What the Heck Were You Thinking??

OK, that question is usually used in a different way, but wouldn’t it be great to get into the mind of a child? 

Developing reasoning skills is an important part of a child’s development.  In order to make good decisions as a teen or adult, to come up creative solutions, to assess goals, and to analyze situations, children need to practice thinking for themselves.

As a teacher of young children, you want to know each child well.  You want to assess where they are in their development so you can plan accordingly to provide them with activities to practice the skills they are developing. 

A great way to do that is to get into their little brains!  Maybe you can ask,

 ”How did you know that?” 

“How did you figure that out?”

“What do you think about that?”

 

I heard a great example of this just the other day.  During the holidays, one of my coworkers brought her child to the office with her.  As they passed my desk, I heard a small voice say, “If your parking garage was any smaller, your car wouldn’t fit.”  And in a great parenting moment, mom said, “What made you think of that?”  It’s just that simple!

Being a problem solver, independent and creative thinker is a hallmark of success.  And you can help children develop these skills. 

Ask children for their opinions

Share/model your decision making – let them see your thinking process

Help a child list pros and cons of a situation

Encourage them to be curious, to experiment, to take safe risks

Ask follow up questions like. “Why?”  “Why do you think that?”

Practice making predications with them, then see what happens

In the CLASS assessment, you’ll see this in the Quality of Feedback section.  In the PreK CLASS, Ask students to explain thinking.  In the Toddler CLASS, Prompting Though Process. 

As we elevate our practice to help children be more successful in school and in life, encouraging them to think for themselves is an important step.

Test Your Knowledge

A little something fun to start 2013!

Across
4. If you score 91-100 points your are Level _______
7. What Early Achievers helps you do to your current practices
8. If you score 71-90 points you are Level _____
10. The "Q" in QRIS
13. How many years you COULD take before applying for the UW assessment
14. If you score 31-70 points you are Level ____
15. The "R" in the ERS assessment
16. Where you complete your Level 2 application and professional development records
17. Child _______ is one section of the Quality Standards
19. The "E" in the ERS assessment
Down
1. How many months you have to complete the 10,000 foot level items for Level 2
2. Early Achievers helps children become more successful when they enter ________
3. The "s" in the ERS assessment
5. When you are rated level 3-5 you will have this person to help you continue to grow
6. The state agency who received the Race to the Top funding that funds Early Achievers (acronym)
9. The "S" in QRIS
11. The "I" in QRIS
12. The acronym for the assessment done by videotape
18. Who benefits most from Early Achievers?

 

New Year - Looking Ahead!

As the New Year approaches, it’s time to look ahead to the timeline for Early Achievers. 

This is a little review of what we talked about when you first became an Early Achiever.

Each of you has 1 year from the time you joined Early Achievers to complete the basic Level 2 steps.  These are what we called the “10,000 Foot Level” steps.  This does not make you a “Level 2”, rating comes later…

Beginning in July for some of you, and a bit later for others, depending on when you joined, you will need to have completed the following steps:

Online Training   http://www.wachildcaretraining.com/

¤  Washington State Early Learning Guidelines

¤  Washington State Core Competencies for Early Care and Education Professionals

¤  Introduction to the Environment Rating Scale (ERS) & Classroom Assessment Scoring System (CLASS)

In Person Training  http://childcare.org/providers/training-schedule-ea.asp#EAT 

¤  Introduction to Cultural Competence

¤  Strengthening Families

¤  School Readiness

MERIT Registration for all Staff

Self Assessment with ERS  I’ll help you do this as we get closer to your one hear date

Quality Standards Checklist   I’ll help you do this as we get closer to your one hear date

Level 2 Application   I’ll help you do this as we get closer to your one hear date

Readiness Tool   I’ll help you do this as we get closer to your one hear date

Most of you have completed the online and in-person trainings already and are working on making sure all staff records are updated in MERIT.  As we move into 2013, I’ll work with you on the steps at the end of the list in preparation for the next phase.

As you all know, though, my work with you is more around preparing for your eventual rating!  This is what we called the “Ground Level” work.  For this, we are working on getting to know, and to practice with, the two assessment tools that the University of Washington will be using:

The Environmental Rating Scale  (ERS)

The Classroom Assessment Scoring System

The other main area of work for us together is to assess the point system.  Early Achievers rating is based on a 100 point scale.  The ERS score is worth up to 15 points in the Early Achievers 100 points.  The CLASS score is worth up to 40 points in the Early Achievers 100 point system.  We will also look at the other 45 points of that 100 point scale to make sure you are on track with what they will be looking for.  These points are found in the Early Achievers Companion to the Quality Standards.  http://del.wa.gov/publications/elac-qris/docs/EA_facility_companion.pdf

Once we feel that your potential score is meeting the goals we have set together, then we will move toward your UW assessment.  This can happen at any time you are ready within 24 months of when you joined Early Achievers.  Some programs will begin this process soon, others later in 2013 and some not until 2014. 

Once you are assessed and your points have been calculated, you will then receive your rating.  Once rated, you will have access to your coach and your improvement funding.

Looks like 2013 will be an exciting year!!!  My calendar is open and I am ready to book site visits with you to move forward!!

Promoting the Acceptance of Diversity

In the Environmental Rating Scale, an area that all programs need improvement is the area of Promoting the Acceptance of Diversity.

While much of the ERS looks for “things” such as:  books, pictures, dramatic play items, toys and materials, music, etc., remember that promoting the acceptance of diversity is much more than displaying some pictures.  It is much more that bringing out a “cultural box” once in a while.

No question that our community is becoming more diverse.  And it is diverse every day.  An important part of promoting the acceptance of diversity is modeling being respectful, tolerant and celebrating diversity.

Ask yourself:

·         Do I know the family traditions of the children in my group?

·         Do I see each child represented in the class environment?

·         Do I see the variety people who the children will see in their ever day lives reflected in the environment?

·         Have I asked the families to contribute items and information from their culture to share with the group?

·         Can each child see role models that look like them to inspire them?

·         Are other kinds of diversity represented?  Different types of families?  People with disabilities?  Nontraditional gender roles?  Active seniors?

·         Have I examined my own feelings about diversity and inclusion?

·         What would it be like for me to spend a large part of my day in an environment that had no representation of me or my family?

Learning to understand and be comfortable with the differences and the similarities of the people we interact with, and to be confident in a multicultural world are important skills for all of us today.  Many of our classrooms, curriculum and materials still reflect a time when groups of children were more homogeneous and had similar race, culture and religious backgrounds.  That is clearly not our world today. 

Promoting the acceptance of diversity is about how you teach acceptance, respect, non-judgment and appreciating the contributions of all people.   How will you move further in that direction?

Elevating Words

The research is sobering:

The landmark Hart-Risley study on language development documented that children from low-income families hear as many as 30 million fewer words than their more affluent peers before the age of 4.

By the time children from middle-income families with well-educated parents are in third grade, they know about 12,000 words. Third grade children from low-income families with undereducated parents who don’t talk to them very much have vocabularies of around 4,000 words, one-third as many words as their middle-income peers.

With young children in your care a substantial portion of the day, exposing them to rich language is critical.  We do not need to “dumb down” the way we speak with children.  We need to elevate it!

Last night we played a game at our monthly Early Achievers Reflective Practice group.

The participants broke up into 5 teams.  There were given several very simple sentences.  We called them “Penny Words”.  To start, they took that penny word statement and put a penny into a box.  The challenge then, was to elevate a word or words in that statement to make it a “nickel” statement.  Then a “dime” statement and even a “quarter” statement.  Each team had a bag of change and several penny word statements.  There was lots of laughter and sounds of coins clanking as they used their incredible creativity to elevate the statements.  We even challenged them to come up with a statement worthy of a “Buck”!  And we challenged them to create their own penny words to elevate.

Try it:

Penny Word	This is a big pumpkin.
Nickel Word
Dime Word
Quarter Word

Here are some more:

This is a good lunch today.

Let’s look at the pictures in this book.

I am so happy it is sunny today.

You can sure run fast.

A doctor helps people.

Today, see if you can give the children in your care some rich, interesting, quarter words!

Searching for Evidence

When you are assessed by the University of Washington, the persons doing the assessment are called “Data Collectors”   Here is a link to the job description so you know more about their backgrounds  https://uwhires.admin.washington.edu/eng/candidates/default.cfm?szCategory=jobprofile&szOrderID=86155&szCandidateID=0&szSearchWords=&szReturnToSearch=1

The Data Collectors will be looking for evidence.    As you review items on the Environmental Rating Scale assessment and the CLASS assessment, ask yourself what evidence you can see in your classroom to demonstrate that you meet the indicator.

Often, because you are so close to your own program, it is easy to make assumptions that what they will be looking for is easy to see.  I think the analogy of how hard it can be to edit your own paper is a good one.  After writing, it is sometimes hard to see the errors unless you ask someone to take a look with fresh eyes. 

Put on your detective hat and search for evidence.



Will they see you doing music? 

Are there pictures of the children doing block play to show it is happening? 

Does the children’s artwork on the wall show that they chose their own subject and medium so that it was their own creative expression?

Are the fine motor materials on the shelf in plain view?

There will be a time for you to answer direct questions, but have as much of your evidence in plain view to make the process easier.

The Data Collectors will come with fresh eyes and will not have the intimacy with your classroom that you have – so present your evidence!

The Play by Play

In the language modeling section of the CLASS assessment, there is an element called “Use Self and Parallel Talk”

This is kind of like doing a play by play of your, and the children’s, actions. 

I witnessed this just the other day when doing an observation.  A toddler arrived with mom.  The child care provider scooped him up with a hug.  After saying goodbye to mom, the provider sat in a chair with the child on his lap to get him ready to play.

“I’m going to take your coat off now, so you won’t get too warm.  Now let’s take off your shoes and socks, because I know mommy likes you to have your socks off while you are inside.”

From the CLASS dimensions guide:
Talk about what you are doing or what the children are doing to help them link language and action in a way that can help them develop their vocabulary and language skills.

An example of parallel talk (mapping the child’s actions to language):  “You put on a chef’s hat and an apron, now you are getting out a pot.”


An article from Education.com about the importance of exposing young children to language describes this play by play from parents:   http://www.education.com/magazine/article/30000_words/

What they found is startling. Sure, quality matters when it comes to verbal interaction between parent and child, but it turns out, so does quantity. Their research, published in the benchmark book, Meaningful Differences, shows a direct link between a child’s academic performance in third grade, and the amount of words spoken in their home from birth to age three.

Parents that reached or exceeded the 30,000 words a day tended to narrate what they were doing, or chatter at their kids. All the kids, whether their parents were talkative or not, heard language. But by age three, the differences in how many words each child heard was significant: some children had heard over 11 million words per year; others only 3 million.

Try it.  Be a play by play announcer today and expose the children to language!