Families as Primary Curriculum Resources If you reach out to the families in your classroom, you will find that they enrich your curriculum tremendously. Every group of children brings a host of familial language, cultural, occupational, and personal knowledge that, when combined, forms a unique community in ways both obvious and subtle. Luis Moll and […]
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Sending the Curriculum Home Inventive teachers also employ practical strategies to directly extend children’s curriculum activities from school to home. Academic homework is inappropriate for young children. But you could, for example, create a “traveling suitcase” or book bag (Gestwicki, 2004) with items that a child might not have at home but that the family
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Planned Events That Engage Families More From the Field Preschool teacher Sonia Sandoval describes the importance of honoring different types of families, and of being inclusive when celebrating families’ traditions and cultures. Critical Thinking Question How will you help ensure that all families feel included in all aspects of the classroom and program? Events provide
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Providing Access to Curriculum Resources First, parents should be able to see printed information about the curriculum and relevant books, articles, or other references they can read or review at any time. If a purchased curriculum is being used, samples of teacher resource books, printed assessment materials, and examples of print materials that children use
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Informational and Interactive Events and Programs More From the Field Administrators work hard to help parents feel involved and connected in their child’s education. Preschool director Lynda Way talks about how to determine in which decisions parents can be involved and which they should not. Critical Thinking Questions Do you agree with Lynda’s position? Why
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Stop and Reflect Since a blog represents an online forum for sharing ideas or experiences with others and may be interactive, it has many potential applications. Can you think of a way you might use a blog in your classroom or care setting? Do you think there might be potential privacy issues associated with blogging
Blog Entry In this blog entry from the first week of the study a few of the children went with one of the teachers on a test run of the bus system to get maps from the City Visitor Center. Many of the subsequent posts were dictated by children to the teacher. The blog also
Using Technologies for Documentation and Communication With advances in user-friendly technologies, teachers now have at their disposal many options for creating documentation (Berson & Berson, 2010). Many tools are currently available that can serve to streamline the process and help families feel a part of the daily learning experiences of their children. Certainly the digital
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The Power of Documentation Making the curriculum visible in the classroom and other appropriate areas of the school sends a powerful message to allchildren, families, and communitythat what young children learn and do is important. As mentioned in Chapter 2, visual documentation of learning is a concept associated with and highly developed in the Reggio
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Helping Families to Understand the Curriculum As you begin to develop reciprocal relationships with families, you will want to share information about developmentally appropriate practice (DAP) with regard to curriculum; this will provide a foundation for further discussion (Copple & Bredekamp, 2009; Gestwicki, 2011). For example, programs and teachers can: Include a statement in promotional
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