Instructor Resources and Supplemental Materials

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Instructor Resources and Supplemental Materials

Instructor Resources and Supplemental Materials
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
Expectation for High School Graduates:
Develop an Understanding of How People View, Construct, and Interpret History
Grade Level Concept(s) to be mastered Benchmarks
Grade 1 Patterns and chronological order of events of the recent past

Students can:

  1. Identify similarities and differences between themselves and others.
  2. Discuss common and unique characteristics of different cultures using multiple sources of information.
  3. Identify famous Americans from the past who have shown courageous leadership.
  4. Identify and explain the meaning of American national symbols. Symbols to include but not limited to the American flag, bald eagle, Statue of Liberty, Uncle Sam, the Capitol, and the White House.
 Family and cultural traditions in the United States in the past

Students can:

  1. Arrange life events in chronological order.
  2. Identify the components of a calendar. Among topics to include: days of the week, months, and notable events.
  3. Identify past events using a calendar.
  4. Use words related to time, sequence, and change.
Kindergarten Ask questions, share information, and discuss ideas about the past.

Students can:

  1. Ask questions about the past using question starters. Questions to include but not limited to: What did? Where? When did? Which did? Who did? Why did? How did?
  2. Identify information from narrative stories that answer questions about the past and add to our collective memory and history.
  3. Use the word because correctly in the context of personal experience or stories of the past using words. Among words to include: past, present, future, change, first, next, last.
 The first component in the concept of chronology is to place information in sequential order.

Students can:

  1. Order sequence information using words. Among words to include: past, present future, days, weeks, months, years, first, next, last, before, after.
  2. Explore differences and similarities in the lives of children and families of long ago and today.
  3. Explain why knowing the order of events is important
Preschool Change and sequence over time.

Students can:

  1. Use words and phrases correctly related to chronology and time. Among words to include: past, present, future, before, now, later.
  2. Select examples from pictures that illustrate past, present, and future.
  3. Sequence a simple set of activities or events.
  4. Identify an example of change over time that may include examples from the child’s own growth.
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.

Four apples, two red, two green, arranged in an alternating pattern.iStockphoto / Thinkstock

Early childhood educators believe that the use of materials from the real world provides more meaningful learning than the use of worksheets.

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.

Scope and Sequence

A commercial curriculum may contain a scope and sequence, a graphic in chart form that represents how and when particular concepts and skills are developed over time when the curriculum is implemented as intended. For example, the website for the Success for All Curiosity Corner preschool curriculum includes an excerpt for the scope and sequence of the reading program for kindergarten.

Teachers may find a scope and sequence useful as a planning resource but must always keep in mind that the needs, characteristics, and interests of their students are the primary priorities in planning (Copple & Bredkamp, 2009). Knowledge and skills represented in a scope and sequence are developed from assumptions about children in general; they may or may not accurately reflect the actual children in your care.

Pacing Guides

Similarlyespecially in public schools, including kindergarten and primary classroomssome districts and programs are developing and implementing pacing guides. These documents, in effect, prescribe or schedule when and how state learning standards are to be addressed in planning for each academic content area over the course of a school year. Theoretically, when they are implemented in the strictest sense, a principal or administrator could expect to visit five first grade classrooms on a single day and see all the children in all the classes doing exactly the same thing at the same time.

Figure 6.3: Worksheets
Worksheets are most often used in elementary school classrooms, but they can be seen in preschools or child-care programs as well. They are not considered to be developmentally appropriate.

Figure: Worksheet titled "Little Red Riding Hood Pattern Activity." The worksheet has two rows with five squares. The first row shows little red riding hood in the first and third squares, and a wolf in the second and fourth squares. The fifth square is empty. The second row shows a basket in the first and third squares and little red riding hood in the second and fourth squares. The fifth square is empty. There is a third row that has little red riding hood, the wolf, and the basket. Directions at the bottom of the worksheet read, "Teacher Directions: Have child point to pictures in each row from left to right, and say name: Red Riding Hood, wolf, Red Riding Hood, wolf...Ask the child what picture should come next. Have child cut out the three pictures in bottom row and paste correct picture to complete pattern in each row."

While the goal of pacing guides is to ensure that all children are experiencing the same curriculum, their use in the primary grades is widely discouraged by early childhood experts and professional organizations (Datnow & Castellano, 2000; David, 2008; David & Greene, 2007; Louis, Febey, & Schroeder, 2005; Sornson, 2016). From a practical perspective, however, a comprehensive pacing guide can be very helpful as a resource (Kauffman, Johnson, Kardos, Liu, & Peske, 2002). Pacing guides may include many ideas for activities, themes, and strategies that can be implemented in developmentally appropriate ways.

Graphic Organizers

Graphic organizers are simple charts, diagrams, or templates that represent multiple concepts and the connections between them (Figure 6.4). They are useful with young children to help them visualize ideas. You will see several examples of different kinds of graphic organizers in this and later chapters. There are literally hundreds of examples on websites; these often provide free downloadable examples that teachers can use for planning and organizing activities. At the end of this chapter is a short list of online resources for graphic organizers.

Figure 6.4: Venn Diagram
A graphic organizer provides a visual representation of ideas or information. One example of such a device is a Venn diagram, which illustrates where ideas or facts about two separate things overlap.

Figure: A yellow circle and a blue circle overlap, creating a green section between the two circles.iStockphoto / Thinkstock

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