several methods as part of your regular observation routines.
To collect and record data you can use the following methods :
• running records
• anecdotal notes
• checklists
• frequency counts
• learning stories
• time or event samples
• work samples
• taking photos, videotaping, or audio recordings
To store your documentation
To safely store your collected data, you will need to have an organized system in place. Portfolios are a popular strategy used by intentional teachers. To create a portfolio, you can use a binder or notebook, a file or accordion-style folder, or a cardboard box. As you collect observation evidence for each child, it is vital that you date everything so you can organize it chronologically. This will help you track each child’s progress throughout the school year more efficiently. Portfolios help you construct a well-rounded and authentic picture of each child in your class. Knowing the “whole child” you are better equipped to build on each child’s individual interests, and you are more apt to plan developmentally appropriate activities.
Each child should have their own portfolio. A well-organized portfolio will contain observations and artifacts of children's work that are collected at different time periods throughout the school year. It is recommended that you include some type of documentation that highlights each developmental domain. For example:
• Gross Motor: Take photographs of your child while they are engaged in outside activities like running, jumping, climbing, riding a bike or playing in the sandbox.
• Fine Motor: Keep a checklist of when your child learns to button, zip, and tie his shoes. Include work samples of their cutting, coloring, painting, and samples of emergent writing
• Social-Emotional: Write anecdotal notes when your child engages in open-ended, child-directed play. Take note of how they share and cooperate with others. Do a frequency count to see which centers your child chooses to spend their time in and tally their play patterns to see if they prefer to play alone or with others.
• Cognitive: Chart a science experiment and take photos. Photograph a completed puzzle. Use a video camera to record a child as she builds a block bridge. And, as she explains her process and she had to figure out all the steps to take so that the bridge wouldn’t fall down – be sure to record that too.
• Literacy and Oral language: Save writing examples to track how the child writes her name. Include illustrations of stories they love and the stories they write themselves. Write down quotes in your running record or make audiotapes of conversations during circle time.
• Creative expression: Videotape your child while playing in the dramatic play area or while performing a dance during music and movement. Photograph a clay creation, painting or block tower.
To be clear, it isn’t the amount of documentation you collect for each portfolio that matters, it’s the quality of information you gather. Portfolios tell a story of the whole child. There should be a beginning, middle, and an end. Each work sample, anecdotal note, checklist, frequency count and learning story should be used to showcase how a child processes information, develops relationships, and learns while playing.
To document children’s learning
Whether you collect evidence through spontaneous or planned observations, you will use your documentation to ultimately assess a child’s learning, growth, and development. With well-organized documentation, intentional teachers can effectively communicate with a child’s family, using the evidence and artifacts they have collected over time. Families appreciate being able to see their child’s progression and how they interact with others. Families also enjoy seeing the types of activities their child engages in during a typical day at school. Here are a few ways documentation can be used to showcase a child’s learning, growth and development:
• rating scales and formal developmental assessments
• daily progress reports
• documentation boards
Pin It! Ten Teacher Tips When Gathering your Documentation
1. Date – this is key in tracking development over time
2. Time – start time and end time
3. Setting – note the location (indoor or outdoor; center or play area)
4. Purpose – what is the intended goal
5. Note the child (or children) who are involved in the activity
6. Record only the facts – Write down exactly what you see and hear
7. Be as concise (to the point) as you can
8. Record the facts in the order as they occur
9. Be descriptive and provide vivid details -create a visual picture so others can “see” what is happening
10. Be specific and avoid vague or general terms – this is helpful when you go back to review your dat | textbooks/socialsci/Early_Childhood_Education/Book%3A_Observation_and_Assessment_in_Early_Childhood_Education_(Peterson_and_Elam)/01%3A_Observation_and_Documentation_-_The_Key_to_Intentional_Teaching/1.05%3A_The_Role_of_Documentation.txt |
Intentional teachers must learn how to write objective observations. As you observe, it is best to write down all that you see and hear, and report just the facts. It takes practice to learn how to separate facts from opinions. Here are some helpful tips for you to review:
Table \(1\): Objective Observations vs. Subjective Observations
Objective Observations
Subjective Observations
Objective observations are based on what we observed using our senses, we record exactly what we see, hear, taste, touch, and smell
Subjective observations are often influenced by our past events, personal experiences and opinions, and can be biased based on our cultural backgrounds
Objective information is based on the facts we gather. If we don’t see it, we don’t report it. We report only details and provide vivid descriptions
Subjective information is based on our opinions, assumptions, personal beliefs, prejudice feelings or can be based on suspicions, rumors and guesses
Results are more likely to be valid and reliable from child to child
Results are often inconsistent and vary from child to child
Objective Terms that can be Used:
Seems to be; Appears to
Subjective Words to Avoid:
Just; because; but; always, never; can’t; I think; happy, smart, helpful, pretty, angry, shy, likes, loves, hates, sad
1.07: Recognizing Your Biases
Google the word bias and this is what pops up: “prejudice in favor of or against one thing, person, or group compared with another, usually in a way considered to be unfair.”
Biases, we all have them. Biases stem from our upbringing. Every interaction and every experience we have had has shaped who we are. To some degree, our biases influence our beliefs and behaviors, they sway our attitudes, and they affect our personalities. Because our biases are so ingrained into who we are, it would be unrealistic to simply say “ignore your bias.” Therefore, a valuable exercise might be to do a self-check and examine your own biases. Look for those biases that are “triggers.” More specifically, think about the behaviors, temperamental traits, and moods that make you feel uncomfortable, frustrated, or annoyed.
It is important to note, that we might not be fully aware of all our biases. For example, when a child says, “give me some milk!” Our first response might be “Ummm, how do you ask?” We might not realize that manners (or lack of them) can make us react in a judgmental way. What’s important to recognize is that how we feel about the child’s behavior can taint how we see them. What’s more, our biases can influence how we gather our observation evidence. As intentional teachers we have to recognize our biases so we can treat all children with the respect that they deserve. According to NAEYC’s Code of Ethical Conduct and Statement of Commitment (2011),
P-1.3—We shall not participate in practices that discriminate against children by denying benefits, giving special advantages, or excluding them from programs or activities on the basis of their sex, race, national origin, immigration status, preferred home language, religious beliefs, medical condition, disability, or the marital status/family structure, sexual orientation, or religious beliefs or other affiliations of their families (p. 3).
So as not to lose our objectivity, it is important to keep an open heart, an open mind, and a clear lens. Rather than letting a child’s behavior trigger you, look beyond their behavior, look beyond your bias. Focus on collecting objective observation evidence and use that data to reflect on what might be causing that behavior. Consider ways that you can support the child through redirection, modeling, scaffolding or positive reinforcements. As intentional teachers, one of our primary roles is to empower children, and to build meaningful relationships by creating warm, caring environments (Epstein, 2007).
Pin It! Common Mistakes to Avoid When Writing Observation Evidence
• Making Conclusions : Billie can’t do anything by himself because he is the youngest in a large family and they do everything for him; Sharon’s parents are getting a divorce, so she is sad
• Making Assumptions : Annie never shares; Denise always hits Thomas
• Labeling : Rosie is mean ; Jeff is such a good boy
• Comparing : Tommy can’t ride the bike as well as Sam; Zoey was the best listener at circle time
• Focusing on Feelings or Emotions : Max looks so sad today; Jax looks so happy as he slides down the slide
• Adding Opinions : Martha really likes playing dress up, she is in the dramatic play area every day; Suki is shy and never says anything during circle time. | textbooks/socialsci/Early_Childhood_Education/Book%3A_Observation_and_Assessment_in_Early_Childhood_Education_(Peterson_and_Elam)/01%3A_Observation_and_Documentation_-_The_Key_to_Intentional_Teaching/1.06%3A_Objective_versus_Subjective_O.txt |
Every day, teachers observe, record and capture essential moments in a child’s development. The evidence and artifacts that are gathered are then used to plan curriculum and assess development. Although we have highlighted the importance of gathering work samples and observation evidence as a key element to be an intentional teacher, we must also consider the perspective of the child. In the article “Who is Watching? Thinking Ethically about Observing Children” the authors highlight some of the ethical tensions that can arise within early childhood settings when trying to balance the rights of children, the responsibilities of teachers and the role of a student who is training to be a future teacher.
In most classrooms, a typical day includes teachers grabbing their cameras to take snapshots of the children in their care so that they will have ample documentation. Consider this - does the teacher’s presence change the context of the child’s experience? Does the thought of being monitored make the child behave any differently? How does the child feel about having their picture taken? Are teachers becoming overly concerned about capturing children in precious moments, rather than being engaged in teachable moments? As a “student” who is learning to observe and document a child’s development it is important for you to consider the following guidelines when observing children:
• Take every precaution to maintain confidentiality and to ensure privacy
• Remember to ask if it is OK to take photographs of children and their work
• Understand that children have the right not to take part in activities
• Be respectful and keep a reasonable amount of space between you and the child so as not to interfere with their play and learning
• Be attuned to children’s body language, temperament and styles of communication
• See each child as a unique individual who has their own perspective, set of feelings, interests, and way of socializing, along with their own cultural context, belief system, and values
• Be upfront and inform children about the purpose of your observation visit if you are approached
• Share information with the child about what you have observed when appropriate
• Write quotes down just as they were said without adding context, or trying to rationalize what the child may have meant
• Be aware that photos and observation data should be collected in a non-intrusive manner
• Ensure that observation evidence and photos are used only for the purposes intended
• Handle photos and data with care and sensitivity, and always store information securely
• Realize that a child’s reactions, behaviors and conversations may not be what you expect and therefore you should refrain from being judgmental or tainted by your cultural biases
By following these guidelines, you are providing the children you observe with the respect they deserve while ensuring their dignity and safety. The centers and programs where you are observing are trusting you to act with integrity while you are at their site observing their children. Lastly, families will appreciate that you have their child’s best interest at heart.
1.09: Observation and Documentation
Whether performing a planned or spontaneous observation here are some helpful tips to ensure you are recording quality evidence:
Table \(1\): Observation and Documentation Do’s and Don’ts
Observation and Documentation DOs:
Observation and Documentation DON’Ts
1. Note the date, time, setting,
2. Note the child (or children) involved
3. Record only the facts – in a concise (to the point) manner
4. Record the facts in the order as they occur and exactly as you see it
5. Collect vivid details and quotes
6. Use a variety of Observation Methods
7. Observe with an open heart, an open mind and a clear lens, free of bias
8. Be attentive and alert, and use all your senses
9. Note what the child CAN DO rather than what he cannot do
10. Keep a low profile and respect the children’s space while they are playing
1. Do not interfere or pressure the children to perform
2. Do not assume or state your opinion while recording evidence
3. Do not record anything you do not see
4. Do not label behaviors, actions or feelings
5. Avoid using subjective, bias or judgmental terms
6. Avoid using exaggerations and conditional words
7. Do not summarize information
8. Avoid using generalizations or vague terms
1.10: Conclusion and References
To become a skilled observer takes time and practice (Gronlund & James, 2013). You will need to figure out your rhythm so that you can incorporate observation and documentation into your regular routine. As an intentional teacher, you will want to plan systematic observations so that you can document each child’s unique qualities, interests, developmental strengths and needs, as well as uncover their cultural practices, approaches to learning and play preferences throughout the school year. As you gather evidence you will want to be as objective as you can be, and you will have to recognize your biases. As you collect your documentation on each child, you will want to organize it in a chronological manner and store it safely. Lastly, be sure to observe every child in your class, be aware that some children may catch your attention more than others for one reason or another. In the next chapter, we will examine several observation tools and techniques that you will want to use as part of your regular observation routine to ensure high-quality practices. | textbooks/socialsci/Early_Childhood_Education/Book%3A_Observation_and_Assessment_in_Early_Childhood_Education_(Peterson_and_Elam)/01%3A_Observation_and_Documentation_-_The_Key_to_Intentional_Teaching/1.08%3A_Ethical_Guidelines_when_Obser.txt |
The need for high-quality childcare continues to be a topic of interest as more and more families enter the workforce and more and more children need care. Every week, families from all socioeconomic backgrounds drop their children off at some type of childcare. According to the National Institute for Early Education Research, “In the United States, 76% of children ages three to four, receive education and care from someone other than a parent.” (NIEER, 2002). With so many children needing childcare, researchers and policymakers are tasked with figuring out how to best support the next generation of preschoolers. In this chapter, we will address the need for high-quality in early care and education as means to reduce the achievement gap between children from low to high socioeconomic families. We will also compare standard industry practices to what the field of early care and education recognizes as high-quality practices. Lastly, we will review some of the current observation methods, tools and techniques that can be used to ensure programs are implementing quality practices. [4]
02: Quality Counts
Decades of research on early child development has determined that “When it comes to early care and education programs, quality is critical,” (Wechsler, Melnick, Maier & Bishop, 2016, p.1). It is suggested that thoughtfully designed preschool programs can impact and influence a child’s future learning outcomes. Not only are there short-term benefits, based on data collected from quantitative research projects (e.g. Perry Preschool, the Abecedarian Project, and the Chicago Child-Parent Centers), there are long-term benefits as well. More specifically, children from low-income homes who attended high-quality preschool programs showed higher achievement scores - especially in math and reading, as compared to their counterparts who were not able to attend a quality preschool. Furthermore, children who were enrolled in high-quality programs were less likely to be placed in special education, less likely to be retained or held back a grade, and it was noted that they were more likely to graduate from high school. [5]
Unfortunately, due to limited funding opportunities and financial restraints, there are many families who cannot afford to send their child to a high-quality preschool. “This lack of access to high-quality early childhood education perpetuates the achievement gap, evidenced by the fact that only 48 percent of low-income children are ready for kindergarten, compared to 75 percent of moderated – or high-income children” (p. 3 Center for American Progress). This data reveals that the achievement gap is problematic on many levels. Moving forward we must consider how we, as advocates and educators, can lessen the achievement gap so that all children, no matter their socioeconomic status, can get a smart start. To find possible solutions to this dilemma, let’s take a closer look at and compare standard industry practices to what the field of early care and education regards as high-quality practices . [6]
2.03: Not all Preschool Programs are Alike
As more and more children need childcare, families are faced with a tremendous task of finding “the right preschool program.” When choosing a center, some families may contemplate certain factors like cost and affordability, hours of operation and availability, and location. Some families, on the other hand, may consider the school philosophy, the education and experience of teachers, the environment and daily activities, as well as the curriculum model and guidance policies. As you can see, there are numerous possibilities to consider. Families must also decide on whether to send their child to a state-funded or faith-based program, a family childcare or a traditional preschool setting. No matter what type of program a family chooses, in the state of California all childcare centers must be licensed by the California Department of Social Services and comply with Community Care Licensing Title 22 regulations. For the purpose of this text, in order to demonstrate that all preschools are not alike, we will refer to “ standard industry practice ” as any state licensed childcare program and we will refer to “ high-quality practice ” as any childcare center that undergoes regular assessments using tools and techniques that are above and beyond the standard industry practice .
2.04: Process Quality and Structural Quality
Unlike standard industry practices, high-quality practices place an emphasis on promoting positive child outcomes. The key to a high-quality program is contingent upon what happens inside the classroom environment. Let’s examine how both process quality and structural quality work together to influence positive outcomes for children.
Process quality refers to the types of interactions that occur throughout the day between the teachers, children, families, and administrators. Process quality also considers the types of materials that are available for the children to use, as well as the activities that children engage in throughout their day. Lastly, process quality takes into account the health, well-being and safety of the children. Structural quality on the other hand, refers to the features and characteristics of a program. More specifically, the class size, teacher-to-child ratios, teacher qualifications and experiences, teacher pay scale, along with the allotted square footage for play space define quality. Although process quality is thought to have a more direct impact on child outcomes as compared to structural quality , researchers and leaders in the field of early care and education agree that process and structural indicators are interrelated, and when combined together they promote the highest quality experiences.
For example, when groups are smaller, teachers tend to have more positive, supportive, and stimulating interactions with children. Warm and nurturing interactions are directly linked to children's social competence and future academic success, and such interactions are essential to high quality. Early childhood teachers who are more highly qualified and have smaller groups can more effectively provide individualized, responsive learning opportunities. Finally, higher teacher wages have consistently been linked to higher process quality. [8]
2.05: A Look at Standard Industry Practices
To legally operate a childcare program in California, a center must comply with certain licensing policies and procedures. These state regulations provide “a baseline standard and are primarily focused on protecting children from harm rather than on advancing child development and early learning,” (Workman & Ullrich, 2017, p. 3). In other words, Title 22 Regulations stipulate health and safety standards, space and square footage requirements, supervision standards, and teacher qualifications. Title 22 Regulations do not however, consider curriculum activities, age appropriate materials, or teacher-to-child interactions, nor does it address developmentally appropriate practices such as family culture and perspectives, child development theories, or principles and practices.
To ensure early childhood education programs are compliant with all state policies and procedures, a licensing analyst will conduct an annual inspection, or will evaluate a program as needed. Typically, the analyst will look at the center’s overall cleanliness and they will inspect both the indoor and outdoor environment to certify that the center is safe for the children. The analyst will confirm that the ratios are met, and that there is proper space and square footage available for each child to play and nap. The analyst will also conduct a spot check of the employee files to confirm teacher qualifications, and they will look through the children’s files to validate that the proper paperwork is signed and in complete order. To comply with state regulations and policies, a center director will need to download the California Code of Regulations, Title 22 administered by CDSS (Divisions 12 only) and follow all the mandated requirements. If any criteria are not met, the analyst will cite the program. The program will then be given a certain timeframe to rectify and correct the concern. The analyst will return to verify the problem has been fixed. Families who are considering a program can check the Community Care Licensing website to see if a center has received any “substantiated citations.” [7] | textbooks/socialsci/Early_Childhood_Education/Book%3A_Observation_and_Assessment_in_Early_Childhood_Education_(Peterson_and_Elam)/02%3A_Quality_Counts/2.02%3A_Closing_the_Achievement_Gap.txt |
As mentioned above, the teacher plays a vital role in orchestrating high-quality practices. In high-quality classrooms, not only must teachers create a safe and nurturing space, they must intentionally set up the environment to support children’s interests and individuality. California childcare programs serve a diverse population, therefore, an intentional teacher must also consider the cultural, linguistic, and socioeconomic status of each family enrolled in her class. The highly- qualified teacher has a deep understanding of child development, and with that knowledge she will provide appropriate materials and experiences to challenge the children in her care. In the chart below, we can see how teachers maintain high-quality practices.
Table \(1\): Classroom Environments
Physical environment
The overall design and layout of a classroom, including the learning centers and play spaces, the age appropriate materials, and the child size furnishings
Social environment
The interactions that occur within the classroom between teachers, children, family members, center staff and administration
Temporal environment
The routines and daily schedules, the timing, sequence, and length of play time, the time spent indoors and outdoors engaged in child-directed and teacher-directed activities
Here are some considerations to incorporate quality practices into your classroom to promote responsive caregiving while supporting the physical, social, emotional and intellectual development of children:
Pin It! The Building Blocks of High Quality Early Childhood Education Programs[10
1. Early learning standards and curricula that address the whole child, are developmentally appropriate, and are effectively implemented.
2. Assessments that consider children’s academic, social-emotional, and physical progress and contribute to instructional and program planning.
3. Well-prepared teachers who provide engaging interactions and classroom environments that support learning.
4. Ongoing support for teachers, including coaching and mentoring.
5. Support for English learners and students with special needs.
6. Meaningful family engagement.
7. Sufficient learning time.
8. Small class sizes with low student-teacher ratios.
9. Program assessments that measure structural quality and classroom interactions.
10. A well-implemented state quality rating and improvement system.
2.07: A Look at High-Quality Practices
One of the hallmarks of high-quality practices is the practice of continuously monitoring and evaluating a program’s overall effectiveness for the purpose of accountability. Therefore, in addition to complying with state licensing regulations, high-quality programs may utilize noted assessment tools and resources (e.g. ECERS, CLASS, QRIS, NAEYC’s Developmentally Appropriate Practice) to evaluate their center and staff. To guide high-quality practices, early childhood educators often look to the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) to provide ethical pedagogy. NAEYC is a recognized professional organization committed to promoting quality early learning experiences for children, birth through age 8. Grounded by research and theory principles, NAEYC promotes best practices for children, families, teachers, administrators, stakeholders and policy makers. To ensure quality practices are being implemented, it is suggested that teachers follow NAEYC’s Developmentally Appropriate Practice (DAP) Framework:
• Teachers encourage children to be active participants in their own learning
• Teachers set reasonable expectations based on what they know about a child’s age and stage of development
• Teachers build on what children know using a variety of learning strategies, materials, meaningful experiences
• Teachers plan activities to support all aspects of development: social, emotional, physical and cognitive
• Teachers value each child's family, language, and cultural practices
• Teachers are aware of each child’s interests, strengths, abilities and individual needs
• Teachers recognize play as a primary context in which young children learn
• Teachers establish warm, caring and respectful relationships with children, families and colleagues
• Teachers regularly assess the children’s development and the environment, and they self-reflect on their own practices (Gordon and Browne, 2016, Beginning Essentials in early childhood education 3e) | textbooks/socialsci/Early_Childhood_Education/Book%3A_Observation_and_Assessment_in_Early_Childhood_Education_(Peterson_and_Elam)/02%3A_Quality_Counts/2.06%3A_The_Role_of_the_Teacher_in_High-Quality_Practices.txt |
One of the characteristics of a high-quality early childhood program is the practice of continuously monitoring children’s development, along with the environmental setting and teacher interactions. By evaluating the overall performance in these key areas, teachers, administrators and families can reflect, make necessary changes and improvements to support all students and families. There are numerous tools on the market that evaluate program quality. For the purpose of this text we will focus on just a few tools that are highly recognized and most often used in California to monitor quality practices in preschool programs.
The Environment Rating Scales (ERS)
The Environment Rating Scale is a standardized assessment tool that can help caregivers, teachers, and administrators improve the quality of their program. The ERS measure process quality .
Process quality consists of the various interactions that go on in a classroom between staff and children, staff, parents, and other adults, among the children themselves, and the interactions children have with the many materials and activities in the environment, as well as those features, such as space, schedule and materials that support these interactions. Process quality is assessed primarily through observation and has been found to be more predictive of child outcomes than structural indicators such as staff to child ratio, group size, cost of care, and even type of care, for example child care center or family child care home . [11]
There are 4 Environment Rating Scales:
1. The Infant and Toddler Environmental Rating Scale (ITERS) for programs serving young learners aged 6 weeks to 30 months
2. The Early Childhood Environmental Rating Scale (ECERS) for preschool programs serving children aged 3-5 years
3. The School-Age Child Environmental Rating Scale (SACERS) for afterschool programs serving children aged 5-12 years
4. The Family Child Care Environmental Rating Scale (FCCERS) for family childcare programs serving children aged 6 weeks to 12 years.
Why Use Environment Rating Scales
The scales are used in a variety of ways including for self-assessment by center staff, preparation for accreditation, and voluntary improvement efforts by licensing or other agencies. For example, in the United States:
• Several states, including California , Massachusetts, Montana, Mississippi, Kansas, Oregon, Kentucky, New Mexico, Georgia, Florida, Wisconsin, and Nebraska have also initiated quality evaluation and improvement programs using our scales. Each state is tailoring its use of the scales to its individual needs and resources.
• The state of Arkansas has trained personnel, who do assessments and provide training and technical assistance so that childcare centers and homes can increase their quality of care. Another innovative feature of the Arkansas program is that parents who select childcare facilities with an average of 4.5 or higher on our scales are eligible for two times the state childcare tax exemption. Thus, both parents and providers are being rewarded for quality improvements that benefit the children.
• The state of Colorado uses the scales in a variety of program improvement and evaluation projects. For example, Denver has a quality improvement program that uses on site consultation and training based on scale scores. Many of the centers participating in this program serve poor and minority children and their families. The state of Colorado is currently considering a tiered reimbursement system using the scales.
• North Carolina also currently uses scale scores as part of their 5-star rated license system. Centers and family childcare homes are awarded either one or two stars based on compliance with licensing standards. Programs may voluntarily apply for an additional three stars based on a set of quality measures including the licensing compliance record, teacher and director education, and the levels of process quality as measured by the appropriate environmental scale. Only the lowest level of licensing is mandatory. However, an additional fee is paid to the provider of subsidized care for each additional star earned voluntarily.
• The Oklahoma 3-star tiered license incorporates an evaluation with the scales in the second tier as a basis for quality improvement, and provides technical assistance based on scores for meeting accreditation standards. Tiered reimbursement is a part of this system.
• Tennessee is now initiating a rated license system, based on North Carolina's experience. In their system, however, program evaluation is not voluntary, but is required yearly to create a "Report Card" that must be posted with the license so childcare consumers have access to reliable information on the quality of childcare they are using for their children. Tiered reimbursement will also be tied to scores on the scale.
• All the US military services have been using the scales routinely in their center and family childcare homes for program improvement and monitoring. The military child development system was recognized by Executive Order in 1998 for its high quality.
• Our environmental rating scales are widely used by programs as they prepare for accreditation . This is due to the fact that our scales use a format with detailed levels of quality that provides a blueprint for gradual change. The content of our scales is completely supportive of the various credentialing and accreditation programs.
The ERS Tool
As suggested by ERS, in order to provide high-quality care and education experiences to all children and their families, a childcare program must provide for the three basic needs all children have:
• Protection of their health and safety
• Building positive relationships
• Opportunities for stimulation and learning from experience
Let’s take a closer look at how to use the Early Childhood Environmental Rating Scale (ECERS-3) for preschool programs serving children aged 3-5 years. The Scale consists of 35 items organized into 6 subscales: [13]
• Space and Furnishings
• Personal Care Routines
• Language and Literacy
• Learning Activities
• Interaction
• Program Structure
Within each subscale there are indicators that are arranged in a hierarchical order with basic needs at low levels and the more educational and interactional aspects at higher levels. The requirements for each indicator must be met before the next indicator is measured. If a requirement is not met, scoring then comes to a stop.
Scoring:
• 1 = inadequate
• 3 = minimal
• 5 = good
• 7 = excellent
Empirical Research
Empirical studies using the Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale – Revised (ECERS-R) tool have generally found positive associations between the quality of early childhood programs and child development.
The ECERS-R (1998) is the revised edition of the original ECERS (1980). It is currently being used in several major studies, including the Early Head Start Study (Mathematica Corporation), and Welfare, Children and Families: A Three City Study (Columbia University, University of Chicago, and Harvard University). The original ECERS was used in the Head Start FACES study, in which over 400 classrooms are included nationwide. The preliminary results in all these studies show that the ECERS and the ECERS-R are performing very well.
Additionally, it should be noted that the ECERS and ITERS were used as the comprehensive quality measures in the National Child Care Staffing Study (Whitebook, Howes, & Phillips, 1989) and the Cost, Quality, and Child Outcomes Study (1995), the major studies of their time. The FDCRS was used in The Study of Children in Family Child Care and Relative Care (Galinsky, Howes, Kontos, & Shinn, 1994). In all of these studies, a relationship was found between higher scores on the ECERS and more positive child development outcomes in areas that are considered important for later school success. The effects of higher quality early childhood experiences have now been shown to last at least through the second grade of elementary school (Peisner-Feinberg, Burchinal, Clifford, Culkin, Howes, Kagan, Yazejian, Byler, Rustici, & Zelazo, 1999). Research is continuing to evaluate longer-lasting effects. [14]
ERS Strengths
The instrument has good test-retest reliability, high inter-rater reliability (Clifford et al., 2010), and many studies have demonstrated its predictive validity (Burchinal et al., 2008; Montes et al., 2005; Peisner-Feinberg et al., 2001). Furthermore, the results show that ECERS-R is a significant predictor of child development in two domains: physical health and well-being, and social competence.
ERS Limitation
While the ECERS-R is a useful tool to measure the quality of early childhood programs across various settings, there are some limitations. Because the Environmental Rating Scales were developed in the United States, the relevance to non-American cultural settings has been questioned (Dickinson,2006; Mathers, Singler,& Karemaker, 2012). Some have criticized that the ITERS-R scale places too much emphasis on the structural aspects of childcare (Sanders & Howes, 2013;Vermeer et al., 2008, while others are concerned that the Rating Scales fail to measure the interactions between the teacher and children and families, which is considered to be key quality factors in childcare (Bisceglia, Perlman, Schaack,& Jenkins, 2009; Helmerhorst et al., 2014).
Although the Environment Rating Scales are highly regarded, there has also been some considerable criticism. For example, a closer look at the items in the ECERS-R reveals that some items may be less relevant than others in our study’s setting—poor, rural villages in Indonesia. Item 27 outlines the provision of TV, video or computers for classroom activities. Item 3 describes the provision of soft furnishings such as carpeted space and cushions for children’s relaxation and comfort. While all of these provisions would be great to have, they are often unfeasible in rural, resource-constrained environments. In over 3 weeks of field observation, we rarely saw soft furnishings—sitting on the floor for children and adults alike is the norm in rural Indonesia – even when soft furnishings are available. We did encounter one center with a computer lab during piloting of the ECERS-R but this was a state-of- the-art center where not one but three international donors had channeled funding. [15]
ECERS FAQ Find:
• When was the first ECERS tool published?
• Who typically uses the ECERS tool?
• Who administers the assessment tool?
• How can teachers prepare for an assessment?
• When was the last time the ECERS tool was updated?
• How many measures are there in the ECERS?
The Classroom Assessment Scoring System (CLASS)
Research shows that all children benefit from high-quality instruction and classroom interactions, regardless of language status, race/ethnicity, or special needs (August & Shanahan, 2006; Bowman, Donovan, & Burns, 2001). When teachers provide individualized support and guidance to the children in their classrooms, they contribute to each child’s social and emotional development, which has been linked to their overall physical development and academic achievement. The CLASS tool showcases various strategies that teachers can implement to promote quality interactions. It is important to note that class does not favor any curriculum model over another.
The CLASS tool differs from other measurement tools that may address the content of the physical environment, available materials, or a specific curriculum. Although the physical environment materials and curriculum are important, the CLASS tool focuses more on the context of how teachers directly interact, engage and communicate with the children in their classroom environment. CLASS measures cooperative and creative learning experiences and focuses on the teacher’s role in allowing children to be active participants in their own learning. More specifically, CLASS promotes social justice and equity, and has “indicators” to assess how a teacher develops a sense of community and empathy for others. Not only must the teacher consider the tangible environmental elements, they must consciously incorporate quality interactions. Teachers must ask questions and engage in thoughtful conversations that emphasize back and forth dialogue rather than one and done responses. Teachers must extend the children’s vocabulary and create opportunities where children can use their expressive language skills. Lastly, teachers must provide positive feedback to children throughout the day and allow children to make choices.
Why Use the Classroom Assessment Scoring System (CLASS)
As advocates and educators, we know that engaging interactions and well-designed environments form the foundation for optimal learning to occur. High-quality preschool programs should strive to incorporate the following:
• well-managed and well-organized classrooms with clearly defined spaces
• support systems to enhance children’s social and emotional development
• a variety of instructional materials that stimulate children’s thinking and curiosity
• opportunities for authentic interactions and meaningful conversations
• a balance of teacher-directed activities and child-directed activities
• enhanced language and literacy implemented throughout the day
• opportunities for movement and classroom spaces that support kinesthetic learning
Research findings from over 3,000 classrooms found that children who were in classrooms that received higher CLASS ratings showed greater gains in social skill, language, early literacy, and math development. Furthermore, after a decade of research, crucial conclusions were made that suggest using the CLASS tool can not only improve the effectiveness of an individual classroom, it can also improve the program as well. Let’s look at some reasons as to why you might want to use the CLASS tool:
1. Effective teacher–child interactions are an active and crucial ingredient for children’s social and academic development.
2. Children in ECE settings are not consistently exposed to effective teacher–child interactions.
3. Initial evidence suggests thresholds for effective teacher–child interactions, as measured by CLASS, in promoting children’s learning and development.
4. Quality improvement efforts that focus explicitly on teacher–child interactions maximize impacts for children.
5. Carefully designed and implemented professional development support can improve the quality of teacher–child interactions
The CLASS Tool
The CLASS Tool is divided into 3 Domains: Emotional Support; Classroom Organization; and Instructional Support. Each Domain has several Dimensions (see the chart below), and each Dimension has several Indicators that provide detailed descriptors of how a teacher should interact (Note: the indicators for each dimension are not listed in the chart below.)
Table \(2\): CLASS Tool Domains
Emotional Support
Classroom Organization
Instructional Support
1. Positive Climate
2. Negative Climate
3. Teacher Sensitivity
4. Regard for Student Perspective
1. Behavior Management
2. Productivity
3. Instructional Learning Formats
1. Concept Development
2. Quality of Feedback
3. Language Modeling
1. 4. Literacy (optional)
Scoring
Scoring is based on a 7-point scale, with the “low range” being a score of 1 to 2, the “middle range” a score of 3 to 5, and the “high range” a score of 6 to 7. The higher the range in each dimension the better.
CLASS Strengths
The Classroom Assessment Scoring System (CLASS) tool is a systematic observation tool that can be used to measure the interactions between teachers and their children in typical classroom settings. The CLASS tool has also been used to assess classroom quality across diverse populations, including dual language learners (DLLs), children from migrant families, tribal populations, in addition to children with special needs and children with diverse cultural backgrounds (Downer et al., 2011). The CLASS tool is deemed both reliable and valid, and it provides preschool programs and individual classroom teachers with an opportunity to regularly monitor and evaluate themselves.
Formal assessments can be made by certified CLASS evaluators and the results are shared with the teacher and program with the intent of finding strategies on how to improve interactions. The tool can also be used informally. Teachers can review each domain, dimension and indicator, and then reflect on their own practices to find ways they can incorporate more intentional interactions.
CLASS Limitations
Even though every CLASS observer is formally certified, there will be small, systematic differences in their scoring. Some observers may tend to give slightly higher scores, while others may tend to be slightly more critical. Although slight differences fall within the threshold for “reliability,” inaccurate results have been noted. One other limitation is that there is little emphasis on structural quality . More specifically, CLASS does not assess the physical environment or materials, and it is not designed to review program safety.
Additional Methods, Tools and Techniques to Ensure High-Quality Practices
Program Accreditation
Both the (NAEYC) (link: ) and the (NECPA) [16] (link: ) are nationally recognized agencies that set a standard of excellence for overall program quality. Programs that pursue accreditation must meet key criteria expectations in areas such as “the learning environment, teacher and child interactions, staff qualifications, professional development, and family engagement” (Center for America, 2017, p. 6). Both NAEYC and NECPA offer training, technical assistance, and consulting services to support early care and education programs that not only want to meet but exceed standard industry practices. Accreditation is a voluntary endeavor that requires programs to undergo a self-study as they prepare for the validation process. Programs that achieve accreditation status must be re-assessed every three years to demonstrate a continued commitment to high-quality practices.
The Quality Rating and Improvement System (QRIS)
The Quality Rating and Improvement System (QRIS) is a systemic approach to assess, improve, and communicate the level of quality in early care and school-age care programs. [17] The main purpose of the QRIS is to improve and standardize the quality of care in all facilities in the state, and to make childcare more accessible and affordable for families. In California, the QRIS is used to:
• Assess program quality comparably across provider types (publicly and privately funded, centers and family childcare homes) throughout the state
• Align program standards with early learning and practitioner standards
• Support continuous quality improvement for participating programs and their staff
• Provide families with information about program quality to assist them in making informed choices . [18]
The Caregiver Interaction Scale (CIS)
In the late 80’s, Arnett released the Caregiver Interaction Scale (1989) to assess a global rating of caregiver sensitivity and responsiveness in both early care and education settings and family childcare environments. The tool focuses on caregiver / teacher emotional interactions and measures several items including sensitivity, harshness, detachment, and permissiveness. Items are rated on a 4-point scale. The scale has limitations as it captures only one aspect of process quality, and thus it is suggested that additional assessments be used to measure more structural dimensions.
NAEYC Position Statement on Importance of Environmental Assessments[19]
The National Association for the Education of Young Children and the National Association of Early Childhood Specialists in State Departments of Education take the position that policy makers, the early childhood profession, and other stakeholders in young children’s lives have a shared responsibility to:
• Construct comprehensive systems of curriculum, assessment, and program evaluation guided by sound early childhood practices, effective early learning standards and program standards, and a set of core principles and values: belief in civic and democratic values; commitment to ethical behavior on behalf of children; use of important goals as guides to action; coordinated systems; support for children as individuals and members of families, cultures, and communities; partnerships with families; respect for evidence; and shared accountability.
• Implement curriculum that is thoughtfully planned, challenging, engaging, developmentally appropriate, culturally and linguistically responsive, comprehensive, and likely to promote positive outcomes for all young children.
• Make ethical, appropriate, valid, and reliable assessment a central part of all early childhood programs. To assess young children’s strengths, progress, and needs, use assessment methods that are developmentally appropriate, culturally and linguistically responsive, tied to children’s daily activities, supported by Professional development, inclusive of families, and connected to specific, beneficial purposes: (1) making sound decisions about teaching and learning, (2) identifying significant concerns that may require focused intervention for individual children, and (3) helping programs improve their educational and developmental interventions.
• Regularly engage in program evaluation guided by program goals and using varied, appropriate, conceptually and technically sound evidence to determine the extent to which programs meet the expected standards of quality and to examine intended as well as unintended results.
• Provide the support, Professional development, and other resources to allow staff in early childhood programs to implement high-quality curriculum, assessment, and program evaluation practices and to connect those practices with well-defined early learning standards and program standards.
2.09: Conclusion and References
Research suggests that an enriched learning environment, along with meaningful interactions and experiences can significantly enhance a child’s overall development (Center for American Progress, 2017). Not only do children deserve high-quality learning experiences, parents need the assurance of knowing that their children are in safe, healthy and nurturing environments. Unfortunately, providing high-quality early childhood education services can be particularly challenging especially for the estimated four million children who are living in poverty and considered at-risk. Thus, the achievement gap continues to be a concern and the quest for quality is ongoing. As early childhood educators, we must strive to regularly observe, collect data and assess our programs, and reflect on our teaching practices to be more proactive in our quest for quality. While a score is important to look at and improve on, it is not the end all, be all, it merely serves to guide our practices as it relates to a whole picture. Ongoing observation and documentation help to keep us informed of how to best serve the children and families in our care. | textbooks/socialsci/Early_Childhood_Education/Book%3A_Observation_and_Assessment_in_Early_Childhood_Education_(Peterson_and_Elam)/02%3A_Quality_Counts/2.08%3A_Measuring_High-Quality_in_Early_Care_and_Education_Classrooms.txt |
Observing children as they play, learn, and socialize with others is an integral part of every early educator’s daily routine. According to the California Preschool Program Guidelines, when early caregivers and preschool teachers “regularly observe and document brief, subtle moments of children’s learning through play, those records help parents and others understand how useful and important play is in helping children to learn and grow” (p. 32-33). In this chapter, we will examine the various observation methods, tools and techniques that can be used to gather information about the children in your care. Although teachers may favor one method over the other, it is recommended that teachers utilize several methods, tools and techniques so that they can gather a well- rounded perspective of each child. To truly understand the “whole child” it is important to realize that observation and documentation is an ongoing process that begins with gathering “baseline data.”
03: Using Observation Methods Tools and Techniques to Gather Evidence
In order to truly measure the learning, growth, and development of a child over time, there needs to be a point of reference, or a starting point. Baseline data provides a starting point. As recommended by the California Department of Education, in the Desired Results Developmental Profile (DRDP), to establish a baseline, children should be observed “within 60 calendar days of enrollment and [formally assessed] every 6 months thereafter” (DRDP, 2015, p. ii). More specifically, any time a child starts your program, or any time you introduce a new concept, topic or theme, it would be beneficial to gather baseline data. With each observation the goal is to track - What the child can do. Then, as we review each observation, we further consider what the child has the potential to do. Knowing specific details about how the child responds to the activities we have planned, and how the child is interacting with their peers, allows intentional teachers to make informed decisions that are in the best interest of the child. Baseline data allows us to create individualized activities and enriched learning opportunities and set up engaging environments where each child can feel empowered, challenged and well cared for.
Here is an example:
Aaron is 3.5 years old and this is his first time in preschool. To see whether Aaron can write his name, you would set out writing materials (markers or crayons, paper and possibly stencils), and you would observe Aaron at the writing center. To gather baseline data, you could use an Anecdotal Note to record how Aaron holds the markers – is he using the palmer grasp or the pincher grasp? Is he using his right or left hand? You would also want to note what Aaron created - did he write his name, draw a picture or scribble? If Aaron scribbled, he might not be ready to use lined paper to write his name or to journal a story. Rather than planning an activity that would require Aaron to write between the lines, it may be more beneficial to plan activities that would help him further develop his fine motor skills. Perhaps you would set out activities that would build his pincher grasp like play dough or stringing beads. Once you observe Aaron’s progression and his “signs of readiness”, then you would reintroduce writing between the lines.
3.02: Understanding the Child
Many of the same tools and techniques you use to gather baseline data, you will continue to use to support the whole child. This includes screening, planning curriculum, and assessing development. Every observation you complete provides valuable information that you can use to be more intentional and more responsive. When we observe the children in our care, we can learn about their:
• interests, abilities and preferences
• developmental skill level (cognitive, language, social, emotional, physical)
• how they strategize in social situations
• how they approach learning opportunities
• personality and temperament
3.03: Lets Get Started
Whether you are doing a planned observation, or you decide to do a spontaneous observation, you will need some essentials. An intentional teacher is a prepared teacher, and here are a few things you will need:
1. Something to write on – paper, sticky notes, color coded index cards, clipboard, notebook
2. Something to write with – colored ink pens, sharpie markers
3. Something to record with – photo camera, video camera, tape recorder, printer
4. Something to store your documentation in – a filing cabinet, accordion file folder, portfolio
5. Blank observation tool templates – checklists, frequency counts, ABC, anecdotal notes
6. Some extras – tape, stickers, paper clips, stapler, batteries, dictionary | textbooks/socialsci/Early_Childhood_Education/Book%3A_Observation_and_Assessment_in_Early_Childhood_Education_(Peterson_and_Elam)/03%3A_Using_Observation_Methods_Tools_and_Techniques_to_Gather_Evidence/3.01%3A_Taking_the_First_Step_-_Gat.txt |
No single observation can give you all the information you will need about a child’s development. In order to truly understand a child’s unique attributes, preferences, personality and strengths, you must observe them consistently, using several documentation tools and techniques. Each observation method has strengths and limitations. In this section, we will review some of the more commonly used techniques and tools that teachers use to gather objective observation evidence: Running Record; Checklists; Frequency Count; Anecdotal Record; Work Sample; Learning Story; and Technology.
Running Record
One of the oldest observation methods used in early child education is the Running Record. Running Records are considered by some as an “informal method” of observation as compared to Narrative Description or Specimen Records which are considered to be a more “formal method” of collecting data. The primary difference between the two methods is that with a Running Record, evidence is gathered in a more spontaneous (informal) manner as it occurs, whereas with a Narrative Description a (formal) plan would be arranged in advance, prior to the observation. More specifically, you would schedule a day, time and setting, you would select a specific child or group of children, and you would decide on the purpose, reason or focus of your observation (e.g. cognitive skills, social interactions, play patterns). Both methods provide rich, detailed evidence and both methods provide written accounts of everything you see and hear a child doing during a specific timeframe (Bentzen, 2009).
For the purpose of this text, we will use the term Running Record and recommend that you, as an intentional teacher, conduct Running Records (whether spontaneous or planned, informal or formal) as part of your regular or routine observations. The primary goal for using a Running Record is to “obtain a detailed, objective account of behavior without inference, interpretations, or evaluations” (Bentzen, 2009, p.112). You will know you have gathered good evidence when you can close your eyes and you can “see” the images in your mind as they are described in your Running Record (Bentzen, 2009).
Collecting Your Data
All you need is time, paper and a pen to gather your observation evidence. The goal with a running record is to write down everything you see and hear - exactly as it occurs, without adding any comments or attaching any opinions. As the saying goes, “just the facts, ma’am!” With the Running Record format, not only will you highlight children’s behaviors, you will record the “setting, situation and sequence” in which the behavior occurred. Be as descriptive as possible and yet be as concise as possible. Children move quickly, so you must write quickly. When conducting a running record, you need to be out of ratio. You are to step back and observe from a distance. Do not interfere with the child’s natural play, do not ask questions and do not run after them. Be as invisible as possible.
Organizing your Data
As you collect rich, detailed data throughout the school year, you will begin to recognize patterns of development, and you will see each child’s unique attributes, personalities, and abilities as they emerge. Be sure to date all your running records; having 12-24 children in your classroom can add up to a lot of running records. You will need to store your running records safely in a portfolio or file folder. When it comes time to assess a child’s development, you will be able to look back and review all the evidence you have collected and to monitor the child’s progress over time.
Note: A Running Record is an ideal observation method for “students”. Teachers may not always have the time or staff coverage to conduct a Running Record.
Table \(1\): Running Record
Advantages
Disadvantages
1. Provides detailed data about the who, what, where, and when
2. Evidence is documented as it occurs, in a sequence
3. Provides objective and descriptive evidence
4. Appropriate for gathering baseline information about the child’s interests, abilities and skill level
5. Ideal for tracking a child’s development over time
6. Less structured, more free flowing
7. Evidence can be gathered formally or informally
8. Interpretations and reflections can be added later
1. Time consuming
2. May be difficult to keep up and follow along as children move quickly from one activity to another
3. Not a practical technique for teachers who are in ratio
4. Behaviors may not be typical for that observation day as compared to other days
Let’s Practice Gathering Evidence
Example 1:
Running Record: On 7/2/2019, Jorge played in the sandbox for 20 minutes.
What did you “see” with this example? What was the setting, situation and sequence of events?
What did you learn about Jorge?
Was the evidence objective? Was the evidence descriptive?
Let’s try again.
Example 2:
Running Record: 7/2/2019. Time: 10:10am
During outside play and exploration, the following activities were available: bikes, sandbox, sensory table with goop, hula hoops, balls and a reading area with a basket of books. Jorge played in the sandbox for 20 minutes. With his left hand, Jorge dug a hole using a shovel. Jorge asked Julissa if he could have the dinosaur, “When you are finished, can I have the dinosaur for my cave?” Julissa handed Jorge the dinosaur and said, “Can I see?” Jorge nodded his head up and down.
At 10:30am, the teacher announced that it was time to clean up. Jorge stood up, dropped his shovel, ran over to the door and got in line. While in line, Jorge waved his hands and said “Come on Max. Come on. Here. Come here.” Max ran over and stood next to Jorge in line.
What did you “see” with this example? What was the setting, situation, and sequence of events?
What did you learn about Jorge?
Was the evidence objective? Was the evidence descriptive? [22]
Running Record Template #1
Date:
Start Time:
End Time:
Setting:
Activity Area:
Who did you observe:
Running Record
Running Record Template #2
Date:
Start Time:
End Time:
Setting:
Activity Area:
Who did you observe:
Running Record
Interpretation
Frequency Counts (Time or Event Sampling)
A Frequency Count is an informal observation method that is used to gather information about a child’s interests, social interactions, play patterns, and temperamental traits. As the teacher observes the children at play, a tally mark is made every time the noted behavior or action occurs within a set timeframe. Frequency Counts are also used to track undesirable or challenging behaviors, as well as ideal or positive behaviors.
Collecting your data
To create a Frequency Count, you must first decide on what social interactions, behaviors, interest areas, or types of play you want to monitor. You may decide to track your child during one focused activity or timeframe, or you may map out what a typical day might look like for your child and track all the interactions and experiences they engage in throughout the day. Either way, as you observe your child, you will make a tally mark every time they play in a specified area or display one of the action items as listed on your Frequency Count.
Here are some examples of how you might use a Frequency Count to gather data:
1. Sue has been hitting a lot lately and displaying other challenging behaviors . You will want to track how many times she hits in a typical day, along with any other challenging behaviors. You will also want to track where the incidents are occurring – are there more incidents while inside the classroom or are things happening during outside play? You will want to look at when the incidents are occurring most often– are there more incidents earlier in the day or later in the day? You may want to observe what is happening at drop-off time, mealtime and at naptime. Lastly, you may want to track who Sue is socializing with and how she plays with others. Does Sue display a consistent play pattern (parallel play, cooperative play, onlooker play)?
2. Thomas is a new student and his mother wants to know how he is doing. You may want to observe which centers Thomas goes to most often throughout the day and track his interests. You may also want to track whether he plays alone or with other children.
3. You and a child in your class are constantly butting heads . How can you create a supportive environment and provide a “goodness of fit?” You may need to track the child’s temperamental traits and observe how the child approaches activities and how they respond to social situations.
Organizing Your Data
After you have collected all the data for that timeframe, count the tally marks. What can you interpret from this data? What areas or action items received a high number of tally marks? What areas or action items received a low number of tally marks? Do you see any patterns? As you consider those questions, reflect on a plan of action that you might use to further support that child’s development.
Table \(2\): Advantages and Disadvantages of Frequency Data
Advantages
Disadvantages
1. Quick and easy to use, and no training is required
2. Can be personalized or designed to gather specific baseline data (play patterns, challenging behaviors, social situations, temperamental traits)
3. Provides immediate quantifiable data
4. Ideal for tracking behaviors over time and for noting an increase or decrease of incidents
5. Can be useful when planning behavior modification strategies
6. Data can be graphed or charted to find consistent patterns
1. Does not provide rich details or context like anecdotal notes or running records
2. There is no clear sequence of events regarding certain actions or behaviors
3. (Although the behavior is tracked, information about the antecedent and the consequence is missing)
4. Does not provide qualitative evidence
5. Results may be misleading
Checklists
Checklists are an efficient and practical way to collect information about a child’s development. Checklists are based on “developmental norms” as determined by developmental theorists. With each age range, there are certain expectations and skills that a child should be able to achieve. Checklists are designed to track a child’s competencies in all the developmental domains including physical, cognitive, language, social and emotional. With a checklist, teachers can easily see what a child can do, as well as note what areas of development need further support. Teachers can create their own checklists based on certain skill sets, or they can download a formal developmental milestone checklist from a reputable source to look at a child’s full range of development. Checklists can be used to track a large group of children or an individual child.
Collecting your data
Whether you design your own checklist or download one, use it regularly to collect data. The checklist can be utilized in two ways:
1. You can observe a child on a specific day while they are engaged in an activity (either child-directed or teacher-directed). As you observe, you will check off the skills or milestones that the child can do on that day, at that moment.
2. You can also review data from other observations (e.g. running records or anecdotal notes, work samples) that you collected, and ADD any other skills or milestones that were mastered during those previous observations.
*Note: It is vital that you note the dates that you observed the skills being mastered. A check mark alone will limit the reliability and validity
Organizing your data
Schedule a day and time to regularly review your observation data. Data collected from other observations (mastered milestones and developing skill sets) can be added to the checklist so you can clearly see a child’s progress over time. You may use colored pens to track all the different dates that milestones were achieved. As you review the checklist, what can you interpret from this data? Does the child demonstrate strengths in any of the developmental domains or areas of learning? Which milestones and skills need further support? As you consider those questions, reflect on a plan of action that you might use to further support that child’s development. How can you provide opportunities for the child to gain more practice? What adjustments need to be made to make the activity more challenging? What extensions can be added to continue the learning pattern? [24]
Table \(3\): Advantages and Disadvantages of Checklists
Advantages
Disadvantages
1. Ideal for tracking a child's progress over time
2. Different observers (the teacher, assistant or a support team) can check off skills that they observe the child doing
3. Checklists can be created to measure specific areas of development, or a subset of developmental skills
4. Checklists can be used to observe a group of children or an individual child
5. Checklists are quick and easy to use, and no training is required
6. Checklists can be used in conjunction with other observations
7. Checklists highlight the developmental strengths a child has mastered, as well as those skills that need further support
8. Developmental Milestone Checklists are readily available on-line through various agencies (i.e. Center for Disease Control)
9. Data can help plan curriculum activities
1. Checklists do not provide rich details or context like anecdotal notes or running records
2. There is no clear sequence of events to regarding certain actions or behaviors
3. Checklists focus on developmental norms and typical development with no regard for environment, family influences, cultural influences and individual development
4. Teachers tend to focus on the skills and milestones that haven’t been mastered, focusing on the deficits rather than highlighting the strengths. This can make the child and parents feel as if they have failed or add unnecessary stress
5. Checklists must be updated regularly using other observation methods
Checklist for Physical Milestone
Perceptual Movement
Skills
Can Do
Needs Further Support
Date and Evidence
Moves in a zig-zag pattern – able to change directions with ease
Plays follow the leaders and mirrors others movements
Moves body to music cues
Speeds up and slows down while running or riding bike
Gross Motor Movement
Skills
Can Do
Needs Further Support
Date and Evidence
Completes tasks on an obstacle course
Changes directions and stops quickly while running
Pumps legs on a swing
Runs and uses arm and legs in opposition
Climbs
Walks up and down stairs with one foot on each stair step
Hops on one foot
Kicks balls
Catches and throws (bean bags and balls)
Pedals a 3-wheeled bike (tricycle)
Bounces a ball several times
Walks along a balance beam
Jumps up and down, jumps forward using arms
Fine Motor Movement
Skills
Can Do
Needs Further Support
Date and Evidence
Cuts with scissors
Uses writing utensils (markers, crayons, pencils) to scribble
Prints letters, numbers
Uses stamps and stamp pad
Strings beads
Pours liquid into cup
Manipulates, moves and picks up small objects
Uses utensils to feed self
Buttons and zips
Peels a banana or orange
Opens and closes a Ziploc baggie
Scoops and pours materials (sand, dirt, rocks, beads)
Anecdotal Records
An Anecdotal Record is “an informal observation method often used by teachers as an aid to understanding the child’s personality or behavior. It provides a running account of behavior that is either typical or unusual for the child” (Bentzen, 2009, p. 178). Anecdotal Records, also referred to as “anecdotal notes,” are direct observations of a child that offer a window of opportunity to see into a child’s actions, interactions and reactions to people and events. An Anecdotal Record is an excellent tool that provides teachers with a collection of narratives that can be used to showcase a child’s progress over time. As compared to a Running Record, Anecdotal Records provide brief notes that are focused on a specific event or activity.
Collecting Your Data
To gather effective observation evidence, you need to include the following components:
1. Accurate and specific details of the event (vivid descriptions exactly as you see and hear them happening - do not summarize, assume or make judgments)
2. The context, setting and situation that surrounds the event (the where, when, who, what, and how)
3. Objective facts about the child’s behavior and interactions (report actions and conversations)
4. Write records in the past tense
Here are some examples of observation evidence you might want to gather:
• Social interactions with peers
• Everyday routines, like mealtime and transition times
• How they utilize materials at the various centers (library, block, math, science, art, music)
• How they engage in teacher-directed activities (structured learning opportunities)
• How they engage in child-directed activities (open exploration opportunities)
• How they are inside and how they are outside
Organizing your Data
Once you have completed the Anecdotal Record you will take a moment to interpret the data. You will look for patterns and you will note whether the data reflects typical or unusual behavior for the child. To measure a child’s developmental progress, you will look for their strengths (skills and milestones that have been mastered) and their needs (skills and milestones that the child needs further support with). The summary notes help you to clarify instructional recommendations (adjustments that you will make to the environment to accommodate the child’s individual learning style). The notes you take can help you generate developmentally appropriate lesson plan activities and interactions. All Anecdotal Records need to be dated and stored safely in the child’s portfolio or file folder.
Table \(4\): Advantages and Disadvantages of Anecdotal Record
Advantages
Disadvantages
1. Provides vivid details about the who, what, when, where and how
2. Takes less time to write up an observation as compared to using Running Records
3. Evidence is documented as it occurs, in a sequence
4. Provides objective and descriptive evidence
5. Interpretation notes can be added afterwards
6. Evidence can be gathered formally (planned) or informally (spontaneously)
7. No special training is required
8. Provides qualitative data over time and is helpful in tracking changes in a child’s development over time
1. Data can be tainted if it is not written in the moment
2. Focuses on one event, situation or behavior at a time and can miss or overlook important information
3. Does not provide quantitative data results
4. 4. May not always report a child’s typical pattern of development or behavior
Pin It! Writing an Anecdotal Note
Watch this video to learn :
Watch this video to learn :
Work Samples
Teachers have been collecting pieces of children’s artwork and posting them on the classroom walls forever. Not only do the children enjoy seeing their work of art on display, parent’s appreciate seeing their child’s work as well! To create an official work sample however takes more effort than hanging a picture on the wall. What exactly is a work sample? A work sample is a tangible piece of evidence that showcases a child’s effort, progress and achievement. More specifically, not only does a work sample highlight the final product , it can highlight the process as well, by highlighting the child’s problem-solving efforts, experimentation methods or collaboration skills. Work samples are authentic artifacts that provide information about the child’s learning experience.
Collecting your data
Work samples can be gathered throughout the school year. Typically, you would collect a variety of samples that highlight the child’s overall development in each of the developmental areas: Physical; Cognitive; Language; Social -Emotional. More specifically, you might include a child’s drawing or painting, a writing sample from their journal, a cutting sample, or photographs of the child engaged in activities such as building a block tower or sandcastle or riding a bike.
Organizing your data
Whether you post a work sample on the classroom wall (using a documentation board ) or you collect a sample for a child’s portfolio, you must add documentation. Not only will documentation help families recognize the value of play, it reinforces the concept that every activity is an opportunity to learn. For accuracy, be sure to include the following information: Child’s Name; Date; Setting; and an Anecdotal Note with a description about how and why the sample was collected. Work samples should be organized in a chronological manner to showcase progress over time. Be sure to store work samples in a safe place like a file-folder or portfolio, or electronically in a computer file.
Table \(5\): Advantages and Disadvantages of Work Samples
Advantages
Disadvantages
1. Provides tangible/ visible evidence that teachers can use to track a child’s learning, growth and development over time
2. Parents and children both enjoy seeing the work on display
3. Provides authentic documentation which is ideal for assessment
4. Teachers can use information to plan and adjust curriculum to help children achieve their learning goals
5. Families can see how children learn through play
6. Children can share their insights as to how they created the work sample and offer their perspectives as to what they were thinking (authentic evidence)
7. Children enjoy seeing their work on display and they can feel empowered when their work is valued
1. Can be time consuming adding anecdotal documentation and creating documentation boards
2. Requires ample storage space
3. Requires a financial investment in technology (camera, video or audio recorder)
4. Concerns over confidentiality and privacy when using photos, audio or videos
Work Sample Template
Learning Stories
In an article published in NAEYC’s Teaching Young Children, Judy Pack shares her thoughts on Learning Stories, “I like to think of it as observing small moments that provide big opportunities.” [26]
As compared to Running Records or Anecdotal Notes, a Learning Story is an observation method that is written in a narrative story format to highlight a child’s learning. The Learning Story communicates more than facts about how a child approaches or accomplishes tasks, it spotlights key moments in a child’s day and focuses on their strengths. When writing a Learning Story, a teacher not only writes down what she saw and heard, she can also write down what she thought about while she watched the child play. More than that, this method encourages the child and their families to be active participants in the reflective process. When the teacher shares the Learning Story with both the child and family members, they can add their comments, ask follow-up questions and make suggestions on how to move forward based on what was reported in the Learning Story. One unique aspect of Learning Stories is that when used regularly, they can help teachers connect to families and build strong, respectful relationships. [27]
Gathering your data
Whether you plan an observation, or you spontaneously watch a child as they play, and whether you observe during a teacher-directed activity or during a child-directed moment, you can gather some suitable evidence for your Learning Story. As you watch and listen to a child at play, you can take some pictures and jot down some objective and descriptive facts that you will use to write a story. As suggested by Park (2016), if you want to learn about a child’s interests and capabilities, and how they process information; you will want to watch the following:
• Engagement: How long does the child stay focused and engaged in an activity?
• Intentionality: Does the child have a goal in mind or express a plan of action?
• Relationships: Does the child interact or connect with others?
• Learning disposition: Does the child have a particular approach to figuring things out or a preferred style of learning? [28]
Organizing your data
Whether you want to write a short paragraph or a full page, there are some key components that you must include in your Learning Story. We will refer to the EarlyWorks tool and the guidelines as recommended by Tom Drummond to write up your observation data. [29] Your Learning Story should include the following:
1. A Title – All good stories have a title that draws the reader in. Titles can act as a reminder of the content of the learning story, making it easy for educators to revisit at a later time.
2. Photos – Learning Stories should have at least one photo. Visual images evoke emotion and a connection to the story.
3. Narrative – This is where the storyteller (you) describes what is seen and heard. It is best to write in the first person, using “I…”. The narrative is the body of the story and highlights authentic observation evidence (facts and vivid details).
4. What it means – This is where the storyteller (you) interprets the learning that took place. It is best to write in the second person, using “You…”.
5. Opportunities and Possibilities – This is where you reflect on planning for the next step and building on what the child knows.
6. Family & Child’s Voice – The child’s family is encouraged to provide their understanding of the story. Families can create stories and provide valuable insight into the learning that happens at home. Children can also share their perspectives. [30]
*Note: A Learning Story Template is available
Table \(6\): Advantages and Disadvantages of Learning Stories
Advantages
Disadvantages
1. The child receives positive messages that their ideas and way of thinking are valued and they enjoy hearing stories about their successes
2. The teacher, child and family have an equal opportunity to reflect on the child’s thinking and learning
3. The stories provide insight into the best way to plan for a more meaningful curriculum.
4. The stories capture moments in a child’s daily life that can be used with other observation tools to create a comprehensive profile on a child
5. Provides authentic information about a child’s strengths in a friendly and personal format
6. Informs families how children learn through play and how they are natural learners, eager investigators, and problem solvers.
7. Opens a door for respectful conversations with parents about school experiences
1. Can be time consuming
2. Can be difficult to remain objective
1. Focuses on one event, situation or behavior at a time and can miss or overlook important information
2. Does not provide quantitative data
results
1. May not always report a child’s typical pattern of development or behavior
Learning Story Template
Technology
Finding ways to utilize technology into regular routines can make collecting observation evidence much more efficient for busy teachers. Photographs, video, and audio recordings can authentically capture children’s explorations, investigations, play and learning experiences in the actual moment. With this type of documentation, teachers can replay key moments in a child’s day to look for specific interactions, play patterns, developmental milestones, struggles and accomplishments. With this technique, teachers can also listen for language development by recording actual conversations that children are having with their peers. Teachers can also monitor how children problem solve and can tape special moments as well as capture every day moments. As with work samples, teachers can share their observation evidence with the children. Children are fascinated with seeing and hearing themselves. This type of documentation provides the most authentic evidence of all the observation methods.
Collecting your data
There are numerous ways to incorporate technology into your classroom. It is important to keep in mind that each early care and education program would have their own protocol, policies and procedures regarding the use of technology to document children’s learning, growth and development, so be sure to verify what you can and cannot do. Here are a few suggestions that you may want to incorporate:
• Use a camera, laptop, tablet, or smartphone to record observations and take pictures
• Ask a child to dictate a story and you can type it up on a computer or use an audio recorder
• Scan or make copies of children’s work, such as drawings or writing, to create a visual timeline that shows a child's skill development over time.
• Use email or a parent communication app to post work samples
• Use voice-to-text software to document important discussions. For example, children can explain how they created their piece of art.
• Take pictures of three-dimensional work. For example, woodworking projects, block towers, sandcastles, and culinary creations.
• Film dramatic plays and musical performances that the children produce.
• Use a video camera to document how children are progressing with their developmental milestones in each of the domains. For example, look at playful interactions to track social-emotional development; watch children on the playground to track physical development; observe how children tackle science or math activities to track cognitive development. [31]
Organizing your data
Observation data can be conveniently stored on a computer and each child can have their own digital portfolio or file folder. For every child, you would include photos of them at play, photos of their work samples, and any audio recordings or video clips that you may have collected (as suggested above). When using smartphones to take photos or videos, you can easily upload information to your computer or transfer information to other devices. Some teachers may want to use an app to formally organize observation evidence, and some schools may purchase a program that links families to daily observations. Some centers may even use an electronic assessment program (e.g. the Desired Results Developmental Program - DRDP) to track children’s developmental progress and teachers would regularly upload observation evidence as part of the assessment process. Here are a few added suggestions on how you can organize and use stored electronic observation evidence:
• Photos can be scanned, printed and posted in the classroom
• A photo slideshow can be created for family nights or as a screen saver
• The children can watch a video montage of a themed project they completed
• Children can look at “old” photos to monitor their own developmental progress and can make comments regarding their work, their thought process and their developmental outcomes. [32]
Table \(6\): Advantages and Disadvantages of Technology
Advantages
Disadvantages
1. Provides tangible/ visible evidence that teachers can use to track a child’s learning, growth and development over time
2. Parents and children both enjoy seeing the work on display
3. Captures authentic documentation which is ideal for assessment
4. Teachers can use information to plan and adjust curriculum to help children achieve their learning goals
5. Families can see how children learn through play
6. Children can share their insights as to how they created the work sample and offer their perspectives as to what they were thinking (authentic evidence)
7. Children enjoy seeing their work on
8. display and they can feel empowered when their work is valued
9. With using multi -media, children can be observed in their natural settings
1. Can be time consuming adding anecdotal documentation and creating documentation boards
2. Requires ample storage space
3. Requires a financial investment in technology (camera, video or audio recorder)
4. Concerns over confidentiality and privacy when using photos, audio or videos
3.05: Conclusion and References
An intentional teacher is a skilled and thoughtful observer. With each observation, whether a running record, anecdotal note, video recording, checklist, frequency counts, learning story or work sample, they are watching and listening, and considering what do I know about this child, and how can I best support this child ? As teachers gather and organize their observation data, they begin to see each child for who they are as an individual, and as a member of the classroom community. With that information, intentional teachers can set realistic expectations of what children can do. Ideally, teachers will utilize the documented data to develop developmentally appropriate activities and to create an interesting and stimulating learning environment that is designed to promote play, socialization, growth and development. Now that you have been introduced to some of the tools and techniques that are used to gather information and document a child’s development, in the next chapter, you will delve deeper to review the concepts of typical development and atypical development, and you will learn about some additional tools that can be used to track a child’s development. [33] | textbooks/socialsci/Early_Childhood_Education/Book%3A_Observation_and_Assessment_in_Early_Childhood_Education_(Peterson_and_Elam)/03%3A_Using_Observation_Methods_Tools_and_Techniques_to_Gather_Evidence/3.04%3A_A_Closer_Look_at_Observatio.txt |
It is essential that Early Childhood Educators be able to recognize typical from atypical development. With typical development, there are certain behavioral expectations and developmental milestones that children should master within certain age ranges. Any behavior and development that falls outside of the standard norms would be considered a-typical. As early care providers, how do we know whether a child’s development is happening at a normal, excelled or delayed pace? How can we be certain that we are providing an optimal learning space for each child? As intentional teachers our goal is to accommodate all the varied skill levels and diverse needs of the children in our classrooms. Additionally, we must provide a safe, nurturing and culturally respectful environment that promotes inclusion so that all children can thrive. In this chapter we will examine the purpose, process and practice of monitoring, screening and evaluating young children. If we are to effectively support the children and families in our care, we must be able to identify a child’s capabilities and strengths early on, as well as recognize any developmental delays or developmental areas that may need additional support. Additionally, we must be aware of the resources and services that are available to support children and families.
4.02: The Purpose of Monito
Because many parents are not familiar with developmental milestones, they might not recognize that their child has a developmental delay or disability. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “In the United States, about 1 in 6 children aged 3 to 17 years have one or more developmental or behavioral disabilities, such as autism, a learning disorder, or attention deficit / hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).” What’s more concerning is that many children are not being identified as having a delay or disability until they are in elementary school . Subsequently, they will not receive the appropriate support and services they need early on to be successful at school. It has been well-documented, in both educational and medical professional literature, that developmental outcomes for young children with delays and disabilities can be greatly improved with early identification and intervention (Squires, Nickel, & Eisert, 1996; Shonkoff & Meisels, 2000). While some parents might be in denial and struggling with the uncertainty of having a child with special needs, some parents might not be aware that there are support services available for young children and they may not know how to advocate for their child. Thus, as early child educators we have an obligation to help families navigate through the process of monitoring, as well as provide information and resources if a screening or evaluation is necessary.
The Process of Monitoring
Who can monitor a child’s development? Parents, grandparents, early caregivers, providers and teachers can monitor the children in their care. As previously stated in Chapter 3, one of the tasks of an intentional teacher is to gather baseline data within the first 60 days of a child starting their program. With each observation, teachers are listening to how a child speaks and if they can communicate effectively; they are watching to see how the child plays and interacts with their peers; and they are recording how the child processes information and problem solves. By monitoring a child closely, not only can we observe how a child grows and develops, we can track changes over time. More importantly, we can identify children who fall outside the parameters of what is considered normal or “typical” development.
When teachers monitor children, they are observing and documenting whether children are mastering “typical” developmental milestones in the physical, cognitive, language, emotional and social domains of development. In particular, teachers are tracking a child’s speech and language development, problem-solving skills, fine and gross motor skills, social skills and behaviors, so that they can be more responsive to each child’s individual needs. Even more so, teachers are trying to figure out what a child can do, and if there are any “red flags” or developmental areas that need further support. As early caregivers and teachers, we are not qualified to formally screen and evaluate children. We can however monitor children’s actions, ask questions that can guide our observations, track developmental milestones, and record our observations. With this vital information we can make more informed decisions on what is in the child’s best interest.
What is this Child Trying to Tell Me?
With 12-24 busy children in a classroom, there are bound to be occasional outbursts and challenging behaviors to contend with. In fact, a portion of a teacher’s day is typically spent guiding challenging behaviors. With all the numerous duties and responsibilities that a teacher performs daily, dealing with challenging behaviors can be taxing. When a child repeats a challenging behavior, we might be bothered, frustrated, or even confused by their actions. We might find ourselves asking questions like:
“Why does she keep pinching her classmate?"
“Why does he put his snack in his hair?”
“Why does he cry when it’s clean up time or when he has to put his shoes on?”
“Why does she fidget so much during group time?”
Without taking the time to observe the potential causes and outcomes associated with the challenging behavior, we may only be putting on band-aids to fix a problem, rather than trying to solve the problem. Without understanding the why , we cannot properly guide the child or support the whole-child’s development. As intentional teachers we are taught to observe, document, and analyze a child’s actions so we can better understand what the child is trying to “tell” us through their behavior. Behavior is a form of communication. Any challenging behavior that occurs over and over, is happening for a reason. If you can find the “pattern” in the behavior, you can figure out how to redirect or even stop the challenging behavior.
How do I find the patterns?
To be most effective, it is vital that we record what we see and hear as accurately and objectively as possible. No matter which observation method, tool or technique is used (e.g. Event Sampling, Frequency Counts, Checklists or Technology), once we have gathered a considerable amount of data we will need to interpret and reflect on the observation evidence so that we can plan for the next step. Finding the patterns can be instrumental in planning curriculum, setting up the environment with appropriate materials, and creating social situations that are suitable for the child’s temperament.
Think About It…Patterns
If Wyatt is consistently observed going to the sandbox to play with dinosaurs during outside play, what does this tell you? What is the pattern? Is Wyatt interacting with other children? How is Wyatt using the dinosaurs? How can you use this information to support Wyatt during inside play?
Here are a few ideas:
To create curriculum : To encourage the child to go into the art center, knowing that he likes dinosaurs, I might lay down some butcher paint on a table, put a variety of dinosaurs out on the table, and add some trays with various colors of paint.
To arrange the environment : Looking at my centers, I might add books and pictures about dinosaurs, and I might add materials that could be used in conjunction with dinosaurs.
To support social development: I noticed Wyatt played by himself on several observations. I may need to do some follow up observations to see if Wyatt is initiating conversations, taking turns, joining in play with others or playing alone.
As you can see these are just a few suggestions. What ideas did you come up with? As we monitor children in our class, we are gathering information so that we can create a space where each child’s individual personality, learning strengths, needs, and interests are all taken into account. Whether the child has a disability, delay or impairment or is developing at a typical pace, finding their unique pattern will help us provide suitable accommodations
What is a Red Flag?
If, while monitoring a child’s development, a “red flag” is identified, it is the teacher’s responsibility to inform the family, in a timely manner, about their child’s developmental progress. First, the teacher and family would arrange a meeting to discuss what has been observed and documented. At the meeting, the teacher and family would share their perspectives about the child’s behavior, practices, mannerisms, routines and skill sets. There would be time to ask questions and clarify concerns, and a plan of action would be developed. It is likely that various adjustments to the environment would be suggested to meet the individual child’s needs, and ideas on how to tailor social interactions with peers would be discussed. With a plan in place, the teacher would continue to monitor the child. If after a few weeks there was no significant change or improvement, the teacher may then recommend that the child be formally screened and evaluated by a professional (e.g. a pediatrician, behavioral psychologist or a speech pathologist).
The Process of Screening and Evaluating
Who can screen and evaluate children? Doctors, pediatricians, speech pathologists, behaviorists, Screenings and evaluations are more formal than monitoring. Developmental screening takes a closer look at how a child is developing using brief tests. Your child will get a brief test, or you will complete a questionnaire about your child. The tools used for developmental and behavioral screening are formal questionnaires or checklists based on research that ask questions about a child’s development, including language, movement, thinking, behavior, and emotions.
Developmental screenings are cost effective and can be used to assess a large number of children in a relatively short period of time. There are screenings to assess a child’s hearing and vision, and to detect notable developmental delays. Screenings can also address some common questions and concerns that teachers, and parents alike, may have regarding a child’s academic progress. For example, when a teacher wonders why a child is behaving in such a way, they will want to observe a child’s social interactions and document how often certain behaviors occur. Similarly, when a parent voices a concern that their child is not talking in complete sentences the way their older child did at that same age. The teacher will want to listen and record the child’s conversations and track their language development.
Developmental Delays – is the condition of a child being less developed mentally or physically than is normal for their age.
Developmental Disabilities – According to the CDC, developmental disabilities are a group of conditions due to an impairment in physical, learning, language, or behavior areas. These conditions begin during the developmental period, may impact day-to-day functioning, and usually last throughout a person’s lifetime. Some noted disabilities include:
• ADHD
• Autism Spectrum Disorder
• Cerebral Palsy
• Hearing Loss
• Vision Impairment
• Learning Disability
• Intellectual Disability [35]
The Practice of Screening Young Children
To quickly capture a snapshot of a child’s overall development, early caregivers and teachers can select from several observation tools to observe and document a child’s play, learning, growth and development. Systematic and routine observations, made by knowledgeable and responsive teachers, ensure that children are receiving the quality care and support they deserve. Several observation tools and techniques can be used by teachers to screen a child’s development. Because each technique and tool provides limited observation data, it is suggested that teachers use a combination of tools and techniques to gather a full panoramic perspective of a child’s development. Here are some guidelines:
• Monitoring cannot capture the complete developmental range and capabilities of children, but can provide a general overview
• Monitoring can only indicate the possible presence of a developmental delay and cannot definitively identify the nature or extent of a disability
• Not all children with or at risk for delays can be identified
• Some children who are red-flagged may not have any actual delays or disabilities; they may be considered “exceptional” or “gifted”
• Children develop at different paces and may achieve milestones at various rates
Tools and Techniques to Monitor and Screen Children’s Development
Let’s briefly review some of the options more commonly used to monitor children’s development.
Developmental Milestone Checklists and Charts
There are many factors that can influence a child’s development: genetics, gender, social interactions, personal experiences, temperaments and the environment. It is critical that educators understand what is “typical” before they can consider what is “atypical.” Developmental Milestones provide a clear guideline as to what children should be able to do at set age ranges. However, it is important to note that each child in your classroom develops at their own individualized pace, and they will reach certain milestones at various times within the age range.
Developmental Milestone Charts are essential when setting up your classroom environments. Once you know what skills children should be able to do at specific ages, you can then plan developmentally appropriate learning goals, and you can set up your classroom environment with age appropriate materials. Developmental Milestone Charts are also extremely useful to teachers and parents when guiding behaviors. In order to set realistic expectations for children, it is suggested that teachers and parents review all ages and stages of development to understand how milestones evolve. Not only do skills build upon each other, they lay a foundation for the next milestone that’s to come. Developmental Milestone Charts are usually organized into 4 Domains: Physical, Cognitive, Language, and Social -Emotional.
Table 4.1 - Gross Motor Milestones from 2 Months to 2 Years [36]
Typical Age
What Most Children Do by This Age
2 months
• Can hold head up and begins to push up when lying on tummy
• Makes smoother movements with arms and legs
4 months
• Holds head steady, unsupported
• Pushes down on legs when feet are on a hard surface
• May be able to roll over from tummy to back
• Brings hands to mouth
• When lying on stomach, pushes up to elbows
6 months
• Rolls over in both directions (front to back, back to front)
• Begins to sit without support
• When standing, supports weight on legs and might bounce
• Rocks back and forth, sometimes crawling backward before moving forward
9 months
• Stands, holding on
• Can get into sitting position
• Sits without support
• Pulls to stand
• Crawls
1 year
• Gets to a sitting position without help
• Pulls up to stand, walks holding on to furniture (“cruising”)
• May take a few steps without holding on
• May stand alone
18 months
• Walks alone
• May walk up steps and run
• Pulls toys while walking
• Can help undress self
2 years
• Stands on tiptoe
• Kicks a ball
• Begins to run
• Climbs onto and down from furniture without help
• Walks up and down stairs holding on
• Throws ball overhand
Table 4.2 - Fine Motor Milestones from 2 Months to 2 Years [37]
Typical Age
What Most Children Do by This Age
2 months
• Grasps reflexively
• Does not reach for objects
• Holds hands in fist
4 months
• Brings hands to mouth
• Uses hands and eyes together, such as seeing a toy and reaching for it
• Follows moving things with eyes from side to side
• Can hold a toy with whole hand ( palmar grasp ) and shake it and swing at dangling toys
6 months
• Reaches with both arms
• Brings things to mouth
• Begins to pass things from one hand to the other
9 months
• Puts things in mouth
• Moves things smoothly from one hand to the other
• Picks up things between thumb and index finger (pincer grip )
1 year
• Reaches with one hand
• Bangs two things together
• Puts things in a container, takes things out of a container
• Lets things go without help
• Pokes with index (pointer) finger
18 months
• Scribbles on own
• Can help undress herself
• Drinks from a cup
• Eats with a spoon with some accuracy
• Stacks 2-4 objects
2 years
• Builds towers of 4 or more blocks
• Might use one hand more than the other
• Makes copies of straight lines and circles
• Enjoys pouring and filling
• Unbuttons large buttons
• Unzips large zippers
• Drinks and feeds self with more accuracy
Table 4.3 - Cognitive Milestones from 2 Months to 2 Years [38]
Typical Age
What Most Children Do by This Age
2 months
• Pays attention to faces
• Begins to follow things with eyes and recognize people at a distance
• Begins to act bored (cries, fussy) if activity doesn’t change
4 months
• Lets you know if she is happy or sad
• Responds to affection
• Reaches for toy with one hand
• Uses hands and eyes together, such as seeing a toy and reaching for it
• Follows moving things with eyes from side to side
• Watches faces closely
• Recognizes familiar people and things at a distance
6 months
• Looks around at things nearby
• Brings things to mouth
• Shows curiosity about things and tries to get things that are out of reach
• Begins to pass things from one hand to the other
9 months
• Watches the path of something as it falls
• Looks for things he sees you hide
• Plays peek-a-boo
• Puts things in mouth
• Moves things smoothly from one hand to the other
• Picks up things like cereal o’s between thumb and index finger
1 year
• Explores things in different ways, like shaking, banging, throwing
• Finds hidden things easily
• Looks at the right picture or thing when it’s named
• Copies gestures
• Starts to use things correctly; for example, drinks from a cup, brushes hair
• Bangs two things together
• Puts things in a container, takes things out of a container
• Lets things go without help
• Pokes with index (pointer) finger
• Follows simple directions like “pick up the toy”
18 months
• Knows what ordinary things are for; for example, telephone, brush, spoon
• Points to get the attention of others
• Shows interest in a doll or stuffed animal by pretending to feed
• Points to one body part
• Scribbles on own
• Can follow 1-step verbal commands without any gestures; for example, sits when you say “sit down”
2 years
• Finds things even when hidden under two or three covers
• Begins to sort shapes and colors
• Completes sentences and rhymes in familiar books
• Plays simple make-believe games
• Builds towers of 4 or more blocks
• Might use one hand more than the other
• Follows two-step instructions such as “Pick up your shoes and put them in the closet.”
• Names items in a picture book such as a cat, bird, or dog
Table 4.4 - Language Milestones from 2 Months to 2 Years [39]
Typical Age
What Most Children Do By This Age
2 months
• Coos, makes gurgling sounds
• Turns head toward sounds
4 months
• Begins to babble
• Babbles with expression and copies sounds he hears
• Cries in different ways to show hunger, pain, or being tired
6 months
• Responds to sounds by making sounds
• Strings vowels together when babbling (“ah,” “eh,” “oh”) and likes taking turns with parent while making sounds
• Responds to own name
• Makes sounds to show joy and displeasure
• Begins to say consonant sounds (jabbering with “m,” “b”)
9 months
• Understands “no”
• Makes a lot of different sounds like “mamamama” and “bababababa”
• Copies sounds and gestures of others
• Uses fingers to point at things
1 year
• Responds to simple spoken requests
• Uses simple gestures, like shaking head “no” or waving “bye-bye”
• Makes sounds with changes in tone (sounds more like speech)
• Says “mama” and “dada” and exclamations like “uh-oh!”
• Tries to say words you say
18 months
• Says several single words
• Says and shakes head now
• Points to show others what is wanted
2 years
• Points to things or pictures when they are named
• Knows names of familiar people and body parts
• Says sentences with 2 to 4 words
• Follows simple instructions
• Repeats words overheard in conversation
• Points to things in a book
Table 4.5 - Social and Emotional Milestones from 2 Months to 2 Years [40]
Typical Age
What Most Children Do By This Age
2 months
• Begins to smile at people
• Can briefly calm self (may bring hands to mouth and suck on hand)
• Tries to look at parent
4 months
• Smiles spontaneously, especially at people
• Likes to play with people and might cry when playing stops
• Copies some movements and facial expressions, like smiling or frowning
6 months
• Knows familiar faces and begins to know if someone is a stranger
• Likes to play with others, especially parents
• Responds to other people’s emotions and often seems happy
• Likes to look at self in a mirror
9 months
• May be afraid of strangers
• May be clingy with familiar adults
• Has favorite toys
1 year
• Is shy or nervous with strangers
• Cries when mom or dad leaves
• Has favorite things and people
• Shows fear in some situations
• Hands you a book when she wants to hear a story
• Repeats sounds or actions to get attention
• Puts out arm or leg to help with dressing
• Plays games such as “peek-a-boo” and “pat-a-cake”
18 months
• Likes to hand things to others as play
• May have temper tantrums
• May be afraid of strangers
• Shows affection to familiar people
• Plays simple pretend, such as feeding a doll
• May cling to caregivers in new situations
• Points to show others something interesting
• Explores alone but with parent close by
2 years
• Copies others, especially adults and older children
• Gets excited when with other children
• Shows more and more independence
• Shows defiant behavior (doing what he has been told not to)
• Plays mainly beside other children, but is beginning to include other children, such as in chase games
Table 4.6 - Gross Motor Milestones from 3 Years to 5 Years [41]
Typical Age
What Most Children Do by This Age
3 years
• Climbs well
• Runs easily
• Pedals a tricycle (3-wheel bike)
• Walks up and down stairs, one foot on each step
4 years
• Hops and stands on one foot up to 2 seconds
• Catches a bounced ball most of the time
5 years
• Stands on one foot for 10 seconds or longer
• Hops; may be able to skip
• Can do a somersault
• Can use the toilet on own
• Swings and climbs
Table 4.7 - Fine Motor Milestones from 3 Years to 5 Years [42]
Typical Age
What Most Children Do by This Age
3 years
• Copies a circle with pencil or crayon
• Turns book pages one at a time
• Builds towers of more than 6 blocks
• Screws and unscrews jar lids or turns door handle
4 years
• Pours, cuts with supervision, and mashes own food
• Draws a person with 2 to 4 body parts
• Uses scissors
• Starts to copy some capital letters
5 years
• Can draw a person with at least 6 body parts
• Can print some letters or numbers
• Copies a triangle and other geometric shapes
• Uses a fork and spoon and sometimes a table knife
Table 4.8 - Cognitive Milestones from 3 Years to 5 Years [43]
Typical Age
What Most Children Do by This Age
3 years
• Can work toys with buttons, levers, and moving parts
• Plays make-believe with dolls, animals, and people
• Does puzzles with 3 or 4 pieces
• Understands what “two” means
4 years
• Names some colors and some numbers
• Understands the idea of counting
• Starts to understand time
• Remembers parts of a story
• Understands the idea of “same” and “different”
• Plays board or card games
• Tells you what he thinks is going to happen next in a book
5 years
• Counts 10 or more things
• Knows about things used every day, like money and food
Table 4.9 - Language Milestones from 3 Years to 5 Years [44]
Typical Age
What Most Children Do By This Age
3 years
• Follows instructions with 2 or 3 steps
• Can name most familiar things
• Understands words like “in,” “on,” and “under”
• Says first name, age, and sex
• Names a friend
• Says words like “I,” “me,” “we,” and “you” and some plurals (cars, dogs, cats)
• Talks well enough for strangers to understand most of the time
• Carries on a conversation using 2 to 3 sentences
4 years
• Knows some basic rules of grammar, such as correctly using “he” and “she”
• Sings a song or says a poem from memory such as the “Itsy Bitsy Spider” or the “Wheels on the Bus”
• Tells stories
• Can say first and last name
5 years
• Speaks very clearly
• Tells a simple story using full sentences
• Uses future tense; for example, “Grandma will be here.”
• Says name and address
Table 4.10 - Social and Emotional Milestones from 3 Years to 5 Years [45]
Typical Age
What Most Children Do by This Age
3 years
• Copies adults and friends
• Shows affection for friends without prompting
• Takes turns in games
• Shows concern for a crying friend
• Dresses and undresses self
• Understands the idea of “mine” and “his” or “hers”
• Shows a wide range of emotions
• Separates easily from mom and dad
• May get upset with major changes in routine
4 years
• Enjoys doing new things
• Is more and more creative with make-believe play
• Would rather play with other children than by self
• Cooperates with other children
• Plays “mom” or “dad”
• Often can’t tell what’s real and what’s make-believe
• Talks about what she likes and what she is interested in
5 years
• Wants to please friends
• Wants to be like friends
• More likely to agree with rules
• Likes to sing, dance, and act
• Is aware of gender
• Can tell what’s real and what’s make-believe
• Shows more independence
• Is sometimes demanding and sometimes very cooperative
Time Sampling or Frequency Counts
When a teacher wants to know how often or how infrequent a behavior is occurring, they will use a Frequency Count to track a child’s behavior during a specific timeframe. This technique can help teachers track a child’s social interactions, play preferences, temperamental traits, aggressive behaviors, and activity interests.
Checklists
When a teacher wants to look at a child’s overall development, checklists can be a very useful tool to determine the presence or absence of a particular skill, milestone or behavior. Teachers will observe children during play times, circle times and centers, and will check-off the skills and behaviors as they are observed. Checklists help to determine which developmental skills have been mastered, which skills are emerging, and which skills have yet to be learned.
Technology
Teachers can use video recorders, cameras and tape recorders to record children while they are actively playing. This is an ideal method for capturing authentic quotes and work samples. Information gathered by way of technology can also be used with other screening tools and techniques as supporting evidence. (Note: it is important to be aware of center policies and procedures regarding proper consent before photographing or taping a child).
Event Sampling and the ABC Technique
When an incident occurs, we may wonder what triggered that behavior. The Event Sampling or ABC technique helps us to identify the social interactions and environmental situations that may cause children to react in certain ways. If we are to reinforce someone’s positive behavior, or change someone’s negative behavior, we must first try to understand what might be causing that particular behavior. With an ABC Analysis, the observer is looking for and tracking a specific behavior . More than the behavior itself, the observer wants to understand what is causing the behavior – this is antecedent. The antecedent happens before the behavior. It is believed that if the observer can find the “triggers” that might be leading up to or causing the challenging behavior, then potential strategies can be planned to alter, redirect or end the challenging behavior. In addition to uncovering the antecedent, what happens after the behavior is just as important, this is the “consequence.” How a child is treated after the incident or challenging behavior can create a positive or negative reinforcement pattern. In short, the ABC technique tells a brief story of what is happening before, during, and after a noted behavior.
The ABC observation method requires some training and practice. The observer must practice being neutral and free of bias, judgement and assumption in order to collect and record objective evidence and to portray an accurate picture. Although it may be uncomfortable to admit, certain behaviors can frustrate a teacher. If the teacher observes a child while feeling frustrated or annoyed, this can possibly taint the observation data. It is important to record just the facts. And to review the whole situation before making any premature assumptions.
Collecting your data
If you have a concern about a child’s behavior or if you have noticed a time when a child’s behavior has been rather disruptive, you will schedule a planned observation. For this type of observation, you can either video record the child in classroom environment, or you can take observation notes using a Running Record or Anecdotal Record technique. To find a consistent pattern, it is best to tape or write down your observations for several days to find a true and consistent pattern. To document your observations, include the child’s name, date, time, setting, and context. Observe and write down everything you see and hear before, during and after the noted behavior.
Organizing your data
Divide a piece of paper into 3 sections: A – for Antecedent; B – for Behavior; and C- for Consequence. Using your observation notes you will organize the information you collected into the proper sections. As you record the observation evidence, remember to report just the facts as objectively as possible. Afterwards, you will interpret the information and look for patterns. For example, did you find any “triggers” before the behavior occurred? What kind of “reinforcement” did the child receive after the behavior? What are some possible strategies you can try to minimize or redirect the challenging behavior? Do you need to make environmental changes? Are their social interactions that need to be further monitored? With challenging behaviors, there is not a quick fix or an easy answer. You must follow through and continue to observe the child to see if your strategies are working.
Pin It! The ABC Method
(A) Antecedent : Right before an incident or challenging behavior occurs, something is going on to lead up to or prompt the actual incident or behavior.
For example, one day during lunch Susie spills her milk (this behavior has happened several times before). Rather than focusing solely on the incident itself (Susie spilling the milk), look to see what was going on before the incident. More specifically, look to see if Susie was in a hurry to finish her snack so she could go outside and play? Was Susie being silly? Which hand was Susie using – is this her dominant hand? Is the milk pitcher too big for Susie to manipulate?
(B) Behavior: This refers to the measurable or observable actions.
In this case, it is Susie spilling the milk.
(C) Consequence: The consequence is what happens directly after the behavior.
For example, right after Susie spilt the milk, did you yell at her or display an unhappy or disgusted look? Did Susie cry? Did Susie attempt to clean up the milk? Did another child try to help Susie?
Watch this video for more information on the :
The Practice of Screening and Evaluating
Beyond monitoring, once a child has been “red-flagged” they will need to be assessed by a professional who will use a formal diagnostic tool to evaluate the child’s development. Families can request that a formal screening be conducted at the local elementary school if their child is 3 to 5 years old. Depending upon the nature of the red flag, there are a battery of tools that can be used to evaluate a child’s development. Here are some guidelines:
• Screenings are designed to be brief (30 minutes or less)
• A more comprehensive assessment and formal evaluation must be conducted by a professional in order to confirm or disconfirm any red flags that were raised during the initial monitoring or screening process
• Families must be treated with dignity, sensitivity and compassion while their child is going through the screening process
• Use a screening tool from a reputable publishing company
Screening Instruments and Evaluation Tests
The instruments listed below are merely a sample of some of the developmental and academic screening tests that are widely used.
Ages and Stages Questionnaires (ASQ), Brookes Publishing Company (available in Spanish, French, and Korean)
Battelle Developmental Inventory Screening Test, Riverside Publishing
Developmental Indicators for Assessment of Learning (DIAL) III, Pearson Assessments (includes Spanish materials)
Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS), University of Oregon Center on Teaching and Learning
Early Screening Inventory-Revised (ESI-R), Pearson Early Learning (includes separate scoring for preschool and kindergarten) [46]
Pin It! Reliability and Validity Defined
Reliability means that the scores on the tool will be stable regardless of when the tool is administered, where it is administered, and who is administering it. Reliability answers the question: Is the tool producing consistent information across different circumstances? Reliability provides assurance that comparable information will be obtained from the tool across different situations.
Validity means that the scores on the tool accurately capture what the tool is meant to capture in terms of content. Validity answers the question: Is the tool assessing what it is supposed to assess? | textbooks/socialsci/Early_Childhood_Education/Book%3A_Observation_and_Assessment_in_Early_Childhood_Education_(Peterson_and_Elam)/04%3A_The_Purpose_Process_and_Practice_of_Monitoring_Screening_and_Evaluating/4.01%3A_Introduction.txt |
Public Policies on Including Children with Special Needs
Throughout the past 40 years there have been some significant changes in both state and federal laws, as well as with public policy and social attitudes towards integrating children with special needs and learning disabilities into typical classroom settings. Stigmas from the past have dissipated and more inclusive practices are in place. In addition to Federal laws such as the Individuals with Disabilities Act (IDEA) and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), there are national associations such as the Division for Early Childhood (DEC) and the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) who rally to protect the rights of children with disabilities or other special needs. As stated in their joint position on inclusion, the DEC and NAEYC believe:
Early childhood inclusion embodies the values, policies, and practices that support the right of every infant and young child and his or her family, regardless of ability, to participate in a broad range of activities and contexts as full members of families, communities, and society. The desired results of inclusive experiences for children with and without disabilities and their families include a sense of belonging and membership, positive social relationships and friendships, and development and learning to reach their full potential. The defining features of inclusion that can be used to identify high quality early childhood programs and services are access, participation, and supports. (p. 141; DEC and NAEYC 2009, 1)
When early caregivers and preschool teachers practice monitoring as part of their regular routines, they demonstrate accountability and responsive caregiving. Nearly 65% of children are identified as having a special need, disability, delay or impairment, and will require some special services or intervention. As early educators our role is twofold:
1. Provide an environment where children feel safe, secure and cared for
2. Help children develop coping skills to decrease stress and promote learning and development
Individualized Education Plan?
Some children may need more individualized support and might benefit from specialized services or individualized accommodations. Children who are over the age of 3 who qualify for special education must have an individualized education program (IEP) in place. As required by both federal and state laws, IEPs must have clearly identified goals and objectives that can be regularly monitored. IEPs are designed by a TEAM that usually includes the child’s parents or guardians, the preschool teacher, special education professionals (e.g. behaviorists, speech pathologists, occupational therapists). Together the team plans appropriately accommodations, modifications and makes recommendations that will help the child meet their developmental goals.
While everyone on the team has a role, the teacher’s role is to integrate approaches that can best support the child while in class. For example, if the IEP notes that the child needs support with language development, the teacher would consider finding someone in class who could provide peer to peer scaffolding. The teacher would want to find someone who has strong language skills, and who is cooperative and kind to others. She would then partner the two children up throughout the day so that the typical child could model ideal language skills to the child with the IEP. The teacher would also provide regular updates to parents, continue observing and monitoring the child’s development, and would provide access to alternative resources and materials as much as possible. [47]
Creating Inclusive Learning Environments
To ensure that all children feel safe, secure and nurtured, teachers must strive to create a climate of cooperation, mutual respect and tolerance. To support healthy development, teachers must offer multiple opportunities for children to absorb learning experiences, as well as process information, at their own pace. While one child may be comfortable with simple verbal instructions to complete a particular task, another child may benefit from a more direct approach such as watching another child or adult complete the requested task first. Teachers who are devoted to observing their children are motivated to provide experiences that children will enjoy and be challenged by. The classroom is not a stagnant environment - it is ever-changing. In order to maintain a high-quality classroom setting, it is essential to utilize your daily observations of children and the environment to monitor the experiences and interactions to ensure there is a good fit. [48] | textbooks/socialsci/Early_Childhood_Education/Book%3A_Observation_and_Assessment_in_Early_Childhood_Education_(Peterson_and_Elam)/04%3A_The_Purpose_Process_and_Practice_of_Monitoring_Screening_and_Evaluating/4.03%3A_Public_Policies_on_In.txt |
Monitoring, screening and evaluating children is both necessary and takes time and practice. Rather than waiting until there is a major concern, intentional teachers should conduct observations on a regular basis to closely monitor each child’s development. By watching children, we can find patterns. Once we understand the patterns, we can better understand why children do what they do, and ideally, we can create an inclusive learning environment that meets the needs of all our children. Understanding that over half of the children in your classroom may potentially have some special need, disability, delay or impairment is crucial. Recognizing that unless we observe regularly, we won’t be able to refer families in a timely manner to get the support services and professional help that they need is essential. Research tells us that children who receive early intervention are more likely to master age-appropriate developmental milestones, have i ncreased academic readiness and are more apt to socialize with their peers. It is important to remember that everyone in the classroom, including teachers, assistants and directors and supervisors, should be involved with monitoring a child’s development. As you continue to read this text, you will discover how observations are essential in planning effective curriculum, documenting children’s learning, assessing development and communicating with families. [49]
Referrals, Agencies and Support Groups [50]
AIDD seeks to improve and increase services for individuals with developmental disabilities that promote independence and inclusion in society. This website contains information on AIDD’s programs and other helpful resources, such as a developmental disabilities program directory by state and grants and funding information.
The American Academy of Pediatrics comprises pediatricians committed to the health of infants, children, adolescents, and young adults. The website contains general information about children’s health, as well as more specific information about guidelines, policies, and publications. This organization also hosts a website specifically for parents
The CPIR serves as a central resource of information and products to the community of Parent Training Information Centers and the Community Parent Resource Centers, so that they can focus their efforts on serving families of children with disabilities.
The U.S. Department of Education (DOE) has resources to assist with the educational needs of children with developmental disabilities.
Provides links to a variety of other websites and online resources that focus on special education issues, such as policy, technology, curricula and parent trainings.
The DOE’s Provides support to parents and individuals, school districts, and states in three main areas:
• Special education:
• Vocational rehabilitation:
• DisabilityMeasures.org is an online resource with measurement tools for assessment, screening, and research concerning individuals with disabilities.
First Signs is dedicated to educating parents and professionals about early identification and intervention for children at risk for developmental delays and disorders, including autism.
Each state provides no-cost or low-cost health insurance coverage for eligible children through Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program. This website has basic facts about these programs. It also has links to each state’s insurance program for children, where you can learn who is eligible for the programs, how to apply, and what services are covered. Information is available in English and Spanish.
MedlinePlus, a service of the U.S. National Library of Medicine and the National Institutes of Health, provides information on many different types of developmental disabilities, as well as resources on prevention and screening, research, statistics, law and policy, and more.
My Child Without Limits provides resources for families of young children from birth through 5 years of age with developmental delays or disabilities, as well as for professionals who work with these individuals. The site also has a national resource locator where visitors can find local service providers, community organizations, and government agencies.
The NACDD supports state and territorial councils in implementing the Developmental Disabilities Assistance and Bill of Rights Act and promoting the interests and rights of individuals with disabilities and their families.
NIDILRR is a federal government grants-making agency that sponsors grantees to generate new disability and rehabilitation knowledge and promote its use and adoption.
Several institutes within the NIH conduct and fund research about developmental disabilities. They also offer information to the public and educational programs for health professionals. They include:
The NEI studies ways to prevent and treat eye diseases and vision problems and to improve the lives of people with these conditions.
The NICHD conducts and supports research on all stages of human development to better understand the health of children, adults, families, and communities, including those with developmental disabilities.
The NIDCD studies hearing loss, deafness, and problems with speech and language.
The NIMH studies mental illness and behavior problems, including such conditions as autism, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, and learning disabilities.
NINDS studies the causes, diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of brain and nervous system disorders such as cerebral palsy and epilepsy. | textbooks/socialsci/Early_Childhood_Education/Book%3A_Observation_and_Assessment_in_Early_Childhood_Education_(Peterson_and_Elam)/04%3A_The_Purpose_Process_and_Practice_of_Monitoring_Screening_and_Evaluating/4.05%3A_Conclusion_and_Refere.txt |
One of the highlights of being a preschool teacher was setting up my classroom environment at the beginning of each new school year. There was so much anticipation and excitement as I thoughtfully organized my classroom, stocked the learning centers with new materials, and planned curriculum activities. I especially enjoyed purchasing a new lesson plan book and writing up activity plans for each month. I gathered ideas from various teacher resource books that primarily focused on seasonal themes and kindergarten readiness skills – like language arts and math. As I carefully considered topics for each month, I planned for indoor and outdoor activities, music and movement activities, along with a variety of play opportunities. I thought about creative art projects and planned for engaging circle time discussions. I created quiet corners, learning centers, decorated the walls with store-bought posters, and strived to make the classroom environment safe and welcoming. Some twenty years later, as I write this text and reflect on my own experiences as a preschool teacher, there are a few questions that come to mind:
1. Who was I planning curriculum for – me, the children, their families or my program director?
2. How could I possibly have planned meaningful curriculum if I didn’t even know the children who were being placed in my care?
3. How could I be intentional if I didn’t even know the children’s individual interests, abilities and needs?
In this chapter, we will examine how observation and documentation are used to develop effective curriculum. We will explore what curriculum is and we will discuss the benefits of planning developmentally appropriate curriculum. Additionally, the teacher’s role will be examined. Lastly, we will discuss how to plan effective and meaningful curriculum using observation, documentation, interpretation, and reflection as best practices.
Figure 5.1 Lesson Plan Concept Mapping . [51]
5.02: What is Curriculum
In early care and education, we value how children process information, we recognize how important their feelings are, and we place great significance on how children learn to socialize with others. As intentional teachers, our primary goal is to incorporate curriculum that supports the “whole-child” in all domains of development including social, emotional, physical, and intellectual. The word “curriculum” can mean different things to different people. For some, curriculum can provide the framework for learning, for others it can be a variety of planned activities, still for others curriculum is a way to drive learning outcomes, goals and objectives. Curriculum can be developed by teachers, or it can be purchased as part of a prefabbed program. Curriculum can be child-directed, and it can be teacher-directed. According to a joint position paper by the National Association for the Education of Young Child (NAEYC) and the National Association of Early Childhood Specialists in State Department of Education (NAECS-SDE), “Curriculum is an organized framework that delineates the content children are to learn, the processes through which children achieve identified curricular goals, what teachers do to help achieve these goals, and the context in which teaching and learning occur” (2009). In other words, curriculum helps teachers organize the day to day activities, it outlines the learning goals and outcomes that teachers need to assess, and lastly, curriculum provides teachers with the guidance and structure that they need to teach. [52] | textbooks/socialsci/Early_Childhood_Education/Book%3A_Observation_and_Assessment_in_Early_Childhood_Education_(Peterson_and_Elam)/05%3A_How_to_Plan_Effective_and_Meaningful_Curriculum/5.01%3A_Introduction.txt |
From the moment a child is born, each interaction and experience affects their brain development and lays the foundation for future success. Research on brain development shows that early experiences are essential. It is suggested that if children are not interested in what they are learning, and if it is not meaningful or connected to their cultural practices, they will not create new neural pathways in which to store new knowledge. Subsequently, children will not retain information or learn as intended. As suggested in the California Early Learning Foundations, well planned curriculum provides opportunities for children to use, build, and master skills. With every engaging activity, children are encouraged to investigate key concepts in mathematics, science, and literacy, explore their creativity, establish relationships with peers, and develop self-efficacy skills. [54]
It is important to note that thoughtful curriculum planning does not just impact children for that present moment. A high-quality program that incorporates meaningful curriculum can provide long-lasting benefits. As demonstrated with the Abecedarian Project, a vastly recognized longitudinal research study that followed a group of 111 children into adulthood, not only did the children who received high-quality child care outperform their peers in math and reading, 30 years later project participants continued to exhibit significant merits as compared to their counterparts in the control group. More specifically, children that participated in the Abecedarian Project were four times more likely to earn a college degree. Additionally, it was reported that “Twenty-three percent of the participants graduated from a four-year college or university compared to only 6 percent of the control group.” Other significant benefits included: participants were more likely to have been consistently employed (75 percent had worked full time for at least 16 of the previous 24 months, compared to 53 percent of the control group) and less likely to have used public assistance (only 4 percent received benefits for at least 10 percent of the previous seven years, compared to 20 percent of the control group). They also showed a tendency to delay parenthood by almost two years compared to the control group. Project participants also appeared to have done better in relation to several other social and economic measures (including higher incomes) but those results were not statistically significant. [55]
5.04: A Teachers Role
With curriculum being the cornerstone for children’s learning, how can we be certain that children are receiving reputable curriculum that reflects their varying academic abilities, learning styles, personalities, interests, background knowledge, cultural experiences and levels of motivation for learning ? Teachers are the linchpin. As stated in the article “Observing, Planning, Guiding: How an Intentional Teacher Meets Standards through Play” by Patricia McDonald, “teachers are researchers, observing children to decide how to extend their learning both in the moment and by planning new play environments” (p.3). [57] For all intents and purposes, teachers play a pivotal role in setting up the environment, providing the learning experiences and guiding children so they can construct concepts, develop new skill sets, and discover who they are. Additionally, teachers are active participants in a child’s development as they watch, listen and think about what each child needs to thrive. As teachers monitor numerous situations throughout the day, they must consider when to step in and engage the children, and when to step aside and allow students to scaffold one another. At the center of it all, teachers who really know their children are better equipped to find the right balance of how to engage, motivate and challenge learners. So then, how do teachers learn about the intricate details of what each child needs? Let’s take a closer look at how observation, documentation, interpretation, and reflection are used to support children’s learning, growth, and development.
5.05: The Curriculum Planning Cycle at a Glance
Observation: Looking and Listening
• May be Spontaneous or Planned
• Watch and listen to children while they explore, investigate, play, problem solve, interact and socialize
• Keep an open mind as you gather evidence and artifacts, and look for what children CAN DO
Observe children during daily routines, transition times, mealtimes, and while inside and outside
Documentation: Recording and Collecting Objective Evidence
• Record what you see and hear
• Include date, time, and location
• Include child’s first name
• Include who else is engaged in the activity
• Document the purpose of the activity – highlighting what the child is supposed to do
• All recorded evidence should be concise, factual and have descriptive details
• Use a variety of observation and documentation methods and tools to collect evidence
Record actual evidence as you see it (avoid summarizing or assuming)
Interpretation: Analyzing Data
Ask questions: What is this action telling me?
• How did the child approach the activity and how long did the child stay engaged?
• Is this behavior typical for the child or unusual?
• Would this child benefit from peer scaffolding?
• Does this child need more individualized support?
• Does this child have more feisty, flexible or fearful temperament traits?
• How can I motivate this child?
• Were there any new play patterns or social interactions?
• Did the child master any new skills or milestones?
• Are there any skills or milestones that need further support?
• Were there any “red flags”?
When analyzing behavior, consider the ABCs: the Antecedent (What happened BEFORE), the Behavior (as it happens) and the Consequence (what happened AFTER)
Review previous observations to monitor progress over time
Reflection: Planning for the Next Step
• How can I set up the environment to incorporate the children’s interests?
• What resources and materials will I need?
• What milestones, learning goals and objectives can I further support with this activity?
• How can I create a “good fit” for this child’s temperament?
• Did I acknowledge children when they met expectations, and did I provide genuine praise to reinforce positive behaviors?
• Am I setting clear expectations?
• Do I need to change the routines or schedule?
• Have I incorporated all the developmental domains and considered the whole child?
• Did I plan for individual activities, small group, and larger group opportunities
Implementation: Applying Best Practices
• Create quiet and active spaces
• Plan for indoor and outdoor learning experiences
• Provide a variety of materials that will encourage open-ended play and exploration
• Follow a consistent routine and schedule
• Plan teacher-directed activities and create centers based on children’s interest
• Consider the project approach and allow concepts to develop over time rather than a one and done
• Create a balance of play-based learning opportunities and skill-based learning opportunities?
• Plan to accommodate the diverse needs of each child
• Create a respectful and caring classroom environment that is supportive and nurturing to all learners | textbooks/socialsci/Early_Childhood_Education/Book%3A_Observation_and_Assessment_in_Early_Childhood_Education_(Peterson_and_Elam)/05%3A_How_to_Plan_Effective_and_Meaningful_Curriculum/5.03%3A_Benefits_of_Implementing_Meaningful_Curriculu.txt |
Children reveal who they are and how they think through their actions and behavior. How they play with others, how they use materials, and even the types of activities they choose to tell us a story. Each child has their own story to tell and it is up to us, as intentional teachers, to gather essential evidence and artifacts that can be used to inform our decisions on how to best support each child’s learning, growth and development. Curriculum should be thoughtfully planned, challenging, engaging, developmentally appropriate, culturally and linguistically responsive, comprehensive, and likely to promote positive outcomes for all young children. [58] To guide our decision making and to effectively implement meaningful curriculum we must utilize the Curriculum-Planning Process. Let’s examine and discuss the 4 steps of the cycle.
Step 1: Observation – Looking and Listening
To develop effective curriculum, quality observations must be conducted. Whether spontaneous or planned, formal or informal, in-depth observations provide teachers with an advantage point. With each observation, teachers gain valuable insight that helps them gauge a child’s zone of proximal development, and with that information, teachers can decide on how to best scaffold that child’s learning. Likewise, teachers who conduct ongoing observations discover each child’s baseline knowledge, and with that data, they can develop curriculum that supports children’s play and learning in a developmentally appropriate manner. Furthermore, a teacher who regularly observes can track children’s interests which in turn helps her to select materials and resources that will fascinate, intrigue, challenge and engage the children. Thus, when teachers take detailed notes and record objective facts, they recognize each child’s individual pace, temperament, capabilities, interests and needs. It is with this vital data that they can ultimately meet children where they are at developmentally and map out where they need to go by intentionally setting reasonable expectations and goals.
To truly discover a child’s intent, teachers need to be fully attentive to what children are doing and saying while they are playing and interacting with others. To be fully attentive requires a particular state of mind. Rather than being actively engaged with children or guiding their behavior or directing their play, teachers need to find moments where they can focus on looking and listening . Teachers need to approach each observation with an open mind - free of bias and preconceived notions, and they need to have an open lens to see what children are actually doing. Sometimes we can only look and listen for a brief moment; sometimes we can look and listen for a longer timeframe. Either way, we need to take in all that we are seeing and hearing so that we can discover a window into the child’s thinking and find clues as to what they are capable of.
An observation is often prompted by a question. Here are a few questions that might guide your next observation:
• “In what ways are the children using the new materials in the block area?”
• “Which children can cut a zig-zag line with scissors?”
• “Who will recognize their name tag that is posted on the outside table?”
• “Will Sofia play with a peer today or keep to herself?”
• “I wonder how Jackson will do at drop-off today?”
• “I’m curious to see how the children will react to painting with fall leaves and who will try?
• “What activity area are the children using the most while outside?”
As teachers observe to find answers to questions like those mentioned above, they will need to record what children are doing and saying. No matter which tool, technique or method is used, teachers need to document what they are observing.
Step 2: Documentation – Recording Evidence and Gathering Artifacts
Documentation provides the vital evidence and visual artifacts that teachers need to accurately track each child’s learning, growth and development in order to plan developmentally appropriate curriculum. Documentation helps teachers hold into memory the significant moments of play, exploration and learning. To gather data, teachers can opt to use several tools and techniques. Whether a teacher uses an anecdotal note, frequency count, or checklist to gather documentation, the goal is to have an extensive collection of factual evidence, along with work samples, that highlight each child’s actions and behaviors, verbal and nonverbal communication skills, social interaction and intellectual abilities.
Let’s take a moment to reiterate information that was discussed in a previous chapter about how to write effective evidence. First, all documentation needs to be factual. Teachers need to write down exactly what the children do and say. Second, it is suggested that you record as many descriptive details as you can, while remaining as objective as possible. Third, document the whole child's development. More specifically,
1. Look for what children “can do” and note the milestones that have been mastered
2. Track language development by recording pertinent conversations
3. Track play patterns to see who engages in cooperative play and who prefers to play alone
4. Watch the interactions and social dynamics between peers
5. Next, in order to track a child’s development over time, remember to include the following information: date; time; location and setting; activity; and note the children that are engaged in the activity. Lastly, to plan meaningful curriculum, you will need to regularly review all the documentation you have collected so that you can ponder and interpret what was observed.
Pin It! Documentation Sample
Date: 2/10/19
Time: 9:30 -9:45
Location and Setting: Inside during Active Investigation Time. The following centers were open: Science – magnifying glass and leaves, Art – painting with pom poms, blocks with transportation vehicles, computer station – Clifford the Big Red Dog.
Activity : Science Area
Children Present: Hannah and Zoey
Hannah and Zoey were in the science area. They scooted their chairs up to the counter where the class pet gecko was perched. “Hello, Gex. How are you today? What are you eating? Asked Hannah. I love Gexy Gex don’t you? Zoey asked Hannah. “Yeaaah,” said Hannah. “I wish I had Gex,” said Zoey. “Me too!” Said Hannah. The 2 girls sat next to Gex the Gecko until it was clean up time (about 10 minutes). Hannah sat with her back to Zoey. Zoey played with Hannah’s hair (brushing it with her fingers maybe braiding it or putting it in a ponytail). They continued to chat back and forth to each other.
What are you able to interpret from this interaction?
You can learn more about documentation in this video by First 5 California :
Step 3: Interpretation – Analyzing Observation Data
Before a teacher can reflect and plan developmentally appropriate curriculum, they must first interpret and analyze the documentation they have gathered. Ideally, as you observe and document, you are in the moment gathering snippets of detailed information and writing down objective facts. Once you have collected your data, only then will you begin to analyze “what does this all mean?”. As you review your documentation, you begin to think about each child’s individual actions, mannerisms, and behaviors, as well as ponder over peer interactions and group dynamics. Planning developmentally appropriate curriculum is somewhat like putting a puzzle together. As you wonder about the “why, who, what, when and how” you begin to put the pieces in place and generate potential curriculum ideas. First, you think about what the child can do on their own, and the milestones they have already mastered. Next, you think about if you are meeting each child where they are at developmentally. Then, you look for the areas of development that need further support. Lastly, you think about the zone of proximal development and how you might scaffold the children’s learning so they can reach their potential learning goals. Ultimately, your interpretations will guide your planning efforts. Let’s review the chart below: [59] The three zones of proximal development.
Besides analyzing documentation on your own, you can share information with your co-teachers. With factual notes and work samples that document what a child does or says, teachers can collectively discuss what they think, and they can pose additional questions. For example, at some programs, one teacher works a morning shift and a co-teacher works in the afternoon. Although they each will have their own set of observations, having the opportunity to collaborate and share information about the children in their care will only enhance their effectiveness when planning curriculum. Here are some possible questions they can ask each other:
• “What growth do you see?”
• “Are the peer interactions the same in the afternoon as they are in the morning?”
• “What are your thoughts on this behavior?”
• “How did you handle this transition?”
The high-quality practice of collaborating with co-teachers provides both professional and ethical support. When co-teachers are able to meet and discuss their observations, not only are they able to share their successes, they can also share their struggles. A co-teacher who is working alongside you will be familiar with the children and may have valuable insight that will help with your curriculum planning. They may be able to offer suggestions from a different perspective, as well as provide encouragement and empathy as needed. Another benefit of collaborating with a co-teacher is having the opportunity to share resources and materials with each other. Shared resources can extend curriculum possibilities. [61]
Whether you analyze your data on your own or collectively with a co-teacher, it is the careful interpretation of observations and documentation that generates ideas for the next steps in planning curriculum. [62]
Step 4 Reflection: Planning for the Next Step
It is during the reflective process that interpreting the meaning of children’s behaviors and interactions becomes important. These interpretations give us insight into each child’s story. Each child’s story informs our responsive practice. With this valuable insight, we can:
• Adapt the environment
• Modify the daily schedule and/or routines
• Make decisions about how to guide the children’s learning based on what the child knows and can do as well as what the child is ready to try. [63]
Curriculum planning requires a considerable amount of time. Teachers need time to observe and collect documentation, they need time to interpret their data, and they need time to reflect on how to use that data to plan effective strategies that will foster a child’s learning. High-quality preschool programs that support intentional teaching allocate time in teachers’ schedules for them to reflect and plan curriculum individually and collectively as a team. [64]
As we reflect, we must ask ourselves a wide range of questions. The answers to these questions lead to individualized care and learning. Let’s look at a few questions you may ask yourself as you begin to plan developmentally appropriate curriculum:
• What skill or activity does the child appear to be working on?
• What learning strategies is the child using to play with different toys?
• Does the child engage with objects or people differently than a month ago? What has changed? What has not changed?
• Do my actions affect the outcomes of the child’s experience? How so?
• How does the information relate to goals for the child? The family’s goals? The program’s school readiness goals?
Once we have reviewed all our data we can plan meaningful curriculum. The most effective curriculum will:
• Motivate children to explore their environment
• Inspire children to investigate various centers and activities
• Encourage children to create with new materials
• Allow children to engage in conversations and prompt them to ask questions
• Prompt children to interact with peers
• Permit children to problem solve
• Celebrate diversity and embrace uniqueness
• Accommodate each child’s learning styles and individual needs
As teachers reflect on children’s play, they discover possibilities for designing curriculum to sustain, extend, and help children’s play to be more complex and, consequently, support the children’s continual learning. Teachers review ideas for possible next steps in the curriculum. Possible steps might include adding materials to interest areas, books to read with large or small groups, activities to do in small groups, or a topic to investigate over time with the children. With clear ideas or objectives in mind, teachers plan curriculum that includes strategies to enhance the learning of all children in a group, as well as strategies to support the learning of individual children.
Pin It! Observation and Documentation
Date: 10/10/19
Time : 10:45 – 10:55 am
Location and Setting : Inside during open exploration the following centers were open – easel painting, blocks with fall materials, dramatic play with firefighter and homelife, math center with pumpkin cut outs for counting
Activity: Dramatic Play Area and Library Area
Children Present : Joey
• Joey played in the dramatic play area. He was dressed up in the firefighter outfit. He held the toilet paper roll in his left hand and pointed it towards a basket of stuffed animals. As he waived the toilet paper roll back and forth (side to side) he said “psssshhhhhsssshhh.” After a minute or so, Joey dropped the toilet paper roll and picked up a stuffed doggie from the basket. He took the stuffed animal to the table. As he pet the doggie, he said “You’re ok, You’re ok aren’t ya.” He then kissed the doggie on the nose, picked it up and carried it over to the library area where he sat down on the carpet square. He put the dog in his lap and started to look through a book.
Interpretation:
• With the recent fires, I wonder if Joey saw firefighters on the news or working in his neighborhood?
• I wonder if Joey has family members that are firefighters?
• I wonder what other community helpers would be interesting to explore?
• Joey has not been observed reading before, I’m curious to see what milestones he has mastered? Can he turn the pages? Can he recognize letters or words? Can he recall information?
• Joey played by himself. In previous observations he played with Martin. I wonder if they had a disagreement with Martine. I wonder if Joey needed time to himself. Maybe Martin wasn’t interested in playing firefighters.
Reflection:
• What materials can I add to the dramatic play area to extend Joey’s interest in pretending to be a firefighter?
• Are there storybooks about community helpers that highlight firefighters?
Step 5: Implementation
Once a plan has been formally written, teachers will implement it accordingly. While implementing the plan, teachers watch and listen to determine if the curriculum was effective. They will watch how children respond to the activities, materials and resources, and how they interact with peers and the environment, and how they process new information. In essence, teachers are looking for “the light bulb to go off.” It is during the implementation step that the curriculum planning cycle begins again.
Think About It…Consider this Case Study
For the past few weeks, children in Miss Emily’s class (ages 3-5 years) have been watching the crops across the preschool grow. During lunchtime, Miss Emily heard the children talking about what they had for lunch. Later in the day, the children watched the sprinklers water the yard and ask the teacher about how the water gets to the sprinklers to water the grass. While playing outside at the sensory table, four children are fascinated with pouring and dumping water into pipes and seeing how far it can travel.
Observation: Lucas is somewhat cautious in joining others in play. He stands to the side and watches others as they play.
Interpretation: Lucas appears to want to join the play, but may need just a little bit of support. I plan to watch for moments when he is on the sidelines of play, and find ways to invite him into the social play, and stay with him to support him in his encounters with the other children.
Questions to Consider
What can you infer about the children’s interests?
What can you infer about their knowledge base?
It would be safe to say that these children understand that for plants to grow, you need to water them. It would also be safe to infer that the children are most likely interested in how water travels, as you observed their actions at the water table and their questions of where and how water gets to sprinkler systems. As an intentional teacher, with your observations, you would maybe consider doing your next unit on water systems where you can incorporate all developmental domains, based on the children’s interests
5.07: Conclusion
While some planned curriculum activities might be based on a teacher’s knowledge of age-appropriate developmental milestones, other activities might be prompted by children’s interests or ideas, while other activities might be suggested by the children’s families. To plan meaningful curriculum teachers are encouraged to utilize the curriculum planning cycle. Through careful observation, documentation and interpretation teachers collect evidence and gather artifacts that prompt inquiry as to what children know and need. With that information teachers can reflect, plan and implement effective curriculum so that children can thrive as they master the major developmental milestones and meet school readiness goals and objectives.
To ensure high-quality practice, teachers should consider incorporating daily routines, structured and unstructured activities, as well as space for self-discovery. Curriculum should be designed to encourage children to explore their classroom environment, socialize with others, and challenge themselves to reach new levels. As suggested by NAEYC, when planning curriculum teachers should consider using an assortment of materials that are appropriate to each child’s age and stage of development. Well -planned curriculum considers each child’s individual needs and includes adaptations for children with special needs and disabilities. Lastly, for curriculum to be truly meaningful and engaging it should be reflective of each child’s cultural background and home-life practices. [67] | textbooks/socialsci/Early_Childhood_Education/Book%3A_Observation_and_Assessment_in_Early_Childhood_Education_(Peterson_and_Elam)/05%3A_How_to_Plan_Effective_and_Meaningful_Curriculum/5.06%3A_A_Closer_Look_at_the_Curriculum_Planning_Cycl.txt |
From the moment a child walks into their classroom, they are learning . They are learning from their peers, their teachers, their families and through their own trials, errors and explorations. How can we best communicate what children are learning to their families in a respectful and reassuring manner? How can we convey that a child’s academic progress is just one aspect, as we strive to develop the whole child? In this chapter, we will discuss how intentional teachers use documentation and assessment to effectively communicate with families. The goal of this final chapter is to demonstrate how we connect observation, documentation and assessment all together to provide quality learning experiences for the children and families that we serve, and that there is value in everything we do as intentional teachers.
6.02: Documentation Boards - Not Ju
When you walk into a classroom what do you typically see on the walls? Quite possibly you will see colorful posters, charts, family photos, and lots and lots of artwork. Have you ever wondered why we post things on our walls? Is it to make our classrooms more aesthetically pleasing? More colorful and eye-appealing? Do we want to motivate our children to do their best work because it will be posted for all to see? Are we trying to create a cozy space where our children can feel comfortable and feel like they belong? Are we hoping our parents see all the great work that we are doing? Everything that is posted on your classroom walls should communicate a message. Documentation Boards help us to convey important messages. A central message that I believe to be most important is that “Children Learn Through Play!”
When parents drop off and pick up their child, they may see their child playing with blocks, puzzles, playdough, or in the dramatic play area with their peers. To some, this type of open exploration or child-directed play (sometimes called free play ) may look frivolous, inconsequential or perhaps trivial because it lacks formal instruction. The idea that learning can be playful, and fun may be difficult for some parents to understand. Many parents like to see some type of tangible evidence – for example, a finished worksheet or completed art project, to “know” that teaching and learning are happening. Thus, it is necessary for us as intentional teachers to convey the importance of play through formal documentation. We must provide parents with information that explains not only the end result,(or product) but the process of how curriculum activities are specifically designed to help children master milestones in all the developmental domains. More importantly, we must showcase that learning is a direct product of play.
What are Documentation Boards
Documentation boards use observations and assessments to illustrate a child’s process of learning. When used effectively, documentation boards highlight the purpose of an activity and record the milestones that have been mastered ( NAEYC , 2008). In order for parents to truly understand that children learn through play, documentation boards should include work samples or photos that highlight what the child did during the activity, along with several quotes to highlight the child’s thought process. When done correctly, teachers and families should be able to follow a child’s progress over time. Documentation Boards help teachers and families understand, without explanation, the child’s abilities and Interests. Documentation Boards provide clear evidence as to what children are learning throughout the school year in each of the developmental domains: Physical, Cognitive, Social, Emotional and Language.
What to Document
When I was a “young” teacher, I often felt obligated to post one piece of artwork for each child in the classroom so as to be “fair” that each child was represented. On my classroom walls, I mostly posted artwork and I didn’t provide any caption or describe the purpose of the activity. Not only did that take a lot of time, but it also took up a lot of wall space. As I became more intentional (and a more “seasoned” teacher, I learned that there was a more efficient way to showcase children’s learning. I began to use documentation boards to make learning more visible. Since learning is happening all day - every day in the classroom, there are a variety of topics that can be presented. Documentation boards can illustrate something as simple as a child playing with sand and water for an hour, or something complex like a child learning how to tie their shoes over a long period of time. These boards can feature one child, a group of children, or the whole class. Here are some suggested topics to consider when creating a formal Documentation Board: daily routines, project-based activities, child-directed play and exploration, outdoor play experiences, circle-time conversations, developmental milestones, social relationships, and teacher-directed lesson plan activities. The topics are endless.
How to Make a Documentation Board
Posters, bulletin boards, and slide shows are all commonly used to create documentation boards. The format chosen to use for the documentation board should be reflective of the purpose, the audience, and the activity being presented. These boards can be simple, artistic, or even three dimensional. Before creating the board, consider the collaboration of additional teachers, children, and families. Having a team create the board adds a new level of depth, with various ideas and opinions. The first step is creating a title that invites families to approach the board. Next, mention the developmental milestones and goals for the activity (what the children are learning). Add photos and children’s quotes (both parents and children enjoy this), Include the steps that were taken or the process, and work samples as the final product. An extra step would be to add a recipe card or take-home handout so parents can replicate the activity at home. While constructing the board ask yourself, is this showing the child’s thought process, developmental growth, and both the child’s and teacher’s reflection. When creating your documentation boards remember that these boards respect all children’s work. The board needs to value efficiency over cuteness, and engagement over entertainment. (The Compass School, 2018). Lastly, the Documentation Board replaces the concept there needs to be one piece of artwork for each child in the class. When you post several documentation boards, all with different themes and purposes, you will no doubt capture all of the children in your care.
Make a decision on what you want to communicate on the documentation board:
• Projects or themes
• Special events
• Specific curriculum areas
• Learning environments
• Skill acquisition
• Child development
Collect materials for the panel:
• Children’s actual work or photocopies
• Observation notes / anecdotal records
• Information and quotes from books and journals
• Curriculum webs
• Quotes and dictation from children and teachers
• Photographs – various sizes (enlarge or shrink on a photocopier) – color, or black and white.
Select the best items that represent the idea or theme of your panel:
• Write an educational Caption for each piece
• Use a type size large enough to be read from a distance
Layout of panel:
• Determine where the panel will be displayed (on a table or wall?)
• Select a type of panel: poster board (best for wall) or three side3d board
• Title the panel
• Select a strong image as the focal point on the panel
• Aesthetics are important
• Matte work and photographs
• Use colored paper to support, not detract from, the images
The Perks of Using Portfolios
Another popular form of documentation is portfolios. Many programs use a portfolio system to record and store information about each child’s learning, growth and development. Using both formal and informal observations, teachers begin collecting “evidence” within the first month of a child starting school. Throughout the school year, intentional teachers collect numerous work samples, anecdotal notes, learning stories, checklists, and frequency counts, and it is necessary to safely store everything in an organized manner. A portfolio is the most optimal way to do that. A portfolio helps teachers store observation notes, pieces of art, and photos that are needed to capture and highlight a child’s individual strengths, interests and abilities. Portfolios can also store information about a child’s thought process, behavior, social interactions, and needs. With all the stored documentation, teachers can assess a child’s development.
Portfolios, like documentation boards, record and track a child’s development. More specifically, a p ortfolio tells the unique story of each child’s individual progress over time. Although portfolios are not designed to be an assessment tool, portfolios can be shared with families during a conference to showcase evidence of a child’s learning throughout the school year. P ortfolios hold authentic samples and highlight a child’s capabilities, achievements, and progress. During a conference, rather than receiving a handout with checked boxes that rate a child’s level of learning, parents and family members will enjoy seeing first-hand what their child “can do.” Having both a formal assessment and authentic work samples provides teachers and families a clear picture of the whole child’s development.
Since learning and development are ongoing, portfolios have to be easy to use and accessible. Teachers will have to find a rhythm and medium that works best for their teaching style. Here are just a few examples of some portfolios:
• Electronic or e-portfolios stored on computers;
• Accordion files
• File folders,
• Three-ring binders,
• Creative memory photo albums
No matter which style of portfolio a teacher uses, it is important to label and date all pieces of evidence that you put into your portfolio. | textbooks/socialsci/Early_Childhood_Education/Book%3A_Observation_and_Assessment_in_Early_Childhood_Education_(Peterson_and_Elam)/06%3A_Using_Documentation_and_Assessment_to_Communicate_with_Families/6.01%3A_Introduction.txt |
Assessment is “a systematic process which allows for understanding a child’s competencies” [69] Every child in your class needs to be assessed. To properly assess children, we use observations and documentation to determine a child’s abilities, interests, strengths, and areas of development that may need additional support. The information gathered during observations guides the classroom routines, curriculum planning, and implementation to ensure quality care. Over time, assessments record a child’s learning, growth, development, and social behavior. Assessments also provide an opportunity to share information with families that will build a bridge from school to home.
Let’s take a closer look at how we might use assessments in early childhood education. First, assessment is used to inform instruction and to guide teachers as they plan curriculum. With each observation a teacher can assess children’s strengths and capabilities to determine an individualized plan of action with just the “right” balance of independent and group activities across all areas of development (e.g. social, emotional, creative, cognitive, language and physical). When teachers create meaningful curriculum based on the children’s interest and abilities, research indicates that children will take greater strides in academic learning and are more likely to be successful throughout life.
For example, a teacher may notice that one of her students has difficulty joining in and socializing with classmates during group activities. A teacher will then consider activities that would encourage peer interactions while also considering opportunities to support their independence.
Second, assessment is designed for accountability and program evaluation. Assessments provide information that is needed to evaluate program practices and to inform program policies. One of the hallmark traits of a high-quality early childhood program is the practice of continuously monitoring children’s development and responding to their learning needs. When administrators, teachers, and families reflect on program goals and outcomes they can determine specific areas that need improvement. Once areas are identified, they can focus on implementing professional development workshops and training in order to improve their ability in meeting the needs of children and families. For example, upon reviewing the math indicators for all of the kindergarten students in a school, the principal realizes that additional teacher training on math-related materials is needed to support math instruction and student learning across all of the kindergarten classrooms in the school.
Third, assessments are used to support school and family partnerships. Assessment helps teachers communicate important milestones in a child’s development to families. More importantly, when teachers share their assessments with families, there is an opportunity for teachers and parents to work together to support children as they grow. Intentional teachers respect that parents are teachers on the “home front.”
Additionally, families have valuable insight that they can contribute when assessing a child’s needs. For example, a teacher may not observe a child’s ability to identify colors but through a discussion with the parents, the teacher learns that the child identifies colors of fruit at the grocery store. In this way, parents and teachers collaborate to better understand what needs to happen in the curriculum or at home to support the child’s learning and growth. [71]
Let’s take a look at 4 Types of Assessments:
1. Screening tools
2. Diagnostic assessments
3. Formative assessments
4. Summative assessments
Screening Tools
According to developmental theories, children may not reach developmental milestones at the same time. In early care and education, we recognize that there is an “acceptable range” for children to reach developmental milestones. That being said, we also recognize that when development does not happen within an expected time frame “red flags” can be raised and teachers may have concerns about developmental disorders, health conditions, or other factors that may negatively impact the child’s development. A developmental screening is the early identification of children at risk for cognitive, motor, communication, or social-emotional delays that may interfere with expected growth, learning, and development, and may warrant further diagnosis, assessment, and evaluation. Programs may conduct the following screenings:
1. Developmental screening tools include the domains of cognition, fine and gross motor skills, speech and language, and social-emotional development.
2. Social-emotional screening is a component of developmental screening of young children that focuses on the early identification of possible delays in the expected development of a child’s ability to express and regulate emotions, form close and secure relationships, and explore his/her environment and learn.
3. Mental health screening is the early identification of children at risk for possible mental health disorders that may interfere with expected growth, learning, or development that warrant further diagnosis, assessment, or evaluation.
It is recommended that young children receive screenings to help identify potential problems or areas needing further evaluation. By recognizing developmental issues early, children can be provided with treatment or intervention more effectively, and additional developmental delays may be prevented. Developmental screenings should begin early in a child’s life and should be conducted through third grade. Practitioners should use reliable and valid screening tools that are age-appropriate, culturally inclusive and in the home child’s language.
Developmental screenings are often universally performed on large groups of children. The results generated from this type of procedure most commonly are used by programs to identify those few children who may need to receive a more extensive or “diagnostic” assessment for determining developmental delays or special needs. Screenings are brief, and usually effective in catching the most severe cases of children who would need a follow-up evaluation. Screening tools can also be used to assess whether a child is developmentally ready to graduate or move into the next educational level, in other words - a child’s school readiness. There is controversy around whether school districts should be permitted to use readiness tests since school districts are not permitted to deny children entry to kindergarten based on the results of a readiness test. One on side there are those that believe many children are often mislabeled. Because young children can demonstrate a wide range of results based on how comfortable they are at the time of the screening, screening results can be inaccurate and children, especially dual language learners, may be placed into remedial classes or special education programs. On the other hand, some proclaim that the screening process at this point will provide young children and their families with access to a wide variety of services early on.
Diagnostic Assessments
Diagnostic assessment tools are typically standardized for a large number of children. A score is given that reflects a child’s performance related to other children of the same age (and less common gender and ethnic origin). A diagnostic assessment typically results in a diagnosis for a child. Some common diagnoses are related to intelligence, intellectual disability, autism, learning disabilities, sensory impairment (deaf, blind), or neurologic disorders. Persons administering diagnostic assessment tools must meet state and national standards, certification, or licensing requirements. Some diagnostic assessment tools used for determining or identifying developmental issues are The Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence (WPPSI), the Bayley Scales of Infant Development (BSID), electroencephalogram (EEG), Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children (K-ABC), the Battelle Developmental Inventory (BDI), and the Pre-Language Assessment Survey (PreLAS). Many other diagnostic assessment tools are available for early childhood. The Buros Institute of Mental Measurements at the University of Nebraska publishes the Buros Mental Maturity Yearbook which helps educators and other childcare professionals choose a tool that is reliable and highly regarded in the diagnostic assessment community.
Formative Assessments
The primary purpose of the formative assessment is to gather evidence that teachers can use to inform instruction, implement learning opportunities and measure a child’s learning. As stated in previous chapters, through ongoing observations, evidence is collected and then used to measure the child’s learning. To gather an accurate account of what children are learning and how they are learning, observations should occur during daily activities and routines, and should be conducted indoor as well as outdoor. With this information, teachers make instructional adjustments to close the gap between a child’s current understanding and what the desired goals are for the child as recommended by formal assessment tools like the Desired Result Developmental Profile (DRDP).
Formative assessment can consist of formal assessments or informal assessments . Formal assessments are defined as highly valid and reliable and standardized tools that are administered in a similar manner each time for every child. These tools have standards of comparison (norm-referenced, standards-referenced, and criterion-referenced) to ensure equitable and consistent results. Such tools usually emerge from research studies published by a national company (e.g. Desired Results Developmental Profile (DRDP) or Rating Scales that are based on the acquisition of age-appropriate developmental milestones). Informal assessments, on the other hand, usually may be published, but can also be developed by a teacher or program (i.e. a classroom checklist or frequency count chart). Informal assessments often utilize observable techniques such as anecdotal notes, work samples, and video recordings. Whether formal or informal tools and techniques are used, it is important to note that assessment is not a one-time event since it is difficult to gather valid and reliable information from just one observation technique or from one tool. Formative assessments are on-going.
For best results, intentional teachers are encouraged to assess children through authentic, naturalistic observations. Such observation should be collected throughout the school year, and not just when preparing for family conferences. Another best practice, early care educators are encouraged to actively involve young children with the assessment process. Informal observations and conversations are needed to purposefully plan intentional and individualized activities. Lastly, teachers are encouraged to share learning goals with both children and parents, as well as provide opportunities for children to monitor their ongoing progress. Learning Stories are a great technique to encourage joint collaboration between teachers, families, and children.
Summative Assessments
In primary grades, summative assessment, often called high-stakes assessments, are designed to measure a child’s overall developmental progress at the end of a school year. These assessments can also be administered at certain grade levels for state or local accountability purposes (e.g. Blue-Ribbon Recognition). Summative assessments seek to measure a child’s academic performance. Scores are published and parents are notified of their child’s individual score along with their child’s percentile ranking as compared to other children who are in the same grade. In early care and education however, summative assessments essentially look back to see how effective the teacher or program is at providing high-quality care. This is form of assessment allows families, teachers and administrators to evaluate instruction practices, curriculum, and whether a child is in need of intervention or teachers are in need of professional development. These assessments help recognize whether or not the child has fallen short of, met, or exceeded the expected standards. Although the results of formative assessments are primarily of interest to teachers, families are eager to know how their child is doing socially and academically. Administrators can utilize the assessment information to identify strengths and challenges of curriculum and instruction, in order to make improvements on the next year’s program policies or procedures.
How are Assessments are Used
Planning Curriculum- Teachers use assessments to understand a child’s capabilities and needs. By focusing on what a child can do, teachers then establish individualized goals for that child. By continuing to observe and document milestones, teachers can proactively assess a child’s development and adjust the curriculum accordingly. For example, if a teacher determines that a child needs support in their fine motor development, activities that exercise the pincer grasp will be implemented.
Documentation on behavior should be considered when planning curriculum. If data shows reoccurring conflict taking place in a specific area, teachers should assess if there are enough materials and space in that area, and decide if the materials provided are age-appropriate. For example, after reviewing the data, the teachers concluded that conflict was occurring in the dramatic play area because there were not enough baby dolls for the number of children playing at the same time.
Ensuring School Readiness - Whether you use checklists or the DRDP, both assessments will collect data about milestones of development. Recording a child’s progress for each domain of development will determine school readiness. School readiness refers to children having enough knowledge and experience to succeed in a kindergarten classroom.
Adjusting the Classroom - Assessments can also be used to adjust teaching styles, classroom setups, daily schedules, and routines. When observing children, teachers should document how the class responds to certain routines, transitions, and language. For example, if the data collected shows that children are having a difficult time falling asleep during nap time, the daily schedule can be adjusted to allow more outdoor play before nap time.
Data can also show us why certain behaviors are occurring. When reviewing data, evaluate what happens before the behavior is observed, and assess what changes can be made to redirect the child. For example, if conflict and running in the classroom are occurring in the morning, the parent drop-off could be moved to the outdoor classroom to allow a large space for children to play and interact before going inside. [76]
Pin It!
Further Information on Authentic Observation and Assessment
• Read this article for more information on :
• Watch this video to learn more about :
• Read this report from National Institute for Early Education Research (NIEER) for more information on :
• Watch this video to learn more about : - | textbooks/socialsci/Early_Childhood_Education/Book%3A_Observation_and_Assessment_in_Early_Childhood_Education_(Peterson_and_Elam)/06%3A_Using_Documentation_and_Assessment_to_Communicate_with_Families/6.03%3A_Assessing_Childrens_Developme.txt |
Conferences Building Family Partnerships
Once assessments have been completed, it is time to meet with a child’s family. The purpose of the conference is to share information about the child and to build a vital partnership with the child’s family. Some parents may not understand the connection between play and learning. Sharing information about play-based curriculum and how it supports development can allow parents to better understand your goals for learning and how the classroom functions. By including parents in discussion making about curriculum and assessments we can encourage support areas development outside of the classroom.
For example, if the individualized curriculum is supporting color recognition, we can suggest that families continue to support this skill by identifying produce colors at the grocery store and/or pointing to certain colors in their favorite books.
In a blog by Concordia University, Portland some key tips are suggested to ensure a successful and engaging family conference occurs: [77]
1. Offer a flexible conference schedule
Some parents have more than one child at different schools, some families may have limited transportation options and some parents may work multiple jobs which can limit their time and availability. In these cases, teachers may need to be flexible to accommodate special circumstances. Teachers can schedule conferences in the morning, later in the afternoon, or during recess breaks. If technology is available, meetings can be offered via Skype or FaceTime as an option for parents who cannot make it to school.
2. Prepare, prepare, prepare
Portfolios and assessments must be updated and organized for each child on a regular basis.
3. Arrange for a translator if needed, and find a way to connect
Parents who don’t speak English require a translator. If schools cannot arrange for a translator, family members may need to sit in on the conference, for example an older sibling or an aunt or maybe even a neighbor) — ideally not a student.
When there is a language barrier, teachers should try to find a respectful way to communicate and connect with families. As a reminder, even though families cannot fluently speak the same language, they deserve your professional approach. Try learning a few phrases in their native language to show you’re trying to connect; even “Hello,” “How are you?” and “Thank you” can go a long way.
4. Be aware of your body language and how you verbally communicate
The classroom environment speaks volumes and so does your body language and how you talk with your families. Check out your body language. Are your arms typically crossed? Do you smile or glare? How is your tone when you speak? Are you calm and reassuring, or sounding like a robot? Do you pause and allow parents to ask questions, or are you hurried and rushing through information? Are you aware and considerate of cultural backgrounds and family practices? For example, did you know that eye contact and handshaking may not be a common practice with some families?
5. Sit side-by-side
Since teachers and parents are on the same team teachers are advised to sit next to parents rather than across from them behind a desk. By arranging the furniture in a friendly and non-threatening way, teachers express their desire to build a partnership with each parent, which can diffuse unnecessary tension on both sides.
6. Share real stories and student work
Even the best teachers can’t remember all of the details they need to share with every parent. A portfolio with anecdotal notes and work samples provide parents with real insight into what’s happening in their child’s academic day.
7. Include the positive and focus on what the child CAN DO
Each student has positive traits and potential. Share at least one shining trait with parents at the beginning and another at the end of the conference. That trait could be an academic trait or a character trait, such as helpfulness, persistence, or hard work. Teachers can follow the “sandwich method” or the “glows and grows” method where you share a child’s positive achievements or traits that make them glow, in addition to providing two or more areas in which they can grow. Always end on a high note with another glowing detail or anecdote.
8. Create clear goals
Every student, even the gifted ones, can improve in some way. Write specific goals for each student. Along with those goals, create an action plan with steps for improvement, as well as a timeline. Your plan of action should include activities that will be done at school as well as activities that can be done at home. Sharing this with parents can increase buy-in since they will be able to see a clear path to success that has achievable benchmarks and goals that are part of a realistic, structured plan.
9. Avoid education jargon
Not everyone is familiar with DRDPs or diagnostic and summative assessments. Avoid overwhelming parents with . Speak in plain terms, explain what you mean, and make sure parents are clear about the information you have presented. Encourage parents to ask questions as needed for clarification.
10. Give parents responsibility
Early educators know that children do better in school when their parents are involved. A perfect way to get parents involved is to ask questions about family life and routines (a family questionnaire is ideal). Families should be encouraged to get involved throughout the school year. For example, they can be special guests, and talk about their jobs or they can read their favorite story to the children. Parents who are involved early on, will be more likely to follow through on their “plan of action” once it is presented at the conference.
11. Encourage questions
Approachable teachers build a lasting connection with parents and promote a positive learning experience with their children. Not only do you want your students to feel comfortable enough to ask questions, but you want your parents to feel they can approach you as well. Although your time may be limited during the school day, it is important to carve out some time and space to discuss important matters with parents. If parents cannot make the conference, offer your email address to allow for some time for a brief “q and a” any point during the school year. NOTE: Hitting parents up at the end of a long work day and rushing through important details regarding their child is NOT recommended.
12. Don’t make assumptions about parents or students
Avoid relying on stereotypes and allowing personal biases to cloud your judgment. View all parents as partners because, like it or not, they are. Work to make sure that even the most challenging students and parents feel like they are welcomed and a part of the team.
13. If a parent becomes hostile, don’t engage
No matter how prepared, pleasant and affirming you are, some parents may become hostile or upset while at the conference, especially if there are areas of concern or issues with a child’s challenging behavior that need to be addressed. Some parents may be used to hearing bad news, other parents don’t trust or have little regard for teachers, some parents feel a need to defend their child, while other parents may be upset about a personal matter and may take their frustration out on you. Remain calm! If possible, let the parent vent. Use active listening and really listen to the parent’s concerns. Discuss how both parties want what’s best for the child and reassure them that you have their child’s interest at heart. Look for a compromise or strategy that best supports the child and their family. Stay focused on the task at hand – the conference – and reemphasize the positive. Sometimes, a follow-up meeting may need to be scheduled.
14. Remain professional at all times
Teaching is a challenging job. Like parents, you may have an off day and you may be tempted to stray off into an unprofessional area. We also may cross some fine lines and become “friends” with our families. Here are some topics that should never be discussed with families during a conference (or at any time):
• -Speaking negatively about school administrators or other teachers.
• -Comparing two or more students to each other.
• -Discussing another student’s behavior, family, or performance.
• -Blaming parents for a child’s academic performance or behavior.
• -Arguing or becoming hostile with parents.
• -Complaining about school policies or procedures.
15. Document, document, document
Because you will meet with several families in the course of a week, it is a good idea to make notes about the conversations and outcomes of the conference. You may need to refer to them at a later time when planning a follow-up meeting, or when planning additional curriculum activities. Once in a while, a parent may notify your administrator that they have concerns about the information that was shared during the conference and your notes can be shared with your administrator to help see both sides of the conversation.
16. Stay in contact with parents
Parents should be able to get in touch with you to follow up or address new concerns. Email is the most convenient way for you to receive messages and respond to parents, but phone calls or future conferences may be necessary, too. Set the guidelines and boundaries for future communications.
According to Seplocha, teachers have many important responsibilities, especially preparing for effective and engaging parent-teacher conferences. When teachers connect with family members and establish a respectful relationship, the positive outcome provides a lifeline that will ultimately support a child’s overall development and learning. | textbooks/socialsci/Early_Childhood_Education/Book%3A_Observation_and_Assessment_in_Early_Childhood_Education_(Peterson_and_Elam)/06%3A_Using_Documentation_and_Assessment_to_Communicate_with_Families/6.04%3A_Family_Conferences.txt |
The ELC illustrates how teacher candidates and educators together undertake professional development by creating case studies of their Practicum placement. Case studies have notable strengths because, as stated by Stake (1995, p.1), they facilitate the exploration of rich, contextual information about specific challenges in each classroom and reveal why educators’ practice is as it is. Case Studies used with Action Research allow for the investigation and improvement of real teaching challenges in Practicum placement classrooms.
The ELC is aimed at educators becoming life-long learners who are empowered to investigate positive change in their own teaching. Rooted in children’s development, the ELC equips educators with a set of professional skills that enable them to implement developmentally-appropriate, research-backed, teaching strategies that are responsive to children’s current learning needs. The development of educators’ teaching skills in their own classrooms is at the very heart of effective and reflective professional development for it is on this premise that each child’s appropriate opportunities for development and learning rest. We hope our efforts may inspire the audience to create similar early learning communities in their early childhood settings.
Starting Point: Teacher Candidates’ Concerns in Practicum
A key characteristic of effective early childhood teacher education programs is demonstrated by alignment between the educational theory taught to teacher candidates in college courses, and the teaching practices those teacher candidates encounter during Practicum field placements.
Concurrently with the Practicum, teacher candidates at the college took a curriculum development course, and an assessment course, aimed at teaching 3 -5-year old children. During Practicum, teacher candidates were required to spend at least 75 hours in an early childhood field placement with a certified teacher. By the end of the semester, teacher candidates had to demonstrate satisfactory knowledge, understanding, and use of teacher education standards in their practice and lesson plan assignments they implemented during Practicum.
If the educational theory prescribed in teacher education standards used in teacher education programs and the teaching practices in field placement experiences are not closely aligned, the impact on teacher candidates can raise concern (Gismondi, Haser, 2003; Rust, 2009). Inconsistencies between theory and practice can leave teacher candidates feeling confused about their practice with children in classrooms. On the one hand, teacher candidates are required by their teacher education program to prepare assignments based on teacher education standards to implement during Practicum. On the other hand, the assignments must also accord with sometimes different teaching and care practices they encounter in their Practicum field placements. As a result, teacher candidates can come to believe that the theory taught in college courses, and the teaching practices used in field placements, are unrelated. This belief can perpetuate teacher candidates’ use of less effective educational and care practices in classrooms and reduce the quality of learning and development opportunities children experience.
NAEYC Standards Alignment Issues
Since 2002, the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) Standards (2009), were used in the college teacher education program and were also used in the ELC. NAEYC is a professional body in the USA, in which widely held truths about the theory, research, and practice that teacher candidates are expected to learn in teacher education programs, concerning the education and care of young children from birth to eight years are articulated. NAEYC standards (2009) can be seen at this link: https://www.naeyc.org/sites/default/files/globally-shared/downloads/PDFs/our-work/higher-ed/NAEYC-Professional-Preparation-Standards.pdf
The NAEYC Standards (2009) are described as providing “a sustained Homevision of excellence for programs that prepare teacher candidates to work with young children between the ages of birth to eight years” (Hyson, Tomlinson, & Morris, 2009) and were organized under six Core Standards:
Standard 1: Promoting Child Development and Learning
Standard 2: Building Family and Community Relationships
Standard 3: Observing, Documenting and Assessing to Support Young Children and Families
Standard 4: Using Developmentally Effective Approaches to Connect with Children and Families
Standard 5: Using Content Knowledge to Build Meaningful Curriculum
Standard 6: Becoming a Professional
Table 1.1 NAEYC Core Standards (2009)
Key elements of each core standard highlighted the main aspects of each and expanded on the requirements for teacher candidates in early childhood degree programs. A version of NAEYC Standards (2009) included updates that placed more emphasis on Standard 5, concerning the teaching of content areas in early childhood education, and on Standard 1, concerning provision for the effective inclusion of each child with diverse learning needs in early childhood settings.
In the college early childhood teacher education program, NAEYC Standards (2009) served multiple purposes. They: (1) promoted competence in teacher candidates in the areas of ethics, child development, families, curriculum design, assessment, and professionalism; (2) shaped course assignments and rubrics that promoted focused assessment of teacher candidates’ competencies; (3) aligned the teacher education program with requirements for national accreditation; (4) aligned the program with New York State teacher education requirements; and (5) enabled smooth transfer of credit for teacher candidates who moved from community colleges to the teacher education program at the college.
Challenges arose during Practicum over how the “vision of excellence” portrayed in NAEYC Standards (2009) could be turned into reality in Practicum placements. The challenges and their implications are summarized in tables 1.2 and 1.3 below. The term “educator” collectively describes teachers, assistant teachers and administrators who hosted teacher candidates during the Practicum field placement.
Challenges
College Teacher Education Program
Practicum Field Placements
Misalignment
Alignment between Early Childhood theory taught to teacher candidates in college, and conflicting practices they experienced in Practicum settings
Teacher candidates were required to prepare and implement assignments based on NAEYC Standards for Early Childhood Professional Preparation Programs (2009) in Practicum settings
Educators’ practice was based on the particular Early Childhood Standards used in their setting
No collaboration existed between college faculty and educators in Practicum settings to ensure alignment existed between teacher candidates’ assignments and practice in Practicum settings
Table 1.2: Summary of challenges that existed during Practicum
Implication of Challenges
Early Childhood Program
Practicum Field Placements
Misalignment
Teacher candidates’ confusion
Teacher candidates reported confusion over the use of NAEYC Standards for Early Childhood Professional Preparation Programs (2009) theory taught in college and their implementation in Practicum assignments…
…and conflicting practice they saw in Practicum
No collaboration existed between college faculty and educators in Practicum settings regarding consistent implementation of NAEYC Standards for Early Childhood Professional Preparation Programs (2009) during Practicum
Teacher candidates’ mistaken perceptions
Teacher candidates commonly believed that Early Childhood theory taught in the teacher education program was unrelated…
…to Early Childhood practice they saw in Practicum
Concern about the quality of teacher candidates’ future teaching led to the formation of the Early Learning Community (ELC) designed to improve and align practice in Practicum settings with NAEYC Standards for Early Childhood Professional Preparation Programs (2009)
Table 1.3: Summary of the challenge implications for teacher candidates
Teacher candidates’ comments in class discussions and entries in their journals, showed they were often “confused by having to prepare and teach lesson plans aligned with the 2009 NAEYC Standard 5: Using content knowledge to build meaningful curriculum” (page 15) for mathematics, science, social studies and the arts. Their confusion arose from rarely seeing children learning in these content areas in their Practicum classrooms. Other teacher candidates explained that because “literacy was huge in many Practicum classrooms, learning in mathematics, science, social studies and the arts was, by comparison, rarely seen.” As a result, teacher candidates found it difficult to assess children’s current understanding of concepts in these content areas, and plan and teach required developmentally-appropriate lesson plans. Teacher candidates also said it was difficult to find enough resources to support children’s learning of key concepts and skills in each of these content areas.
Teacher candidates’ beliefs concerning the disconnect between the early childhood theory they were taught in college courses, and some teaching practices they observed in Practicum, caused concern among early childhood college faculty. Such notions threatened to undermine implementation of NAEYC Standards (2009) in the future, when the teacher candidates became teachers themselves. Teacher candidates were at risk of not using recommended developmentally-appropriate practices (DAP) known to be most beneficial in supporting children’s learning in their Practicum placements.
DAP is described by NAEYC in Developmentally Appropriate Practice in Early Childhood Programs Serving Children from Birth Through Age 8 (2009). The purpose of DAP is to promote excellence in early childhood education by providing a framework for best practice. Grounded in both research on child development and learning, and in the knowledge base regarding educational effectiveness, DAP defined the practices that did this best. In addition to the lack of DAP practices in some Practicum settings, educators in the ELC, identified the following teaching areas as particularly challenging: children’s ineffectual play; a lack of discrete activities to meet children’s individual learning needs; inappropriate management of children’s behavior; and insufficient opportunities for physical play.
Building the ELC
The search to find ways to help both teacher candidates and educators improve their teaching in Practicum placements was begun and the opportunity to create an ELC presented itself. An ELC is characterized by Harvard University’s Center on the Developing Child: Early Childhood Learning Community Examples. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://developingchild.harvard.edu/...ies-in-action/
“Rapid, breakthrough change cannot happen in the field of early childhood unless people, organizations, and systems learn from each other’s successes and failures. This requires a platform for asking and answering questions such as: which interventions work for which populations and why? The Center on the Developing Child facilitates the development of learning communities that provide the means for early childhood innovators to set goals, share results, and cultivate not only leaders, but also new ideas.”
This description accorded with our mission for our ELC. The strengths of Learning Communities, which featured in our ELC design, included goal sharing across agency boundaries, shared leadership, located in classrooms, local accountability, and shared results. At the same time, it was important to recognize obstacles that can exist in learning communities (Smith, 2001). Compliance with participating institutions in learning communities and their existing practice concerning, leadership structures, resource allocation, increased workload, time, curriculum design and willingness to make changes to teaching can all be contentious, may not be supported, and can affect anticipated outcomes. For these reasons, it was essential to find funding to put the ELC on a professional and independent footing.
Funding the ELC
Funding was necessary to secure participants’ involvement in the ELC and to pay them for the work they carried out. The New York State’s Office of Family and Children’s Services (NYSOFCS) Innovative Programs Initiative awarded the ELC \$148,000 to provide professional development opportunities each semester over a two-year period.
The purposes of the grant were to: (1) establish the ELC to improve the alignment of NAEYC Standards between the early childhood curriculum development methods course and the Practicum field experience; (2) encourage teachers and teacher candidates in Practicum to use the same educational and care practices shown to be effective by current research (preferably NAEYC published research) to improve the quality of Practicum experiences offered to Practicum teacher candidates and the quality of childcare and educational services offered to preschool children (aged 3-5 years); (3) create ELC teams that each comprised two early childhood teachers (lead teacher and assistant teacher), a teacher candidate and a team leader that met in Practicum settings weekly for one semester; (4) provide educators and teacher candidates with a team leader to support them carry out and complete the professional development; (5) pay administrators of Practicum settings to provide substitute cover to release educators from their teaching and enable them to attend professional development team meetings each week; (6) pay team leaders, the librarian and the graduate assistant at an hourly rate for their work; (7) purchase books for training workshops, video cameras and digital voice recorders for data collection; (8) provide training to familiarize educators and teacher candidates with the implementation of Action Research in their classrooms to enable them to use it as a long-term problem-solving professional development strategy; (9) purchase materials for an end of semester conference where teams disseminated their Action Research findings.
The Institutional Review Board (IRB) was a legal requirement that had to be satisfied before the ELC could start. The IRB comprised an evaluation of the proposed research by a panel to ensure that all participants were protected from physical, psychological and sociological harm. Under IRB Category 11, it was determined that participants’ involvement was ethical. A satisfactory IRB review signaled that the ELC could start.
A letter was sent requesting families’ permission for their children to participate in the ELC by being video recorded in everyday classroom activities. Of the 100 families that were contacted each semester, approximately 95 families signed to give their permission. The children of families that declined were not included in video recordings or any other aspect of the ELC. Families did not participate in the professional development directly.
A Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) contract issued by the NYSOFCS itemized the roles and responsibilities of both the College and of each participating early childhood agency during each grant-funded semester. The College had to agree to meet grant goals, facilitate teachers’ team leaders’ and children’s participation, communicate with families as necessary, communicate with NYSOFCS as stipulated, and manage the budget. Administrators and directors of Early Childhood agencies and settings were required to communicate with their executive boards and get participation clearance, give permission for video tapes of children to be recorded, provide a quiet room where professional development teams could meet each week for one hour to watch video recordings and reflect on their action research, support teams over the semester, provide substitute cover to release teachers from their teaching to enable them to attend professional development team meetings each week, oversee the budget and keep all grant materials for a statutory six year period. The MOA was agreed and signed by senior administrators at the College and by the senior administrator of each Early Childhood agency.
Directors of early childhood settings in which teacher candidates were placed for Practicum were each invited to participate in the ELC for one semester. If they accepted, they signed an agreement indicating that they would meet all grant requirements as determined by the College and by NYSOFCS. In addition, a sub-contract issued by the College Research Foundation set out the requirements and responsibilities that the Directors’ governing board must agree to concerning: checking grant implementation in their Practicum classrooms, being familiar with ELC activity and responding to curriculum and teaching changes as they transpired.
The Theory of Action Research
Action Research has already been introduced in this book. Action Research was a professional development approach that was known to authors and so were confident to use it in the ELC. Definitions of Action Research illustrate why it was suited to the ELC. Cochran-Smith & Lytle, (1993) defined it as research that educators do to investigate their own teaching in their own classrooms, to better understand and improve it. Arhar, Meyers & Rust, (2003) said action research contributes to the development of improved early childhood educational practice and theory.
Other characteristics of Action Research that suited the ELC included promoting professional collaboration across different early childhood agencies, and, between different educators, teacher candidates and team leaders in Practicum settings. This collaboration had the potential to spread improved teaching practice further and support greater consistency between college methods courses and teaching practices in Practicum field placements (Karp, 2006). However, it must be acknowledged that collaboration among team members, who had not worked together before, could be risky, because it may require them to change their teaching, with uncertain outcomes for children in their own classrooms (Griffiths, 1990).
Another advantage of using Action Research in the ELC was that it was a democratic form of professional development that put teams in charge of their own professional development. The process did not impose prescriptive change on participants which they might resist (Fullen, 1993; Bainer & Wright, 2000). Instead, Action Research gave the teams choice and control over their professional decisions and actions. Teams developed skills that put the onus on them to improve their own teaching both now and in the future. Teams were encouraged to ask questions and explore their own values about teaching challenges they faced, that revealed their current levels of professional thinking and understanding (McNiff, Lomax & Whitehead, 2000).
The use of a constructivist approach in Action Research was helpful because it recognized that educators’ teaching knowledge was built overtime and in layers of experience. New knowledge about new teaching practices in Action Research would then be built on prior knowledge and values about their teaching. A constructivist approach used in Action Research made it more likely that new teaching practices would be understood by teams and incorporated into their teaching (Kochan, 2000).
The problem-solving focus of Action Research accorded with the ELC because practical action and negotiated change were called for to address teaching challenges educators faced in their classrooms. When transformed into educators’ new understanding about their teaching, problem-solving can improve practice and learning opportunities for team members and for children. More consistent practice in Practicum classrooms, that was more closely aligned with NAEYC standards at the college, could then be expected. (Karp, 2006, Helmsley-Brown and Sharp, 2003). However, Action Research has been criticized for its lack of rigor in comparison with scientific methods of educational research (Brause & Myer, 1993 p.133). A lack of replication beyond the classroom in which the Action Research was carried out was criticized by Dick (1993). However, the main aim of the ELC was not to create new educational knowledge to be tested, measured, compared across large-scale samples. Instead, it was to provide professional development opportunities to teams of educators in Practicum classrooms, to improve their knowledge and practice, concerning teaching challenges and closer alignment with NAEYC Standards (2009).
Training in the ELC
At the start of each semester, training workshops were provided by faculty at the college, to prepare Hometeam leaders, teacher candidates, directors and educators for the roles and responsibilities they faced in the ELC. Team leaders’ roles and responsibilities. Training was undertaken at the start of the semester to prepare team leaders to guide and support teams in: using Action Research methods by using texts by Meyers & Rust, 2003, and Rust & Clark; following a weekly schedule to ensure project completion at the end of the semester; reading literature on the identified teaching problem and child development; selecting a strategy from the literature for implementation; creating an assessment tool to evaluate the implementation of the strategy; helping teacher candidates use video recorders and voice recorders to gather data; supporting the team in data analysis, reflection and formulating results. Each week throughout the semester, the team leader would lead hourly professional development team meetings that took place in the Practicum placement.
The roles and responsibilities of teacher candidates who agreed to participate in the professional development community. Teacher candidates attended a training workshop at the beginning of the semester and attended weekly professional development team meetings throughout the semester. Specifically, responsibilities of Practicum students were to: find professional literature that helped the team overcome a self-chosen teaching or care problem that was related to current NAEYC standards for initial teacher preparation; operate a video camera to record the implementation of a remedial strategy; operate a voice recorder to record weekly team meeting discussions; collaborate with the graduate student to embed iMovie video recording clips into a PowerPoint presentation; and lead the team presentation of their project at an end of semester conference.
Following each team’s identification of their teaching or care problem, teacher candidates met with the college Teaching Materials Center librarian to search early childhood electronic databases for relevant journal articles that their teams could read. Journal articles published by NAEYC, that strongly reflected NAEYC Standards were copied and read by teams during team meetings. Journal articles were used to help teams learn more about their teaching or care problem, identify strategies to improve it, and, at the same time align teaching in Practicum classrooms with NAEYC standards.
A graduate assistant media technician based at the college provided training to teacher candidates on using video cameras, voice recorders and the construction of PowerPoint presentations in which iMovie clips were embedded. The presentations were shared with the local early childhood community at an end of semester professional development conference held at the college.
Each semester administrative duties comprised arranging and copying materials for training events for participants; arranging secure storage of grant materials (particularly video recordings of children in Practicum classrooms), downloading voice recordings onto a computer, filing documents related to participating teams and settings, checking video cameras and voice recorders worked properly, working with the media technician to support Practicum students in the construction of iMovie PowerPoint presentations.
The ELC training consisted of familiarizing team leaders, teacher candidates, directors and educators in using Action Research in their classrooms, by reading chapters from McNiff (2002) and by familiarizing them with each consecutive stage set out in HomeTable 1.4 below. New stages added to the ELC Action Research model included teams at Stage (5) through Stage (8). The reading of professional literature was designed to establish the habit of teams consulting and using literature together. Through reading, teams new to Action Research were provided with early childhood professional knowledge that was concrete and was known to improve the teaching challenges they faced (Meyers & Rust, 2003; Dickinson, 2002). Reading deepened teams’ knowledge about their teaching challenge and ensured their decision-making opportunities within Action Research. Abundant examples of early childhood educational research existed in journals, but fewer case studies illustrated how educators used reading to improve their teaching (Kochran, 2000, Nelson, Leffler, & Hansen, 2009).
Table 1.4: The ELC Action Research model
During Action Research, teams were introduced to two sources of literature that focused on the teaching challenge they identified. First, Using the NAEYC journal, Young Children was an obvious choice, because articles commonly reflected NAEYC Standards (2009), thereby modeling developmentally-appropriate practices, that had the potential to improve alignment between College class content and teaching practices in Practicum placements. Once teams had identified their teaching challenge, teacher candidates worked with the librarian at the College to carry out electronic database literature searches. Keywords connected to the teaching challenge were used to identify relevant journal articles at the website: https://www.naeyc.org/resources if relevant articles were not found in Young Children, other professional journals were available for searching e.g. Early Childhood Education Journal and Early Childhood Research and Practice.
Second, Yardsticks (Wood, 2007) was an informative reference book that enabled teams to check whether their chosen strategies in journals were developmentally-appropriate to implement with pre-school children in their Practicum placements. Yardsticks enabled teams to revise their understanding of typical pre-operational child development and the factors that affected it. For three-year-old pre-operational children not included in Yardsticks, other early childhood developmental texts were recommended, e.g., Wortham (2006); Allen & Marotz (2010).
Following identification and video recording of their teaching challenge, teams were prepared to critically read 3-4 relevant literature articles. Guided by the team leader, the team evaluated each article and then agreed on one strategy to implement in their placement. At the same time, teams referred to Yardsticks to evaluate the developmental appropriateness of the strategy, relative to the developmental stages and characteristics of the children in their class.
During each of four semesters, six participating teams followed a weekly calendar (see Table 1.5 below.) The calendar was designed to provide teams with clarity about weekly workflow and timely completion of their Action Research by the end of the semester.
Semester Semester week number and week date Date and time of team meeting Activity Location
Fall Week 1, 8.18. Mon 8.18. 3.00-4.30 Team leaders’ induction and training ACCC
Week 2, 9.1. Mon 9.1. 3.00-4.30 Complete IRB clearance College
Week 3, 9.8. Thurs 9.8. 4.30-5.30 Directors, teachers Practicum students and team leaders’ induction and training College
Week 4, 9.15. Mon 9.15. 3.00-4.00 Identify the problem, video and view Preschool setting
Week 5, 9.22. Mon 9.22. 3.00-4.00 Find literature on teaching problem and identify a strategy to implement College library
Week 6, 9.29. Mon 9.29. 3.00-4.00 Plan, model, implement and record implementation of strategy. Preschool setting
Week 7, 10.6. Mon 10.6. 3.00-4.00 Implement, record and reflect Preschool setting
Mid grant payment Week 8, 10.13. Mon 10.13. 3.00-4.00 Implement, record and reflect
Week 9, 10.20. Mon 10.20. 3.00-4.00 Implement, record and reflect Preschool setting
Week 10, 10.27. Mon 10.27. 3.00-4.00 Implement, record and reflect Preschool setting
Week 11, 11.3. Mon 11.3. 3.00-4.00 Analyze videos and identify findings Preschool setting
Week 12, 11.10. Mon 11.10. 3.00-4.00 Reflect and prepare documentation panels Preschool setting
Week 13, 11.17. Mon 11.17. 3.00-4.00 Reflect and prepare documentation panels Preschool setting
Week 14, 11.24. Fall Break Thanksgiving College library
Week 15, 12.1 Thurs 12.4. 2.30 -5.00 Mini-conference presentations College
Final payment Week 16, 12.8. Mon 12.8. 3.00-4.00 Team leaders’ final evaluation meeting ACCC
Table 1.5. Weekly calendar for team activity over one semester
Data collection and analysis methods were used by teams to monitor the implementation of their strategy. Teams used mixed methods to collect and analyze data throughout their Action Research because both methods illuminated and complemented each other (Wellington, 2000). During weekly team meetings, data analysis enabled teams to quantify, evaluate and reflect on the impact of strategies on the teaching challenges they faced, on alignment with NAEYC Standards (2009), on educators’ and teacher candidates’ professional understanding and on children’s learning (Bell, 1999). The data collection tools used during Action Research comprised: weekly report forms; video recordings; assessment checklists; voice recordings and, questionnaires. Team leaders completed the weekly report forms after each weekly team meeting. The purpose of weekly report forms was to: (1) indicate the action research work that teams were to undertake each week of the semester; (2) keep a weekly log of each team’s progress in implementing the action research; (3) enable team leaders to identify and record findings during the action research; (4) assess how the team responded during weekly meetings throughout the semester and provide support as needed; and (5) use data recorded on weekly report forms in final State reports.
Team leaders analyzed the weekly report forms by searching for patterns, themes and repetitions that were relevant to the Action Research investigation. Team leaders used markers to color-code data into different categories. Categories were named to label common patterns identified during the implementation of the Action Research (Delamont, 1992). Categories were compared to reveal findings in the Action Research and illustrated how teams responded at each stage of implementation.
Video recordings were an efficient tool for teams to use to gather data in the ELC because they removed the burden to record events in writing and so reduced work load. Videos captured events in Practicum placements as they happened and enabled teams to watch them repeatedly. Teacher candidates used a mini-DV video camera and video tapes to record their team’s implementation of one strategy over a semester. Although most teacher candidates were already proficient in using a mini-DV video camera, they underwent training to ensure they were competent in operating this technology. Teacher candidates used ethical actions in the videoing of young children in placements during Practicum.
Videos (each approximately 20 minutes long) were recorded by teacher candidates about 4-5 times over the semester. Recorded videos were stored by the graduate assistant who converted them into document files in readiness for analysis (Stemler, 2001). Teams watched videos at weekly team meetings to evaluate, analyze and reflect on: strategy implementation; impact on the teaching challenge, how teaching was affected; how children’s learning was impacted and how far alignment with NAEYC Standards was achieved (Plowman, 1999; Heath & Hindmarsh, 2002; Walker, 2002; Walsh, 2007).
As teams watched each video recording, they used a checklist to consistently analyze it. (See Table 1.6 below: The strategy assessment checklist). Teams counted the frequency of outcomes observed in each video tape and compared the result from one tape to the next. Each week, teams answered the same questions about their Action Research that enabled them to consistently evaluate and reflect on the impact of strategy implementation over the semester.
Strategy Assessment Checklist
The strategy assessment checklist is used when teams view videos of strategy implementation in their classrooms. Assessment criteria come from: (1) categories in the video data and (2) strategy outcomes identified by the team as illustrating effectiveness of the strategy. The assessment grid is used to record quantitative examples of the criteria in the frequency column and qualitative examples in the Comments column.
Practicum setting:
Date:
Video No:
Strategy:
Assessment Criteria Frequency Comments
Named categories:
Strategy outcomes:
Table 1.6: The strategy assessment checklist
Team reflection after video is viewed:
1. Is the strategy working? How?
2. Is the original teaching challenge being improved? How?
3. Is the children’s learning improving? How?
4. Is your teaching changing? How?
5. Is your understanding of your teaching changing? How?
Team leaders used a digital voice recorder to record weekly team-meeting discussions. These were stored electronically by the graduate assistant on a laptop computer in a Wave voice format (WAV). Digital voice recorders were simple to use and left the team free to concentrate on discussion rather than writing down what was said (The National Centre for Technology in Education 2007). Each week teacher candidates returned the voice recorder, with saved voice files on it, to the team leader, who later analyzed Voice files qualitatively, by grouping recurring themes into named categories, concerning the impact of the strategy. At the end of each semester, analyzed data along with team discussions about video-tape data were used in the writing up of NYOFCS final reports.
At the end of each semester, questionnaires were given to the twelve participating educators in classrooms, and to the six participating teacher candidates, to gather their written evaluations of the Action Research professional development model. By this time, educators and teacher candidates had experienced a whole semester of Action Research professional development to reflect upon. Educators and teacher candidates were invited to anonymously write their responses because it gave them an opportunity to write freely.
Educators’ questionnaires included both closed and open-ended questions that enabled both quantitative and qualitative analysis of data. Closed questions required them to check a Likert rating scale that asked them to identify how far they agreed or disagreed with a statement about the Action Research. These responses were analyzed quantitatively. Accompanying open-ended questions enabled educators to explain their ratings. The open-ended questions were analyzed qualitatively by looking for repetitions and patterns in their responses that were formed into categories and named (McNiff, Lomax and Whitehead, 1996). The questionnaire for teacher candidates comprised open-ended questions that required qualitative analysis using the same qualitative methods described for educators.
Presenting Findings
There is a responsibility among early childhood Action Researchers to disseminate the processes and results of their Action Research so that others may learn from it and improved teaching methods are used in policy documents and in classrooms (McNiff, Lomax & Whitehead, 2000, O’Hanlon 1994, Henderson 2004). Early childhood Action Research is often of a case-study design involving a small number of people working in one classroom. It is important that early childhood Action Researchers move beyond the confines of their own classrooms and become contributors to the early childhood field by showing others what they did and the impact it had on their own teaching development and on children’s learning. When Action Researchers share their work at conferences and in workshops, they reach a larger audience. Action researchers can help other early childhood educators who face similar teaching and care problems to the ones they faced. They can demonstrate to administrators and faculty who work in different agencies, how theory and practice can work in harmony and help align Standards to promote greater consistency between theory and practice during Practicum for teacher candidates.
Early childhood educators and teacher candidates are commonly in the audience at early childhood conferences but less often do they make presentations together about their own Action Research carried out in their own classrooms (Nias, 1993). Early childhood educators and teacher candidates who have participated in Action Research together, have to be supported by more experienced supervisors and administrators, to go public about their professional development work, because of its authenticity. Reporting on the processes and results of early childhood Action Research that is located in classrooms with young children, provides the most compelling evidence of what works, and, what is therefore beneficial to future early childhood policy and practice. It also provides alternatives to present notions that early childhood professional development is about implementing Standards, without regard to important processes that support improved outcomes, and also, that purchased and even scripted programs imported into classrooms are the way to improve educators’ practice.
The opportunity for ELC teams to disseminate their Action Research work took place at half-day conferences held at the college at the end of each semester. Six participating teams showed their 20 minute-long iMovie PowerPoint presentation to invited members of the local early childhood community that included New York State Office of Child and Family Services (NYSOCFS) officials, librarians, technical staff, faculty, Practicum directors and other Practicum students. About 60 delegates attended each conference. In addition, about three team leaders and teacher candidates showed their iMovie PowerPoint presentations at State early childhood conferences, to further spread the model at work. In addition, three team leaders presented their teams’ Action Research work at national early childhood conferences.
Teacher candidates worked on their presentations throughout the semester of Action Research that included writing slides, editing and inserting video clips and voice recording clips and, reporting and reflecting on research results. At each end of semester conference, and with their teams present, teacher candidates led the presentation of their Action Research and answered questions from the audience. A rubric was used to evaluate teacher candidates’ work and course credit duly awarded.
At the end of the grant implementation, IMovie PowerPoint presentations were organized into a database of DVDs. These were used in subsequent early childhood college methods classes to model consistency of NAEYC Standards based college methods course content and teaching in Practicum placements. In addition, databases illustrated changed teaching among educators that resulted in improved learning opportunities for both teacher candidates and children. Final case-study reports of Action Research work undertaken at each participating Practicum setting and its results were submitted to NYSOCFS at the end of each semester. These reports constituted a permanent record of the ELC at work.
In Part II of this book, six ELC case studies of early childhood professional development are presented showing what teams of educators did to improve the teaching challenges they faced in their classrooms. Each case study show how teams used our ELC Action Research model to investigate teaching challenges in their classrooms; aligned new teaching practices more closely with NAEYC early childhood professional standards for initial teacher preparation; and reported on the responses of participants to the ELC. The six case studies were selected for inclusion in this book because they represented the same teaching challenges reported by teacher candidates, concerning: children’s poor quality free play; few opportunities for children to explore concepts in content areas; the problematical behavior of young boys; and, a lack of effective inclusion of each child with diverse learning needs.
To help readers, a summary of the Action Research carried out in each case study is provided at the start of each chapter. | textbooks/socialsci/Early_Childhood_Education/Book%3A_The_ELC_-_An_Early_Childhood_Learning_Community_at_Work_(Bridge_Melita_and_Roiger)/01%3A_Setting_up_the_Early_Learning_Community_(ELC)/1.01%3A_Building_Blocks_for_the_ELC.txt |
Thumbnail: www.pexels.com/photo/close-u...riting-256468/
02: Case Studies
What is “ socio-dramatic play ?” It is the mechanism in which children recreate, through their natural inclination to play, incidents they have experienced and/or have made up in fantasy.
Teaching Challenge
Children’s socio-dramatic play was deemed inadequate.
Background
Strategy: The approach was to introduce “talking time” during the circle time, when the children would come together as a group and activities were planned for the day. This served “Talking Time” to create opportunities for children to express ideas for socio-dramatic play, and to generate ways for educators to support those ideas.
Context: The action research took place in a rural Head-Start Pre-K classroom for 4-5 year olds. There were 16 children in the class with a lead educator and an assistant educator. Full day care was provided to children including those with exceptional learning needs. Educators used the High/Scope curriculum and Head-Start learning outcomes to guide their teaching.
Findings
(1) Children’s fleeting socio-dramatic play existed, but educators did not recognize it.
(2) Children’s imaginative play was only apparent when educators asked them “open-ended” questions. An open-ended question requires more than a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ answer.
(3) “Talking Time” revealed that boys often had multiple, dynamic, and sequential ideas for socio-dramatic play.
(4) Children’s ideas comprised fantasy and real topics and often included moral themes.
(5) Children had creative ideas about how they could use materials to make their own play props.
(6) Children’s ideas for socio-dramatic play moved between circle time, the art area, and the socio-dramatic center.
(7) When children shared props, their play was more inclusive and encouraged control over their own actions.
(8) When children used their own ideas in socio-dramatic play, educators observed their greater use of literacy and mathematical skills and educators were able to transition to facilitating rather than controlling the play.
Fig. 2.1: The teaching challenge ~ children’s socio-dramatic play was inadequate
Educators identified the poor quality of children’s socio-dramatic play in this challenge, and described it thus: Few children went into the socio-dramatic play area, and if they did, they did not stay there for any significant amount of time. Children’s play was thought to be “basic” because they commonly used objects in literal ways, e.g., a child holds a doll and offers it a drink from a cup, as seen in fig. 2.1. Educators wondered if computer games had robbed children of imagination. Children, the educators speculated, were now used to being entertained, and were far less inclined to make up their own play plots or sustain them. Working parents had little time to interact and play with their children which may be one explanation for the lack of children’s socio-dramatic play.
To investigate the challenge further, the teacher candidate recorded a video of the children in the socio-dramatic play area. As educators watched the video, they more fully comprehended and described the teaching challenge, and expressed their own beliefs about socio-dramatic play.
Many children, boys in particular, did not interact in the socio-dramatic play area. Some boys were disruptive and broke each other’s props. Boys tended to act out roles on their own, e.g., changing the baby and mopping the floor. Educators said the boys did not play well together. Socio-dramatic play had a “cookie-cutter” quality about it and was described as “boring.” Educators wondered how they could get children, and boys in particular, to interact more in the socio-dramatic area. Sustaining the play was also part of the challenge because it often consisted of isolated tasks that were gender traditional and difficult to develop, e.g., carrying the baby around and changing the baby’s diaper.
Materials in the socio-dramatic area reflected everyday situations, e.g., going to a restaurant or visiting a beauty shop. Children used cooking pots and dress-up clothes, but materials were not used imaginatively to represent other purposes. The lack of imaginative plots made further development of the play more difficult.
Values about S ocio-Dramatic Play
Educators said socio-dramatic play supported children’s development, both social and emotional. It helped children accept others who were different from themselves, and to learn tolerance of children with diverse needs. The socio-dramatic area offered boys the opportunity to take on roles that challenged stereotypical male behavior. It was thought useful for boys to act out traditionally female roles because they could then learn about social and family dynamics of varied composition.
Alignment with NAEYC Standards
The value of play in children’s lives was emphasized in NAEYC Standards (2009) and was articulated in detail in Standard 1: Promoting Child Development and Learning; Standard 3: Observing, Documenting and Assessing to Support Young Children and Families; and Standard 4: Using Developmentally Effective Approaches to Connect with Children and Families. Well prepared early childhood teacher candidates were required to base their practice on a sound knowledge and understanding of young children’s characteristics and needs through play. They were to provide children with opportunities to play and learn so that they understood and made sense of experiences both through spontaneous and guided investigations. Because spontaneous play was a powerful force in support of children’s development, well-prepared teacher candidates were expected to observe and support children in playful situations and in more formal learning contexts.
Aims of the A ction Research
The aims of this action research project were to enable the team to improve socio-dramatic play, aligning it with relevant standards; building consistency for teacher candidates between their college and Practicum experiences; and, improving teacher candidates’ planning and teaching of their socio-dramatic play lesson.
Creating a Baseline Assessment
The team created a “check-list” of the teaching challenges they identified. While watching a 20-minute video of children in the socio-dramatic area, the team was able to count the frequency of each behavior to assess how problematic it was.
Teaching Challenges in socio-dramatic play Frequencies
Children do not play together 6
Children do not share materials 3
Socio-dramatic play is mundane 5
Socio-dramatic play is not sustained 3
Socio-dramatic play area is underused 3
Socio-dramatic play is stereo-typical 1
Socio-dramatic play is not imaginative 4
Pretend play not evident 2
Children’s own ideas lacking 3
Socio-dramatic play is static 3
Children do not self-regulate 4
Table 2.1: The checklist of teaching challenges in socio-dramatic play
Thirty-seven behaviors were recorded in categories of challenge. Six examples of solitary or parallel play indicated that children seldom played together. Children copied one another as they carried dolls around and fed them. Children commented, “I’m sitting next to my baby,” and “I’m a dad.” On four occasions, children played with materials in literal ways, e.g., holding a bottle to the baby’s mouth. Children did not often share materials. On five occasions, the team described the play as “mundane” because children did not speak or develop the play beyond repetitive actions. The play was uninspiring for the team, if not necessarily for the children. On four occasions, play was not sustained. The socio-dramatic area was underused because only seven out of 16 children played there over the 20-minute period. Single gender play was not often stereotypical. All children, regardless of whether they were a boy or a girl, largely played out domestic roles. On five occasions, children played parental roles that appeared to be in response to the play materials at hand. On three occasions, the play was static because it did not develop beyond the use of materials in literal ways. For example, babies were put in high chairs at feeding times, and cups were used to give babies drinks. One boy said while mopping the floor, “I’m making it nice and clean.”
Only one example of self-regulation was observed when a child attempted to solve a problem. The child wanted to feed his baby with a bottle, and offered another child a cup in exchange for the bottle she was using. As educators watched the video, and recorded the frequencies of challenges, they reflected that they would have expected children in the 4 to 5-year old age range to demonstrate higher levels of play. The team was concerned that the children who had been in the classroom for one semester already had not yet formed friendships necessary to engage in social play. However, several children with special needs played alone so the diversity of ability had to be taken into account.
The team noticed other unexpected but positive behaviors in the video. A child who rarely played in the socio-dramatic area spent a prolonged period changing a baby’s diaper. A girl, described as a “flitter,” spent considerable time making a chain out of links which required a definite level of concentration. Educators observed in footage toward the end of the video, six fleeting examples of pretend play concerned with dragons. A quiet child was identified as having initiated the dragon play. Educators were shocked that this child had such imaginative ideas for pretend play about dragons, even as the children were seen hiding in cupboards and wearing hats to represent themselves as dragons.
Had the children not been recorded, the educators would never have seen these fleeting instances of play. One teacher said, “I had no idea how they started playing dragons. I didn’t know so much went on. We really need to sit down and pay attention to the play. What did it mean when they put bowls on their heads to represent being dragons?”
Educators had recorded observations of children on a daily basis, however, as a means to provide evidence of specific Head Start learning outcomes, behaviors not included were not recorded. After discovering that they had undoubtedly missed these instances of play, the team wanted to find ways to improve their ability to identify and record such behaviors in the future.
Develo ping Dragon Play
The team decided to act immediately to sustain the dragon play before it disappeared. Educators realized that because they had not seen the dragon play before, their evaluation of children’s learning and development was inaccurate. The team showed the video to the children the next day and asked them to explain what was happening. Children were asked open-ended questions to support the dragon play, e.g., “What can we do to help you play? What can I bring for you?”
Results
At the next team meeting, educators reported that children were full of “great ideas that showed their thinking in their fantasy play.” Children’s answers to questions revealed how they were aware of “evil versus good forces.” Some children said they were either “good” or “bad” dragons. Children described their roles in the play. Even though the dragons were invisible, children hid in holes with them. Children identified the materials they needed to develop their play, e.g., costumes to act out the role of princesses, paper shields to protect them from the dragons’ fire, dragons’ wings to fly and a reindeer nose. Children planned to build a dragon’s den with a roof, walls, and a door with handles so they could lock the “bad” dragon out.
Team R eflection
Educators reflected on how asking questions had improved their ability to learn about children’s play. Previously they were not aware of the content of children’s play, or, of how they could support it. As a result, educators underestimated children’s social, intellectual, and creative abilities. Children used three areas of the classroom at the same time. During circle time, the whole group of 16 children discussed plans for socio-dramatic play. In the art area, ten children made props for the play. In the socio-dramatic play area, six children played out the plot. Educators described how children demonstrated more self-regulation as all abilities worked cooperatively, acted out their own ideas, organized the play, made props, problem-solved, and developed the plot from day to day. Educators remarked how they themselves really enjoyed the play and wanted to know how to sustain it.
Se lected Literature
The teacher candidate worked with the college librarian and found three journal articles for the team to read:
(1) Egan, K. (1991) Young children’s imagination and learning: Engaging children’s emotional response. Young Children 49 (6) 27-32.
(2) Howell, J. & Corbey-Scullen, L. (1997) Out of the socio-dramatic keeping corner and onto the stage – extending dramatic play. Young Children 52(6) 82-88.
(3) Manz, D. (1966) This is the socio-dramatic area that Kindergarten built. Young Children 52 (1).
The team chose one strategy from the article Outof the Socio-dramatic keeping corner and Onto the Stage – Extending Dramatic Play. The strategy called “Talking Time” gave children opportunities to express their ideas for socio-dramatic play and explain how the educators could support those ideas (Howell & Corbey-Scullen, (1997) p 83). The strategy reinforced what educators had already started doing during circle time.
The team also referred to Wood (2007) to confirm that the talking time strategy was developmentally appropriate for 4 to 5-year-old children.
Assessment o f the Strategy
The team developed a second checklist…astrategy assessment grid (see completed version at Table 2.2) to assess and measure the effectiveness of the “Talking Time” strategy. They identified desirable socio-dramatic play outcomes to help them know what to look for in videos, and to determine what constituted evidence of improvement. Questions were devised to guide the team’s consistent reflection. The strategy assessment grid was used each time the team viewed a video.
First Stage of Strategy I mplementation
Fig. 2.2: Implementing the “talking time” strategy
A 20-minute video showed the first stage of the “talking time strategy” during circle time. Analysis of the video revealed the following.
Assessment Criteria Frequency Comments
*Children suggest characters 6 Roles in play
*Children suggest educators’ roles 1 To provide materials
*Children express ideas for play 34 Boys contribute fully
*Plot is dynamic 4 Different plots suggested
*Children resolve own problems (self-regulate) 21 Rationale for thinking
Boys interact in play
Boys share materials
Use materials creatively
Play is novel New scenarios are suggested
Play area is well used (how many children?)
Play is inclusive
*Play plot is imaginative Very imaginative
*Pretend play exists Frequently
*Children go in and out of role Long enough to explain play
* Assessed during “talking time” at circle time
Table 2.2: Video analysis checklist
Team reflection after video is viewed:
• Is the strategy working? How?
• Is the original teaching challenge being improved upon? How?
• Is children’s learning improving? –How?
• Is your understanding of your teaching changing? How?
• Is your teaching changing? How?
Video A nalysis and Results
One week after the introduction of “talking time,” the teacher candidate recorded a video during circle time. Using the strategy assessment grid at Table 2.3, analysis showed that children suggested character roles on six occasions in different play plots. Plots included: a man to pay for puppies bought in the pet store; a person to take dogs outside; a pet doctor; a fishing pole maker, and a team of good dragons. The talking time strategy was highly effective in providing educators with opportunities to ask children to come up with their own ideas about characters and roles in socio-dramatic play.
Fig. 2.3: The impact of talking time on children’s socio-dramatic play
Children asked educators to provide them with materials to make props for the play. On 34 occasions children requested paper to make signs to keep dragons out of the play area, an X-ray machine for the veterinarian, flames for the dragons, tape and string to make spiders’ webs, a syringe to vaccinate pets; a fish tank, a fishing pole, and a rope.
Children suggested four play plots that included: a pet store called “Animal Actions;” the dragon’s den; a fishing trip and spiders which indicated that children held multiple play-plots in their minds at one time. Play plots were dynamic and included ones they had performed before. The teaching challenge of static play was overcome. Children showed 21 examples of resolving their own problems with props in the play. This included explaining why certain materials were needed in the pet store. For example, a table was needed “so dogs could lie down” and another table was needed to help “dogs with an infection.” In response to the teacher’s question about why they should get an X-ray machine, one child responded, “We could buy it so we could look at bones.” Children suggested making “spider webs, tall bridges, and a door with a lock on it,” as suitable deterrents to keep the bad dragons out of the socio-dramatic area.
Boys dominated “talking time” discussions and contributed many new imaginative ideas for pretend play. One boy said “We need to work as a team to keep mean dragons out.” Boys slipped in and out of pretend roles as they described play-plots and materials educators could provide to make props. This result suggested that Talking Time provided the children, and boys in particular, with opportunities to express highly imaginative play ideas that the educators needed to listen to.
Team R eflections
Questions on the strategy assessment grid at table 2.3 guided team reflection. “Talking Time” worked well as it allowed educators, including the teacher candidate, to create daily opportunities for children’s ideas to be expressed during circle time. The team concluded that the teaching challenges concerning children’s mundane play, in which their own imaginative ideas did not feature, were overcome.
With more imaginative play, many aspects of the original teaching challenge were improved. A teacher commented, “There has been a blossoming of children’s ideas that are key to improving socio-dramatic play.”
Children’s learning improved in many ways. Wider vocabulary was used as children participated in planning discussions and then in acting out the play. Children’s literacy skills were reinforced when they saw educators write their ideas for plans on a flip chart. Children “wrote” letters and numbers as they created props. They expressed their creativity as they made props for their play. During free-play time, educators commented how the whole curriculum rotated between circle time, the art area, and the socio-dramatic play area.
Educators’ understanding of their teaching techniques changed. Initially, educators had set up the socio-dramatic area, but now they asked the children questions about the area, and listened to their answers. Educators learned how to successfully support and sustain the play. Educators commented that the video had been an invaluable tool in helping them see the impact of talking time on children’s learning. Watching it several times helped to make sense of what was happening.
Educators said their own teaching had changed because they had a better understanding of children’s thinking. Changes in educators’ roles and practices were identified. Educators were much more involved with listening to children’s play ideas and helping children fabricate the resources they would need to act out them out. Educators said they enjoyed observing the children’s play more now, because it was so much richer than before. The way in which children used multiple classroom play areas meant educators were able to participate in the planning, resourcing, and acting out of the play. One teacher described the change in her teaching as “an explosion, but in a really, really good way.”
The strategy provided opportunities for NAEYC standards 1, 3 and 4 to be met. Requirements concerning educators improved the following: understanding of young children’s development and learning through fantasy play; increasing children’s reasoning and understanding through play; and providing opportunities to observe and support children’s play. These improvements were now featured during Practicum. The teacher candidate experienced improved consistency between the content she learned in college courses and professional practice during Practicum.
Second Stage of I mplementation of the Strategy
A second 20-minute video was recorded to discover the impact of the strategy on the quality of children’s learning during socio-dramatic play. The following criteria and frequencies were observed and recorded:
Assessment Criteria Frequency Comments
Children suggest characters 0
Children suggest educators’ roles 0
Children express ideas for play 0
Plot is dynamic 0
Children resolve own problems (self-regulate) 0
* Boys interact in play 10 Dragon flight, signs
* Boys share materials 3 Bandages, doctor’s kit
* Use materials creatively 8 Signs, shots, syringe, stop sign
* Play is novel 3 Copies Christmas list, numbers
* Play area is well used (how many children?) 8 Changing, doctors, dragons, vets
* Play is inclusive 3 Door to let in or out
* Play is imaginative 6 Boys with dragon claws, shields
* Pretend play exists 7 Dragons, binding pet’s tail
* Children go in and out of role 3 Stop signs
* Assessed during socio-dramatic play
Table 2.3: The strategy’s impact on children’s learning during socio-dramatic play
Boys interacted with other boys on ten occasions. They lay on the floor acting out the roles of knights and dragons. Some flapped their wings and roared like dragons. Others held shields up to protect their eyes. Boys searched for the dragon that slept under the table saying, “Don’t wake him up!” Two boys gave “bad dragons” shots to make them better. Boys stuck “written” signs on the den. They shared materials on three occasions… when they used the doctor’s kit on sick animals; bandaged a sick cat’s tail; and gave animals shots. Boys mended a broken shield by applying new tape to the back. On two occasions, boys held the trains of girls dressed as princesses, and the pairs processed up and down the classroom. The quality of socio-dramatic play was greatly enhanced by children’s increased opportunities to plan and discuss their own imaginative play plots, to move around freely to develop the play, to solve problems, to manipulate materials and to use literacy and mathematical skills. As a result, the challenges of children not playing together, not showing imagination, and not sharing materials were greatly reduced.
Fig. 2.4: Children interact and make props for socio-dramatic play
Children used materials creatively in the art area on eight occasions. They “wrote” signs to put at the entrance to the den. One boy made a syringe to treat sick dragons and represented the liquid with a strand of wool. Many children made pairs of symmetrically decorated wings. Girls made crowns to go with their princess dresses. One child made antlers, a tail, and a pink nose to wear so she could represent “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.” Another child made a paper lock to keep bad dragons out. Evidence suggested that the teaching challenge concerning a lack of pretend play was conquered.
The play incorporated surprising elements of ingenuity on three occasions. One child used a list of children’s names displayed on the classroom wall to copy letters onto a sign. Children wrote numbers on signs and placed them at the entrance to the socio-dramatic area. Up to eight children were seen in the socio-dramatic area at one time. The play spilled over into art and literacy areas of the room so that, at times, all 16 children in the class were involved. Much of the play focused on concepts of dragons being “good or bad” and “in or out” of the socio-dramatic area, suggesting that children had their own ways of exploring moral concepts. Evidence showed that challenges concerning the previously underused, stereo-typical, socio-dramatic play area were solved.
On six occasions children took on pretend roles, moved between classroom areas, and played in three play-plots at one time. Children acted out pretend roles as they fanned dragons’ flames, played Mr. Wolf, and imagined the dragons either inside or outside of the socio-dramatic area. Children moved easily in and out of roles as they either played a role, or gave instructions that were relevant to the role. For example, one child said, “The dragons want to come in.” Another responded: “Get a door knob (to lock them out). A third said, “She’s making the doorknob out of paper.” This evidence suggested that the play was highly imaginative and that children thought and communicated on multiple levels during the socio-dramatic play. The teaching challenge concerned with dull, unimaginative, and mundane play was overcome.
Team Reflections
The “talking time” strategy was very successful. When children were able to initiate their own ideas for play, new opportunities were created for educators to “jump right in and support their learning and development.”
The team was pleasantly surprised at the overlap between play plots. The play moved quickly between wolves, the zoo, coyotes, fishing, and dragons. By using the rug, art, block and socio-dramatic areas, children’s play was expanded beyond the socio-dramatic area throughout the classroom.
Children’s learning was definitely improving. When making props, children developed new literacy skills by using sentence strips to read and write signs. In play, children creatively used materials to represent objects they needed. They showed their understanding of concepts and knowledge across curriculum areas. One teacher commented: “How would we have ever known that shields were made to protect their faces from the dragons’ fire?”
Educators’ understanding of their teaching was changing. They abandoned their belief that socio-dramatic play only took place in the area designated for that purpose. They no longer believed that play was focused on one play plot at a time. Educators no longer thought that children’s play was based on real-life events. Instead they were surprised to see children’s interest in moral ideas such as good forces being allowed “in” and bad forces being kept “out.” Educators described an example of this behavior when a child used a fishing pole to “catch” a bad wolf. He took the wolf out of the socio-dramatic area, placed him in a cage, and locked him up in a zoo.
Teaching roles in the classroom changed. Educators and teacher candidates’ practice was improved during Practicum. They were amazed at children’s play that showed examples of leadership, tolerance, and concern for what the children identified as “good” and “bad” forces. Educators no longer took on a supervisory role during play. During circle time each day, they carefully listened to the children’s ideas. Educators observed children’s socialization that indicated who led, who followed, who was an outsider, and what friendship groups existed in the classroom. The talking time strategy enabled teams’ practice to be aligned with NAEYC standards 1, 3 and 4.
Third Stage of Strategy Implementation: Educators’Roles in Socio-Dramatic Play
Developing the roles educators played in socio-dramatic play required further improvement. The talking time strategy successfully allowed educators to take on new roles. They were better able to hear and understand play ideas and provide new materials for children to make props to act out their ideas. However, educators also wanted to discover and quantify the effect of their involvement in socio-dramatic play. A final video showed their impact and was logged on the assessment criteria grid:
Assessment Criteria Frequency Comments
Children suggest characters 0
Children suggest educators’ roles 0
Children express ideas for play 0
Plot is dynamic 0
Children resolve own problems (self-regulate) 0
* Boys interact in play 4
* Boys share materials 4
* Use materials creatively 5
* Play is novel 5 Many play plots developed
* Play area is well used (how many children?) 5
* Play is inclusive 6 Large groups involved in play
* Play is imaginative 5 Fantasy play
* Pretend play exists 5 Throughout the play
* Children go in and out of role 2 As they give instructions
* Assessed during socio-dramatic play
Table 2.4: Educators’ involvement in socio-dramatic play
One educator and four children hid from wolves by covering their heads with blankets. Children howled like wolves and ducked to the ground to avoid a lion. One child asked while pointing to a hiding place on the floor, “Are they still in there?” The teacher sat with a crown on her head and pretended to be a wolf. A second child asked, “Are they still there?” Children jumped as they moved the blankets down from their faces to peep and check whether the wolves were still in the hiding place. One child, who was a lead player, narrated what happened throughout the play.
Team R eflections
The team reported that the “Talking Time” strategy had worked “wonderfully” because it gave educators access to children’s ideas for play. When educators understood these ideas, they were in an informed position to support play effectively.
The quality of socio-dramatic play had improved beyond all expectations. Educators could see the different content areas and associated concepts embedded in those areas. They commented how concepts, for example, concerned with “putting locks on doors to keep bad dragons out” would never have occurred to them. Using syringes to give puppies injections to make them well was beyond educators’ own imagination.
Children’s learning was much improved. Their fantasy play removed learning from the confines of mundane everyday situations, with outcomes addressing all content areas. Concepts in the content areas were wider and more elaborate than educators had expected.
Educators’ understanding of their teaching changed from their being directors to facilitators of socio-dramatic play. They increasingly understood more about young children’s thought and how it differed from their own. Even when children answered questions at circle time, it was not always easy for educators to respond appropriately. Children’s thinking, they found, was qualitatively different from their own. Educators were learning to enter the play, and to respond to children through play.
Three themes emerged concerning the educators’ new teaching roles. First, close proximity to children was important for educators’ understanding of the play. When educators participated, they could see the socialization patterns among children, i.e., who developed, who followed, and who was on the margins of the play.
The second theme concerned educators’ fear of overly directing the play. To avoid this, educators asked children for their opinions, and required explanations of what was happening. Educators asked leading questions, for example, “How far does the awning need to be lowered for the pit-crew?’ and “Tell us why the wolves came?” Educators reflected on the origin of children’s ideas and wondered where they had gotten their information about wolves and zoos. Children’s ability to generate imaginative thoughts was more apparent to the educators when they participated in the play. When educators observed, interacted and conversed with children at the art table, they recognized inventiveness of children.
Third, involvement in the play helped educators assess children’s abilities more accurately. Closer observation revealed children’s ideas and resourcefulness.
Final Reflections
The aims of the action research were achieved. Reading about and implementing the “Talking Time” strategy had a transformative effect on educators’ teaching. Improved early childhood teaching practices resulted in closer alignment with NAEYC Standards (2009) 1, 2 and 3. By the end of the semester, elements of Standard 4: Using Developmentally Effective Approaches to Connect with Children and Standard 5: Using Content Knowledge to Build Meaningful Curriculum were also met. “Talking Time” nurtured positive relationships between educators and children. Children’s learning was evident in content areas including language and literacy, the arts, science and social studies. Greater consistency existed between the theory taught in college classes and educators’ practice in classrooms. The teacher candidate’s understanding of how high quality socio-dramatic play looked in action helped her write her lesson plan assignments.
The original teaching challenge was much improved through talking time. Time was allotted and opportunities were created each day for educators to listen and respond appropriately to children’s ideas. Children articulated their imaginative ideas and learned through the applied play experiences. Once educators relinquished control of the play, they no longer set up the play scenarios, but instead responded to what children told them. As a result, children’s learning improved in social, physical, language, intellectual, creative and emotional developmental areas. The use of video cameras during talking time improved educators’ assessment. Educators saw and observed the entire play and did not merely look for predetermined learning outcomes. Educators valued children’s play more highly and no longer missed children’s ideas expressed in fantasy. More accurate assessments were carried out and that meant children’s abilities were no longer underestimated.
Talking time changed educators’ values about socio-dramatic play. Educators worked to change their adult perceptions, and instead appreciated children’s fantasy-based ideas. “Talking time” enabled educators to re-evaluate the role of parents in children’s socio-dramatic play as well. Busy parents, they concluded, did not have to be barriers to children’s imaginative play. Instead, families were encouraged to observe and participate in it at home because of the rich learning opportunities that imaginative play presented. At the start of the action research, educators identified the teaching challenge as “boys’ lack of imaginative play.” Talking time had amazed educators by revealing that boys had a wealth of ideas for play and were often the play leaders in the classroom. Educators next decided to focus on the needs of girls in socio-dramatic play. | textbooks/socialsci/Early_Childhood_Education/Book%3A_The_ELC_-_An_Early_Childhood_Learning_Community_at_Work_(Bridge_Melita_and_Roiger)/02%3A_Case_Studies/2.01%3A_Improving_Childrens_Socio-Dramatic_Play.txt |
Teaching Challenge
Lack of a well-developed science area in a Pre-K classroom.
Background
Strategy: Creating a designated science area to improve children’s scientific learning.
Context: The action research took place over one semester in a rural Head-Start pre-kindergarten classroom for 4-5 year olds. Full daycare was provided to children of all abilities including those with exceptional learning needs. There were 16 children in the class with a teacher and an assistant teacher. The High/Scope curriculum was used in the classroom.
Findings
1. The number of observed science learning indicators demonstrated by children increased from 16 to 74.
2. The number of science categories in which science indicators were observed increased from three to six.
3. A designated science area in the classroom resulted in educators giving science a higher priority in the curriculum.
4. Multiple examples of the same materials increased children’s exploration.
5. Children most frequently used their senses of sight and touch to explore science materials.
6. Children engaged most with materials they could manipulate.
7. The presence of an adult in the science area resulted in children staying in the area for longer periods of time, using more language, and socializing more.
8. Literacy and math concepts in the science area needed to be purposefully supported by adults.
9. Time and materials needed to be made available to children in the science area for them to record their science observations.
10. Science concepts that children explored in the science area were extended during adult-guided small group activities.
Summary of the Action Research
The aim was to create an area specifically designed to improve children’s scientific learning. Providing children with adequate time and materials to explore in the science area resulted in increased instances of science learning and use of scientific language; increased use of senses; and increased socialization. Educators more effectively supported children’s active learning in the science area, and gave science a higher priority in the curriculum. Children spent more time in the science area, and their science learning was extended into directed small group and whole group times. A speech therapist used the science area to support a child with language delay. This was a change from taking him out of the classroom for speech therapy.
The Teaching C hallenge
Fig 3.1: The teaching challenge ~ children’s play is undeveloped in the science area
The teaching challenge was presented as a lack of a well-developed science area to support children’s learning in that discipline.
Four reasons existed to explain this challenge. First, access to appropriate science materials was limited, but the team knew that children could still use everyday materials to explore science concepts, e.g., manipulating nuts and bolts with their hands to explore shape. The use of portable science kits provided one solution but the circulation between several Head-Start settings made consistent availability a problem.
Second, the emphasis on literacy in the Head-Start curriculum resulted in the neglect of science provision. At the time of the challenge, science provision was sporadic at best, but the team wanted to feature it in the curriculum on a daily basis to stimulate the children’s scientific curiosity.
Third, educators’ confidence in their own ability to teach science was problematic. Educators favored more science in the curriculum, and they wanted it to be fun for children, but they were not confident that their own knowledge of biology, physics, and chemistry would enable them to do this. And lastly, children were rarely drawn to the existing science area or the materials in it.
Team Values
The team highly valued science in the preschool curriculum. Science provided children with opportunities to explore concepts, investigate materials, and develop a sense of wonder about the world around them. Science provision was strong during adult-directed small-group times, e.g., making play-dough, hatching chicks, growing pumpkins, and cooking spaghetti, but science was not well resourced as a free-choice. Educators believed that scientific concepts and materials should be made freely available to children to build their literacy, mathematics and problem-solving skills.
Aim of the Action Research
The aim of this action research was to: (1) create a well-resourced science area that would support each child’s scientific exploration and learning; (2) enable all children to have access to the science area during free-play times on a daily basis; (3) align science provision with NAEYC Standards (2009); (4) provide teacher candidates with a Practicum field experience in which these standards—and college course content regarding the teaching of science—was consistent; and (5) improve teacher candidates’ opportunities to plan and implement science assignments during Practicum that reflected NAEYC Standards (2009).
Alignment with NAEYC Standards (2009)
The importance of teaching content in the early childhood curriculum is emphasized in NAEYC Standard 5: Using Content Knowledge to Build Meaningful Curriculum. Teacher candidates are required to use academic disciplines to design, implement, and evaluate experiences that promote security and regulation, problem solving and thinking, and academic competence in every young child. Teacher candidates are required to further support their science teaching and children’s science learning by identifying and using developmentally appropriate practices and resources that include books, standards, documents, web resources, and to utilize individuals who have specialized content expertise.
Baseline Assessment
A 20-minute long video was recorded to form a baseline assessment of how children used science materials during free-choice time, a component of the High/Scope curriculum. Four girls played in a newly designated science area of the classroom. The team chose to use the Head Start Child Outcomes Framework for Science to analyze the video (see below Table 3.1), as it corresponded with their curriculum requirements. The video was analyzed for the frequency of observed science indicators.
Indicators Frequencies
Use senses and a variety of tools and simple measuring devices to gather information, investigate materials and observe processes and relationships 10
Observe and discuss common properties, differences and comparisons among objects and materials 3
Participate in investigations to test observations, discuss and draw conclusions and form generalizations 0
Collect, describe, and record information through discussion, drawings, maps and charts 0
Make predictions, explanations and generalizations based on past experiences 0
Observe, describe, and discuss the natural world, materials, living things and natural processes 0
Know about and respect their bodies and the environment 0
Know ideas and use language related to time and temperature 0
Know about changes in materials and cause-effect relationships 3
Table 3.1: Frequency of Head Start Child Outcomes Framework for Science
Data Analysis and Team Reflection
16 science indicators were recorded on the video. As children investigated the geo-boards, feely boxes, and colored lenses, they used their senses of sight, hearing, language and touch. Children mostly played in parallel as they manipulated rubber bands and stretched them over geo-boards. A child asked another, “What are you doing?” and the other child replied, “I’m playing with the feely box.” The child peered into the feely box, felt objects, and matched them to a corresponding picture card, e.g., the child matched a puppet with a picture card of a puppet.
The team identified three main themes about their science provision. First, the new science area gave science a higher priority in the curriculum than before. The new area occupied a better position than the previous science shelves. However, the space was not fully utilized. The new science area was not yet attractive to children, and a abscene of recorded frequencies for many of the indicators suggested that a full-range of scientific outcomes for children was not yet evident.
Second, children explored materials in the ways educators had hoped they would. The geo-boards with rubber bands, magnifying boxes, colored lenses, and feely box with matching cards all provided children with opportunities for sensory and manipulative exploration. However, the team agreed that science provision was weak in the curriculum, and questioned what science content children learned through such free-play activities. The team wondered if children had had experiences at home that provided them with prior knowledge or curiosity about scientific concepts. The team questioned what the children understood about concepts they had been exposed to.
Third, the results of the baseline assessment prompted the team to improve the science area. Plans were aimed at providing children with a broad range of materials that supported their learning in all areas of science. Educators aimed to use teaching strategies that supported children’s active learning through free-choice, initiative, investigation, persistence, understanding cause and effect, and predicting outcomes.
Selected L iterature
The teacher candidate worked with the college librarian to identify key words to search for journal articles that would help the team improve their teaching challenge. The following articles published in Young Children were found and read by the team:
(1) Hoisington, C. ( 2002 ) . Using photographs to support children’s science inquiry. Young Children 57 (5): 26-32.
(2) Jones, J., & Courtney , R. ( 2002 ) . Documenting early science learning. Young Children 57 (5): 34-40.
(3) Buchanan, B.L., &. Rios , J.M. ( 2004 ) . Teaching science to kindergartners: How can educators implement science standards? Young Children 59 (3): 82-87.
(4) Ross, M.E. ( 2000 ) . Science their way. Young Children 55 (2): 6-13.
The article, “ Science their way ,” was selected by the team because a strategy outlined in the article to create “ explorer kits appealed to them . The strategy consisted of gathering and organizing science materials, tools, and science-themed literature into kits . The strategy reinforced the team’s goals of wanting children to learn science through manipulation of materials, open-ended inquiry and the use of literature to support content learning during free-play times. The role of the educator describ ed in the article was appealing. I t required that educators not teach science directly to children, but to facilitate science learning by providing children with time, space, equipment and literature. Educators thought the provision of science literature in the science area was an effective way to increase educators’ science knowledge, and thereby, increase their confidence in teaching the subject . The use of science literature was also thought to support the teaching of more content knowledge as required by NAEYC Standards (2009).
Assessment of the Strategyfor Developmental Appropriateness
The team confirmed that the strategy of explorer kits was de velopmentally appropriate for 4 to 5-year-olds . Wood, (2007) stated:
Learning goes from the hand to the head. Teachers in four- year-old classrooms need to focus on observing and redirecting behavior and asking children questions that lead them to the next level of cognitive exploration and understanding. Manipulative experiences are important in the classroom, e.g., magnets and pulleys in the science area.”
Implementation of the Strategy: First Stage
The team created five explorer science kits containing materials based on Ross (2000) around the concepts of light, magnification, balance, manipulation and color. Examples of ex plorer kits are shown in fig 3.2
Light Explorer Kit
Materials:
• Existing science materials stored in cupboards were rediscovered by the team and placed in picture and word labeled containers. Materials included colored beads, square tiles, and non-fiction illustrated books with 3D glasses. To increase the range of scientific materials, the team searched equipment catalogues and used grant funding to buy new materials to enhance the explorer kits. The team purchased a lig ht box, light exploration box, X -r ays with matching cards, prisms, magnetic wands, flashlights, kaleidoscopes, bingo-chips, scales, counting bears, video-scopes, a virtual rainmaker, colored tape, rechargeable batteries and charger, modeling dough, crystal light pulls and impression boards. The team began implementation of the strategy by creating light and magnification explorer kits , and placing them in the science area for children to use during free-play times.
Implementation of Science Explorer Kits
Fig 3.3: Children explore magnification materials
Fig 3.4: Children explore light using X-rays and the light box
After one week of implementing the strategy to provide children with light and magnification explorer kits, a 20-minute video was recorded and used to assess the impact of the strategy on children’s science learning.
The Head Start Child Outcomes Framework for Science (see below) was used to analyze the video for the frequency of observed science indicators, and the team discussed questions to guide their consistent reflection.
Indicators Frequencies
Use senses and a variety of tools and simple measuring devices to gather information, investigate materials and observe processes and relationships 40
Observe and discuss common properties, differences and comparisons among objects and materials 10
Participate in investigations to test observations, discuss and draw conclusions and form generalizations 2
Collect, describe and record information through discussion, drawings, maps and charts 0
Make predictions, explanations, and generalizations based on past experiences 2
Observe, describe, and discuss the natural world, materials, living things and natural processes 2
Know about and respect their bodies and the environment 3
Know ideas and use language related to time and temperature 0
Know about changes in materials and cause-effect relationships 3
Table 3.2: The impact of explorer kits on children’s science learning
The team reflected on the following questions after the video was viewed:
• Is the strategy working? How?
• Is the original teaching challenge being improved upon? How?
• Is children’s learning improving? –How?
• Is your understanding of your teaching changing? How?
• Is your teaching changing? How?
Video A nalysis
Sixty-two science indicators in seven categories were observed. This was almost four times the number of indicators seen on the baseline assessment video. The highest number of indicators (40) and the greatest increase involved children using their senses to explore and investigate materials and observe processes and relationships. Using the light explorer kit, children demonstrated these behaviors by looking at X-rays of animals’ bones. They used binoculars and 3D glasses when they looked out of a window at people and at trees. Children observed common properties about materials as they asked each other questions about what they could see. One child said, “I can see those people even though they are way over there.” Another commented on seeing the tall, green trees. Children looked at books that contained 3D pictures. They put slides in the slide viewer, and operated the lever to change the view.
On ten occasions, children explored the common properties of extending plastic pipes. They put the pipes to their mouths, blew through them, and listened to the sound they made. Children placed the plastic pipes on the floor and compared them. Two children said, “They’re the same length.” On two occasions, children worked together and tested materials by stretching, contracting, bending and twisting pipes into different shapes, e.g., circles, arcs, rectangles, spirals, and three sided figures. Two children remarked, “I can fold this,” “I can join these together” and, “Wow, look I’ve made an elephant’s trunk!”
Children studied how the objects in bottles of oil floated in suspension and then later settled to the bottom. They used the light box to view X-rays and gather information about animal and human skeletons. They used flashlights to shine through strainers and discover whether light would shine through the holes and land on other surfaces. In doing this, they explored changes in materials and cause and effect relationships.
Children made predictions as they passed beads through pipes and waited for them to come out the other end. They remarked, “Look at this, look inside there.” One boy stretched and bent the pipe to represent a fire hose. Girls copied each other by bending the pipes into circles and then wearing them on their heads as crowns. Children watched how materials changed and made predictions about cause and effect. There were no observed outcomes for the two areas of collecting: describing and recording information; and knowing ideas and using language related to time and temperature were also needed.
Team Reflection
After watching the video, the team assessed the strategy as “highly effective” in supporting children’s scientific explorations. The new science area enabled most aspects of the original teaching challenge to be improved upon. Some Head Start Learning Outcomes for Science were also met. Explorer kits placed in open baskets on shelves gave children easy access to a much wider variety of materials. The labeling of materials in words and pictures enabled children to use them independently. The new science area allowed children to discover things for themselves as the team had wanted.
Children were observed to be much more active in the new science area than they had been before. Interaction with the provided materials was thought to be critical to children’s improved learning. Children liked the whooshing sound of wind that was made when they thrashed plastic pipes through the air. Educators noted how children investigated materials by viewing slides and making a rainbow with the crystal light pull held up to the light. Children were seen looking through binoculars, and discovering that they could make objects appear larger and smaller. When children wore 3D glasses they were intrigued by the red and blue lenses. When they read 3D books about bugs, they enjoyed seeing how the blurred images of the bugs stood out once they donned their 3D glasses. As children handled and showed Lite-brites, X-rays and flashlights to each other, they discussed what the purposes of these materials could be, e. g., “What is this?” “What am I supposed to do with this?” and, “How does this work?”
Children were described as curious and very interested in these materials. They discovered and recognized that they were seeing pictures of the human skeleton. The team reflected on how the children used not only their sight to explore materials, but also their combined senses of hearing and touch.
Educators appreciated the discovery element in children’s learning. They supported the use of developmentally-appropriate learning methods derived through children’s exploration of scientific concepts. More opportunities were created for children to use their own initiative, but at the same time, children did not have to fulfill particular expectations set by educators. The video helped educators review and remove objects and materials from the science area that impeded children’s scientific play, e.g., the doll house, which was a distraction from the scientific purpose of the area. Providing children with real materials in the explorer kits enabled them to manipulate and discover properties. Educators reported that they were using both their existing and new knowledge to design challenging science activities that supported “young scientists.”
The team commented that because educators were not regularly in the science area when the video was recorded, they could not tell what impact they had on each child’s science learning during free-choice time. They noticed that although children asked questions about materials, no educator was on hand to answer them. While educator involvement might seem like a given, it was not. The impact of educator involvement in the science area was identified, then, as the natural focus of the next stage of the action research.
Educators determined that practices in the new science area were aligned with aspects of NAEYC Standard 5: Using Content Knowledge to Build Meaningful Curriculum.
Adult Involvement in Science Area:Second Stage of Strategy Implementation
Fig. 3.5 Educator encourages child’s exploration at the light box
During the next two weeks, educators intentionally spent more time in the science area during free-play times. They supported learning goals, by implementing techniques designed to promote content teaching through open-ended discussions: asking questions, encouraging inquiry, affirming curiosity, and celebrating wonder. Using Head Start Child Outcomes Framework for Science, a third video was analyzed for observed frequencies of science indicators:
Indicators Frequencies
Use senses and a variety of tools and simple measuring devices to gather information, investigate materials, and observe processes and relationships 38
Observe and discuss common properties, differences and comparisons among objects and materials 19
Participate in investigations to test observations, discuss and draw conclusions, and form generalizations 7
Collect, describe, and record information through discussion, drawings, maps and charts 0
Make predictions, explanations, and generalizations based on past experiences 2
Observe, describe, and discuss the natural world, materials, living things and natural processes 0
Know about and respect their bodies and the environment 4
Know ideas and use language related to time and temperature 1
Know about changes in materials and cause-effect relationships 3
Table 3.3: Observed frequencies of Head Start Children’s Outcomes for Science
Video Recording A nalysis
With the addition of educator support, 74 further examples of science indicators in seven areas were observed in the science area. As before, children used their senses, as for example, gathering information by looking at a spider. They gathered information by looking at spider specimens through magnifying glasses.
Children used binoculars to look at each other and to look at objects outside. Children looked at X-ray images and identified them as limb bones. Children investigated materials by handling magnifying glasses, adjusting binoculars, turning spider specimens in resin over in their hands, and using construction kits to make paddles. When an educator and three children looked at books together about spiders, children’s concentration was extended and their use of language was more complex.
On 19 occasions, an educator, supporting a group of children as they viewed slides, showed that they were aware of commonalities among objects. Children noticed that all spiders in the slides had eight legs. All three bottles contained different colored tornadoes and the water moved in the same way… from one end of the bottle to the other. On seven occasions, children’s interest in tornado bottles was enhanced by an educator who further developed their observations into a racing game. Children explored time, by counting in seconds, which tornado lasted the longest. Children built tall structures out of the construction kit and made predictions by asking, “Look at that, it’s very tall. How long will the building take to fall over?”
Children made handprints in an impression tool and showed an understanding of the characteristics of the human hand. One child shook the pins back and said, “Look, the pins don’t go through your hands.” The impression tool and the light box gave children many opportunities to explore how materials changed and witnessed cause and effect. The light box and X-rays gave children opportunities to learn about their skeletons. With educator support, children studied X-rays in greater detail and understood they were looking inside the body. As a group, they indicated on the X-ray where they could see a broken bone.
Team Reflection
The video clearly showed how educators’ presence in the science area strengthened the impact of the strategy. Educators, as a matter of course, had a positive impact on children’s science learning when they answered questions, supported discussions, read books and participated in explorations. While this outcome might seem obvious to the casual observer, it did not always register with the educators until it was put into practice.
The original teaching challenge and the strategy were improved through educators’ participation in a well-developed science area. Children’s access to varied materials was greatly improved. Science provision in the curriculum was further developed. Children’s investigations were strengthened as they spent longer periods of time engaged there.
The team assessed that children’s learning in the science area was naturally improving. Increased knowledge about science concepts contributed towards children’s improved understanding about the materials they handled and explored. When the educator set children a challenge that required them to count backwards in a racing game, children’s understanding of time was strengthened. Children’s observations were more focused and more detailed when educators asked them to compare insects.
Children’s concentration was extended when an educator stayed close by. The team described how one educator in the video was “very effective” because she supported children’s activity, rather than taking it over. She stayed focused on children’s interests and followed them with relevant comments, suggestions and sources of information to maintain their learning. A speech therapist seen in the video, identified how the richness of the science area was a good place to support a child with language delay. Previously the speech therapist had taken the child out of the classroom.
The team deduced that a well-resourced and orderly science area enabled children to make free-choices regarding the materials they wanted to explore. Each child was able to use the science area in developmentally-appropriate ways as educators had hoped. The video showed educators how science concepts explored by children during free-play times were ripe for further investigation at small-group-times. Educators identified that a better balance was needed between science provision at free-play times, and at small-group times. Both times were recognized as important in the curriculum, but building connections between science concepts during these two times of the day was new. More challenging learning opportunities could be provided to children if concepts explored during free-play and small-group-times were connected and further developed. More emphasis on science content knowledge enabled educators to plan more challenging activities for children during small-group times.
The team determined that using children’s books in the science area was an effective way to support educators’ lack of confidence in teaching science content. More books written specifically for children could strengthen the science content knowledge of both educators and the intended audience. Clearly, by looking at pictures and diagrams, and building related vocabulary, both children and educators expanded their knowledge, and language of abstract science concepts in particular. Educators welcomed the idea that children and educators learned and discussed science content together.
Based on what educators saw in the video, they re-examined their attitude toward the role of educators in the science area. Educators remained supportive of children’s independent exploration of materials, free of predetermined learning expectations. However, educators saw how children learned even more effectively when they participated with the children in play. The team reflected that the expression, “free-play,” did not mean that children’s play was absent of educator involvement. This realization changed educators’ perception of their role in young children’s play and learning.
Over the course of the semester, attitudes improved among educators about the teaching of science. Educators not only valued children’s free-play, but also recognized that educator involvement was critical to help children understand the materials they handled. Based on what children did with materials, data was entered on the video assessment grid to measure what the team still needed to do to expand science provision. To increase the level at which children could record the findings of their investigations, educators suggested that children use laminated sheets to draw pictures and diagrams, and use their early skills of emergent writing. More explorer kits were still needed to support specific Head-Start Child Learning Outcomes for Science that related to the natural world. Materials, living things and natural processes, as well as knowledge and language related to time and temperature.
Final Reflections
The team assessed that the aims of the action research had been reached through the explorer kit strategy. However, the changes were ongoing, and not all changes could be implemented during one semester. Educators saw them as gradual, and change in one area of teaching naturally had an impact on others.
Educators evolved from regarding children’s free-play in the science area as the best way to build concepts (through manipulation of materials, for instance) to understanding, themselves, the value of educator participation in the process. Educators learned that they could play a critical role in helping children build science knowledge by using non-fiction books in the science area. Educators recognized that the discipline of reading on a regular basis was an outstanding way to develop their own science knowledge, and also to increase their confidence in teaching the subject.
As educators improved their science provision, videos showed initial evidence to support that NAEYC standards 1 and 5 were being met. Subsequently, video recordings contributed to meeting NAEYC Standard 3: Observing, Documenting and Assessing to Support Young Children. As a result, the teacher candidate experienced greater consistency between her learning in college courses and the practice she saw during Practicum. The teacher candidate was able to plan and implement her science lesson plan Practicum assignments in ways that were aligned with NAEYC Standards. | textbooks/socialsci/Early_Childhood_Education/Book%3A_The_ELC_-_An_Early_Childhood_Learning_Community_at_Work_(Bridge_Melita_and_Roiger)/02%3A_Case_Studies/2.02%3A_Developing_a_Science_Area.txt |
Teaching Challenge
The lack of self-control in Sam, an overly active four-year-old boy.
Background
Strategy: Creating a fitness center in the classroom.
Context: The action research took place over one semester in a college campus day care center classroom with 4-5 year old children. Full day care was provided for families that worked at the college (custodians, professors and other staff), students attending the college and families that worked in the local community. During the action research, there were 16-18 children in the class, a lead educator, an assistant teacher, a teacher candidate, and a team leader.
Findings
1. The fitness center provided opportunities for Sam’s physical needs to be met.
2. Sam exercised more self-control over his physical movement.
3. Sam achieved greater control when there was a purpose to his movement, e.g., moving to the beat of music.
4. Sam also showed greater self-control when he modeled physical movement for other children to copy.
5. Other social, emotional, and cultural factors outside of the fitness center affected Sam’s overly active behavior.
6. Sam commonly chose to use the center as his first activity of the morning before other children arrived in the setting.
7. Over time, Sam’s ability to control his own behavior without educators’ support improved.
8. With the addition of the fitness center, Sam’s controlled behaviors were nearly twice as frequent as his uncontrolled behaviors.
9. Sam’s relationships with other children and with educators also improved with the addition of the center.
10. Relationships between Sam’s mother and the educators improved with the addition of the fitness center.
11. Educators recognized that the fitness center provided opportunities for Sam’s and for other children’s, physical developmental needs to be met.
12. Educators repurposed the fitness center so that Sam could use it as a self-regulation tool. This helped him use his energy so that he could focus on other activities.
13. Educators were not aware that the fitness center provided social, emotional and intellectual learning opportunities that supported children’s development and learning of content.
Even as this guide defined areas for improvement, the effort to improve had a complementary, or almost parallel, impact on the teacher candidates and their young charges. Everyone involved benefited. This point will be illustrated again and again as we revisit the case studies that emerged in the ELC.
Educators Identify the Teaching Challenge
Fig 4.1: The teaching challenge ~ Sam’s overly active behavior
During the first team meeting, educators identified their teaching challenge as coping with the lack of self-control in the overly active behavior of a 4-year-old boy we will call “Sam.” To investigate the teaching challenge further, the teacher candidate video-taped the boy’s physical play. Educators watched the videotape during the second week’s team meeting. As with other case studies the same action research protocol was followed.
Accommodating Sam’s high energy level was a daily challenge. The team described Sam as a “lovable whirlwind” who was constantly on the move and unable to remain still. Educators reported the whole classroom was affected by his behavior, and wherever he went, chaos ensued. He used materials in play areas inappropriately. His most purposeful play was in the literacy area when he played with toy trains made available there.
Coping with Sam’s uncontrolled physical movements was exhausting for educators. They described him as impulsive and incapable of controlling his own body. He often used his whole body inappropriately to communicate and participate in play. He twirled round and round in circles, used karate chops, kicked his feet, and threw toys around the room. He would “flop” around at circle and lunch times when he was very near other children. Sam accidentally collided with other children. He was sorry when these accidents happened, but was unable to control his physical behavior to suit the classroom conditions around him. Educators reported that each day, Sam slept between 1:00 PM and 3:00 PM. As he lay down, his body collapsed beneath him, and as he fell asleep, he would yell out and “flop around like a fish out of water.”
Team Values Regarding Physical Development
Educators expected young children to be physically active, but they (correctly) considered Sam’s level of physical activity to be excessive. His frenetic movement was a hazard to other children. After several years in the setting (he had been there since he was an infant) educators expected Sam to have gained some control over his movements. Control strategies were important because, if followed, they could help him manage his body movements—both now and in kindergarten, where behavioral expectations would be greater. Educators judged Sam’s most purposeful play, as when he played quietly with trains in the literacy area.
The participants wondered whether Sam’s busy home life had affected his behavior. He spent 45 hours each week in a childcare setting. Sam’s family had moved into the area and was assimilating into a new culture. He was well mannered, respectful to others, and was already reading at a 1st grade level. Educators wondered if Sam was under pressure to fit in with new routines, unfamiliar cultural norms, and expectations for academic achievement.
Educators were also confused by the philosophy of Sam’s preschool. On the one hand, this child was offered free-choice in his play, but on the other hand, Sam needed more structure to help him function appropriately in the classroom. Educators stated that Sam was an able child and a natural leader. They felt he would excel in the more structured kindergarten environment.
Aims of the Action Research
The aims of this action research were to: (1) accommodate Sam’s highly active physical development needs; (2) improve indoor physical play opportunities in the setting; (3) more closely align physical development opportunities with NAEYC Standards for Early Childhood Professional Preparation Programs (2009); (4) provide teacher candidates with a Practicum field experience that was consistent with NAEYC Standards (2009) regarding physical provision and (5) improve teacher candidates’ opportunities to plan and implement physical play in line with NAEYC Standards (2009).
Alignment with NAEYC Standards
The importance of teacher candidates supporting children’s physical development was emphasized in NAEYC Standards (2009) Standard 1: Promoting Child Development and Learning.
Two elements of Standard 1 were relevant to supporting children’s physical development. In Standard 1a: early childhood practice was based on a sound knowledge and understanding of young children’s integrated areas of development, including physical, cognitive, social, emotional, language, and aesthetic development. In Standard 1c: using developmental knowledge to create healthy, respectful, supportive, and challenging learning environments to promote young children’s physical and psychological health, their safety and sense of security. In Standard 5(c): Using Content Knowledge to Build Meaningful Curriculum, candidates design, implement, and evaluate curricula for each child in the following content areas: physical, language, arts, math, science, physical education, health, safety and social studies.
Baseline Assessment
At the start of the project, a 20-minute video was recorded to form a baseline assessment of the teaching challenge. A checklist devised by educators (see table 4.1) was used to record the nature and frequency of Sam’s physical movements.
Table 4.1: A baseline assessment of the teaching challenge
Teaching Challenge Frequencies
Moves whole body 12
Body is uncontrolled 13
Accidentally hits children 6
High energy level unused 6
Flops around 3
Is impulsive 6
Runs in circles 2
Other children unsafe 8
Plays without focus 12
Play is not sustained 8
Uses materials inappropriately 15
Ninety-one examples of physical movement in 11 categories were observed. The video showed that Sam was constantly active and quickly moved between play areas. He moved in and between the discovery, house, block, library, and lunch table. His body movements were highly physical as he jumped in the air, twisted his torso, knelt down under tables, reached to get materials off shelves and placed them in cupboards. He repeatedly threw a cup with a ball in it into the air and let it fall to the floor. He upended tornado bottles filled with colored water to see the helix move from top to bottom.
Fig. 4.2: Sam on the trampoline in the fitness center
Sam’s erratic movement resulted in his colliding with other children. He stood astride in a karate pose and jumped toward them. For several minutes, he pretended to empty a teapot over another child’s head saying, “The yellow is the hottest.” He followed this pronouncement by throwing the teapot into the air. Sam impulsively took trains from other children and threw them down on the floor. Other children were sometimes hurt when Sam lurched into them and forcibly took their toys away.
The video revealed to the team a lack of purpose in Sam’s play. Rarely did his movements possess any obvious reason, and he did not develop his play into a meaningful sequence. Apart from when he played attentively with trains in the literacy center, Sam’s play consisted of using materials in haphazard ways. The team reflected that although Sam was highly physical and intellectually able, he did not purposefully plan or regulate his own free play.
Selected Literature
Using key words for appropriate, the teacher candidate and college librarian searched for applicable articles. The following journal articles were selected for the team to read and to identify strategies that would help them manage Sam’s physical movements in ways that promoted self-control:
1. McCall, R. M., & Craft, D.H., (2000). Moving with a purpose: developing programs for preschoolers of all abilities. Champaign, IL. Human Kinetics.
2. King, M., with Gartrell D. (2003). Building an encouraging classroom with boys in mind. Young Children 58 (4): 33-36.
3. Leppo, M.L., Davis, D., Crim, B. (2000). The basics of exercising the mind and body. Young Children 78(3): 142-147.
4. Pica, R. (2006). Physical fitness & the early childhood curriculum. Young Children, 61(3): 12-19.
The article by King with Gartrell (2003) was thought highly relevant to the teaching challenge. It was full of practical suggestions for physical education in the classroom. The strategy required the team to: (1) create a fitness center in the classroom that would provide Sam with physical opportunities to use his energy and learn self-control; (2) add some structure to free-play time, especially first thing in the morning to help Sam during a difficult transition time.
Educators assessed the strategy as developmentally appropriate for 4-year-olds when they read in Wood (2007) that they were,
capable of almost non-stop physical gymnastics, when much learning is transmitted through the large muscles and when parents and educators need vast amounts of energy to keep up with these young dynamos (p. 47-49).
In preparation for the assembly of the fitness center, educators scouted out and procured many appropriate physical education materials. These included bean bags, a tunnel, a balance beam, a rainbow mat, a trampoline, bar, trestle table, music and movement tapes, and, an obstacle course. The team was concerned about the lack of space in the classroom. They decided to close the house area temporarily and set up a fitness center in that space.
Implementation of the Strategy: First Stage
The physical center was completed, and a 20-minute video was recorded two weeks later of Sam using the space. As educators watched the video they created a checklist (see table 4.2 below) of ten areas of desirable physical behavior that they wanted Sam to exhibit. The checklist enabled educators to record the frequency of Sam’s desirable physical behaviors, and analyze the results, giving them the means to assess the impact of the strategy on Sam’s physical behavior.
Table 4.2: Checklist used to analyze videos and to assess the impact of the strategy
Desirable physical behaviors Frequencies
Moves appropriately for situation 5
Moves purposefully 8
Moves calmly 5
Maintains reasonable space between himself and others 2
Energy used constructively 2
Movement is controlled 2
Environment is safe for others 2
Plays with focus 2
Play is sustained 2
Uses materials purposefully 3
Team reflection after video is viewed:
• Is the strategy working? How?
• Is the original teaching challenge being improved upon? How?
• Is children’s learning improving? How?
• Is your understanding of your teaching changing? How?
• Is your teaching changing? How?
Video Specifics
While using the fitness center, Sam demonstrated 33 examples of desirable physical behaviors in ten areas. In comparison with the baseline assessment, Sam showed more self-control in his movement. The video showed the team that he acted in ways that were more suited to the classroom situation he was in. For example, while on the trampoline, he bounced in time to music. He jumped and ran across the floor to the beat of music. He moved rhythmically to music as he “swam like a goldfish.” Following music and movement instruction, he mimed cleaning his teeth. He calmly sat on a chair to put his shoes on. With another child, he lay quietly on the floor, waiting for his turn to go on the trampoline again, and then to work on the computer. He maintained a reasonable space between himself and other children, and on only one occasion, was he reminded to “keep his hands to himself.”
Sam used his energy purposefully as he took his shoes off and raised his hand in anticipation of going back on the trampoline. His physical movements showed greater control and poise as he jumped high and upright and alternated his body weight from side to side. He jumped and kicked his legs out sideways like a gymnast. Sam moved backwards and forwards on the trampoline. He jumped off the back of the trampoline, away from other children, showing an awareness of other children’s safety.
Team Reflections
The team was positive about the impact of the physical fitness center. The provision of high quality indoor physical play was increased and improved. Sam’s highly active physical and developmental needs were met in ways that helped him regulate his behavior. Although the physical fitness center was intended primarily for Sam, it was popular among all of the children. Educators liked how materials that had been stored idly by in the cupboard were now being used. This added to the range of materials made available to all of the children, but because of limited space in the classroom, neither all materials, nor all play areas, could be used at the same time.
Educators reported that the original teaching challenge was improved upon. Overall, Sam used the fitness center appropriately. He repeated the activities often and, apart from him kicking his feet in the tunnel, he moved with purpose.
Sam’s learning in the area of physical development was improving. He was calmer and concentrated well. Educators noticed his creative movement and said he was “a great break-dancer and was very responsive to music.” When he followed instructions to “swim to the bottom of the ocean,” Sam showed purpose in his movement and his play was sustained. When Sam used the trampoline, he showed social progress. He accomplished this by encouraging other children to copy his movement and using materials as he did. He said, “Do what I did and make big strides.”
Educators reported how other factors, not recorded on the video, had also affected Sam’s behavior. They took into account that the implementation and impact of the strategy did not happen in isolation, but was affected by other contextual factors. When Sam was reported to be sick and emotionally upset, he was inclined to scream. He also threw tantrums, forgot his coat, and lost his video. Sam jabbed another child with a train. During these episodes, the classroom was not safe for other children. Educators commented that Sam’s apparent lack of proper rest made him tired, and this had resulted in his impulsive behavior. He had to be gently restrained so that other children could have a chance to toss the bean-bags. As a result, Sam’s presence in the fitness center had to be closely monitored by educators.
Fig 4.3: After using the fitness center, Sam regulates his own behavior
Educators reported how they had changed the purpose of the fitness center. It was no longer only used to accommodate Sam’s highly physical needs, but rather as a self-regulation tool to enable Sam to release his energy and calm down. Sam was then able to focus on other activities. One educator repeated what she had said to Sam, “I see that you have lots of energy. Do you need to throw some bean bags?” However, educators’ ability to determine the impact of the fitness center on Sam’s calmer behaviour was made easier than before.
Educators originally saw Sam’s physical activity in the fitness center as a way for him to expend his energy so that he could then participate in other activities. They viewed physical development as a separate area. While they saw that the fitness center provided opportunities for physical activity, they did not see how it simultaneously provided valuable active integrated learning opportunities, e.g., in math, literacy, and in science content areas. Educators’ comprehension of separate areas of development and discrete areas of content resulted in compartmentalized provision, in which some content areas were regarded as more important than others
Educators reported that using the fitness center as a self-regulation tool had made the classroom less stressful. They wanted to find out how often Sam used the fitness center to regulate his own behavior. Even though Sam suffered a set-back in his behavior, the team wanted to continue using the fitness center strategy because “all the kids, including Sam, loved it.” While educators clearly understood the value of physical activity in the curriculum, they were not motivated to provide it. They based their decision to provide these opportunities instead based upon children’s positive responses to the fitness center.
Fitness Center as a Self-Regulation Tool
Over the next week, educators counted the number of times Sam went, or was directed to go, to the fitness center. They used the tally as an indicator of his need to exercise self-control. Each day, for a six-day period, between 8:00 A.M. and 9:00 A.M., educators recorded the number of times Sam either chose, or was directed, to go to the fitness center. The following physical activities were available over the six days: hopscotch. Bean bag toss, football toss, rocking boat, and, magnetic darts. The results are shown in table 4.3.
Table 4.3: The frequency of Sam’s visits to the fitness center
6 Day Period Sent by Teacher Sam’s choice
Free Play 8:00 AM – 9:00 AM 1 8
Circle Time 9:00 AM -10:00 AM 2 0
Choice Box 10:00 AM -10:30 AM 1 4
The tally sheets showed that Sam chose to go to the fitness center eight times on his arrival in the morning during free-play. Sam chose to use the fitness center when few other children were in the classroom and more space was available. This suggested that, on arrival, Sam chose and preferred physical activities over other activities made available to him.
On four occasions, Sam chose the fitness center during choice box times. This was half as often as during free-play times. Again, Sam chose the fitness center when fewer children were around, and when more space was available for him to play.
On one occasion, during free-play time, an educator directed Sam to the fitness center to use his energy and to calm down. On two other occasions, an educator asked him if he needed to go to the fitness center, but he calmed down on his own. This suggested that Sam’s reasons for using the fitness center were different from those of the educators. Sam was motivated by his preference for physical activities, whereas educators saw the fitness center as a way for Sam to use up his energy, self-regulate and then apply himself to other activities.
Educators judged “great days” as those when they did not feel the need to direct Sam to the fitness center. On those days, he was purposefully engaged in other activities. The number of times that he chose to go to the fitness center decreased over the six-day period. Sam never went to the fitness center at all during social circle times. However, the ability to determine how his visits there resulted in calmer behavior was easier.
Team Meeting in Review
When educators reviewed the tally sheet, they commented that Sam no longer needed the fitness center to control his own behavior. Sam “loved the fitness center” and like other children, eagerly participated in the ball toss, beanbag toss, the rocking boat, and the magnetic darts. Sam chose the fitness center whenever he wanted to, and was no longer upset if it was not available to him. The fitness center was clearly a positive addition to the classroom because it provided integrated physical, social, language, intellectual, and emotional opportunities for all of the children, and especially Sam, for whom it was created.
While educators were aware of the physical development opportunities offered by the fitness center, they were less aware that other developmental areas were being supported at the same time. For example, when children counted the number of times they tossed beanbags into buckets, they were naturally exploring mathematical concepts in the fitness center. This explained why educators wanted Sam to be involved in other activities in other play area that to supported his comprehensive development and learning.
Team Reflection
Educators reported that the original teaching challenge was improved upon because Sam was calmer. He did not flail around as much and did not shout out as often. He was less physical and used his words more. Sam was less frustrated and was willing to try new things, including new foods at lunchtime. Educators said Sam had better self-control.
They also reported that Sam’s learning was improving. The fitness center promoted better relationships between Sam and the other children. He socialized with them more easily when he was less physical. There were fewer collisions and other children did not get hurt as often. There was less tattling about Sam because children did not need to run away from him. Educators’ response towards Sam was more positive as they were more relaxed and less frustrated by his behavior. Educators enjoyed seeing him smile and were able to share jokes with him. When Sam’s physical needs were met, educators’ relationships with both Sam and his mother improved greatly.
Regarding educators’ own professional development, their understanding of, and provision for, children’s physical developmental needs improved, and were important for children’s wellbeing. The video was a useful tool because it helped educators see what happened in the classroom. Events were so “in the moment” that educators could not always see what happened or what they meant. Educators said they had to take a different approach, and meet Sam’s physical needs in more integrated and developmentally-appropriate ways. This included regular use and allocation of sufficient space for gross-motor materials in the classroom. Educators realized they had to change their approach to meet Sam’s physical needs rather than expecting him to change his physical needs to meet their expectations about his learning and behavior.
Final Video
Fig 4.4: Sam engaged in calm purposeful play
A 20-minute video was recorded to show the impact of the fitness center on Sam’s physical behavior at four different times during the day: free-play, circle time, choice box, and morning message. A total of 64 positive behaviors were observed in 10 areas:
Table 4.4: Video analysis to show impact of fitness center on Sam’s behavior
Desirable Strategy Outcomes Frequencies
Moves appropriately for situation 10
Moves purposefully 10
Moves calmly 10
Maintains reasonable space between himself and others 5
Energy used constructively 4
Movement is controlled 6
Environment is safe for others 4
Plays with focus 4
Play is sustained 5
Uses materials purposefully 6
The fact that ten frequencies were recorded in each of the first three areas of the table suggested that the fitness center was effective in meeting Sam’s physical developmental needs. More examples of appropriate, purposeful, and calm physical play, showed that Sam was improving his ability to self-regulate. As a result, he demonstrated better use of space, energy, and control of movement which improved his focus, purpose, and sustained his play. There appeared to be a relationship between Sam’s purposeful use of materials, and his ability to control his own behavior. When Sam was engaged in physical activity, his play was focused and sustained. At these times, his energy was used constructively and he automatically maintained a reasonable space between himself and others. During the video, 36 examples of negative behaviors in eight categories were also observed. This was approximately half the number of positive outcomes observed, and suggested that Sam was able to regulate his behavior most of the time.
Teams’ Final reflective meeting
The team determined that the strategy was very successful in meeting Sam’s physical development needs. Sam now took part in physical activity each day apart from when he was overly tired. This resulted in him coping better in all aspects of the daily routine.
Sam did not jump around erratically as he had before. Sam’s better-controlled behavior had implications for the whole class because he was a play leader, and what he did had a ripple effect on others. Children no longer stepped back for fear of colliding with Sam.
Sam was described as more focused and stayed on one task longer. He was calmer and more in control of himself which improved his learning in all areas.
Educators commented how the fitness center strategy affected their own teaching. They understood that provision for gross-motor physical development had to be included in the daily curriculum. The two aims of the action research were largely met as the fitness center had effectively increased and improved indoor physical play provision and Sam’s highly active physical development needs had been provided for. NAEYC Standards (2009) 1c: was adequately met.
Educators’ awareness of the integration of physical development with other areas of development was emerging. However, an emphasis on integrated areas of development in Standard 1 caused confusion among educators who, in Standard 5(c): Using Content Knowledge were required to plan and implement meaningful curriculum in separate content areas. This separate listing of content areas made educators think that content areas should be taught separately and not integrated. As such, educators thought the fitness center provided opportunities for physical development only. They were not aware that the physical center also provided opportunities for social, intellectual, and emotional areas that they could develop into further activity, e.g., sharing, turn-taking, counting and sorting.
As physical provision was given a higher priority in the curriculum, more aspects of NAEYC standard 1c were met: Using developmental knowledge to create healthy, respectful, supportive and challenging learning environments. At the same time, the teacher candidate experienced a Practicum setting that was more consistent with NAEYC Standards and with their college methods course content regarding physical provision. Opportunities for the teacher candidates to plan and implement physical play activities were improved when a greater range of materials and sufficient space was made available. Educators recognized how movement was not just an outdoor activity, but had to be part of what children did indoors as well. Educators commented that the classrooms needed to be much larger in order for this to be done effectively.
Final Reflection
With regard to understanding Sam’s learning requirements, educators reflected that movement played a crucial part in his learning and cultural needs. When his physical development needs were met, he was more able to focus and enjoy other activities too. This was apparent at choice box time when Sam played with magnets, puzzles, bottles, and books. He demonstrated self-control when he manipulated materials, e.g., doing puzzles, attaching balls to magnets, and observing the helix in the “hurricane” bottles. At circle times, he successfully participated in music and movement, and interacted with educators and with other children during singing and acting out of stories. Educators began to see that movement was best integrated throughout the whole curriculum and had to be made available to children indoors as well as outdoors. Through the video, educators observed and recognized Sam’s needs and said, “We had to adapt to him and to his culture. He cannot adapt to us.” | textbooks/socialsci/Early_Childhood_Education/Book%3A_The_ELC_-_An_Early_Childhood_Learning_Community_at_Work_(Bridge_Melita_and_Roiger)/02%3A_Case_Studies/2.03%3A_Improving_Opportunities_for_Physical_Play.txt |
Teaching Challenge:
Children rarely used the sensory table.
Background
Strategy: Giving children choices of materials to develop play at the sensory table.
Findings
1. Children’s sensory play was sustained at the water tray with each child staying an average of about 15 minutes.
2. When children made sailboats to use at the sensory table, their interest in playing at the sensory table increased.
3. When six children used their sailboats at the sensory table, they were interested in propelling the sailboats in the water.
4. Children used a continuous stream of language at the sensory table to explain what was happening in their sailboat stories.
5. In response to children’s demands for more materials, educators used “question of the day” time to ask children about the new materials they wanted to use at the sensory table.
6. Children’s concentration was sustained at the sensory table when they used materials that developed their sailboat play.
7. A social pattern was identified from one video to the next that showed how children played together in the same groups at the sensory table.
8. Children used language and moved toys to convey meaning in their sailboat stories.
9. Sailboat play provided children with opportunities for social, physical, literacy, intellectual, creative and emotional development.
Summary
The teaching challenge: children lacked interest in, and rarely played at, the sensory table. Strategy (1) children made sailboats to use at the sensory table; (2) educators asked children to choose materials to develop their sailboat play. When children made, and used, their own sailboats they stayed longer at the sensory table.
Children suggested new materials for the sensory table. Children concentrated longer, were more social, used more movement in their play and expressed more language to create sailboat stories at the sensory table. Children’s action on materials at the sensory table extensively supported their development and learning. New opportunities were created for educators to interact with children at the sensory table.
The Context
The action research took place over one semester in a rural Head-Start pre-kindergarten classroom for 4-5 year olds. Full day care was provided to children of all abilities, including those with special learning needs. During the action research, there were 16 children in the class, a lead educator, an assistant teacher, a teacher candidate, and a team leader. The High/Scope curriculum was used in the classroom.
The Teaching Challenge
Fig 5.1 Children rarely played at the sensory table
In a recorded interview, the team identified and described their teaching challenge as the need to address children’s interest in playing at the sensory table during “work time.” The teaching challenge presented itself in the following ways. First, the sensory table was the least-used area by children. Commonly, children played with materials available in the sensory table for a week or so, and then lost interest. There were days when no one played there.
Second, even though a varied range of materials were available, children’s interest was short-lived. To sustain children’s interest, educators changed materials roughly every two weeks. The following materials had been placed in the sensory table: water, dirt, sand, snow, birdseed, popcorn, beads, feathers, and table-top toys. Children especially enjoyed materials that were wet and messy.
Third, a range of tools was made available for children at the sensory table. These included spoons, pitchers, funnels, fishing poles with magnets, and containers with lids that opened in different ways. Educators were perplexed as to why these tools did not hold children’s interest for any length of time.
Fourth, few children played in the sensory table, even though they had regular access to it. It was open on certain days for 45 minutes during work time. Four children had space to play at the sensory table, but it frequently was empty.
Fifth, despite educators’ efforts, the sensory table was unappealing to children. They were more interested in playing in other centers in the classroom, e.g., the house, blocks, listening area, and the art area.
Team V alues Regarding the Sensory Table
Educators’ valued children’s play at the sensory table because it provided opportunities for children to gain new experiences, and to explore new materials that supported their scientific understanding and development. Educators wanted the children to take the initiative to explore new things, and they needed new ideas that would draw children to play at the sensory table and hold their attention there.
Aims of the Action R esearch
The aims of the action research were for educators to, (1) develop the sensory table into an interesting play area for children; (2) increase the number of children who play at the sensory table during work-time; (3) promote and sustain children’s interest at the sensory table; (4) increase the length of time each child played at the sensory table; (5) align educators’ practice at the sensory table with NAEYC standards (2009); (6) improve the teacher candidate’s opportunities to write and implement lesson plan assignments that reflect NAEYC standards (2009).
Alignment of T eaching Challenge with NAEYC Standards
Teaching in ways that support children’s interests in their play was emphasized in NAEYC Standards (2009) Standard 1, Promoting Child Development and Learning. In Standard 1a, early childhood practice was to be based on a sound knowledge and understanding of young children. In Standard 1b, knowing and understanding the multiple influences on children’s development and learning is identified as critical to successful teaching. In Standard 1c, using developmental knowledge to create healthy, respectful, supportive, and challenging learning environments is outlined. This includes spontaneous play and guided investigations; challenging learning experiences for each child; and educators encouraging children to make decisions about their own interests.
Baseline A ssessment
At the start of the action research, a 20-minute video was recorded over a period of days to form a baseline assessment of the teaching challenge. The team created a video analysis checklist that included characteristics of children’s current play at the sensory table. The frequency of each characteristic observed in the video was noted.
Teaching Challenge Frequencies
Number of children at the sensory table (over 4 sessions) 11
Average time spent per child (in minutes) 10
Number of social interactions between children 5
Physical manipulation using tools and materials 41
Language use at the sensory table 18
Intellectual skills demonstrated 15
Creative skills demonstrated 6
Emotions demonstration 6
Table 5.1: Baseline analysis of the teaching challenge
The video revealed that the sensory table was not used by children in the classroom during three out of four work-time sessions. The sensory table had a small amount of water in the bottom of it, with a range of play materials lying in the water. The materials included fish, containers, jugs, and laundry container lids. The sensory table was positioned with no available storage space nearby. This meant that materials were permanently in the sensory table. The sensory table was positioned near the sink so it could be easily filled and emptied.
In footage shot following a mid-term break, the video showed 11 children played at the sensory table during one morning session. There were five girls and six boys. Individual children spent an average of ten minutes at the sensory table.
Children’s social interaction was recorded on five occasions. Although groups of children played around the sensory table at the same time, much of the play was in parallel. Children showed the fish they caught using magnetic poles to other children at the puzzle table. Children left and joined the sensory area at their free will, indicating a steady flow of children through the area.
Forty-one instances of physical play were recorded. Children held fishing poles with magnets attached to them, twirled fishing lines, untangled fishing lines, poured water from containers, opened jar lids using their fingernails and teeth, unscrewed jar lids, filled containers, emptied containers, placed magnets on sea creatures, placed and lowered “caught” fish in jars.
There were 18 frequencies of children’s language that commonly related to the fish they had caught. Children often spoke to themselves saying, “Oh look, I’ve got a pink fish!” “Hey, I’ve got another fish,” and “I got a crab!” Another warned, “You leave my fish alone!” Children spoke about their fishing poles saying, “This cord came off.” “Gosh, I can do this,” and, “Oh no, I’m tangled!” Occasionally, children spoke directly to each other. While placing a magnet onto the metal ring on a fish, one child said, “Watch this, Hal. I have a fish!” While pouring from a jug into another child’s jar, and holding up a crab, one child said, “Look at this!” They were all clearly excited to share their successes.
15 examples of intellectual play were recorded as children demonstrated their knowledge of counting, “I have two (fish).” “I didn’t catch any.” Children’s knowledge of capacity was revealed when they observed a jar was full of water; used a lid to fill a jar up to “the very top;” and, observed when a jar was “half full.” One child commented, “I only want a little bit of water.” Another child showed his understanding of spatial concepts by saying, “My fish are on the inside (of the jar).” A child investigated motion as his fishing line twirled around his fishing pole. The child studied how it came to a standstill and asked, “Can you undo it?” As his fishing lines became enmeshed, a child attempted to untangle his. Children showed their exploration of magnetism deducing that the magnet was only attracted to the metal parts of fish. Children showed interest in buoyancy, as they noticed how fish they collected in jars floated on the surface of the water. In vain, children attempted to push fish down into the water. One child noticed that when he looked at his fish through the jar, it was magnified. He asked, “Why is it turning bigger?”
Six frequencies of creative play were recorded. While pretending to be on a fishing trip, several children stored fish they had caught in separate containers. One child fleetingly joked, “A crocodile, I’ve got a crocodile in here for the jar!” Another child asked, “Can I go fishing?” to which another responded, “Go fishing with animals!” Another child laughed and said, “I almost got the fish!”
Six examples of emotional development were shown when two girls shared jars. One girl remarked about another, “Chelsea was right over here. Chelsea, that was mine.” Chelsea explained to the teacher saying, “I want one jar for my fish and one for the water.” Chelsea was attempting to copy the play of others who after catching fish, stored them in a separate container. The teacher emphasized that children had to share materials at the water tray.
Team R eflection
On watching the video, educators were not surprised to see that the sensory table was often empty. Following the mid-semester break, when new materials were added, more children played at the sensory table. Some children stayed for up to ten minutes, whereas others stayed only three or four minutes. One child played alone for longer. While appreciating the range of learning opportunities provided at the sensory table, educators judged that because children had just returned after the break, the sensory table was again novel to them. Based on past experience, educators thought children would soon lose interest, and their play would not be sustained. Educators were not sure why children lost interest so soon. The teacher candidate added that she had never seen a single child play at the sensory table. Consequently, she was not aware that one even existed in the classroom. Educators commented that although children initially played with materials, they soon became bored.
Despite the fact that educators introduced many different materials at the sensory table, children stayed interested only for the first week or so. Existing materials included fish with and without magnets, fishing poles with and without magnets, crabs, containers with lids, laundry detergent caps and pitchers. Educators thought it was necessary to regularly change the materials to stimulate children’s interest in playing there.
The team was surprised at how children used the fishing materials to solve problems in play, rather than to explore magnets in water. This was not how educators intended or expected children to play. Rather than explore scientific concepts relating to magnets in water, children were interested in creating a scenario where they stored fish in containers with twist-on lids. This suggested to educators that children were not merely interested in exploring materials, but were more interested in acting on them. Children did this by using materials, tools, and accessories to serve a purpose and to solve problems in their play. This triggered a change in educators’ understanding about the nature of children’s play at the sensory table.
Educators were impressed with children’s perseverance in their play. Children did not give up as they attempted to attach the non-magnetic fish to a magnetic fishing pole. The video revealed that when children were interested and curious, they played for longer periods of time at the sensory table. Educators noticed how two children, in a dispute over jars with twist-on lids, managed, with adult assistance, to overcome problems with sharing materials.
Selected Literature
With the librarian’s assistance, the teacher candidate selected the following articles for the team to read and to identify one appropriate strategy to overcome their teaching challenge.
(1) Church, E. B. (2006 Jan/Feb). Experiment with Water and Ice. Early Childhood Today. Vol 20 (4) 4.
(2) Dorrell, A. (2007). Early Childhood News. Sensory experiences can be messy fun.
(3) NAEYC. (1997) Water play, A key to children’s living-learning environment. Young Children Vol 52 (2),33.
Fig 5.2. Child makes a boat to use at the sensory table
Developmentally Appropriate P ractice
Using Wood’s (2007) Yardsticks text, educators checked the developmental appropriateness of the boat making strategy with children aged 4 to 5 years. Wood’s description of 4 to 5-year olds as active explorers and adventurers ready for everything was encouraging. The fact that children enjoy hands-on activities, manipulating materials, using tools, and exploring themes such as transportation, led the team to think that boat-making was a developmentally-appropriate strategy to increase their interest. Educators were also pleased that this strategy fitted easily into the “plan-do-review” High/Scope routine used in the classroom.
Creating an Assessment Tool
The team created an assessment grid to provide the team with a consistent focus as they viewed videos and assessed the impact of the strategy. The team identified and designed the assessment criteria that were aimed at improving the original teaching challenge seen in figure 5.1… the absence of children at the sensory table.
I mplementation of the Strategy—First Stage: Children Make Sailboats
The team viewed a 20-minute video of children playing at the sensory table with their boats. The video was analyzed for examples of children’s improved interest in using the table. The results of the impact of the strategy were thus:
Assessment Criteria Frequency Comments
Number of children playing at sensory table 8
Children are interested 8
Play is sustained 8
Attention is held 8
New materials explored 4
New experiences gained 5
Children use new language 5
Table 5.2: Assessment grid analyzes the impact of the strategy on children’s interest
Team reflection after video is viewed:
• Is the strategy working? How?
• Is the original teaching challenge being improved upon? How?
• Is children’s learning improving? How?
• Is your understanding of your teaching changing? How?
• Is your teaching changing? How?
• What do we do next in our teaching? How?
Video Recording D escription
Throughout the 20-minute video, eight children (six boys and two girls) played at the sensory table. Children played together in groups of five, four, three, a pair, and one child on her own. The demand to play at the sensory table was so great that it was necessary for educators to limit the number of children to four at any one time. All eight children were highly engaged in play at the sensory table. They moved their sailboats, manipulated rocks, shared and positioned other toys in the water while maintaining a continuous narrative about what was happening. Children’s play was sustained with each of them staying an average of about 15 minutes. With the addition of the sailboats and other materials, children’s interest was fully held with no behavior problems.
Fig 5.3 Children use their boats at the sensory table
Children explored new materials. They investigated the properties of rocks by dropping them into the water to see how much of a splash resulted; banging rocks on the sensory table base to hear the sound created; and turning rocks over in their hands to feel the surface area. Children made movements in the water that had not been seen before. A girl repeatedly moved her hands to propel the sailboats forward; steer the sailboats between rocks; create rough water during a rescue; and explore how water had been colored blue. Children gained new experiences as they used and shared other toys in the water to create play plots. In a rescue, children worked together to move people from island to island (represented by rocks) and then load them onto rescue boats. Children held silver coins in their hands to represent treasure found on the ocean bed.
Children spoke in a continuous stream to narrate their story plot. This allowed educators to understand what was happening. Hal said, “I’m crashing, May Day, May Day! I’m crashing against the rocks. Ah, you took my man. Get on my boat guys.” Jack replied, “Help, mine is stuck (on the rocks) too! I can’t get over.” Hal replied, “No, you can’t go underwater either, that’s where the sharks are! He’s stuck!” Jack cried, “Help, help!”
Team Reflection on the Video
The sailboat strategy was successful in increasing children’s interest at the sensory table. Eight children played for almost 30 minutes during work-time. Four children made this their first choice during work-time. Boys tended to stay longer than girls. One boy spent 40 minutes playing there, and refused to come away at clean-up time. The sensory table was now used with the same frequency as other play centers.
The original teaching challenges identified were improved by the sailboat strategy. When children were given more control over their own play, their interest at the sensory table increased. Providing children with opportunities to come up with their own play plots and choose the materials they wanted to use was seen as crucial in developing children’s interest.
The quality of children’s learning improved at the sensory table. Children’s play was more social and more animated. Language opportunities increased when children assumed their roles. Children’s use of rocks at the sensory table illustrated how their learning improved in developmentally-appropriate ways. Not only did science content exist as educators had thought, but also math, literacy, creativity, and social science. Children’s interest in using rocks differed from educators’ ideas. Children cleverly used rocks in fantasy play to represent islands that functioned as rescue stations during shark attacks.
The team saw how the sailboat strategy sustained children’s interest. The sensory table was now busy on all days when it was open. As time went on, fewer children played there, but they stayed for longer. Educators understood that a waning of children’s interest was a signal for them to ask children what new materials they might want to further develop their play.
Educators reflected on how the strategy changed their understanding of their own teaching. Instead of educators making decisions about play, the children did much better when allowed to make decisions for themselves. Through decision and choice making, children became thinkers, talkers, and problem-solvers.
Educators’ teaching roles changed as they became listeners and interrogators of children. Listening to children as they played was “a real eye-opener.” For the first time, educators heard children’s own imaginative ideas for fantasy play. When educators asked children questions, they became responsive to children’s requests. New materials were chosen by children to fulfill specific purposes in play. Chosen materials created a new dynamic quality to the play. Observations of play provided the information educators needed to ask children relevant questions. When educators asked relevant questions, they, in turn, became effective supporters and sustainers of play.
Educators identified what they wanted to do next in their teaching. They were concerned they had not clearly explained the procedure they had used during circle time to help children choose new materials.
Evidence suggested that NAEYC Standards (2009) 1a, b and c were met by the sailboat strategy.
Implementing the Strategy: Second Stage
Educators thought they supported children’s play more effectively when they listened, asked questions, gave choices, and helped them make decisions about materials they wanted to use. The procedure for children choosing new materials democratically consisted of educators listening to children’s requests, responding by asking children to vote for requested materials, recording the number of votes cast, and announcing that the majority vote would determine which material was chosen.
Fig 5.4 Children choose and vote on materials to add to the sensory table
Educators changed the “question of the day” to include a rotation of materials to provide children with variety. After a period of time, educators removed rocks from the sensory table, and instead, children chose to use another material. Educators explained that the material receiving the most votes would go into the sensory table. Shells received the most votes.
A 20-minute video of children playing at the sensory table was analyzed by educators. The results of the impact of the strategy of children playing at the sensory table with shells were:
Assessment Criteria Frequency Comments
Number of children playing at sensory table 5
Children are interested 5
Children’s play is sustained 5
Sensory table holds children’s attention 5
Children explore new materials 5
Children gain new experiences 5
Children use language skills 4
Table 5.3: Video analysis shows the impact of using shells at the sensory table
Combinations of five children played at the sensory table (supplied with shells) which was fewer than the number that played there when the children had chosen rocks (see fig 5.3). At times, the sensory table was so full, that one child had to wait until there was an open place, which taught patience.
All five children showed interest as they played with their boats and with shells in the blue colored water. They cupped water in shells and tipped the water over each other’s hands. Children made waves in the water as they steered their boats, grabbing handfuls of shells and piling them up on their boats. As they searched for shells, children said, “Look what I found,” and, “You look in here.”
Children’s play was sustained, as on average they stayed for approximately 12 minutes each. They each brought their own boat and pretended to serve drinks to each other, like imaginary lemonade.
Children’s attention was maintained as they held and observed the shape of shells. Looking at clamshells, children opened and closed the hinges. Children picked shells up out of the water, swirled them in the water and blew on them. One child felt a shell against his lip for a better sense of its texture. Children turned the shells over and, nesting them inside each other, piled them onto their boats. They gained new knowledge by comparing shells to objects with which they were familiar. One child said, while cupping water in a shell, “Looks like a medicine cup,” and looking at a spiral shell, another commented, “The shell looks as if it is coming out.” One child asked another to smell the shell. The child replied, “No way, I’m not smelling that!”
Team Reflection
The sailboat strategy was determined to still be working. Original teaching challenges continued to be improved upon. Regarding children’s interest in playing at the sensory table, the team reflected that on days of the week when the sensory table was closed, children asked for it to be opened again. This indicated that the sensory table was now a popular play area in the classroom. On average, children stayed for about 15 minutes. Some stayed for the whole of work time, and others stayed only a few minutes. Children now played at the sensory table on a regular basis and engaged in sustained play over time.
Educators determined that children’s learning was greatest when they were able to ask for and choose materials they wanted to use in the sensory table. Examples of this included asking for the water to be colored blue, and choosing rocks and shells as accessories to their boats. Regarding children’s use of language, their play with boats and shells did not generate the same quantity, or richness of language, that their play with boats, rocks, and people had.
Educators believed that children’s play was sustained for longer when toy versions of both people and animals were added to the sensory table activity. Children did not show the same level of creative thinking, narrative, and story plots when only inanimate objects were present. Educators believed, and rightly so, that children’s attention was best engaged when the play was purposeful. The rocks enabled children to explore and be creative. The shells enabled them to use their imaginations, visualizing and using them as ballast in their sailboats, treasure, money, and medicine cups. Children gained new experiences through exploration using their senses.
Previously, children had played in parallel at the sensory table, but now educators could see them socializing and sharing. Attending to the children’s use of language, the educators observed, was important. They listened to what children asked for, and noted their choices at circle time. Educators were more aware of who the askers and choosers were. They commented that responding to children’s choices was “so different for us, so much more than before, when we had no clue about their ideas.”
If some of this seems intuitive, it is. Their understanding blossomed from full participation in the solving of these challenges, which is the essence of the ELC.
Educators determined that: NAEYC Standard 1a-c, Promoting Child Development and Learning; Standard 3 a-d: Observing, Documenting and Assessing to Support Young Children, and elements of Standard 6b-d: Becoming a Professional were also met.
The team decided that the next stage of the action research concerned children’s ability to simultaneously choose multiple new materials to add to the sensory table.
Implementing the S trategy: Third Stage
Fig 5.5 Children use a collection of new materials
A 20-minute video showed three sequences; (1) at circle time when children chose materials from four choices and voted to add sea creatures; (2) a group of boys playing at the sensory table and; (3) a group of boys and girls playing at the sensory table. The video clips were analyzed using the assessment grid criteria. The results of asking children to choose new materials were as follows:
Assessment Criteria Frequency Comments
Number of children play at sensory table 8 Two groups of four
Children are interested 8 All fully involved
Children’s play is sustained 6 With more materials
Sensory table holds children’s attention 6
Children explore new materials 8
Children gain new experiences 8
Children use language skills 8
Table 5.4: Video analysis shows impact of children choosing new materials
During the two video clips taken at the sensory table, eight children were seen playing there. The number of children that played with their sailboats was highest when toy people and animals were made available. All eight children showed interest in playing simultaneously with sailboats and sea animals like crabs, fish, sea horses, shrimp, and sharks. Boys collected their sailboats before coming to the sensory table. One boy made two boats, a second boy exclaimed, “I’ll get my new one,” and a third boy made engine noises as he steered his sailboat through the water. The boys showed interest as they “fished” for sea animals. One said, “I’m going fishing. I caught something.” They piled sea creatures on each other’s boats which naturally elicited some complaints. Children’s active play was enhanced when the plot was dynamic.
Children’s play was also sustained. Some children stayed 15 minutes, while others stayed only ten, but then returned later. Others stayed just three minutes. The same children were seen repeatedly on the video. This suggested that these were regular players at the sensory table who continued their play with the same friends from one session to the next. This suggested that those same children developed their play plots over time. When children heard music that signaled the end of work-time and time to clean up, one said, “Oh, we were doing fine. We had fun”. This showed that children wanted to continue to play there for longer.
Children’s interest and attention were held throughout their time at the sensory table. Interest and attention appeared to be maintained through social interaction between children as they noticed that some fish “were the same.” Others made up and narrated stories of hammerhead shark attacks that “cut” into their boats. One child’s interest and attention was held as she searched for treasure in the water and sorted it into different piles on her boat. Children did not explore the toy sea creatures in the same way that they had with the rocks and shells. Instead they used sea creatures, specifically sharks, to make up stories about shark attacks.
Children’s new play plots were significant because of what they did with the toy sea-creatures. They knocked their own heads with the hammerhead sharks, symbolizing how an attack would take place. Children placed the hammerheads under their boats, symbolizing an attack, and one child even placed a person on the top of the sail mast of the boat, to represent an escape route! A boy played with a seahorse and said “giddy up” as he attacked another child’s boat!
The play shark attack gave the educators a chance to observe the children’s language skills and their ability to convey meaning. One child said, “The shark will catch me.” A second replied, “What do I do? The shark is in the boat!” A third added, “The shark’s going to cut my boat. Help me, the shark will catch me. Ah, ah, the shark is biting my fingers!” A girl exclaimed while searching for treasure, “Oh no, I’ve dropped my treasure. What can I do?”
Team Reflection
The team reflected how the strategy had increased children’s use of the sensory table over the course of the action research. At the start, few or no children played there, but their numbers had increased to an average of eight children each session. There had been days when the sensory table had been completely full. The number of children tended to peak by the third day and then trail off. To maintain numbers at the sensory table, educators knew to ask children what materials they wanted to add next.
Educators remarked that the original teaching challenge had been improved upon. The key to maintaining children’s interest lay in offering them choices for what they wanted to play with at the sensory table. Educators said children were only interested in the sensory table for short periods of time. However, the boat-making activity, for instance, had extended the interest of all children who played at the sensory table.
“Question of the day,” where children were asked to choose and vote on materials had been successful. It appeared that providing children with choice and decision-making opportunities was instrumental to maintaining their interest. Children’s play was sustained at the sensory table from about ten minutes per child to about 13 minutes per child. Both boys and girls now chose to play there regularly and stayed for longer periods of time.
New materials also increased children’s attention at the sensory table. Educators said the children learned more and used all five senses, making up imaginative stories, with increased social involvement and more use of language. Children’s exploration of these materials was a major feature of the project. The educators wondered why they had added different materials to other centers in the classroom, but not to the sensory table. However, children’s own input was what had made the difference, along with educators’ belief about the importance of hands-on learning, investigation, and active learning. The critical element included educators asking children questions about the materials they wanted.
Educators remarked that they had to support children’s ideas by changing aspects of their own teaching. Children gained new experiences by coming up with their own ideas and then using them at the sensory table. Educators already knew to observe children and follow their interests. They now realized they also needed to get children’s input to determine what aspects of practice would benefit from change.
Educators’ improved practice, brought about by their deeper knowledge and understanding of young children’s thinking in fantasy play, resulted in a sound base for responsive practice. The influences that affected children’s development and learning were better understood, resulting in children choosing and acting on materials to reveal the plot and meaning in their play. Respectful learning environments resulted in beneficial support, challenge, and opportunities, with each of these enabling children to make decisions in their play. The video camera showed educators the real activity of children at the sensory table and helped educators promote positive learning outcomes. Educators became professionals when they engaged in collaborative action research, and when they were able to reflect and express their new understanding of their teaching.
The teacher candidate benefitted from the improved consistency that existed between the content learned in college classes, and the practice experienced in the Practicum classroom. Participation in the action research gave her consistent knowledge, confidence, and the support to carry out lesson plan assignments designed to improve children’s learning opportunities. Evidence suggested that NAEYC Standards (2009) 1, 3, and 6 were met by the sailboat strategy.
Final Reflection
The aims of the action research were fulfilled. The boat-making strategy was successful in making the sensory table a more interesting and frequently used play area. The number of children at the table was increased by the implementation of the boat making-strategy. Children’s interest was sustained as they developed their own fantasy play plots, and groups and individuals played at the sensory table for longer periods of time.
Alignment with NAEYC standards was improved when educators worked with a deeper understanding of the characteristics and needs of 3 to 4-year-old children. Educators worked more closely with children by providing them with opportunities to choose materials for the sensory table. However, children’s free choices were not guaranteed until educators gave them daily access to the sensory table, and multiple materials were stored and made accessible in close proximity to it. Healthy, respectful, supportive, and challenging learning opportunities were provided to support spontaneous play. However, more opportunities to use content knowledge were needed to further develop children’s learning. Closer alignment with NAEYC standards, in both college courses and in Practicum, created consistent opportunities for the teacher candidate to design and implement high quality assignments.
Team values changed incrementally over the action research. Educators retained their values about the importance of children learning through exploration of materials. However, new values were formed when educators learned that children had highly creative ideas of their own for their play. Children needed to have access to a broad range of resources that they could utilize to give their play meaning. These ideas enabled children to develop new skills in language, imagination, plots, purpose, investigations, decisions, and problem-solving. The team realized that their role was to expose children’s ideas in play, and support them in their endeavor to build concepts during sensory table play at circle and work-times. | textbooks/socialsci/Early_Childhood_Education/Book%3A_The_ELC_-_An_Early_Childhood_Learning_Community_at_Work_(Bridge_Melita_and_Roiger)/02%3A_Case_Studies/2.04%3A_Improving_Play_at_the_Sensory_Table.txt |
Teaching Challenge
Boys are unable to express their emotions appropriately.
Background
Strategy: Implementing a guidance plan to support boys’ communication skills.
Summary
The team devised a guidance plan comprising “The Five Finger Method of Conflict Resolution” and a “Feelings Chart.” The purpose of the guidance plan was to support educators’ use of certain methods with a group of 3-year-old boys with delayed speech. Educators aimed to encourage appropriate behavior among the boys through positive communications during play. By following the guidance plan, educators became more responsive to the boys’ needs while being less controlling. A problem-solving approach to behavior management enabled educators to communicate more effectively, and resulted in a less stressful classroom. When boys showed more interest and engagement in their play, their behavior improved.
Pointing to relevant images on the feelings chart during circle time gave the boys a way to express their emotions. Educators changed their behavior management role from disciplinarian to facilitator of play. Most educators realized that developmental knowledge of 3-year-olds’s feelings at a given moment was critical to their effective behavior management. Other educators resisted new guidance strategies, and required more time to gain professional knowledge in order to implement developmentally-appropriate practices.
The C ontext
This action research took place over one complete semester in a classroom for 3-year olds enrolled at a daycare center in a small city. Full daycare was provided to children of all abilities, including those with exceptional learning needs. In a classroom with a lead educator and an assistant educator, ten of the 16 children were boys. The New York State Common Core Standards in use at the time were used in the setting to guide the curriculum and learning outcomes.
Teaching Challenge
Fig 6.1: Managing the difficult behavior of 3-year-old boys
During the first team meeting, educators identified their teaching challenge as managing the difficult behavior of a group of 10 three-year-old boys. To gather data to investigate the teaching challenge further, the candidate video recorded the boys during free-play. During the second week’s team meeting, educators watched the videotape. The following paragraphs are a record of the comments educators made while watching the footage. The narrative includes a description of the teaching challenge and reveals educators’ own beliefs about the boys’ behavior problems.
For various reasons, the boys’ delayed speech contributed toward difficult behavior. Many boys spoke at a two-year-old developmental level. One boy was an English language learner. As a result, communication problems arose between the boys and educators. Boys, unable to fully understand what was said to them, could not express themselves clearly either. Delayed speech development meant the boys tended to express their feelings and needs physically by hitting and kicking others.
The boys were highly physical which made it hard for educators to maintain their interest in activities. Rather than use classroom play centers in the ways that educators intended, the boys ran between centers, used materials for unorthodox purposes, and played highly physical games like “Spiderman.” In a small classroom, the boys created a commotion, as they touched each other, and wrestled on top of each other. As they ran on a gravel path, when they were allowed to go outside, accidents occurred.
Boys’ under-developed social skills also contributed to the teaching challenge. They often played in parallel, i.e., in proximity to one another, but not interactively in social play. Disputes over toys were common because boys did not share toys. This was exacerbated further because there were not enough toys or materials available. The boys were limited in their ability to make play choices.
Team V alues
Educators did not want to stereotype or label the boys because of their delayed language, poor concentration, and under developed social skills. However, educators judged that many of the boys were developmentally delayed, and immature for their age. By comparison, 3-year-old girls were perceived to be more mature and were positive role models to the boys. The lack of girls in the class seemed to impact boys’ behavior by the absence of their positive influence. Educators wondered how to improve their behavior management skills. They said they needed help in creating smoother transitions and routines in the classroom that would help improve boys’ behavior. The adult to child ratio of 1:7 increased the likelihood that educators would spend a lot of time “putting out fires” in the classroom. Rather than directing and correcting boys’ difficult behavior, educators wondered how they could support appropriate behavior. Educators thought that the boys’ difficult behavior needed to be “ironed out now,” to help them make a successful transition to the next class when they would be 4-year-olds.
The educators thought the boys needed more time to play to support their development. Knowing how to create appropriate play provision and behavioral expectations for boys who were developmentally delayed was difficult. Educators wondered about using signing in the classroom to improve their communication with the boys. Questions arose about whether existing materials were appropriate and interesting to the boys. During outdoor play, educators noticed how boys enjoyed watching jet-trails in the sky. However, educators needed help in knowing how to use this experience to create learning activities that engaged boys’ interests.
Aims of the Action Research
The aims of this action research were to: (1) improve educators’ interactions with 3-year-old boys; (2) create a guidance plan that would help educators develop beneficial interactions with them; (3) provide the teacher candidate with consistent opportunities that connect the theory of developmentally-appropriate interactions with boys, taught to them in college classes, with educators’ practice in Practicum; and (4) improve the teacher candidate’s opportunities to plan and implement lesson plans in ways that demonstrated NAEYC Standards (2009).
Alignment wi th NAEYC Standards
In NAEYC Standards for Early Childhood Professional Preparation Programs (2009) interactions with children are required to be grounded in a child development knowledge base, one that is deeply linked to a sympathetic understanding of each young child (Elkin, 1994). In Standard 1: Promoting Child Development and Learning, teacher candidates are required to demonstrate an understanding of each child’s characteristics and needs and provide for their physical, cognitive, social, emotional, language, aesthetic, play, learning processes, and motivation. Teacher candidates are required to demonstrate an understanding of the multiple influences on the development and learning of each child, including their cultural and linguistic relationships with adults and peers, economics, health, disabilities, individual development, learning styles, play, technology, and family and community characteristics. Teacher candidates are required to demonstrate, using developmental knowledge, healthy, respectful, supportive, and challenging learning environments for each child. They are expected to do this by recognizing them as feeling, thinking individuals whose abilities, family contexts, home cultures, and languages are to be affirmed. Each child must have opportunities to learn through play, spontaneous activity, and guided investigations.
The Baseline A ssessment
Using the educators’ description of the teaching challenge, the team created a checklist of 11 difficult behaviors to form a baseline assessment of their teaching challenge. A 20-minute video was recorded of the ten boys during story time, outdoor play, and free indoor play. While watching the video, educators used the checklist to count the frequency with which each difficult behavior occurred. The checklist was used as a consistent assessment tool throughout the action research.
Teaching Challenge Frequencies
Child is not interested in activity 8
Child has under developed speech 3
Child does not listen 2
Child shows physical frustration 3
Child plays in parallel 5
Child shows anti-social behavior 0
Child does not share 0
Child makes erratic transitions 0
Child has insufficient materials 1
Educators direct boys 8
Educators have developmentally inappropriate expectations 3
Table 6.1: Baseline assessment of the teaching challenge
Thirty-three examples of boys’ behavior were recorded on the video and analyzed. All eight examples of boys not being interested were observed during story time, when boys sat on a rug, listened to a CD about farm animals, sang along with the CD, made animal noises, and moved like the appropriate farm animal. It was difficult to maintain boys’ interest in the activity when they were expected to sit and listen to the CD. The frequency of boys not being interested in activity correlated to educators directing their play.
Some boys did not speak in complete sentences. On three occasions, boys gave partial instructions to each other about what to do with trucks, and where to put them during clean-up time. Three examples of physical frustration were evident as boys climbed onto an off-limits climbing frame and, when in play, they threw stones. Five examples of boys’ parallel play were seen outdoors as they drove trucks in the gravel and then assembled a railway track. No examples were observed of boys’ anti-social behavior, not sharing materials, or erratic transitions. As boys played with bricks, there was one example of insufficient bricks being made available. On eight occasions, educators directed boys’ behavior with the aim of maintaining their interest in their activities. During these times, educators directed where boys should or should not be, e.g., “You can’t go under the structure. It is not safe.” Educators responded to boys by asking questions, e.g., “Who is throwing stones? What shape is the track? What color is that?” There were three examples of when educators restricted where boys could move to and also restricted the range of play materials they could use.
Team Reflection of the Baseline A ssessment
The team reflected that although the video showed chaotic incidents, like a child crashing into another with a truck; a second child taking a toy from another; a third child hitting another, the video did not show the “overwhelming” problems educators faced maintaining to make boys’ interest in activities. Although no evidence was recorded that showed all categories of difficult behaviors, the video revealed that educators spent considerable time lecturing, directing, and correcting boys’ behavior in a bid to improve it and to maintain their interests.
The team believed the boys needed a structured routine to improve their interest in activities. The team also noticed the boys’ difficult behavior was not exclusively about their lack of interest in activities, but was, more often, an expression of negative emotions. Based on this new insight, educators re-conceptualized the teaching challenge from improving boys’ difficult behavior to increasing opportunities for boys to appropriately express their negative emotions. Educators already knew that, because of their under-developed language skills, boys used their bodies to express negative feelings. Educators realized the boys’ difficulty in maintaining interest in activities was often connected to them not having the words or social skills to express emotions appropriately. Educators expressed frustration that a policy did not exist in the setting to address this concern. The lack of a policy resulted in educators “winging it,” which they said explained their uncoordinated, reactive, and inappropriate responses to the boys’ learning and development needs.
Se lected Literature
Assisted by the librarian, the teacher candidate selected three articles for the team to read. The articles were related to helping boys to express emotion appropriately:
(1) Fox, L., and Harper Lentini, R. November (2006). Teaching boys a vocabulary for emotions. Beyond the Journal – Young Children. naeyc.org
(2). Fox, L., and Harper Lentini, R. November (2006). “You got it!” teaching social and emotional skills. Beyond the Journal – Young Children.naeyc.org
(3) King, M. & Gartrell D., (July 2003) Building an encouraging classroom with boys in mind. Young Children Vol 58 No.4.
(4) Gartrell, D. (2002) Replacing Time-out. Part Two – Using guidance to maintain an encouraging classroom. Young Children Vol 57 No.2.
The team chose three strategies, two articles, Teaching Boys a Vocabulary for Emotions, and Replacing TimeOut, because both articles closely matched their teaching challenge. The team used the articles to write their own policy for supporting boys’ emotions. The chosen strategies were: (i) The Five Finger Method of Conflict Resolution (ii) the Guidance Talk and; (iii) a feelings chart.
The Five Finger Method of Conflict Resolution
The Five Finger Method of Conflict Resolution (See figure 6.2) consisted of five steps for educators to follow when approaching and supporting a child in a situation of conflict. The steps were:
1. Cool down – the educator calms all individuals, including him or herself, and sets the scene for the remediation process.
2. Identify the problem – the boys, with help from the educator, put the problem into words and agree on what it is.
3. Brainstorm solutions – the boys, with help from the educator, are given a chance to solve their own problems. Educators get down to their level, act as a role model for appropriate behavior, and use an encouraging voice.
4. Go for it – boys and educators decide on one solution and try it. The educator shows respect for child autonomy and gives compliments in support of ideas.
5. Follow up – the educator encourages, monitors, and guides the boys as they try out the solution. A guidance talk with the boys may be part of this step.
Fig 6.2: The 5 Finger Method of Conflict Resolution
Guidance Talk
Following the use of the Five Finger Method of Conflict Resolution, and adapted from Gartrell (2002), educators carry out the guidance talk privately with a child to avoid embarrassment. This consists of talking with a child and not at a child. The purpose is to teach the child that they can respond differently in conflict situations, and to provide the child with alternatives. During the guidance talk the educator will:
1. Discuss what happened during the conflict and convey to the child why the behavior was mistaken. For example, it is appropriate to feel frustrated when the glue bottle top comes off, but it is not appropriate to throw the glue bottle and hit someone.
2. Help the child understand how others may have felt. A goal is to build empathy in the child.
3. Brainstorm with the child alternative acceptable behaviors to use the next time, e.g., “Next time you can say, don’t do that – it makes me angry.”
4. Ask how the child can help the other child feel better. This is different from forcing an apology. Neither boys nor educators benefit when they are forced to apologize before conflicts are resolved. When boys participate in reconciliation, they are usually more able to make amends. Boys often come up with their own ideas for getting back together.
The Feelings Chart
Fig 6.3: The Feelings Chart gives ten options for expression
The team agreed that a “feelings chart” could be introduced to the boys at circle time. The chart was designed to help the boys explore a range of emotions, identify related facial expressions, learn appropriate vocabulary, and connect those words to their own feelings. Boys were thought to know the vocabulary for the extreme emotions of happy and sad, but they did not yet know the words for a range of other emotions in between.
Writing the Guidance P lan
As the team started to write their guidance plan, some educators had difficulty in understanding the concept of “guidance” to help the boys express emotions appropriately (Gartrell, 2007, p.24). Their earlier practices were commonly based on reprimand and prevented some educators from understanding how to use guidance to help the boys. Changing the understanding of some educators about how to support boys’ emotions did not happen easily. The implementation of the guidance plan strategy was delayed. Some educators said it was “second nature” for them to use reprimand and directional strategies.
These educators did not initially understand that behavior management methods had to be based on child development principles so 3-year-olds would understand them. (Copple & Bredekamp, 2009) This was particularly important when some of the boys appeared to be developmentally delayed. One boy’s comment illustrated this child development principle through his pre-operational understanding. He asked, “If the thinking chair is not here today, does it mean that no-one will be bad?” The guidance plan had to be simple to enable educators to implement it consistently, and for them to be confident that it would improve the teaching challenge.
Implementation of the Strategy: Stage 1 – Writing the Guidance Plan
The team based their guidance plan on Gartrell’s (2007) philosophy. The philosophy stated that preschool boys don’t misbehave; instead they have “mistaken behavior.” In other words, boys are learning social skills to participate in group activities and to interact with one another. Their learning isn’t always perfect, and they need guidance in learning social skills. Gartrell contended that boys need to learn appropriate behavior with the same gentle instruction that we use to teach new words. With this in mind, the team wrote the following guidance plan:
The Guidance Plan
When guiding boys’ behavior, educators plan to take the following steps:
• Assess the situation. (Is the situation dangerous?)
• Provide boys with chances to solve problems on their own if possible.
• Help promote problem solving, if boys aren’t able to find their own solution.
• If boys are visibly upset and unable to solve a problem peacefully, separate them and allow them to calm down. Stay with the child at this time.
• When boys have calmed down, discuss the problem and get the boys to give ideas about how the incident could have gone better.
• All staff must model appropriate behavior to the boys. It is important for the educator to get down to the child’s level whenever necessary to interact appropriately.
• Use the chart to support boys’ use of feeling words and to increase boys’ awareness of their impact on others.
Table 6.2: The Guidance Plan
Fig 6.4: Educator uses the Guidance Plan to help child problem-solve
A video was recorded that showed educators using steps 1 – 6 of the guidance plan; step 7 of the Feelings Chart; and the impact these strategies had. The team developed a second checklist in which the negative teaching challenges in the first checklist were reversed into positive guidance plan outcomes. The team used this list to analyze the tape by counting the frequency of boys’ appropriate expressions of emotion.
Guidance plan outcomes Frequencies
Interested in activity 6
Communicates with others 6
Listens to others 5
Expresses feelings appropriately 7
Socializes appropriately 4
Social behavior 5
Shares with others 4
Smoother transitions 2
Accesses materials appropriately 3
Responds to guidance 4
Problem solves 6
Table 6.3: Checklist used to analyze impact of the guidance plan strategy
Team reflection after video is viewed:
• Is the strategy working? How?
• Is the original teaching challenge being improved upon? How?
• Is children’s learning improving? How?
• Is your understanding of your teaching changing? How?
• Is your teaching changing? How?
Video Recording Analysis
While using the guidance plan strategies with four boys playing with a circular train track and toys, 52 frequencies of guidance plan outcomes in 11 categories were observed. The educator facilitated the boys’ interest, as she sat close to them and supported their play with the train track. The educator helped boys communicate over a problem concerning sharing the train track and not pushing Jake’s train off. The educator asked the boys questions about what happened when Jake’s train was pushed off. She gave the boys time to explain the problem from their own perspectives. Jake said, “On my train track—he pushed on my track.” When the educator created a climate in which boys were given opportunities to talk, other boys were able to listen, although they did not always respond. The educator commented that Charlie was not ready to talk yet.
The educator provided many opportunities and extended time for the boys to express their feelings about the train track problem. She asked, “How did that make you feel? We don’t throw toys because someone could get hurt.” The boys used words that were on the feelings chart, e.g., sad, and phrases that included, “I don’t like that.” For the most part the boys socialized appropriately and were not physically abusive to each other.
Boys’ positive feelings and behavior were further supported when they were able to choose materials for themselves and perform actions. When boys were able to access and perform actions on toys, smoother transitions in play resulted. Some boys hoarded trains in front of them, but as long as there were sufficient toys for each boy, a problem did not develop.
The educator used guidance to help boys think about problems concerning sharing toys. She asked each boy in turn how he felt, and provided him with possible strategies he could use to help the matter, e.g., “You could say, ‘please don’t take my toy now, but when I am done, you can play with it.’” Problem-solving was effective when the educator encouraged the boys to be empathetic and consider how their action affected others.
Team’s Reflective Meeting
Team discussion suggested the guidance plan was working. Kinder and more positive interactions occurred between educators and boys in the classroom. Boys were more able to express themselves by asking or indicating before they did things. Educators praised them as a form of positive reinforcement.
The original teaching challenge was being improved upon through successful implementation of a guidance plan that was found to be dependent upon educators’ communication skills with boys. Educators’ use of language had to be clear and specific in order to draw out boys’ ideas about behavior problems and offer suitable solutions that could be used.
When educators consistently used the guidance plan, children’s learning improved. When educators communicated with boys in ways that built empathy and modeled respect, children were more responsive. Circle time was recognized as effective to consistently model the use of the guidance plan to all the boys. Open-ended questions were helpful, e.g., “What’s the problem? What can we do to sort it out?” Educators recognized they had to acknowledge boys’ feelings in ways that helped them to problem-solve. Educators realized that they had to be aware of the possible causes of behavior problems, such as home lives and cultures. They needed to have an understanding of typical child development for 2- and 3-year-olds and be aware of the implication of boys’ immaturity, and the need to use developmentally-appropriate responses.
Some educators, however, found it difficult to implement the Five Finger Method of Conflict Resolution. They said they needed more time and practice to feel comfortable using it. Changing practice was a process that took more time than was recognized. Bringing the guidance plan down to the boy’s level of understanding was a challenge. This finding indicated that educators’ own communication skills, and the use of appropriate vocabulary, were critical to successful implementation. The team used role-play during team meetings to give them practice and confidence in using it.
Understanding educators’ concerns about using the guidance plan was important in supporting their professional development. Some educators asked questions about when and how they should intervene during problematic behavior. Others said they found talking to, and interacting with, highly physical boys difficult. Educators did not believe that guidance worked without reprimanding boys to point out their mistakes. Some educators preferred to use distraction as a way to prevent behavioral problems. They thought that boys screamed for attention, and expected to be punished when they behaved badly.
Educators’ changing approach regarding behavior management was a process that would take time to become embedded in their professional practice. (Copple & Bredekamp, 2009) One educator remarked that the change was radical saying, “I’m lost for words—this is a whole different take for us.” Up to this time, some educators appear to have used personal rather than professional knowledge to manage children’s behavior. Parents noticed that guidance, rather than “time out,” was being used in the setting. Some parents talked to educators about the changes and said they no longer used a “time-out” chair at home.” The impact of new guidance behavior management practices in the classroom was spreading into children’s homes.
The video was used to record the effectiveness of the feelings chart, the frequency of boys using feeling words, and boys’ awareness of their impact on other boys in the classroom.
Feeling Chart Outcomes Frequencies
Interested in activity 10
Communicates with others 6
Listens to others 4
Expresses feelings 4
Socializes appropriately 5
Social behavior 4
Shares with others 2
Smoother transitions 1
Accesses materials appropriately 8
Responds to guidance 6
Problem solves 1
Table: 6.4: Video analysis of the impact of the feelings chart on children’s behavior
Video Recording Description
Fig 6.5: Child uses feelings chart to express emotion
During circle time, when an educator used the feeling chart as a game, boys demonstrated 51 positive behaviors in 11 categories. The boys were very interested in the activity that invited them to say how they felt, and select a face on the chart that matched their feelings. Boys’ interest in the activity was maintained, especially when they manipulated pegs, and placed them on the appropriate face of the feelings chart. Boys communicated appropriately as they listened to the educator, and to each other, talk about their feelings. Each boy had a peg of his own and this resulted in the activity being successfully implemented. The boys socialized appropriately and crowded around the chart to see where others had put their pegs. To avoid waiting, some boys who had placed their pegs earlier, went to the bookshelf to look at books and waited until all the boys had placed their pegs on the feelings chart. The educator summarized how many boys had said they were mad, proud, scared and happy. She also reminded the boys that, if their feelings changed, they could come and change where they placed their pegs.
There was only one example of when boys, with the educator’s help, used the feelings chart to solve problems. This was when one boy’s feet got stepped on while placing pegs on the chart. This incident suggested that, at this beginning stage, boys used the feelings chart to express their own feelings, rather than to explore the feelings of others.
Team’s Reflective Meeting
Educators’ responses to the implementation of the feelings chart were positive. They reported that “it’s working because the pictures help the boys use more words in their play.”
Reading about the feelings chart in the journal helped educators understand how it supported boys’ thinking and explained why it worked. As a result, many aspects of the original teaching challenge were improved. Educators reported how the classroom felt calmer and less hectic. Educators were less controlling and fewer rules were imposed to keep order. Boys were given more freedom to make choices in their play and to act on materials than before. However, one educator still believed that it was important to have rules to maintain a safe classroom environment.
The team reported that working with the feelings chart made them more aware of boys’ learning needs. One journal article had indicated the need for boys to have fine and gross-motor movement throughout the curriculum. This led to team discussion about the daily schedule and whether blocks of time were used to create the best physical play opportunities. The problem of having to share the gross-motor room meant that half-hour blocks of time were not as effective as previously thought. Educators realized it was important to organize time, so boys had enough time to make choices about materials and decide how they would use them. Some educators voiced concern that too many boys in centers at one time made it necessary to rotate the boys between centers with timers and rules.
Reflecting on the use of the guidance plan, educators said they now found it better not to use “time out” and, instead, preferred to help boys solve their own problems. Using problem-solving strategies helped boys make more decisions themselves, and say, “I’m ready to go back in and play. I’m ready to talk now.” Educators commented that using the guidance plan had made it necessary for them to “program their own brains, too.”
Although some educators continued to grapple with changed practice, and needed more time to make adjustments, most educators’ values about behavior management changed significantly. They changed from believing that gender and maturity determined child behavior, to understanding how multiple factors affected each child’s individual development. Reading journal articles equipped educators with a deeper knowledge of child development in 3-year-olds. The guidance plan supported educators’ teaching actions in ways aligned with the development of 3-year-olds. Most educators realized that their professional knowledge, and not their personal knowledge, was key to them effectively supporting children’s behavioral needs. These involved educators responding to the boys’ current emotional, language, and social development (Copple & Bredekamp, 2009). The impact of educators’ improved practice was copied by some parents at home. More consistent behavioral norms were created for children when the same improved practices were used both in the preschool and at home.
The director was regularly involved throughout the action research semester. She played a critical role in supporting educators to consistently implement the guidance plan. She reported how other educators in other classrooms were copying the guidance plan. She wanted all educators in the preschool to read Gartrell’s (2003) book, The Power of Guidance, to ensure they used the same strategy to manage the behavior of young boys in their classrooms. The director was instrumental in spreading the guidance plan strategy across the preschool and promoting consistent practice concerning behavior management among all educators.
Evidence suggested that NAEYC Standard 1: Promoting Child Development and Learning was increasingly met over the semester. Regarding Standard 1a: knowing and understanding the developmental and learning needs of each boy in the class, educators improved their developmentally-appropriate provision for boys’ social, physical, language, and emotional needs, and increasingly understood the multiple influences on each boys’ individual development and learning. Requirements for Standard 1b were increasingly met as educators appreciated the importance of forming close relationships with the boys, and supporting friendship between them.
Educators’ improved understanding of the implementation of the guidance plan, created healthier and more respectful learning opportunities for boys during free-play and circle times especially. Improved learning opportunities for boys were particularly supportive of Standard 1c and of candidates’ teaching during Practicum. The impact of the action research enabled the teacher candidate to successfully implement four activities required in Practicum that were specifically planned to support and challenge each boys’ learning and development. This level of professional action was only possible in a classroom in which NAEYC Standards (2009) were aligned with college teaching and was supportive of boys’ all round developmental and learning needs.
Final Reflections
The aims of the action research were largely met. The guidance plan helped most educators develop beneficial interactions with boys, although some educators showed some resistance to changed practice. Communication skills among educators and boys were improved and boys’ engagement in play was sustained. The teacher candidate was provided with regular opportunities during Practicum that made connections between NAEYC standards, taught in college classes, and educators’ practice in Practicum. The teacher candidate enjoyed improved opportunities to design and implement lesson plan assignments aligned with NAEYC Standards (2009). | textbooks/socialsci/Early_Childhood_Education/Book%3A_The_ELC_-_An_Early_Childhood_Learning_Community_at_Work_(Bridge_Melita_and_Roiger)/02%3A_Case_Studies/2.05%3A_Boys_Capacity_to_Express_Emotions.txt |
Background
Strategy: Using active games, visual aids, finger rhymes, and songs to differentiate activity.
The Context: The action research took place over one complete semester in a Pre-K classroom in a non-public elementary school. Full-day sessions were offered in a mixed-ability class that included children with diverse learning needs. There were 14 children in the class with a certified teacher and assistant teacher. The whole school including the Pre-K classroom used the Responsive Curriculum teaching approach.
Findings
1. An open-ended game enabled children to be a king and make up a rule of their own, and enabled their individual learning needs to be met.
2. Flexible wait times in games reflected children’s individual abilities, and resulted in their individual learning needs being met.
3. Incorporating games that allowed movement helped meet children’s individual learning needs with regard to timing, attention span, and developmental-appropriateness of their activity.
4. Finger rhymes enabled children to solve mathematical problems in individual ways.
5. Finger rhymes, where teachers asked differentiated questions, enabled children to supply different, but acceptable, answers.
6. Open-ended and active treasure-hunt games enabled children’s individual learning needs to be met.
7. The use of games, visual aids, finger rhymes, songs and Sign Language resulted in the teacher and assistant teacher sharing the workload. One led the activity while the other recorded observations. The observations were used to plan subsequent differentiated lessons to meet children’s individual learning needs.
8. Cards with single digits on them enabled teachers to differentiate mathematical concepts that matched individual children’s understanding.
The Teaching C hallenge
Fig 7.1: Individual learning needs were not met during morning meeting
Educators identified their teaching challenge as failing to provide sufficient diversity and inclusion during morning meeting. They described the difficulty in meeting children’s diverse learning needs and ensuring they were all included during a large group time. Morning meeting typically consisted of a story, letter of the day, literacy and number activities. The team listed four difficulties connected to diversity and inclusion of each child during morning meeting.
First, teaching a mixed-ability class during whole group times was daunting. Educators tended to respond to more able children, i.e., those who volunteered answers, more than to those who did not. The educators’ goal was to include all children in their teaching, regardless of ability and not leave any children out. However, teaching to children’s diverse learning needs required different approaches which made the process very difficult. For some children, sequencing events in a story created a challenge for them. Others could not recognize a rhyme or the beginning letters of words, but for others, this material was too easy. Some children lacked social skills and were inattentive. Others were physically fidgety or simply unable to remain still at all. Some were less mature and this created a problem finding teaching material that was appropriate for each of them. Other children appeared to come from homes where learning was not highly valued, and so those children tended not to reflect school values.
Second, promoting inclusion in the classroom was difficult. Educators wondered how they could better include all children in lessons, a requirement at the time of the “No Child Left Behind” Act. Since the act required that all children, regardless of their abilities, be included in activities, educators were compelled to provide all children with opportunities to learn the same content. Educators’ dilemma lay in the near impossibility of this, given the starkly diverse learning needs of the children in the class. Complicating this, no Individual Education Plans existed to alert educators to what children’s special learning needs were. During morning meeting, educators asked administrators how they could better include the children with special needs. However, finding a good fit between the content they had to teach and the needs of slower-paced learners persisted. Educators wanted less able children to be included, to be like their peers, and not feel different or embarrassed by their lower ability levels. Educators were hard-pressed to find a way to accomplish this.
Third, responding to children’s inattentiveness was highly demanding and took the educators’ focus off what they were trying to teach. Some children, although physically present, were “somewhere else mentally” during morning meeting. They daydreamed and did not pay attention to taught activities. Educators thought they had children’s attention when they were all quiet, but this was not the case. In reality, when children did not understand material, they “zoned out.”
Fourth, differentiating teaching material was a challenge because young children of mixed-abilities required different stimuli to hold their attention. Educators wondered how to differentiate material so that children’s different learning needs could be met during circle time. This was important, given that some children would have to repeat Pre-K. When educators taught to one ability level, they felt they caused embarrassment to children of a lower ability level. They worried that the sharper children might giggle if the slower students wrote incorrect answers on their boards. Educators asked, “What do we do about children who work slowly and cause others to become restless? How do we get the whole group back on task?” Educators noticed that some children already suffered self-esteem problems and were afraid of embarrassing themselves. Younger and less able children actively resisted answering questions by saying to educators, “I didn’t have my hand up. I’m not answering,” which in itself showed a level of awareness, implying that intellectual ability was there but not as easy for teachers to identify.
Team Values
Educators expressed their values about diversity and inclusion. Although educators wanted to accommodate diversity and meet children’s individual learning needs, they felt the downward pressure of Kindergarten standards upon them. Educators remarked that Pre-K children had to meet those standards so they would not be behind when they entered kindergarten. Educators were willing to do extra work to compensate for any gaps in children’s knowledge, and they recognized that they needed workable teaching strategies to help them meet children’s diverse learning needs. They were genuinely irritated that they had not been taught these strategies, specifically in the areas of math and English Language Arts. Educators were worried about the ethical problems that could arise by teaching and treating all children the same. Children’s diverse learning needs required diverse teaching approaches. Educators were ambivalent, because they offered some children 1:1 support, recognizing that not all children were the same. However, educators provided children with additional support in an attempt to prevent them from falling behind.
Aims of the Action R esearch
The following aims were identified to help educators: (1) use varied teaching approaches to meet the diverse learning needs of each child in a mixed ability class; (2) promote greater inclusion of every child during morning meeting; (3) increase every child’s attentiveness during morning meeting; (4) differentiate material to better support each child’s diverse learning needs; (5) align educators’ practice more closely with NAEYC Standards (2009) regarding diversity and inclusion; and (6) improve teacher candidates’ opportunities to complete Practicum assignments that aligned with those NAEYC Standards.
Alignment of Teaching C hallenge with NAEYC Standards
The importance of teaching in ways that promoted diversity and inclusion was emphasized and integrated throughout all NAEYC Standards (2009). The commitment to diversity and inclusion was to ensure that the developmental and learning needs of each and every child were fully supported in the preschool classroom. Learning was more likely to be successful, and inequalities that might have led to persistent attainment gaps were minimized. Developmental and learning needs can include children with delays, disabilities, gifted and talented, cultural and linguistic diversity, socio-economic diversity, and individual learning-style preferences. The following standards respond to these learning needs: NAEYC Standard 1: Promoting Child Development and Learning, where teacher candidates show they use developmental knowledge to create healthy, respectful, supportive, and challenging learning environments for young children. Standard 3: Observing, Documenting and Assessing to Support Young Children and Families, teacher candidates practice responsible assessment, to promote outcomes for each child and Standard 5: Using Content Knowledge to Build Meaningful Curriculum, teacher candidates use their own knowledge, appropriate early learning standards, and other resources to design, implement and evaluate meaningful challenging curricula for each child, specifically in language, literacy, and mathematics.
Baseline Assessment
A 20-minute video was recorded to form a baseline assessment of the teaching challenge. A checklist of identified teaching challenges was devised by the team, and used to record the frequency of these challenges seen in the video:
Teaching Challenges Frequencies
Children’s inattentiveness 27
Teaching to children’s individual diverse needs 5
Inclusive practices exist in activity 0
Table 7.1: Baseline assessment of the teaching challenge
A total of 32 examples were observed in two categories related to diversity, and inclusion during morning meeting. The most common category was children’s inattentiveness (27) that manifested as children moved around and disrupted the flow of teaching. Six children moved to put sweaters in their cubbies, and three others moved to get tissues to wipe their noses. The seating arrangement, where children sat on the floor facing the teacher, perched on a high stool, compelled several of them to repeatedly turn around to see who was behind them. As children sat listening to letter and sound recognition work, individual children, selected by the teacher, did directed tasks, e.g., writing a beginning letter on the white board. At this point, several boys wriggled backwards and forward to move to another space to sit with other children. Others sat on their haunches, rocked from side to side, and used their arms to stabilize their weight. Some children talked to their neighbors. Some girls stroked their friends’ hair and played with hair accessories. Others shuffled on their bottoms and played with trainer shoelaces.
Five activities were differentiated to meet children’s diverse learning needs. The teacher wrote a morning message to the class that consisted of the day of the week, and the name of the class leader. The message illustrated the use of capital letters and the meaning of written text.
Selected children were individually asked to answer questions at various levels of difficulty, or asked to carry out prescribed tasks. Educators asked all children in the class to indicate whether they agreed or disagreed with particular concepts by giving a thumbs-up or thumbs down.
There were no examples of inclusive practices that enabled all children to participate in activities in different ways. The consistent format for writing the same morning message meant that content focused on classroom organization and prescribed letters of the week. Considerable “wait” time existed, because only one or two children actively participated during morning meeting. The rest of the class waited and became restless.
Team Reflection
The team identified three teaching problems. First, children’s inattentiveness, resulted in learning deficits. Educators deduced that children’s inattentiveness was not behavioral. Rather, they believed the teaching pace did not match children’s individual learning needs, and was, therefore, problematic. Some children were inattentive because they were bored, others had lost track of the lesson and several wanted to participate even if they did not know the answers to questions. Educators questioned the developmental appropriateness of their teaching Pre-K children.
Second, educators recognized that their teaching was not differentiated because no system of assessment existed to identify each child’s diverse learning needs. As a result, educators could not plan their teaching according to each child’s diverse developmental levels. Instead, the Responsive Classroom curriculum imposed a daily routine on the classroom in which the teaching of letters and numbers was embedded. Educators were aware that when they asked children “closed” questions that required only “right” answers, the needs of more able children’s individual learning needs were met. At the same time though, the needs of less-able children were ignored.
Third, educators said they wanted to use inclusive practices, but were unable to because no child had yet been diagnosed with special educational needs, and their specific learning needs were not immediately apparent to educators. By “inclusive practices” in their classroom, educators meant that their teaching should fit and challenge each child’s current development and learning ability. The formal assessment made this difficult.
Selected Literature
The teacher candidates and the college librarian used a range of key words connected to the teaching challenge to find relevant journal articles. The teacher candidate selected the following articles for the team to read:
(1) Jalongo, M.R. (1996). Teaching young children to become better listeners. Young Children 51 (2): 21-26.
(2) McVicker, C.J. (2007). Young readers respond: The importance of child participation in emerging literacy. Young Children62 (3): 18-22.
(3) Roskos, K.A.ChristieJ.F, &. RichgelsD.J. (2003). The essentials of early literacy instruction. Young Children58 (2): 52-60. Online: www.journal.naeyc.org/btj/20030.
(4) Torbert, M. (2005). Using active group games to develop basic life skills. Young Children 60 (4): 72-78.
Since the teaching challenge incorporated a number of teaching elements, the team thought that combining a number of strategies, rather than using just one, would have greater impact . The team chose to implement three strategies from two articles: (1) Use a repertoire of active teaching approaches during morning meeting that included games, visual aids, finger rhymes , and songs to increase children’s attentiveness ( Torbert , 2005); (2) interact with children in reassuring ways to pr omote inclusion ( Jalongo , 1996), and; (3) assess each child’s understanding of concepts taught and use assessment outcomes to plan differentiated activities ( Jalongo , 1996).
The strategies were checked for their developmental-appropriateness in Wo od (2007) which said:
4 -year-olds learn best through varied approaches that include being read to, acting out stories, fairy tales, and manipulating math materials. Teachers need to focus on observing behavior and asking ques tions that lead children toward the next level of cognitive exploration and understanding (p31). Inclusion is best promoted by the lead teacher acting as primary care-giver who remains with her group of children for most of the day (p13).
Creating an Assessment Tool
The completed assessment grid seen at table 7.2 was used each time the team viewed strategy implementation videos. The purpose of the assessment grid was twofold. First, identify desirable outcomes of strategies; and second, observe and monitor the impact of strategies on the teaching challenge.
Video 1: Implementing Strategies
To promote desirable changes to their teaching during morning meeting, the team wanted to implement all three strategies as soon as possible. To increase children’s attentiveness, they chose to use a wider repertoire of active teaching approachesthan they had before. Games, visual aids, finger rhymes,and songswere included. After one week’s implementation, the following frequencies were observed and recorded during a 20-minute video of morning meeting.
Fig 7.2: Child leading the game, “If I were a king”
Assessment Criteria Frequency Comments
Inclusion is promoted 6
Teaching is differentiated 0
Children learn literacy knowledge 10
Children learn mathematical knowledge 5
Visual aids support attentiveness 2
Finger rhymes support attentiveness 0
Songs support attentiveness 0
Games support attentiveness 5
Table 7.2: Impact of active games on teaching
Team reflection after each video is viewed:
• Is the strategy working? How?
• Is the original teaching challenge being improved upon? How?
• Is children’s learning improving? How?
• Is your understanding of your teaching changing? How?
• Is your teaching changing? How?
• What do we do next in our teaching? How?
Twenty-eight frequencies were recorded to show the impact of using active games during morning meeting to promote diversity and inclusion. During this video, the use of other strategies–finger rhymes and songs–was not included. Three games were used: (1) if I were a king; (2) matching picture cards and initial letter cards; and (3) a treasure hunt. Three examples of using visual aides were observed that included: (1) a crown; (2) picture cards with corresponding letter cards; and (3) number cards.
All children were fully attentive on six extended occasions when they participated in three games. In the first game, six children, one at a time, pretended to be a king by wearing a crown and said what they would do if they were king for a day. This literacy game was open-ended, and children were encouraged to say whatever they wanted. As a result, educators did not need to ask differentiated questions.
In the second game, ten examples of children learning the letter “k” for king were recorded. In this game beginning letters and sounds were emphasized. In pairs, children matched a picture card of an object, e.g., an apple to the corresponding initial letter card “a.”
In another game, children were asked whether the two picture cards they drew out of a kangaroo’s pouch had the same starting sound, e.g., banana and bird, yes, and kangaroo and mittens, no.
In the third game, five examples were observed of children playing a number game in which they were asked to hunt in the room and find examples of numbers that were less than five and more than six.
These literacy and number games resulted in all children being fully attentive, which suggested that diversity and inclusion were effectively promoted through active games, open-ended questioning, and exploration of numbers.
Team R eflection
Educators evaluated that overall the strategy of using games with visual aids during morning meeting was successful in increasing children’s attentiveness. As a result, diversity and inclusion were effectively promoted. The assistant educator said that she saw, “good things, and that certain children had surprised her with really good answers, for example, one king said he would make sure that all children were happy and there would be no war.”
Regarding the use of visual aids, educators noticed that children’s concentration was improved when they reached into containers and acted with materials. Children were interested in comparing the picture cards to see if the pictures started with the same sound. However, passing just one kangaroo’s pouch around the whole class for children to choose letter cards from resulted in them having to wait for their turn and some became restless.
The original teaching challenge was improved upon because the video showed how children were attentive when they were able to participate in games and visual aids.
With children’s increased attentiveness in place, the assistant educator had time to start implementing the third strategy, concerned with assessing what each child understood during morning meeting. The assistant educator commented on how, as an observer, she was able to see more of what children did. However, the use of K-W-L assessment charts, (what I know, what I want to know and what I learned) used in the Responsive Curriculum, wasnot an assessment method that provided information on each child’s learning.
A s an alternative , t he teacher candidate suggested r ecording anecdotal observations of eac h child during morning meetings. S he had learned this assessment method in college courses, and it was deemed appropriate, because it would provide information about each child’s individual learning progress.
The assistant educator wrote down daily observations on five children during morning meeting. She shared the observations with the lead educator who used them to assess each child’s understanding, and to plan related challenging activities for the next morning meeting. Educators took on new professional roles as they worked collaboratively to gather evidence about every child’s learning, and assess the impact of the strategies. Educators preferred to observe children because observations showed how each child’s mind worked and reacted to activities (see fig.7.3).
The team reported how writing down anecdotal observations enabled them to understand how children used mathematical calculations to come up with answers, e.g., when the educator said “Show me eight fingers. Eight children went swimming. Two got cold and got out of the pool. How many children were left in the pool?” A child answered by holding up fingers, and saying, 5 + 1 (rather than 6). Educators realized that many Pre-K children were not yet able to use the mathematical skills of adding fingers on two hands together. Observations at figure 7.3 showed educators how many children did not understand the literacy and math concepts embedded in games and visual aids. Educators found that their teaching had to respond to children’s current conceptual understanding before children’s further learning could take place.
Regarding the impact of the strategy to promote inclusion, the assistant educator commented that children did not like the lead educator sitting on the floor as it was difficult for them to see her and to follow finger rhymes. As a result, the lead educator sat on a low chair that enabled her to be more visible to the children but remain close to them. Children responded with more patience when they were told that everyone would get a turn either today, or tomorrow. Educators commented they were developing more reasonable expectations about children’s attentiveness. It was not reasonable to expect 100% attentiveness during morning meeting, but it was reasonable to expect most children to be attentive most of the time. The team reflected they would no longer see their teaching as a failure if all children were not attentive 100% of the time.
Fig. 7.3: An educator’s observation of child’s mathematical understanding
One educator said: “If there’s too much of a wait, he can’t stay focused. He’s fast and he must not be side-tracked by waiting. We have to adapt our teaching so that his wait time is not too long.” This finding was an important indicator regarding how educators taught. Rather than thinking that children caused challenges to their teaching, educators realized their approach needed to change. The team decided to continue implementing their increased repertoire of teaching approaches, and further develop differentiated planning to meet each child’s diverse needs.
Fig 7.4: Children play alphabet game matching a picture to an initial sound card
Assessment Criteria Frequency Comments
Children are attentive 7
Targeted children answer differentiated questions 7
Children learn letters 3
Children learn numbers 2
Visual aids support involvement 4
Finger rhymes support involvement 7
Songs support involvement 1
Games support involvement 1
Table 7.3: Impact of using finger rhymes and games
When educators used more active games and finger rhymes during morning meeting, they recorded a total of 35 frequencies. This was an increase from the number of frequencies observed in the first video. On seven occasions, all children were fully attentive, and inclusion was promoted as they simultaneously acted out with their hands and sang the finger rhyme, “Itsy Bitsy Spider.” Children laughed as they sang, made noises and copied the teacher’s hand movements signifying “down came the rain and washed the spider out.” The teacher asked differentiated and open-ended questions about the spider that enabled three children of different abilities to give three different but acceptable answers. In contrast with the first video, there was a 7-fold increase in the frequency of differentiation.
The teacher asked children to consider the letter E during the finger rhyme. In pairs, children went on a treasure hunt around the room to find the letter, E. Children found the letter printed on shoes, on shape posters in the word square and hexagon, and in children’s names written on the front of drawers. The concept of searching out the letter E was continued as one child at a time wore “elephant’s ears.” In conclusion, the teacher extended vocabulary work by exploring the word, “enormous.” The teacher asked for three different definitions of the word that enabled three children to participate by using different examples. The frequency of children learning letters decreased from the first video (from 10 to 3). The drop was explained by activities being more active and better understood by children, but they took up more time.
The number of the week was 7 and was explored as children counted to seven. The concept of larger and smaller numbers was explored as children picked number tiles out of a bag and said whether they were less than, or greater than, the number 7. Visual aids in the form of elephant’s ears and a bag of number tiles supplemented the teaching on four occasions. More frequencies in the use of finger rhymes (7), songs (1), and games (1) were observed in the second video than the first.
Team R eflection
The team reported that the implementation of the strategy using more active games, finger rhymes, and songs improved children’s attentiveness. Using finger play was found to be particularly effective, e.g., while reading Zinnia’s Flower Garden, by Monica Wellington, children role-played planting rows of seeds with their fingers.
During finger play, children were more active and not as fidgety. As a result, their participation and attentiveness increased.
Educators reported not having to intervene over inattentiveness as much during morning meeting. The assistant educator said, “I am a distraction. They don’t need me as much, and I now stay back and can spend more time observing.”
The lead educator identified her improved time management skills as a factor in children’s improved attentiveness. She now organized morning meeting into three blocks of activity focused on language, literacy, and mathematics, and used her wider repertoire of teaching approaches in all three blocks. She judged children’s attention spans and pace of learning more accurately by understanding that it was not possible for all children to have a turn during each morning meeting. Instead, she encouraged children to play in small groups and asked them to communicate with each other, rather than with her directly. Incorporating playful games, rhymes, and visual aids, activities had resulted in the children being more attentive, and had increased the ways they learned letters and numbers. In the short term, the use of a wider repertoire of teaching approaches had created more preparation work for educators, but at the same time, was creating a bank of activities that educators would use again.
One positive outcome of the strategy of using games, rhymes, visual aids, and activities was that learning had become more social and the classroom was more inclusive. Activities frequently involved children working with partners and teaching things to each other. Working in small groups and in pairs resulted in children and educators changing roles. When one group finished an activity before another, children tended to help each other. Children were occupied doing things and learned more actively than when they were expected to sit and listen.
Educators identified movement as another positive outcome of the strategies. Movement was said to help children learn, focus their attention, and communicate together. Movement during songs and games provided opportunities for target children (who were observed in need of more help) to be involved in activities. The assistant teacher said she had “been blown out of the water” by children’s responsiveness in number games. For example, making patterns with number cards when children stood in a line making a repeated pattern by holding up the numbers 1,1; 8,8; 1,1; 8,8.
The team reported how they had developed a professional partnership resulting from the assistant educator recording observations of five children’s learning during morning meeting each day. The lead teacher and the assistant teacher used the observations to assess the five children’s understanding of concepts taught each day, and also planned differentiated learning activities for the five children for the next day.
Educators enjoyed the partnership and the open-minded approach to teaching that had developed. They liked the way that, as one participant said, “it’s all coming from the children.” The assistant educator’s role of recording observations gave the lead teacher accurate information about each child’s attainment. As a result, she understood current learning needs, and was able to plan differentiated activities for those children. These activities included asking specific questions built on what they had already done, and more open-ended questions that had many right answers, rather than just one. Instead of educators using the Responsive Curriculum routine to drive morning meetings, educators now used each child’s individual observations as an indicator of their current learning needs.
The team decided to continue with differentiating activities during the final stage of the project.
Using Games to Increase D ifferentiation
Assessment Criteria Frequency Comments
Children are attentive 9 On 9 occasions
Targeted children answer differentiated questions 5 Five children were asked questions based on yesterday’s anecdotes
Children learn letters 2 Not clear why particular letters have been chosen – q, z
Children learn numbers 2 Why 1 and 8? Note 1+8=18
Visual aids support involvement 4 Children like the sun. We could have many suns to promote more involvement
Finger rhymes support involvement 0
Songs support involvement 1
Games support involvement 1
Table 7.4: impact of and inclusion differentiated activities on attentiveness
Twenty-four frequencies were recorded on video. Children were observed to be attentive and inclusion was promoted on nine occasions. This was the highest recorded frequency of attentiveness throughout the action research and was judged to have resulted from the planning of differentiated and open-ended activities during morning meeting. Children were attentive as they were asked to think of words that begin with QU and Z. They said the words quiet, quick, zebra, zany and zig-zag. When exploring the letter S, children were invited to hold a visual aid of the sun and were asked an open-ended question about what they enjoyed doing on a sunny day. One child participated by saying that she would ride her bike and another said she would play outside.
Children were asked to pick out number cards with either number 1 or 8 written on them. Children were then asked to find a partner so they could make up the number 18. Children were asked what number came first in 18, 1 (representing ten) or 8. Then children were asked to find the two number cards that made up number 18 and hold these cards up in front of them. The activity concluded with children being asked addition and subtraction operations using numbers 1 and 8. Children’s addition answers 1 + 8 = 18 and 1 + 8 = 9 and subtraction answers 8 – 1 = 7 and 8 – 1 = 5 indicated their current number fluency and what aspects of teaching needed adjustment to suit each child.
Team Reflection
The strategy was deemed to be working. In particular, when the team asked children more open-ended questions they were more attentive.
The original teaching challenge was improved upon when children were given more latitude in their thinking. They were able to contribute more freely to discussions.
However, some children were reluctant to speak in front of the whole class.
Previously, educators thought these children were embarrassed, but now they wondered whether their reluctance was explained by lack of understanding.
Educators thought about ways to increase each child’s participation and encouraged them to speak in pairs. The benefits of this were attentiveness, increased inclusion and the elimination of wait time. All children in the class participated in discussions at the same time. Educators could observe what children said and assess their understanding.
The concept of using numbers in activities was discussed and made more relevant to children, e.g., a child’s birthday or the number of a child’s house, was introduced. Educators also considered it more developmentally appropriate if numbers were restricted to fewer than ten, because place value was too abstract a concept for most Pre-K children to understand.
The video revealed the importance of educators’ teaching each mathematical concept by using context and consistent language. This was to avoid confusion to children when teaching conservation of number, i.e., place-value pattern, addition, subtraction, and numbers less than and greater than.
Educators recognized the importance for focused plans by making sure that concepts were connected. They thought it was best to differentiate teaching by using observations recorded by the assistant teacher that indicated children’s individual learning outcomes from the previous day, and to focus on one concept at a time. To make children’s mathematical operations more concrete, the team decided that manipulative materials, e.g., cubes, bears and tiles would be used during morning meeting.
Final R eflection
The team determined that the aims of the action research were met. A more varied repertoire of active teaching approaches had helped to meet the diverse learning needs of each child in class. Inclusion of every child had been promoted during morning meeting by increasing social interaction among children, and between children and educators. Each child’s attentiveness had been increased during morning meeting. Each child’s diverse learning needs were better supported by differentiating material that was made possible by the introduction of a system of observation.
Educators’ practice was more closely aligned with NAEYC Standards (2009) regarding diversity and inclusion. Standard 5: Using Content Knowledge to Build Meaningful Curriculum was the first standard to be better aligned. A wider repertoire of active learning approaches used during morning meeting resulted in the design, implementation, and evaluation of challenging curricula for each child. This was specifically in the content areas of language, literacy, and mathematics. Standard 3: Observing, Documenting, and Assessing to Support Young Children and Families was better aligned through the introduction of a responsible assessment method. The recording of daily anecdotal observations on five or more different children enabled educators to assess those children’s current attainment and plan the next day’s activities in ways that promoted appropriate outcomes for each child.
NAEYC Standard 1: Promoting Child Development and Learning was aligned and enabled the teacher candidate to show she used developmental knowledge to create healthy, respectful, supportive, and challenging learning environments for young children. Strong evidence also existed for alignment with Standard 6: Becoming a Professional. The ELC team enabled alignment with Standards 6b and 6c: concerning engaging in collaborative learning and integrating knowledgeable, reflective and critical perspectives on early education to be met. This was particularly supportive of the teacher candidate writing and implementing Practicum assignments that aligned with what was taught in college.
The team evaluated that the three strategies, when used together, had been successful in improving the original teaching challenge for diversity and inclusion. The prospect of teaching a diverse class during whole group times was no longer daunting. Using a repertoire of active games, finger rhymes, visual aids, and songs, effectively promoted children’s attentiveness and inclusion.
The strategy of sitting closely to children and letting them know they will all have a turn allows the children to be more relaxed. Educators thought their own “in the moment” developmentally-appropriate interactions with young children had successfully promoted inclusion. Children were more social and physically active, and as a result, classroom community was better developed.
The use of responsible assessment meant educators spent less time “policing” children and more time analyzing children’s learning needs. Observations had made it possible for educators to know what each child understood and to prepare differentiated activities for the next day that closely fit each child’s learning needs. The possibility existed to ask particular children “closed” questions that assumed different levels of ability and also met their individual learning needs.
Educators’ values changed as a result of the action research. The reading of professional articles resulted in their being more knowledgeable about teaching strategies. These strategies improved their teaching and helped them overcome their ethical concerns about diversity and inclusion. Educators became less concerned about the pressure of Kindergarten standards, and instead were more concerned with using developmentally-appropriate content and materials for the children in their Pre-K class. The increased use of a repertoire of active teaching approaches resulted in a more developmentally-appropriate Pre-K curriculum. It enabled educators to enjoy the current stage of learning and not be concerned about the next. Educators’ fears about children being embarrassed as they participated in activities were reduced. A built-in system of assessment that addressed diverse learning needs, enabled educators to plan differentiated activities for each child, both in small groups and in paired activities.
Educators acknowledged that their action research was not complete. However, the teacher candidate had fully contributed to the action research throughout the semester. She was able to act on the improved congruency between NAEYC Standards, the teaching in college, and the implementation of course assignments in the Practicum classroom. | textbooks/socialsci/Early_Childhood_Education/Book%3A_The_ELC_-_An_Early_Childhood_Learning_Community_at_Work_(Bridge_Melita_and_Roiger)/02%3A_Case_Studies/2.06%3A_Improving_Differentiation_during_Morning_Meetings.txt |
• 3.1: Participants’ Responses to the ELC
The purpose of this chapter is to: (1) report and discuss participants’ questionnaire responses to the ELC; and (2) discuss and evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of the ELC as an early childhood professional development model.
• 3.2: Conclusion
Thumbnail: www.pexels.com/photo/girl-in-pink-shirt-sitting-on-white-chair-4143802/
03: Reflections
Purpose
The purpose of this chapter is to: (1) report and discuss participants’ questionnaire responses to the ELC; and (2) discuss and evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of the ELC as an early childhood professional development model.
Data Collection Methods
At the end of each semester, team participants completed questionnaires on the ELC. These questionnaires are seen at Appendix A (Educators’ questionnaire) and Appendix B (Teacher Candidates’ questionnaire). While self-reported questionnaire responses must be approached with caution, they do indicate how participants responded to the ELC at the end of their action research semester. A largely qualitative approach was used to analyze the 25 questionnaire responses in the six case studies featured in this book. The participants comprised six teachers, six teachers’ assistants, six teacher candidates, and three team leaders. Some questions included a numerical scale that comprised five levels of response. These questions were analyzed quantitatively and reported in percentage terms.
Data from questionnaires were combined to reveal participants’ responses to the ELC, and the impact it had on their professional development. Themes in data responses were organized into the following four categories: (1) professional attitudes; (2) professional relationships; (3) teaching skills, and; (4) inquiry skills.
Recurring patterns in each category are highlighted in boldface to draw readers’ attention to them. The quantitative and qualitative findings in each category are reported in order of the strength of the finding. The implications of participants’ responses are discussed and used to evaluate the ELC as a model of early childhood professional development. The implications of participants’ responses are used to make recommendations for improved and aligned practice in early childhood preschool settings, and in teacher education programs.
Questionnaire Findings
(1) Professional attitudes
Participants rated the development of professional attitudes as either positive or very positive, suggesting that professional attitudes are effectively developed in the ELC.
Table: 8.1: Rankings concerning the development of professional attitudes
Participants Very positive Positive
Teachers 33% 66%
Teacher Assistants 33% 66%
Teacher Candidates 100% 0%
Team Leaders 80% 20%
Professional attitudes were developed through increased motivation and increased enlightenment.
Motivation
Participants’ reported increased motivation to overcome the teaching challenges they faced. New strategies introduced into classrooms put them in greater control of their teaching so they were no longer left to take care of challenges on their own. Teacher assistants reported how action research enabled them to see how new strategies worked. They had to keep learning new things to improve their practice. One teacher assistant explained how her increased motivation created “a calmer and more comfortable classroom environment.” Her job was easier when she spent less time dealing with behavioral problems.
Participants reported how increased motivation affected their job satisfaction. Greater use of child-centered teaching approaches gave children more ownership of their own learning. Enabling children to make choices and decisions helped educators better understand each child’s exact learning needs. One teacher said she had “a new appreciation of what children brought into the classroom,” and this enabled her to base her teaching on the capabilities of each child. Teachers and teacher assistants reported being more proactive with increased job satisfaction. Asking children questions that were directly related to their play enabled educators to engage more purposefully and sustain the play longer. However, unfavorable employment conditions discouraged some teachers from being proactive. Low pay rates, lack of recognition, and high stress levels deterred them from improving their practice. Other teacher-aides reported how challenging it was to use new teaching strategies because “it required (them) to think in new ways they were not used to.”
Problem-solving increased participants’ motivation. When teams identified their own teaching challenge, their participation in action research increased. Educators solved problems through more creative use of resources and through better interaction with children. Teachers commented how working in the ELC was a “great experience because they had developed positive attitudes towards problem-solving that affected how children learned.” One teacher commented, “I was more excited and more confident about my work. I wanted to find out if I could make things better.” For example, differentiating activities was found to increase children’s inclusion in activities and resulted in more meaningful play opportunities. However, some teacher candidates expressed concern about poor provision for boys. Because “boys rarely stood still,” problem-solving to improve physical provision was reported as crucial for an effective classroom.
Enlightenment
Participants were more enlightened about their practice and this affected their professional attitudes. Partnerships between teacher and teacher’s aide in classrooms promoted enlightenment. Instead of working on tasks often related to “crowd control, snacks, and toilet times,” teacher assistants’ practice was developed when they took on new classroom roles. Teacher assistants’ written observations were used to assess children’s learning and enabled the planning of next-step activities. Partnerships helped teacher assistants “know how to iron-out teaching problems that resulted in calmer routines for children and for educators.” However, some educators did not show the same level of enlightenment and showed resistance to making changes to their teaching.
Team meetings enabled teacher candidates to become more enlightened about their classrooms. Using child-centered teaching approaches enabled teacher candidates to be more responsive and respectful of children. Teacher candidates expected to observe in Practicum classrooms, and to teach their lesson plan assignments, but they did not expect to take on new roles required in the ELC related to overcoming teaching problems. Team leaders reported how new partnerships were formed among different early childhood classrooms and agencies involved in Practicum. The sharing and disseminating of improved teaching practices at end-of-semester conferences were particularly important. Results spread among a diverse audience of early childhood agencies promoted change, not just in one agency, but “across the board.”.
Discussion of professional attitudes
Overall, professional attitudes were positively affected. The mixing of professional theory and practice changed professional actions in classrooms (Moyles, J. 2001, Thornton, J.S., Crim, C.L. & Hawkins, J., 2009). This was important for three reasons: (1) When educators undertook professional development in teams, they learned about theory together, and applied it consistently in their classrooms. (2) Educators’ theoretical understanding and professional practice were identified as the starting points for intervention (Harwood, Klopper, Oshanyin & Vanderlee, 2013). This ensured that new strategies were built into educators’ existing early childhood knowledge and prevented gaps and assumptions from developing. (3) New strategies that promoted new professional actions had an impact on educators’ roles and the learning opportunities they made available to children (Christ & Wang, 2013). Resistance to new practices shown by some educators suggested that changed practice was developmental and more likely to be achieved through professional development that took place over time (Engstrom, M.E. & Danielson, L. M,2006, Roehhig, Dubosarsky, Mason, Carlson & Murphy, 2011).
Educators’ self-reliance enabled them to work effectively in teams in their own classrooms, and not rely on input from outsiders (Stremmel, 2002). Despite increased requirements, and calls for more accountability, educators showed they could be trusted and were responsible for their own professional development to promote improved teaching (Helterbran & Fennimore, 2004).
Providing for both children’s care and their learning needs was found to be at the heart of an improved early childhood curriculum. This contrasts to a current emphasis on teaching to learning standards and demonstrating outcomes. Although learning standards are often used to improve the quality of what children experience in the classroom, they can risk hyper-standardization of the curriculum that is insensitive to the needs of each child. Instead of improving provision, learning standards can inadvertently narrow what children experience in classrooms (Meisels, 2011). The elevation of educators’ roles to incorporate observation, assessment, and planning, released some of them from routine jobs. (Jones, Ratcliff, Sheehan, & Hunt 2012).
Unfortunately, poor employment conditions undermined some educators’ motivation. Until greater value is placed on the work that educators do and reflected in improved employment conditions, the impact of professional development may not improve outcomes for children as intended (Moloney, 2010; Whitebook, M., 2014).
The new role of problem-solvers transformed educators’ professional attitudes. Concerns in five out of six Practicum classrooms, about the poor learning experiences of boys, indicated the pervasiveness of certain teaching challenges. Therefore, if problem-solving is pertinent to improved teaching, the focus of professional development lies inside classrooms, rather than being imposed by outside agencies (Bruno, 2007). Educators’ own classroom experiences show that they themselves have a critical role in setting professional development agendas that drive their new professional actions.
Working in teams was instrumental in the development of improved professional attitudes (Picchio, Giovannine, Mayer & Musatti, 2012). This suggests that defining educators’ roles in teams, how they share and use information about children, and how their professional growth is supported, has to be more clearly articulated (Clark & Huber, 2005, Jones, et al., 2012). This is necessary to promote consistent and effective professional attitudes and practices among educators. However, until professional development is routinely made available to support educators, in varied early childhood agencies, the benefits of early childhood education for children may not be realized.
(2) Professional relationships developed in the ELC
Very positive, positive, or average rankings indicated in Table 8.2 suggested professional relationships were well-developed in the ELC.
Table 8.2: Participants’ rankings for the development of professional relationships
Participant Very positive Positive Average
Teachers 66% 17% 17%
Teacher Assistants 50% 50% 0%
Teacher Candidates 66% 17% 0%
Team Leaders 60% 40% 0%
Professional relationships were supported through team collaboration, interaction, understanding, responsibility, and time.
Team collaboration promoted strong professional relationships. Some 75% of participants said collaborative teamwork was the most important factor in promoting their professional relationships. One teacher reported, “Working in a team was a great experience because teachers were no longer left to cope with teaching challenges alone.” Teacher assistants appreciated how teamwork enabled them to hear varied perspectives about teaching challenges. Sharing ideas led to more consistent teaching in classrooms. Teamwork was beneficial for teacher candidates. Their confidence grew through involvement in teams that resulted in closer partnerships between classrooms, the college, and across the local early childhood community. Teacher candidates brought new ideas to the team. However, working in teams was intimidating to some. Creating PowerPoint and iMovie presentations throughout the semester was found to be challenging.
Collaboration with administrators was crucial to effective professional relationships. With administrators’ support, curriculum changes were implemented more easily and resources were more available. However, without administrators’ support, educators could not easily make changes in classrooms. Because administrators’ attendance at team meetings was not a requirement of the ELC, these individuals were not always aware of “remarkable” progress brought about in key curriculum areas. A lack of communication between administrators and some educators caused confusion over ELC expectations and resulted in some educators being unprepared for action research. Grant money paid to administrators to fund staff cover, and to purchase materials for action research, was interpreted as an incentive to participate. This meant that grant funding was not always used as intended.
Interaction between educators from different early childhood agencies enabled an exchange of ideas that resulted in new perspectives on practice. One educator mentioned how interaction reduced stress levels in classrooms. Interaction enabled teacher candidates to form professional relationships with educators and “fit right into the team.” Teacher candidates felt more confident when asking educators questions about their professional practice. Respect for educators’ knowledge and skills developed. Most educators interacted enthusiastically, were more open to strategies, and responsive to video findings. However, some educators were resistant to change in their teaching. This was not obvious until strategies were being implemented.
Interactions during team meetings led to improved interactions in classrooms. A sharing of knowledge among educators about children’s needs made them more responsive to children. Teacher candidates were more insightful about how they interacted with children. Better relationships resulted from teacher candidates observing children in different play situations related to the action research. One teacher candidate said she was “more confident interacting with children” because she understood more about their development. Appropriate interactions resulted in children being more accepting of her than she had expected.
Professional Understanding
Action research strengthened professional relationships. Educators described action research as “a good way to learn,” because their understanding of teaching young children was improved. One educator commented, “I am better at helping children learn because I spend less time sorting out behavior problems than before.” Educators’ improved understanding and related practice resulted in children’s play being better supported. Children showed greater resilience, and were better equipped to sort out their own problems. Team discussions helped teacher candidates gain a deeper understanding of the classroom. Recording observations and watching video footage enabled them to see how young children learned and what their preferences were.
One teacher candidate commented how “observations opened her eyes to events that she would have missed otherwise.” Her view of the children’s capabilities evolved and she understood they were significantly more capable when given opportunities to do more. Teacher candidates were aware of the differences between children, and the complexity of creating an inclusive classroom in which each child’s needs were provided for. One candidate remarked, “There is a lot to do concerning teaching each child and using new materials, making (teaching) much more demanding than I thought.” Some teacher candidates noted that some educators’ limited knowledge of child development hindered the action research.
Responsibility
Professional responsibility was fostered by feelings of “all of us being in this together.” Shared responsibility was implemented when teams learned about the interdependent variables that affected the quality of their teaching. Educators singled out many teacher candidates for their diligence and willingness to learn about teaching. On the flip side, some teacher candidates showed weak time-management, resulting in some tasks being left unfinished at strategic times in the semester. Those teacher candidates were oblivious to the impact that their mismanagement had on the rest of the team, the impact on their own learning experiences and on the children’s experiences.
Time
Release time from teaching was essential to the development of educators’ professional relationships. It enabled the weekly hour-long team meetings to take place, which gave teams time to watch and analyze videos and plan their next action research moves.
While administrators provided release time for teachers to attend team meetings, teacher assistants were not always released. This did not necessarily defeat the purpose of the team meetings, but it did impact how consistently strategies were implemented. Although the weekly one-hour release time for team meetings was deemed a “great start,” the hour was not sufficient time for teams to implement all aspects of the action research. One team leader commented, “One hour was not long enough for the team to fully reflect on what happened each week and to understand change at a deeper level.”
Discussion of professional relationships
The ELC had positive effects on most participants’ professional relationships. Good opportunities were created for educators to interact, thus improving professional understanding and practice. Professional development was particularly effective when teams from different early childhood agencies worked together (Messenger, 2013).
Teachers and teacher assistants in Practicum classrooms provided the starting point to build the professional development teams (Picchio, Giovannini, Mayer & Musatti, 2012). The addition of teacher candidates and team leaders created opportunities for other varied educators to participate in action research (Watson, R., & Wildy, H. 2014).
Teams called for a changed emphasis in teacher education programs. Instead of preparing teacher candidates to work as individuals during Practicum, a team approach was preferred, preparing them to work in such a way that teaching decisions and actions would be made in a social and collaborative context (Moyles, 2001). Assignments that required teacher candidates to work in teams, helped build professional knowledge, teaching actions, and professional relationships (Moran M.J. 2007). Teams helped teacher candidates to develop professional dispositions regarding the timely completion of assignments, and the understanding of the negative impact on the whole team when this progress was not made (McCann, E.J. & Turner, J.E. 2004; Kleyn, T., & Valle, J. 2014).
The participation of administrators was important to professional relationships (Albrecht, K. M. & Engel, B. 2007). Administrators were key decision makers, but because their involvement was not a requirement, few participated regularly.
Ideally, college faculty and administrators should communicate at the start of the ELC semester to agree on levels of participation, uses of funding, release of educators from teaching duties, and support strategies to improve teaching challenges. (Tomal, 2010).
Although implementing strategies, and making presentations supported educators’ professional growth and relationships (Dickenson & Brady, 2006), some educators showed reluctance to changed practice. They often adapted strategies to reflect what they had already done. Some educators clung tenaciously to former teaching practices, rather than undergo the changes that would have required them to rethink their practice and work in new ways (Dickenson & Brady, 2006). These findings suggest that change theory is an important addition needed to action research which prepares educators to anticipate the difficulty of changing their practice.
Interaction between educators during team meetings improved how teacher candidates interacted with children in classrooms (Jalongo & Isenberg, 2000). Teacher candidates’ growing knowledge and confidence enabled them to effectively relate to children in ways that better supported children’s learning. This was evident as teacher candidates took on new practices that prepared them to provide for children’s individual learning needs. The transfer of knowledge from team meetings to classroom practice suggested that teacher candidates’ growth is a shared responsibility during Practicum and is not something teacher candidates should be expected to do alone.
One-hour weekly team meetings provided regular release time for teams to meet, but this was insufficient time to plan, carry out, and reflect on teaching changes as they happened (Whitington, Thompson & Shore, 2014). In addition, some teacher candidates’ poor time management meant tasks were not completed on time. These findings suggested that sufficient time for professional development has to be provided during Practicum to: facilitate team meetings; foster professional interaction; ensure all aspects of the action research work is completed in the semester and develop teacher candidates’ professional dispositions concerning the timely completion of tasks.
(3) Teaching skills developed in the ELC
Participants reported that the following teaching skills were developed: using child development knowledge; recording assessment; incorporating content area knowledge; and alignment with learning standards.
Child Development Knowledge
Very positive and positive rankings were recorded regarding the use of child development knowledge.
Table 8.3: Participants’ ratings for using child development
Participants Very positive Positive
Teachers 80% 20%
Teacher Assistants 60% 40%
Teacher Candidates 80% 20%
Team Leaders 80% 20%
Most educators reported their use of child development knowledge was improved. Knowledge of 3- to 5-year-old children’s development, and how to apply it in their teaching actions, was reinforced through reference books. The book, Yardsticks, was described as a “practical resource” that enabled educators to review the typical characteristics of 4-year-olds, and the factors that affected their development (Wood, 2007). Child development charts helped teams understand 4-year-olds’ growth patterns, their capabilities, their curriculum needs, and how to incorporate these in their teaching. One teacher commented, “It is helpful to have child development theory woven into the action research, because then we know that our actions are right for our children.” One teacher candidate said, “I no longer guess how to approach my teaching. Instead, child development knowledge provided me with an accurate understanding of the needs of 4-year-olds, and what I have to include in my teaching during Practicum.”
Improved child development knowledge strengthened educators’ awareness of each child as an individual learner. Teams were reminded of how each child’s individual learning needs were affected by their home background, ability, gender, socio-economic status, and culture. Well-developed observation skills were recognized as essential for educators to understand each child’s individual needs, and especially so for younger children, and for those who came from diverse and disadvantaged backgrounds. One teacher candidate commented that, “The individual nature of each child’s development means there is no ‘best way’ to teach all young children at the same time. Instead, I must understand each child’s different developmental characteristics and modify activities so they promote each child’s participation.” Creating an inclusive classroom in which each individual child’s needs were met was difficult. Several teacher assistants pointed out how a strong attachment to each child was essential in order to understand their developmental needs.
Developmental charts helped teams assess the suitability of teaching strategies as they related to children’s needs. One team leader commented, “It was no good using a teaching strategy that was inappropriate for 4-year-olds, because we would end up with more problems than we started with.” One teacher commented, “The impact of poverty and culture is ‘huge’ in my classroom. I have to consider these factors in how I teach.” Teachers forged a match between children’s age and stage of development, their general and individual learning needs, and the activities they made available to children. One team leader reported how knowledge of child development enabled educators to have better insights into what children did at particular stages of development. This meant their teaching was more “on target, and took account of individual development.”
Teacher candidates’ knowledge of child development domains ensured that content areas were taught appropriately. Including literacy across the curriculum helped build children’s skills in speaking, listening, reading, and writing. Children’s—and particularly boys’—intellectual growth in math, science, and social studies content areas were then supported. Children’s emotional development was found to be supported by teaching content knowledge in literacy, science, and creative arts. This was identified as “huge for boys because it helped them cope and interact better with others in the classroom.” Teaching content knowledge in ways that incorporated physical development enabled children’s free movement which was found to have a positive impact on behavior. One candidate explained how “enabling children to move in activities allowed them to use their bodies to take their learning forward. At the same time, children stay calm.”
Most educators said content knowledge was best taught in a play-based curriculum because this ensured the learning was exactly right for each child’s development. A play-based curriculum required the provision of engaging learning environments that had well equipped play-centers for children to use. One teacher commented how “…grant funding had increased the range of physical equipment in the classroom, making it possible to observe the videos that showed how children made progress towards learning goals.” One teacher assistant described how “…since applying strategies, and making more materials available,” dramatic differences in English language arts and math learning developed during circle time. Some educators, however, had concerns about using play-based practices, because the support systems needed to make them work were often lacking. Administrator support was sparse, professional development opportunities were limited, materials were in short supply, and a high-turnover of staff affected the effectiveness of play-based teaching.
Most educators recognized that choice fostered children’s decision-making in play. Children were motivated through choice, and when given opportunities, readily made decisions about what they wanted to do. Another educator commented how “…offering children choice required me to be flexible and listen to what they said. I had to hold back and allow the child to tell me what she wanted.” A third teacher candidate said, “children’s own ideas are right there, if you listen to them.”
Efficient use of time in the daily routine was identified by educators as important. One teacher candidate reported, “Allowing children to have long periods of unbroken time during indoor and outdoor play sessions ensures they have opportunities to think.” Making links between concepts that children explored during free-play times, small-group times and large-group times, enabled children to have repeated opportunities to explore and understand concepts.
Recording Observations
Table 8.4: Participants’ ratings concerning the recording of observations
Participants Very positive Positive
Teachers 100% 0%
Teacher Assistants 80% 20%
Teacher Candidates 100% 0%
Team Leaders 40% 60%
Participants’ ratings suggested that the recording of observations was a highly effective assessment tool. New teaching skills, employed by teacher assistants specifically observing and assessing children, helped them use strategies to help children make progress. Recording observations ensured that children’s learning was monitored and the impact of teaching strategies was seen. Observations of children were commonly recorded under content areas, e.g., math or science. Teacher assistants reported, “Observation made me look more carefully at what children did and made me appreciate their different learning abilities.” Another said, “Observation showed how children explored literacy, math and science concepts in play. I see now how I have to reflect that exploration back in my teaching.” By closely observing a teacher candidate reported, “I know how to support children’s play more effectively, by making enough resources available for them to use.” Another said how observation enabled her to better read the classroom and problem-solve during team meetings. She said, “I have evidence and have something definite to say about children’s learning.”
New teaching strategies led to changes in assessment roles. Teacher assistants reported how teachers commonly wrote observations of children. However, some teacher assistants took on new observation roles during small and large-group times that released teachers to focus more on teaching. Teacher assistants worked in partnership with teachers when they shared written observations, assessed children’s responses, and planned differentiated activities that responded to children’s exact learning needs. Other teacher assistants commented how, “New roles in observation increased professional knowledge about what children learned and what activities were needed to promote their next-steps in learning”.
Analysis of observations promoted better differentiation of activities. Opportunities existed for each child to respond uniquely by experimenting with materials, and producing different outcomes in play. Teacher candidates explained how during socio-dramatic and in play centers, each child made unique artifacts, that showed their individual thinking. Planning open-ended activities enabled differentiation that was supportive of each child’s abilities and needs. One teacher candidate commented how satisfying it was to see a child succeed in activities that were planned from observations recorded on video. Children with language delays were asked open-ended questions about how they felt, and responded by pointing to a face on a feelings chart. The addition of more materials supported inclusion as each child’s socialization and movement needs were met. This was found to be particularly useful when supporting children with complex behavioral problems.
Video recordings revealed what educators missed in written observations. The entirety of children’s learning, including classroom context, children’s ideas, language use, and socialization patterns were captured on video. Teachers said, “Children’s progress was often under-documented in written observations, and this had serious implications for the accuracy of their reported attainment.” Video recordings enabled participants to gain a deeper understanding of children’s learning. Teams observed each child both as an individual and also as part of a group. Team viewings were thorough and enabled the planning of activities to support a child’s individual needs at designated times in the daily routine. For example, language activities were intentionally planned for circle times, to expand the limited vocabulary of individual children during work-time. Repeated viewings revealed how multiple learning domains and content areas were integrated in play. One teacher explained that math games used in circle time included, “not just the intellectual domain but also social, physical, and language domains.”
Videos enabled a complete record of events in classrooms to be assessed, including the impact of strategies. Teachers identified how checklists helped in analyzing videos. Analysis was difficult because, “observations happened at the speed of lightning,” making it easy to lose track of what to look for. Checklists kept teams focused and ensured that strategies were assessed consistently. They enabled educators to count the number of times particular behaviors occurred, and therefore, evaluate the success of a strategy. Checklists were seen as a positive tool for teams to use because they provided evidence of change resulting from strategy implementation.
Educators reported that there was not enough time during team meetings to analyze all observations recorded on video. Teams needed more time to develop a deeper understanding of observations seen on video, and to reflect on events. One educator said, “Finding time to watch the videos was a problem, because it had to be done on a regular basis in order to be able to stay on top of what happened in classrooms.”
Applying Content Area Knowledge
Table 8.5: Participants’ ratings concerning the application of content knowledge
Participants Very positive Positive
Teachers 20% 80%
Teacher Assistants 0% 100%
Teacher Candidates 20% 80%
Team Leaders 40% 60%
Teaching content through integration rather than through separate content areas was identified as appropriate for young children because they were not aware of separate content areas in their play. One team leader described how literacy, math, arts and technology were fully integrated in a book making activity.
Using Learning Standards
Table 8.6: Participants’ responses concerning the use of learning standards
Participants Very positive Positive Average
Teachers 0% 60% 40%
Teacher Assistants 0% 20% 80%
Teacher Candidates 0% 40% 60%
Team Leaders 0% 60% 40%
regarding State Standards.” A purchased curriculum was used in another setting to ensure state literacy learning standards were met. In another, state kindergarten standards were used to prepare children in Pre-K for the next grade level. Head Start teams used the Head Start Early Learning Framework Outcomes to guide their teaching of separate content areas. Teacher candidates were familiar with NAEYC Standards (2009) and described them as “a great resource to guide their teaching during Practicum.” Their understanding of NAEYC Standards (2009) was helped by reading NAEYC journal articles that showed them what NAEYC Standards looked like in practice. One teacher candidate commented, “The journals helped me see how important developmentally-appropriate practice is, and how each lesson should have a definite learning purpose that reflects standards.”
Discussion of Teaching Skills
When child development was included in action research, educators targeted their teaching to children’s current learning needs. The use of child development literature helped teams fully acknowledge children’s typical and atypical developmental characteristics. Children’s developmental characteristics influenced what teams did to improve their teaching. Teams checked the appropriateness of teaching strategies alongside the developmental characteristics of children in their classrooms. The developmental appropriateness of teaching strategies was not commonly reported on in journal articles, but consideration of this factor, ensured teams used strategies that were relevant to children’s developmental needs. Beneficial opportunities existed in the ELC to use content area knowledge to further develop children’s learning (Baldwin, Adams, & Kelly 2009). Child development and content area teaching were both required in Standards. However, to effectively combine both elements in teaching, professional development and teacher education programs need to routinely incorporate these factors, to ensure provision is well-targeted, purposeful and challenging to both children’s and teacher candidates’ learning (Sakellariou, Rentzou, 2011).
Play-based learning, in which children made choices, was widely supported among educators. However, the necessary inputs enabling children’s choices regarding sufficient space, time, and materials in the classroom were often lacking (Mooney, 2000). Until educators and teacher candidates routinely assume the responsibility to organize and equip classroom environments in ways that facilitate children’s choices, the quality of children’s learning experiences in classrooms will be compromised (Thornton, Crim, & Hawkins, 2009).
Using developmental domains as the basis to teach content knowledge was identified as important. When social, physical, linguistic, intellectual, and emotional developmental domains were evident in teaching, educators expressed confidence that children’s learning needs were comprehensively met. However, the creative domain was often poorly provided for (Kirkwood, Beavers, 2013). Until the creative domain, that underpins young children’s thought and expression, is routinely provided for, the needs of the “whole child” are not met and learning is not balanced.
Observations were critical for educators to have accurate information about each child’s learning. Observations helped educators understand their teaching roles and provided for informed discussions during team meetings (Recchia, Beck, 2014). Although educators supported integrated learning approaches, their observations were commonly recorded under content knowledge areas in line with learning standards, rather than child development domains. Observation recorded under content knowledge areas emphasized children’s academic learning at the expense of their progress in developmental domains.
Team responses showed broad support for video recordings over written observations (Fadde & Sullivan, 2013). This was because efficient and accurate recordings enabled teams to watch recordings together to evaluate the impact of strategies on teaching challenges, on children’s learning, and on educators’ practice. Although videos generated accurate recordings of some classroom activity, they did not capture “in the moment” events that were often documented by educators in written observations. Although both written and video-recorded observations were found to be valuable in the documentation of children’s progress and the impact of strategies, educators reported they did not have sufficient time to watch and analyze videos (Beck, King, Marshall, 2002).
Some new teaching strategies resulted in more complex teaching roles for educators. These strategies freed teachers to focus on their teaching, while teacher assistants recorded observations of children’s learning. New teaching roles showed examples of how educators worked in partnerships. Embracing new teaching roles allowed them to use more advanced teaching skills more directly connected to children’s learning than they had done previously (Leggett, Ford, 2013). Using checklists to analyze video recordings enabled educators to focus and interpret what they saw. A better organized approach to assessment resulted in planning differentiated activities that improved the inclusion of children with exceptional needs (Griess, Keat, 2014). Team responses consistently identified that sufficient time was not always available for them to implement new teaching skills. However, time has to be made available if educators are to understand why particular practices are more effective than others in supporting children’s and teacher candidates’ learning (Lind, 2007).
Most educators thought that content knowledge was best taught in an integrated approach because it enabled them to build onto what they observed in children’s play. Activity planning did not feature largely in the action research but educators said that “play reflected what children thought about and what interested them.” Educators used a variety of approaches to promote concept teaching and learning that included using observations of children’s play, standards, commercial programs, themes, and seasonal events (Neuman, 2010). However, educators did not say that they undertook research to strengthen their teaching of content. This suggested that their teaching of concepts and skills may lack depth (Moran, Desrochers, Cavicchi, 2007; Schwartz, S. and Copeland, S. (2010). Commercial programs were cited for stifling the creative planning of activities. Some educators followed scripted manuals to cover literacy content to meet required learning standards (Starnes, 2002). This suggested ambivalence existed between educators who used teaching approaches rooted in child development theory, alongside others who used teaching approaches rooted in Standards (Mooney, 2011.)
Educators’ average responses concerning the use of standards was explained by them not actually referring to a specific set of learning standards they had each used during the ELC. Individual educators implemented one of five different sets of learning standards that comprised NAEYC (2009); NAEYC early childhood program standards and criteria; DEC recommended practices; New York State Core Body of Knowledge and Competency area; and Head Start Learning Outcomes. These different sets of learning standards presented a challenge in the ELC because, while educators were familiar with the learning standards used in their own settings, they were not familiar with the different sets of learning standards used in others’ settings. As a result, teams could not reflect during team meetings on how far new strategies aligned their practices with NAEYC Standards (2009) used at the college. Instead, alignment of new practices with NAEYC Standards (2009) was carried out at the report-writing stage at the end of the semester. The absence of standard alignment tables also prevented teams from reflecting on how far their new teaching practices aligned with NAEYC Standards (2009). Two documents, The Core Body of Knowledge: New York State’s Core Competencies for Early Childhood Educators (2012), and The New York State Early Learning Alignment Crosswalk (2012), have since been published that assist in alignment across different sets of learning standards. However, a concern remains on how competency areas provided in these publications are based on perceptions of how practice should be, rather than how it really is. In addition, no recognition is given to the change process, as revealed in action research, that educators underwent as they grappled with new practices required in Standards, or in response to the complex teaching challenges they faced. The change process provided educators with new professional knowledge and skills gained through practice while working with children. Such authentic professional growth equips educators to contribute to the early childhood field in ways that ensure children’s and educators’ needs are reflected, both current and dynamic.
There is a critical need for educators and administrators involved in Practicum to regularly participate in cross-agency partnerships so that different sets of learning standards are mutually understood and aligned. Only then can an informed foundation exist to promote consistent practice across agencies (Taylor, Hallam, Charlton, & Wall, 2014).
Inquiry skills
Inquiry skills comprised the use of action research, the reading of literature, data analysis and reflection.
Very positive, positive, and average rankings as shown in table 8.4 suggested overall inquiry skills were well developed.
Table 8.7: Ratings for inquiry skills
Participants Very positive Positive Average
Teachers 66% 17% 17%
Teacher Assistants 66% 17% 17%
Teacher Candidates 80% 20% 0%
Team Leaders 60% 40% 0%
Action Research
Inquiry skills embedded in action research were reported to enable educators to better understand their own teaching. The implementation of new teaching strategies helped teachers tackle their teaching problems. Practice-related inquiry “fed right into” teacher assistants’ teaching and care of children. Teacher candidates reported that practice-related inquiry was highly supportive of their Practicum experiences because it was “real” and focused on what actually happened in their Practicum classrooms.
Even though action research was practice related, some teachers interpreted strategies in ways that led them to repeattheir current practice. For example, following the use of a strategy designed to improve children’s literacy skills through book making, teachers continued their former practice of writing text for children. This prevented children from developing their “emergent” writing. Some teachers looked for “new” strategies to overcome teaching challenges, rather than considering how their existing teaching approaches contributed to challenges. Even when “new” strategies were implemented, some teachers repeated earlier practices that meant teaching challenges did not always improve.
During team-based action research, educators’ inquiry established common goals to improve their teaching. Power-sharing in action research resulted in greater buy-in that was supportive of coordinated teaching roles and that increased teacher candidates’ professionalism. For example, teams depended on teacher candidates to find relevant journal articles, and video classrooms to move the inquiry forward. Team-based inquiry developed teacher candidates’ problem-solving skills when they learned to keep focused on teaching challenges, contribute towards discussions, and participate in implementing new teaching practices. Purposeful interaction between teacher candidates, and other team participants, developed focused, professional relationships that promoted continuous learning about teaching over the semester.
Thought-provoking inquiry was fostered through action research as teachers investigated challenges and solutions and what the implications were for children. One teacher reported, “I have a new appreciation of what children bring to the classroom now and how I have to use this in my teaching.” Teacher-aides commented, “Seeing the classroom through children’s eyes” motivated us to improve play centers and better reflect children’s choices and learning needs. Seeing children engage in more physical activity, and more willingly share materials, was encouraging, because play was sustained for longer periods of time. Thought provoking inquiry was developed between educators and teacher candidates when they discussed new applications of child development knowledge, developmentally-appropriate practice, and content area knowledge that “enabled them to include all children despite their varied ability.” Teacher candidates described how using their observation and assessment skills resulted in provision that accurately supported children’s learning needs. Consideration of the context of teaching challenges enabled teacher candidates to understand that challenges did not exist in isolation, but were directly related to children. For example, some children arrived in their classrooms upset because separation from their parents, after a long car journey, was distressing to them. Other children were unsettled because they spent up to ten hours each day in classrooms to accommodate their parents’ work routines. One teacher candidate remarked brightly, “My teaching grew a lot because I now think about children. This was a very good experience for the future.” Another said, “My thinking has expanded. I understand more about children’s lives now.”
Inquiry in action research was facilitated by video recordings that enabled teams to track what happened in classrooms over a semester. Watching videos made teams more “thoughtful about their practice and better able to do their jobs.” For example, educators created, modified, and monitored play centers to accommodate the individual language and physical needs of children. As a direct result, some educators discarded inappropriate resources. Others no longer used kindergarten standards in Pre-K classrooms and instead provided what children currently needed.
Inquiry through action research was facilitated through the one-hour weekly team meetings. Educators appreciated how they provided time to study and better understand their work. Regular opportunities existed for teams to think about the action research over the whole semester. Teachers said they were more relaxed and not as rushed. However, the weekly one-hour team-meetings were still not long enough for educators to complete all aspects of the action research.
Insufficient communication with administrators about the action research created uncertainty among teachers. Some teachers did not know whether the outcomes of action research would be integrated into current practice. Administrators’ irregular participation in the action research was unhelpful because it meant they did not understand the impact of strategies in classrooms. Because of this, effective strategies were not always supported or may not be continued in classrooms after the action research was completed.
Literature
Participants’ questionnaire responses showed very positive and positive rankings for the use of literature in the ELC.
Table 8.8: Participants’ responses concerning the use of literature in the ELC
Participants Very positive Positive
Teachers 50% 50%
Teacher Assistants 33% 66%
Teacher Candidates 80% 20%
Team Leaders 100% 0%
Literature was identified by educators as a useful resource in promoting inquiry. By reading both reference books and journal articles, educators revised their knowledge of child development and were introduced to new strategies that supported the development of their professional attitudes, stimulated their thinking, and enabled them to review and modify their teaching (Thornton et al. 2009). Readings helped educators develop attitudes open to multiple new strategies, and to recognize that there is often more than one right way to fix teaching challenges. For an entire semester, relevant reading kept educators focused on finding and implementing a strategy to improve their teaching challenge. Team leaders said using literature was efficient because it saved teams from having to invent strategies of their own that may not work. Teacher assistants and teacher candidates said journal articles provided them with knowledge, skills, and strategies that were needed to put teaching challenges right. Journal articles were a constant reference point throughout the action research that helped teams stay on track and generated extensive team-discussion. The ability to choose a strategy was helpful because it promoted joint decision-making. However, one concern was that strategy evaluation was often missed in literature, and made judging how effective strategies might be, before they were implemented, difficult.
The librarian was instrumental in supporting teacher candidates’ data-base searches for literature. Locating relevant articles was critical to the success of the action research. However, data-base searches were problematical when some teacher candidates failed to spend enough time identifying precise key words. In some cases, wasted time adversely affected the outcomes of literature searches. Some teachers found access to articles challenging. A lack of Internet access in classrooms at the time and not being members of NAEYC explained the challenges. Obtaining articles was sometimes delayed for some teams and caused them to fall behind in their weekly schedule.
The suitability of articles was also sometimes problematical. One teacher went to the library in her own time to find articles that more closely matched her teaching challenge. Journal articles did not always match the full scope of teaching challenges and made it necessary to use more than one article at a time. Other teams preferred to use articles that were published in other journals. This was problematic because it was not known how closely aligned these articles were with NAEYC standards for teacher preparation (2009).
Data recording and analysis
Responses for data recording and data analysis indicated very positive, positive and average rankings. Overall, rankings suggested these areas featured well in the ELC.
Table 8.9: Participants’ responses to data recording and data analysis in the ELC
Participants Very positive Positive Average
Teachers 60% 40% 0%
Teacher Assistants 20% 40% 40%
Teacher Candidates 0% 100% 0%
Team Leaders 20% 80% 0%
Video-recordings provided teams with a complete and accurate method of data recording (Knight, Bradley, Hock, Skrtic, Knight, Brasseur-Hock & Hatton, 2012). Teachers were provided with, “insightful vignettes that enabled them to see what they would otherwise have missed.” Another commented, “Videos were a valuable tool that enabled me to see child interactions in detail.” Teacher candidates reported that each child’s response was different, indicating where teaching modifications were required. One teacher candidate said, “Videos showed me how to adapt my teaching to make it more creative.” Video recordings enabled team leaders to keep track of what happened between team meetings, and understand the impact of strategies on teams and on children.
Most participants rated data analysis of video recordings as positive. Participants indicated how video analysis revealed more about themselves as educators, than they realized. One said, “I like to step back and understand each child’s capabilities, what they each liked to do and what progress each child made over time”. Another teacher said, “I want to see what has improved in my teaching up to this point, and what still has to be done.” Teacher assistants said that data analysis brought “fresh eyes and multiple perspectives” about how strategies worked because unexpected things happened. For example, how often incidents occurred, what triggered them, how long they lasted, which children were involved, and what educators could do in response. Teacher candidates said that video analysis increased their knowledge of child development. One said, “Videos analysis gave concrete evidence about children’s skills so that I do not assume things.” Another commented, “I reflect back to when I thought teaching was telling children what to do, but I now know it is about me guiding their ideas so things happen in classrooms.” Videos were informative because they revealed what happened in classrooms and helped educators know what questions to ask next in action research.
However, the teacher assistants who ranked data analysis as “average” indicated that “Video cameras were initially distracting to me and to children. They did not give a true picture of classroom activity but in time children ignored them.”
Checklists facilitated data analysis of video recordings. Checklists consisted of agreed outcomes from teaching strategies. These lists also helped team members identify what they wanted to look for in videos, and what constituted success in improving teaching challenges. Discussing the same questions on checklists enabled teams to reflect consistently on their action research. Checklists had reassured “overwhelmed” teacher candidates to focus and contribute to discussions. Repeated viewings of videos gave teams several opportunities to check analysis and interpretations. However, insufficient time to carry out all data analysis on videos remained a concern.
Data interpretation provided teams with new insights into their action research. They were given more ownership of their practice, while teacher assistants commented on what was revealed about children’s learning. Evidence on checklists enabled teacher candidates to understand data interpretation discussions that helped teams interpret data and be open to new insights. For example, educators discussed whether purchased literacy programs were appropriate for children with special needs, and questioned whether teaching approaches used in elementary grades were appropriate for children in Pre-K classrooms.
When educators gained new understanding through action research they showed greater acceptance of findings and of the implications for their own classrooms. Educators discussed data collected in their own classrooms because they understood the context of it (Nelson, 2012). Educators were more open to accepting what data showed and discussed what it meant for their own practice. Opportunities for teachers to see themselves on video were generally welcomed (Ruto-Korir & Beer (2012). Changed practices were evident through data interpretation. For example, teachers intentionally used richer language to encourage children’s decision-making during play, and used child-development theory to more accurately support children’s individual learning needs. New practices showed the impact of teaching in developmentally-appropriate ways. For example, embedding numbers into socio-dramatic play, and during circle times, was shown to be successful. Being involved in planning the “next steps” in activities enabled teacher assistants to actively teach children new relevant concepts and skills (Rossouw, R. (2009).
Dissemination of action research findings was facilitated by working in cross-agency teams. Sharing findings was helped by PowerPoint presentations shown at mini-conferences at the college and at early-childhood state and national conferences. Information sharing about changed teaching practices helped other educators who faced similar teaching challenges in their own classrooms, and indicated the implications for the preparation of teacher candidates in teacher education programs (Branscomb & Etheridge, 2010, Cartmel, McFarlane &Nolan, 2014).
Reflection
Participants’ reflections in the ELC were analyzed under the following headings: professional growth; teaching development and collaboration. Responses are reported in order of importance with a discussion section at the end.
Professional Growth
Participants’ identified how team reflection in the ELC promoted their professional growth. Teachers associated professional growth with a better understanding of events in classrooms. Action research made it easier to reflect because events were “real teaching experiences that were directly connected to what took place with children.” Reflection on children’s learning in video recordings provided insights. One teacher assistants said, “It was a surprise to realize that boys were much more capable than we thought. We had it wrong, and boys could do more than we realized.” Several teacher candidates commented on the importance of “thinking about teaching before jumping and doing it” and “getting a real handle on all the aspects of teaching so it will work.” Team viewing of video recordings helped teacher candidates hear multiple perspectives that developed their own thinking and appreciation of on-going, reflective action research for their professional growth (Nolan, A. 2008). Mini-conferences resulted in better understanding that supported professional growth. When teams met together, they shared their IMovie presentations and where appropriate, replicated strategies in other Practicum settings. Other visits and team presentations spread action research results and supported professional growth among a wider early childhood audience.
Teacher candidates said their philosophy of education was developed through reflection. They built on what they learned in college courses and applied it in classrooms. Reflection helped teacher candidates conceptualize how they wanted to teach children in the future. One said, “I want to be flexible and be open to change.” Another expressed, “My own teaching grew a lot through reflection. I learned to think about my teaching in a busy classroom where there are many things to attend to at once.”
Educators identified how their professional attitudes towards working collaboratively were changed through reflection. Teachers reported that teaching is never perfect and there is always room for educators to work together to make improvements. One teacher assistant said, “It was a good idea to take and use other people’s suggestions so that we don’t have to keep reinventing the wheel.” Several teacher candidates remarked that they did not have to be frightened to work with others or to try out different things.
A lack of questionnaire responses indicated that teams did not reflect on how well their changed teaching did or did not align with NAEYC Standards (2009) used at the college. This presented an area of concern, and was explained by teams implementing different sets of learning standards that presented a challenge to the action research. While individual team participants were familiar with the learning standards used in their own settings, cross-agency teams were not familiar with the different learning standards used in each-others’ settings. As a result, during meetings, teams could not reflect on how far new strategies aligned their practices to NAEYC Standards (2009) used at the college
Teaching Development
Educators reported how reflection supported their teaching development. Observation and assessment were critical areas for the understanding of children’s actions and abilities. One teacher candidate said, “observing and interacting with children at the same time was especially important to teaching development.” Related reflection indicated what “next-step” activities needed to be planned, and provided for children to have repeated opportunities to learn concepts. Reflection on videos enabled educators to make accurate assessments of children’s learning that provided information to support teaching development.
Applying child development and learning theory in classrooms encouraged educators to see the classroom through children’s eyes, check the impact of strategies on teaching challenges and promote teaching development. Teacher candidates identified how opportunities for children’s intellectual development were increased by giving them choices involving decision-making and problem-solving about what they wanted to learn. One reported, “I now realize that my teaching is about seeing that children have opportunities to expand their knowledge and skills.”
Teaching development through improved physical provision also featured in teacher candidates’ thinking. Improved physical provision was said to promote healthy lifestyles and supported the inclusion of children with behavioral difficulties.
Teaching development resulted from applying early childhood theory and practice in ways that improved classroom challenges. New teaching knowledge and skills enabled educators to be more child-centered. For example, when they improved teaching challenges in their classrooms, they were forced to teach for the present rather than for kindergarten and 1st grade-readiness. Better insights into children’s current interests and needs allowed teachers to modify activities more readily. Educators learned about the importance of well-organized classroom layout. For example, when sensory table play was better supported and resourced, children’s concentration was sustained. Educators determined that their assumptions about sensory table play were incorrect and accepted the need for their practice to change.
Reflection was supportive of teaching development at different stages of the action research. Regular reflection enabled teams to reflect on the same issue from week to week, and develop their thinking and understanding over time. For example, one team reflected over the semester on the impact (at different stages) of an obstacle course in their classroom, regarding how it met children’s developmental and learning needs; how children used it; how educators used it in their teaching; and, finally, whether it overcame the teaching challenge. Another team reflected on the need for well-resourced classrooms with flexible routines that could enable children to move between different play centers in ways that promoted sustained play. Several educators reported how integrated teaching approaches supported children’s learning in the circle, book, socio-dramatic, and art centers. Integrated teaching enables children to engage in literacy, math, science, and creative arts activities all at the same time, and thereby experience a richer curriculum.
Teachers commented that reflection was, “both professional and personal.” One teacher said, “Reflection is part of you and shows what you believe and how you teach.” Regular weekly reflection undertaken by the whole team meant that change was progressive and affected all participants to varying degrees. Changed thinking and changed teaching was recognized as an ongoing process that depended on steps accomplished in the action research cycle. Change was most striking at the end of the semester, when current practice was compared to former practice and beliefs stated at the beginning of the semester. Reflection made it easier for some educators to make changes than for others. Some teachers said the benefits of change were obvious. Other educators were more resistant, because they thought change implied criticism of earlier teaching and care-giving practices.
Most teacher assistants said reflecting promoted their teaching development. From their ruminations on children’s learning in video recordings, most educators gained new insights into children’s thinking. For example, increasing opportunities for children’s own ideas to feature in play had a “marked effect on children’s motivation.” However, reflecting on new strategies and change was not easy for all educators. Using new approaches to behavior management “was a whole new game” for some educators who had to rethink everything they knew about working with children. Several teacher candidates reported how reflection changed their perceptions of their roles in Practicum classrooms. Change made teacher candidates move from telling children what to do and listening to children, and provide support to help them create their own ideas for play. This change fundamentally affected teacher candidates’ teaching approaches because as one teacher candidate said, “Children’s own ideas for play were so much better than mine… because they included so many imaginative ideas for learning.” Other teacher candidates reported how team reflection was an efficient way to support teaching development. Several remarked how it would have taken much longer for them to realize that “children learned on the move, in well-resourced classrooms, with responsive educators, where they made choices and decisions about what they wanted to do.”
Collaboration
Collaboration was critical to reflection because educators were provided with opportunities to learn from each other about classroom challenges and options for improvement. Educators enjoyed the social nature of collaboration because teaching ideas were exchanged that resulted in team members helping each other in classrooms. One teacher candidate remarked, “Reflection helped me expand my own ideas, but at the same time learn from others.”
In teams, educators were motivated to reflect on issues directly relevant to their own teaching. Teacher assistants reported how useful reflective collaboration was and meant that “time spent supporting children in learning activities increased and time spent disciplining children decreased.” Reflective collaboration promoted changed understanding among educators about how children learned. Teacher assistants reported how discussions enabled them to appreciate that children learned “on the move and not when they were made to stay still.”
Team leaders commented on the importance of reflective collaboration among cross-agency teams. Discussions reflected varied perspectives that enabled reflection on broad early childhood curriculum issues, e.g., what effect do scripted literacy programs have on the literacy development of children living in poverty; and what is the value of circle time unless it is differentiated to meet children’s individual needs? Discussions enabled teacher candidates to build on information they learned in college courses and reflect how it appeared in classrooms. For example, recording observations provided valuable insights into children’s learning, but recording observations and interacting with children at the same time was demanding.
Discussion of Action Research as an Inquiry Skill
Broad support for practice-based action research existed among educators because it developed a deeper understanding of their own teaching in their own classrooms (Bleach, 2013). If educators, including teacher candidates, learn effectively about their teaching through action research in classrooms, then emphasis on practice-based action research is recommended in teacher education and professional development programs (Souto-Manning, Mitchell, 2010). This calls for college faculty members, community leaders, administrators, and educators in Practicum classrooms, to work in partnership to they must ensure that contextual information about settings is shared and enables practice-based action research to consistently feature in candidates’ professional development. So the early childhood workforce as a whole learns about the act of teaching through their own actions in their own classrooms.
Video cameras, enabled teams to inquire into their classrooms, changed educators’ roles from teaching in them to also studying the classrooms themselves. Teaching without associated study, threatens the development of better practices in classrooms. Inquiry made educators function through professional knowledge. It also forged a link between professional knowledge and professional practice that served to give most educators a better understanding of their actions in classrooms. However, some educators resisted making changes to their teaching. Change is acknowledged to be a complex and demanding process that requires energy, commitment, time, and support to bring about. The concepts of professional change for professional growth are recommended to feature more strongly in both teacher education and professional development programs so that educators understand that their learning is never “done” but is ongoing and integral to the role of teacher (Moran, 2007).
The importance of teamwork was repeated throughout the action research and showed that improved teaching was not brought about by individuals working on their own, but required educators to collaborate to be effective and consistent (Waite & Davis, (2006).
Insufficient time was made available for educators to carry out all aspects of action research over the semester. Practical problems existed because many Practicum classrooms already function for up to ten hours each day, leaving educators little or no time to meet in teams. Inconsistent participation by administrators in action research was criticized by educators. A review of how they spend their time was requested. Commitment from administrators to attend professional development team meetings and participate in professional learning themselves would support growth among educators.
Discussion of Literature as an Inquiry Skill
The literature places comparatively little emphasis on the critical role of teams using published research to improve teaching challenges in their classrooms. Less emphasis still is made of the contribution that educators make when they transform themselves during action research into data gatherers, evaluators, and reporters of the impact of implementing teaching strategies in their classrooms. Transformational roles enabled educators to not only use literature during team meetings, but also contribute to action research through the practical implementation of strategies focused on teaching improvement in their classrooms (Mesquita-Pires, 2012).
However, some teacher candidates did not fulfill all aspects of their team responsibilities in the action research on time. This problem calls for teacher education faculty to address such concerns and examine how they prepare teacher candidates to work in teams during Practicum (Lattimer, 2012). A lack of internet access in classrooms prevented teams from carrying out online searches, and agencies unaffiliated with NAEYC, prevented some teams from accessing NAEYC journals online. Other teams wanted to use non-NAEYC journals, but articles in other journals may not have been aligned, or have been known to be aligned with NAEYC standards for the preparation of teachers (2009). These problems illustrated how fragmentation in settings impeded the implementation of the action research. Calls for collaboration among early childhood agencies at agency and community levels are needed to provide favorable conditions concerning the following: teacher candidates’ readiness to work in teams; internet access in classrooms; membership to professional organizations; and standards alignment among agencies in support of professional development.
Discussion of Data Recording and Analysis as Inquiry Skills
Checklists provided consistent ways for teams to analyze video recording data. Consistency allowed for reliable findings. The use of the same questions in checklists enabled consistent weekly discussion in team meetings that, in turn, focused team reflection. Checklists gave educators control over data analysis methods that strengthened their commitment to findings. However, 40% of teacher assistants ranked data analysis as only “average” because they questioned the authenticity of video camera recordings. This finding repeated the need for action research to be carried out within long-established professional relationships, and in safe-guarded environments that ensure both children’s and educators’ participation is accurately portrayed and used ethically. Several educators reported they were self-conscious about appearing in video recordings. Such a finding shows and must only ever be used to help and never cause educators anxiety (Robson, 2011).
Data analysis facilitated by checklists, and interpretation of videos, supported teams developing new insights into the impact of teaching strategies. Checklists helped teams stay focused during data analysis. These checklists helped teacher candidates, who, as the least experienced participants, used them to support their understanding of data analysis findings. Data interpretation enabled teams to reflect on their teaching and formulate their own evaluations. The presence of administrators at this point in the action research was shown to be pivotal to the adoption of changed practices. Action research findings increased teams’ autonomy over their professional development. Collaborative data analysis increased democracy in classrooms (Bleach, 2014).
Team leaders developed leadership skills that maintained teams’ focus, and that created a link between evaluation and reflection. Team leaders were instrumental in supporting the unique professional development needs of each team. If team leaders are pivotal to the success of professional development teams, their leadership skills need to be clearly identified, conceptualized, and used to lead professional development programs. PowerPoint presentations portrayed educators in a new role as agents of change in their own classrooms. The first steps to bring educators from different agencies to work together were taken. However, more frequent interaction between different agencies was needed to build relationships that could share information for change and improvement in classrooms. A dilemma existed for teams involving video recordings that created permanent data sources about classrooms, but ironically the teams did not have sufficient time to fully analyze them.
Discussion of Reflection as an Inquiry Skill
When educators reported that professional growth developed through reflection, it was also shown to be rooted in classroom experiences. The action research model of professional growth contrasted with more common models of professional development that were unrelated to the context of classrooms and detached from educators’ own teaching experiences with children. This suggests that early childhood professional development models are most effective when they include elements educators report as crucial to their professional growth.
Reflection provided educators with deeper insights into children’s learning and their own related practice. On occasion, educators recognized that aspects of their current practice were in error (Jensen, B. Holm, A & Bremberg, S. 2013).
Reflection revealed how educators critically examined and evaluated their own practice, and worked to improve it. Therefore, when given optimum time and conditions to reflect, most educators could effectively monitor their own practice and make changes to bring about improvements. Teacher candidates showed how reflection on journal articles let them define teaching challenges more clearly, reconstructing their thinking about teaching practices. This suggests that to better prepare candidates to cope with challenges in theoretical classrooms, thinking-based, problem-solving activities based in real classrooms, should be utilized.
Team meetings gave educators regular opportunities to reflect on teaching challenges. Educators assimilated what each said to further inform their thoughts in support of their professional growth. The reported merits of team meetings, mini-conferences, and visits between settings, were striking because they fostered collaboration… with the objective of securing improved teaching in classrooms. In doing so, a professional development model existed, built on collaboration, to improve teaching knowledge and skills among participants at different stages in their professional development.
This model acted as an alternative to the more traditional external and authoritarian models that impose practices, often unrelated to the context of their classrooms, or the needs of the children in them. Educators reported how regularly scheduled reflection enabled them to examine complex aspects of their practice that may have been too demanding for educators to do on their own. With these meetings, educators were in a better position to connect observation, assessment, planning and reflection in teaching. Teams garnered a deeper understanding of how aspects of practice were best used together to create smooth teaching operations that benefitted everyone.
Educators’ knowledge of child development and learning theory was important for interpreting their findings. Firmly locating professional development models—within child development knowledge—ensured that early childhood teaching was child-centered and the impact on children was beneficial. This made educators teach to children’s current learning needs, as indicated by assessment and teaching challenges, rather than in preparation for the next grade level.
Team reflection touted the importance of well-organized and adequately resourced classrooms. Less apparent was educators’ response to classrooms that lacked those qualities. Educators are the architects of classrooms, and it is their responsibility to gather appropriate free materials, in adequate supplies, to ensure that children have what they need to develop their learning in play. Educators could, for example, ask families to provide regular clean supplies, gather seasonal natural materials, and ask local businesses to donate surplus items
Weekly reflection over a semester revealed how educators’ thinking developed at different times and in different ways. The pivotal role of team leaders in asking focused questions, was to reveal the thinking that hindered action research progress. The different starting points among educators, and the different rate at which they were able to comprehend issues, were highlighted. Team leaders’ leadership skills were instrumental in team progress and needed to be harnessed for use in professional development programs.
Reflection clearly affected educators’ personal and professional development. Some showed their adaptability by comparing their earlier and later thinking about the teaching challenges they faced, and revealed their attitudes toward change. By acknowledging former thinking, opportunities were created to express new insights that demonstrated their enlightenment about optimum conditions for both children’s learning and for their teaching. Change was more difficult for some educators than for others. This suggested that professional development is most effective when carried out over an extended period, within a supportive professional relationship, to bolster professional growth.
Reflection was easier to achieve by working in teams. Social and collaborative teamwork enabled educators to discuss their action research together, and to help each other with their teaching. The explosion of online forums will serve to facilitate this in the future.
Educators’ responses suggest it is right to require educators to use social and collaborative approaches to teaching, because of the useful impact they have on wise decision-making in early childhood classrooms. The implications for teacher preparation programs suggest that teacher candidates be prepared, not as teachers who independently carry out their own practices and assignments, but as educators who work collaboratively to carry out assignments with input and support from others. Teams in the ELC were comprised of educators who worked in different agencies. However, historical factors explain the different practices, curricula and learning standards in different agencies involved in Practicum. These factors are overshadowed by the unifying truth that there is only one early childhood field in which teaching challenges are to be dealt with, in ways that benefit for the whole early childhood field, and for all individuals involved in it. The need for more collaboration between agencies, so that coordinated responses are effectively developed towards consistent professional actions, is clear.
Conclusion
Factors Impact Positive Negative Implications
ELC design Created professional development model aimed at improving teaching challenges and improving consistency between teaching in college and practice during Practicum field experience. Enabled professional development teams consisting of participants from college, the community and Practicum settings to be formed. Allowed improved practice to develop and spread across settings to build greater consistency of practice. It was not understood in the grant design that different sets of learning standards were used at the college and different and varied learning standards were used in Practicum settings. Team participants’ unfamiliarity with the different sets of standards and a lack of published alignment tables made alignment between college teaching and Practicum practice impossible to achieve during the semester. To promote consistent practice in Practicum settings, it is necessary that learning standards and standards alignment tables are published and distributed concurrently to colleges and to Practicum settings.
Educators’ professional development Teams’ professional development occurred through studying teaching challenges based in their own classrooms In all case studies, when new teaching strategies were embedded into the context of children’s play, the strategies were effective in improving both the teaching challenges and educators’ practices. Some educators resisted using new strategies and resisted changed practice because it undermined their control in the classroom. Emphasize in literature and in standards documents that children’s play is a most effective vehicle to bring about educators’ improved teaching. Professional development is best undertaken over time because time is needed for some educators to change their practice.
Literature Teams carried out data-base searches to find developmentally appropriate literature related to the teaching challenges they faced in their classrooms. Candidates became readers of literature that built their professional knowledge and skills. It was not always possible to find just one research article that addressed one teaching problem. It was sometimes necessary to use more than one journal article. A lack of Internet access in classrooms hindered the accessing of literature. Register teams for NAEYC Membership. Organize Internet access in classrooms to ensure professional literature can be accessed whenever needed.
Technology Technology enabled teams to investigate and record data about their teaching challenges. Video-recording enabled teams to see and understand teaching challenges and collaborate for improvement. Audio tapes enabled team meeting discussions to be recorded, downloaded and stored for analysis. IMovie presentations enabled teams to share their teaching improvements at local and state conferences. One-hour weekly team meetings did not provide enough time for team viewing and analysis of all videos and audio tapes Equip each Practicum classroom with the technology and electronic devices they need. Allow more time during team meetings to analyze collected data so findings are evident and understood by the team.
Action Research Teams followed a prescribed professional development format. Teams turned into problem-solvers, data gatherers and decision makers connected directly to their own classroom practice. Inbuilt discussion and reflection time ensured professional growth. Some educators resisted change. Recommended that professional development time has to be specified in educators’ contracts of employment. | textbooks/socialsci/Early_Childhood_Education/Book%3A_The_ELC_-_An_Early_Childhood_Learning_Community_at_Work_(Bridge_Melita_and_Roiger)/03%3A_Reflections/3.01%3A_Participants_Responses_to_the_ELC.txt |
Evidence from the case studies included in this book, participants’ questionnaire responses and feedback from team leaders and the college librarian are used to evaluate the ELC professional development model and make recommendations for further improvement. The evaluation is carried out to assess how well the stated aims of the ELC were met and written under strengths and weaknesses headings. Recommendations are made to further improve the ELC model. To recap, the aims of the ELC were to: (1) build professional development connections between early childhood educators in different agencies involved with Practicum; (2) align educators’ practice in Practicum placements with NAEYC Standards (2009) used at the College; and, (3) demonstrate the impact of the ELC on the learning of team participants and on children in Practicum placements.
The Evaluation of the ELC
(1) Build professional development connections between early childhood educators in different agencies involved with Practicum.
Evidence suggests that overall this aim was met but recommendations were made to overcome weaknesses. On the strengths side, the design of the ELC was critical in building professional development connections between early childhood educators in different agencies involved with Practicum. Early childhood faculty at the College acted as a catalyst to reach out to long-standing and trusted early childhood partners who already participated in the Practicum field experience. These partners included directors and educators in preschool agencies, professionals in the Childcare Council, plus a new connection with the librarian in the Teaching Materials Center, TMC, in the College Library. These inter-agency partners created professional connections between diverse groups that resulted in the scope of the ELC being more far reaching, and the impact of Action Research, spread consistent practice more widely among team members and the agencies in which they were each based.
The creation of inter-agency professional development teams in Practicum placements ensured the ELC operated in classrooms and focused on professional development that used an Action Research approach to investigate teaching challenges identified by educators in their classrooms. Central to the investigation was to improve the quality of educators’ and teacher candidates’ teaching, and as a direct consequence, improve the quality of learning opportunities made available to children.
Secure grant funding was one crucial factor in making the ELC function effectively. It paid for team leaders from the Childcare Council to guide teams through their Action Research. It paid preschool agencies to provide coverage to free educators in Practicum classrooms from their normal teaching duties. Those educators were then able to attend weekly, hour-long team meetings, to work collaboratively with their team leader and teacher candidate on their Action Research. Grant funding also paid for the purchase of technology that was essential to the work of the ELC, used by designated team members to accurately record data and monitor the impact of Action Research over the semester.
On the weaknesses side, the ELC design omitted to include a requirement for preschool directors to regularly participate, although some did voluntarily. It was mistakenly thought that Action Research was targeted only at improving educators’ and teacher candidates’ practice in Practicum classrooms. However, it was apparent that without directors’ knowledge and support for team Action Research, change to improve either the curriculum or teaching methods, was unlikely to be understood, supported or be sustained. Hour-long team meetings were found to be too short for teams to cover all aspects of their Action Research.
Recommendations for future improvements are:
• Require directors of preschool agencies who host teacher candidates during Practicum to routinely participate in Action Research. Directors are then more likely to understand the team rationale for new teaching approaches and support change in classrooms.
• Increase cover in classrooms to allow educators to be released from their teaching for longer time each week. When teams meet for longer at weekly team meetings, they are more likely to complete their Action Research in a timely manner.
(2) Improve and align educators’ practice in Practicum placements with NAEYC Standards (2009) used at the College;
Evidence suggests that this aim was partly met. Recommendations are made to address weaknesses. On the strengths side, ample evidence indicated that Action Research was instrumental in teams developing a wide range of analytical skills, that were highly supportive of their improved professional understanding and their related practice in their classrooms. These analytical skills were honed as teams developed a problem-solving stance to the teaching challenges they faced.
The video recordings of team members at work in their own classrooms, with their own children, enabled them to observe teaching challenges and assess what might cause them. For example, only when watching a video, did one teacher candidate notice the sensory table in the classroom and how rarely children used it. Throughout the semester, teams watched videos that showed the impact of strategies and gained new insights about their teaching. For example, preparing more active and differentiated literacy games to use during Circle time, provided educators with valuable information about what affected children’s levels of engagement during activities.
The provision of sufficient guided discussion and reflection time during team meetings was critical for teams’ improved understanding of their teaching. This pertained to the topics of the case studies, which included: diversity and ESL learners; gender and challenging behavior; uncovering hidden beliefs about children’s mathematical understanding and observing what children represented in play. Additional topics discussed during team meetings included children’s science content and evaluating classroom space.
Reflection on videos resulted in new understanding and changed roles in classrooms. Teacher assistants described changing their work from “policing” children to writing observations. This enabled teachers to plan and teach developmentally appropriate “next step” learning activities.
Teams’ reading of professional literature was a critical strength in promoting improved practice in Practicum placements. The librarian’s role in supporting teacher candidates’ searches to find relevant literature developed their ability to better understand and more precisely define teaching challenges to select beneficial journal articles for their team to read. Journal articles provided teams with proven strategies were known to work and improved teaching. Regular professional reading among teams encouraged team members to increase their teaching knowledge and skills and be current with research findings. Reading reputable child development peer reviewed journals was particularly effective in enabling teams to weave DAP into their Action Research and to understand and apply child development theory in their practice. Teacher candidates commented how reading literature helped them write better lesson plans that were DAP and reflected NAEYC standards. One teacher candidate commented how reading literature gave her firm ideas about what and how to teach children so that it was no longer guess-work.
On the weaknesses side, it was evident that to improve and align educators’ practice in Practicum placements with NAEYC Standards (2009), were two separate processes and not one. Although Action Research provided compelling evidence of improved practice, alignment of that practice with NAEYC standards was not. This was because initial ELC training focused only on NAEYC standards (2009) which were used at the college and were familiar to faculty members and teacher candidates. It was not understood that community professionals (who worked as team leaders), preschool directors and educators in Practicum placements were not familiar with NAEYC standards (2009). More surprising was that preschool agencies that hosted Practicum placements, each used one of five different sets of early childhood learning standards. The use of these other sets of standards may explain why educators were not familiar with NAEYC standards (2009) and, why teacher candidates sometimes had difficulty in completing their required assignments during Practicum. It also explained why teams were unable to align their changed practice with NAEYC Standards (2009) or were not able to fully reflect on alignment during team meetings, and why evaluation of alignment was delayed until the write-up stage of case studies.
Concerning teams’ reading literature, it was not always possible for teacher candidates to find just one journal article that provided strategies to overcome all aspects of their teaching challenges. Preschool agencies commonly were not members of NAEYC and this prevented teams from accessing NAEYC data bases themselves if needed. Teams’ lack of Internet access in classrooms also compounded this problem.
Some educators resisted change through Action Research in their classrooms because changed practice was believed to confuse children and undermine those educators’ control of teaching situations and of children’s behavior.
A lack of readiness in some teacher candidates affected how they worked in teams and carried out required tasks. Throughout the semester an important task was to complete a PowerPoint presentation of the action research at the end of the semester; the task was not completed.
Recommendations to facilitate the successful improvement and alignment of educators’ practice in Practicum placements with NAEYC Standards (2009) is:
• During initial ELC training, use a common language to familiarize all ELC participants with both NAEYC standards (2009) and with the different sets of standards used in each preschool agency.
• During initial training, use a common language to familiarize teams with standard alignment tables that enable them to evaluate how far their changed practice aligns with NAEYC standards (2009) and with the standards used in their own settings.
• Prepare teacher candidates, if necessary, to find several journal articles that provide multiple strategies to address all aspects of their one teaching challenge.
• Encourage preschool agencies to become members of NAEYC or another professional membership that will enable them to routinely access NAEYC or other professional journals.
• In the preschool building, provide teams with Internet access to support their Action Research.
• In ELC initial training, familiarize team members with change theory to help educators understand that change is often unsettling and takes time to adjust to.
• At the college prepare teacher candidates to work in teams during Practicum.
(3) demonstrate the impact of the ELC on the professional learning of team participants and on children in Practicum placements.
Evidence suggests this aim was met. The impact of the ELC in promoting the professional learning of team participants, including children, was evident. Planting agreed strategies in play was key to educators’ and teacher candidates’ improved professional learning and improved teaching during Practicum.
In the ELC, children’s play was recognized as the critical vehicle in growing educators’ professional development and occurred as educators proactively and purposefully applied strategies by embedding them into children’s play. Play incorporated everything that was important and meaningful to children and was widely accepted to effectively promote children’s learning and development in all areas that related to their families and friends, actions, intentions, use of materials, acquisition of language, representation of ideas, expression of creativity and demonstration of feelings.
Each case study in this book illustrates how teams implemented strategies, for example, the “talking time” strategy to create opportunities for children to express their own ideas for socio-dramatic play. A science area created opportunities for children to explore materials and construct scientific concepts through free-play. A physical play area in the classroom gave children new opportunities to move and explore space. A sensory table allowed children to choose and use varied materials to make up stories and play out scenarios. A guidance process and a feelings chart supported children to express their emotions appropriately in play. Games and active learning activities introduce play into Circle time.
Educators took on the role of architects of rich play as they proactively implemented deliberate, developmentally-appropriate, purposeful strategies into children’s play. This deliberate act created critical opportunities for children to explore concepts, understand content, develop new skills and exhibit learning dispositions that are relevant, interesting and challenging to children. In response to children’s demonstrated play, it was evident how educators had to use their professional analytical skills, developed through Action Research to sustain the play and children’s learning within it. This involved observing, talking, interacting as appropriate in the play and assessing children at play so educators have information to further develop it.
The ELC shows us that for educators to continue to improve their professional skills during professional development, it is incumbent on policy makers to unequivocally state in early childhood policy, learning standards and curriculum documentation, that play is the vehicle through which all children’s learning develops, and at the same time, best facilitates educators’ associated professional development. | textbooks/socialsci/Early_Childhood_Education/Book%3A_The_ELC_-_An_Early_Childhood_Learning_Community_at_Work_(Bridge_Melita_and_Roiger)/03%3A_Reflections/3.02%3A_Conclusion.txt |
Learning Objectives
• Identify developmental theories and their influences on how children develop.
• Define socialization
• Understand socialization theories and their influences on child development
• Identify agents of socialization
• Understand methods of socialization
• Discuss Bronfenbrenner's Ecological Systems Theory
Theories
The evolving idea of how we become members of a society, develop behaviors, values and beliefs, and follow and create norms and expectations happens through a process called socialization. There is a growing and profound body of research that describes socialization, and the process in which humans are socialized through agents, which we call agents of socialization. Environments such as home, school, and community, are major contributors to the autonomy of who we are as individuals, and a collective group. The methods in how we experience socialization can determine how we experience the different environments we navigate through. This describes how two individuals who navigate through the same environment can have different outcomes.
In addition to socialization, theories on socialization explains the impacts socialization can have on our cognitive and moral development, social-emotional development, physical development, and language development. There are very strong links between socialization and behavioral outcomes. Once we understand socialization, and theories such as Bronfenbrenner's Ecological Systems Theory, we will come to understand how individuals become who they are, and how to help children navigate through their environments.
01: Introduction to Socialization and Theories
Socialization
Socialization is a part of child development, children learn about about their social world within the context of their culture. The intent is for new generations of a society to learn societies way of life, in order to continue to exist. Whatever is distinctive about a cultural society must be transmitted- this process is socialization. For U.S. culture to continue, for example, children in the United States must learn cultural values related to living in a "democracy". One example of this is that children are taught to say the 'Pledge of Alliance" every day in school. Additionally to shape this value children learn about the norms of voting, and how to use material objects such as voting machines. This value impacts their schooling, their community participation and how their parent interact with them.
This text focuses on the myriad of ways society shape children and their behaviors, attitudes and values. Attempting to understanding children begins with a knowledge about development. In this text we will look at the theories, social institutions, cultural norms, interactions with others to understand human behavior.
Developmental Overview
This section will introduce human development for some and review human development foundations for others. Human development is divided into 3 main areas: Physical, Cognitive, and Affective. Together, these areas address the development of the whole child.
• Physical-motor development – this includes our gross motor, fine motor, and perceptual-motor development.
• Cognitive or intellectual development – this includes our thoughts and how our brain processes information, as well as how we utilize language so that we can communicate with one another.
• Affective development – this includes our emotions, social interactions, personality, creativity, spirituality, and the relationships we have with ourselves and others.
All three areas of development are of critical importance in how we support the whole child. For example, if we are more concerned about a child’s cognitive functioning we may neglect to give attention to their affective development. We know that when a child feels good about themselves and their capabilities, they are often able to take the required risks to learn about something new. Likewise, if a child is able to use their body to learn, that experience helps to elevate it to their brain. Below is a image of a child who is learning to walk. All areas of development is being impacted during this task. Additionally, as a society we value independence and caregivers work to facilitate the acquisition of these skills.
Quoteable
“If it isn’t in the body, it can’t be in the brain.”
- Bev Bos
Developmental Theories
Theories help us to understand behaviors and recognize developmental milestones so that we can organize our thoughts and consider how to best support a child’s individual needs. With this information, we can then plan and implement learning experiences that are appropriate for the development of that child (called, “developmentally appropriate practice or DAP", which is discussed more later on in this chapter), set up engaging environments, and most importantly, we can develop realistic expectations based on the child’s age and stage of development.
A theory is defined as “a supposition, or a system of ideas intended to explain something, especially one based on general principles independent of the thing to be explained, a set of principles on which the practice of an activity is based.”
The theories we chose to include in this text form the underlying “principles” that guide us in the decisions we make about the children in our care, as well as provide us with insight on how to best support children as they learn, grow, and develop. The theories that have been selected were proposed by scientists and theorists who studied human development extensively. Each, with their own unique hypothesis, set out to examine and explain development by collecting data through observations/experiments. The theorists we selected, strived to answer pertinent questions about how we develop and become who we are. Some sought to explain why we do what we do, while others studied when we should achieve certain skills. Here are a few of the questions developmental theorists have considered:
• Is development due to maturation or due to experience? This is often described as the nature versus nurture debate. Theorists who side with nature propose that development stems from innate genetics or heredity. It is believed that as soon as we are conceived, we are wired with certain dispositions and characteristics that dictate our growth and development. Theorists who side with nurture claim that it is the physical and temporal experiences or environment that shape and influence our development. It is thought that our environment - our socio-economic status, the neighborhood we grow up in, and the schools we attend, along with our parents’ values and religious upbringing - that impact our growth and development. Many experts feel it is no longer an “either nature OR nurture” debate but rather a matter of degree; which influences development more?
• Does one develop gradually or does one undergo specific changes during distinct time frames? This is considered the continuous or discontinuous debate. On one hand, some theorists propose that growth and development are continuous; it is a slow and gradual transition that occurs over time, much like an acorn growing into a giant oak tree. While on the other hand, there are theorists that consider growth and development to be discontinuous; which suggests that we become different organisms altogether as we transition from one stage of development to another, similar to a caterpillar turning into a butterfly.
• Is behavior shaped by individual internal processes or by the role of society in shaping behavior?
Critical Reflection
Socialization is the means by which human infants begin to acquire the skills necessary to perform as functioning members of their society.
-What skills did you acquire to become a successful adult? Who and what was instrumental in shaping you to fit into society?
As suggested earlier, not only do theories help to explain key components of human development, theories also provide practitioners with valuable insight that can be utilized to support a child’s learning, growth, and development. At this time, we would like to mention that although theories are based on notable scientific discoveries, it is necessary to emphasize the following:
• No one theory exclusively explains everything about a child’s development.
• Theories are designed to help us make educated guesses about children’s development
• Each theory focuses on a different aspect of human development
• Theories often build on previous theoretical concepts and may seek to expand ideals or explore new facets.
• Theories may not be generally applied to all diverse experiences
Developmental theories give us a framework for understanding the importance of socialization. The most common developmental theories are outlined here. Later, their application to socialization will be explained in specific chapters.
We will see that different theories cover different aspects of growth. Several developmental psychologists have laid the foundation to provide a framework to examine, explain and interpret human behavior. Some theories focus on socialization of children within their culture and community. For example, Rogoff suggested cultural communities expect and shape children differently. It is important to understand the role culture plays in socialization given the changing demographics and issues impacting children (later discussed in chapter 8). Theories and theorists which focus on the diverse cultural context of socialization include:
• Bronfenbrenner
• Vygotsky
• Rogoff
• Cultural Framework Theories
In addition, other theories and theorists will be highlighted. Such as:
• Piaget
• Erikson
• Bandura
• Behaviorism
Currently, the last theories identified are considered foundational to the field of child development. Yet, it is critical to note these theories have been generally researched on middle class western cultural norms and generalized to all children. Their validity is greatly debated. It is important to keep this research limitation in mind when applying to all children. | textbooks/socialsci/Early_Childhood_Education/Child_Family_Community%3A_The_Socialization_of_Diverse_Children/01%3A_Introduction_to_Socialization_and_Theories/1.01%3A_Developmental_Theory.txt |
Introduction
The influences of family, society, culture, and community are all factors to take into consideration when understanding socialization. How are childhoods influenced by nature and nurture? In this section, we will consider how family, society and culture influence the lives of children. You will explore how the natural sciences (biology) and social sciences (anthropology, psychology, social work, and sociology) study these influences on children.
Defining Socialization
In the summer of 2005, police detective Mark Holste followed an investigator from the Department of Children and Families to a home in Plant City, Florida. They were there to look into a statement from the neighbor concerning a shabby house on Old Sydney Road. A small girl was reported peering from one of its broken windows. This seemed odd because no one in the neighborhood had seen a young child in or around the home, which had been inhabited for the past three years by a woman, her boyfriend, and two adult sons. Who was the mystery girl in the window? Entering the house, Detective Holste and his team were shocked. It was the worst mess they’d ever seen, infested with cockroaches, smeared with feces and urine from both people and pets, and filled with dilapidated furniture and ragged window coverings. Detective Holste headed down a hallway and entered a small room. That’s where he found the little girl, with big, vacant eyes, staring into the darkness. A newspaper report later described the detective’s first encounter with the child: “She lay on a torn, moldy mattress on the floor. She was curled on her side . . . her ribs and collarbone jutted out . . . her black hair was matted, crawling with lice. Insect bites, rashes and sores pocked her skin . . . She was naked—except for a swollen diaper. … Her name, her mother said, was Danielle. She was almost seven years old” (DeGregory, 2008). Detective Holste immediately carried Danielle out of the home. She was taken to a hospital for medical treatment and evaluation.
Through extensive testing, doctors determined that, although she was severely malnourished, Danielle was able to see, hear, and vocalize normally. Still, she wouldn’t look anyone in the eyes, didn’t know how to chew or swallow solid food, didn’t cry, didn’t respond to stimuli that would typically cause pain, and didn’t know how to communicate either with words or simple gestures such as nodding “yes” or “no.” Likewise, although tests showed she had no chronic diseases or genetic abnormalities, the only way she could stand was with someone holding onto her hands, and she “walked sideways on her toes, like a crab” (DeGregory, 2008). What had happened to Danielle? Put simply: beyond the basic requirements for survival, she had been neglected. Based on their investigation, social workers concluded that she had been left almost entirely alone in rooms like the one where she was found. Without regular interaction—the holding, hugging, talking, the explanations, and demonstrations given to most young children—she had not learned to walk or to speak, to eat or to interact, to play or even to understand the world around her. From a sociological point of view, Danielle had not been socialized.
Socialization is the process through which people are taught to be proficient members of a society. It describes the ways that people come to understand societal norms and expectations, to accept society’s beliefs, and to be aware of societal values. Socialization is not the same as socializing (interacting with others, like family, friends, and coworkers); to be precise, it is a sociological process that occurs through socializing. As Danielle’s story illustrates, even the most basic of human activities are learned. You may be surprised to know that even physical tasks like sitting, standing, and walking had not automatically developed for Danielle as she grew. And without socialization, Danielle hadn’t learned about the material culture of her society (the tangible objects a culture uses): for example, she couldn’t hold a spoon, bounce a ball, or use a chair for sitting. She also hadn’t learned its nonmaterial culture, such as its beliefs, values, and norms. She had no understanding of the concept of “family,” didn’t know cultural expectations for using a bathroom for elimination, and had no sense of modesty."
Socialization is the manner used to internalize the norms and ideas of a society, and helps maintain social and cultural continuity. It is the way children learn about and begin to understand the world they live in. This develops as children interact with various “agencies” in their lives. Some of the strongest agents of socialization Will be discussed in this chapter.
The COVID-19 pandemic truly altered the way we socialized as a nation. The United States as well as abroad went into lockdowns for periods of time which made us rely on technology more than we may have in the past. Daily routines which may have included going to school, participating in activities outside the home (ex. sports, clubs, community service) and interacting with one's peer group changed and led to more screen time and minimal interactions with people face to face for families, but especially children of all ages. (Ranjbar, K., Hosseinpour, H., Shahriarirad, R.et al.,2021). No one could have imagined that a virus would impact the way we socialized and understood the importance of social-emotional development. This leads us to understanding how traits we may have inherited or learned assist in our overall development.
Nature vs Nurture
Nature vs nurture is all about genes and heredity, how your genes interact with your environment, and how your environment interacts with your genes. What is nature vs nurture? Nature refers to our genes, and nurture refers to our environment. They are the sources that create individual differences in development. We tend to know more about genes than we do about how we are impacted by environment because environment has countless factors that play a part in impacting our development.
Two of the most important terms to understand when looking in to nature vs nurture is genotype and phenotype. Genotype is simply the genetic constitution (or the unchangeable makeup) of an individual organism. Phenotype is the set of observable characteristics of an individual resulting from the interaction of its genotype with the environment. Now that we defined genotype and phenotype, let’s look at the different ways our genetics interacts with our environment.
Passive genotype-environment correlation occurs when children passively inherit the genes and the environments their family provides. Certain behavioral characteristics, such as being athletically inclined, may run in families. The children have inherited both the genes that would enable success at these activities and given the environmental encouragement to engage in these actions.
Evocative genotype-environment correlation refers to how the social environment reacts to individuals based on their inherited characteristics. For example, whether one has a more outgoing or shy temperament will affect how he or she is treated by others.
Active genotype-environment correlation occurs when individuals seek out environments that support their genetic tendencies. This is also referred to as niche picking. For example, children who are musically inclined seek out music instruction and opportunities that facilitate their natural musical ability.
Genetic research has consistently shown heritable influence in many traditional areas of psychological research such as mental illness, personality, cognitive disabilities and abilities, and drug use and abuse. Some areas showing strong genetic influence may be more surprising, such as self-esteem, interests, attitudes, and school achievement (Plomin & Asbury, 2005).
There are many studies done on siblings to show what influence is stronger, genes or environment. Siblings are often similar, but their similarity is rooted in their genes rather than in the environment they share. Environment is hugely important to human development, but genetic research has shown beyond doubt that the most effective environmental influences are those that operate to make children in the same family different, not similar. These environmental influences are called non-shared because they are not shared by children growing up in the same family (Plomin & Asbury, 2005). In non-shared environments, children can experience differences in parents, peers, teachers, health and wellness practices, attitudes, beliefs, and religious practices. These differences in non-shared environmental influences can lead to differences in behaviors.
Throughout the lifespan of a child’s development, children may experience genetic change. Genetic change simply means that genetic effects at one age differ from genetic effects at another age; that is, the same genes could have different effects in the brains of eight-year-olds and eighteen (Plomin & Asbury, 2005). For example, developmental change in genetic effects is likely to be responsible for the fact that it is difficult to find behavioral markers in childhood for individuals who later become schizophrenic. Although it is possible that "schizophrenia genes" are not turned on until after adolescence, it is more likely that these genes operate the same way before and after adolescence but that they only express their hallucinatory and paranoid effects after adolescent brain development (Plomin & Asbury, 2005).
Temperament
What are the origins of human personality? Are they chiefly the result of the child's reinforcement history? The child's learned attributions about the social world? The child's genes? Or is there more to understand than would result from a simple choice between nature and nurture (Rothbart, 2007)? Through genetics, we develop temperament.
Temperament is made up of the innate characteristics that determine an individual’s sensitivity to various experiences and responsiveness to patterns of social interaction. Are there links between a child’s temperament and personality development? Understanding temperament is central to our understanding of development, and temperament constructs are linked to individual differences in both personality and underlying neural function (Rothbart, 2007). Temperament and experience combine to "grow" a personality, which will include the child's developing cognitions about self, others, and the physical and social world, as well as his or her values, attitudes, and coping strategies (Rothbart, 2007).
From early infancy, children show considerable variability in their reactions to the environment. One child is fearful, has only a brief attention span, and cries even at moderately stimulating play; another child enjoys vigorous play, is not easily distracted, and seeks out exciting events. These reactions, together with the mechanisms that regulate them, constitute the child's temperament (Rothbart, 2007). Early temperament development can lead to behavioral problems in adolescence. Starting at birth, children are developing temperament, and through temperament, children are developing other social behaviors such as conscience and empathy. For an example, in a study, more fearful children developed greater conscience during the preschool years than less fearful children did. Fear provides internal cues of discomfort that can be attributed to conscience rather than to external reward or coercion (Rothbart, 2007). In that same study, it was noted that the relation between temperament and conscience was also affected by parenting. Fearful children who received gentle and non-punitive socialization developed greater conscience than did fearful children whose parents were punitive.
Family
Family is the first and most important agent of socialization. Mothers and fathers, siblings and grandparents, plus members of an extended family, all teach a child what he or she needs to know. For example, they show the child how to use objects (such as clothes, computers, eating utensils, books, bikes); how to relate to others (some as “family,” others as “friends,” still others as “strangers” or “teachers” or “neighbors”); and how the world works (what is “real” and what is “imagined”). As you are aware, either from your own experience as a child or from your role in helping to raise one, socialization includes teaching and learning about an unending array of objects and ideas.
Part of the reason we turn out much like our parents, for better or worse, is that our families are such an important part of our socialization process. When we are born, our primary caregivers are almost always one or both of our parents. For several years, we have more contact with them than with any other adults. Because this contact occurs in our most formative years, our parents’ interaction with us and the messages they teach us can have a profound impact throughout our lives.
Keep in mind, however, that families do not socialize children in a vacuum. Many social factors affect the way a family raises its children. For example, we can use our imagination to recognize that individual behaviors are affected by the historical period in which they take place. Sixty years ago, it would not have been considered especially strict for a father to hit his son with a wooden spoon or a belt if he misbehaved, but today that same action in some places might be considered child abuse.
Sociologists recognize that race, social class, religion, and other societal factors play an important role in family socialization. Families may socialize for obedience and conformity, judgment, creativity, and problem-solving, depending on the values they hold. Children may also be socialized to abide by gender norms, perceptions of race, and class-related behaviors. For example, poor families usually emphasize obedience and conformity when raising their children, while wealthy families emphasize judgment and creativity (National Opinion Research Center, 2008). This may occur because working-class parents have less education and more repetitive-task jobs for which it is helpful to be able to follow rules and conform. Wealthy parents tend to have better educations and often work in managerial positions or careers that require creative problem solving, so they teach their children behaviors that are beneficial in these positions. This means children are effectively socialized and raised to take the types of jobs their parents already have, thus reproducing the class system (Kohn, 1977). Likewise, children are socialized to abide by gender norms, perceptions of race, and class-related behaviors. In Sweden, for instance, stay-at-home fathers are an accepted part of the social landscape. A government policy provides subsidized time off work—480 days for families with newborns—with the option of the paid leave being shared between mothers and fathers. As one stay-at-home dad says, being home to take care of his baby son “is a real fatherly thing to do. I think that’s very masculine” (Associated Press, 2011). Close to 90 percent of Swedish fathers use their paternity leave (about 340,000 dads); on average they take seven weeks per birth (The Economist, 2014). How do U.S. policies—and our society’s expected gender roles—compare? How will Swedish children raised this way be socialized to parental gender norms? How might that be different from parental gender norms in the United States?
Check-in Time!
What are your thoughts…. Should parents get the credit when their children turn out to be “good” kids and even go on to accomplish great things in life? Should they get the blame if their children turn out to be “bad”?
Understanding Racial Socialization
In a society that is still racially prejudiced, African American parents continue to find it necessary to teach their children about African American culture and to prepare them for the bias and discrimination they can expect to encounter. Scholars in sociology and other disciplines have studied this process of racial socialization. One of their most interesting findings is that African American parents differ in the degree of racial socialization they practice: some parents emphasize African American identity and racial prejudice to a considerable degree, while other parents mention these topics to their children only minimally. The reasons for these differences have remained unclear.
Sociologist Jason E. Shelton (2008) analyzed data from a national random sample of African Americans to determine these reasons, in what he called “one of the most comprehensive analyses to date of racial socialization strategies among African Americans” (p. 237). Among other questions, respondents were asked whether “in raising your children, have you done or told them things to help them know what it means to be Black.” They were also asked whether “there are any other things you’ve done or told your children to help them know how to get along with White people.”
In his major results, Shelton found that respondents were more likely to practice racial socialization if they were older, female, and living outside the South; if they perceived that racial discrimination was a growing problem and were members of civil rights or other organizations aimed at helping African Americans; and if they had higher incomes.
These results led Shelton to conclude that “African Americans are not a culturally monolithic group,” as they differ in “the parental lessons they impart to their children about race relations” (2008, p. 253). Further, the parents who do practice racial socialization “do so in order to demystify and empower their offspring to seize opportunities in the larger society” (p. 253).
Shelton’s study helps us to understand the factors accounting for differences in racial socialization by African American parents, and it also helps us understand that the parents who do attempt to make their children aware of U.S. race relations are merely trying, as most parents do, to help their children get ahead in life. By increasing our understanding of these matters, Shelton’s research has helped make a difference.
The ways in which our parents socialize us depend on many factors, two of the most important of which are our parents’ social class and our own biological sex. Melvin Kohn (1965, 1977) found that working-class and middle-class parents tend to socialize their children very differently. Kohn reasoned that working-class parents tend to hold factory and other jobs in which they have little autonomy and instead are told what to do and how to do it. In such jobs, obedience is an important value, lest the workers be punished for not doing their jobs correctly. Working-class parents, Kohn thought, should thus emphasize obedience and respect for authority as they raise their children, and they should favor spanking as a primary way of disciplining their kids when they disobey. In contrast, middle-class parents tend to hold white-collar jobs where autonomy and independent judgment are valued and workers get ahead by being creative. These parents should emphasize independence as they raise their children and should be less likely than working-class parents to spank their kids when they disobey.
If parents’ social class influences how they raise their children, it is also true that the sex of their children affects how they are socialized by their parents. Many studies find that parents raise their daughters and sons quite differently as they interact with them from birth. Parents help their girls learn how to act and think “like girls,” and they help their boys learn how to act and think “like boys.” That is, they help their daughters and sons learn their gender (Wood, 2009). For example, they are gentler with their daughters and rougher with their sons. They give their girls dolls to play with, and their boys guns. Girls may be made of “sugar and spice and everything nice” and boys something quite different, but their parents help them greatly, for better or worse, turn out that way. To the extent this is true, our gender stems much more from socialization than from biological differences between the sexes, or so many sociologists assume. If theorist Carol Gilligan is right that boys and girls reach moral judgments differently, perhaps socialization matters more than biology for how they reach these judgments.
Peers
When you were a 16-year-old, how many times did you complain to your parent(s), “All of my friends are [doing so and so]. Why can’t I? It isn’t fair!” As this all-too-common example indicates, our friends play a very important role in our lives. This is especially true during adolescence, when peers influence our tastes in music, clothes, and so many other aspects of our lives, as the now-common image of the teenager always on a cell phone reminds us. But friends are important during other parts of the life course as well. We rely on them for fun, for emotional comfort and support, and for companionship. That is the upside of friendships.
The downside of friendships is called peer pressure, with which you are undoubtedly familiar. Suppose it is Friday night, and you are studying for a big exam on Monday. Your friends come by and ask you to go with them to get a pizza and a drink. You would probably agree to go with them, partly because you really dislike studying on a Friday night, but also because there is at least some subtle pressure on you to do so. As this example indicates, our friends can influence us in many ways. During adolescence, their interests can affect our own interests in film, music, and other aspects of popular culture. More ominously, adolescent peer influences have been implicated in underage drinking, drug use, delinquency, and hate crimes (Agnew, 2007).
After we reach our 20s and 30s, our peers become less important in our lives, especially if we get married. Yet even then our peers do not lose all their importance, as parents with young children still manage to get out with friends now and then. Scholars have also begun to emphasize the importance of friendships with coworkers for emotional and practical support and for our continuing socialization (Elsesser & Peplau, 2006; Marks, 1994).
Check-in Time!
How did peers play an important role in your life? How did “peer pressure” impact decisions that you made as a teenager?
School
Most U.S. children spend about seven hours a day, 180 days a year, in school, which makes it hard to deny the importance school has on their socialization (Livingston and Wirt, 2004). Students are not in school only to study math, reading, science, and other subjects—the manifest function of this system. Schools also serve a latent function in society by socializing children into behaviors like practicing teamwork, following a schedule, and using textbooks.
School and classroom rituals, led by teachers serving as role models and leaders, regularly reinforce what society expects from children. Sociologists describe this aspect of schools as the hidden curriculum, the informal teaching done by schools.
For example, in the United States, schools have built a sense of competition into the way grades are awarded and the way teachers evaluate students (Bowles and Gintis 1976). When children participate in a relay race or a math contest, they learn there are winners and losers in society. When children are required to work together on a project, they practice teamwork with other people in cooperative situations. The hidden curriculum prepares children for the adult world. Children learn how to deal with bureaucracy, rules, expectations, waiting their turn, and sitting still for hours during the day. The latent functions of teamwork and dealing with bureaucracy are features of U.S. culture. Schools in different cultures socialize children differently in order to prepare them to function well in those cultures.
Schools also socialize children by teaching them about citizenship and national pride. In the United States, children are taught to say the Pledge of Allegiance. Most school districts require classes about U.S. history and geography. As academic understanding of history evolves, textbooks in the United States have been scrutinized and revised to update attitudes toward other cultures as well as perspectives on historical events; thus, children are socialized to a different national or world history than earlier textbooks may have done. For example, information about the mistreatment of African Americans and Native American Indians more accurately reflects those events than in textbooks of the past.
Check-in Time!
What are some examples of “hidden curriculum” that you experienced? How did it impact you then and now? Share any books that you read (either assigned or personal choice) that might have influenced any thoughts or ideas that you had as a child or teenager. How did they impact you now and then?
Controversial Textbooks
On August 13, 2001, twenty South Korean men gathered in Seoul. Each chopped off one of his own fingers because of textbooks. These men took drastic measures to protest eight middle school textbooks approved by Tokyo for use in Japanese middle schools. According to the Korean government (and other East Asian nations), the textbooks glossed over negative events in Japan’s history at the expense of other Asian countries.
In the early 1900s, Japan was one of Asia’s more aggressive nations. For instance, it held Korea as a colony between 1910 and 1945. Today, Koreans argue that the Japanese are whitewashing that colonial history through these textbooks. One major criticism is that they do not mention that, during World War II, the Japanese forced Korean women into sexual slavery. The textbooks describe the women as having been “drafted” to work, a euphemism that downplays the brutality of what actually occurred. Some Japanese textbooks dismiss an important Korean independence demonstration in 1919 as a “riot.” In reality, Japanese soldiers attacked peaceful demonstrators, leaving roughly 6,000 dead and 15,000 wounded (Crampton 2002).
Although it may seem extreme that people are so enraged about how events are described in a textbook that they would resort to dismemberment, the protest affirms that textbooks are a significant tool of socialization in state-run education systems.
The Community
The community a child resides in can provide the child with real experiences that will impact their views and perspective on the world. Aspects of the community such as whether it’s a diverse community, access to resources, exposure to violence, extracurricular activities and programs, and the day to day behaviors of community members can impact the child. Other components of the community to take in to consideration is whether it’s an individualistic (those that stress the needs of the individual over the needs of the group as a whole) or collectivistic community (emphasize the needs and goals of the group as a whole over the needs and desires of each individual), and if the community is child centered.
Religion
While some religions are informal institutions, here we focus on practices followed by formal institutions. Religion is an important avenue of socialization for many people. The United States is full of synagogues, temples, churches, mosques, and similar religious communities where people gather to worship and learn. Like other institutions, these places teach participants how to interact with the religion’s material culture (like a mezuzah, a prayer rug, or a communion wafer). For some people, important ceremonies related to family structure—like marriage and birth—are connected to religious celebrations. Many religious institutions also uphold gender norms and contribute to their enforcement through socialization. From ceremonial rites of passage that reinforce the family unit to power dynamics that reinforce gender roles, organized religion fosters a shared set of socialized values that are passed on through society.
The Workplace
Just as children spend much of their day at school, many U.S. adults at some point invest a significant amount of time at a place of employment. Although socialized into their culture since birth, workers require new socialization into a workplace, in terms of both material culture (such as how to operate the copy machine) and nonmaterial culture (such as whether it’s okay to speak directly to the boss or how to share the refrigerator).
Different jobs require different types of socialization. In the past, many people worked a single job until retirement. Today, the trend is to switch jobs at least once a decade. This means that people must become socialized to, and socialized by, a variety of work environments.
Government
Although we do not think about it, many of the rites of passage people go through today are based on age norms established by the government. In mainstream America, to be defined as an “adult” usually means being eighteen years old, the age at which a person becomes legally responsible for him- or herself. And sixty-five years old is the start of “old age” since most people become eligible for senior benefits at that point.
Each time we embark on one of these new categories—senior, adult, taxpayer—we must be socialized into our new role. Seniors must learn the ropes of Medicare, Social Security benefits, and senior shopping discounts. When U.S. males turn eighteen, they must register with the Selective Service System within thirty days to be entered into a database for possible military service. These government dictates mark the points at which we require socialization into a new category.
Mass Media
Mass media distribute impersonal information to a wide audience, via television, newspapers, radio, and the Internet. With the average person spending over four hours a day in front of the television (and children averaging even more screen time), media greatly influences social norms (Roberts, Foehr, and Rideout 2005). People learn about objects of material culture (like new technology and transportation options), as well as nonmaterial culture—what is true (beliefs), what is important (values), and what is expected (norms).[5]
The Effect of "Princess Culture"
Pixar is one of the largest producers of children’s movies in the world and has released large box office draws, such as Toy Story, Cars, The Incredibles, and Up. What Pixar has never before produced is a movie with a female lead role. This changed with Pixar’s movie Brave, which was released in 2012. Before Brave, women in Pixar served as supporting characters and love interests. In Up, for example, the only human female character dies within the first ten minutes of the film. For the millions of girls watching Pixar films, there are few strong characters or roles for them to relate to. If they do not see possible versions of themselves, they may come to view women as secondary to the lives of men.
The animated films of Pixar’s parent company, Disney, have many female lead roles. Disney is well known for films with female leads, such as Snow White, Cinderella, The Little Mermaid, and Mulan. Many of Disney’s movies star a female, and she is nearly always a princess figure. If she is not a princess to begin with, she typically ends the movie by marrying a prince or, in the case of Mulan, a military general. Although not all “princesses” in Disney movies play a passive role in their lives, they typically find themselves needing to be rescued by a man, and the happy ending they all search for includes marriage.
Alongside this prevalence of princesses, many parents are expressing concern about the culture of princesses that Disney has created. Peggy Orenstein addresses this problem in her popular book, Cinderella Ate My Daughter. Orenstein wonders why every little girl is expected to be a “princess” and why pink has become an all-consuming obsession for many young girls. Another mother wondered what she did wrong when her three-year-old daughter refused to do “non-princessy” things, including running and jumping. The effects of this princess culture can have negative consequences for girls throughout life. An early emphasis on beauty and sexiness can lead to eating disorders, low self-esteem, and risky sexual behavior among older girls.
Check-in Time!
What movies or tv shows impacted you as a child? How did they influence your social norms and values?
Attributions
Sociology - Module 3: Socialization and Interaction by Lumen Learning is licensed under CC BY 4.0
Sociology - Module 3: Socialization and Interaction by Lumen Learning is licensed under CC BY 4.0
"Agents of Socialization" by OpenStax, LibreTexts is licensed under CC BY.
"Prelude to Socialization" by OpenStax, LibreTexts is licensed under CC BY. | textbooks/socialsci/Early_Childhood_Education/Child_Family_Community%3A_The_Socialization_of_Diverse_Children/01%3A_Introduction_to_Socialization_and_Theories/1.02%3A_Socialization_Factors.txt |
Methods of Socialization
Methods of socialization includes affective methods, operant methods, observational methods, cognitive methods, sociocultural methods, and apprenticeship methods. Each method of socialization are important tools to help children grow in many areas of their development.
Affective Method of Socialization
Affective refers to feelings or emotions, such as love, anger, fear or disgust (Berns, 2016). How children feel about others, how children feel about themselves, and how they express their emotions are all included in the affective method. Attachments will be formed in the affective method. Attachments are affectional ties a person form to another specific person, binding them together in spacing and enduring time (Ainsworth, 1973, pg 1). Children will have many attachments throughout their life. Their first attachment is very important to future behavioral outcomes. Children usually experience their first attachment with their caregiver(s). To be more specific, infants will experience an emotional attachment with their caregiver(s) which will have a lasting effect on the growing child. Attachments can determine how children learn, and respond to the world around them. Children also start developing temperament from the attachment they have with their caregiver(s).
Operant Methods of Socialization
Operant refers to producing an effect. This usually includes reinforcement. Reinforcement is an object or event that is following a behavior and that serves to increase the likelihood that the behavior will occur again (Berns, 2016). There are two types of reinforcement. Positive reinforcement is a reward, or pleasant consequence given for a desirable behavior (Berns, 2016). Examples of positive reinforcement includes clapping and cheering when a baby walks for the first time, giving a high five when a child tries a new food, and giving a hug or a pat on the back when a child does a good deed. Negative Reinforcement is the termination of an unpleasant condition following a desired response (Berns, 2016). Examples of negative reinforcement are removing a child’s extra chores if they complete their homework on time, and letting a child leave their room if they stop pouting.
Operant methods of socialization cannot be effective using just positive and negative reinforcement. The goal is to encourage self-regulation, but since reinforcement happens externally, this may impact a child’s self-regulation skills in a negative way. Many of a child’s behaviors are learned behaviors, and some behaviors many be learned directly from reinforcement techniques. In this case, we want the learned behavior to disappear. The process of working towards the gradual disappearance of learned behaviors following the removal of the reinforcement is called extinction (Berns, 2016). A common misconception we have is that punishments are bad. Of course, there are effective and ineffective ways to implement punishment, but nonetheless, punishment is essential to correcting undesirable behaviors. Punishment is a physically or psychologically aversive stimuli or the temporary withdrawal of pleasant stimuli when undesirable behaviors occurs (Berns, 2016). Examples of punishments are removing a privilege, and scolding or harshly lecturing a child. Punishments can be effective socializing techniques if done correctly. Three effective techniques include timing (punishing the child closer to the time of the undesirable behavior), reasoning (accompanying the punishment with an explanation and solution), and consistency (creating expected results from repeated behaviors) (Berns, 2016). Lastly reinforcement and punishment should include feedback. Feedback is giving the child evaluative information on one’s behaviors, which can be both positive or negative.
Observational Methods of Socialization
Observational methods include a very important, essential piece of socialization, which is modeling. Modeling is a form of imitative learning that occurs through observation. It allows us to learn appropriate social behavior, attitudes, and emotions by watching others. (Berns, 2016). Children may also learn inappropriate behavior, attitudes, and emotions through modeling as well. Children learn modeling from their parents and other family members in their microsystem, teachers, peers, and through media such as social media, YouTube, tv shows, and music videos. Children learn consequences of behaviors through modeling. If the person they are observing is punished or reinforced, the child may learn of the consequence of that behavior.
Cognitive Method of Socialization
Cognitive methods of socialization focuses on how individuals process information, and create meaning from experiences. How children cognitively perceive and experience the world will affect future outcomes. Cognitive methods of socialization include three major themes. The first major theme is instruction. Instruction provides knowledge and information and is a useful socializing mechanism. (Berns, 2016) There are several notable ways to assure that your instruction is effective. The child must understand the language used, which means the language must be appropriate for the child to process. Instruction must also me specific to the child’s age. If you tell a two year-old to grab the shoe to their left foot by the right shoe lace, they will not be able to follow that instruction.
The second theme is setting a standard. A standard is a level of attainment or a grade of excellence regarded to a goal or a measure of adequacy (Berns, 2016). When setting standards, it is important to make sure the standard is obtainable, and appropriate for the child. Setting unrealistic standards can be harmful to the child as it can lower their self-esteem. Children will experience standards in every agent of socialization they experience. They will experience standards by teachers and administrators, in their peer groups, by other family members, when they walk into a library, and so on.
The third theme is reasoning. Reasoning is giving explanations or causes for an act. Reasoning helps children draw conclusions and encounter self-regulatory mechanisms (Berns, 2016). It is important that the child can understand the language of the explanation given. If a 2-year old child spits on another child, and the teacher responds by saying, “your spit stays in your mouth. When you spit on others you are spreading germs and it is rude”, will the 2 year-old understand what germs are and what it is to be rude? Chances are the answer is no. Children under the age of 3 are generally egocentric (Piaget, 1974). We must consider where the child is cognitively, and learn how to communicate effectively with children to implement this method effectively.
Sociocultural Methods of Socialization
Sociocultural methods of socialization involve learned behavior, including knowledge, beliefs, art, morals, law, customs, and traditions, that is characteristic of the social environment in which an individual grows up (Berns, 2016).The sociocultural expectations of those around an individual continually influence that individual's behavior (Rogoff, 2003). Children are highly influenced by the expectations people around them set, and children are experiencing conformity of many sorts. It’s important to note social norms. Children will experience group pressure, and can find themselves trying to fit in and conform to social norms to gather a sense of self. Group pressure is not limited to peers. Social groups are any groups that influences one’s behaviors such as family, religious groups, peers, clubs, and school (Berns, 2016). How much a child is impacted by a group depends on three psychological factors which includes their attraction to the group, acceptance by the group, and the type of group. An example of a community group would be a gang. How attracted a person is to the gang, their status in the gang, and the type of relationships they have with the gang members will determine much of how they are impacted by that group. The type of activities the group engages in will impact future outcomes.
Sociocultural methods of socialization also include traditions and symbols. Traditions are customs, and beliefs that are handed down from generation to generation (Berns, 2016). In other word, heritage is cultivated in children as they grow up (Pleck, 2000). Traditions can determine much of how a child interact and respond to the world around them. How a person problem solves, in many ways stem from their cultural traditions. Symbols are acts or objects that have come to be generally accepted as standing for or representing something else, especially something abstract (Vander Zanden, 1995). Symbolism is what birthed the idea of culture. Examples of symbolism includes the raising of the flag, wearing a crown, wearing a badge, etc.
Apprenticeship Methods of Socialization
Apprenticeship is a process in which a novice is guided by an expert to participate in and master tasks (Berns, 2016). Children are guided through apprenticeship in all settings, it could be by their parent, peer, teacher, coach, or member of the community. Apprenticeship is an effective socialization tool to help build self-esteem as children are learning more about their abilities as they grow. | textbooks/socialsci/Early_Childhood_Education/Child_Family_Community%3A_The_Socialization_of_Diverse_Children/01%3A_Introduction_to_Socialization_and_Theories/1.03%3A_Methods_of_Socialization.txt |
Bioecological Systems Theory
Urie Bronfenbrenner was one of the first psychologists to adopt a holistic perspective on human development via his Bioecological Systems Theory, which had a widespread influence on the way psychologists and other social scientists approach the study of human beings and their environments (New World Encyclopedia, 2020).
Bronfenbrenner emphasized the importance of the social environments in which children are raised, and saw the breakdown of the family as the leading cause of the ever-growing rates of alienation, apathy, rebellion, delinquency, and violence among American youth. His work led to new directions in research and the design of programs and policies affecting the well-being of children and families.
Bronfenbrenner’s primary theoretical contribution was his Bioecological Systems Theory, in which he identified four types of nested systems (Bronfenbrenner, 1989). Bronfenbrenner recognized that is it necessary to understand how not only the family or school influences human development, but how broader influences do as well.
The four systems are:
• Microsystem: Immediate environments such as family, school, peer group, neighborhood, and childcare environments.
• Mesosystem: A system comprised of connections between immediate environments (i.e., a child’s home and school).
• Exosystem: External environmental settings which only indirectly affect development, such as parent’s workplace.
• Macrosystem: The larger cultural context (Eastern vs. Western culture, national economy, political culture, subculture).
Later a fifth system was added:
• Chronosystem: The patterning of environmental events and transitions over the course of life.
Each system contains roles, norms, and rules that can powerfully shape development (See Table 1.). For example, in order to understand the issues a learner is having with math, we can’t simply look at that individual and what challenges they face directly with the subject. We have to look at the interactions that occur between the teacher and the child. Perhaps the teacher needs to make modifications as well. The teacher may be responding to regulations made by the school, such as new expectations for students in math or constraints on time that interferes with the teacher’s ability to instruct. These new demands may be a response to national efforts to promote math and science deemed important by political leaders in response to relations with other countries at a particular time in history.
Table 1. Urie Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Systems Model
Name of System Description of System
Microsystems Microsystems impact a child directly. These are the people with whom the child interacts such as parents, peers, and teachers. The relationship between individuals and those around them need to be considered. For example, to appreciate what is going on with a student in math, the relationship between the student and teacher should be known.
Mesosystems Mesosystems are interactions between environments closely surrounding the individual. The relationship between parents and schools, for example, will indirectly affect the child.
Exosystem Larger institutions such as the mass media or the healthcare system are referred to as the ecosystem. These have an impact on families, peers, and schools that operate under policies and regulations found in these institutions.
Macrosystems We find cultural values and beliefs at the level of macrosystems. These larger ideals and expectations inform institutions that will ultimately impact the individual.
Chronosystem All of this happens in a historical context referred to as the chronosystem. Cultural values change over time, as do the policies of educational institutions or governments in certain political climates. Development occurs at a point in time.
According to the Bioecological theory, if the relationships in the immediate microsystem break down, the child will not have the tools to explore other parts of his environment. Children looking for the affirmations that should be present in the child/parent (or child/other important adult) relationship look for attention in inappropriate places. These deficiencies tend to show themselves in adolescence as anti-social behavior, lack of self-discipline, and inability to provide self-direction (Addison, 1992).
The major assumptions of The (Bio)Ecology of Human Development, have had widespread influence on the way psychologists and other social scientists approach the study of human beings and their environments (Bronfenbrenner, 1981). It has been said that before Bronfenbrenner, child psychologists studied the child, sociologists examined the family, anthropologists the society, economists the economic framework of the times, and political scientists the political structure.
As a result of Bronfenbrenner’s groundbreaking work in human ecology, these environments, from the family to economic and political structures, have come to be viewed as part of the life course from childhood through adulthood. The “bioecological” approach to human development broke down barriers among the social sciences and built bridges between the disciplines that have allowed findings to emerge about which key elements in the larger social structure, and across societies, are vital for optimal human development.
The Human Ecology Framework
The human ecology framework assumes that families interact within multiple environments that mutually influence each other. These environments include the biophysical (personal variables), the microsystem (the systems in immediate surroundings, such as family, neighborhood, church, work, or school), the mesosystem (the ways in which these immediate systems connect, such as the relationships between family and work), the exosystem (the larger social system, such as the stress of another family member’s job), and the macrosystem (the cultural values and the larger social system, such as immigration policy that influences admission and social system access) (Ballard et al., 2019).
In the context of a refugee family, the family might be influenced by their biophysical (e.g., whether or not members were injured as they fled persecution), their microsystem (e.g., parental conflict while fleeing), their mesosystem (e.g., teachers and school personnel who are struggling with their own trauma from fleeing conflict and thus their ability to provide robust services is impaired), their exosystem (e.g., local leaders who do not consult with women living in shelters regarding their resources needs and don’t provide feminine hygiene products or children’s toys), and countless other environments (Hoffman, M. A., & Kruczek, T., 2011). The family may have access to and be able to directly influence their mesosystem and at the same time feel powerless to make changes in the exosystem. Each of these environments will contribute to their coping.
With its focus on interaction within multiple environments, the human ecology framework is an incredibly useful lens to employ cross-cultural contexts such as when considering immigrant families. For example, a researcher could ask, “How do Hmong immigrant families manage financial resources in their new environment in the United States?” and “How did Hmong families manage their financial resources while still living in Laos?” The assumptions and central concepts of human ecology theory would apply equally in either culture. The needs, values, and environment would be sensitively identified within each culture (Solheim, C. A., & Yang, P. N. D., 2010).
Additionally, human ecology theory assumes that families are intentional in their decision-making and that they work toward biological sustenance, economic maintenance, and psychosocial function. As patterns in the social environment are more and more threatening to the family’s quality of life in these three areas, the system will be more and more likely to seek change, possibly by a move to a new country.
The family system has certain needs, including physical needs for resources and interpersonal needs for relationships. If their current situation is not meeting these needs, the family system will engage in management to meet these needs within their value system. | textbooks/socialsci/Early_Childhood_Education/Child_Family_Community%3A_The_Socialization_of_Diverse_Children/01%3A_Introduction_to_Socialization_and_Theories/1.04%3A_Bronfenbrenner.txt |
Vygotsky: Sociocultural Theory
Lev Vygotsky believed that a person has both a set of abilities and a set of potential abilities that can be reached if given the proper guidance from others (Paris et al., 2019).
Vygotsky's Sociocultural Theory emphasizes the importance of culture and interaction in the development of cognitive abilities. He concentrated more on children’s immediate social and cultural environment and their interactions with adults and peers. He saw a child as an apprentice, learning through a social environment with others who had more experience and were sensitive to the child’s needs and abilities.
Vygotsky theorized that through guided participation with a teacher or a more capable person, also known as scaffolding, a child can learn cognitive skills within a certain range known as the zone of proximal development. According to Vygotsky, development occurs first through children’s immediate social interactions and then moves to the individual level as they began to internalize their learning.
Lev Vygotsky’s Zone of Proximal Development
Have you ever taught children how to perform a task? Maybe it was brushing their teeth or tying their shoestrings. Chances are you spoke to them and described what you were doing while you demonstrated the skill and let them work along with you throughout the process. You provided them assistance when they seemed to need it, but once they knew what to do, you stood back and let them perform the task alone. This is an example of scaffolding (Leon, n.d.)
Examples of scaffolding, the temporary support that parents, peers or teachers give a child to perform a task, can be seen throughout the world in an unlimited number of situations. Vygotsky’s theory contends that instead of assessing what people are doing, people should be understood in terms of what they are capable of doing with the proper guidance. This approach to teaching has also been adopted by educators as seen here.
The zone of proximal development (ZPD) is the distance between a child’s potential to learn and the actual learning that takes place. Vygotsky hypothesized that a “quality teacher” first identifies a child’s ZPD and then helps the child learn beyond their ZPD (Vygotsky, 1978). After this, the teacher (or any person with more advanced skills) gradually withdraws support until the child can perform the task without assistance. It is all about providing the right level of challenge and support to gradually support new skills without making the new skills seem undoable for the learner. A practical example is a child engaging in a puzzle. A child will have a current level of competence of completing a 50 piece puzzle without support. A 25 piece puzzle is to easy and a 200 piece puzzle maybe too challenge even with support from a teacher. The ZPD for this child's next growth may be 100 piece puzzle with support.
Cultural Consideration
Vygotsky’s theory promotes a learning model in which children play an active role in learning. Roles of teachers and students are therefore transformed into a reciprocal collaborative process in which teachers help facilitate meaning construction in students. Thus learning becomes a reciprocal experience for students and educator (Rogoff, 2003). In this framework educators must sometimes accept differences of behavior in children and accommodate these differences in the classroom. Speech and language development played an influential role in Vygotsky’s theories of language acquisition and learning in general. Children develop language skills individually, but they do so within a cooperative learning context as peers, family members, teachers, and others engage, support, and teach them.Supporting multi-language learners in their home language is an example of using (ZPD) of learning through a reciprocal and dialogic interaction. The ZPD is a level of development obtained when children engage in social interactions with others; it is the distance between a child’s potential to learn and the actual learning that takes place.This practice demonstrates respect for a family's primary language and communicates that the educator values the family and child's culture. NAEYC recommends for educators to encourage and assistant all parents in becoming knowledge about the cognitive value for children of knowing more than one language and provide them with strategies , support, maintain and preserve home language learning (NAEYC, 1996). | textbooks/socialsci/Early_Childhood_Education/Child_Family_Community%3A_The_Socialization_of_Diverse_Children/01%3A_Introduction_to_Socialization_and_Theories/1.05%3A_Vygotsky.txt |
The Relationship of Collaboration
Building on Vygotsky’s Sociocultural theories is Barbara Rogoff. Rogoff’s theory focuses on the relationship between the child and society. Rogoff's ideas did not focus on the child and their individual processes but on the child's cognitive skills which derive from engagement in sociocultural activities. The theory does not focus on a child's own innate ability, but rather indicates that skills are developed in specific contexts and learned through specific cultural activities. Her research findings are based on children and families in Mexican and Indigenous cultures. Additionally, Rogoff’s theory highlights the interaction of nature vs nurture as discussed earlier in this chapter. She suggests biology and culture work in concert with each other. For example, breastfeeding is biologically based but there are different ways breast feeding is practiced based within cultural societal norms and standards.
Reflection
Learning to speak or learning to read...
Consider which on is biologically based and culturally influenced?
Guided Participation
Rogoff developed the theory of guided participation, adding to Vygotsky's theory of the Zone of Proximal Development. Consider a time when you learned something new in a relationship between yourself and an adult or caregiver, such as making tortillas with your grandfather or learning how to change a tire of a car. This is the collaborative transfer of knowledge between a guide and apprentice. The idea that children on their developmental path use cultural tools with skilled mentors shape their development (Rogoff, 2003). As highlighted in the video below, the theory involves people bridging meaning and interactions with learners in a synchronous way. Children and mentors (e.g. caregivers and more skilled peers) structure learning opportunities through choice, observation, and listening while participating in the activities and share understanding both verbally and non- verbally.
Learning opportunities can occur through choice, observation, and listening while participating in these activities and everyday routines. For example, caregivers who engage in game playing and singing during diapering are actually helping children learn to cooperate with the routine. These skills and interactions become more complex as children learn other self-help adaptive skills such as eating with a fork and spoon and learning how to help with clean up.
Dr. Barbara Rogoff highlights the following ideas:
• Collaboration- Notice how the children are collaborating with each other. Children should be encouraged to collaborate with each other, adults, caregivers and communities.
• Learning through Observation- Notice how the children are observing each other and making meaning to guide their own engagement.
• Prioritize Children's Interest- Notice how knowledge is accrued while engaging in a task in which that child has genuine interest. The activity is engaging and fueled by curiosity and enjoyment.
• Role of Adults- The caregivers and adults are needed in many tasks. Caregivers and adults should be available for collaborative support based on the needs of the child.
The process of bridging sharply differentiates guided participation from giving information as the approach to teaching and learning. The intention of bridging is to support a learner in making connections between what is known or unknown or misconstrued and in need of revision or reconstruction (Rogoff, 1990). Bridging is a function of experience, recalled, simulated, or relived, similar to watching a video playback of the interaction with the child. Bridging supports learners in reflecting on how things were, are now, or could be with new ways of thinking and behaving. Wondering with the learner is a strategy teachers may use to facilitate reflection and make connections; for example, wondering with a parent what her child was saying when he behaved, the way he was observed behaving, or what she might have been feeling when her child behaved that way (Slade, 2005).
Cultural Considerations
Rogoff's theories have particular considerations for children with special needs. This theory can be particularly impactful considering the growing number of children with special needs in the U.S. who may be experiencing a phenomena called learned helplessness, which is discussed later in the book. Learned helplessness may occur when a child impacted by a diverse ability is either personally or socially not able to join in typical guided participation experiences which may cause them to begin to withdraw or lose motivation to change circumstances (2015). Think about children who are unable to engage in eye contact or social reference caregivers- social referencing is when children look to others to give information and meaning in a social situation. A child may begin to withdraw from a rich and beneficial relationship and thus will suffer the loss of growth that takes place within these participatory experiences. This can cause many parents and teachers to feel helpless, not knowing how to support the child with special needs, and leading them to reciprocally disengage in the relationship as well.
In a 2015 study, Hobson et al. observed that when a caregiver who supported a neuro-atypical child were asked to focus on the guided participation relationship, noticed a reduction in the severity of symptoms of the the child. When caregivers focused on having high quality guided relationships with children, the children were able to regulate and learn critical developmental skills (Hobson et al., 2015). | textbooks/socialsci/Early_Childhood_Education/Child_Family_Community%3A_The_Socialization_of_Diverse_Children/01%3A_Introduction_to_Socialization_and_Theories/1.06%3A_Barbara_Rogoff.txt |
Bandura’s Social Learning Theory and Observational Learning
Observational learning is a component of Albert Bandura’s Social Learning Theory, which asserts that individuals can learn new responses via observation of key others’ behaviors (Bandura, 1977). Observational learning does not necessarily require reinforcement, but instead hinges on the presence of others, referred to as social models. Social models typically possess a higher status or authority compared to the observer, examples of which include parents, teachers, or police officers (Bouton, 2022).
Bandura theorized that the observational learning process consists of four parts. The first is attention-one must pay attention to what one is observing in order to learn. The second part is retention- to learn, one must be able to retain the observed behavior into one’s memory. The third part of observational learning, initiation, acknowledges that the learner must be able to execute, or initiate the learned behavior. Lastly, the observer must possess the motivation to engage in observational learning.
Imagine a child walking up to a group of children playing a game on the playground. The game looks fun, but it is new and unfamiliar. Rather than joining the game immediately, the child opts to sit back and watch the other children play a round or two. While observing the others, the child takes note of the ways in which they behave while playing the game. By watching the behavior of the other kids, the child can figure out the rules of the game and even some strategies for performing well at the game. This is called observational learning.
In the example here, the child must want to learn how to play the game in order to properly engage in observational learning. The children who already know how to play the game could be thought of as being authorities—and are therefore social models—even though they are the same age as the observer.
By observing how the social models behave, an individual is able to learn how to act in a certain situation. Other examples of observational learning might include a child learning to place her napkin in her lap by watching her parents at the dinner table, or a child learning how to use a pair of scissors after watching another child successfully use a pair of scissors.
The Bobo Doll Experiment
Researchers have conducted countless experiments designed to explore observational learning, the most famous of which is Albert Bandura’s “Bobo doll experiment.” In this experiment, Bandura had children individually observe an adult social model interact with a clown doll, “Bobo” as seen in figure 1.7.2 (Bandura et al., 1961).
For one group of children, the adult interacted aggressively with Bobo: punching it, kicking it, throwing it, and even hitting it in the face with a toy mallet. Another group of children watched the adult interact with other toys, displaying no aggression toward Bobo. In both instances, the adult left and the children were allowed to interact with Bobo on their own.
Bandura found that children exposed to the aggressive social model were significantly more likely to behave aggressively toward Bobo, hitting and kicking him, compared to those exposed to the non-aggressive model. The researchers concluded that the children in the aggressive group used their observations of the adult social model’s behavior to determine that aggressive behavior toward Bobo was acceptable.
While reinforcement was not required to elicit the children’s behavior in Bandura’s first experiment, it is important to acknowledge that consequences do play a role within observational learning. A future adaptation of this study demonstrated that children in the aggression group showed less aggressive behavior if they witnessed the adult model receive punishment for aggressing against Bobo (Bandura et al., 1963). Bandura referred to this process as vicarious reinforcement, as the children did not experience the reinforcement or punishment directly, yet were still influenced by observing it.
Cultural Considerations
Social Learning theory applied culturally can be seen in the recent research of Morcillo, Ramos and Olazagasti (2015). In this research, bullying perpetration for minority youth living in at-risk circumstances were studied with the findings suggesting that exposure to a harsh and aggressive behavior in ‘‘model contexts’’ such as home and school, may have a strong impact on children’s emotional and behavioral development, making these children more likely to display aggressive behaviors with peers. These learned behaviors and relational patterns would then be reproduced with other vulnerable and high risk peers. The finding suggested newly immigrated children may find the need to use newly modeled skills as they navigate and learn to cope with cross cultural worlds (Morcillo et al., 2015). | textbooks/socialsci/Early_Childhood_Education/Child_Family_Community%3A_The_Socialization_of_Diverse_Children/01%3A_Introduction_to_Socialization_and_Theories/1.07%3A_Bandura.txt |
Cultural Frameworks
There are frameworks that look at diverse cultural interactions resulting in the formation of values, behaviors, and skills as asset. These frameworks include Funds of Knowledge, Community Cultural Wealth and Cultural Capital.
Cultural Capital
Pierre Bourdieu's (1930-2002) theory of cultural capital or “the cultural knowledge that serves as currency that helps us navigate culture and alters our experiences and the opportunities available to us.”
Sociologists find cultural capital or the social assets of person (including intellect, education, speech pattern, mannerisms, and dress) promote social mobility (Harper-Scott and Samson, 2009). People who accumulate and display the cultural knowledge of a society or group may earn social acceptance, status, and power. Bourdieau (1991) explained the accumulation and transmission of culture is a social investment from socializing agents including family, peers, and community. People learn culture and cultural characteristics and traits from one another; however, social status effects whether people share, spread, or communicate cultural knowledge to each other. A person’s social status in a group or society influences their ability to access and develop cultural capitol.
Cultural capital provides people access to cultural connections such as institutions, individuals, materials, and economic resources. Status guides people in choosing who and when culture or cultural capital is transferable. Bourdieu (1991) believed cultural inheritance and personal biography attributes to individual success more than intelligence or talent. With status comes access to social and cultural capital that generates access to privileges and power among and between groups. Individuals with cultural capital deficits face social inequalities (Reay, 2004). If someone does not have the cultural knowledge and skills to maneuver the social world she or he occupies, then she or he will not find acceptance within a group or society and access to support and resources. Consider how children from low resourced income families without insurance have increased health issues such as low birth weight or higher incidence of asthma (Waterston et al., 2004).
Cultural Wealth
Yosso (2005) describes cultural wealth as “an array of cultural knowledge, skills, abilities and contacts possessed by marginalized group that is often unrecognized and unacknowledged”, countering the cultural deficit model which focuses on deficiencies in the home life of children.
Yosso’s six forms of cultural capital are:
1. Aspirational- children develop social emotional perseverance despite educational inequities
2. Linguistic- children develop language and communication skills as dual language and dialectical learners
3. Familial- children develop a sense of community history and memory
4. Social- children draw from personal human resources within family and community
5. Navigational- children develop the ability to get needs met in unresponsive environments
6. Resistance- children develop the knowledge and skills to challenge inequality
Funds of Knowledge
Funds of Knowledge is a similar concept in early childhood from Velez- Ibanez and Greenberg (1992) made popular by Gonzales, Moll, and Amanti (2005). This is the idea that information learned in the home and family is knowledge that stays with children their whole lives. Funds of knowledge are the historically accumulated and culturally developed skills essential for an household, community, and individual to function well. Funds of knowledge help explain how culture shapes each child's skills, behaviors, and abilities. For children funds of knowledge can be built from:
• Family occupations
• Family activities
• Home language
• Family outings
• Household chores
• Caregiving experiences
• Entertainment
Funds of knowledge encompass families’ traditions, experiences, information, and practices. When educators and supportive adults establish a relationship founded on the common goal of successful and healthy development of the child, it supports the aims of cultural responsiveness, equity, and inclusion. For example, when a child shares their enthusiasm for a television program their family is watching together, it draws upon many of the child’s own funds of knowledge. While the child is drawing on a shared family and cultural experience in the show itself, the child is also engaging with notions of occupations and outings, values, chores and activities and vocabulary. A child’s experience shopping at the grocery story is another example of funds of knowledge. A child may learn about quantity, money, shopping practices, cultural norms around food, and patterns of interacting, all while learning and practicing signs and symbols. Drawing on socio-cultural perspectives, educators embrace the funds of knowledge children possess utilizing these resources and skills to build productive pedagogy. In this way, educators acknowledge that every child comes to school with previous experiences that influence their interactions with language and support their emerging knowledge base.
The home environment of each family is complex and personal, and includes economic, social, and cultural influences. The complexity of home and community environments explains the diversity we see amongst school readiness nationwide. Using the Funds of Knowledge teachers can be seen as anthropologist investigating a child's knowledge base that originated in their home and community. Teachers can then design educational experience that pull from overlooked funds of knowledge to ensure culturally relevant learning experiences that honors a child's culture as opposed to focusing on what the child does not know leading to stereotypical and deficit thinking of the child. | textbooks/socialsci/Early_Childhood_Education/Child_Family_Community%3A_The_Socialization_of_Diverse_Children/01%3A_Introduction_to_Socialization_and_Theories/1.08%3A_Cultural_Frameworks.txt |
Erik Erikson’s Psychosocial Theory
Erik Erikson suggested that our relationships and society’s expectations motivate much of our behavior in his theory of psychosocial development. Erikson believed that we are not driven by unconscious urges. He is considered the father of developmental psychology because his model gives us a guideline for the entire life span and suggests certain primary psychological and social concerns throughout life (Paris et al., 2019).
Erikson emphasized the importance of culture in parenting practices and motivations. He also added three stages of social and emotional domains regarding adult development. He believed that we are aware of what motivates us throughout life and people make conscious choices in life and these choices focus on meeting certain social and cultural needs rather than purely biological ones. His theory notes that humans are motivated, for instance, by the need to feel that the world is a trustworthy place, that we are capable individuals, that we can make a contribution to society, and that we have lived a meaningful life. These are all psychosocial issues.
Erikson divided the lifespan into eight stages. In each stage, we have a major psychosocial task to accomplish or crisis to overcome. Successful completion of each developmental task results in a sense of competence and a healthy personality. Failure to master these tasks leads to feelings of inadequacy. Erikson believed that our personality continues to take shape throughout our lifespan as we face these challenges in living (Erikson, 1959).
These eight stages form a foundation for discussions on emotional and social development during the life span. However, these stages or crises can occur more than once and can occur at different ages (Erikson, 1968). For instance, a person may struggle with a lack of trust beyond infancy under certain circumstances. Erikson’s theory has been criticized for focusing so heavily on stages and assuming that the completion of one stage is a prerequisite for the next development crisis (Marcia, 1980). His theory also focuses on the social expectations that are found in some cultures, but not in others. For instance, the idea that adolescence is a time of searching for identity might translate well in the middle-class culture of the United States, but not as well in cultures where the transition into adulthood coincides with puberty through rites of passage and where adult roles offer fewer choices. Here is a brief overview of the eight stages (Lumen Learning, n.d.):
Table 1. Erik Erikson’s Psychosocial Theory
Name of Stage and Age Description of Stage
Trust vs. mistrust (0-1 year) The infant must have basic needs met in a consistent way in order to feel that the world is a trustworthy place.
Autonomy vs. shame and doubt (1-2 years) Mobile toddlers have newfound freedom that they like to exercise and by being allowed to do so, they learn some basic independence.
Initiative vs. guilt (3-5 years) Preschoolers like to initiate activities and emphasize doing things “all by myself.”
Industry vs. inferiority (6-11 years) School-aged children focus on accomplishments and begin making comparisons between themselves and their classmates.
Identity vs. role confusion (adolescence) Teenagers try to gain a sense of identity as they experiment with various roles, beliefs, and ideas.
Intimacy vs. isolation (young adulthood) In our 20s and 30s, we make some of our first long-term commitments in intimate relationships.
Generativity vs. stagnation (middle adulthood) In the 40s through the early 60s we focus on being productive at work and home and are motivated by wanting to feel that we’ve made a contribution to society.
Integrity vs. Despair (late adulthood) We look back on our lives and hope to like what we see — that we have lived well and have a sense of integrity because we lived according to our beliefs.
Cultural considerations of Erikson's Theory
As discussed throughout this reading, culture is a main component of socialization and, thus, identity formation. According to Erikson, social identity is developed through the experience of socialization. The ultimate goal of identity formation is achievement that gives a person a consistent and integrated personality. Erikson notes that this occurs through identity individuation, as children begin to see themselves as separate persons from a group. In the U.S., this idea can be challenging to apply to children raised in cultures that rely on collectivist and interdependent frameworks versus individualism and independent orientations (Markus & Kitayama, 1991; Triandis, 1995). In a majority of cultures around the world, children think of themselves as a part of a group before they think of themselves as an individual. The concept of a child thinking independently is not rewarded and may make identity achievement, as Erikson outlines, not generalizable to all cultures.
Additionally, children's developing sense of self is influenced by how others- parents, caregivers, teachers, friends see them. For many children the bias around race and ethnicity will directly impact a sense of psychological well being (Kaiser & Wilkins, 2010). As noted above, group membership, or being apart of a collective, is the experience of many people. When group experiences and expectations are not taken into account it can often be framed as negative identity within Erikson's construct.
References
Erikson, E. (1959). Identity and the life cycle. International Universities Press.
Erikson, E. (1968). Identity: Youth and crisis. W.W. Norton & Company.
Kaiser C.R., Wilkins C.L. (2010). Group identification and prejudice: Theoretical and empirical advances and implications. Journal of Social Issues. 66(3):461–476
Lumen Learning. (n.d.). Erikson’s 8 Stages of Psychosocial Development.
Marcia, J. E. (1980). Identity in adolescence. In J. Adelson, (Ed.), Handbook of adolescent psychology (pp. 159-187). John Wiley & Sons.
Markus, H. R., & Kitayama, S. (1991). Culture and the self: Implications for cognition, emotion, and motivation. Psychological Review, 98(2), 224–253.
Paris, J., Ricardo, A., Rymond, D. (2019). Child Growth and Development. College of the Canyons.
Triandis, H. C. (1995). Individualism & collectivism. Westview Press.
Attributions
1960s: Erikson by Jennifer Paris, Antoinette Ricardo, Dawn Rymond, Lumen Learning, and Diana Lang is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted. | textbooks/socialsci/Early_Childhood_Education/Child_Family_Community%3A_The_Socialization_of_Diverse_Children/01%3A_Introduction_to_Socialization_and_Theories/1.09%3A__Erikson.txt |
Cross Cultural Issues
There is a risk that theories and data derived from White, European American settings could be assumed to apply to children and social groups from other cultures and this is unlikely to be true (Betancourt & López, 1993). For example, a study of characteristics of individuals seeking treatment for a binge eating disorder in Hispanic American, African American, and Caucasian American individuals found significant differences between groups (Franko et al., 2012). The study concluded that results from studying any one of the groups could not be extended to the other groups, and yet potential causes of the differences were not measured.
In 1920, Francis Cecil Sumner was the first African American to receive a PhD in psychology in the United States. Sumner established a psychology degree program at Howard University, leading to the education of a new generation of African American psychologists (Black et al., 2004). Much of the work of early psychologists from diverse backgrounds was dedicated to challenging intelligence testing and promoting innovative educational methods for children. George I. Sanchez contested such testing with Mexican American children. As a psychologist of Mexican heritage, he pointed out that the language and cultural barriers in testing were keeping children from equal opportunities (Guthrie, 1998). By 1940, he was teaching with his doctoral degree at University of Texas at Austin and challenging segregated educational practices (Romo, 1986).
In the previous section, Erikson discussed obstacles to the development of identity. One of these obstacles is negative identity which is when a person rejects the roles expected by one’s family, community, and society. Negative identity is the basis for the work of Mamie and Kenneth Clark’s valuable research. Extending this idea, it stands to reason that identity formation may be particularly problematic for minotized communities such as females, people of color and children with atypical development as they tend to believe the societal norms related to their value and worth. For more information on these mioritized groups, see chapter 8.
Kenneth and Mamie Clark designed studies to investigate children’s sense of identity, including tests using dolls, coloring, and drawings. The Drs. Clark, researched the development of consciousness of self in young children. In one test, Black preschool children were shown a series of line drawings of a White boy and a Black boy, a lion, a clown, and a hen and were asked to identify themselves or others. The results showed that, more often than not, the children selected the drawing of the Black boy to identify themselves rather than the drawing of the White boy (or any of the animals). The outcome of that research indicated that young Black children developed a consciousness of their race between 3 to 4 years of age. In another test, when given a variety of brown crayons to choose from, the children in the study used a crayon lighter than their own shade to color in their skin. This research laid the foundation for the groundbreaking research and for a myriad of racialized identity formation theories.
With additional questions emerging such as why are children using lighter shaded crayons to represent themselves, Kenneth and Mamie Clark conducted experiments known as “The Doll Test”. The premise was to understand the role of segregation and it's impact on Black children; however, the research ended up providing information about all children as discussed later. To understand racial identity development, the Drs. Clark used identical dolls with the only variable being the color of the doll's skin. The researchers found that:
1. Black children often chose to play with the White dolls more than the Black ones.
2. The children gave the color 'white' positive attributes like good and pretty; moreover, the 'black doll' was attributed to being bad and ugly.
Using Black and White dolls, some of the young Black children actually cried when asked to point to the doll they looked most like (Clark & Clark, 1947). The Clarks concluded that “prejudice, discrimination, and segregation” created a feeling of inferiority among African-American children and damaged their self-esteem. The original results by Drs. Clark can still be replicated with today's children.
This video is not closed captioned. However, viewing the video you can capture the main understanding of the video. The children accurately point to the White doll when asked and the Black doll when asked. They are then asked which doll is the pretty doll and point to the White doll. They are asked, "which doll is the nice doll" and point to the White doll. They are then asked "which doll is the bad doll" and they point to the Black doll. Finally they are ask "why is that doll bad" and they respond " Because it is Black". This indicates even at an early age children have been socialized to equate a negative meaning with being "Black". Although this particular video uses only Black children. It has been replicated many time with children of all racialized backgrounds.
The above video is a replication of the original doll test study. The doll test was instrumental in the landmark ruling in Brown vs. Board of Education. This testimony changed the trajectory of public education for all children. The Supreme Court cited Clark’s 1950 paper in its Brown decision and acknowledged it implicitly in the following passage: “To separate [African-American children] from others of similar age and qualifications solely because of their race generates a feeling of inferiority as to their status in the community that may affect their hearts and minds in a way unlikely ever to be undone.” Although this was an accomplishment for his research, Dr. Kenneth Clark was dismayed that the court failed to cite two other conclusions he had reached: that racism was an inherently American institution and that school segregation inhibited the development of white children, too. (American Psychological Association, 2019).
Doll Test Implications for All children
Dr. Clark's last conclusion, as noted above, that racism "is an inhibition in development of White children too" was not cited in the Brown vs Board of Education ruling, but it is important to understand the full implications of the research. The Drs. Clark hypothesized that racialized identity and White preference is not only an issue for Black American children but for most children. Most children have been socialized to prefer whiteness and to associate blackness with negativity. To corroborate this, the doll test has been replicated in many countries with shocking results. According to Gibson, Robbins & Rochat (2015), there is an even stronger White preference bias in five to seven-year-old Indian, Polynesian, and Melanesian children tested in their native island nations. These results are consistent with the idea that, during the preschool years, children are sensitive and attracted to signs of higher social status that, for historical reasons and across cultures, tends to be associated with lighter skin color. The research done by the Clarks is no longer being used as evidence for the need for integration but points to the outcomes of all children living in racist and discriminating social world.
Take a look at these videos to see how children of diverse ethnic and racialized identities responded similarly to the original experiments. These videos include captioning in the section of importance.
Replicated Doll Test in Japan Children
Not fully closed captioned; however, the captions are not needed. At minute 3:15 captions are embedded. The children are asked " whhich do you prefer" the children point to the "White doll". Noting a clear White preference.
After all of the Drs. Clark research and irrefutable evidence of the dangers of racism and prejudice, a recent report by UCLA (2014) notes we have lost much of the ground on segregating schools. In fact, that report finds that schools are segregated by race, language, and socio-economic status, and that Latinx children are the most segregated of any group. To read more about our national statistics and changing demographics read the UCLA report in full.
Reflection
Given the changing landscape outlined in the report above, what impact do you anticipate an increase segregation will have on all children, their self-esteem, and identity?
References
Betancourt, H., & López, S. R. (1993). The study of culture, ethnicity, and race in American psychology. American Psychologist, 48, 629–637.
Black, S. R., Spence, S. A., & Omari, S. R. (2004). Contributions of African Americans to the field of psychology. Journal of Black Studies, 35, 40–64.
Franko, D. L., et al. (2012). Racial/ethnic differences in adults in randomized clinical trials of binge eating disorder. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 80, 186–195.
Gibson, B., Robbins, E., & Rochat, P. (2015). White bias in 3-7-year-old children across cultures. Journal of Cognition and Culture, 15(3-4), 344–373.
Guthrie, R. (1998). Even the rat was white (2nd edition). Allyn and Bacon.
Orfield, G., & Frankenberg, E. (2014, May 15). Brown at 60: Great Progress, a Long Retreat, and an Uncertain Future. The Civil Rights Project.
Romo, R. (1986). George I. Sanchez and the civil rights movement: 1940–1960. La Raza Law Journal, 1, 342–362.
Attribution
Why Study Sociology?. Authored by: OpenStax CNX. Located at: https://cnx.org/contents/[email protected]:JHjddfwj/Why-Study-Sociology. License: CC BY:
Pressbooks. (2016). Introduction to Sociology: Understanding and Changing the Social World. Openstax. | textbooks/socialsci/Early_Childhood_Education/Child_Family_Community%3A_The_Socialization_of_Diverse_Children/01%3A_Introduction_to_Socialization_and_Theories/1.10%3A_Clarks-Cross_Cultural_Issues.txt |
Piaget: Cognitive Development Theory
Overview
Jean Piaget studied how children and youth gradually become able to think logically and scientifically, resulting in his Cognitive Development Theory. Cognition refers to thinking and memory processes, and cognitive development refers to long-term changes in these processes. He was one of the first to recognize and map out the ways in which children’s thought differs from that of adults. His interest in this area began when he was asked to test the IQ of children and began to notice that there was a pattern in their wrong answers (Paris et al., 2019).
Piaget believed that children’s intellectual skills change over time based on biological predispositions and their own individual interactions with the world. He was very critical of teacher-directed instruction, believing that teachers or caregivers who take control of the child’s learning place the child into a passive role (Crain, 2005). According to Piaget, children of differing ages interpret the world differently; therefore, he divided this learning into four stages. His stages assumed a sequence of thinking patterns with these key features:
1. They always happen in the same order.
2. No stage is ever skipped.
3. Each stage is a significant transformation from the stage before it.
4. Each later stage builds upon and incorporates the earlier stages.
Sensorimotor Stage
Piaget described intelligence in infancy as sensorimotor, or based on direct, physical contact via the use of their senses. Infants taste, feel, pound, push, hear, and move in order to experience the world.
Preoperational Stage
Piaget’s stage that coincides with early childhood is the preoperational stage. The word operational means logical, so these children were thought to be illogical. However, they learn to use language and to think of the world symbolically.
Pretend Play
Pretending is a favorite activity during the preoperational stage. A toy has qualities beyond the way it was designed to function and can now be used to stand for a character or object unlike anything for which it was originally intended. A teddy bear, for example, can be a baby or the queen of a faraway land!
Note that children in the Preoperational Stage exhibit symbolic play, egocentrism, lack of understanding conservation tasks, and inability to understand reversibility.
Egocentrism
Egocentrism in early childhood refers to the tendency of young children to think that everyone sees things in the same way as them. This trait is particularly common in the preoperational stage.
Concrete Operational Stage
This stage takes place from around 7 years old to 11 years of age and is characterized by the development of organized and rational thinking. The child is now mature enough to use logical thought or operations (e.g., rules) but can only apply logic to physical or “concrete” objects and events (hence the name “concrete operational”). Children gain the abilities of conservation (number, area, volume, orientation) and understand that when concrete objects change in appearance, they still contain the same volume, area, number, and orientation and can return to their original state (reversibility) (Lally, & Vlentine-French, 2017).
Their rules of thinking still seem very basic by adult standards and usually operate unconsciously, but they allow children to solve problems more systematically than before, and therefore to be successful with many academic tasks. For example, a child may unconsciously follow the rule: “If nothing is added or taken away, then the amount of something stays the same.” This simple principle helps children to understand certain arithmetic tasks, such as adding or subtracting zero from a number.
Formal Operational Stage
During this stage, adolescents are able to understand abstract principles. They are no longer limited by what can be directly seen or heard and are able to contemplate constructs such as beauty, love, freedom, and morality. Adolescents demonstrate hypothetical-deductive reasoning, which is developing hypotheses based on what might logically occur. They are able to think about all the possibilities in a situation beforehand, and then test them systematically because they are able to engage in scientific thinking.
Table 1. Jean Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development
Name of Stage Description of Stage
Sensorimotor Stage During the sensorimotor stage, children rely on the use of the senses and motor skills. From birth to abut 2 years the infant learns by tasting, smelling, touching, hearing, and moving objects around. This is a hands-on type of knowledge.
Preoperational Stage In the preoperational stage, children from ages 2 to 7 years become able to think about the world using symbols. A symbol is something that stands for something else. The use of language, whether it is in the form of words or gestures, facilitates knowing and communicating about the world. This is the hallmark of preoperational learning and it typically occurs in early childhood. However, these children are preoperational or pre-logical. They still do not understand how the physical world operates. They may, for instance, fear that they will go down the drain if they sit at the front of the bathtub, even though they are too big.
Concrete Operational Stage Children in the concrete operational stage, ages 7 to 11 years, develop the ability to think logically about the physical world. Middle childhood is a time of understanding concepts such as size, distance, and constancy of matter, and cause and effect relationships. A child knows that a scrambled egg is still an egg and that 8 ounces of water are still 8 ounces no matter what shape of glass contains it.
Formal Operational Stage During the formal operational stage children, at about 12 years of age, acquire the ability to think logically about concrete and abstract events. The teenager who has reached this stage is able to consider possibilities and to contemplate ideas about situations that have never been directly encountered. More abstract understanding of religious ideas, morals, or ethics, and abstract principles such as freedom and dignity can be considered.
Cultural Considerations of Piaget’s Theory
Critics have discovered considerable variation in what children are able to do at various ages in different parts of the world and in different cultures. Further, many contend that Piaget may have underestimated what children are capable of given the right circumstances (Lumen Learning, n.d.). For instance, he believed that learning peaked around the age of 12 years, designated by his last stage—formal operational stage.
Because learning appears to be highly contextual, meaning dependent on the environment, Piaget's belief that learning must be sequential has been challenged. Berry’s (1976) eco-cultural model highlights that people value and develop those skills and concepts that are useful in the daily activities related to their daily lives, thus, on conservation tasks the ages of skill acquisition may be different. For example, the Baoule community on the Ivory Coast, who produce vegetable food, store it and exchange it in markets, tend to value quantitative concepts (reflected in Piaget's conservation of liquids task), while hunter-gatherers communities traditionally show little interest in precise quantitative comparisons.
Cross-cultural testing has challenged emerging cognitive theorists to incorporate cultural and environment into Piaget's ideas original ideas, but the succession of stages in cognitive development appears to be generalizable. Timing, ages, and capabilities during each stage appear to vary according to cultural context and enculturation patterns. | textbooks/socialsci/Early_Childhood_Education/Child_Family_Community%3A_The_Socialization_of_Diverse_Children/01%3A_Introduction_to_Socialization_and_Theories/1.11%3A_Piaget.txt |
Behaviorist Theories
Behaviorism is primarily concerned with observable and measurable aspects of human behavior. In defining behavior, behaviorist learning theories emphasize changes in behavior that result from stimulus-response associations made by the learner. Several social psychologists studied behavior and identified different theories on how behaviors can be learned and/or changed through reinforcement. They called this conditioning.
John B. Watson (1878-1958) and B. F. Skinner (1904-1990) are the two principal originators of behaviorist approaches to learning. Watson believed that human behavior resulted from specific stimuli that elicited certain responses. Watson's basic premise was that conclusions about human development should be based on observation of overt behavior rather than speculation about subconscious motives or latent cognitive processes (Shaffer, 2000). He hypothesized that behavior could be dependent on the environment (culture). Watson's basic premise was that conclusions about human development should be based on observation of overt behavior rather than speculation about subconscious motives or latent cognitive processes (Shaffer, 2000). Through this experiment, he conditioned a little boy to fear a white rat by repeatedly showing the boy the rat, then introducing a scary, loud, clanking sound. In time, the young boy feared all white furry objects because he associated them with a scary, loud noise.
Watson's theories were built upon the work of Ivan Pavlov. Pavlov was well known for his research on a learning process called classical conditioning. Classical conditioning refers to learning that occurs when a neutral stimulus becomes associated with a stimulus that naturally produces a behavior. Pavlov earned the 1904 Nobel Prize in Psychology for his work on the theory of classical conditioning. In Watson's case, Little Albert became afraid of furry, white objects because he associated them with a scary noise. Similar to the work of Watson but more developed, in Pavlov's case, dogs drooled when they heard a ringing bell because they associated the sound with food.
For the purposes of our work with children, we can see how neutral stimulus become associated with naturally produces a behavior. Advertisements are a prime example of classical conditioning. Food advertisements are a great example of classical conditioning. We are conditioned to desire foods that look good. That's why we salivate when we see a commercial for our favorite steakhouse!
B.F. Skinner: Operant Conditioning
Psychologist B.F. Skinner saw that classical conditioning is limited to existing behaviors that are reflexively elicited, and doesn’t account for new behaviors such as riding a bike.[1] He proposed a theory about how such behaviors come about. Skinner believed that behavior is motivated by the consequences we receive for the behavior: reinforcements and punishments. His idea that learning is the result of consequences is based on the law of effect, which was first proposed by psychologist Edward Thorndike. According to the law of effect, behaviors that are followed by consequences that are satisfying to the organism are more likely to be repeated, and behaviors that are followed by unpleasant consequences are less likely to be repeated (Thorndike, 1911). Essentially, if an organism does something that brings about a desired result, the organism is more likely to do it again. If an organism does something that does not bring about the desired result, the organism is less likely to do it again. An example of the law of effect is employment. One of the reasons (and often the main reason) we show up for work is because we get paid to do so. If we stop getting paid, we will likely stop showing up—even if we love our job.
Table 1. Classical and Operant Conditioning Compared
Type of Approach Classical Conditioning Operant Conditioning
Conditioning approach An unconditioned stimulus (such as food) is paired with a neutral stimulus (such as a bell). The neutral stimulus eventually becomes the conditioned stimulus, which brings about the conditioned response (salivation). The target behavior is followed by reinforcement or punishment to either strengthen or weaken it so that the learner is more likely to exhibit the desired behavior in the future.
Stimulus timing The stimulus occurs immediately before the response. The stimulus (either reinforcement or punishment) occurs soon after the response.
Working with Thorndike’s law of effect as his foundation, Skinner began conducting scientific experiments on animals (mainly rats and pigeons) to determine how organisms learn through operant conditioning (Skinner, 1938). He placed these animals inside an operant conditioning chamber, which has come to be known as a “Skinner box” (See Figure 1.). A Skinner box contains a lever (for rats) or disk (for pigeons) that the animal can press or peck for a food reward via the dispenser. Speakers and lights can be associated with certain behaviors. A recorder counts the number of responses made by the animal.
In discussing operant conditioning, we use several everyday words—positive, negative, reinforcement, and punishment—in a specialized manner. In operant conditioning, positive and negative do not mean good and bad. Instead, positive means you are adding something, and negative means you are taking something away. Reinforcement means you are increasing a behavior, and punishment means you are decreasing a behavior. Reinforcement can be positive or negative, and punishment can also be positive or negative. All reinforcers (positive or negative) increase the likelihood of a behavioral response. All punishers (positive or negative) decrease the likelihood of a behavioral response. Now let us combine these four terms: positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement, positive punishment, and negative punishment (Table 2).
Table 2. Positive and Negative Reinforcement and Punishment
Reinforcement Punishment
Positive Something is added to increase the likelihood of a behavior. Something is added to decrease the likelihood of a behavior.
Negative Something is removed to increase the likelihood of a behavior. Something is removed to decrease the likelihood of a behavior.
Reinforcement
The most effective way to teach a person or animal a new behavior is with positive reinforcement. In positive reinforcement, a desirable stimulus is added to increase a behavior.
For example, let’s say you tell your five-year-old son, Jerome, that if he cleans his room, he will get a toy. Jerome quickly cleans his room because he wants a new art set. Some people might say, “Why should I reward my child for doing what is expected?” However, we are constantly and consistently rewarded in our lives. Our paychecks are rewards, as are high grades or acceptance into our preferred schools. Being praised for doing a good job or for passing a driver’s test are also rewards. Positive reinforcement as a learning tool is extremely effective. It has been found that one of the most effective ways to increase achievement in school districts with below-average reading scores was to pay the children to read.
An example of this can be seen in Dallas, where second-grade students in Dallas were paid \$2 each time they read a book and passed a short quiz about the book. The result was a significant increase in reading comprehension (Fryer, 2010). What do you think about this program? If Skinner were alive today, he would probably think this was a great idea. He was a strong proponent of using operant conditioning principles to influence students’ behavior at school. In fact, in addition to the Skinner box, he also invented what he called a teaching machine that was designed to reward small steps in learning—an early forerunner of computer-assisted learning (Skinner, 1961). His teaching machine tested students’ knowledge as they worked through various school subjects. If students answered questions correctly, they received immediate positive reinforcement and could continue; if they answered incorrectly, they did not receive any reinforcement. The idea was that students would spend additional time studying the material to increase their chance of being reinforced the next time.
In negative reinforcement, an undesirable stimulus is removed to increase a behavior. For example, car manufacturers use the principles of negative reinforcement in their seatbelt systems, which go “beep, beep, beep” until you fasten your seatbelt. The annoying sound stops when you exhibit the desired behavior, increasing the likelihood that you will buckle up in the future. Negative reinforcement is also used frequently in horse training. Riders apply pressure—by pulling the reins or squeezing their legs—and then remove the pressure when the horse performs the desired behavior, such as turning or speeding up. The pressure is the negative stimulus that the horse wants to remove.
Punishment
Many people confuse negative reinforcement with punishment in operant conditioning, but they are two very different concepts. Remember that reinforcement, even when it is negative, always increases a behavior. In contrast, punishment always decreases a behavior. In positive punishment, you add an undesirable stimulus to decrease a behavior. An example of positive punishment is reprimanding a student to get the student to stop texting in class. In this case, a stimulus (the reprimand) is added in order to decrease the behavior (texting in class). In negative punishment, you remove a pleasant stimulus to decrease a behavior, such as something the child enjoys (e.g., a toy or a scheduled outing). One controversial and misunderstood discipline technique is time out. Depending on how it is applied, time-outs can be negative punishment or seen as removal from items that are positively reinforcing such access to something they enjoy like a toy (Allen et.al, 1964).
Punishment, especially when it is immediate, is one way to decrease undesirable behavior. For example, imagine your four-year-old son, Brandon, runs into a busy street to get his ball. You give him a time-out (positive punishment) and tell him never to go into the street again. Chances are he will not repeat this behavior. While strategies like time-outs are common today, in the past children were often subject to physical punishment, such as spanking. It’s important to be aware of some of the drawbacks of using physical punishment on children. Within the context of parenting, it is important to note that the term “punishment” doesn’t mean that the consequence should be harmful.
In fact, experts caution that punishments like spanking can cause more harm than good (Murphy, 2017). First, punishment may teach fear. Brandon may become fearful of the street, but he also may become fearful of the person who delivered the punishment—you, his parent. Similarly, children who are punished by teachers may start to fear the teacher and try to avoid school (Gerschoff, 2013). Consequently, most schools in the United States have banned corporal punishment. Second, punishment may cause children to become more aggressive and prone to antisocial behavior and delinquency (Gershoff, 2002). They see their parents resort to spanking when they become angry and frustrated, so, in turn, they may act out this same behavior when they become angry and frustrated. For example, because you spank Brenda when you are angry with her for her misbehavior, she might start hitting her friends when they will not share their toys.
While positive punishment can be effective in some cases, Skinner suggested that the use of punishment should be weighed against the possible negative effects. Today’s psychologists and parenting experts favor reinforcement over punishment—they recommend that you catch your child doing something good and reward her for it.
Cultural Considerations
The socialization implications are evident when behavior is viewed within cultural practices. For example there has been a great deal of research related to anxiety levels for Asian Americans compared to western White Americans (Krieg and Xu 2018). Asian Americans consistently report higher social anxiety symptoms. The theory is that there is conflict navigating the high levels of interdependence in Asian American culture versus the low levels of interdependence in Western culture. This conflicts makes social situations "high stakes." Social situations trigger fears and anxiety as Asian Americans are concerned about how one's behavior impacts the group. This is important to keep in mind when working with children whose culture values the collective or group but the typical Western classroom values children demonstrating independence. | textbooks/socialsci/Early_Childhood_Education/Child_Family_Community%3A_The_Socialization_of_Diverse_Children/01%3A_Introduction_to_Socialization_and_Theories/1.12%3A_Behaviorism.txt |
Family Systems Theory
Some theories are focused on a specific agent of socialization such as family. Family Systems Theory does just that, focuses how how the family socialized children. Family Systems Theory (from the work of Ackerman, Jackson, Minuchin, and Bowen) comes under the Functional Theory umbrella and shares the functional approach of considering the dysfunctions and functions of complex groups and organizations.
Family Systems Theory claims that the family is understood best by conceptualizing it as a complex, dynamic, and changing collection of parts, subsystems and family members. Much like a mechanic would interface with the computer system of a broken-down car to diagnose which systems are broken (transmission, electric, fuel, etc.) to repair it, a therapist or researcher would interact with family members to diagnose how and where the systems of the family are working and where they are in need of repair or intervention.
In the article entitled, “Understanding Families: Applying Family Systems Theory to Early Childhood Practice” by Linda Garris Christian, she states that family systems theory can explain why members of a family behave the way they do in a given situation. She identifies the six characteristics that make up the theory collectively.
The six characteristics are:
1. Boundaries – relates to limit, togetherness and separateness—what or who is “in” or “out of” the family.
2. Roles – in all families individuals members have roles, those roles may include – peacemaker, clown, rescuer, victim, these roles can be carried over into work, school, and social settings.
3. Rules – a set of standards, laws, or traditions that tell us how-to live-in relation to each other, they are often embedded in a cultural context; therefore, they can contribute to the feeling of cultural discontinuity that some children experience at school.
4. Hierarchy – this refers to who holds the decision making, control, and power in the family, each time the family composition changes, there is a shift in where family members are in their hierarchy.
5. Climate – this is about the emotional and physical environment of the family.
6. Equilibrium – the refers to the balance or imbalance that exists in the family, consistency in families can be difficult to maintain, but it is critical to children’s development that they have a sense of security and trust to maintain healthy development
The information uses ideas and concepts from the article " Understanding Families: Applying Family Systems Theory". After reviewing the article, you may want to reflect on the questions below.
Critical Reflection
1. How might you apply the six characteristics in this theory to your family of origin?
2. What more do you need to know about this theory to help you to support children and families in your early learning environment?
Functionalism
When considering the role of family in society, functionalists uphold the notion that families are an important social institution and that they play a key role in stabilizing society. They also note that family members take on status roles in a marriage or family. The family—and its members—perform certain functions that facilitate the prosperity and development of society.
Sociologist George Murdock conducted a survey of 250 societies and determined that there are four universal residual functions of the family: sexual, reproductive, educational, and economic (Murdock 1949). According to Murdock, the family (which for him includes the state of marriage) regulates sexual relations between individuals. He does not deny the existence or impact of premarital or extramarital sex, but states that the family offers a socially legitimate sexual outlet for adults (Murdock, 1949)). This outlet gives way to reproduction, which is a necessary part of ensuring the survival of society.
Once children are born, the family plays a vital role in training them for adult life. As the primary agent of socialization and enculturation, the family teaches young children the ways of thinking and behaving that follow social and cultural norms, values, beliefs, and attitudes. For example, in some families, parents teach their children manners and civility believing a well-mannered child reflects a well-mannered parent.
Parents also teach children gender roles. Gender roles are an important part of the economic function of a family. In each family, there is a division of labor that consists of instrumental and expressive roles. Men tend to assume the instrumental roles in the family, which typically involve work outside of the family that provides financial support and establishes family status. Women tend to assume the expressive roles, which typically involve work inside of the family which provides emotional support and physical care for children (Crano and Aronoff 1978).
According to functionalists, the differentiation of the roles on the basis of sex ensures that families are well balanced and coordinated. When family members move outside of these roles, the family is thrown out of balance and must recalibrate in order to function properly. For example, if the father assumes an expressive role such as providing daytime care for the children, the mother must take on an instrumental role such as gaining paid employment outside of the home in order for the family to maintain balance and function.
Conflict Theory
The functional perspective assumes the family provides its members emotional comfort and support, many families do just the opposite and are far from the harmonious, happy groups depicted in the 1950s television shows. Instead, and as the news story that began this chapter tragically illustrated, they argue, shout, and use emotional cruelty and physical violence.
Conflict theory’s emphases, the family may also produce several problems. In particular, it may contribute for several reasons to social inequality, and it may subject its members to violence, arguments, and other forms of conflict. The family also became more and more of a patriarchal unit (see earlier discussion), helping to ensure men’s status at the top of the social hierarchy.
Conflict theorists are quick to point out that U.S. families have been defined as private entities, the consequence of which has been to leave family matters to only those within the family. Many people in the United States are resistant to government intervention in the family: parents do not want the government to tell them how to raise their children or to become involved in domestic issues. Conflict theory highlights the role of power in family life and contends that the family is often not a haven but rather an arena where power struggles can occur. This exercise of power often entails the performance of family status roles. Conflict theorists may study conflicts as simple as the enforcement of rules from parent to child, or they may examine more serious issues such as domestic violence (spousal and child), sexual assault, marital rape, and incest.
The first study of marital power was performed in 1960. Researchers found that the person with the most access to value resources held the most power. As money is one of the most valuable resources, men who worked in paid labor outside of the home held more power than women who worked inside the home (Blood and Wolfe 1960). Even today, with more fluid family roles, conflict theorists find disputes over the division of household labor to be a common source of marital discord. Household labor offers no wages and, therefore, no power. Studies indicate that when men do more housework, women experience more satisfaction in their marriages, reducing the incidence of conflict (Coltrane 2000). In general, conflict theorists tend to study areas of marriage and life that involve inequalities or discrepancies in power and authority, as they are reflective of the larger social structure.
Check-in Time!
How does the division of chores impact or not impact your household?
Symbolic Interactionism
Interactionists view the world in terms of symbols and the meanings assigned to them (LaRossa and Reitzes 1993). The family itself is a symbol. To some, it is a father, mother, and children; to others, it is any union that involves respect and compassion. Interactionists stress that family is not an objective, concrete reality. Like other social phenomena, it is a social construct that is subject to the ebb and flow of social norms and ever-changing meanings.
Consider the meaning of other elements of family: in the past, “parent” was a symbol of a biological and emotional connection to a child. With more parent-child relationships developing through adoption, remarriage, or change in guardianship, the word “parent” today is less likely to be associated with a biological connection than with whoever is socially recognized as having the responsibility for a child’s upbringing. Similarly, the terms “mother” and “father” are no longer rigidly associated with the meanings of caregiver and breadwinner. These meanings are more free-flowing through changing family roles.
Interactionists also recognize how the family status roles of each member are socially constructed, playing an important part in how people perceive and interpret social behavior. Interactionists view the family as a group of role players or “actors” that come together to act out their parts in an effort to construct a family. These roles are up for interpretation. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, a “good father,” for example, was one who worked hard to provide financial security for his children. Today, for some, a “good father” is one who takes the time outside of work to promote his children’s emotional well-being, social skills, and intellectual growth—in some ways, a much more daunting task.
Attribution
Intimate Relationships and Families by Ron Hammond and Paul Cheney is licensed under CC BY 4.0 (pg. 5-11) | textbooks/socialsci/Early_Childhood_Education/Child_Family_Community%3A_The_Socialization_of_Diverse_Children/01%3A_Introduction_to_Socialization_and_Theories/1.13%3A_Family_Systems_Theories.txt |
Learning Objectives
At the end of the chapter, you should be able to:
• Explore values and beliefs of culture
• Explore norms, symbols, language in culture
• Understand attitudes in culture
• Describe examples of how culture influences behavior.
• Define ethnocentric bias and cultural relativism.
The Importance of Culture
Culture is a large part of our Bronfenbrenner's macrosystem that describes the attitudes, values and beliefs we encompass throughout life. It is the nonbiological aspect to life that describes the idea of learned behaviors. There is a cultural nature to how humans develop. Many researchers would argue that much of our identity, our sense of self, perspectives and how we perceive the world comes from our culture. Many of our skills and abilities may come from our cultural practices as well. Culture explains the question "why do we behave the way we do?" Cultures have norms, rules, and expectations that comes with its punishments and rewards. The many different aspects of culture are driving forces to our behaviors. Attitudes may influence how we treat or receive others. Traditions, values and beliefs may stem from other aspects of our macrosystem such as political ideation, or religion. Each aspect has influences over our behavior.
02: Why Culture is Important
Culture and Socialization
Culture is a key concept in socialization as it influences our beliefs and behaviors. Culture is a part of each person and is the foundation of a society. People in general absorbs the rules, values, norms and beliefs of the culture they were born into (Nieto & Bode, 2008).
Think about what are the informal unwritten rules when you pass an acquaintance at school, work, in the grocery store, or in the mall? Generally, we do not consider all of the intricacies of the rules of behavior. We may simply say, “Hello!” and ask, “How was your weekend?” or some other trivial question meant to be a friendly greeting. Rarely do we physically embrace or even touch the individual. In fact, doing so may be viewed with scorn or distaste, since as people in the United States we have fairly rigid rules about personal space. However, we all adhere to various rules and standards that are created and maintained in culture.These rules and expectations have meaning, and there are ways in which you may violate this negotiation. Culturally, we examine in what situation and context certain behavior is expected, and in which situations perhaps it is not. These rules are created and enforced by people who interact and share societal norms.
Critical Reflection
Think about the setting and environment of grocery stores in each culture. Would these differences change the way one interacts with others?
In everyday conversation, people rarely distinguish between the terms culture and society, but the terms have slightly different meanings, and the distinction is important to educators. A society describes a group of people who share a community and a culture. By “community,” is a definable region—as small as a neighborhood (Brooklyn, or “the east side of town”), as large as a country (Ethiopia, the United States, or Nepal), or somewhere in between (in the United States, this might include someone who identifies with Southern or Midwestern society). To clarify, a culture represents the beliefs and practices of a group, while society represents the people who share those beliefs and practices. Neither society nor culture could exist without the other. In this section we examine the relationship between culture and society in greater detail and pay special attention to the elements and forces that shape culture, including diversity and cultural changes. A final discussion touches on the different theoretical perspectives from which sociologists research culture.
Almost every human behavior, from parenting, to bathing, to shopping to marriage to expressions of feelings, is learned. Children learning the behaviors make them apart of the group. The conduct and systems of the group is collectively called culture. In the United States, people tend to view marriage as a choice between two people, based on mutual feelings of love. In other nations and in other times, marriages have been arranged through an intricate process of interviews and negotiations between entire families. To someone raised in New York City, the marriage customs of a family from Nigeria may seem strange or even wrong. Conversely, someone from a traditional Kolkata family might be perplexed with the idea of romantic love as the foundation for marriage and lifelong commitment. In other words, the way in which people view marriage depends largely on what they have been taught.
Behavior based on learned customs is not a bad thing. Being familiar with unwritten rules helps people feel secure and “normal.” Most people want to live their daily lives confident that their behaviors will not be challenged or disrupted. But even an action as seemingly simple as commuting to school evidences a great deal of cultural propriety.
Take the case of going to school on public transportation. Whether people are commuting in Dublin, Cairo, Mumbai, or San Francisco, many behaviors will be the same, but significant differences also arise between cultures. Typically, a passenger will find a marked bus stop or station, wait for his bus or train, pay an agent before or after boarding, and quietly take a seat if one is available. But when boarding a bus in Cairo, passengers might have to run, because buses there often do not come to a full stop to take on patrons. Dublin bus riders would be expected to extend an arm to indicate that they want the bus to stop for them. And when boarding a commuter train in Mumbai, passengers must squeeze into overstuffed cars amid a lot of pushing and shoving on the crowded platforms. That kind of behavior would be considered the height of rudeness in the United States, but in Mumbai it reflects the daily challenges of getting around on a train system that is taxed to capacity.
In this example of commuting, culture consists of thoughts (expectations about personal space, for example) and tangible things (bus stops, trains, and seating capacity). Material culture refers to the objects or belongings of a group of people. Metro passes and bus tokens are part of material culture, as are automobiles, stores, and the physical structures where people worship. Nonmaterial culture, in contrast, consists of the ideas, attitudes, and beliefs of a society. Material and nonmaterial aspects of culture are linked, and physical objects often symbolize cultural ideas. A metro pass is a material object, but it represents a form of nonmaterial culture, namely, capitalism, and the acceptance of paying for transportation.
Cultural Universals
Often, a comparison of one culture to another will reveal obvious differences. But all cultures also share common elements. Cultural universals are patterns or traits that are globally common to all societies. One example of a cultural universal is the family unit: every human society recognizes a family structure that regulates sexual reproduction and the care of children. Even so, how that family unit is defined and how it functions vary. In many Asian cultures, for example, family members from all generations commonly live together in one household. In these cultures, young adults continue to live in the extended household family structure until they marry and join their spouse’s household, or they may remain and raise their nuclear family within the extended family’s homestead. In the United States, by contrast, individuals are expected to leave home and live independently for a period before forming a family unit that consists of parents and their offspring. Other cultural universals include customs like funeral rites, weddings, and celebrations of births. However, each culture may view the ceremonies quite differently.
Cultural Iceberg
There are many factors of culture, it is powerful it is obvious in many ways but imperceivable in other ways (Hall, 1989). Theorists explain that culture is visible and invisible. Culture is visible in a groups dress, food, gestures, systems, as an educator this is the easiest elements of culture. The most difficult element of culture is the the culture we do not see but still exist. This is invisible cultural elements such as emotional reactions and beliefs systems.
Ethnocentrism and Cultural Relativism
The fact of cultural diversity raises some important but difficult questions of cultural relativism and ethnocentrism. Cultural relativism refers to the belief that we should not judge any culture as superior or inferior to another culture. In this view, all cultures have their benefits and disadvantages, and we should not automatically assume that our own culture is better and “their” culture is worse. Ethnocentrism, the opposite view, refers to the tendency to judge another culture by the standards of our own and to the belief that our own culture is indeed superior to another culture. When we think of cow worship in India, it is easy to be amused by it and even to make fun of it. That is why anthropologist Marvin Harris’s (1978) analysis was so important, because it suggests that cow worship is in fact very important for the Indian way of life. Despite how much humans have in common, cultural differences are far more prevalent than cultural universals. For example, while all cultures have language, analysis of particular language structures and conversational etiquette reveal tremendous differences.
In the United States, if we make an “O” by putting our thumb and forefinger together, we mean “OK,” but the same gesture in certain parts of Europe signifies an obscenity. “Thumbs up” in the United States means “great” or “wonderful,” but in Australia it means the same thing as extending the middle finger in the United States. Certain parts of the Middle East and Asia would be offended if they saw you using your left hand to eat, because they use their left hand for bathroom hygiene.
The meaning of a gesture may differ from one society to another. This familiar gesture means “OK” in the United States, but in certain parts of Europe it signifies an obscenity. An American using this gesture might very well be greeted with an angry look.
In some Middle Eastern cultures, it is common to stand close to others in conversation. North Americans keep more distance and maintain a large “personal space.” Even something as simple as eating and drinking varies greatly from culture to culture. If your professor comes into an early morning class holding a mug of liquid, what do you assume she is drinking? In the United States, it’s most likely filled with coffee, not Earl Grey tea, a favorite in England, or Yak Butter tea, a staple in Tibet.
The way cuisines vary across cultures fascinates many people. Some travelers pride themselves on their willingness to try unfamiliar foods, like celebrated food writer Anthony Bourdain, while others return home expressing gratitude for their native culture’s fare. Often, people in the United States express disgust at other cultures’ cuisine and think that it’s gross to eat meat from a dog or guinea pig, for example, while they don’t question their own habit of eating cows or pigs. Such attitudes are an example of ethnocentrism, or evaluating and judging another culture based on how it compares to one’s own cultural norms. Ethnocentrism, as sociologist William Graham Sumner (1906) described the term, involves a belief or attitude that one’s own culture is better than all others. Almost everyone is a little bit ethnocentric. For example, Americans tend to say that people from England drive on the “wrong” side of the road, rather than on the “other” side. Someone from a country where dog meat is standard fare might find it off-putting to see a dog in a French restaurant—not on the menu, but as a pet and patron’s companion. A good example of ethnocentrism is referring to parts of Asia as the “Far East.” One might question, “Far east of where?”
A high level of appreciation for one’s own culture can be healthy; a shared sense of community pride, for example, connects people in a society. But ethnocentrism can lead to disdain or dislike for other cultures and could cause misunderstanding and conflict. People with the best intentions sometimes travel to a society to “help” its people, because they see them as uneducated or backward—essentially inferior. In reality, these travelers are guilty of cultural imperialism, the deliberate imposition of one’s own cultural values on another culture. Europe’s colonial expansion, begun in the sixteenth century, was often accompanied by a severe cultural imperialism. European colonizers often viewed the people in the lands they colonized as uncultured savages who were in need of European governance, dress, religion, and other cultural practices. A more modern example of cultural imperialism may include the work of international aid agencies who introduce agricultural methods and plant species from developed countries while overlooking indigenous varieties and agricultural approaches that are better suited to the particular region (Scheuerman, 2010).
Ethnocentrism can be so strong that when confronted with all of the differences of a new culture, one may experience disorientation and frustration. In sociology, we call this culture shock. A traveler from Chicago might find the nightly silence of rural Montana unsettling, not peaceful. An exchange student from China might be annoyed by the constant interruptions in class as other students ask questions—a practice that is considered rude in China. Perhaps the Chicago traveler was initially captivated with Montana’s quiet beauty and the Chinese student was originally excited to see a U.S.-style classroom firsthand. But as they experience unanticipated differences from their own culture, their excitement gives way to discomfort and doubts about how to behave appropriately in the new situation. Eventually, as people learn more about a culture, they recover from culture shock.
Critical Reflection
This section discussed the eating of dog meat in some other cultures. Many Americans and Europeans condemn this practice and look down upon non-western countries where these practices are typical.
Do you think it is appropriate to condemn eating dog meat, or do you think such criticism violates cultural relativism and is therefore inappropriate?
Attribution
Sociology - Module 2: Culture and Society by Lumen Learning references Introduction to Sociology 2e by OpenStax, which is licensed under CC BY 4.0
Griffiths, H., & Keirns, N. (2015, April 24). Introduction to Sociology. (2nd ed.). Openstax. | textbooks/socialsci/Early_Childhood_Education/Child_Family_Community%3A_The_Socialization_of_Diverse_Children/02%3A_Why_Culture_is_Important/2.01%3A_Introduction.txt |
Cultural Schemas
Culture determines how groups understand rules and make meaning of their behavior, patterns, systems and experiences. These frameworks are called values, beliefs, attitudes and norms. These cognitive processes provide structure for our social patterns. The following video discusses values in more depth and highlights other related ideas such as symbols, and norms that govern our daily lives. Children are learning about these complex ideas in their interactions with adults and caregivers. Children are learning about these mental structures, what Piaget called schemas, in this case cultural schemas (Lally & Vlentine-French, 2017).
Values
The first, and perhaps most crucial, elements of culture we will discuss are its values and beliefs. Values are a culture’s standard for discerning what is good and just in society. Values are deeply embedded and critical for transmitting and teaching a culture’s beliefs. Beliefs are the tenets or convictions that people hold to be true. Individuals in a society have specific beliefs, but they also share collective values.
Values are qualities or beliefs that are viewed as desirable or important. Socializing agents in all Bronfenbrenners bio-ecological model influence the internalization of values. In the microsystem what message did your parents give you gender or beauty? Major global events in the macrosystem and chronosystem also affect values. For example, COVID- 19 pandemic in 2020 made people value security and reorganize their family and work lives (Bojanowska et al., 2021).
Values help shape a society by suggesting what is good and bad, beautiful and ugly, sought or avoided. Consider the value that the United States places upon youth. Children represent innocence and purity, while a youthful adult appearance signifies sexuality. Shaped by this value, individuals spend millions of dollars each year on cosmetic products and surgeries to look young and beautiful. The United States also has an individualistic culture, meaning people place a high value on individuality and independence. In contrast, many other cultures are collectivist, meaning the welfare of the group and group relationships are a primary value.
Living up to a culture’s values can be difficult. For parents in the U.S. we value children being independent but engage in helicopter parenting. It’s easy to value good health, but it’s hard to quit smoking. Marital monogamy is valued, but many spouses engage in infidelity. Cultural diversity and equal opportunities for all people are valued in the United States, yet the country’s highest political offices have been dominated by white men.
Values often suggest how people should behave, but they don’t accurately reflect how people do behave. Values portray an ideal culture, the standards society would like to embrace and live up to. But ideal culture differs from real culture, the way society actually is, based on what occurs and exists. In an ideal culture, there would be no traffic accidents, murders, poverty, or racial tension. But in real culture, police officers, lawmakers, educators, and social workers constantly strive to prevent or repair those accidents, crimes, and injustices. American teenagers are encouraged to value celibacy. However, the number of unplanned pregnancies among teens reveals that not only is the ideal hard to live up to, but the value alone is not enough to spare teenagers the potential consequences of having sex.
One way societies strive to put values into action is through rewards, sanctions, and punishments, see the section on theories that outline Skinner's work. When people observe the norms of society and uphold its values, they are often rewarded. A boy who helps an elderly woman board a bus may receive a smile and a “thank you.” A business manager who raises profit margins may receive a quarterly bonus. People sanction certain behaviors by giving their support, approval, or permission, or by instilling formal actions of disapproval and nonsupport. Sanctions are a form of social control, a way to encourage conformity to cultural norms. Sometimes people conform to norms in anticipation or expectation of positive sanctions: good grades, for instance, may mean praise from parents and teachers. From a criminal justice perspective, properly used social control is also inexpensive crime control. Utilizing social control approaches pushes most people to conform to societal rules, regardless of whether authority figures (such as law enforcement) are present.
When people go against a society’s values, they are punished. A boy who shoves an elderly woman aside to board the bus first may receive frowns or even a scolding from other passengers. A business manager who drives away customers will likely be fired. Breaking norms and rejecting values can lead to cultural sanctions such as earning a negative label—lazy, no-good bum—or to legal sanctions, such as traffic tickets, fines, or imprisonment.
Values are not static; they vary across time and between groups as people evaluate, debate, and change collective societal beliefs. Values also vary from culture to culture. For example, cultures differ in their values about what kinds of physical closeness are appropriate in public. It’s rare to see two male friends or coworkers holding hands in the United States where that behavior often symbolizes romantic feelings. But in many nations, masculine physical intimacy is considered natural in public. This difference in cultural values came to light when people reacted to photos of former president George W. Bush holding hands with the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia in 2005. A simple gesture, such as hand-holding, carries great symbolic differences across cultures.
Reflection
What is a value you have as an adult that was fostered in your childhood?
In what ways was that instilled in you by society. Can you link to the methods of socialization practices?
Reference
Bojanowska, A., Kaczmarek, Ł. D., Koscielniak, M., & Urbańska, B. (2021). Changes in values and well-being amidst the COVID-19 pandemic in Poland. PloS one, 16(9), e0255491.
Lally, M., & Vlentine-French, S. (2017). Lifespan development: A psychological perspective. College of Lake County Foundation.
Attribution
Sociology - Module 2: Culture and Society by Lumen Learning references Introduction to Sociology 2e by OpenStax, which is licensed under CC BY 4.0 | textbooks/socialsci/Early_Childhood_Education/Child_Family_Community%3A_The_Socialization_of_Diverse_Children/02%3A_Why_Culture_is_Important/2.02%3A_Cultural_Schemas.txt |
Norms
So far, the examples in this chapter have often described how people are expected to behave in certain situations—for example, when buying food or boarding a bus. These examples describe the visible and invisible rules of conduct through which societies are structured, or what sociologists call norms. Norms define how to behave in accordance with what a society has defined as good, right, and important, and most members of the society adhere to them. Social norms have played a key role in the evolution of human cooperation, they support the young child understanding of being a member of a larger group and behaving in a way that supports the group. As noted in the social learning theory, children observe and follow the directives of adult caregivers; children conform and enforce social norms (Schmidt & Tomasello, 2012).
Formal norms are established, written rules. They are behaviors worked out and agreed upon in order to suit and serve the most people. Laws are formal norms, but so are employee manuals, college entrance exam requirements, and “no running” signs at swimming pools. Formal norms are the most specific and clearly stated of the various types of norms, and they are the most strictly enforced. But even formal norms are enforced to varying degrees and are reflected in cultural values.
For example, money is highly valued in the United States, so monetary crimes are punished. It’s against the law to rob a bank, and banks go to great lengths to prevent such crimes. People safeguard valuable possessions and install antitheft devices to protect homes and cars. A less strictly enforced social norm is driving while intoxicated. While it’s against the law to drive drunk, drinking is for the most part an acceptable social behavior. And though there are laws to punish drunk driving, there are few systems in place to prevent the crime. These examples show a range of enforcement in formal norms.
There are plenty of formal norms, but the list of informal norms—casual behaviors that are generally and widely conformed to—is longer. People learn informal norms by observation, imitation, and general socialization. An example of cognitive methods of socialization in teaching children in the microsystems is is a parenting saying “Kiss your Aunt Edna” or “Use your napkin”—while others are learned by observation, including observations of the consequences when someone else violates a norm. But although informal norms define personal interactions, they extend into other systems as well. In the United States, there are informal norms regarding behavior at fast food restaurants. Customers line up to order their food and leave when they are done. They don’t sit down at a table with strangers, sing loudly as they prepare their condiments, or nap in a booth. Most people don’t commit even benign breaches of informal norms. Informal norms dictate appropriate behaviors without the need of written rules.
Norms may be further classified as either mores or folkways. Mores (mor-ays) are norms that embody the moral views and principles of a group (Sumner 1906). Violating them can have serious consequences. The strongest mores are legally protected with laws or other formal norms. In the United States, for instance, murder is considered immoral, and it’s punishable by law (a formal norm). But more often, mores are judged and guarded by public sentiment (an informal norm). People who violate mores are seen as shameful. They can even be shunned or banned from some groups. The mores of the U.S. school system require that a student’s writing be in the student’s own words or use special forms (such as quotation marks and a whole system of citation) for crediting other writers. Writing another person’s words as if they are one’s own has a name—plagiarism. The consequences for violating this norm are severe and usually result in expulsion.
Mores and Folksways
Unlike mores, folkways are norms without any moral underpinnings. Rather, folkways direct appropriate behavior in the day-to-day practices and expressions of a culture. They indicate whether to shake hands or kiss on the cheek when greeting another person. They specify whether to wear a tie and blazer or a T-shirt and sandals to an event. In Canada, women can smile and say hello to men on the street. In Egypt, that’s not acceptable. In regions in the southern United States, bumping into an acquaintance means stopping to chat. It’s considered rude not to, no matter how busy one is. In other regions, people guard their privacy and value time efficiency. A simple nod of the head is enough. Other accepted folkways in the United States may include holding the door open for a stranger or giving someone a gift on their birthday. The rules regarding these folkways may change from culture to culture.
Many folkways are actions we take for granted. People need to act without thinking in order to get seamlessly through daily routines; they can’t stop and analyze every action (Sumner 1906). Those who experience culture shock may find that it subsides as they learn the new culture’s folkways and are able to move through their daily routines more smoothly. Folkways might be small manners, learned by observation and imitated, but they are by no means trivial. Like mores and laws, these norms help people negotiate their daily lives within a given culture.
Check-in Time!
Explain the difference between folkways and mores.
Attribution
Sociology - Module 2: Culture and Society by Lumen Learning references Introduction to Sociology 2e by OpenStax, which is licensed under CC BY 4.0 | textbooks/socialsci/Early_Childhood_Education/Child_Family_Community%3A_The_Socialization_of_Diverse_Children/02%3A_Why_Culture_is_Important/2.03%3A_Norms.txt |
Attitudes as Internalized Standards
Children internalize the standards of their parents and society. They incorporate adult and other socializing agents expectations into their behavior, thereby becoming socialized. They, in turn, have similar ways of thinking about others with whom they interact, forming the foundation for a society.
Social psychologists reserve the term attitude to refer to our relatively enduring evaluation of something. (Albarracín, 2005; Wood, 2000). In this section we will consider the nature and strength of attitudes and the conditions under which attitudes best predict our behaviors.
Attitudes Are Evaluations
When we say that attitudes are evaluations, we mean that they involve a preference for or against the attitude object, as commonly expressed in such terms as prefer, like, dislike, hate, and love. When we express our attitudes—for instance, when we say, “I love Cheerios,” “I hate snakes,” “I’m crazy about Bill,” or “I like Italians”—we are expressing the relationship (either positive or negative) between the self and an attitude object. Statements such as these make it clear that attitudes are an important part of the self-concept—attitudes tie the self-concept to the attitude object, and so our attitudes are an essential part of "us" (Albarracín, 2005; Wood, 2000).
Reflection
The 9/11/2001 attacks, were an extreme example cultural belief systems at odds. This events caused a change in the system Bronfenbrenner called chronosystem - a massive change in our global society. American's grew to fear terrorism and those who the media ( socializing agent) identified as perpetuated it. The fear of terrorism has changed our lives in the last 20 years impacting laws, systems and attitudes. We have greater emphasis on national security, more forceful immigration laws, increased racial profiling, and government surveillance technology.
Did you grow up with attitudes of suspicion and prejudice towards Middle Eastern people and culture?
Every human being holds thousands of attitudes, including those about family and friends, political parties and political figures, abortion rights and terrorism, preferences for music, and much more. Each of our attitudes has its own unique characteristics, and no two attitudes come to us or influence us in quite the same way. Research has found that some of our attitudes are inherited, at least in part, via genetic transmission from our parents (Olson, 2001). Other attitudes are learned mostly through direct and indirect experiences with the attitude objects (De Houwer, 2001). We may like to ride roller coasters in part because our genetic code has given us a thrill-loving personality and in part because we’ve had some really great times on roller coasters in the past. Still other attitudes are learned via the media (Hargreaves & Tiggemann, 2003; Levina, 2000) or through our interactions with friends (Poteat, 2007). Some of our attitudes are shared by others (most of us like sugar, fear snakes, and are disgusted by cockroaches), whereas other attitudes—such as our preferences for different styles of music or art—are more individualized.
Table 1 “Heritability of Some Attitudes” shows some of the attitudes that have been found to be the most highly heritable (i.e. most strongly determined by genetic variation among people). These attitudes form earlier and are stronger and more resistant to change than others (Bourgeois, 2002), although it is not yet known why some attitudes are more genetically determined than are others.
Table 1 - Heritability of Some Attitudes
Attitude
Heritability
Abortion on demand
0.54
Roller coaster rides
0.52
Death penalty for murder
0.5
Open-door immigration
0.46
Organized religion
0.45
Doing athletic activities
0.44
Voluntary euthanasia
0.44
Capitalism
0.39
Playing chess
0.38
Reading books
0.37
Exercising
0.36
Education
0.32
Big parties
0.32
Smoking
0.31
Being the center of attention
0.28
Getting along well with other people
0.28
Wearing clothes that draw attention
0.24
Sweets
0.22
Public speaking
0.2
Castration as punishment for sex crimes
0.17
Loud music
0.11
Looking my best at all times
0.1
Doing crossword puzzles
0.02
Separate roles for men and women
0
Making racial discrimination illegal
0
Playing organized sports
0
Playing bingo
0
Easy access to birth control
0
Being the leader of groups
0
Being assertive
0
Note table is ranked from most heritable to least heritable. Data are from Olson, Vernon, Harris, and Jang (2001).
Our attitudes are made up of cognitive, affective, and behavioral components. Consider an environmentalist’s attitude toward recycling, which is probably very positive:
• In terms of affect: They feel happy when they recycle.
• In terms of behavior: They regularly recycle their bottles and cans.
• In terms of cognition: They believe recycling is the responsible thing to do.
Although most attitudes are determined by cognition, affect, and behavior, there is nevertheless variability in this regard across people and across attitudes. Some attitudes are more likely to be based on beliefs, some more likely to be based on feelings, and some more likely to be based on behaviors. Some people voted for Donald Trump in the 2016 elections because they like his policies (“he will make the US great again”), whereas others voted based on whether they liked him or not. Although you might think that cognition would be more important in this regard, political scientists have shown that many voting decisions are made primarily on the basis of affect. Indeed, it is fair to say that the affective component of attitudes is generally the strongest and most important (Abelson, 1981; Stangor, 1991).
Human beings hold attitudes because they are useful. Particularly, our attitudes enable us to determine, often very quickly and effortlessly, which behaviors to engage in, which people to approach or avoid, and even which products to buy (Duckworth, 2002; Maio & Olson, 2000). You can imagine that making quick decisions about what to avoid (for example, snake = bad ⟶ run away) or to approach (blueberries = good ⟶ eat) has had substantial value in our evolutionary experience.
Because attitudes are evaluations, they can be assessed using any of the normal measuring techniques used by social psychologists (Banaji & Heiphetz, 2010). Attitudes are frequently assessed using self-report measures, but they can also be assessed more indirectly using measures of arousal and facial expressions (Mendes, 2008) as well as implicit measures of cognition, such as the Implicit Association Test (IAT). Attitudes can also be seen in the brain by using neuroimaging techniques. This research has found that our attitudes, like most of our social knowledge, are stored primarily in the prefrontal cortex but that the amygdala is important in emotional attitudes, particularly those associated with fear (Cunningham, 2004; Cunningham & Zelazo, 2007; van den Bos, McClure, Harris, Fiske, & Cohen, 2007). Attitudes can be activated extremely quickly—often within one fifth of a second after we see an attitude object (Handy, 2010).
Critical Reflection!
Identify and bring in to mind a fruit. Did you come up with a different fruit other than strawberries- what impacts your determination of that being the best fruit?
• Previous experiences with the fruit
• Availability of this fruit in your geographic region
• Parents preferences
How does do these consideration shape your attitudes, beliefs about likes and dislikes about other things.
Some Attitudes Are Stronger Than Others
Some attitudes are more important than others, because they are more useful to us and thus have more impact on our daily lives. The importance of an attitude, as assessed by how quickly it comes to mind, is known as attitude strength (Fazio, 1990; Fazio, 1995; Krosnick & Petty, 1995). Some of our attitudes are strong attitudes, in the sense that we find them important, hold them with confidence, do not change them very much, and use them frequently to guide our actions. These strong attitudes may guide our actions completely out of our awareness (Ferguson, Bargh, & Nayak, 2005).
Other attitudes are weaker and have little influence on our actions. For instance, John Bargh and his colleagues (Bargh, Chaiken, Raymond, & Hymes, 1996) found that people could express attitudes toward nonsense words such as juvalamu (which people liked) and chakaka (which they did not like). The researchers also found that these attitudes were very weak. On the other hand, the heavy voter turnout for Barack Obama in the 2008 elections was probably because many of his supporters had strong positive attitudes about him.
Strong attitudes are attitudes that are more cognitively accessible—they come to mind quickly, regularly, and easily. We can easily measure attitude strength by assessing how quickly our attitudes are activated when we are exposed to the attitude object. If we can state our attitude quickly, without much thought, then it is a strong one. If we are unsure about our attitude and need to think about it for a while before stating our opinion, the attitude is weak.
Attitudes become stronger when we have direct positive or negative experiences with the attitude object, and particularly if those experiences have been in strong positive or negative contexts. Russell Fazio and his colleagues (Fazio, Powell, & Herr, 1983) had people either work on some puzzles or watch other people work on the same puzzles. Although the people who watched ended up either liking or disliking the puzzles as much as the people who actually worked on them, Fazio found that attitudes, as assessed by reaction time measures, were stronger (in the sense of being expressed quickly) for the people who had directly experienced the puzzles.
Because attitude strength is determined by cognitive accessibility, it is possible to make attitudes stronger by increasing the accessibility of the attitude. This can be done directly by having people think about, express, or discuss their attitudes with others. After people think about their attitudes, talk about them, or just say them out loud, the attitudes they have expressed become stronger (Downing, Judd, & Brauer, 1992; Tesser, Martin, & Mendolia, 1995). Because attitudes are linked to the self-concept, they also become stronger when they are activated along with the self-concept. When we are looking into a mirror or sitting in front of a TV camera, our attitudes are activated and we are then more likely to act on them (Beaman, Klentz, Diener, & Svanum, 1979).
Attitudes are also stronger when the ABCs of affect, behavior, and cognition all line up. As an example, many people’s attitude toward their own nation is universally positive. They have strong positive feelings about their country, many positive thoughts about it, and tend to engage in behaviors that support it. Other attitudes are less strong because the affective, cognitive, and behavioral components are each somewhat different (Thompson, Zanna, & Griffin, 1995). My affect toward chocolate ice cream is positive—I like it a lot. On the other hand, my cognitions are more negative—I know that eating too much ice cream can make me fat and that it is bad for my coronary arteries. And even though I love chocolate ice cream, I don’t eat some every time I get a chance. These inconsistencies among the components of my attitude make it less strong than it would be if all the components lined up together.
When Do Our Attitudes Guide Our Behavior?
Educators (as well as advertisers, marketers, and politicians) are particularly interested in the behavioral aspect of attitudes. Because it is normal that the ABCs of our attitudes are at least somewhat consistent, our behavior tends to follow from our affect and cognition. If I determine that you have more positive cognitions about and more positive affect toward Cheerios than Frosted Flakes, then I will naturally predict (and probably be correct when I do so) that you’ll be more likely to buy Cheerios than Frosted Flakes when you go to the market. Furthermore, if I can do something to make your thoughts or feelings toward Frosted Flakes more positive, then your likelihood of buying that cereal instead of the other will also increase.
The principle of attitude consistency (that for any given attitude object, the ABCs of affect, behavior, and cognition are normally in line with each other) thus predicts that our attitudes (for instance, as measured via a self-report measure) are likely to guide behavior. Supporting this idea, meta-analyses have found that there is a significant and substantial positive correlation among the different components of attitudes, and that attitudes expressed on self-report measures do predict behavior (Glasman & Albarracín, 2006).
Although there is generally consistency between attitudes and behavior, the relationship is stronger in certain situations, for certain people, and for certain attitudes (Wicker, 1969). The theory of planned behavior, developed by Martin Fishbein and Izek Ajzen (Ajzen, 1991; Fishbein & Ajzen, 1975), outlined many of the important variables that affected the attitude-behavior relationship, and some of these factors are summarized in the list that follows this paragraph. It may not surprise you to hear that attitudes that are strong, in the sense that they are expressed quickly and confidently, predict our behavior better than do weak attitudes (Fazio, Powell, & Williams, 1989; Glasman & Albarracín, 2006). For example, Farc and Sagarin (2009) found that people who could more quickly complete questionnaires about their attitudes toward the politicians George Bush and John Kerry were also more likely to vote for the candidate that they had more positive attitudes toward in the 2004 presidential elections. The relationship between the responses on the questionnaires and voting behavior was weaker for those who completed the items more slowly.
• When attitudes are strong, rather than weak
• When we have a strong intention to perform the behavior
• When the attitude and the behavior both occur in similar social situations
• When the same components of the attitude (either affect or cognition) are accessible when the attitude is assessed and when the behavior is performed
• When the attitudes are measured at a specific, rather than a general, level
• For low self-monitors (rather than for high self-monitors)
• Attitudes only predict behaviors well under certain conditions and for some people. The preceding list summarizes the factors that create a strong attitude-behavior relationship.
The match between the social situations in which the attitudes are expressed and the behaviors are engaged in also matters, such that there is a greater attitude-behavior correlation when the social situations match.
Case example
Imagine for a minute the case of Magritte, a 16-year-old high school student. Magritte tells her parents that she hates the idea of smoking cigarettes. Magritte’s negative attitude toward smoking seems to be a strong one because she’s thought a lot about it—she believes that cigarettes are dirty, expensive, and unhealthy. But how sure are you that Magritte’s attitude will predict her behavior? Would you be willing to bet that she’d never try smoking when she’s out with her friends?
You can see that the problem here is that Magritte’s attitude is being expressed in one social situation (when she is with her parents) whereas the behavior (trying a cigarette) is going to occur in a very different social situation (when she is out with her friends). The relevant social norms are of course much different in the two situations. Magritte’s friends might be able to convince her to try smoking, despite her initial negative attitude, when they entice her with peer pressure. Behaviors are more likely to be consistent with attitudes when the social situation in which the behavior occurs is similar to the situation in which the attitude is expressed (Ajzen, 1991; LaPiere, 1936).
Reference
Abelson, R. P., Kinder, D. R., Peters, M. D., & Fiske, S. T. (1981). Affective and semantic components in political person perception. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 42, 619–630.
Ajzen, I. (1991). The theory of planned behavior. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 50(2), 179–211.
Albarracín, D., Johnson, B. T., & Zanna, M. P. (Eds.). (2005). The handbook of attitudes (pp. 223–271). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum
Banaji, M. R., & Heiphetz, L. (2010). Attitudes. In S. T. Fiske, D. T. Gilbert, & G. Lindzey (Eds.), Handbook of social psychology (5th ed., Vol. 1, pp. 353–393). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.
Bargh, J. A., Chaiken, S., Raymond, P., & Hymes, C. (1996). The automatic evaluation effect: Unconditional automatic attitude activation with a pronunciation task. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 32(1), 104–128.
Beaman, A. L., Klentz, B., Diener, E., & Svanum, S. (1979). Self-awareness and transgression in children: Two field studies. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 37(10), 1835–1846.
Bourgeois, M. J. (2002). Heritability of attitudes constrains dynamic social impact. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 28(8), 1063–1072.
Cunningham, W. A., Raye, C. L., & Johnson, M. K. (2004). Implicit and explicit evaluation: fMRI correlates of valence, emotional intensity, and control in the processing of attitudes. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 16(10), 1717–1729.
Cunningham, W. A., & Zelazo, P. D. (2007). Attitudes and evaluations: A social cognitive neuroscience perspective. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 11(3), 97–104.
De Houwer, J., Thomas, S., & Baeyens, F. (2001). Association learning of likes and dislikes: A review of 25 years of research on human evaluative conditioning. Psychological Bulletin, 127(6), 853–869.
Downing, J. W., Judd, C. M., & Brauer, M. (1992). Effects of repeated expressions on attitude extremity. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 63(1), 17–29.
Duckworth, K. L., Bargh, J. A., Garcia, M., & Chaiken, S. (2002). The automatic evaluation of novel stimuli. Psychological Science, 13(6), 513–519.
Farc, M.-M., & Sagarin, B. J. (2009). Using attitude strength to predict registration and voting behavior in the 2004 U.S. presidential elections. Basic and Applied Social Psychology, 31(2), 160–173.
Fazio, R. H. (1990). The MODE model as an integrative framework. Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, 23, 75–109.
Fazio, R. H. (1995). Attitudes as object-evaluation associations: Determinants, consequences, and correlates of attitude accessibility. In Attitude strength: Antecedents and consequences (pp. 247–282). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Fazio, R. H., Powell, M. C., & Herr, P. M. (1983). Toward a process model of the attitude-behavior relation: Accessing one’s attitude upon mere observation of the attitude object. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 44(4), 723–735.
Fazio, R. H., Powell, M. C., & Williams, C. J. (1989). The role of attitude accessibility in the attitude-to-behavior process. Journal of Consumer Research, 16(3), 280–288.
Ferguson, M. J., Bargh, J. A., & Nayak, D. A. (2005). After-affects: How automatic evaluations influence the interpretation of subsequent, unrelated stimuli. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 41(2), 182–191.
Glasman, L. R., & Albarracín, D. (2006). Forming attitudes that predict future behavior: A meta-analysis of the attitude-behavior relation. Psychological Bulletin, 132(5), 778–822.
Handy, T. C., Smilek, D., Geiger, L., Liu, C., & Schooler, J. W. (2010). ERP evidence for rapid hedonic evaluation of logos. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 22(1), 124–138.
Hargreaves, D. A., & Tiggemann, M. (2003). Female “thin ideal” media images and boys’ attitudes toward girls. Sex Roles, 49(9–10), 539–544.
Krosnick, J. A., & Petty, R. E. (1995). Attitude strength: An overview. In Attitude strength: Antecedents and consequences (pp. 1–24). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
LaPiere, R. T. (1936). Type rationalization of group antipathy. Social Forces, 15, 232–237.
Levina, M., Waldo, C. R., & Fitzgerald, L. F. (2000). We’re here, we’re queer, we’re on TV: The effects of visual media on heterosexuals’ attitudes toward gay men and lesbians. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 30(4), 738–758.
Maio, G. R., & Olson, J. M. (Eds.). (2000). Why we evaluate: Functions of attitudes. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Mendes, W. B. (2008). Assessing autonomic nervous system reactivity. In E. Harmon-Jones & J. Beer (Eds.), Methods in the neurobiology of social and personality psychology (pp. 118–147). New York, NY: Guilford Press.
Olson, J. M., Vernon, P. A., Harris, J. A., & Jang, K. L. (2001). The heritability of attitudes: A study of twins. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 80(6), 845–860.
Poteat, V. P. (2007). Peer group socialization of homophobic attitudes and behavior during adolescence. Child Development, 78(6), 1830–1842.
Stangor, C., Sullivan, L. A., & Ford, T. E. (1991). Affective and cognitive determinants of prejudice. Social Cognition, 9(4), 359–380.
Tesser, A., Martin, L., & Mendolia, M. (Eds.). (1995). The impact of thought on attitude extremity and attitude-behavior consistency. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Thompson, M. M., Zanna, M. P., & Griffin, D. W. (1995). Let’s not be indifferent about (attitudinal) ambivalence. In Attitude strength: Antecedents and consequences (pp. 361–386). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
van den Bos, W., McClure, S. M., Harris, L. T., Fiske, S. T., & Cohen, J. D. (2007). Dissociating affective evaluation and social cognitive processes in the ventral medial prefrontal cortex. Cognitive, Affective & Behavioral Neuroscience, 7(4), 337–346.
Wood, W. (2000). Attitude Change: Persuasion and Social Influence. Annual review of psychology. 51. 539-70.
Attribution
[2] Principles of Social Psychology by University of Minnesota is licensed under a CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 | textbooks/socialsci/Early_Childhood_Education/Child_Family_Community%3A_The_Socialization_of_Diverse_Children/02%3A_Why_Culture_is_Important/2.04%3A_Attitudes.txt |
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.