NAEYC Standard 4

STANDARD 4. USING DEVELOPMENTALLY EFFECTIVE APPROACHES

Candidates prepared in early childhood degree programs understand that teaching and learning with young children is a complex enterprise, and its details vary depending on children’s ages, characteristics, and the settings within which teaching and learning occur. They a) understand and use positive relationships and supportive interactions as the foundation for their work with young children and families. Candidates b, c) know, understand, and use a wide array of developmentally appropriate approaches, instructional strategies, and tools to connect with children and families and d) positively influence each child’s development and learning. (NAEYC, 2010)

Brief Description of Evidence:

During the fall semester of 2021 in my ECED 233-Emerging Literacy course I had the opportunity to create a Lesson Plan along with Learning Centers and a Family Literacy Kit. During the time, the class was virtual and my placement was at Mitchell Early Childhood and Family Center in an Infant/Toddler classroom. The course began with the class selecting two age and developmentally appropriate books. I chose “The Snowy. Day” and "The Little Engine that Could," in order to create a take home kit for families. The kit included the book, instructions and letter to the parents about the book and how to complete the activities, all materials for the activities, and an evaluation form. The Family Literacy Kits were sent home.

The Lesson plan tied into the learning centers. For this portion of the class we were asked to choose another (or use the same) developmentally appropriate book and create learning centers aimed at reaching the objective of the lesson plan. These learning centers were not required to be instituted at our placement sites.

Analysis of What I Learned:

Over the course of this semester, I have learned the importance of incorporating literacy into my curriculum and lesson plans no matter the age of the child. However, the age of the child is important in planning for enrichment, excitement and involvement. This is true even with infant and toddler students who can not read yet. As an educator, I understood that I could make this project effective and empowering for not only my students but for the families as well. Overall, the children loved the books because they were full of pictures and exciting literature. Some of these pictures had characters that looked like them, some had trains and animals. Seeing relatable characters helped to keep even some of the youngest students interested. Using these books and activities, I learned that there were many opportunities for extension activities. I also learned the impact of sharing the importance of early literacy practices with families and offering them the resources to help cultivate the love of learning and literacy at home with their child. We also created an evaluation tool with questions on how effective the take-home kit was for the families. One thing I would have done differently, is follow-up with the parents on their feedback from the evaluation.

How This Artifact Demonstrates my Competence on the NAEYC Standard:

Completing the Lesson Plan, Learning Centers, and Take Home Family Literacy Kit demonstrates my competence in NAEYC Standard 4 by helping me to understand that developmentally appropriate practice can be incorporated into every subject, every lesson plan and even every book. Getting to know what my students enjoyed and related to was vital in this and many other activities. This was my favorite part about this course. Getting to know the students and their interests.

Once I knew this information, I was able to choose books that were tailored to my group of children. This customization was for everything within the book including the number of pages, pictures, diversity, certain words and more. By doing this I was customizing a developmentally appropriate lesson and experience for my group. Also, it helped me to individualize their reading materials, learning centers and even their play, to their current learning levels.

Theorists like G. Stanley Hall believed that play enhances a child’s emotional, social and cognitive development. He also agreed that a play environment that is rich in literacy can develop early literacy skills within young children (Hall, 1991).

Watching the students get excited about reading and tying in lessons to their books was so rewarding.

Lastly, helping families to understand developmentally appropriate practice and actually utilizing it at home, without having to spend time looking for an activity or buying materials was such an accomplishment. Parents were excited to do these activities at home and looked forward to more. Now, the mentor teacher in the classroom is implementing take home kits more regularly!

NAEYC Standard 4: Projects

Literacy Kit Presentation

NAEYC Standard 4: Text

NAEYC Standard 4: Video

Lesson Plan and Learning Centers