Knowing and Connecting with the Community If you have lived in the community where you work, you will already have some familiarity with the stores, neighborhoods, businesses, schools, and hospitals that make up the community. If you are not familiar with the area, you can make an effort to get to know these features over […]
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Communities as Primary Curriculum Resources Bridgepoint Education In this image, volunteers, with the support of corporate sponsors, are painting a school. This is an example of how community partnerships can be mutually beneficial. Every content area of a curriculum is represented in the real world by individuals, organizations, businesses, and the natural/physical environment. Teachers and
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Collaborating with the Community A developmentally appropriate approach to the curriculum assumes that teachers consider communities an important source of information for planning (Copple & Bredekamp, 2009; Gestwicki, 2011). This requires that teachers and administrators figure out how to gather and share information and successfully integrate the community into the lives of their children in
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Strategies for Involving Families in Your Curriculum More From the Field Douglas Regin stresses the importance of parent involvement in their child’s education. Critical Thinking Question Douglas describes monthly meetings as an effective collaborative strategy. What challenges might you foresee in setting up these regular meetings? How might you overcome these challenges? If you have
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Classroom Map From charting family survey data, you learn that you have family members who might be able to support a study of community helpers (nurse, law enforcement); there is expertise related to growing, producing, distributing, and preparing foods and learning about stores and services; there also might be interesting possibilities for photography and music.
Family Map From this family map you can see that Joseph lives with a bilingual extended family. They own a landscaping business. His mother is a nurse and she is expecting their third child. The family enjoys camping and fishing. The family reports that Joseph is generally happy but fights with his brother. He seems
Examples of Interview or Family Survey Questions Questions about the Child Questions about the Family What are your child’s favorite activities? What are your child’s least favorite activities? Who does your child like to play with? What are your child’s food preferences? Does your child have any particular fears? Does your child enjoy being read
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Learning About and Connecting with Families There are several useful strategies you can use to begin gathering information to help you connect your curriculum with the children and their families. In this section we will consider three: (1) questionnaires and interviews, (2) family mapping, and (3) storytelling. Asking parents to complete an informational questionnaire or
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Antibias Curriculum Further support for these perspectives comes from the antibias curriculum guidelines developed by Louise Derman-Sparks and Julie Olsen Edwards (2010). The premise of antibias curriculum is that a central focus of our work should be “to support children’s full development in our multiracial, multilingual, multicultural world and to give them the tools to
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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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