NAEYC Standard 5

STANDARD 5. USING CONTENT KNOWLEDGE TO BUILD MEANINGFUL CURRICULUM:

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Candidates prepared in early childhood degree programs a) use their knowledge of academic disciplines to design, implement, and evaluate experiences that promote positive development and learning for each and every young child. Candidates understand the importance of developmental domains and academic (or content) disciplines in early childhood curriculum. They b) know the essential concepts, inquiry tools, and structure of content areas, including academic subjects, and can identify resources to deepen their understanding. Candidates c) use their own knowledge and other resources to design, implement, and evaluate meaningful, challenging curriculum that promotes comprehensive developmental and learning outcomes for every young child (NAEYC, 2011).

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Brief Description of Evidence:

During the summer semester of 2022 during my ECED 243- Cognitive Curriculum course, I was tasked with 32-hours of fieldwork within a classroom, three lessons in the areas of math, science and social studies and creating a documentation board. The documentation board was to showcase all of the activities and information from the activities over the summer.

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Analysis of What I've Learned:

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Through this project,I learned the importance to building relationships and getting to know each student personally in order to create a impactful, fun and engaging curriculum. 

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I attended the learning center seven times over the course of the summer semester. Each time, I was able to build positive relationships with the children. My first day, the five 1-year-old children were reserved until they noticed me get on to their level and begin to interact with them. From there, I began learning the children.

I learned their preferences, their dislikes, their family dynamics, and favorite books. After a couple of weeks, the children began to view me as a trusted adult. By the end of the summer, my relationship with the children was strong and reliable.

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The observations used in the classroom were natural. Because the children were so young, it was organic play and learning that I had the opportunity to assess. The children and myself, worked together to brainstorm what they knew and what they wanted to learn. From there, we built the summer curriculum. 

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How This Artifact Demonstrates my Competence on the NAEYC Standard:

My competence in building meaningful curriculum is proven by my dedication to getting to know the children in order to create developmentally appropriate activities. I was able to do this by first building relationships with and getting to know the children.

For this project, I used knowledge from previous courses and fieldwork to aide in creating curriculum that promotes positive development and learning goal achievement. Overall, the materials chosen and resources all revolved around who the children were, their interests and room for growth.

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I introduced a number of new textures, tastes and smells this summer and observed at the children explored. Maria Montessori believed that the accomplishment of goals and happiness in children come through day-to-day observation and interaction with educators. This is exactly how I planned, created and implemented my summer curriculum.

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If I had the opportunity to do this project again, I would read more books to thee children before the activities, offering insight on what the lesson will be about or the animals that they will see within the lessons.

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