Instructor Resources and Supplemental Materials
Published curriculum products may include multiple components that provide specific direction or guidance for planning, such as:
- Teaching manuals that present essential information and guidance about curricular goals, activities, strategies, and assessments
- Supplemental printed matter or masters for duplication (e.g., suggested unit or lesson plans, instructional support such as worksheets, picture charts, and so on)
- Recording and reporting forms
- On-line technical support
- Materials and/or equipment specifically designed for use with children, such as books, toys, learning games, and math, science, music, or other items for learning centers
Table 6.2 Colorado History Standard for Preschool, Kindergarten, and Grade 1 | ||
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Expectation for High School Graduates: Develop an Understanding of How People View, Construct, and Interpret History |
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Grade Level | Concept(s) to be mastered | Benchmarks |
Grade 1 | Patterns and chronological order of events of the recent past
Students can:
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Family and cultural traditions in the United States in the past
Students can:
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Kindergarten | Ask questions, share information, and discuss ideas about the past.
Students can:
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The first component in the concept of chronology is to place information in sequential order.
Students can:
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Preschool | Change and sequence over time.
Students can:
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Source: Adapted from Colorado Department of Education, 2009 |
These resource materials may be accompanied by opportunities for training and professional development designed to assist teachers in planning and implementing activities. Head Start teachers might, for example, engage in several days of regional in-service workshops conducted by Creative Curriculum or High Scope trainers prior to implementation of the curriculum in their programs.
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In consideration of developmentally appropriate principles, teachers should evaluate and incorporate with discretion all materials supplied by any curriculum. The widespread use of worksheets, in particular, is very difficult to justify, as they often represent or contain content or images disconnected from or not representative of childrens real-world ideas and experiences and dont point to a single “right” answer (Copple & Bredekamp, 2009).
For instance, the worksheet in Figure 6.3 intended for a cut-and-paste activity to reinforce the concept of a simple “a/b/a/b/a” pattern sequence, could certainly provide a child with practice in developing the fine motor skills needed to cut out the paper squares or serve as a simple assessment to determine whether the child recognizes an a/b/a/b/a pattern sequence. However, from a developmentally appropriate perspective, these kinds of materials should be set aside in favor of those that give children opportunities to observe patterns in the natural world and to manipulate real objects to replicate and create patterns of different kinds. Apples, leaves, and small toys are all examples of real-world materials that are easily found in or around early childhood classrooms and that children could use to develop their sense of the a/b/a/b pattern sequence.