Developmentally Appropriate Planning

Developmentally Appropriate Planning

Early childhood educators must ensure that through the curriculum decisions they are making, they are meeting the needs of the diverse learners they work with as well as helping children to grow across all developmental domains. “People are often surprised at how much planning it takes to ensure a productive, smoothly running early childhood classroom” (Kostelnik, Soderman, Whiren, & Rupiper, 2015, p. 75). It takes so much planning because we are making intentional decisions about what, how, when, and why we are implementing curriculum. Figure 3.1 from your primary text illustrates the process that teachers go through as they are preparing to plan lessons and units (Kostelnik, Soderman, Whiren, & Rupiper, 2015, p.79). Understanding this process is critical to being able to plan effective lessons whether you are working with one, five, or 20 children at a time.

Using Figure 3.1 (p. 79), Chapters 3 and 4 of your course text

Kostelnik, M. J., Soderman, A. K., Whiren, A. P., & Rupiper, M. L. (2015). Developmentally appropriate curriculum: Best practices in early childhood education (6th ed.). Pearson.

·       The full-text version of this e-book is available through the Constellation™ database.

, and the Early Childhood and Child Development Lesson Plan Handbook Links to an external site., address the following:

·       Explain the intentional nature of developmentally appropriate planning. Make sure to discuss the downfalls of planning not being intentional.

·       Describe the process early childhood educators go through as they prepare to teach, including how learning differences influence and impact the planning process.

·       Discuss where within the planning process early childhood educators address the needs of diverse learners and ensure their planning is culturally responsive. Make sure to include information about adapting curriculum to meet the needs of each and every child.

·       Discuss the importance of differentiating lesson plans in order to meet the needs of small-group or whole-class instruction. Use some of the strategies shared in the text for teaching in small-group and whole-class instruction to support your perspective.

·       Explain how having a deeper understanding of creating effective lesson plans help you to be able to uphold the following sections of the 2009 NAEYC Standards for Initial and Advanced Early Childhood Professional Preparation Programs. Links to an external site.Provide specific examples related to small-group and whole-class instruction lesson plans.

o   4b. Knowing and understanding effective strategies and tools for early education.

o   4c: Using a broad repertoire of developmentally appropriate teaching/learning approaches. (NAEYC, 2009)

RUBRIC

1.        Addresses all aspects of the prompt in accordance with the parameters of the discussion and demonstrates in-depth knowledge of the discussion topic.

2.       Comprehensively explores the ideas, thoughts, and elements of the topic and provides relevant evidence and information that demonstrates all of the following as applicable to the discussion prompt: clarity, relevance, depth, breadth, use of information resources, and logic.

3.        Contributes to classroom conversations with at least the minimum number of replies, all of which were thoughtful, relevant, and contributed meaningfully to the conversation. Fully engages in the conversation with appropriate topic-based responses.

4.       Displays clear control of syntax and mechanics. The organization of the work shows appropriate transitions and flow between sentences and paragraphs. Written work contains no errors and is very easy to understand.