21 st Century Full-Day K High Impact Teaching for All Learners

1. 21st Century Full-Day KHigh Impact Teaching for All Learners Eva C. Phillips, EdD Minnesota Department of Education FDK Seminar August 18, 2014

2. Goals for Today • Discuss“Why Full-Day Kindergarten?” • Revisit: What We KNOW about Kindergartners • Discusscore components of developmentally appropriate practice • Explorestrategies for practical application in a Kindergarten setting • Explorecomponents of an effective and appropriate learning environment for each and every child • Exploreconnections to learning standards • Reflectand PlanNext Steps

3. Why Kindergarten? • Talk to your neighbor. • How would YOU answer these questions? • Why is the kindergarten year so powerful? • Why do we need a focus on kindergarten? • Why do we need to have full-day kindergarten? • Why are you here today? • Be prepared to share your thoughts.

4. What Do We Know? • Kindergarten Children Today • Are technologically savvy • Use technology as a main means of communication & play • Live in a fast-paced world • Are exposed to more dangers and threats than their parents were as children • Spend more time INSIDE than OUTSIDE • Are more overweight than the generation before • Spend less time with their families than they do in child-care • Live in increasingly diverse communities

5. What Do We Know? • Although the 21st Century brings new experiences for young children, their developmental patterns and ways of learning have not changed

6. What Do We Know? • The early childhood years (birth – age 8) are the most powerful years for learning, growth and development • Very sensitive time for brain development • Development occurs in ALL domains • Young children need a wide variety of engaging and appropriately challenging environments and experiences during this phase

7. What Do We Know? • Solid Foundation of Theory • Piaget • Dewey • Montessori • Froebel • Bruner • Vygotsky

8. What Do We Know? • Young children learn skills and concepts best through active exploration and interaction with their environment

9. What Do We Know? • The brain’s synaptic network makes connections when children… • Play • Touch • Think • Move • Discuss • Interact with each other and their teachers in an enriched learning environment where they have opportunities to be physically, socially, and intellectually immersed in learning. (Rushton, 2001)

10. What Do We Know?.. • When children are actively engaged in a task, learning outcomes are strengthened • Classroom’s function best and provide the most opportunities for learning when students are well-behaved, consistently have importantthings to do and are interested and engaged in learning tasks. (Boykin & Noguera, 2011; CLASS, 2009)

11. What Do We Know? • David Elkin (2007) writes: Children learn more easily through play than they do through [direct] instruction • They are programmed for play • It is their birthright • Plays serves as a fundamental way of learning about self and the world and is a mode of discovery and invention

12. What Do We Know? • Positive correlation between play and cognitive development • Optimal brain development occurs when the child interacts with the environment and the environment is responsive to that interaction • Children engaged in play - develop a variety of important brain connections

13. What Do We Know? • Correlation between high-quality play and • Perspective taking • Abstract thought • Narrative recall • Problem solving • Literacy skills

14. What Do We Know? • Play-based programs are more beneficial for low-income children relative to promoting academic achievement over time. • Math & reading achievement favored children from play-oriented programs, the effects of which are still evident at 8th grade. • These findings are particularly true for males - usually the most difficult group to reach!

15. What Do We Know? “research shows that pretend play strengthens capacities, including sustained attention, memory, logical reasoning, language and literacy skills, imagination, creativity, understanding of emotions, and the ability to reflect on one’s own thinking, inhibit impulses, control one’s behavior, and take another person’s perspective…” DAP p. 132

16. What Do We Know? • Not just any old play, but sustained, mature imaginative play

17. What Do We Know? • Brain research shows that children need opportunities to rest their bodies and their minds as they • Process information into long term memory • Re-charge their batteries for more learning (AAP, Jensen, 1998)

18. What Do We Know? • Key Foundational Processes underlie children’s developing competence and predict success in school across the age-span from age 3 through grade 3: • Positive relationships • Language development • Self-regulation: regulating emotions, behavior, & thinking according to situation • Executive function: focused attention, persistence, planning, reasoning, flexible problem-solving (Bredekamp, 2012)

19. What Do We Know? • Executive Function: “The Brain’s Air Traffic Control System” is critical to success in life • Inhibitory Control – self-control & self-discipline • Problems in self-regulation are strongly related to learning difficulties and poor social relationships • Cognitive Flexibility – ability to switch perspectives & see things in a new light • Working Memory - a system for temporarily storing and managing the information required to carry out complex cognitive tasks such as learning, reasoning, and comprehension (Bredekamp, 2012; Harvard Center on the Developing Child)

20. What Do We Know? • Self-regulated learning= active constructive process whereby learners set goals for their learning and attempt to monitor, regulate and control their own learning, motivation and behaviors. • Self-Regulated Learners display increased initiative, engagement, persistence, attentionandeffortwhich in turn leads to higher academic performance. (Boykin & Noguera, 2011)

21. What Do We Know? • Research repeatedly shows that the quality of interactions between children and teachers has long lasting impacts on child development and learning. • A positive relationship between a child and her teacher predicts school success through 5th grade. • Relationships are constructed through meaningful language interactions. (Pianta, 2009; Ritchie, 2013)

22. What Do We Know? • Children learn and develop best when they are a part of a community of learners – a cooperative group in which all participants consider and contribute to one another’s well-being and learning. (Phillips & Scrinzi, 2013)

23. What Do We Know? • Families are their children’s first teachers • Families bring a wealth of knowledge to the table • The culture of a family influences a child’s experiences in kindergarten • Positive relationships between families and teachers support children’s success (Keyser, 2006)

24. What Do We Know? • Choice in the classroom • Supports children’s intrinsic motivation to learn • Encourages children to learn from each other • Draws on different strengths, abilities and interests • Maximizes children’s learning • Gives meaningful practice (Bredekamp & Copple, 1996; Hendrick, 1996; Deci & Ryan, 2002; American Psychology Association, 1997; Gardner, 2007)

25. What Do We Know? • When we offer children choices, we are allowing them to practice the skills of independence and responsibility, while we guard their health and safety by controlling and monitoring the options. (Maxim, 1997)

26. What Do We Know? • Independence(Autonomy) in learners leads to greater engagement and deeper processing of information • When learners feel a sense of autonomy in their work, they are more willing to take risks (Boykin & Noguera, 2011)

27. What Do We Know? • Oral language development is key to learning • Children need to talk…to think out loud • Children need opportunities to build their vocabulary through meaningful and engaging learning experiences and conversations.

28. What Do We Know? • The assessment of young children is very different from the assessment of older children and adults in several ways. (Guddemi & Case, 2004; NAEYC, 2009)

29. What Do We Know? • Assessment is challenging during early childhood because a child’s development is rapid, uneven, episodic, and highly influenced by the environment. • Children develop in four domains––physical, cognitive, social, and emotional––and not at the same pace through each. No two children are the same; each child has a unique rate of development. In addition, no two children have the same family, cultural, and experiential backgrounds. (Guddemi & Case, 2004)

30. What Do We Know? • The expression of what young children know and can do would best be served in ways other than traditional paper and pencil assessments. (Guddemi & Case, 2004)

31. What Do We Know? • A “one-size-fits-all” assessment will not meet the needs of most kindergarten children (Guddemi & Case, 2004)

33. The Main Idea • Developmentally appropriate practice (DAP) means teaching young children in ways that • meet children where they are, as individuals and as a group • help each child reach challengingand achievablegoals that contribute to his or her ongoing development and learning

34. Phillips & Scrinzi, 2013

35. 5 Fundamental Concepts of DAP

36. Group Experience: Part I • Divide into 5 groups • Creating a caring community of learners • Teaching to enhance development and learning (Play) • Planning appropriate curriculum • Assessing children’s development and learning • Developing reciprocal relationships with families

37. Group Experience: Part I • Answer this question: • What does this fundamental concept look like in an excellent full-day kindergarten teacher’s classroom? • Jot down words and phrases on your “star point” • Use individual star recording sheet to take notes for yourself

38. Group Experience: Part II • Form new “Expert” groups • Using your individual star recording sheet, share your group’s ideas about each fundamental concept • As other “experts” share their ideas, add notes to your individual star recording sheet

39. Hitting the Highlights

40. Creating a caring community of learners • Children know each other well • Children “see” themselves reflected • Strong sense of group identity & belonging • The community is inclusive of all children • Children are learning to manage their emotions and express their needs appropriately and constructively • Guidance approach • Children develop emotionally and socially through a guidance approach.

41. Teaching to enhance development and learning • There is no magic bullet • Both/and rather than either/or • Wide range and variety of teaching strategies • Wide range and variety of learning contexts • Teachers guide and scaffold children’s learning • Experiences are playful and play-based • Discovery, exploration & creativity are facilitated

42. Planning Appropriate Curriculum • Effective curriculum • Focus on the whole child • Address all areas of child development • Integrated not isolated • Align with state standards • Support diverse learners • Offers meaningful opportunities for reflection • Use evidence-based practices for planning • Use evidence-based practices for instruction

43. Assessing Children’s Development and Learning • Know what children need to learn • Use a variety of assessment tools (formative/summative/informal/formal • Plan on a daily, weekly, long-term basis • Within their daily routines and activities • See the big picture: consider all relevant assessment information • Use information to individualize • Involve children & families in the process • Modify the learning context/strategy when needed

44. Developing Reciprocal Relationships with Families • Partnership , not just involvement • Shared Decision-making • Two-way communication • On-going, frequent, positive communication • Inviting environment • Diverse strategies for getting to know families • Create a system of support • Make sure families know you care about their children

45. DAP Today:Looking for Evidence • Fundamental Concepts “in action” • Look carefully at each photo of real kindergarten classrooms • Record the evidence you see that demonstrates your “point”

46. Creating a Learning Environment • Intentionality: every decision you make must have a purpose • Based on what we know about how children learn, in general • Based on what we know about individual children • Based on learning goals (Epstein, 2009) • Serves as an additional “teacher”

47. The Learning Environment Physical Space (design, furniture, equipment, materials) Schedule and Routines Relationships and Interactions

48. Physical Space: Decisions • Design • Furniture • Equipment • Materials Grow Develop IMPACTS Learn

49. Physical Space: Guiding Principles • Warm, Nurturing, Safe, Clean • Clearly defined spaces            • Cozy and spacious areas • Resource-rich activity spaces • Free flowing traffic pattern • avoid large, open pathways • A variety of learning contexts • whole group area • small group area • learning centers • individual spaces

50. Physical Space: Guiding Principles • Tables integrated into learning areas • Materials labeled, organized, easily accessible • Diversity represented • Inviting displays • at children’s eye level                • mostly child-created • Effective use of wall outlets and water sources • Outdoor environment is an extension of the indoor environment & provides opportunities for gross motor development