Early Achievers in the News

There was a great article in the Redmond Reporter about Early Achievers – take a look! 

http://www.redmond-reporter.com/news/201299581.html   

Simple Reminder

Remember the idea of tying a string around your finger to help you remember something?  At a recent reflective practice group we did a similar thing with wood beads. 

In the CLASS assessment, the “Concept Development” section has some key practices to do with children to help them develop reasoning skills.   Asking prompting questions, predicting, comparing, brainstorming and relating to real life may not be things you are used to doing on a regular basis. 

In order to remind ourselves about incorporating these skills into our interactions with children, we make wood bead bracelets with the key first letters of each word on 5 of the beads.  Whenever the bracelet passes your line of vision, be reminded to incorporate something deeper into your interactions. 

Give it a try!

 

Questions

Predict

Compare

Brainstorm

Relate to real life

Keep The Conversation Going!

Having deep, rich conversations with children helps them develop language skills, conversational skills and reasoning skills that will help them be successful in school. 

Once the conversation begins, you can keep it going.  See it like a tennis match.  The ball keeps going over the net between both of you many times like a tennis volley.  So often, our talk with children is just a serve and a return – you say something and they answer.  Challenge yourself to long volleys instead!

 

Questions that get children to think are great ways to get a conversation started.  Here is a list that came from a recent reflective practice group exercise: 

Open ended questions/starters

What would happen if…

What do you think this book might be about?

Do you need anything else?

What do you need to get started?

How does that work?

How did that happen?

What is another way we could do that?

Can you think of…

How will you start?

What is your plan?

What’s happening?

How could you get that out?

How do you think we could fix that?

Want do you think happens next?

What could we do?

What do you think made this happen?

What should we put in this space?

How do you think…

What do you think about…

What made you think of that?

What are some ways…

How could we…

What else could we…

What else can you think of to…

What is another way to…

What is another way we could…

Do you have any ideas about…

What ideas can you think of for…

I wonder if there are other ways – what do you think?

How could we figure that out?

What would we need to…

Help me figure out…

What are your best ideas about…

I bet you have an idea about…

I need help figuring out…

What would be the best way to…

How many ways could we…

What are some other ideas about this?

How do you think we could…

Why do you think that this…

What do you think?

How did you figure that out?

Tell me how…

Tell me when…

Tell me why…

Keep it going with simple prompts:  And?…..   And then what?…..   Then?…..  What happened next?.....

Tip the Scales!

When we talk with children, the way we interact usually falls into 3 categories:

1.       Correctional

2.       Social

3.       Instructional

Let’s take a look at those…

Correctional:

This might sound like:

“We need to stop throwing rocks”

“Put the blocks in the block area”

“Use walking feet”

The interaction does not need to be mean or harsh, but it is primarily an interaction to correct behavior.

Social:

This might sound like:

“Tell me about what you did last night”

“I like pink, too.  Why do you like pink?”

“I’m cold, are you cold too?”

These interactions are just part of having a relationship.  They are not necessarily teaching the child anything in particular, but part of being in a relationship with them.

Instructional:

This might look like:

“How many blocks do you think we can add to the tower before it falls down?”

“Why do you think this paint turned orange?”

“When we go to the library, what rules should we have?”

These interactions teach the children something.  Of course, the best ones are the ones that ask questions to get the children to think for themselves!

Now monitor your own interactions with the children.  How many fall into the correctional category?  How many are social?  Instructional?

In Early Achievers, we hope to tip the scale toward the social and instructional interactions. 

See if you can tip your scale in that direction!

An Early Achievers Baker’s Dozen

Here are 13 things to practice daily with the children to elevate your teaching practice and prepare for your eventual assessment.

1.       Ask a child/children how they figured something out, what made them say that, think that, etc.  Get into their thinking process. (For toddlers, this might be asking more simple questions)

2.       Ask children to predict what is going to happen and compare things, make a chart or graph together (For toddlers, this might be pointing out what happens)

3.       Pay most of your attention to positive behaviors – what you want to see more of

4.       Have social conversations with open ended questions, learn about them and their life, and share yours, too.

5.       Read books – with large or small groups and with  individual children

6.       Sing and dance, use multicultural instruments and music

7.       Play WITH the children – indoors and out, get to all areas of the room, to each of the children

8.       Help a child figure something out – but let them figure it out, just give hints, then celebrate with them when they do figure it out

9.       Let child/ren take the lead and offer their ideas, acknowledge their ideas  (for toddlers, this might be building on what they are doing)

10.   Minimize waiting times, reduce large group transitions, maximize learning times

11.   Point out things in nature, bring things from the outside into the classroom

12.   Surround children with language – interesting words defined, rhyming words, extended conversations

13.   Smile, laugh and show that you love what you do.

Look for the Beauty, not the Spots

As we launched into the Behavior Management part of the CLASS assessment at our recent Reflective Practice group, I shared this story…

A young couple about to be married went to meet with their pastor for the expected premarital counseling session.  After waiting in the outer lobby, they were invited into the pastor’s office.  He asked them, “While you were waiting, did you notice the beautiful rug in the lobby area?”  They replied, “Yes, we did.  It is beautiful!”  The pastor then asked, “Did you also notice the spot in the corner of the rug?”  “No” said the couple.  The pastor explained to them, “Well, I know it’s there and it’s all I notice.  My advice for your marriage is this:  Always look for the beauty, not the spots.”

What we focus on expands.  What we focus on is what we get more of.  If we focus on children’s misbehavior, we are likely to get more of the same.  If we notice the “spots” we will just see them more.

Picture this scenario…  During circle time there is one child who just isn’t going with the program.  S/he might be wiggling around, making faces, refusing to cooperate and distracting all the other children.  So often what I see is all the attention going to that child.  “We are waiting for you to sit quietly so we can start”  or “Please sit still now so we can get going”  or maybe the teacher going over to that child to try to get him/her “in line” with the circle time.  Of course, what often happens is that child continues with the misbehavior.  What we focus on expands! 

Most misbehavior is attention seeking behavior, right?  In that scenario – the child is succeeding by getting all the teacher’s attention.

Instead, try giving the attention/focus on what you want to see more of.  Focus on the positive behavior.  “I like the way Hannah and Raj are sitting so nicely ready for circle time”…  As soon as that child who was disruptive settles in – then “I like the way ____ is sitting”.  The beauty, not the spots.

In the CLASS you will see:

Reinforcement of positive behavior (Toddler CLASS)

Attention to the positive (PreK CLASS)

Think about a child that challenges you.  That child that knows how to push your buttons or irritate you on a regular basis.  Now picture that child in your mind and look for the beauty instead of the spots.  The next time you see that child, focus on the beauty and see what happens!

100 Points

As some of you move toward asking to be assessed by the UW for Early Achievers, this may be a good time to remind you about the 100 points that will identify which level you will be assigned.

The Companion to the Quality Standards (the booklet with the Red title bar) lists the 100 points.  You all received this with your welcome packet and it is also online here http://del.wa.gov/publications/elac-qris/docs/EA_facility_companion.pdf

There are 100 possible points.  The number of points you are assessed will determine your Early Achievers level.

If you are assessed 30-69 points, you will be Level 3
If you are assessed 70-90 points, you will be Level 4
If you are assessed 91-100 points, you will be Level 5

Here is how the points break down.

The Environment Rating Scale is worth up to 15 points.  When the UW does the ERS assessment, they will average the scores from each classroom assessed.  If the average is a 4, you will get 5 points.  If the average is a 5, you will get 10 points.  If the averages is a 6+ you will get all 15 points.

You will find this on the top of page 14 of the Companion.

 

The CLASS assessment (the one done via video) is worth up to 40 points!  This is a biggie for sure!  You will find this on page 13 of the Companion. 

The CLASS is divided into 2 parts, each worth up to 20 points.  For the Emotional Support and Classroom Organization/Emotional and Behavioral Support sections, if you score an average of 3.5-4.9, you will get 10 points;  if you score an average of 5.0-5.9, you will get 15 points; and if you score an average of 6.0+ you will get 20 points.  You will find this on the bottom of page 13 in the Companion.

The other part of the CLASS assessment is also worth 20 points.  The Instructional Support/Engaged Support for Learning part of the CLASS sets the bar very high and looks at advanced skills.  Because it is a high bar, the point threshold is a bit lower.  If you score 2-3.4 you will get 10 points, if you score between 3.5-4.4 you will get 15 points, and if you score 4.5+ you will get all 20 points.  You will find this on the top of page 13 in the companion.

So the possible 15 points from the ERS plus the possible 40 points from the CLASS gets us up to 55 of the 100 points.

If you look on pages 17 and 18 in the Companion, you will see the 10 points for Professional Development.  Once you have all your staff’s professional development listed in MERIT, you will have a pretty good idea of where your score will be in this section.

That leaves 35 other points.  Those are the total of all the little items included in the companion.  One point for this, 2 points for that… 

Next month, our staff will be meeting with the DEL and UW to go over more of the details of these 35 points.  The way they are listed in the companion is quite ambiguous.  As soon as we get clarity on this, I will be sure to detail it to all of you.