Elevate!!

At our reflection meeting last month, we used an exercise that you can use in your program to elevate your practice.

The CLASS assessment is not looking at what activities you do, or what materials you have, but it is looking for you to elevate your practice to a high quality level!  

Take a look at an activity you did today with the children.  It can be a good one, one that turned out badly, or something neutral.  Remember all the details…

Now use this framework to look at how you might have been able to elevate that activity:

Beyond the ABC’s and even D…

E-Every moment counts   Were there missed opportunities?  Times that could have been learning moments that were not taken advantage of? 

F-Frequent   Were your interactions with the children frequent? 

G-Get children to think for themselves   Were there times you told the children what to do when they could have thought for themselves?

H-High Quality   How could you have elevated the quality of your interactions with the children?

I-Intentional     Were your activities and interactions intentional?  Did you know what skills and concepts each child was learning to master and take/make opportunities for them to learn mastery?

Let’s try it out!  Here Is the story we used at the reflection meeting:

A FCC provider was preparing to do a playdough activity with the children.  She had a baby on her hip as she sat the 4 other children, age 2-5, at the table.  She grabbed the playdough and some cookie cutters and rollers.  Before she opened her homemade playdough, she told the children that there needed to be a few rules before they began:  “Let’s keep the playdough on the table so it doesn’t get on the carpet;  Don’t put the playdough in your mouth; and Let’s try not to mix up the colors”.  The children then started in on playing.  From time to time, she tidied up other parts of the room, but kept a close eye on the children.  She asked on child what he was making and he said, “A pizza”.  She said, “A pizza?!  I love pizza!”  She asked them if they knew what the colors of the playdough were.  They correctly answered brown and orange.  She said “Yes!  Brown and orange – the colors of fall!”

Pretty typical activity, right?  Nothing bad at all about this activity.  Could it be elevated?  You bet!

E – every moment counts – how could she have taken advantage of missed opportunities?

F – frequency – what could she have done to make her interactions more frequent?

G – getting children to think for themselves – what would have happened if, instead of telling them the rules, she asked them if they thought they should have some rules before they started playing?  How else could she have encouraged them to think for themselves?

H – high quality – how could she have elevated her interactions?  How about the pizza comment?  The comment about the fall colors?

I – How could she have incorporated the developing skills and interests of each child into this activity?

Now try this with your own scenario.  How could you elevate your own practice?

Keep practicing this elevating reflection.  As you continue to deepen your own skills, you will be able to identify not just where you could have elevated – but where you did!!