Blog #6 Using DAP

According to the information found on  the Naeyc website http://www.naeyc.org/files/naeyc/file/Play/Questions%20about%20DAP_1.pdf

Developmentally Appropriate practices is a way of using strategies that fit the child. Children are all different and they should be treated as individuals. When a teacher plans curriculum in a developmentally appropriate way, she is matching what the child already can do to what the child will work up to doing.  Each step in development is important as well. You can not expect a baby to crawl before it can walk; it occasionally happens but not often. Teachers have to assess what a child knows so they can move forward from that point. A word of caution would be not to go too fast all at once. Children's brains are like sponges but any sponge can be worked too hard.

Sue Bredekamp has written some text books for child development. I have included a video as my artifact.  http://youtu.be/YdyGhmQiGJ8 Sue talks about DAP in the video and mentions a key point that school systems keep pushing material that was used in first or kindergarten down to preschoolers. We can not keep expecting 3 and 4 year old children to do the same course work as children in the first and second. Some children may do okay, but others will fall through the cracks. I believe it is ok to introduce some key concepts but it is not okay to assess them on these concepts that are far out of their understanding.

Blog #5 - Strategy to help diverse learners

I feel the one strategy that will help me the most when teaching diverse learners is to get to know them. If you approach an already frightened child from another country whom you know nothing about; you may ruin your chances at building a strong relationship. From the start, give the child space and make the child feel comfortable with you.  Read up on the students culture and traditions. When you turn your classroom into a culturally diverse oasis, the children will feel more at home. I remember talking about the books on the library shelf during class the other day. I loved when they said, "If your library does not represent everyone in your class than you need to rethink it." Same goes for a child who is not fluent in English; if they do not have the feeling of being "wanted" than you will have problems with them wanting to learn.

I also feel it is important to look up words in the child's language. You can use smart phones or ipads and download translation apps. A word of caution however, some words are not going to be 100% correct for the context you are using them in. I had trouble looking up a sentence I was supposed to write in Spanish class and it turned out wrong. Use many visual clues and body language to tell the child what you wish for them to do.  The more you try to use their language the more they will want to learn ours.

ARTIFACT:
I chose this article that goes into further detail the benefits of getting to know your students. My favorite part of the article was when it mentioned that even though they still have high expectations for their students, they are flexible about changing the curriculum to meet individual needs of the students.

http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/development/documents/diversity/diversity_article.pdf

Qualities we should have when dealing with diversity!!

Blog #4 Diverse Learners

The biggest factor that I feel hurts diverse learners in learning to read is that the English language has so many words that sound the same but mean different things. Vocabulary is especially hard for young readers, so could you imagine how difficult it would be for an ELL student?

 Here is a website I found that shows some difficulties ELL students face when learning to read. http://www.colorincolorado.org/article/33830/ I chose this website because it mentions the many things a teacher could try in order to reach the ELL students. This website is also the very same site that I used with my Education 110 class when I did a full research paper on ELL students.

Examples of words that may be difficult are as follows

• there, their, they're
• see, sea
• pare, pair, pear
• plane, plain
• bear, bare
• be, bee

One good thing about the English language vs. Spanish is that some words sound alike, such as:

• guitar-guitarra
• school-escuela
• mom-mama
• republic-republica