“When children are first learning to read, they seem to use all of their visual ability to essentially ‘photograph’ words, seeing print as a whole. They next begin to understand that words can be broken into parts (letters or graphemes) and that those parts represent spoken sounds (phonemes). As children figure out the process of connecting letters to sounds, experiences in outdoor classrooms can support their understanding of these whole- to-part relationships, which occur in abundance in nature. Experiences in the natural world can also facilitate letter discrimination, which is an important step in developing both reading and writing fluency. Encouraging children to recognize patterns and shapes in nature is an especially effective early reading and writing activity. It is interesting to note, as Ellen Galinsky does in her book Mind in the Making, that all the world’s languages have an amazing regularity in the number of times that intersections (like Ts, Ls and Xs) are present in the shape of letters. Fascinatingly, those shapes with intersections occur at the same rate in natural scenes as they do in written language. So, an activity like taking young children on an outdoors ‘shape walk’ not only helps them to see patterns in the natural world, it also helps with later letter recognition. Providing natural materials such as twigs and logs (that con tain many naturally occurring shapes) is also a great way to help children think about the alphabet.”
Go Light on Light
December 20, 2011
Don’t refuse to go on an occasional wild goose chase. That’s what wild geese are for.
-Source unknown
In his classic, Caring Spaces, Learning Places, Jim Greenman shares his thoughts on lighting in centers:
“There is a pervasive tendency to over-light all new institutional settings. This may be a reaction both to the old days of dark, drab settings with few windows and other amenities and to the power of the fluorescent light revolution. Banks of diffused fluorescent lighting allow maximum flexibility and lowest cost. At any given spot one can read small print or string beads. But why is this necessary? And would you prefer to live under banks of fluorescent lights in your living room or bedroom? A mixture of fluorescent light, natural light from windows and skylights, and local area lighting (some on tracks) will allow flexibility that creates pools of light. Light can also be bounced off a ceiling ….
“Light has some of the same possibilities as a design tool that color does. Teachers can use light to influence activities and moods; reduced lighting calms, increased lighting can brighten spirits. Lighting at different height levels adds variety. Light dimmers are useful tools.”
The Role of Teachers in Play
December 21, 2011
If your head is made of butter, don’t be a baker.
-French Proverb
In their updated book The Play’s the Thing: Teachers’ Roles in Children’s Play, Betty Jones and Gretchen Reynolds talk about “Why Teachers Play”:
“Some teachers enter play spontaneously for their own pleasure or the children’s. They take their cues from the children, and the relationship is one of mutuality. Other teachers intentionally guide play for teaching purposes. Inherent in the role of teacher as player is the risk that the adult will take over, directing play that then ceases to be the children’s, or will attract children looking for adult attention.
“When is this risk appropriately taken? We believe it is at the beginnings, when children are still short on ideas for play in the school setting and/or skills for playing with materials and each other. There are several kinds of beginnings, including beginning child care as a young 3-year-old or entering a school culture that is different from one’s home culture….
“Teachers of children who come to school unfamiliar with its materials, language, or play scripts may need to enter into play with children to build bridges from home culture to school culture. Children become competent with materials, not through directed practice but through exploratory play. Very young children, learning communication skills in their home language, as well as second and third language learners, become competent with oral language through spontaneous exploration of its sounds and its possibilities for communication. They become competent with scripts of their home, neighborhood, and cultural traditions by playing them.”
Qualifications of Preschool Teachers
The article “Qualifications of Preschool Teachers: A Hot Issue in Our Field,” in the November/December issue of Exchange, reported reactions to an Exchange Insta Poll on “Qualifications of Effective Teachers” in which “Nurturing Personality” was the highest ranked item, followed by “Love of Children” and “BA in Early Childhood Education.” Here are a few of the reactions. You can view the complete article by clicking on the title above.
“I assume that when one is attracted to any field, certain intrinsic individual qualities exist that propel that person to seek a position… thus, ‘loving children’ or ‘having a nurturing personality’ are givens for me. Having a Bachelor’s degree in early childhood and working under the supervision of a highly-skilled professional are most important. The workshops and additional trainings that reflect current best practice bolster that foundation.” — Kathryn Keene, WMCC, Berlin, New Hampshire
“In the words of Marian Wright Edelman, ‘You can have the best equipped school, smallest class size, and a great curriculum, but if teachers… do not love children, children will know it — and be hurt’.” — Kayren Woolum, Northwestern Ohio Community Action Commission, Defiance, Ohio
“The qualities I found missing in the list of choices were the habits of being a lifelong learner, passionate curiosity, problem-solving behaviors, and open-mindedness. If we wish to provide the rigorous learning environments that truly nurture whole children — their hands, heads, and hearts — we must see ourselves as learners first and teachers second.” — Holly Hartman, Presbyterian Preschool, Stillwater, Oklahoma
“I was not surprised to see most of these qualifications on the list and would largely agree. I was surprised, however, not to see ‘sense of humour’ on the list! For me, it is an essential qualification to teach young children.” — Heino Schonfeld, CES, Dublin, Ireland
Big Body Play
We have been visiting early childhood programs around the world for 30 years and one element that seems to always be in short supply is rough and tumble play. In the newest addition to the Exchange Store, Big Body Play, Francis Carlson outlines the value of rough and tumble play and provides detailed approaches for implementing and controlling it in early childhood settings. In explaining why big body play is essential, Carlson observes…
“We know that play such as socio-dramatic play, board games, play to explore objects and learn shapes and textures, finger plays and chants to improve self-regulation, and play that involves building things has myriad benefits for children. But the fleeing, tagging, climbing, tumbling, and wrestling that most young children seem to crave is also play and is equally beneficial.
&qu ot;As we might assume, there are also abundant positive effects for physical development when children are active in their play. We know, for example, that when teachers involve children in physical exercise with intentional planning, children can practice and develop a variety of physical skills and gain optimum health benefits.
“But big body play is not just physical activity with physical benefits. During such play, children also use increasingly sophisticated communication skills — both verbal and nonverbal — and social skills. It is also one of the best ways for children (especially boys) to develop empathy and self-regulation. And creativity and thinking skills are enhanced as children determine and solve problems as they arise in the course of this active play.”
Diversity: Values and Risks
December 14, 2011
Start by doing what’s necessary, then do what’s possible, and suddenly you are doing the impossible.
-St. Francis of Assisi
In his keynote presentation at the Asia-Pacific Regional Conference for Early Childhood Development, held from 8 to 10 November 2011, in Singapore, Robert Myers published the following observations about diversity from an unpublished manuscript, “Diversity and Coherence” by Peter Moss:
“The value of diversity lies in its recognition and welcoming of otherness, its resistance to any form of referential norm, and its insistence that there are alternative perspectives, other ways of understanding the world and practicing life. It creates space for the construction of individual, group and local values, identities, and knowledge. In education, valuing diversity enables a pedagogy of difference, the creation of new knowledge, and new thought through the provocation of an encounter with otherness. It is a profoundl y democratic value, welcoming participation of all on their own terms and with their own perspectives.
“The risk of diversity lies in its possible reduction to a disconnected individualism or a group self-interest, which has no room for interdependence and relationships of responsibility for others, and no interest in the common good. A further risk arises from reducing opportunities for encounter, if different groups withdraw, or are pushed back into, their territory and selective or segregated institutions. Then diversity is a recipe for endless reproduction of values, identity, and culture.”
Improving Teacher Feedback
“Twice a year feedback does not work in child care,” observes Kay Albrecht in her Exchange article, “Strategies for Diversifying Performance Evaluation and Feedback.” Albrecht continues…
“Teaching young children requires constant fine tuning of the way we teach with the response we get from children. Teaching techniques that work in one situation or with one developmental stage often does not work as well at other stages.
“One of the best ways to increase the frequency of formal feedback to teachers about teaching competence is to share the job with others. When the director is the only one who provides feedback to teachers about competence, the job becomes too big to be completed as often as is necessary. When program coordinators provide feedback to lead teachers, lead teachers provide feedback to assistant teachers, and so forth, the job of providing feedback on a more frequent basis becomes more manageable. In order to share the role of competency evaluation, several prerequisites must be in place. First, the evaluation of competence must be separated from the evaluation of compensation. Second, a teaching competency evaluation tool that reflects your program’s philosophy must be developed and approved by teachers. Third, teachers need training on how to give both positive and negative feedback and how to develop and monitor improvement plans that are the outcome of the process.”
How Do You Use Color?
October 13, 2011
Our only security is our ability to change.
-John Lilly
The latest Exchange publication, Rating Observation Scale for Inspiring Environments, which is an evaluation tool for the Exchange book Inspiring Spaces for Young Children, provides an opportunity to evaluate among other things, the way color is used in your program. Inspiring Spaces offers this insight on using color:
“Color can be powerful in both positive and negative ways. It can evoke feelings and emotions, give importance to areas or objects, define spaces, and reflect children’s homes or communities. Sometimes, however, color can have a negative effect. Using many colors in a classroom results in a chaotic feeling because it is too visually stimulating. Also, keep in mind the intensity of the colo rs in the classroom. Bright yellows, reds, and blues can overwhelm children’s emotional well being, so use primary colors conservatively…
“Most centers do not have an abundance of money to spend on paint, wall coverings, and carpets. Therefore, when choosing colors for larger items, it is important to think neutral, as these colors tend to outlast trends. Then bring in splashes of trendy colors with inexpensive decorative elements such as area rugs, wall hangings, pillows, and children’s artwork.”
A New View of Toddlers
October 12, 2011
The difference between failure and success is doing a thing nearly right and doing a thing exactly right.
-Edward Simmons
“When we focus on what [toddlers] can’t do, rather than on their capabilities, we have a diminished view of toddlers, which limits what we offer them and taints the experience of our responses to their efforts,” argues Margie Carter in her article, “Encouraging a New View of Toddlers,” in the Exchange Essential, “Caring for Infants and Toddlers.” Carter continues…
“When toddlers are engaged in typical behaviors, i.e., climbing on tables, running away, grabbing a toy, screaming in objection to something asked of them, how could we meet up with their minds, rather than focus on their behaviors? A mindset of curiosity rather than compliance can begin to transform our responses. Seeking the child’s point of view, wondering what is on his or her mind, offers us new possibilities. Perhaps we’ll see a child wanting a connection with another child, rather than aggressive behavior; an eager explorer, rather than an impatient child; a person longing for some power, a sense of agency, rather than a defiant or mischievous two year old.”
Pushing ECE Practices Up
Pushing ECE Practices Up
October 6, 2011
One day in perfect health is much.
-Arabian Proverb
As the Pew Center on the States concludes its 10-year initiative to advance pre-kindergarten for all three and four-year-olds, it has released the final report of its Pre-K Now campaign, “Transforming Public Education: Pathway to a Pre-K-12 Future”, which strongly advocates that policymakers transform public education by moving away from our current K-12 system. One key recommendation is that the K-12 system incorporates play-based, child-centered approaches into its classes. The report states…
“Direct instruction has an important place in classrooms, but those dominated by teacher-centered approaches tend not to maximize learning. Instead, teachers trained to convert child development research into practice know how to complement direct instruction by structuring and facilitating activities in which children have a more dynamic role: creative play, working with manipulatives, independent or small group projects. These teachers are at the ready to provide feedback and to help children connect what they are doing to targeted concepts. Such intentional practices, common in high-quality early programs, foster social-emotional development and cognitive skills by giving children opportunities to exercise their curiosity and bring their own experiences into the learning environment.”
