Identifying and Understanding Resources
Teachers and caregivers use many different kinds of resources and materials that help them select, organize, and evaluate activities to support curricular goals, objectives, and standards. Since early childhood curricular options (as discussed in Chapter 1) range from open-ended approaches to specific models, the types of materials teachers use to plan can vary widely as well. This section describes a variety of concrete tools and how you can use them in your planning.
Primary and Secondary Resources
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Primary resources are works produced by the authors of a curriculum model or approach that describe the theoretical premises, philosophy, and tenets that guide the teacher to implement the curriculum with fidelity to its principles. For example, The Hundred Languages of Children, initially published in 1994 by Edwards, Gandini, and Forman (revised in 1998), and the writings of Loris Malaguzzi are considered essential resources for Reggio Emilia educators.
Secondary resources can also be very useful but do not originate from the founders or authors of a program. For example, secondary Reggio Emilia resources would include such things as books and articles published by authors outside of Reggio Emilia, and media such as blogs and program websites. These resources provide helpful insights into the ways in which teacher educators, program directors, and teachers interpret the Reggio Emilia approach for American schools and classrooms.
Waldorf educators rely on the writings of Rudolph Steiner to make sure that the classroom environment and activities they plan are consistent with the programs original vision and purpose. Similarly, officially sponsored training programs for Montessori teachers are based on and informed by the ideas expressed by Maria Montessori in the books she wrote over a span of many years.
Remember that planning for any curriculum includes keeping abreast of current studies (Chapter 2) and the ongoing development of the theories that support them. For example, in the second edition of their book, Bodrova and Leong (2006) described how Tools of the Mind was conceived from a Vygotskian perspective on social constructivism and continues to evolve. They have produced many subsequent publications and media presentations reporting on the achievement effects of implementation in various settings and how those results impact their ongoing conceptualization of the curriculum. Teachers using the Tools curriculum would certainly want to incorporate those evolving ideas as they plan activities.
The NAEYC publications describing developmentally appropriate principles and practices also serve as primary resources for early childhood educators (Copple & Bredekamp, 2009). Since DAP is not a specific curriculum but offers guidelines for how to think about curriculum, it provides the overarching frame of reference from which all planning decisions should be made.
Learning Standards
As explained in previous chapters, as part of the No Child Left Behind legislation, most states wrote developmental early learning standards and K-12 academic learning standards for each content area indicating what children are expected to know and be able to do by the end of each age or grade level. As of 2012, that initiative was expanded to adoption of uniform core standards for kindergarten through grade 12 math and language arts in all but five states (Virginia, Wisconsin, Alaska, Texas, and Nebraska).
Learning standards provide teachers with planning guidance, as standards are typically framed to describe (1) exit goals for high school graduates, (2) statements about what a child is expected to know or be able to do at incremental points in time between kindergarten and high school graduation, and (3) indicators or benchmarks that suggest what a teacher might observe that provides evidence a child is meeting standards. Table 6.2 displays information excerpted from the 2009 Colorado Social Studies Standards representing one example of how the standard for history is addressed from preschool through grade 1.
You can see that as this standard is worded, it does not specify what activities, themes, or lessons a teacher should plan or what books, resources, or materials to use, but it does provide direction about what should be accomplished. A standard does not dictate what to teach, when to teach it, how much time to spend on a topic, or even what teaching strategies or materials to use. Those are decisions and plans made by schools, programs, and teachers.
Early learning standards address what children in preschool should know and be able to do and are written in a format similar to K12 academic standards. The National Early Childhood Technical Assistance Center provides extensive information about early learning standards for each state. Using standards to guide the planning and implementation of a curriculum is discussed in further detail in the last section of this chapter and in later chapters as they apply to different areas of curriculum.