Fitting It All In Remembering What’s Really Important Camille Catlett Professional Development Institute Heartland Early Childhood Paraeducator Grant

Shifting Paradigms be able to do Know & Evidence- based practices Evidence

Shifting Paradigms Developmentally appropriate practices NAEYC standards DEC recommended practices DEC standards

How do you currently use DAP in your work?

Parts of a Whole Individually Appropriate Developmentally Appropriate Culturally Appropriate

Use DEC Recommended Practices to... Promote discussion of intentional teaching practices (example: C2) Guide observation (example: C1) Promote reflection (example: C4) Build rubrics (example: F6-7)

Ways of Making Shift Happen

Looking Ahead What’s on the Horizon? Tools You Can Use

What’s on the Horizon?

Continued emphasis on early childhood systems through RTT-ELC grants CA, DE, MD, MA, MN, NC,OH, RI, WA have grants CO, IL, NM, OR, WI have just submitted applications

Grants bring a focus on.. Kindergarten readiness assessments Tiered quality rating and improvement systems (new acronym = TQRIS) Tools for assessing quality (environmental rating scales, Classroom Assessment Scoring System/CLASS)

Debate continues on the age range of early childhood: What are the implications of each option? Birth through 8 (or grade 3)? Age 3 through grade 3 (or grade 4)? Birth through 5?

Evidence continues to mount for the value for play being lost

How are you preparing your students to defend play?

Is there an early childhood course into which you could NOT appropriately incorporate an emphasis on play?

Evidence continues to mount of an increased emphasis on academics at earlier and earlier ages

Do you know a teacher who “does” calendar?

Calendar: What’s age appropriate? Age RangeExpectation Birth through threeNo mention of calendar skills Four through fiveLet children write on old calendars, order forms, check registers, or grocery lists. Develop daily pre-calendar activities (identify numbers on a calendar, briefly expose children to time concepts such as a day, a week, etc.)

How are you addressing the interplay between DAP and academics? aeyc/file/Publications/Article Examples/02Neuman.pdf

The fastest growing segment of the population is children of immigrants age 0-6 many of whom (96%) are US citizens Projections indicate that by 2030, 41% of the nation’s children will be culturally diverse

One in four children under age 3 lives in a family in which one or more of the parents were born in another country. (U.S. Census Bureau, 2007)

Nearly seven out of every 1,000 pre-kindergarteners are expelled each year—an estimated 5,117 preschoolers in all. The rate is 3.2 times higher than the national expulsion rate for children in grades K-12. (Gilliam, 2005) Boys are expelled 4.5 times more than girls; and African-Americans are twice as likely to be expelled as Latino and Caucasian kids and more than five times as likely as Asian-American kids. (Gilliam, 2005 )

One out of every 45 American children go to sleep without a home of their own each year (National Center on Family Homelessness, 20012)

Improving Quality: What a teacher does really matters Children form academic trajectories early in their school careers that tend to be stable and difficult to change over the course of their schooling (Alexander & Entwisle, 1993) Children’s negative perceptions of competence and attitudes become stronger and harder to reverse as children progress through school (Valeski & Stipek, 2001)

Improving Quality: What a teacher does really matters “If a bad year is compounded by other bad years, it may not be possible for the student to recover” (Hanushek, 2010) An effective teacher can have a stronger influence on student achievement than poverty, language background, class size, and minority status (Aaronson, Barrow, Sander, 2007; Darling-Hammond, 2000; Jacob, Lefgren, & Sims, 2008; Kane & Staiger, 2008; Nye, Konstantopoulos, & Hedges, 2004; Rivkin, Hanushek,& Kain, 2005; Rockoff, 2004; Rothstein, 2010)

High-quality, culturally responsive early learning environments are critical to closing the achievement gap between children living in poverty, especially children of color, and their peers. Improving Quality (Whitebrook, Gomby, Bellm, Sakai, & Kipnis, 2009, p. 1)

Culturally responsive interactions between teachers and young children are more likely to support progress toward children’s mastery of language, literacy, science, and math skills Improving Quality (Au & Jordan, 1981; Boykin, 1986; González et al, 1993; Roseberry, Warren & Conant, 1992; Tharp, 1991, 1992)

Lessons Learned from First School: Promote Caring We believe that this work is difficult and complex-that seeking simple answers to pervasive problems is not productive. We support teachers as they look at their classrooms through the lenses of race, language, culture, ability and poverty We developed a set of guiding principles and intentional approaches that focus on different things than have traditionally defined quality.

Nurturing Positive Relationships Developing the Whole Child Strengthening Self-Efficacy & Identity FirstSchool 2012 Culture of Caring

Prioritizing communication Promoting self-regulation Supporting independence Fostering peer interactions FirstSchool 2012 Culture of Competence

Balancing Teaching Approaches Integrating and Balancing Curriculum Building Higher Order Thinking FirstSchool 2012 Culture of Excellence

Tools You Can Use

CONNECT The Center to Mobilize Early Childhood Knowledge

Module 2: Transition Module 1: Embedded Interventions Module 3: Communication for Collaboration Module 4: Family- Professional Partnerships Module 5: Assistive Technology Interventions Module 6: Dialogic Reading Module 7: Tiered Instruction (Social emotional development & Academic learning)

CONNECT Research Synthesis Points on Quality Inclusive Practices NPDCI

How Do We Move from paper to PRACTICE? It’s just a piece of paper

ACCESS PARTICIPATION SUPPORTS  Define each key feature of inclusion  Share professional development resources related to each feature Moving from Policies & Research to Practice

CONNECT NPDCI Landing Pads A sampling of evidence and resources, related to each feature, to support your learning and professional development needs Find them online at inclusive-practices-resources-and-landing- pads inclusive-practices-resources-and-landing- pads

CONNECT NPDCI 8 New Landing Pads Just Released!

Defining Features Access Access – means providing a wide range of activities and environments for every child by removing physical barriers and offering multiple ways to promote learning and development.

 Universal Design (UD)/Universal Design for Learning (UDL)  Assistive Technology (AT) Evidence-Based Practices that Support ACCESS

EBP: Universal Design and Universal Design for Learning UD and UDL mean the removal of physical and structural barriers (UD) and the provision of multiple and varied formats for instruction and learning (UDL).

CONNECT Why Do It? NPDCI

CONNECT Read About It NPDCI

CONNECT See For Yourself Photo from CONNECT Module 5

CONNECT See for Yourself NPDCI

CONNECT See for Yourself NPDCI National Center to Improve Practice Early Childhood Guided Tour

National Center for Quality Teaching and Learning

Fred Rogers Center Early Learning Environment Curriculum Toolkit

Learning Table Resources

Silence is a Powerful Statement

I didn’t know what to say... eEeb0 eEeb0

Children’s Awareness of Human Differences

During the first two years Infants find skin color interesting Infants recognize familiar faces Toddlers can correctly place photos of themselves in their correct racial/ethnic group Toddlers begin to ask questions about differences Toddlers begin to imitate others “Just like Mommy or Daddy ” tots.com

Two year olds… Classify people by gender Can tell the difference between black and white May begin to use social labels: “I’m a girl”

Three and Four year old children… Ask “why” Become aware negative stereotypes and feelings about people including themselves May show discomfort or fear to someone who is different in some way “Boys can’t be princesses!” “You can’t have two mommies” From ABC’S What Would You Do? “You can’t be a Princess!”

Three and Four year old children… May tease or refuse to play with someone who is different Begin to seek labels for racial/ethnic identity Do not have gender or ethnic constancy Mask fear of differences with avoidance or silliness “You cut your hair. Now you got boy hair” “That’s a boy’s toy” “When I get big I am going to have skin like you.”

Five and six year old children…. Develop a core sense of racial identity and negative societal biases can undermine their self-esteem Can identify stereotypes Show aggression through insults and name-calling

“She can’t be my friend she has ugly clothes” “ I got the most toys” What messages do children receive about newly bought things? “Wow! Look at your shiny new shoes” Develop their own conclusions about differences if not guided by adults Describe both poverty and wealth in concrete terms – the number of possessions Five and six year old children….

Seven to nine year old children… Continue to develop and elaborate on their ideas of differences Begin to identify with groups and are interested in learning about these groups Want and need accurate information Beliefs about differences remain constant and solidified unless the child experiences a life changing event

Sources Bilson, Julie (1999) Overview: Development of Ethnic, Gender Disability & Class Identity & Attitudes in Children and Youth, handout. Wolpert, Ellen (2005) Start Seeing Diversity, Redleaf Press, St. Paul, MN York, Stacey, (2003) Roots and Wings, Revised. Red Leaf Press, St. Paul, MN.

Four strategies from Teaching Tolerance Interrupt Question Educate Echo

What would you say?

Charlie, a teacher in a kindergarten class that serves many children who qualify for free or reduced lunch asked the children about the work their parents do. He was surprised to hear 4-year old Katie reply, “Nothing. My mommy doesn’t work.”

/ What would you do?

In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends. Martin Luther King