Execution has to do with how the Learning Experiences are offered to the children or how the learning is delivered to them. The two basic (but HUGE) elements of Execution are the Human Factor and Developmentally Appropriate Practice or DAP.

Most of the best theories and virtually all research on child development and learning completed in recent time, stress the importance of the human factor in assisting children to grow and learn in the best ways.  The Gesell Institute says, “healthy development depends on the quality and reliability of a young child’s relationships with the important people in his or her life, both within and outside the family. Even the development of a child’s brain architecture depends on the establishment of these rela­tionships.  Young children experience their world as an environment of relationships, and these relationships affect virtually all aspects of their development”.   

I Do It My Way – I follow a curricular continuum that explains each step of the early learning/teaching process. It begins with Evidence – the proven facts of child development; moves to the Expectations – the educational objectives we have for each child’s learning; continues to the Environment for learning, which I contend is Physical, Emotional, and Educational Safety; describes the Experiences teachers need to offer and the Execution or delivery of those experiences; and culminates with Evaluation or assessment of each child’s learning and of a program itself.

I am reviewing the curricular continuum to stress that the Human Factor has to be present not just during child-teacher interactions, but the aspects of philosophy, attitude, and action need to be taken into account throughout the whole curricular process from Evidence to Evaluation.

The Components of the Human Factor are:

• The Teacher, in knowledge, committment, and involvement
• The Positive Emotional Environment of safety the teacher creates and maintains
• The involvement and participation level of each Individual Child
• The Learning Community, including parents, administrators, teacher, & children

Human Factor – The Teacher

Next Blog: The Human Factor 2 – The Environment, The Child, The Community

From Casual to Black Tie – Teachers can create Formal Experiences from Informal Experiences by observing carefully during Routine Elements of the day. This is the essence of child-centeredness in the early education curriculum. Here are some simple examples:

• Babies on their stroller travels around the campus react to seeing a dog.  Teacher plans an experience on pets.
• Toddlers being helped to wash their hands put the water on their faces and react to its temperature.  Teacher plans an experience on hot and cold.
• Twos jump into a puddle on their way to the playground.  Teacher plans an experience on rain.
• Threes enjoy pretzel sticks at snack time.  Teacher plans an experience using pretzels to make lines and letters.
• Fours fight while in line at the bathroom.  Teacher issues a Challenge of the Day and creates a Word Wall about using words to express anger and some experiences that build self-regulation, turn-taking, and patience.
• Fives notice the letters on the ambulance that passes by are backward.  Teacher plans a journaling assignment and an experience with mirrors to see if they can figure out what the letters spell out.

Sparks! – The Reggio Emilia curriculum developed by Loris Malaguzzi after WW II, suggests that teachers create ‘provocations” which are thought-provoking, aesthetically pleasing experiences for young children in which the teacher creates a purposeful and intentional but open-ended activity in which children work with and manipulate materials in any safe way they choose.  The teacher observes and documents, adds language or facts as needed, asks open questions, and encourages the children to use what Malaguzzi called their “hundred languages” to express what they are doing, what the materials feel like, how they may be used, what they might be made of, how they might be paired with or compared to other materials, and any other ideas and learning they may discover.

I strongly believe that ALL Formal Learning Experiences must be provocations; all must be thought-provoking, open-ended, purposeful, attractive to the children*, and intriguing to take part in; all Learning Experiences must inspire, encourage, and engender primary, secondary, and spontaneous learning.

*Lots of teachers are very into Reggio these days and I love it, BUT I have a BIG BUT. There is a tendency to make these provocations very femininely attractive from the teacher’s or parents’ point of view, with natural woven baskets, gauzy materials, tiny holiday lights, and other Pinteresty-looking things, rather than being attractive to the preferences of the children. Many of the children may not be lured into a learning experience that is stereotypically “pretty”.

Use the other Reggio device, “loose parts” and raw materials that are not stereotypically feminine in your Sparks. Throw a box of nuts and bolts in there and a basket of rocks or sticks from the playground and rolls of duct tape with potty paper tubes. Observe what does interest your children and go with things that may not look orderly and sweet, but will truly encourage participation.

Tires Ain’t Pretty – Long years ago there were commercials for a tire store in Orlando, using the catchphrase, “Tires Ain’t Pretty”, and they aren’t, but can you imagine the children’s interest and engagement levels if your playground or classroom had tires full of sand, building blocks, toy vehicles, math counters, pine cones, nuts, bolts, keys, locks, BOOKS and all kind of learning materials? I can.

Ignite a Fire of Learning – Make all your Learning Experiences SPARKS!

– Strong Purposeful Appropriate Real Kid Stuff

Next Blog: Execution of Experiences – The Human Factor

Informal (Casual Monday – Friday) Experiences – These are the natural movements, proceedings, actions, and events that occur through participation in the Routine Elements of the Day (arrival, meals, transitions, hygiene, cleanup, and dismissal).  They are not documented, posted, or planned, but they almost automatically contain the same factors as Formal Experiences, which are:

• Learning         Primary, Secondary, and Spontaneous
• Components   Learning Methods, SARA, Purpose, Feedback, Accountability
• Production      Planning, Presentation, Participation, Appraisal

Learning – Informal Experiences can produce all three types of learning. If a transition or a meal experience is used appropriately, it can produce Primary Learning in that stated learning objectives can be gained.  If Primary Learning takes place, Secondary Learning can also occur, and Informal Experiences are full of Spontaneous Learning moments of discovery and creativity.  The important factor is recognizing the learning and giving it value.

Threes lining up to go to an Enrichment Class or the Playground gain Primary Learning by building skills of listening and following directions.  If they sing as they walk, they are gaining Secondary Learning (unplanned by inspired and still on the “list” of learning objectives – musical expression, relaxation, vocabulary, walking to a beat).  If they discover worms on the sidewalk and stop to observe them, they will be involved in Spontaneous Learning about zoology and movement and texture – facts that were totally unplanned and new!

Components – The components of Informal Experiences are the same as those for Formal Experiences, but they occur naturally rather than being purposefully and formally planned.  For example, lining up to move the community to a different location automatically contains movement, senses, language, expression, purpose, feedback, repetition, and application.  If teachers add real objects (bring books to read in case there is a waiting time) then it becomes a perfect learning experience.

Production – Informal Experiences are not produced, as they happen naturally. But, they can certainly be made into positive, high quality learning experiences with Planning, Presentation, Participation, and Appraisal.

Planning for informal experiences means using a developmentally appropriate schedule, preparing the environment for ease and efficiency, and preparing the children by trying to create routine and repetition and by verbally reminding them before the experience occurs.

Presentation of the informal experience means creating a sense of calm and leadership so the routine parts of the day go as smoothly as possible.

Participation in informal experiences should be happening naturally. This means teachers sitting down to eat with children rather than hovering, serving (and making judgements about what, how, and when to eat). It means being an ACTIVE and PRESENT part of all that happens each day.

 Appraisal of the informal experience means observing and judging the quality and efficiency of the experience and making needed changes. If arrival time is full of tears and tantrums, it is not a positive informal learning experience.  If hand washing includes long waiting or pushing at the sink, something needs to be modified.  If a fire drill results in all children evacuated to a safe place successfully, then it was an appropriate informal learning experience of good quality.

Next Blog: From Tee Shirts to Tails – Making Formal Experiences from Informal Ones

Appraising the Quality of Formal Experiences – The predicted value of each formal experience can be determined by asking these questions:

• Is it designed to match specific strength expectations of the community?
• Will its timing match the attention spans of the community?
• Does it include opportunities for Selection, Action, & Application?
• Does it include something a young child can Reflect on immediately or at a later time to reinforce learning?
• Is it PROCESS, not PRODUCT oriented?
• Will it be enjoyable?
• Can it be successfully carried out in an atmosphere of both warmth and wonder, relaxation and stimulation, and challenge without frustration?

Before – Think about this. Will it be:          

• Right – Does it match up with the learning objectives of my program?
• Reasonable – Is it “doable”? Is it practical?
• Real – Are the children going to be moving, active, and hands-on?
• Relatable – Is it relevant to these children and their families?
• Repeatable – Can the children practice the skills learned in it over and over?
• Relaxing – Can it be offered in a safe, organized way?
• Recreational – Is it going to be fun?
• Riggable – Can it be modified easily if it doesn’t work?

And After – Was the experience Righteous? Was there Primary, Secondary, and/or Spontaneous Learning?

PJ Day!

Once I visited a program on Pajama Day. This was a program-wide event but teachers could plan for it individually, depending on the needs of their children. The teachers who understood and believed in DAP and knew how to use this learning experience in the best, most creative, and wonderful way, did this:

Made PJ Day a purposeful learning event by ‘assigning’ it these concepts and skills:

• Intelligence – opposites: day and night, dark and light, soft and loud
• Language-Literacy – reading Stella Luna and Good Night, Moon
• Math – counting stars and counting sheep
• Science – nocturnal animals and sun, moon, and stars
• Social Studies – kinds of beds – for people and dolls and animals
• Expression – sun and moon art, dark and light colors, black paper and gold stars, stripes and dots and pajama colors
• Gross Motor – Pajama Parades and Tiptoe Walks
• Spanish Enrichment – ‘dia’ y ‘noche’, ‘blanco’ y ‘negro’
• Music Enrichment – lullabies and soft songs
• Journal/Dictation – “Once I Had a Dream About. . .”
• Home Connection – Take a nighttime flashlight walk with Mom and Dad!

Talked about Pajama Day at Circle Time and Home Connection on the previous day       

Staged their learning centers with materials that matched the strength expectations

Read books and talked about the theme at Circle Time

Made Word Walls that said things like, NIGHT, OWLS, MOON, SLEEPING BAGS, BIG BOY BED, MONSTERS, NO MONSTERS, BLANKIES, PACIFIERS, NOISES, and SHHHH

Brought cocoa and marshmallows for Snack Time

WORE THEIR PAJAMAS!!!!!!                

Pretended to fall asleep, made snoring noises, laughed, and had a great day!

This is how Formal Learning Experiences work.

Next Blog: Informal Learning Experiences

Formal Learning Experiences – These are the teacher-planned experiences usually based on a chosen theme or unit of information. Formal experiences may be chosen from the thousands of early childhood education resources available or may be originally created by teachers.  They MUST be documented, posted, and planned with these factors in mind:

• Learning         Primary, Secondary, and Spontaneous
• Components   Learning Methods, SARA, Purpose, Feedback, Accountability 
• Production      Planning, Presentation, Participation, Appraisal

Kinds of Learning – If a formal experience is based on developmentally correct expectations and carried out using DAP, most of the children will gain the intended strengths (primary learning); some of the children will gain other strengths not necessarily intended, but inspired (secondary learning);  and a few of the children will discover concepts wonderful and new that were not expected at all (spontaneous learning).

There may also be a small percentage of your class that will gain very little or nothing from the experience. These are the children you begin to observe and assess more carefully for determination of special need.

Components – If a formal experience contains opportunities for use of some or all of the Learning Methods; opportunities for the steps of SARA; and is based on specific objectives for your children, offers feedback and repetition, and its learning results are able to be assessed, it is a good Learning Experience.

Production – A good formal experience is created using this criteria:

• Planning – Formal experiences are planned by looking at the program objectives to answer the question, “What Will They Learn?”, and then creating activities that include the components of a good Learning Experience. Formal experiences are staged in an organized, structured manner and are documented so their purpose can be determined.  The teacher sets up the necessary equipment and materials needed for the experience and places them in a specific learning center or location. 
• Presentation – The main components of presentation are the creation of an environment of physical, emotional, and educational safety, the use of an appropriate schedule, the inclusion of all components, flexibility in modification of the experience if needed, and exclusive use of DAP.
• Participation – To make the learning process work, teachers must be ACTIVE participants. The Human Factor is a biggie in early learning, with teachers knowing when to step in and when to step aside – but never away.      
• Appraisal – Teachers need to judge formal learning experiences to see if they were effective and efficient; whether they need changing; and whether they can be used again or discarded.

Next Blog: How’d It Go? – Assessing Formal Experiences

 

 

 

Participation in real experiences makes connections in the brain.  Connections create learning.  For an experience to create high quality learning or learning of primary, secondary, and spontaneous kinds, it must be offered in an overall environment of safety, physically, emotionally, and educationally. 

Good Learning Experiences Include:

• Purpose
• Feedback & Repetition
• Accountability
• Opportunities to use some or all the Learning Methods  – Movement, Sensory Stimulation/Exploration, Manipulation of Appropriate Materials, Construction, Role Play, and Expression
• Opportunities for SARA – Selection, Action, Reflection, and Application

Purpose – Experiences should relate to specific developmentally appropriate learning objectives (I call them Strength Expectations).  This means that the learning experience should be intentional in its creation – there should be a point to it.  An experience would be called ‘not purposeful’ if its intention is too far above or below the community’s developmental level (Toddler or Twos working on coloring book pages; Threes trying to recognize letters with worksheets; Fours or Fives using only plastic blocks for building).  All ‘work’ in preschool should be purposeful play.  It’s hard for some parents, administrators, and some teachers to respect purposeful play as a valid learning method, but all evidence shows it to be the most valid and practical system.  Programs should make every effort to educate parents on this issue and to believe in, use, and promote the value of purposeful play.

Hee, Hee, Hees and ABCs – When we talk about purpose and relating directly to standards or strength expectations, it should be remembered that humor, relaxation, curiosity, wonder, and joy are among those expectations!Sometimes the purpose of taking part in a learning experience is simply to have fun.  Teachers need to use humor, whimsy, and a sense of fun in creating experiences because sometimes the greatest learning comes from the silly things like water play in the sprinklers on the front lawn of the school, putting play dough on (but not IN) your nose, and doing a conga line on the way to the playground.

Feedback and Repetition – Experiences must have ways for the child to be both stimulated and informed of his own progress.  A ‘jack-in-the-box’, for example, is surprising and stimulating to a Baby.  She learns that she can receive that stimulation from turning the handle to make the surprise recur.  A Four can put a toy car at the top of his block ramp, watch it race to the bottom, and learn to control its speed and direction.  (The beginning of physics).   Feedback is also provided by Repetition.  Children must have a way to practice the strength or skill over and over, and practice is essential to learning. Feedback is ‘trial and error’ learning and Repetition is practice.

Accountability – In this sense, Accountability means both the learning from the experience and the experience itself can be assessed.  If it is purposeful, it can be assumed that the experience will result in learning that is measurable, but teachers also need to assess the experience itself to see if it achieved the desired results, if it needs to be repeated, changed, or discarded.

Next Blog: Formal Learning Experiences

Spontaneous Learning is the best! It must be:

• Recognized – teachers MUST learn to look for this and realize when this happens
• Respected – this is REAL learning – the step beyond rote memory and ‘normal’ expectations – this is hitting the jackpot in learning!
• Rewarded with attention – this is to be treated with smiles and wows!
• Reinforced with further widening opportunities for use – do again and do different
• Reflected  – “Remember when the duck popped up today? How did that happen?
• Repeated for practice – over and over until the child moves on
• Reused by the child in new/original ways – more water play!
• Reused by the teacher in the creation of new units of study and new experiences
• Rated – documented as a successful reaching of a learning objective

These are Helen Keller Moments! – These moments of spontaneous learning, or discovery and brain growth in new and sometimes surprising ways, are like the moment in the book/play/movie, “The Miracle Worker”, when Helen Keller, deaf and blind from illness in infancy, has that incredible moment of clarity when her teacher, Annie Sullivan, puts Helen’s hands in water from the pump and Helen makes the connection between the sensation of the cold water to the word ‘water’ and then to the sign for ‘water’ that Sullivan has been trying to help her understand. 

Often, moments like these are overlooked and undervalued, but they can be some of the strongest learning a child will gain because it is usually HIS learning – coming from his own discovery and experimentation rather than from a more formal teacher-led aspect.  This OWNERSHIP makes the learning of higher quality because of its personal value to HIM.

Some teachers are so busy concentrating on the skill or concept they had planned to “TEACH” that they lose sight of what else the children can learn during the experience. It may be hard to think of ducky-dumping as great science, but that is exactly what it is.  Ducky-dumping proves Archimedes’ Principle of fluid displacement – it is physics.  It is learning.

Spontaneous learning is also part of the Abe Vygotsky learning theory of “webbing” which is about creating new learning from “old”.  Webbing, or scaffolding, is one of the essences of REAL learning – moving from discovery to invention.  18 month old ducky-dumpers will dump over and over getting a clearer and clearer understanding of Archimedes’ Principle as they dump.  They do not know Archimedes (and who really did?) and they may never know his principle, but they will have experienced the actual use of the scientific process of exploration-discovery-experimentation-use-invention. 

Drop the mic! You are a teacher!

Next Blog: Components of Good Experiences

Before talking about the components, the production, and the appraisal of your learning experiences, we need to look at what kinds of learning happens in early childhood programs.

Primary Learning – This is the learning that occurs when a child acquires the expected skill or grasps the expected concept listed as the goal, purpose, or intent of the planned experience.  Imagine toddlers playing with rubber ducks in the water table.  It is the intentional expectation that they will build fine motor skills, increase vocabulary, and maybe grasp the concept of ‘cold’ or ‘wet’.  The children practice manipulating the ducks with their hands and improve their eye-hand coordination.  They say ‘duckie’ or ‘quack’.  They put their wet hands on their faces, shiver, feel the sensation of cold, listen to the teacher say ‘cold’, repeat the word, and match it to the concept. Mission accomplished – this is Primary Learning.  It should be assessed and documented as a Strength Expectation met.

Secondary Learning – This happens when a child gains an unplanned skill or concept as a ‘byproduct’ of the intentional plan. During that same experience, the children may also squeeze the water from the ducks, spraying their friends’ faces, strengthening their hand muscles and laughing.  They have reached expectations in physical hand strength, social interaction, and humor that the teacher may not have primarily intended.  The children themselves have reached new expectations – this is Secondary Learning.   It should be recognized, assessed, and documented as a Strength Expectation met.

Spontaneous Learning, My Personal Favorite – This occurs when a child makes a brand new discovery while participating in an experience or applies the planned knowledge in an inventive, creative, and original way.  Again during the same experience, a child holds the duck under the water and lets it spring up, discovering the scientific principle of water displacement, and voila! – this is Spontaneous Learning.  

Next Blog: More About Spontaneous Learning!

 

Purposeful Play – The link between play and learning in young children is a proven one – researched by the best in the business.  The results of all brain research and the work of all learning scientists and theorists from the early 1900’s until present day prove that the brains of young children grow and learn best (making mental connections and neural pathways) through the active movement of their bodies, the exploration of the environment through their senses, the manipulation of appropriate objects with their hands (and feet and heads), the acts of designing and building, and the creation of personal expressions of language, art, music, and role play – not by rote memorization, sitting still at desks, working expressly with paper, pencil or computer keyboard, watching television or video, or listening to adult lectures.

There is no question about it – play in a physically, emotionally, and educationally safe environment with other children and with adults who appreciate their developmental natures and vulnerabilities – is how children learn best.

Purposeful Play consists of taking part in formal and informal experiences designed to lead to the building of specific strengths. It is play suited to a specific age level and it includes very specific components.  Play is purposeful if the stage is set with purposeful activities that relate to your program’s stated learning objectives for the members of your particular class.  Play is purposeful if it includes appropriate experiences that have all the right components, and the right amount of adult participation. 

“Selling” Purposeful Play – Often early childhood educators find the need to champion the philosophy of learning through play, so to help teachers who feel the need to defend the incorrect stereotypical image of the “all they do is play” idea to parents, administrators, and some non-believers in our own ranks, here are some descriptions of how purposeful play developmentally leads to appropriate educational objectives in each of the Learning Areas (Body, Mind, and Spirit).

Body Strengths Gained Through Play

Mind Strengths Gained Through Play

Strengths of the Spirit Gained Through Play

Next Blog: Experiences – Kinds of Learning

 

Everything a young child experiences is a Learning Experience, but learning gained through active participation in experiences that are designed with child-centered purposeful play is quality learning.

Child-Centeredness – This term does not mean self-centeredness (which is perfectly normal developmentally for young children) and it definitely does not mean selfishness. It means that each child must be the predominant author and owner of his learning in order for it to be of the best quality.  Each child must be encouraged to involve himself energetically and positively in the learning process so that the learning itself is interesting, meaningful, and relevant to him. 

There is less quality to the learning when the teacher is the only one who chooses what, where, when, and how things will be presented and when the “answers” and responses and decisions coming from the children are not respected and appreciated as creative.  When there is a “MY WAY OR THE HIGHWAY” atmosphere in a preschool classroom and when there are strict limits on both methods of teaching and methods of learning, the learning itself is of lower quality. 

This does NOT mean the teacher gives up control of the environment to the children in terms of permissiveness and unlimited acceptance of inappropriate behaviors.  It means that each child is able to make choices (from only appropriate options) and to have those choices appreciated.  It means that the teacher understands developmental phases and stages and knows that young children must be physically active, intellectually stimulated, and emotionally involved in order to learn.   It means that the teacher will offer experiences that are of interest to the children and not merely provide formal academic information using rote memory methods.  Teachers of young children cannot use a “teaching to the test” style of presentation if they expect quality learning to occur.

To Assure Child-Centeredness:

• Create a Physical Environment that is developmentally correct. View and review it from the child’s physical point of view. Make your learning community look like the real world, with all its diversity in culture, race, gender, ethnicity and faiths, and most importantly, make sure it Is filled with the works and words of the children themselves. (Less store-bought plastic, primary-colored Walt Disney and more child-dictated, child-printed words and child-created art without adult adjustments to make it pretty or cute for adult viewing or teacher ‘appreciation’.
• Create a Learning Environment that allows and encourages the children to design, determine, and decide. Start the day with the children’s words, ideas, thoughts, and plans and end it with reinforcement and recall of the same.  Allow each child the freedom to work in his own way and at his own speed on experiences that are meaningful and of interest to him but also purposeful to the strengths he should be gaining according to your program’s developmentally appropriate educational objectives.
• Create a Teaching Environment in which the teachers have studied and strongly believe in the basic facts of child development and brain research so that expectations for strengths are correct and realistic. Create and follow a schedule allowing time for a child’s brain to comprehend concepts through active manipulation, discovery, and repetition. Encourage each child to actively take part in being responsible for his learning, his behavior, and his actions toward his classmates.

Remember the Hokey Pokey! – Teachers, you are not the “star” of this show.  You are its director and stage manager, its prop master, and sometimes you are merely an “extra” or even a member of the audience. Know when to put your whole self in and your whole self out.  If you can describe to someone what happens in your classroom every day once the children – the real stars – have arrived to shine and perform, without using the pronoun “I”, then you understand child-centeredness.  Try it. 

Next Blog: Purposeful Play