For this Performance Task, you will use a take the role of a lead ?teacher who has developed a workshop presentation on Creativity and ?Child-Centered Learning. You have decided befor
Overview
For this Performance Task, you will use a take the role of a lead teacher who has developed a workshop presentation on Creativity and Child-Centered Learning. You have decided before you give the presentation you will work through the activities yourself by completing the Creativity and Child-Centered Learning Template.
Instructions
Before submitting your Assessment, carefully review the rubric. This is the same rubric the assessor will use to evaluate your submission and it provides detailed criteria describing how to achieve or master the Competency. Many students find that understanding the requirements of the Assessment and the rubric criteria help them direct their focus and use their time most productively.
Assessment:
Scenario:
Based on your years of working first as an assistant teacher and then as a lead teacher in an early childhood classroom, you are well aware that it is thrilling to be involved in child-centered learning—whether observing, guiding, or at key times, taking a bit of a lead. In fact, it is what has kept you in the field so long. Now, you are very excited that your area Association for the Education of Young Children (AEYC) has asked you to present a workshop on Creativity and Child-Centered Learning. You are hopeful that—along with sharing what you have learned—you can help other early childhood professionals consider what children and adults gain by leaving teacher-directed and thematic units behind, in order to engage children in active inquiry and creative thinking. One of your colleagues has reviewed the outline you wrote for your presentation, given it a “thumbs up,” and suggested you try the activities your participants will be involved in before you present them. You agree.
Workshop Outline: Creativity and Child-Centered Learning Scenario Given to Workshop Participants
Imagine that you have been tasked with explaining to other early childhood professionals how child-centered learning (emergent curriculum, investigations, and project-based learning) and creative teaching fosters children’s creative thinking, creative skills, and creative arts/expression.
This assessment has two-parts. Click each of the items below to complete this assessment.
Part I: How Child-Centered Learning Fosters Creativity
First: Review The Dog Project resource. (This project offers an excellent example of young children engaged in child-centered learning through the project approach.)
Next: Consider what you have learned about:
- Child-centered learning (emergent curriculum, investigations, and project-based work) and its relationship to fostering creativity in young children
- Research-based information about creativity, included in the following resources:
- “Encouraging Children and Young People to Be Creative” (Read the “What is Creativity?” and “What are the Benefits of Creativity?” sections.)
- “What are Creative Skills"
- How music, creative movement, creative dramatics, and/or the visual arts can be integrated to enhance opportunities for creative expression
Analyze how child-centered learning in the Dog Project fosters children’s creative thinking, creative skills, and creative arts/expression. Substantiate your analysis with at least five (5) examples from the project. (3 paragraphs)
Part II: How Creative Teaching Fosters Creative Learning
First: View the following video Thinking Big Extending Emergent Curriculum Projects. (Hilltop Educator Institute. (n.d.). Thinking Big Extending Emergent Curriculum Projects [Video file]. Used with permission of Hilltop Educator Institute.).
Note: This child-centered learning experience offers an excellent example of young children engaged in child-centered learning through emergent curriculum and creative teaching.
Next: Review the following resources on creative teaching:
- “Encouraging Children and Young People to Be Creative” (Read the “How to Encourage Creativity in Children ” section.) http://www.handsonscotland.co.uk/flourishing_and_wellbeing_in_children_and_young_people/creativity/creativity.html
- “30 Things You Can Do to Promote Creativity” (Blog post) http://www.opencolleges.edu.au/informed/features/30-things-you-can-do-to-promote-creativity-in-your-classroom/
Summarize your definition of a creative teacher, including an analysis of why being a creative teacher is essential to fostering children’s creative thinking, creative skills, and creative arts/expression. (2–3 paragraphs)
Analyze how the teachers, in the Thinking Big Extending Emergent Curriculum Projects video, exemplify creative teaching. Substantiate your thinking with at least five (5) examples from the video. (3 paragraphs)
and
Child-Centered
Learning
Part 1: How Child-Centered Learning Fosters Creativity
Analyze how child-centered learning in the Dog Project fosters children’s creative thinking, creative expression, and creative skills. Substantiate your analysis with at least 5 examples from the project. (3 paragraphs)
Part 2: How Creative Teaching Fosters Creative Learning
Summarize your definition of a creative teacher including an analysis of why being a creative teacher is essential to fostering children’s healthy development and learning. (2—3 paragraphs)
Analyze how the teachers in the video, Thinking Big Extending Curriculum Projects, exemplify creative teaching. Substantiate your thinking with at least 5 examples from the video. (3 paragraphs)
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The Philadelphia School
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Dog Project 2010-2011
Constructing knowledge collaboratively is an essential component in a successful project. Our main understanding is that dogs are dependent on us for food, shelter, and love. Owning a dog can be a very rewarding responsibility!
Out of a growing love of “Kaya stories” (those of a teacher’s furry golden retriever friend) the children became curious about and very interested in dogs. On our daily walks to the park, they noticed dogs of all kinds out enjoying our neighborhood. Using the resources of our city, the teachers took the children to the dog park where we all could meet real dogs and talk with their owners. Back in the classroom, we documented our current understandings about dogs and we gathered our many questions as well. Armed with information and many wonderings, the children led us into our rich study of dogs. Enjoy this account of our project work!
Phase One—Questions
This phase of project work encouraged children to
ask questions
listen to one another
share prior knowledge
Careful listening proved that the children indeed had a genuine interest in dogs and were curious to learn more. Thus a project on dogs was born!
To facilitate investigations, we first generated a topic web of our collective knowledge of and experience with dogs. Phase One of our dog project lasted for a total of two weeks.
A sample of observations we collected:
Dogs have a lot of hair.
Dogs know how to swim.
Dogs have really wet noses.
Dogs have very small eyes.
Dogs get treats for being good.
Dogs can have short tails.
Dogs can sometimes have long tails.
Dogs have long ears.
Dogs know how to sit.
Our daily trip to the playground afforded us an opportunity to regale preschoolers with stories of all kinds. The topic of Kaya the dog was a favorite. Handmade costumes were delivered to Kaya for her to don.
Sample questions included:
~Why do some dogs have so much hair?
~How do dogs take a bath?
~Why do dogs have wet noses?
~What do dogs eat?
~Why do dogs do heavy breathing?
~What is a dog park for?
~What kinds of dogs are there?
A list of wonderings we had about dogs followed.
Phase Two: Investigation, Fieldwork, and Experts
This phase of project work encouraged children to:
~Learn about many different breeds of dogs
~Learn about animals in need and how we can help.
~Practice caring for a dog.
~Learn that words and numbers have meaning.
~Understand how to interview someone.
~Research answers.
~Organize and represent information.
We asked the children to help us think about what resources
we could use to investigate and learn more about the answers
to our questions.
A sample of source suggestions included:
Primary sources:
~Outside experts (dog owners in our school and neighborhood
communities, pet store and rescue center owner, grooming
salon owner)
~Dog park
~Neighborhood walks (dog searching)
Secondary sources:
~Books about dogs (fiction and non-fiction)
~iPad applications
~Dog grooming video clip
Phase Two of our project lasted for eleven weeks.
As part of dramatic play, a group of children
created a dog park. The props help us expand on our
growing schema of dogs and the parks they visit to
exercise and play in.
We used model-size dogs for our morning sign-in
sheet where children practiced name-recognition
skills and familiarity with dog breeds.
Investigating our questions about dogs and dog
breeds provided a meaningful way to apply early
literacy skills such as writing, drawing, and reading.
We also collected books about dogs and used them
as secondary source material.
After careful observation of dog anatomy,
the children worked with our art specialist to create
our very own classroom dog with paper mache, paint,
and recycled and found materials.
We welcomed a new member into our classroom community and the children decided the dog
needed a name.
We took a vote and
“Taco
Brownie
Hannah became our class mascot.
What do dogs eat?
How do they eat?
In order to give children an
understanding of what and
how much dogs eat, I shared
Kaya’s feeding routine with
the children. They used
measuring cups to see how
much kibble could fit in
different sized feeding bowls.
We built on concepts of weight,
one to one correspondence, and structural design
using a variety of dogs.
A game we called “What dog is missing?” challenged the children’s memory, spatial, and probability skills.
Our daily trips to the local dog park had us curious
about how many dogs were in the park on any given day.
We decided to record the daily number of dogs at the
park and graph our findings using the children’s own
dog illustrations.
Why does the dog park have a fence?
After several observations of our neighborhood dog park, a group of children created their own dog park in our sensory table. We learned the importance of fences in the park to keep dogs safe.
Here you can see the children using books as secondary sources. They also created lots of stories and pictures to share their learning journeys with each other.
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Dog experts visited the class to share stories and answer questions. We heard tales of breeds, shelter dogs, and more.
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Dog-related games expanded our understanding of turn-taking, one-to-one correspondence, and spatial recognition.
The dog project afforded us the opportunity to use
our artistic skills as another lens into our observations
about and understanding of dogs.
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The class met this owner and her dog at the dog park. She talked the children about rescuing her dog and answered questions about greyhounds and dog training. This impromptu conversation set the class off in a new direction—rescue work and shelters.
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[The owner of an animal rescue organization] talked
with us about her rescue work. We made toys
for the animals at the shelter.
As a thank you for our many guest experts, we baked
dog bone treats for their furry, four-legged friends
“pupcakes” for ourselves. We carefully measured
ingredients and bagged treats, complete with thank
you notes.
The owner of Chez Bow Wow came and talked with
us after the children became interested in how dogs
take a bath and get a haircut. She talked about the importance of grooming and brought a grooming toolbox.
The children created their own grooming shop in the dramatic play area of the classroom. Taco was the first customer. Phase Three lasted about four weeks.
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Phase Three: Culmination and Conclusion
This phase of project work
encouraged children to:
~make meaning from what we
learned
~plan and organize how to represent their understanding
~work collaboratively
~problem solve
~self-monitor
~communicate
~celebrate and share their learning experience.
The children created
a storefront sign for their grooming shop…
…and a “must do” checklist
for a thorough grooming.
The children practiced their grooming techniques
on stuffed animals.
The children created their own Chez Bow Wow and invited another preschool class to their grooming shop.
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To celebrate, we planned and organized a doggy
dance party in the classroom, complete with disco
ball and dance floor!
The celebration led us into our next project—dance!
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Thinking Big Extending Emergent Curriculum Projects
Thinking Big Extending Emergent Curriculum Projects Program Transcript
MARGIE CARTER: Hi, I'm Margie Carter. In my work with early childhood teachers, I'm often asked the best way to approach curriculum planning. Teachers are often required to fill out a little form with miscellaneous activities in these little boxes. When they learn about emergent curriculum and the in-depth project work inspired by the educators of Reggio Emilia, teachers are often puzzled about how they can take this approach and still cover all the things they feel children need to get ready for school.
I think it's really helpful to watch teachers in action trying to figure this out. You may recognize Sarah Felstiner and Ann Pelo, two teachers who were featured in the videos Children at the Center and Setting Sail. In this video, you'll see Ann and Sarah even further along in their journey. They've become keen observers of children's play, skill documenters. And they've overcome some of that I can't mentality that plagues so much of the childcare field, especially in full-time programs with all its limitations and stresses and strains.
ANN PELO: When I first began teaching, I kept play periods really short. I didn't want kids to get bored. And I thought I would be entertaining them or policing them if they had long stretches of time for playing. My thinking has changed. I watch kids now use long stretches of time to explore their ideas, to dig deeply into their play. When the work that kids are doing is meaningful to them, the longer stretches of time, the better.
SARAH FELSTINER: I used to worry that I wasn't doing enough, that I was sort of sitting there watching the kids play. But I have come to believe that it's one of the greatest gifts I can give the children, is to be a really careful observer of their play. When I really watch children play, I get a handle on what they're playing about– not just what they're playing about, but why they're playing about it.
ANN PELO: I've been inspired by the teachers of Reggio Emilia to think of myself as a researcher. The role of a researcher is so much more nourishing to me than the role of someone handing out information or keeping the children under control. It feeds me deeply. I feel curious when I'm with the kids. I wonder what's going on for them and what can I do to support it?
When we stock our classrooms with open-ended materials and when we create long stretches of uninterrupted time, amazing things happen. The project about height is an example of that.
SARAH FELSTINER: Projects can last a day or a week or a month or a year. And they can involve one child or a small group or the whole class. This project that we've come to call the height project was so central to what four-year-olds
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Thinking Big Extending Emergent Curriculum Projects
are working on developmentally that it lasted many months. And it came to involve all the children in the class.
ANN PELO: The story begins in the block area in about January, when kids started building really tall structures with blocks.
SARAH FELSTINER: The weeks leading up to this, kids had been building boats with blocks.
ANN PELO: But then their structures changed, and they just started building tall towers.
SARAH FELSTINER: And as we watched, we noticed that they weren't building particular structures. They were building for height. We had a lot of open-ended building materials always on hand. And kids turned to those often in these weeks to build towers.
ANN PELO: Seeing them build tall with every material was a reassurance that we were pursuing the right curriculum. Kids started out building structures as tall as they were and then wanted to build even higher than that.
SARAH FELSTINER: In my training, I was taught never to let kids build taller than their shoulders, I guess out of the fear that blocks would fall and hit them on the head. And it's been a big leap for me to really trust children to be safe, competent builders.
ANN PELO: I remember us talking a lot with each other as kids were building higher than their shoulders, higher than their heads, as high as the lights. We helped each other grow more and more comfortable with the risks that children were taking.
SARAH FELSTINER: And the more we watched, the more we came to trust the kids as builders. They were really learning how to build a strong foundation for their structure and how to help each other keep the structure stable.
ANN PELO: After several weeks of building with the small stepstool we had available at school and with stacking cubes on top of that stepstool, the kids were clear that we needed a different way to get up high to build.
SARAH FELSTINER: By then, kids had come to trust that they could bring us their good ideas, and we would respond with enthusiasm. So when they came and said, we need a bit of stepstool, we were ready to just pull out the red wagon and walk down the street to the hardware store and buy a new one. I remember inside the hardware store, kids did a great job of testing every stepstool that was there and really trying to figure out which was the most stable and which was the tallest. And they really did agree on one that they liked about.
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Thinking Big Extending Emergent Curriculum Projects
ANN PELO: We did some emergent math with Sarah's credit card and brought the stepstool back to school. And as soon as it was in the classroom, kids were using it.
SARAH FELSTINER: It became a daily goal to build a tower as tall as the lights or to stack of white cubes up and stand on them to reach the ceiling.
ANN PELO: As the kids played, we watched. We took a lot of notes and tried to understand what they were playing about, what was underneath this stuff about tall structures. We wrote down a lot of the quotes that kids said.
SARAH FELSTINER: I'm the highest. I'm the king.
ANN PELO: It's a pirate ship. I'm in the crow's nest, looking for treasure.
SARAH FELSTINER: It's' as high as the light.
ANN PELO: I don't think I can reach any more higher. I feel scared way up here.
SARAH FELSTINER: I think it's going to tip when he puts the treasure in. I'm holding the blue block so it doesn't fall.
ANN PELO: I'm taller than anyone.
SARAH FELSTINER: Jump down to the lifeboat.
ANN PELO: If this falls, it will bump this one. Then this one will bump this one. It will all come crashing down. That will be a disaster.
SARAH FELSTINER: I remember Carl said, I'm in the crow's nest. I can see pirates ahead and treasure.
ANN PELO: And he exclaimed so excitedly, I can see the moon. I can see the stars. This is when we really started noticing the themes about changing perspectives and being powerful emerging. Those are the themes that kids seem to find most meaningful in this play.
SARAH FELSTINER: We had seen what they were building and how they were building. And we really began to get at why they were doing this.
ANN PELO: As we started paying attention to those developmental themes, we also starting noticing that kids were doing more representational building, which was a shift from their earlier work.
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Thinking Big Extending Emergent Curriculum Projects
SARAH FELSTINER: In response to their increasingly representational building, we created a bulletin board display with pictures of tall buildings from Seattle and people climbing mountains.
ANN PELO: As kids built, we also added pictures of them building tall towers.
SARAH FELSTINER: One day, we were tickled to see the kids building a cityscape on the shelf right in front of the bulletin board with the city images. And to build that cityscape, even though it was at their height, they still stood on a step ladder.
ANN PELO: About a month into this play, we added a platform to the classroom for kids to build on. As they built on a mirror. Their images doubled in height.
SARAH FELSTINER: Kids said things like, it's almost down to the ceiling.
ANN PELO: It seems like it's getting lower to the ceiling.
SARAH FELSTINER: It's going to touch the ceiling inside the mirror.
ANN PELO: The tower looks like it's getting builded on the bottom.
SARAH FELSTINER: We're building on the ceiling.
ANN PELO: It's upside down and not upside down.
SARAH FELSTINER: We began using our weekly nap time meeting to start talking about the documentation we had been doing of the height project and to try and determine where we would go from there. One teacher brought in ideas about birds that kids had been fascinated with. I guess they'd seen some birds and had done some drawings of birds. And we wondered if that's the next path that this work would take.
ANN PELO: To figure out whether the kids' interest in birds is something we needed to pursue, we brought branches into the classroom. We brought little nests in and little bird figures and then watched the kids play. I think– do you have some quotes about–
SARAH FELSTINER: It's so clear from what they were saying that their play was still about being tall and being up high. And Ian said, I'm pretending I'm standing on these big, long branches. And Adrianne said, let's hide things high up in the trees. We need a stepstool. And Ian then said, look at me. I'm taller than the trees.
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