Tacoma Public Schools

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Tacoma Public Schools

• THIS THING CALLED KINDERGARTEN
• Intentional Teaching
• in Kindergarten

Learning and Leadership Conference August 18-21,
2008
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Group Agreements

• RESPECT OTHERS
• SIDE TALK
• If you need talk or think time, please pause me.
• Be respectful to each other
• CELL PHONES
• Off or on vibrate
• RESPECT TIME
• Let me suggest we start and finish on time
• PERSONAL NEEDS
• Bathroom breaks anytime
• Stand in back if needed
• Group Breaks scheduled
• ASK QUESTIONS AS NEEDED

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Goals for the Workshop

• To introduce Intentional Teaching Terms
• Review Best Practices to Support Intentional
  Teaching
• Briefly review teaching, curriculum, and
  assessment in Kindergarten
• Discuss Guiding Principles of Intentional
  Teaching
• Look at Trends and Policy Issues for Making the
  Most of Kindergarten

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Language and Literacy

• Four abilities noted in research done by Snow and
  her colleagues (1998) that says preschoolers must
  develop to become speakers, readers, and writers
• Phonological Awareness
• Comprehension
• Print Awareness
• Alphabet Knowledge

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Research

• Recent and past NAEYC publications, including
  the classic Reaching Potentials Appropriate
  Curriculum and Assessment for Young Children
  (Bredekamp Rosegrant 1992), emphasize that
  child-initiated learning never meant that
  teachers didnt teach. Good early learning
  programs are, of necessity, highly organized and
  structured environments that teachers have
  carefully prepared and in which teachers are in
  control. The difference is that children are
  also actively involved and assume some
• responsibility for their own learning.

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The Meaning of Intentional

• To act purposefully, with a goal in mind and a
  plan for accomplishing it
• Thus, an intentional teacher aims at clearly
  defined learning objectives for children, employs
  instructional strategies likely to help children
  achieve the objectives, and continually assesses
  progress and adjusts the strategies based on that
  assessment. Epstein, pg.4

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Elements of Good Intentional Teaching

• High Expectations
• Planning and Management
• Learning-Oriented Classroom
• Engaging Activities
• Thoughtful Questioning
• Feedback

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Meaning of Teaching

• Teaching is the knowledge, beliefs, attitudes,
  and especially the behaviors and skills teachers
  employ in their work with learners.

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Areas of Competency in Teaching

• Curriculum the knowledge and skills teachers are
  expected to teach and children are expected to
  learn, and the plans for experiences through
  which learning takes place
• Pedagogy the ways teachers promote childrens
  development and learning
• Assessmentthe process of determining how
  children are progressing toward expected outcomes
  of learning and development

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Structuring the Physical Learning Environment

• Provide a safe and healthy indoor and outdoor
  environment
• Organize the space in interest areas or centers
• Supply plentiful and diverse equipment and
  materials
• Display work created by and of interest to
  children

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Scheduling the Program Day

• Establish a consistent yet flexible daily routine
• Allow for a variety of types of activities
• Use a variety of groupings
• Allow just enough time for each type of activity

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Interacting with Children

• Meet basic physical needs
• Create a warm and caring atmosphere
• Encourage and support language and communication
• Encourage initiative
• Introduce information and model skills
• Acknowledge childrens activities and
  accomplishments
• Support peer interactions
• Encourage independent problem solving

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Building Relationships with Families

• Exchange information about the curriculum and how
  it promotes childrens development
• Provide information about how to extend learning
  at home

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Assessing Childrens Development

• Use assessment results to plan for individual
  children and the group as a whole
• Use assessment results to identify areas for
  professional development

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Fitting the Learning Experience to the Learning
Objective Language, Reading, and Writing

• Child-guided experience is especially important
  for learnings such as
• Sound awareness and production
• Conversational skills
• Visual discrimination skills
• Environmental print knowledge
• Print awareness
• Motivation to interact with printed materials
• Fine motor skills
• Awareness of the purposes and functions of
  written words

• Adult-guided experience is especially important
  for learnings such as
• Phonological awareness
• Vocabulary
• Knowledge of narrative comprehension
• The relationship between spoken and written
  language
• Alphabet knowledge Letter identification and
  letter-sound knowledge
• Letter and word writing
• Awareness of the conventions of spelling,
  grammar, syntax and punctuation

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Fitting the Learning Experience to the Learning
Objective Mathematics and Scientific Inquiry

• Child-guided experience is especially important
  for learnings such as
• Intuiting number and its properties
• Performing informal arithmetic
• Familiarity with two- and three-dimensional
  shapes and their attributes
• Orienting self and objects in space
• Comparing (seriating) or estimating without
  counting or measuring
• Recognizing, copying, and creating simple
  patterns
• Recognizing naturally occurring change
• Making collections, sorting/classifying by
  attributes

• Adult-guided experience is especially important
  for learnings such as
• Counting and numeration
• Performing simple arithmetic
• Creating, naming, and transforming shapes
• Articulating position, location, direction, and
  distance
• Counting or measuring to quantify differences
• Identifying and extending complex patterns
• Controlling change
• Representing gathered information
• Interpreting and applying information

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Fitting the Learning Experience to the Learning
Objective Social Skills and Understandings

• Child-guided experience is especially important
  for learnings such as
• Developing a positive self-identity
• Feeling empathy
• Developing a sense of community
• Engaging in cooperative play
• Valuing diversity
• Developing a framework for moral behavior

• Adult-guided experience is especially important
  for learnings such as
• Developing feelings of competence
• Recognizing and labeling emotions
• Engaging in conflict resolution
• Creating and following rules
• Creating and participating in democracy

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Fitting the Learning Experience to the Learning
Objective Physical Movement

• Child-guided experience is especially important
  for learnings such as
• Locomotor skills crawling, walking, running,
  climbing
• Stability skills turning, twisting, bending,
  straightening, curling, stretching/extending,
  swinging, swaying, pushing, pulling, rising,
  falling, dodging, stopping
• Manipulative skills throwing, kicking
• Space awareness self space, shared space
• Effort awareness time (speeds)
• Body/relationship awareness with my-self (body
  parts, body shapes)

• Adult-guided experience is especially important
  for learnings such as
• Locomotor skills marching, plodding, hopping,
  galloping, sliding, slithering, leaping, chasing,
  fleeing, skipping
• Stability skills transferring weight, balancing,
  jumping/landing, rolling
• Manipulative skills catching/collecting,
  punting, dribbling, volleying, striking with a
  racket, striking with a long-handled instrument
• Space awareness levels, directions, pathways
• Effort awareness time (rhythms), force,
  control/flow
• Body/relationship awareness with myself (roles),
  with other movers and objects

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Fitting the Learning Experience to the Learning
Objective The Visual Arts

• Child-guided experience is especially important
  for learnings such as
• Manipulating two- and three- dimensional art
  materials and tools
• Making representations from experience
• Making accidental representations
• Making simple representations
• Focusing on one aspect of artwork
• Making simple aesthetic choices
• Recognizing and understanding the feelings
  expressed through artwork

• Adult-guided experience is especially important
  for learnings such as
• Naming art materials, tools, and actions
• Becoming adept at using two- and
  three-dimensional art materials and tools
• Making representations using imagination
• Making intentional representations
• Making complex representations
• Naming artistic media, elements, and techniques
• Focusing on multiple aspects of artwork
• Articulating the reasons for aesthetic choices
• Describing and articulating the feelings
  expressed through artwork
• Recognizing cultural and temporal influences on
  art

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Guiding Principles For Intentional Teaching In
Kindergarten

• Teach with intention (see attached sheet)
• Intentional teachers support child-guided
  learning experiences
• Intentional teachers employ adult-guided learning
  experiences

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Final Thoughts

• There is still more that we as professionals
  can explore about how to foster child- and
  adult-guided experience in the early years.
  Advancing the concept of the intentional teacher
  will require further theoretical work, research,
  curriculum development, staff training and
  mentoring, program evaluation, child observation,
  administrative leadership, and reflective
  practice. (Epstein 2007)