What to look for in a Preschool

A Developmentally Appropriate Preschool

1. Children select their own activities from among a variety of learning areas the teacher prepares, including dramatic play, blocks, science, math, games, and puzzles, books, art, or music.
2. Children are involved in concrete, three –dimensional learning activities, with materials closely related to their daily life experiences.
3. Children work individually or in small groups much of the time. Different children are doing different things.
4. Teachers ask questions which encourage children to give more than one right answer.
5. Teachers use activities such as block building, measuring ingredients for cooking,
woodworking, and drawing to help children learn concepts in math, science, and social studies.
6. Children use a variety of art media, including easel and finger painting, and clay, in a self-creative way.
7. When the teacher attempts to get children involved in activities, she does so by stimulating children’s natural curiosity and interest.
8. Children have opportunities to use pegboards, puzzles, legos, markers, scissors, or other materials in ways the children choose.

(Answers should be yes for all of the following questions)

Physical Environment

1. Does the classroom seem to be the children’s place or the teacher’s place?
2. Are children’s creative artworks displayed throughout the room?
3. Does the teacher continually replace or rearrange materials in classroom centers to support children’s changing interests? (ex. Dramatic play)
4. Is there a large quantity and wide variety of books?

Curriculum

1. Does the curriculum incorporate each child’s personal experiences?
2. Are children able to suggest topics of exploration?
3. Does the teacher recognize and support children’s different learning styles?
4. Does the school honor all children’s efforts instead of focusing on academic “stars”?
5. Does the teacher pay attention to individual children’s interests and provide opportunities for them to pursue those interests?
6. Does the teacher frequently group children according to their interests, instead of grouping them by ability?
7. Do children have many opportunities to express themselves and explore ideas through art,
music, and plays?
8. Do children have many opportunities to write notes, letters, lists, diaries, stories, and songs?
9. Does the teacher treat children’s writings seriously by “publishing” some and sharing it with other classes, and families, etc.?
10. Does the program measure each child’s accomplishments in comparison to that child’s earlier work through the use of portfolios?

Interactions in the Classroom

1. Are children encouraged to talk with each other?
2. Are there times when children can tell imaginative and true stories of their own experiences?
3. Are children encouraged to listen to everyone’s ideas as they work on projects in groups?
4. Do they have opportunities throughout the day to work and play in pairs and small groups?
5. Does the teacher really listen to the children?
6. Does she respond to children’s specific ideas and questions instead of making general comments like “good idea” or “we’ll get to that later”?
7. Does the teacher pay attention to and use different communication styles?
8. Does she sit at the children’s eye level?
9. Does the teacher intervene when children hurt each other’s feelings?
10. Does she help children figure out reasons for conflicts and support their problem solving, rather than simply discouraging insults?
11. Does the teacher observe rather than lead the activity in the room much of the time?


Not a Developmentally Appropriate Preschool

1. When teachers try to get children involved in activities, they do so by requiring their participation, giving rewards, disapproving of failure to participate, etc.
2. Art projects involve copying an adult-made model, coloring pre-drawn forms, finishing a project the teacher has started, or following other adult directions.
3. Teachers expect children to respond correctly with one right answer. Memorization and drill are emphasized.
4. Teachers expect children to sit down, watch, be quiet, and listen or do paper and pencil tasks for major periods of time.
5. Children use a lot of workbooks, ditto sheets, flash cards, and other abstract or two-dimensional learning materials.
6. Large group, teacher-directed instruction is used most of the time. Children are doing the same things at the same time.

Family Engagement and Early Childhood Education

I recently read an article for a professional development college class I'm taking on authentic assessment and found it interesting. I wanted to share it, because my goal for the upcoming year is to incorporate a lot more authentic assessment into my preschool program. I'm hoping to strengthen my partnership between parents, and families to increase the awareness of children's developments in social, language, motor skills, and cognitive development. Below is a summary of the article.

“Family Engagement and Early
Childhood Education” by Kyle Snow, Ph.D

This article did some recent studies to find out the importance of family involvement in early education experiences. They used studies to show two waves of data from the year 1993 and the year 2007. The study showed that the degree to which parental expectations for what children need to enter school have changed over time, but the frequency of specific family activities that contribute to children’s readiness were lower or unchanged between the years. The findings showed that the children had greater skills (e.g. identifying colors, recognizing letters, counting beyond 20, writing their name, reading written words, and reading storybooks) than the children in 1993. With little change in support from home and family, the author suggests the change comes from children attending early childhood programs. This in turn demands programs to have greater accountability in assessing the children and informing the families about the children’s progress and growth. Because meaningful family engagement in children’s early learning supports school readiness and later academic success, parental involvement is critical to a child’s education. An analysis of NAEYC data revealed that bringing families into the assessment process is among the hardest criteria for programs to meet. Development and learning are strongly reinforced and family involvement is inspired when a child’s progress can be tied to classroom and home activities. Teachers need to use best assessment practices and work with parents in a partnership to share strengths and work on areas of potential concern for the child. Children benefit from authentic assessments in early childhood programs and increased family engagement.

How to Best Get Children Ready for School and Life

How to Best Get Children Ready for School and Life

"Lessons of Highly Effective Programs" quoted from a HighScope Resource Magazine for Educators (winter edition 2010) and written by Dr. Larry Schweinhart

(I recently read this article and wanted to share excerpts from it with whoever may be interested because I feel so strongly that preschool does have a huge impact on a child's life! -Jenni Wilde-)

In 2009, Arne Duncan, the United States Secretary of Education proclaimed that "Early learning is on the cusp today of transformational reform. It is time to transform early learning from a system of uneven quality and access into a system that truly and consistently prepares children for success in school and in life."

Some highly effective early childhood programs have been shown by research studies to contribute to children's development with an intensity that leads to lifetime effects on school success, adult economic productivity, and crime reduction and resultant economic return far greater than the original investment.

The key components of a Highly Effective Program are a validated curriculum, well trained and qualified teachers, parent involvement, and regular assessment of the child's development.

The curriculum should be one in which the children are treated as active learners. The preschool should focus on a variety of activities, including individualized and interactive learning, small group activities, and frequent teacher feedback. Curriculum content should be based around -language, literacy, and communication -mathematics -creative arts - science and technology -social studies -social and emotional development and -approaches to learning.

Early childhood programs should fully engage parents as genuine partners in their children's education through ongoing communication, and involvement in school activities.

The National Association of Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies(NACCRRA) recommends that child care teachers have at least an associates degree in early childhood education. In 2002, only 33% of preschool teachers were qualified.

In 2009 three studies were done on highly effective early childhood programs. Results showed positive short term effects on intellectual performance; later positive effects on school achievement; placement on grade level and not in special education; high school graduation; reduction in criminal arrests; reduction in teenage pregnancy; improved adult employment rates and earnings; improved college enrollment. All three studies found substantial returns that far exceeded what money was spent on preschool investment.

The evidence presented here suggests that preschools need a validated curriculum, qualified and/or well-supervised teachers, outreach to parents, and regular assessment of program implementation and children's development.

A massive shift in public priorities is critical to the future of child care in the United States, but until then, we have to the best we can for the sake of all our children!

"We have a rare opportunity to better recognize and treat highly effective early childhood programs in schools and community agencies as a genuine investment with enormous returns." (Schweinhart, 2010)

Sign Language

American Sign Language

I have taught sign language to my classes since I started teaching preschool in 2007. It amazes me how quickly the children pick up on it. They seem to enjoy learning the sign for each letter and additional words that go with the curriculum. I've seen how it has made their learning more concrete when they can put a visual sign to the letter or word we are learning. By the end of each school year 80% of the students know the entire alphabet in ASL and the remainder of the students know the majority of the letters.

Why do I teach American Sign Language (ASL)?

The Effects of ASL on Increasing the Language & Literacy Skills of Young Hearing Children:

The most exciting research currently being conducted is focused on documenting the effects that learning sign language has on the development of language and literacy skills of young hearing children. In two different studies (Capirci, 1998) ASL was taught in context to children. In both studies those who received the instruction scored higher on tests in visual discrimination and spatial memory than did the groups of children who did not receive any signing instruction. Additional studies (Daniels, 1994) have consistently found that young hearing children of hearing parents who learned ASL in a school context, demonstrated a greater understanding of English vocabulary and achieved higher scores on the PPVT than their peers who did not receive any instruction.
It has also been documented that when young children are ready to learn how to read, that the learning of sign language can strengthen and increase oral language and literacy skills. It was observed that hearing children of deaf parents were often reading before they began school because their parents had fingerspelled with them. The researchers concluded that these children were able to make the connection between the manual letters of fingerspelling and the printed letters on a page. We have also learned a great deal about multiple intelligences from Howard Gardner and the importance of understanding and identifying the wide variety of individual learning styles as well as the importance of multi-sensory teaching. Sign language involves seeing, hearing, and movement. This is the perfect combination of how young children learn best. Using the multi-sensory approaches of sign language, children are able to use both sides of the brain, thus creating multiple pathways, which can strengthen memory and build connections for further learning. In conclusion, teaching sign language has incredible benefits for all young children. Its multi-sensory approach increases and builds language and literacy skills, motivates young learners through their natural desire for constant movement, and provides an atmosphere of play and fun!

Quoted from Sign Language Fun in the Early Childhood Classroom