Morning routines and rituals often focus on establishing safety and security within the learning community. As the day progresses, we develop routines for content areas that are driven by academic expectations and standards. This does not mean that the concepts in the routines need to become dry and detached from connection and meaning.
Reflecting on and reconsidering everyday routines in all areas gives us the opportunity to discover new ways to approach learning with connection.
We recognize that teachers all have different areas of growth and comfort levels, especially in the area of innovating with technology. In an effort to offer different levels of support, this section is dedicated to letting you into the thinking behind our work. It is our hope that by sharing our thinking, we will help each teacher to develop a mindset that inspires even more creative energy in the classroom.
Rather than starting with technology, all of the experiences we are about to share have unfolded from the big-picture ideas that we value as educators. Here are some of the types of questions that we kept in mind as we set out to develop a foundation for broadening literacy, math, and science routines:
- How can we support children in making deeper connections to the experience of reading?
- How do we bridge the worlds of books and digital media?
- How do we safely and thoughtfully simulate the experiences of consuming visual information and text that are out in the world?
- How can we support the development of a mathematical and scientific mindset that expands the natural connections children make to learning in the world?
- How can we use technology to reframe and more actively include learners in the collection and analysis of data?
- Why is it important to collect multiple sets of data? How can we easily include meaningful data from multiple sources in order to compare and contrast, ask questions, and draw conclusions?
- As districts across the country work to implement Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), how can we use free tools to approach instruction with depth and authenticity?
- How can we use the structure of daily routines to create rich context for literacy, along with mathematical and scientific application of ideas?
- How does perspective shift when we move beyond observing what is in front of us to a larger view of the world?
As the questions driving our decisions became clearer, we created a foundation we could draw upon as we developed the practical facilitation of the experience. We zeroed in on our big ideas for routines across curricular areas, which are as follows:
- Literacy experiences are often built upon a series of connections that can be experienced, captured, documented, and extended through digital tools.
- Digital literacy represents an important element of learning that should be included in the process of developing emergent literacy skills and strategies.
- Digital tools offer multiple ways for children to collect and visualize information.
- Virtual spaces open up opportunities for collaboration between classrooms in order to communicate and analyze multiple sets of data. Using multimedia tools to collect information allows children to create a window into their immediate world that can be shared with others.
- Collaborative collection and sharing of data allow children to interpret on a local and global scale, supporting them in becoming thinkers beyond the walls of the classroom.
Taking time to ask questions and identify the big ideas that can focus your innovation efforts is an empowering approach for educators. It will not only help you to create a meaningful course of action but will constantly keep you and your students focused as you carry out these routines on a daily basis. This mindset is particularly important for routines that will be revisited every day of the school year. It is through the big ideas that we ensure our instruction continues to develop and grow in ways that meet our students’ needs on all levels, support the transfer of learning to the larger world, and create exciting and joyful moments in and beyond our classrooms each and every day.
Applying the Mindset and Lesson Planning
In this section of the book you will see different ways that we use the Innovating Play Cycle to facilitate learning experiences across the curriculum. We will share how we reimagine traditional literacy approaches as we connect with texts, ideas, and each other. We apply the idea of wonder to delve deeper into emergent literacy skills, strategies, and concepts. We take our curiosity beyond the idea of comprehension and pave the way for children to play with books and stories. Through this approach, they develop deeper personal connections to the texts and contribute to collaborative digital creations within and between classrooms. Digital class books, videos, and projects reflect the rich experiences in which the children discover as active participants and creators.
As we develop daily routines and special projects in areas of literacy, math, and science, we constantly return to the Innovating Play Cycle to ground these learning experiences. While we talk you through the application of the process for daily routines such as the days of school or weather collaboration, we also offer examples of specific projects for which a lesson plan framework is provided in the resources section. This lesson plan is meant to guide the planning of focused curricular projects between classes in order to ensure a rich, sta...