Lesson 10: Individualizing Children's Activities
Learning Outcomes Upon completion of this lesson's material students will be able to:
Teaching Read Chapter 3 in The Intentional Teacher (pages 29-42) Each child is different. The following bullets offer insight into each child’s individuality:
When working with children, it is important to think about trust. When children see their parents trust a teacher, they will trust a teacher. Educators need to build that trust by:
Planning for Community and Relationship Building Click HERE to view Eric Erikson's progressive psychosocial stages of development. rikson developed 8 stages to his theory, however for this class we will look at the first few stages. Please notice for the first eighteen months of a child’s life they are learning trust and for the next eighteen months that child is learning autonomy (Independence and Freedom). The development of trust has to be present for a child to learn to become autonomist. This trust has to be developed in every new setting and relationship as the child grows and encounters new people and settings. As an educator it is important to plan for building a sense of community in the classroom and a strong relationship with each child. Click HERE to learn more about Erikson's stages. There are many ways preschool teachers can plan for a strong classroom community. The list on page 127 offers many suggestions. These activities must happen throughout the year, especially when a new child is introduced to a classroom. As intentional educators, preschool teachers allow the class to develop a sense of identity, and close bonds are formed. Something to think about: What else have you tried or seen happening to help children build community? Building strong relationships with individual children is essential for preschool teachers. Educator need to build trust with each child. By welcoming a child into the setting, by using her name frequently, and by smiling and using a soft caring voice she will learn to trust her teacher. Teachers learn to recognize signals about a child’s personality, her approaches to learning, her social comfort levels and her relationship with her family by observing her and asking her a few questions. There are many suggestions for building trust found on pages 128 & 129. Once a teacher has a better understanding of each child in the classroom, then a plan can be made for building community and relationships. Many of the ideas or plans can be shared with families so they have a better understanding of what is happening in their child’s classroom. Be aware of listing specific children’s names when writing the goals. Specific children’s goals should not be shared. With that being said, a goal that is written to target a few children that will be beneficial to all may be shared as long as no specific names are written. Getting to know each child well It is important for teachers to get to know each child in their class well. There are many tools educators can use to gather information about each child. This chapter and appendix C provide some options. Teachers gather information through observations, conversations with the child and informal conversations with family members. Teachers may collect this information during an initial intake visit or during a home visit. Some information may include: culture, life experiences, family dynamics, developmental strengths and concerns, emerging developmental areas, physical needs and health issues, emotional make-up, interests, learning styles, approaches to learning and responses to challenges. Often addition information collected during class time is shared with family members during conferences and through sharing portfolios. The information gathered can be recorded on an Individual Child Information Record. The information can be updated prior to or during conferences and again prior to the end of the year. This information also assists in planning opportunities to match the capabilities and needs for each child. Planning for modifications, adjustments, and accommodations for individual children As an educator, it is important to continually build trust with children. After reflecting and discussions with co-workers, it may be decided to make adjustments to the classroom to meet the specific needs of a child or several children. Children trust teachers who meet their needs. Occasionally, changes need to be made to activities to help a specific child be successful. Other times it may be modifications for an individual child in the classroom environment. An educator may plan to support a child with the opportunities that the environment provides. These adaptations are considered individualization for specific children. When considering a child’s success in a classroom, a preschool teacher may want to consider the following questions:
When considering these questions, it is important to have knowledge of a child’s personality or disposition to learning. Learning to play cooperatively and follow or lead children is sometimes difficult for children. By making adjustments to the grouping of children a teacher modifies they type of role a child may have experience playing. Watch the following video to watch how a boy leads his peers to make a racetrack.
Children are generally curious. However, a child who does not like to try new things naturally may need new activities brought to her. A child who is very comfortable playing with playdough may need the rolling pins and cookie cutters removed from the space and have Potato Head parts moved into the space. This allows the child to stay within her comfort zone (playdough), while at the same time exploring new materials. Something to think about: How many of these suggestions have you used in your practice? Did you consider them accommodations? Or did you do it as a natural response to a child’s needs? How do you document? Reflect? And make adjustments? Planning for individual Children Vygotsky’s Zone of Proximal Development – what a child can do with the support of an adult or another child. Planning with a child’s ZPD in mind is another way of making individual modifications. Some materials which may be too challenging for one child may not be challenging enough for another child. The important thing for a teacher is to know which child fits which situation. An educator must pay close attention to each child’s level of developmental accomplishments and make the proper adjustments in the curriculum to match each level while also challenging each child to move ahead in skills, knowledge and concepts. The teacher also needs to be in close proximity as a child plays with the higher level materials to provide scaffolding and support. When presenting challenges for each child, it is important to recognize the amount of challenge that is just right for the child so he will continue to try new skills or understanding of a concept without the child becoming overwhelmed, get confused, frustrated or withdraw. With that thought in mind, it is also important to point out that if the challenge is too easy a child may become bored, misbehave, or give up and withdraw. When individualizing the curriculum, a teacher is making certain that a “one size fits all” approach is not being used. When setting out materials each morning, it is important to think about each child’s ability. At the easel there may be paint brushes that are chunky, knobbed, regular size, short or long. The variety of choices allow each child to be successful painting, while at the same time challenging them to explore texture and paint strokes as they manipulate each style of paint brush. To view the variety of paintbrushes available Google paint brushes for preschoolers. The frequency of writing a plan for each child in the classroom will vary. Often a child who misbehaves has plans written, observed, reassessed and rewritten frequently. This may help with classroom management; however it also overlooks many other children in the classroom. It is important to schedule specific times to discuss each child consistently. Generally preschool teachers plan for parent-teacher conferences twice a year (October and April). This requires a teacher to look at each child specifically to determine his level of skill, areas to work on and to determine goals for him. This is a good time to determine any modifications needed. Periodic checklist between October and April are often used to determine growth spurts or struggles with skills. Overtime an educator will see patterns develop and become more aware of the children who are receiving more attention and the children who are being overlooked. Something to think about: Make a list of all the children in your care. Did you miss anyone? Why? Who is at the top of the list? Why? Who is at the bottom of your list? Why? Many educators do this at the beginning of each month. The information gained from this activity is essential when planning individualized curriculum for children. If a child is still presenting as a challenge each month, it is time to really look at why? Does the environmental structure (areas) need to be rearranged? Do some of the materials need to be changed to be more difficult or easier? Are there too many choices to pick from? Are there too few materials available? As an educator, you are building trust for a child each time adjustments are made to keep them safe and learning. With a sense of safety each child can take advantage of the classroom environment with all its inviting possibilities. Each child will explore the possibilities and take risks, knowing her teachers are watching carefully and making adjustments to help her become successful. Following a child’s interest is another way to individualize curriculum. Sensitive and responsive educators always recognize the interests of the children in the class and incorporate activities spontaneously or in a carefully planned manner. Spontaneous activities generally follow a child’s interest. The activities generated can be fun and child directed while still meeting any development goals planned for the day through teacher guidance. The focus of an activity can change from an original plan, while at the same time it will not affect the quality of the curriculum for that day. Carefully planning a series of activities and investigations based on a child’s interests is another way to individualize curriculum, often with many children enjoying the activities. It is a preschool teachers job to observe children, ask open-ended questions to help determine a child’s interest. Once an interest is discovered, it then becomes the educator’s responsibility to provide learning opportunities throughout the classroom. Books, games, puzzles, lacing objects are all materials available to place throughout a classroom environment to entice children’s learning by emerging those children in the topic. To learn more about Project Teachings, check out the following links: Throughout this chapter there are many frameworks offered to supply with information about children. As an instructor I am supposed to tell you to use them all. However the reality of using all of these frameworks is that it won’t happen. It is an individual choice on what works best for each individual. One needs to try them out, tweak them to one’s own learning style and then use what works. Huh! That sounds like individualizing to each child’s needs! Amazing how something that seems like a huge challenge when doing it for someone else can seem so simple for our own personal use. Click HERE for more information on Individualizing Instruction in preschool classrooms Watch a Webinar sponsored by Head Start
Assessment Lesson 10 Quiz
Lesson 10 Discussion After reading about individualizing curriculum for each child, what do you see as the most challenging aspects? What do you see as the most rewarding?
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