Transforming Teaching

Creating Lesson Plans for Child-Centered Learning

Marie Masterson

• Publisher: The National Association for the Education of Young Children
• Year: 2021
• ISBN:
  9781938113840
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education Teaching Methods

Child-centered lesson planning can have a daily positive impact on your time and energy and on the quality of children's learning and engagement—but it takes organization and a toolbox full of strategies and ideas.

Whether you are just beginning your career in early childhood education or have many years of experience in the classroom, this book helps you to assess where you are and what you are doing and provides you with tips and resources to inspire creative, developmentally appropriate teaching approaches.

In each chapter, you'll find

• Real-life examples showing what is possible when teachers work together to enrich and personalize teaching.
• Links to early learning guidelines and standards to maximize planning and communication
• Ideas for dramatic play themes that relate to daily life, families, cultures, and communities
• Strategies to infuse rich vocabulary experiences that scaffold language development, support executive function skills, and strengthen self-regulation
• Tips to help you evaluate and adapt spaces and materials to address physical needs
• Examples for how to support dual language learners
• Ways to integrate family engagement as a strength and asset for development and learning

Book Features

The following features invite you to dig deeper and apply what you read to your own setting:

• Daily teaching scenarios. The illustrated classroom examples show teaching in action and represent a variety of pre-K settings and situations. Here, you will see the principles and strategies presented in practical and useful ways.
• Tips for Teaching. This feature details practical skills to maximize your effectiveness in meeting children's learning and social needs. You will find ideas for preparation, observation, materials, vocabulary, supporting learning, encouraging children's choices, and making the most of teaching moments.
• Research Connections. Each chapter introduces easy-to-relate research links between children's development and the activities and interactions that will strengthen emerging skills. These take-away anchors will ensure you know the latest information you need.
• Individualized Teaching. This section will connect the development of children to their relationships with families, communities, and culture. You will find information about facilitating learning for children who are learning multiple languages.
• Balance Points. This feature includes needed behavior supports for self-regulation, strategies to promote executive function, and mediation for stress and trauma.
• Ready Resources. Sources for digging deeper are provided for early screening, adaptation for special needs, technical assistance networks, state early guidelines, creative activities, national organizations, and professional development opportunities.
• Helpful Hints: Quick tips provide pointers to make lesson planning work for you.
• Links to NAEYC Program Accreditation Standards and Assessment Items. This feature anchors curriculum planning, effective teaching, assessment, and family engagement to professional guidelines and high-quality practices.
• Sample lesson plans. Examples with explanatory captions and comments show how to plan a schedule, play areas, prop boxes, book lists and themes, and detailed teaching plans with extensions for playful learning with individualized supports.
• Chapter reflection questions. Practical applications at the end of each chapter will inspire your growth and may be used for personal or group study.

CHAPTER 1

Setting a Foundation for Teaching

Celebrating How Children Learn

Jorge wears a chef’s hat at the sand table. He scoops and sprays sand with water. He packs it firmly into a plastic lid with his hand. “I’m making pupusas con curtido (corn cakes) for mama.” Ms. Aria smiles. “What ingredients do you have?” Jorge answers, “Corn and water.” Ms. Aria offers, “Here is a spatula. The flat blade will spread the dough. Then you can stuff the cabbage. Who is coming for dinner?” Jorge answers, “My sister.” Ms. Aria says, “You can show Arabella how to cook dinner.”

Ms. Aria plans play materials to match what children know. Jorge lives in the city with a large extended family from El Salvador. Often, Jorge’s sisters pick him up from school. Ms. Aria knows the names of all the family members. Her cooking center includes tools like wooden molinillos to whisk coffee, a spatula for spreading masa, and a mortar and pestle for spices. The children use a lightweight griddle with many small bowls. These items are familiar to the children and inspire realistic play.

This week, the theme is helping others. Ms. Aria has specific goals in mind. She watches carefully to see how children use materials. She has written prompts and vocabulary words on a small card. She takes a clipboard with her to write notes about what the children say. A small digital camera fits into a pocket on the back of the clipboard. The children know she will use it to take pictures of them. Teaching requires a balance of active participation and holding back to see what children will do and say.

Ms. Aria’s most effective teaching tool is observing children. Through observation, she learns as much from the children as they do from her. For example, during dramatic play, Emil tries to stack plastic cups by size. He struggles with the cups several times and sighs with frustration. Even though she is tempted to show Emil how the cups fit, Ms. Aria gently prompts, “What would happen if you try the blue cup first?” Emil grins as he inserts the red cup into the blue one. Ms. Aria responds to Emil’s progress. She adds a collection of shells to the science area for Emil and the other children to sort by size and color. By observing emerging skills in one area, she can adjust the level of challenge and complexity in other areas of play to strengthen children’s learning.

While Ms. Aria is an active participant, she waits to introduce a word or new way of using a prop until she finds a natural pause in the children’s conversation. She doesn’t take over what the children are doing but follows their ideas. At times, she helps the children move a table or adjust the space to better support their work. As a play facilitator, she enjoys helping the children engage deeply in imaginative thinking. She helps children find costumes and props to act out characters and stories. She shows them how a box can be a train or a canoe and a scarf can be a cape or turban. She models different ways a pinecone makes interesting patterns when rolled in the sand. She provides markers for children to illustrate a shopping list of ingredients to make a fancy dish. The children are eager to be creative and apply what they know.

Ms. Aria draws the children together in a play circle after free choice time. She asks them to describe the best part of their play. There is a lot of laughter when Jorge says he burned the cabbage and set fire to the pupusas. He says Vania and Mario came to put out the fire. Louis and Max share how they argued during block play about the location for a helicopter port on the hospital roof, so they decided to turn the entire construction into an airport. The other children nod with understanding. The themes of helping and community service come to life when children share their stories. This play circle is a celebration of learning and fun.

TIPS FOR TEACHING

Learning by Observing

Teaching begins by learning from children. Children communicate their interests through play choices and by the props and books they enjoy. They show what they need by their enthusiasm for or hesitation to try new experiences. Children communicate both through what they are doing and through what they are not doing. For example, a child who plays with a shoelace during group reading may be more fully focused than a child who looks at you but needs encouragement to share her ideas. A child wiggling his leg during a fine motor activity may distract other children but is simply trying to contain his energy. You can provide additional space or encourage children to stand at the table rather than sit. You may see a child turn his body away to shield a toy. That’s the time to help him use words to express his needs and to provide additional materials. When children stand alone or are not fully engaged, they show the need for support. Their words, facial expressions, and body language show whether they can manage a situation well or whether they are struggling to cope.

Understanding physical cues takes practice. You need to know each child well and respond in positive, sensitive ways to build their competence. What are you looking for when you observe children? The following questions will help you tune in more fully and set a clear purpose for observation:

› Are there specific skill objectives you want to be sure children attempt or master? What manipulatives and games will foster understanding of a math concept? What areas of phonemic awareness need to be strengthened through repeatable books, songs, or word games? Will inviting children to gather natural objects increase their interest in science journal drawings?

› Do you want to see how children solve problems, monitor tasks, complete projects, approach situations, or interact with others? What ingredients of the setting, social interactions, space, or time restraints are influencing children’s behavior? What strategies are children using to solve learning or social challenges?

› What similarities or patterns do you notice? Do children ask for help before getting frustrated? Do they work independently or cooperate for longer periods of time? Do they show increasing ability to communicate their thinking and ideas? Are there changes in physical skills or behavior regulation? Are some areas of development moving ahead of others?

› What capabilities and interests do you see? Do verbal skills keep pace with children’s needs so they can communicate about what they want? Are fine motor skills strong enough for a specific activity? Do you notice new interests, questions, and ideas?

› What kind of support is needed? What questions will encourage deeper thinking? Are there additional concepts or skills you can model? What vocabulary will enhance children’s ideas? Do you need to teach or review social skills or problem-solving approaches?

› What factors contribute to the success of an activity? Do children have ample space to move freely? Are enough materials present to support the type of play and number of children? Is there a balance of active and quiet play choices? Is there a range of complexity and skill levels to meet the needs of all children?

› What is the best way to document what you see? What do children do or say that shows how they think? What do children say about their activity? What specific notes will capture the emerging skills you see? What “next skills” do you want to introduce to boost knowledge, understanding, or competence?

To support the needs of children, listen, observe, and adapt your responses to make the most of teaching moments. For example, during recess, children notice trees have shaggy and smooth bark. Build on their curiosity and introduce Trees, Leaves, and Bark, by Diane L. Burns, or another picture book to explore in the science area. Evaluate the way they respond and engage. You can use this information to strengthen your lesson planning choices.

Field Note: Being My Best Self

Teaching is all about the children. But it’s also about me. To stay tuned in, I need to be rested and alert. To have meaningful conversations, I need positive energy and focus. I want to be creative and have impact. Just thirty minutes of extra sleep each night makes a difference. Packing healthy snacks on the weekend helps, too. A book club with colleagues keeps me motivated. When I write lesson plans, I’m inspired to be my best self so children can be their best selves. I want them to grow up with the traits they see in me, like creativity, patience, and curiosity.

Helping Children Thrive with Developmentally Appropriate Practice

Ms. Mona tells a story to the children about José and his brother. The boys and their uncle take the bus to el mercado de pescado, the local fish market. It is their grandmother’s birthday and many relatives are coming. The boys tell the storekeeper their mother needs shrimp, saffron, and parsley. They carry the package, pay the bus fare, and travel home. As the children hurry through the front door, they smell the aroma of savory rice. They hug their mother and grandmother.

When the story is finished, Ms. Mona asks the children, “How do you help your family?” Hayden answers, “Mmm. My house smells good. I help mamá eat food.” The children laugh with appreciation. Miguel adds, “I help mamá with our baby.” Ms. Mona says, “Our families depend on us to help.”

Ms. Mona wants the children to understand that families help each other. She begins by talking about something these children know well—taking the bus to the market. Ms. Mona knows the children enjoy weekend meals with relatives. Importantly, she wants the children to recognize themselves in the stories and ideas.

NAEYC’s position statement “Developmentally Appropriate Practice” (2020) was revised to reflect a strengths-based approach to teaching. Teachers must understand that there are many contributions to children’s learning and development, and children are most motivated to learn when they feel a sense of belonging, identity, and value in their classroom community.

A core component of developmentally appropriate practice (DAP) is honoring the personal experiences children have with their families. Experiences must be meaningful, relevant, and respectful to each child and family. This context allows children to identify with and take pride in learning. NAEYC explains that teachers must “fully consider the specific abilities, interests, experiences, and motivations of a particular child or their family’s culture, preferences, values, and child-rearing practices” (NAEYC 2020, 34).

Developmentally appropriate practice requires deep insight into the ways children develop and learn. It involves knowing how emerging skills build on previous skills. Teachers need to recognize skills as they are emerging and what kind of activities and supports can promote learning. Knowing what is individually and culturally appropriate will help ensure each child achieves challenging and achievable learning goals.

The DAP revision moves away from the idea of one “best practice.” It notes that, “Educators who rely on the notion of a single ‘best’ practice often make assumptions based on their own experiences, which may not have involved extensive experiences with a variety of populations. These assumptions can be biased if they do not fully consider the specific abilities, interests, experiences, and motivations of a particular child or their family’s culture, preferences, values, and child-rearing practices when determining the most appropriate practice for that child” (34). It also requires decisions that are “informed by evidence, research, and prof...